The Tribune

By D’Arcy Rahming

I met Pete Mitchell in a lounge that had been set up for networking during a marketing seminar in Chicago. We chatted for a while on our businesses, and the most effective tools we were using. He was impressed with my ability to generate leads using Facebook advertising, and I was impressed with his overall marketing knowledge. We traded business cards and spoke a few more times via e-mail before he invited me to join his Mastermind group.

For the past three years I have been a member of Pete’s Mastermind group. I must say it is one of the best investments I have ever made. We meet monthly via Google, since we are located in different countries. Members of the core group consist of a top security system implementer, a direct marketer, a chiropractor, a roofer and a video production company owner. The first couple of years we had a funeral director, who owned a number of funeral homes. Many of the ideas in this column, even the very idea for this column, have come from the practical experience of the group.

Requirements for membership in the group were to be at a certain level of success and maturity in our respective companies. When I met Pete, I did not realise I was being interviewed and then recruited. That was his purpose in the lounge that day. While mine was to get the ‘free’ lunch. Only kidding, of course. None of us in the group are children, and we have all had big wins and big losses in our personal and professional lives.

We all share a love for marketing and improving our businesses through marketing. We are of different races, nationalities and ages. Yet the group is highly effective. We normally have a book of the month to read, which we discuss. Then we present different problems that we are experiencing in our businesses. It could be with a marketing piece or even a strategy. Sometimes we have guest visitors, the strangest one being a guy who used Youtube marketing to teach Japanese. He became popular because he first taught people how to swear in Japanese. Then he made a small fortune up-selling them his Japanese course.

I believe that all marketers and professionals, for that matter, should belong to a Mastermind group. You know the cliche: Two heads are better than one. This is really the idea behind a mastermind group. They can take on different formats from partnerships to advisory groups. The key principles are mutual respect for each other’s ideas and to be open to criticism from the group as ideas are presented. Another key to success in the group is commitment. This may mean paying to attend meetings or for missing meetings. Something to make you address the Mastermind with the seriousness that it deserves.

• NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the prestigious Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. He is also treasurer of the Bahamas Olympic Committee. To contact him he can be reached at DArcyRahmingsr@gmail.com.