Masterminding at Unseminar 8

Last weekend, I spoke on social media and mastermind groups at Pat O’Bryan’s Unseminar 8. I’ve spoken at all eight, usually multiple times, and never fail to have a good time with the speakers and attendees. Pat knows how to throw a good seminar.

Hop on the Hot Seat

In my mastermind talk, I asked for volunteers from the audience. Rather than give them my advice and feedback on their project, I let the audience take the lead. So the person on the ‘hot seat’ can profit from the wisdom of the crowd. That’s how a facilitated mastermind group works, too. The facilitator either doesn’t give feedback or waits until everyone else has chipped in. If not, it ends up being group coaching rather than a mastermind group.

I can usually help these people but the audience comes up with things I’d never think of. And that’s the value of a diverse mastermind group.

The Law of Attraction for Inmates?

Frank Midgley was first up on the hot seat. Frank is writing a book to help prison inmates use the Law of Attraction to turn their lives around. Specifically, Frank has a friend that’s incarcerated that he wants to help. We had a conversation the night before my presentation where I gave him my take on the potential of his idea.

My first thought was Frank has a cause but not necessarily a good market. After all, he’s dealing with a group that are, presumably, broke and their family and friends might be in the same situation. So we talked about who besides the inmates and their loved ones might pay for his information. Would the prisons themselves pay for his help? I have no idea but suggested Frank investigate.

I also told Frank that if he could successfully help inmates turn their lives around what he could walk away with is a good story. And stories sell. Imagine… “If I can help a convicted murderer turn their life around, imagine what I could do for you?” Or ‘Economy got you down? Think you’ve got it bad? Let me tell you about Ed. Ed spent 15 years locked up in the penitentiary. Now his life is….” Get the idea?

But what did the crowd come up with for Frank?

One attendee suggested Frank partner up with a former inmate as a co-author. He’d have more credibility with his audience that way plus it would be easier to understand their wants and needs. (Cake with a file in it?) Another attendee suggested Frank contact prison ministries as a way to access the right inmates plus have an organization to help him spread the word. Both of these are good suggestions that Frank should run with.

Your One-Stop Shop For Doing Business in Mexico

Next up on the hot seat was Helena Escalante. Helena’s company specializes in translation and cultural marketing for Latin America and other markets. Her business is already quite successful offline and she’s working on expanding into the online world.

Helena has already got her foot in the door there and is working on translating Joe Vitale’s entire catalog into Spanish.

When I first saw what Helena was offering my reaction wasn’t to critique her website but to hire her!

This reminded me of a story the late copywriter Gary Halbert used to tell. When he’d finish up a new sales letter, he’d print it out and take it down to the local bar and get the patrons to read it. If they told him it was a great sales letter, he’d tear it up and start over. On the other hand, if they read the letter and said, “Wow, where can I get one of these?” (whatever product the letter offered), Halbert knew he had a winner.

That’s how I felt about Helena’s service which goes beyond translation and helps you understand the nuances of selling to that market. On the hot seat, she got lots of positive feedback from the crowd plus probably half of the speakers pointed her out during their presentations. We talked a bit about her branding and I’m looking forward to helping her shape her message for the online market. And I wouldn’t be surprised to see Helena moving from the audience to the stage at the next Unseminar.

Doing the ‘hot seats’ this way was a test for a new type of meetup I’m launching to get more people into mastermind groups. I held the first one for Meet & Grow Rich Dallas today.

More on than and Unseminar 8 later but for now I want to urge you, if you’re not already in one, to join or form a mastermind group. If you’d like to know more about what a mastermind group is and how to form one, pick up a copy of my book with Joe Vitale, Meet & Grow Rich. <--- Affiliate link. Are you in a mastermind group? If so, share some of your wins in the comments section below. Also, thanks to Michael Penn Smith for the photo of the panelists.