Forming a mastermind group for community managers

Continuing the discussion from Would it help to have a strategists community?:

I’m still interested in this idea…

I’m looking for 2 or 3 people to join me in a mastermind group. This is big and complicated. If that’s for you, read on… :slight_smile:

Who’s it for…

You have a community platform set up

It doesn’t have to be huge, busy, or built on any specific platform. Simply put, this mastermind is not for, “how do I set it up?”

It’s your community

…or at least you’re one of the primary stakeholders of whatever runs the community. I’m looking for individuals who lead their community, make the decisions, and I want what we do as a mastermind group to benefit you personally, not a Large Faceless Corp one might work for. In other words, you have skin in the game.

What’s it for…

You want fresh eyes or feedback

This is for you if you’ve asked your computer monitor…

“How’s this feel?”
“Is this policy right?”
“Do I have too many categories in here?”

You know, all the stuff right after, “How do I set this platform up?”

How does it work…

One Zoom call per week

Of course, missing one here and there is fine.

But generally, one recurring-scheduled weekday meeting. Some sane time that works for me in US Eastern. (US west-coast through Europe should be easy enough to juggle.)

We’ll use the first part of the call to review (if needed) feedback given from the previous week. (See “homework” below.)

We’ll use the second part of the call for someone to pose the next week’s question. Each week we’ll rotate who asks the question. You can “ask” by posting, screenshare, show and tell, powerpoint, whatever. You get the floor to talk to the mastermind, rather than your monitor.

Another hour of homework during each week

Of course, missing here and there is fine!

But generally, you’re committing to spending no more than an hour acting on the question posed in the Zoom call. Let’s call this “doing the homework.”

We’ll post our homework somewhere. (We’re all community managers, we can figure this out.) This means you have to be adept at writing long posts, screenshots, screencap videos, etc. to convey your homework. We’re not going to spend the time in the zoom call “reciting” our homework. The first half of the zoom call is in case the person who asked the question has a burning need in response to the homework that was submitted.

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Count me in and I can back this up with a Discourse instance and whatever other resource we would need for this, so basically, we’ll sponsor this group/program!

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That’s 3 (including me) people… someone else also replied to my cross-post on Experts…

one more?

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I’m a process nut… Here use a Google Sheet…

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I’d also love to join in! Did put my name on the google doc :slight_smile:

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Before I say “What the hell, I’m in!” I want to know if I can sign up for organizing a group but without a zoom account! I mean, I don’t have a paid zoom account (and I don’t want to pay for one)! So perhaps my email could work just fine? If so, then count me in!

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There’s nothing special about being “the organizer” … it just means you’ll host the Zoom calls. You need a Zoom account that allows scheduling meetings (I think the free version can do that,) but you probably want to have meetings longer than — I forget what the free-account limit is, 40 minutes?

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Yup! 40 mins is the limit.

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“group one” has four people; we’re getting organized in private communications. If additional groups fill up (see/use google doc linked above) I can share the discussion/structure that we discover works.

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“group 1” is going to meet for 10 weeks, starting on January 11, 2022. After that we’ll continue, disband, perhaps shuffle with other groups… whatever.

I encourage others to continue using the Google Sheet and we can continue cross-pollination (or other platforms, w/e) of how this works, what structure is working, etc.

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@craigconstantine - I’m in, if you still have room. Knowing the schedule details, as soon as they are fleshed out, would be very helpful. I looked at the Google Sheet and it looks like there’s not room in Group 1 and as I am not prepared to lead a group about forming an online community just yet, please let me know if I need to wait for the second 10-week cohort. Understood if a “bump” is needed.

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put ur name on a non-leader row in group 2 :slight_smile:

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ALL: Group1 is underway, and there’s now a first person for Group2… if you’re interested, please hit the Google Doc link and add your name. If the group gets to four, we’ll invite you to the dedicated Discourse platform we have for facilitating each mastermind’s work. I’d appreciate any tagging of people you know who might be interested in joining a Mastermind group.

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can you let me into group 1? a six person group 1 is probably more effective than a four person group 1 and a two person group 2

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The intention is to have small groups; masterminds don’t work when they get large.

If you put your name in/on for group2, when there are four—I’ll help the leader [if they want help, of course] spin up that group. The idea here is to have groups self-assembling and working, dis-assembling, reforming… as people want.

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I put my name as leader of group 2 do you mind if I allow 6-8 people to join?

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David I put my name in to lead group 2 and have reached out to you directly to schedule a call next week.

Sean Murphy skmurphy@skmurphy.com

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Sure of course run any size you wish.

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