The hardest thing about being an entrepreneur is staying an entrepreneur. Starting your own business is the steepest learning curve you’ll ever go on. You’ll face challenges you never expected and overcome obstacles you never thought you could or would. You’ll surprise yourself every day with the things you’re able to learn and do.
You’ll also question yourself daily. You’ll want to give up – a lot. You’ll feel not good enough, like an imposter and sometimes you might even fantasise about a nice job on the tills in Sainsbury’s just to avoid the hassle, the hustle and get a nice steady wage. And then you’ll remember why you went self-employed in the first place. You love being your own boss and you’re probably by this stage, unemployable. You can’t imagine sitting in an office for 8 hours now, not even if it’s only for 3 days a week.
So how do you do it? How do you stay self employed when you’re going through a tough time, a slump or a dry period? That’s where having a community comes in. Apart from a morbid fear of being made to answer an actual telephone, the only reason I’ve managed to stay in business for 7 years is the support I’ve had.
Here are ten ways joining a Mastermind can help you survive and thrive as a business owner;
1. Connection and understanding
Have you ever tried to talk to your non self employed friends or partner who has a job about your business problems? They don’t get it. They don’t understand the pressure. That’s fine and completely understandable. But having someone who does get it is game changing. Whenever I’ve tried to talk to my husband about a sticky issue I’m dealing with with a client his advice is the worst. It’s well intentioned but useless. When I go to my community to ask for their thoughts, what I get is feedback and suggestions based on how they’ve handled a similar/ same situation.
Running a business is uniquely challenging, and challenging in ways that you don’t really understand until you’re knee deep in them. You don’t want to hear from the spectators, the people sitting comfortably in the stands. You need to hear from the people on the pitch, the people playing the game with you.
2. Learning and being challenged
Every mistake I’ve ever made in my business was my fault and every success was because of something I learned from someone else. Being part of a community means having access to other peoples experience, their wisdom, their mistakes and their successes. What skills do you need to make your business a success? What gaps are there in your knowledge? What do you most need? Ask yourself those questions because the answers will tell you what type of business community you need to be part of it. When I lacked strategy and direction I joined a business strategy mastermind. When I needed to learn specific marketing skills I joined a marketing collective and when I needed spiritual and emotional connection and sisterhood I joined a women’s self development group.
I make sure I’m in groups where I’m being challenged and supported whilst being able to challenge and support others. You don’t want to be in an echo chamber, you’ll never grow if you do that but you do need to make sure you share the same values/ethos as the person running the group.
3. Accountability and motivation
In my Mastermind members have the opportunity to submit 500 words of content each week for review. Some of them like getting the feedback, suggestions and the fact their writing is improving week on week -others just like having a deadline so they actually get the writing done. We meet once a week on a Thursday morning and we share what’s gone well and anything we need help with. Showing up and speaking out what you’re committed to in front of a group of your peers can be the difference between doing it and not doing it.
I’m not their Mum or their teacher but I do hold a space so they can say out loud “this is what I want and this is how I plan on getting it” and then I ask “did you do what you said you were going to do and if not, why not?” not to make anyone feel bad but because doing everything on your own is a slog.
I never thought I was disciplined or motivated enough to be a business owner. Turns out I just needed to find the right work, the right people and the right support.
4. Having a safe space
I don’t want to keep banging on about how hard running a business is but…..over half of businesses don’t make it to five years, and less than a third make it to ten – people don’t talk about this enough. And if you spend too much time scrolling social media (like I do) it’s easy to think everyone else has got their shit together and they’re all making £10K a month when the statistics say different.
Psychological safety is a rarity in a world with so much conflict and struggle. Having a community where people feel safe to show up as themselves and as they are exactly at that moment is one of the things I’m most proud of. My clients don’t need to pretend everything is okay, they can ask for help. No one is judging them. They can celebrate hitting a million in sales (that’s happened) without anyone saying “oh it’s alright for her” because my tribe are invested in seeing each other succeed AND pulling each other out of holes. In the online business world I know that spaces like the one I’ve created are rare and valuable.
5. Collaboration and networking
At the moment I’ve got four experts in my Mastermind who all support people with food and nutrition. They aren’t competing with each other. They know they aren’t taking business away from each other. What I have seen them do is collaborate and support each other. One has successfully cracked the corporate market and shared with another one how she did it. One of my coach clients talked another through his proposal writing process. She won a corporate gig because of this help.
They ask each other questions, they share their knowledge and experience and they even hire each other. I personally hate formal networking but when you’re in a community where you feel safe, accepted and supported- networking and collaboration naturally happens.
6. Inspiration and ideas
This is the internet definition of a Mastermind
“A mastermind group is a peer-to-peer mentoring group where individuals with shared goals or interests come together regularly to support, encourage, and learn from each other. Members share their knowledge, experiences, and resources to help each other overcome challenges and achieve their goals. Essentially, it’s a collective brain trust where members mutually support each other’s growth and success.
I don’t have all the answers. I’m not a guru. I’m not a source of infinite wisdom. But a collective of people who come together to combine their experience, ideas and skills – now that’s a powerful business asset. My members share their ideas and thoughts generously and it benefits everyone.
Don’t get me wrong, the group isn’t perfect. I’ve had people leave because it wasn’t for them or because they’ve felt triggered by someone else in the group – but careful and considered adherence to my own values and boundaries means it’s a safe space where collaboration and sharing are encouraged.
When you’re considering joining a group or programme it’s worth asking the person leading it what their values and ethos are just to make sure you’re aligned.
7. Sharing best practice
I’ll be the first one to admit that my tech skills are limited at best. I don’t know how everything works. And when someone asks a question that I don’t know the answer to I will always throw it out to the group because the chances are someone else does know. My members joined to get support with their marketing, their messaging and their visibility but what they get is so much more. When you join a community you’re not just getting the leader, you’re getting the collective wisdom of the group too.
8. Role modelling
When I started my business I saw one particular business owner promoting themselves on LinkedIn. They were outspoken, unapologetic and successful. After years of being told I was too much of this and not enough of that I was desperate to do my business as myself. To accept who I was and to only work with people who took me for me. Watching this business owner promote themselves and succeed showed me that I could do it too. That I didn’t have to choose between being myself and being successful. That’s the power of role modelling. They say you can’t be what you can’t see but someones gotta go first, why not you?
It’s a two way street, you can be inspired by others but you can also be the one doing the inspiring . Other people are watching you too, don’t forget that.
What I also love about role modelling is that it gives us permission to fail. I love sharing what hasn’t worked for me with my group because it shows that failure isn’t fatal and helps them avoid making the same mistakes.
9. Emotional support
There’s a psychological and emotional cost to doing business. I remember the first time someone told me I was too expensive. The first time someone demanded their money back. The first time someone wanted to leave my membership. Each time was like a punch in the guts. I questioned myself. I doubted myself. I had major wobbles. There have been times when I was worried I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills and times when I couldn’t pay my bills. I am part of and have created spaces where I and my clients can be vulnerable. They can share what’s happening for them and how it’s making them feel. It’s not a pity party, it’s a “this is hard and here’s how I’m feeling about it” It takes courage to share and it takes huge amounts of courage to keep going when you have no guarantees of success.
Being part of a community where people know you and know your business can keep you going on the toughest days and when you win, those people are the ones who saw how hard you worked for it.
10. Being the 1%
When things get hard most people give up. The tiny percentage of people who have successful and sustainable businesses aren’t super talented, they aren’t special or gifted – they’re just the ones who didn’t give up. And not giving up is hard. But if you have people around who who can see in you what you can’t – that’s a game changer.
One of my biggest strengths is my ability to cheerlead others. My gift for seeing my clients skills, talents and strengths at times when they can’t. Imagine having a whole group of people cheering you on, willing you to win, pushing you to succeed. Imagine being part of the 1% of people who didn’t give up.
Being seen, heard and supported – it doesn’t solve all your problems but it means you’re not facing them alone.
Many of my clients have gotten their businesses through Covid, Brexit, a recession and two major global conflicts. They don’t want lavish lifestyles, they want financial security. I love seeing women make lots of money but I’m more impressed by the ones who refuse to quit and manage to keep going when literally everything is stacked against them. And I know that being part of a community is part of the reason they are able to do it. It’s certainly why I’m still going.
Convinced yet?
If you are looking to be part of something, to be supported and get connection lete me tell you about the group I run, a content marketing mastermind. It’s for coaches, consultants and freelancers who are writing their own marketing content. My clients want to be clear and confident about their messaging online and they want to be braver and more consistent in their visibility. It’s not a big community, but it’s a special one and that’s why we don’t have hundreds of people in it. It’s tight but not cliquey. It’s supportive but not woolly. I’m here to help you show up and not hide. I’m here to challenge, not coddle. But the goals and priorities are yours to dictate, not mine.
If you think it might be a good fit for you, book a call and you can ask me all about it. Book a call with Clair