Niche Mastermind Groups
How was this term Niche Mastermind created? Let me tell you a story: I was coaching an FA that wanted to know more about setting up a Mastermind group. After we finished he went to his CPA to say he was setting up a Mastermind Group, and ask if he’d like to join.
The CPA said, “I don’t want to join yours but you may want to join ours. We have a group focused on helping physicians sell their practices to hospitals. In our group we have a realtor, business broker, myself who does the business valuation as the CPA and an attorney to write up the papers. What we need now is a financial person to deal with the proceeds of these business sales. The average sale is $5 million. What do you think?”
The FA was clearly thrilled! He couldn’t wait to tell me all about it. He said it wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t asked the CPA about the Mastermind Group. I realized this whole group was a mastermind group focused on a niche! I thought, wow, what a great idea, now let’s formalize it. I had never seen the two strategies put together to complement each other. A great marketing breakthrough.
Where do you starts? Mastermind or Niche? I think you start with the niche and build from there. Once you have identified your niches you can start to build upon them by putting together a niche mastermind group for each niche. This is defined as a group of professionals who serve the different needs of a particular client. An example of this is a small business who is looking to sell or a group of doctors who are selling themselves to a hospital. You can be a huge help. Your niche mastermind group might include all the specialties needed to serve the client who is selling their business. It consists of a business broker to auction off the group to the highest bidder, a lawyer to draw up the papers, a CPA to take care of the taxes, the FA to do the planning and investing, and the realtor to sell the building.
Virtually any niche can have a Mastermind Group serving it! Public companies such as Roche, Lilly, Abbott, Proctor and Gamble, UBS and other private small business are all good examples.
By coincidence I was introduced to Mike Razor, a local CPA, to discuss the selling of a friend's small business. He started the meeting telling me about his Mastermind group that helps with the sale of businesses. He had a similar group to the previous story plus two consultants that help people get ready for the sale of their businesses (they help clean up businesses to make them as attractive and profitable as it should be before they put them on the market) They have a CPA, attorney, financial advisor and a business broker. After hearing Mike’s story, I decided to add this to my coaching sessions. I believe every team should have a mastermind group devoted to helping small businesses with their liquidity event.
If you had a niche at an aerospace company, such as Boeing, you could put together a group that works in that industry including a automation specialty company, an architect that designs buildings for Boeing, the relocation expert for Boeing, a former Naval admiral, an airline CEO, and the CEO of Boeing’s metal refinishing provider. You would be the benefits and planning expert for the executive suite. Your group of experts would all be able to address all aspects of the business and problem solve for each other.
What differentiates a Niche Mastermind group from enthusiastically endorsed providers? Your mastermind group participants are going to bond and connect enough to trust each other. There is an implied (or written) acknowledged code of conduct addressing confidentiality or nondisclosure. There will be an appointed leader who will do outreach to prospective members and create a means for group members to communicate. They will choose a meeting place and time and remind the others. You may require members to contribute dollars into a common pool that is used to cover everything from administration to software to the facilities for the group meetings. If you have a formal name It may require registering it in the state you are in. And you should have a process to add and remove members.
Exercise
- Form a group of professionals to service a niche.
- Identify the niche
- Identify who would be a good fit
- Identify who of those that are a good fit would bring their energy to the group
- Set the group and give it one year to see if you can function as a unit