It’s been exactly 87 days since my last personal mastermind and this morning, my next scheduled mastermind day got cancelled. This date had been looming in my calendar just two weeks away and having to delete it made me realise how much I’d been looking forward to it. You know the feeling when you’re anticipating some deep conversations, waiting to discuss the big things that are going on and looking forward to getting input from others to discuss your problems and move forward? Suddenly my problems became un-solved in front of my eyes, my questions un-answered and I felt alone. You see, I’ve been in a mastermind group for a few years now and I’m quietly addicted. I’m addicted to finding out what works for other people in similar situations, I’m in love with learning, feel valued by helping others and crave the process which involves focus, idea generation, knowledge sharing and support. I even like the way it makes me feel; exhausted and yet re-energised to act on the inspiration and guidance. I’ve developed a deep respect and admiration for the people in my mastermind group and really value their input and experience and the opportunity to leverage it to improve my work. The only problem is that being a self-organised group of business owners (who rotate taking it in turns to organise), sometimes we drop the ball. This time we had no venue or catering arranged and two of our group couldn’t make it, so the whole thing just fell apart.

Drowning in connections, striving for community

I was listening to one of Jayson Gaignard’s podcasts recently and he put it so eloquently when he said that these days we are drowning in connections yet striving for community. It’s a time where we feel guilty when we spend time on social media, but disconnected without it. When friendships can be viewed as a distraction and community is hard to find. And yet we all need to belong to something, to find our tribe. My mastermind group is my community of professional peers. We go through the ups and downs together and have each other’s backs. I need this group as much as they need me and today, I’m going to jump in and make sure we don’t delay our mastermind day too long. That is our pledge and the commitment we’ve made to each other. In a world where community is hard to find, we have to put in extra effort to find our people and to hang on to them tightly, no matter how busy it gets. Because the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and the rewards of working together are there to be taken. (If you want to join a mastermind group for marketers that is super organised and facilitated by moi, check out The Circle).