Three times further than you’ve ever run in your life. You’re at the final mile of your first ever marathon, and your legs feel like rubber and your heart feels like it’s going to explode out of your chest.

They told you about this. You’ve hit the wall.

It takes everything within you not to collapse. But despite your best efforts, your knees buckle and you fall to the ground.

If there was any water left in your body you might cry.

The last mile, and you simply have nothing left

But then, a friend kneels by your side and says, “Open your mouth.” Little by little, he pours coconut water through your chapped lips.

Another friend comes over and squats down to whisper in your ear, “Remember what you set out to do.”

And still, others rally by your side, cheering you on. “You’ve got this! Dig deeper. Get back up. We’ve got your back!”

Something you didn’t know you had within you begins to stir. Your body is moved by something beyond willpower and strength.

You find new energy by kicking in a deeper gear.

Never would you have believed it, but a few minutes later you’re crossing the finish line. Your friends are cheering you on, and you realize that you could have never done this wthout them.

Failure simply wasn’t an option, not with a small army of supporters in your corner.

They refused to let you quit.

How you can build a tribe that refuses to let you quit

If you want to succeed at anything, the surest way is to surround yourself with others dedicated to the same mission. < Click to share.

Want to complete a marathon? Surround yourself with others that have run marathons.
Want to become a great musician? Immerse yourself in an environment of dedicated musicians.
Want to build a creative, location independent business? Create a mastermind group with others on their path.

The biggest benefit of a tribe: Collective knowledge and strength

When you consciously and deliberately curate a tribe that won’t let you give up, you find strength within you that you didn’t know you had.

As humans, we’re not meant to go it alone. We’re social creatures and our success as a species has always been closely tied to our ability to work together as a group.

Hunting buffalo on the open plain of North America required careful coordination and teamwork.
Persistent hunting in the grasslands of Africa relied on the ability of each member to take turns running the animal into exhaustion.
Mirror neurons in our brains allow us to see the patterns of others and gain new, valuable skills.

Most of all, collective knowledge is our greatest human advantage.

Because we’re able to share our failures and successes, we can learn from each other, avoid painful mistakes, and model what works, saving valuable time and heartache.

The perils of building a creative business in a cave…

You’re more likely to give up when you’re tired, discouraged or when you fail.
You make up everything as you go along, working much harder than you need to.
You don’t know when an idea or plan is unrealistic or ridiculous because you lack constructive feedback and mentorship.

Doing things on your own can be incredibly important and valuable at times. Solitude is a wonderful thing, but lacking collaboration and guidance, you make everything 10x harder.

So, how do you build a tribe of supporters, mentors and champions, that refuse to let you give up?

The fastest way is to start is by creating a mastermind.

You’ve probably heard the advice of creating a mastermind before. But maybe you haven’t been given a step-by-step template and framework for how to find the best people and structure your meetings most effectively.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this detailed mastermind guide:

How to build a mastermind that is strong, resilient and anti-fragile.
Where to find the best people for your mastermind and how to spot them.
The best way to structure each meeting for maximum impact.
How to create strong cohesion in your group by giving each member a specific role.
Bonus: What specific things to say to recruit high level influencers into your group for strong, strategic alliances.

No offense, but most of the stuff out there on how to build a mastermind just sucks. It’s vague, fluffy and doesn’t really help you make it as good as it can be.

If you follow and implement this guide to the letter, it will be very difficult for you to not have a thriving creative business in a year or less.

Let’s get started now, shall we?

Step 1. Find rising stars.

Ideally you want to find people in your group that are further along on the path than you are. You will benefit from their experience and lessons greatly.

They will save you months, sometimes years of frustration and struggle by sharing with you what they’ve actually done in their businesses.

Where to find the highest quality people:

A good place to start is with commenters on your favorite blogs. Try to find those that are always commenting and engaged.
Visit forums or groups on social media and pick out those that are giving the most and helping others the most.

The best rule of thumb I can give you is to find the busiest, most passionate people you can that are the most dedicated to what they do.

Once you find a candidate, find their contact info and add it to an excel list.

Step 2. Select your members.

Select those with complementary skill sets. It’s ideal to have a diverse group, with one person being good at video, another at writing, another at social media or SEO, etc.

Keep your group to no more than 5 members, yourself included.

Expect to email 3-4x more people than you need in your group. You can generally expect if you don’t have much of a relationship already that 1 in 4 or 5 will say yes.

Anticipate this in advance so you don’t get discouraged when someone doesn’t responds or says no.

Step 3. Create an offer.

You don’t just want to ask them in the first sentence to join your mastermind. You want to warm them up, seduce them first.

How do you do this? Offer to them the opportunity to connect with other high level or rising stars in your field.

Present to them the opportunity of gaining valuable feedback and insights from what’s working for other people. Really sell them on the idea and how powerful the group will be.

Here’s a template you can use:

Subject: You’re wanted: high level tribe aligning for greater success

“Hi [First Name],

I’m putting together a group of rising stars and high performers to mastermind for greater success.

As you probably know, just one piece of feedback or idea from someone that’s done what you’re trying to do can make all the difference.

This group will be a kind of think-tank and incubator for us all to become greater leaders and influencers. It will also be a safe space where we can all push each other to grow, and hold each other accountable to what we agree to do.

The calls will be twice a month, for 90 minutes on Skype. You will have time to discuss your business goals and what’s challenging for you. Each session you’ll walk away with golden nuggets and actionable ideas to take what you’re doing to the next level.

I’m accepting 4 people into this group to keep the quality extremely high.

Please respond in the next five days if you’re interested and I’ll send you more details.

To our greatness,

-Your name”

Step 4. Organize and assign roles for the group.

It’s critical that each person feels like they have a specific job that’s important for the success of the group.

A DISC analysis should be done on each person to determine their strengths and weaknesses. Based on these results, you should assign roles to each person, according to their strengths.

Person 1: Scribe. Sends notes to everyone about the call at the end. This is a great role for a high conscientious score.
Person 2: Organizer. In charge of setting up and scheduling the calls. This job should go to a high conscientious or steadiness score.
Person 3: Caretaker. Responsible for encouraging and making sure no one is falling behind. Best for a high influence score.
Person 4: Timekeeper. This person is in charge of making sure the call stays on time and keeps the flow of the meeting on track. Best for a high dominance score.
Person 5: Enforcer. He or she makes sure that each person follows through on their commitments from the previous week’s agreements. Best for high dominance or steadiness score.

If you don’t have five people, that’s fine. One or more can handle multiple jobs, or they can be combined.

Step 5. Start first meeting.

Here’s a template of how each meeting will be run.

Mastermind Session Format:

Preparation:

10m – Acknowledge what you’re proud of in the last week, report on what you accomplished
5m – Share one thing that’s exciting or interesting to you in your work/business
5m – Speak your purpose to the group (a mission statement of your business that’s emotionally charged)

Heart:

60m – Take turns asking the group the group for feedback or support on anything that you need help with.

Close:

10m – Commit to doing one thing that will significantly impact your business to report on in the next meeting.

Step 6. Hold the first meeting.

The next step is to set up the first meeting. The first meeting may need to be a bit longer to cover the expectations, creed and ground rules for the mastermind.

One of the most important aspects of the formation of a group that many overlook is setting the right tone and expectations from the very beginning.

You want people to take this group seriously, as if it’s the greatest opportunity they’ve been given in their life.

In truth, a great mastermind can have enormous impact on your business and life. So it’s not a stretch to say that this is worth committing to with the same intensity that you would in choosing a career or any other important endeavor.

Here’s a template you can use for setting up the first call:

Subject: First meeting: open for important details

“Hello [First Name],

You have been selected to be in this conscious business mastermind because of your commitment to your purpose and the excellence you’ve shown in your life.

Please know that your dedication to this group is of the utmost importance. One person’s lack of seriousness can weaken the entire group. Be the person that strengthens this group!

We are all in this together. Your success is our success.

The first call will be on [Date] at [Time]. Please allow at least 90 minutes for the call.

Here are the call-in details:

[Call in info here].

Looking forward to having you in this incredible group,

-Your name”

Step 7. Set up the call.

I recommend using Uber Conference. It’s very easy to set up, and they have a hilarious wait song.

You have to listen to it.

Click here to sign up (not an affiliate link).

Alternatively, if you’d like you can use a Google Hangout to make things a bit more personal with video. It’s up to you.

Step 8. Hold the call and review.

During the first call, don’t forget to review the importance of each member’s commitment, the shared values or creed of the group, and ground rules.

What is the protocol if someone misses more than two meetings in a row?
Will you wait for someone to show up if they are late?

Review each member’s role and the importance of their job in the group.

After the call on your own time, review what went well, what didn’t go well and what can be improved for the next call.

Final thoughts

This is the most done-for-you template and guide on creating a valuable mastermind. This is the surest way I know of to make your success inevitable.

I couldn’t have possibly made it any easier for, unless, of course I just invited you into a group that already existed.

Please, put this into action. You don’t have to do it alone. You can create a community that refuses to let you ever give up.

Trust me, it’s much easier and much funner that way.

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