Achieving Business Excellence with John Spence

How to Hire Right

08/20/2019 By

Two professionals shaking hands at a tableThis is a note I sent to the CEO of a small company with about a dozen employees. He had just lost one of his key players and was looking to hire someone to replace her, and add a new salesperson, so I sent him this note to give him my best advice on how to make sure that he hired the right person. Give it a read for my best advice on navigating the hiring process as well as a few actionable steps you can take immediately.

Scott, making the decision to bring in a new person onto the team in your company is an extremely important decision, especially with such a small team. Done correctly, the new hire could potentially bring in significant additional revenues, new customers, new partnerships and innovative new ideas that can help make your company much more successful. Done poorly, hiring the wrong person can be an extremely expensive mistake that could set you back months and potentially do long-term damage within your team and with your customers. Therefore, I’d like to give you a little bit of advice on what I feel are some essential ideas and tools around hiring right.

The first thing I’d like to share with you is that for your type of business, the quality of the people that you get and keep on your team will be the single most important factor in determining the long-term success of your business. There’s an old cliché that says that people are your most important asset, but that’s wrong. Your best people are your most important asset; your worst people are your biggest liability, so you need to be very careful and effective in how you go about hiring new employees.

Whenever I counsel a business owner about the hiring process, here are a few things that I strongly recommend they do:

Create a very specific list of the attributes, skills, talents and attitude you are looking for in the new hire. Make this list before you interview, attached to, emotionally connected to, or invested in any candidate. Write down the short list of things that the employee you are going to hire MUST possess. These are non-negotiable; it doesn’t matter how much you like the person, how cool you think they are, how great they seem … this is the short list of key skills/attributes that anyone who fills the job absolutely must demonstrate—PERIOD! Next, list several things that would be “nice to have:” items that are above and beyond the core but might be a bonus to your business. Lastly, jot down a few things that would be super nice to have but are totally icing on the cake. Now, when you interview someone, if they do not have everything on the list of key elements—do not hire them. Actually, I think it’s a good idea if you put a point scale next to each of the items, such as 10 points for all of the “must haves,” 5 points for the “nice to haves,” and 3 points for the “really super nifty to have.” Then, create a baseline score and if the person doesn’t score at least, let’s say a 70, on a 100-point scale—they do not come back for a second interview. I see a lot of business owners that meet a potential candidate, sort of click with them, really like them, and then overlook the fact that the person does not have even the most basic skills necessary to be highly successful at the position they are trying to fill. I do not want you to make that mistake, so creating this scorecard is a clear, specific and objective way to help hold yourself accountable for only hiring people that are truly qualified. The goal is to hire really great people that you like a lot, and who also have at least a minimum score of 70.

Read some books or get some training on interviewing techniques (my favorite book on this topic is, Who: The A Method for Hiring by Geoff Smart and Randy Street). Most of the businesspeople I’ve come across are pathetic at doing a thorough job of asking superb interviewing questions and knowing what to look for in a candidate. The list you have created in step one will help you form an agenda for asking questions, but the key here is for the candidate to spend 90% of the time talking while the interviewer is taking exceedingly good notes, watching body language, and asking additional probing questions. Unfortunately, this is almost the exact opposite of the way most interviews go, with the business owner going on and on about how great their company is, how great their culture is, how great their products are… and not asking any focused questions that would truly let them understand whether the candidate is the right person for the job they’re trying to fill. Again, I don’t want you to make that mistake, so have a long list of excellent questions prepared before the candidate is sitting in front of you, and then use that list to guide the entire interviewing process.

I’m also a big fan of team interviewing, getting a candidate who has made it past the first round to spend some time with the people they will work for, the people that they will work with, and the people that will work for them—so you can get feedback from everyone on how they feel the candidate would fit into the culture. Important: Anyone who interviews them should have some level of training on how to conduct a professional interview. You want to make sure that they ask good questions, the right questions and nothing that would get your company into trouble.

I also think it’s a good idea to get them to take a few tests, possibly a skills test and a personality test like the Myers-Briggs or DISC profile to make sure that they truly do possess the skills they are advertising and that they will likely be a good fit for your culture. In addition, call every single reference and ask them a few questions about the candidate so you can get some additional feedback. Again, this is where some good interviewing training will come in handy, because there is an art to asking the right sort of questions to references, who are often reluctant to be totally honest about any negative issues with a candidate. If it is a senior position, I encourage you to do a great deal of due diligence, call every reference, call their former employers and get as much information as you possibly can about the candidate before you hire them. Hiring the right person for a key executive position can make a major positive impact on your business; hiring the wrong person can land you in bankruptcy court.

A few years ago, I attended a conference of 400+ CEOs on hiring, retaining, and growing top talent. After we came together, dozens of workshops, panel discussions and lots of dialogue, this esteemed group of senior leaders came up with two key ideas on hiring:

  1. Hire for attitude and aptitude—train for skills. As long as the person has the “must-have” skills for the job that you created in your list, and they show the ability to learn, always hire the person with best attitude. If someone has all the skills and a bad attitude, there is no book you can give them, no class you can send them to, no seminar they can attend that will turn a person who has a bad attitude into a positive and productive employee.
  2. Hire slow—fire fast. Even if you are in emergency mode and desperately need someone to fill a gap in your business, I urge you to take the time to find the right person and not just hire the first person that walks in the door (unless they truly are a great fit). Employee turnover is expensive. By the time you bring someone on board, train them up, fill out all the paperwork and get them in your system, you have invested a tremendous amount of time, energy, resources and money—if you have to terminate them, or they quit within a few weeks or months, it’s costly all the way around.

One last thing: a strategy I used when hiring key people for one of my businesses. When they’ve gone through all the steps above, the team loves them, the tests were all great and the references all checked out, I would tell the person that they were the candidate we wanted to hire, and I would give them the job offer with salary, benefits, vacation and everything else included in the position. However, I would tell them that they could not accept on the spot; they needed to go home and think about it, to talk to their husband, wife, or best friend. And then I would tell them this before they left my office: “Do not take this job if it is only about the money, the benefits and vacation—because I will figure that out very quickly and I will fire you as fast as I possibly can. On the other hand, if you love what our company stands for, if you think this is a great culture that you would fit into well, if you like the other people you’ve met and you’re truly excited about our products and services—then please take this job as it might be the last job you ever take and you will retire from here. But I’m deadly serious: If it’s just about having a “job” do not accept this offer because you will NOT last long.” Amazingly, after going through all the interviewing, passing all the tests, getting great reviews from all the references… 70% of the people did not accept the job. They were not really committed and were not truly excited; they were not honestly passionate about our business—they just wanted a job and could not make the commitment I was looking for. When I told one CEO about this practice of mine, he said to me, “It sounds like you’re running a cult.” After thinking about it for a minute or two I replied to him, “Yes, I am … it’s a cult of excellence … do you have a problem with that?” He quickly answered, “Nope, not at all—just checking!”

Scott, you have a great company with a fantastic culture, and anyone would be lucky to work with you and your team. I’m sure you’ll get plenty of people that apply for these jobs, but take your time, use the list, do the tests, do the team interviewing, check all the references—and only hire somebody who meets or exceeds all of the criteria you have laid out. Following all of these suggestions is time consuming, I fully admit that, but it is worth every single minute of it—I guarantee.

I hope you found this helpful, my friend. I wish you every possible success in bringing some superstars onto your team. Take good care – John

Hiring the right people is never easy, but with these actionable steps I hope that you can navigate the process. I hope you can take the following key steps back to your team to drastically improve the hiring process:

  • Create a skill scorecard with “must-have” skills earning 10 points, 5 points for “nice to have,” and 3 points for “really super nifty to have.” Only candidates that earn a score of at least 70 get a second interview and the rest are tossed.
  • Train a group of team members to be able to properly work through the interview questions with right questions.
  • Utilize all your resources like employer references, personality tests, and even your own employees to evaluate if they would fit into the culture of the company.
  • Ensure that your candidates desire the job for the commitment of the company and its growth, not just the money.

Best of luck in your hiring journey. – John

Filed Under: Business Excellence, John's Rants, Leadership

What Is Your Definition Of Leadership?

04/11/2019 By

a graphic displaying the word leadershipFor nearly 30 years I’ve had the honor of delivering leadership training and executive coaching to companies around the world. One of the things I get asked a lot is, “What is your definition of leadership?” I think I have a pretty good one, but first, let’s take a little detour.

I also do a lot of training in the area of high-performance teams, and one of the workshops I typically make the group go through is to create a list of the characteristics of an Ideal Team Member. I ask them, “If you were able to bring somebody fantastic onto your team, someone that you would love to work with, what would that person be like? What are the skills, abilities, attitude, and personality of an ideal team member for your company?” Here are the responses I hear the most:

  • Honest
  • Has 100% integrity
  • Positive attitude/fun to work with
  • Proactive/self-starter
  • Competent
  • Innovative/creative
  • Excellent communicator
  • Great listener
  • Highly collaborative/a strong team player
  • Lifelong Learner
  • Loyal
  • Respectful

Wow, what a great list, and after I read the list back to the group, I ask how many of them would love to have someone who has all these characteristics on their team? Every hand in the room shoots up, and then I say to them, “To get someone like this to join your team, you have to be like this first. Because anyone who has all the characteristics on that list will only work for someone else that also exhibits those characteristics.”

So, back to my definition of leadership. In my leadership classes, I run a very similar workshop where I ask small groups of attendees to develop a list of what they would look for in an Ideal Leader. I get all of the same things I listed above, plus a few more…

  • Visionary
  • Courageous
  • Inspiring/motivating
  • Fair
  • Compassionate
  • A great coach
  • Leads by example

It’s that last characteristic that shapes my definition of leadership.

To be an effective leader, you must be a living example of what you hope your followers will one day become.

Remember, if you hold a leadership position at any level in an organization, you live under a microscope. People watch everything you do; they listen to everything you say. Whatever you focus on becomes what they focus on and whatever you ignore they will ignore. Your behavior drives their behavior.

So, in my mind, to have great people in your organization, you must first become the kind of person that they want to work with. By the way, this is really hard. It takes a lot of discipline. This means you can’t just do what you feel like doing, or what you can get away with, or mistreat people because you’re in a foul mood, you must keep asking yourself, “What would an ideal leader do?” and follow that as your guide.

What is your definition of leadership?

 

 

Filed Under: Business Excellence, High Performance Teams, John's Rants, Leadership

5 Marketing Strategies that Still Work in Modern Times

04/09/2019 By

I am happy to share this guest post from my friend Susan Ranford, I hope you find it of value.

 

Marketing is essential for the growth of any business, but it’s also important for yourself as well. Utilizing effective marketing strategies in your career endeavors is an important aspect of growing professionally. With modern times evolving at almost the speed of light, sometimes the classic ways are just as good.

The following four strategies have been proven to work overtime and are just as reliable today as they always have been. Though there may be a few new, modern ways to make the most of these strategies they will still work just fine the way they always have well into 2019 and beyond.

Personal Responses and One-to-One Interaction

More than anything else, personalization is something people always have and always will continue to seek out. This is especially for managers or those of you in sales. People want to feel special and like they matter to you.

Interacting with customers one-to-one is a great way to make new and potential customers feel that they are valuable. It also gives you the chance to learn their real questions and concerns so they can learn to trust you. There are also many ways to create these situations:

  • Phone Calls – Calling a prospect directly can leave a strong impression and let them know that you’re there to answer any questions they might have.
  • Business Cards – You can always hand out some business cards directly during a conversation or as an introduction. You can also leave them around places where your target customers would be. Community billboards, libraries, and other public spaces can also be great advertising, especially for seasonal and local services type businesses.
  • Social Media – Posting to social media is vital for anyone looking to find success, but the interactions you have after you post something, or the responses you give to anyone that has contacted you through social media, are the most valuable.  You have to respond to comments so people learn to trust that they can rely on you. You paint yourself as an expert by doing this.

Memorable and Evergreen Content

Content is both a way to provide value to customers and a way to get your name out there–if it’s done right. Two types of content are always going to be great for managers and sales professionals as marketing tools, and they can overlap.

The best content is memorable. That means it has to have an active emotional component of some sort to be incredibly useful and comprehensive. If it’s in this latter category, that also makes it “evergreen.” These types of pieces are most likely to be shared on social media or bookmarked for future reference, leading people to regard you as an authority on the subject.

Direct Mail

Direct mail is far from dead, though mass mailings to everyone and anyone may be (or should be) a thing of the past. The way to use direct mail effectively is to make it personal and use it to leave an impression on someone you have decided would be your perfect customer.

Direct mail, on its own, is also beginning to stand out more. Though the overall volume has been decreasing, spending on direct mail has increased over the last 10 years. More importantly, 42% of consumers ages 25 to 34 open and read direct mail immediately after receiving it. Email only has an average open rate of 25%, across all industries.

Partnerships

Another way to generate new, targeted leads is to team up with another professional similar to you and begin promoting each other.  If a customer likes you they will trust your recommendations. Find someone to refer you and reciprocate by referring them.

Just make sure to choose your partners wisely.

Another way to generate buzz is to team up with an important cause or charity that resonates with your values. Make sure that there is a strong emotional and logical connection between you and the cause you choose. The stronger the relationship, the more memorable your role will be.

Conclusion

There’s no doubt that technology has made it easier for managers and sales professionals to reach their target clients.  But, if you do what everyone else is doing, your potential customers might choose your competition. Instead, take some time to look back at the basics.  It might mean the difference between closing the sale and leaving another prospect in the pipe.

Filed Under: John's Rants, Sales Success Tagged With:

The Four Most Important Things I Have Ever Learned

03/24/2019 By

I am currently going through all my blogs and looking for the ones to keep, update or remove. I ran across this one and was especially touched by all of the comments – there’s even one there from a very close friend who has since passed away. I hope you find value in these ideas, and add your own comments to the already impressive list.

In a few weeks, I will be facilitating a weekend retreat for an organization in my local community.  The theme of the retreat is “Self-leadership” and I will be delivering a very special class that I don’t often get to teach called “Strategies for Success.” It is basically an advanced life skills class, a superb opportunity to stop and take stock of your life and make sure that things are going in the right direction for what you hope to achieve in your life.  As part of the class, I have assigned some homework for each of the participants. I asked them to write down the four most important things they have ever learned in their lives.  I told them to imagine that if they knew they were going to die tomorrow, what four pieces of wisdom would they want to pass along to their family and friends. I thought that was a great question, so I wanted to share my answer with you. Continue reading “The Four Most Important Things I Have Ever Learned” »

Filed Under: Career Success, John's Rants, Leadership Tagged With: , , , , , ,

How to Make Your Business MUCH More Successful in 2019

12/28/2018 By

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every year I do a video with some ideas about how to make your business more successful in the coming year. This time I’ve changed it up a little bit and instead of giving you a list of “Big Ideas,” I’m going to give you a challenge, a great new tool, I’ll ask for a favor, and I’m making an offer to help you have a great 2019.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes to watch the video and please share it with your network if you find the ideas of value.

Thanks so much – John

If you want to sign up for my free newsletter, click HERE

 

If you are interested in learning more about how to get a newsletter like this for your company, click HERE

 

I appreciate your referrals VERY, VERY, VERY much!!!

 

Be sure to tell me your business challenge for 2019 in the “Speak Your Mind” section below so I can find the answer for you.

 

 

Filed Under: Branding / Advertising, Business Excellence, Customer Service, John's Rants, Sales Success Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Change A Life and You May End Up Changing Yours

12/14/2018 By

Here is a link for the better book club, it is free for small companies and insanely affordable for other organizations. I cannot encourage you strongly enough to go take a look at their website, look at all the things it can do for your business, and I hope you join, as I said above it will make a dramatic positive impact on the success of your organization.

Click HERE to learn more about the Better Book Club

 

And now, a fantastic guest blog from Frank Sonnenberg…

 Think about a person who’s had a tremendous impact on your life. It may be your Mom or Dad who believed in you, the coach who inspired you, the teacher who guided you in the right direction, the boss who gave you your first big opportunity, or the friend who’s always been by your side. I’m sure when you think of that person, it brings a huge smile to your face — as it should.

You may say that some of these folks were just doing their job. True. But even though you’ve had several good teachers, coaches, and bosses over the years, I’m sure a few of them really stand out from the crowd. You remember their passion, dedication, kindness, and, of course, their generosity. After all, they changed your life!

That obviously begs the question…are you leaving a lasting impact on others? It only takes one person to change a life — and that one person may as well be you.

Make a Difference

Whether you’re aware of it or not, you’re touching the lives of people every day. What can you do to step up your game?

Be an exemplary role model. Lead by example. Demonstrate that character is the DNA of success and happiness.

Be an awesome parent. Having kids is not the same as being a parent. Raise your kids to be kind, productive, and self-reliant; to make good choices and to be personally responsible for their actions; to pursue their purpose with gusto; and to live their life with honor and dignity.

Be a humble leader. Share your success. As you climb the ladder of success, reach down and pull others up with you.

Be a dedicated mentor. Take someone under your wing and show them the ropes. Give the kind of advice that they won’t hear anywhere else.

Be a compassionate boss. Show your employees that work isn’t all business. Build trusting relationships. Make yourself available and supportive in times of need.

Be a shrewd businessperson. Develop win-win rather than winner-take-all relationships. Prove that there’s more to go around when you grow a large pie, together, than when you squabble to divide a smaller one.

Be a real friend. Demonstrate loyalty when someone’s chips are down and no one else has their back.

Be an inspiration. Set high expectations and push people beyond their capabilities. Show confidence in them when they’re having a weak moment.

Be perceptive. Give someone the big break they need in life. See someone’s potential even when others are blind to their promise.

Be tough, but fair. Make people accountable for their actions. They’ll thank you one day.

Be available. Give the gift of time. Lend a shoulder to cry on when someone needs a friendly ear or support during tough times.

Be the better person. Be the first to give, the first to forgive, the first to compromise, and the first to say “I’m sorry.”

Be even-handed. Stand up for injustice, speak up for the less fortunate, and don’t give up on fairness and tolerance.

Be a loving spouse. Put your heart into your marriage. Share your hopes and your fears, your laughter and your tears, your joy and your sorrow.

Change a Life Forever

Think of your greatest accomplishments. Where would changing someone’s life rank on your list? Consider: If they hadn’t crossed paths with you, they wouldn’t be the person they are, they wouldn’t have the opportunities they have, and they wouldn’t be positioned to achieve their hopes and dreams. Bravo! You made a difference! As an added bonus, change someone’s life and you may end up changing yours.

Why complain about the ills of the world when you could be a world of difference to someone you know? You may not be able to change the world, but you can change the world around you. Change a life and create a ripple that cascades forever.

 

This post is an excerpt from Soul Food: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life by Frank Sonnenberg

Frank Sonnenberg is an award-winning author. He has written seven books and over 300 articles. Frank was recently named one of “America’s Top 100 Thought Leaders” and one of “America’s Most Influential Small Business Experts.” Frank has served on several boards and has consulted to some of the largest and most respected companies in the world.

Additionally, FrankSonnenbergOnline was named among the “Best 21st Century Leadership Blogs”; among the “Top 100 Socially-Shared Leadership Blogs”; and one of the “Best Inspirational Blogs On the Planet.”

Frank’s newest book, Soul Food: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life, was released inNovember 2018 (© 2018 Frank Sonnenberg. All rights reserved.)

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Book Reviews, Business Excellence, Career Success, High Performance Teams, John's Rants, Leadership, Life Success, Winning Culture Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

What Are Your Leadership Values?

10/28/2018 By

This past week I was asked to give a talk at my alma mater, Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida.  I was speaking with a select group of their senior management team from across the entire organization and they sent me a list of questions they wanted me to answer and discuss.  One of the questions was, “What are the three values you rely on that underpin your leadership?”  I’ve never been asked a question quite like that and was pleasantly surprised after I gave it some thought.  Here are my top three…

Honesty

To me this is the absolute foundation of leadership, if you don’t tell the truth you can’t build trust and without trust, there is no loyalty, commitment or belief in the “leader.”  The rule here is simple, tell the truth all the time, period.

Love

I believe if you treat your team, your customers, even your competitors with love and respect you are following the path of a servant leader who understands that their job is to help and support others to be successful leaders.

Excellence

As one of my personal leadership values, I see the pursuit of excellence as the driver to creating an exceptional organization that has a positive impact on the lives of its employees, customers, community and the world.  Using “excellence” as a benchmark pushes each individual to be uncompromising in the quality of their work and always striving to deliver their very best.

Those are my top three, what are yours?

Filed Under: Business Excellence, Career Success, John's Rants, Leadership, Life Success Tagged With: , , , , ,

How To Create A Mastermind Group

04/04/2018 By

My wife, Sheila, speaking at a Mastermind meeting at our home.

Recently I’ve had several people ask me about how to set up a mastermind group. I wrote a blog about this back in 2011, but I have updated it and added some new information. I hope you find this helpful.

 

 

“You become what you focus on… and like the people you surround yourself with.”

This is the single most important lesson I’ve learned in my life so far. How did I learn it? By understanding the power of Mastermind Groups.

Thirty-nine years ago I failed out of college. After my first year at the University of Miami (Florida) I had a stellar 1.6 GPA!! Unfortunately, all the people I was hanging out with had lower GPA’s than I did so it did not seem like that big of a deal… until I was expelled. I moved to Gainesville, Florida to restart my college career and met an incredibly wise professor (Roger Strickland) who strongly recommended that I start a “study group” – a.k.a. — a mastermind group. At the beginning of each semester, I would stand up on the first day of class and invite anyone who wanted to do well in the course to join my study group… as long as they had a 3.6 GPA or higher! Forming that study group changed EVERYTHING. In the span of six years, I went from failing out of the University of Miami to graduating in the top three in the United States in my major from the University of Florida and then becoming the CEO of a Rockefeller foundation just three years after graduation.

I have continued to create mastermind groups throughout my life. In my early 30’s I created a group of young CEOs that met once a month at a local restaurant to share ideas and support each other as we tried to grow our businesses. For the last few years I’ve run a mastermind group of senior leaders, people who have been in business for 20 or 30 years, that gets together to talk about cutting edge business ideas, economics, politics, whatever important topic we all want to explore. This group has all become very close friends and I know that whenever I need help they are on my team. I’m also in a mastermind group with other people in my industry; professional speakers, consultants, and authors. We share our best ideas, contacts, client referrals and do everything we can to help each other improve our craft.

The reason I share my experiences with these two groups with you is to show you how incredibly powerful they can be in helping to guide, support, motivate and direct your life. I cannot possibly express how valuable it is to be an active member of a high-quality mastermind group. But here’s the catch; for most people, if you want to be in a mastermind group, you’re going to have to create it yourself!

Here are my recommendations on how to start and sustain a mastermind group.

Although there are many successful mastermind groups that meet via phone or online, I believe the most powerful ones meet in person, once a month or every 45 days, so I will address that sort of group in this article.

The first step is to look around your local community for one or two people who you respect and would enjoy learning from. Approach these folks with an invitation to create a mastermind group with you, let them know that it will be highly focused and a valuable use of their time.

When someone accepts your invitation, ask them to choose one or two people that they respect and would like to learn from and invite those folks to join the mastermind group too.

The goal is to have your initial meeting with six or eight members in attendance. At the first meeting is a good idea to take some time to set the framework for how the meetings will run and discuss the expectations that the members have about what they want to achieve in the mastermind group and what things would be of significant value to them. Structure is important to running an efficient mastermind group so you should set some rules around how often you will meet, where you will meet, attendance requirements, topics to be covered, length of meetings, confidentiality, and other issues you deem important. There should also be some discussion around how to invite new people to join the group what the process will be for deciding that someone should leave the group.

In our mastermind groups, we typically pose a single important question and ask everyone to come fully prepared to discuss it in the meeting. For example, in our last two meetings, the questions were: “What are the three most important lessons you have ever learned in your life?” And the next month we asked everyone, “If you were to turn your business over to your children (or someone else), what are the three most important pieces of business advice you would give to them?” Sometimes we all read a book and discuss what we felt was most important in the book and how we will apply those ideas in our lives and businesses. Other times we allow one of the members of the group to bring a specific challenge they are facing so that all of us can give them our best advice and connect them with anyone in our networks that we feel might be able to help them.

One of the biggest challenges of creating a mastermind group is keeping it to a manageable size once the word gets out that you have created something so powerful. I highly recommend that you have no more than a dozen members, which means you’ll likely have about 8 to 10 people in attendance at each meeting. If you get much larger than that, then you end up with cross conversations and a lack of focus.

Currently, my wife and I host the meetings at our home, we offer some light hors-d’oeuvres and cocktails and we all sit on the back deck for about two hours discussing the assigned topic, sharing stories, asking for help and getting advice. Not only is this incredibly beneficial session for learning new ideas and tools for improving your life and,  it is truly a blessing to be surrounded by such incredible people and to count them among your closest friends! We also invite spouses to attend which adds a lot of vibrancy and diversity to our meetings.

We do not charge any money to belong to the mastermind group, and we often rotate the meetings between different people’s houses to share costs. You could easily hold mastermind meetings at a local restaurant and let everyone handle their own bill, or gather at someone’s office and have food brought in.

Once you have a few meetings the group will begin to come together and start to open up. As trust builds, you will have some very meaningful conversations that will help the members of your group make major decisions in their business and life. Although mastermind groups will help you become more successful, the real wealth generated is from the friendships, learning, and access to each other’s networks…which is priceless.

If you are already involved in a mastermind group, please leave your comments and tell everybody what it has meant to you and how important it is in your life. I hope that we can start a small campaign here to get people around the world forming small mastermind groups to solve their personal problems, their business problems, their community’s problems and, yes, even the world’s problems.

Thanks, and take good care, John Spence

PS – Please take a moment to share this with anyone in your network that you feel would benefit from creating a mastermind group.

Filed Under: Business Excellence, Career Success, John's Rants, Life Success Tagged With: , , , , ,

Do You Have A Culture Of Purpose

03/28/2018 By

Filed Under: Business Excellence, John's Rants, Leadership, Winning Culture Tagged With: , , , , ,
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