Joining a Mastermind Group isn’t just about success and achieving your goals, but a balance of improving your business while helping others improve theirs.  The basic and common theme of a Mastermind Group is to help one another succeed.

Often times people get confused about Mastermind Groups.  They think is a small niche or networking club. It’s neither. A Mastermind Group is for individuals who are dead serious about growing their business and have the necessary discipline to follow through.

Personally, I’m a huge fan of Mastermind Groups.  I strongly suggest you find one or create your own. Find likeminded individuals who want to succeed as badly as you do.  Seek out others who embody personal traits that you deem valuable and inspirational.  Select members based upon drive, ambition and courage.  Join or assemble a Mastermind Group that is filled with diverse industries and members who desire to grow their business.

What Mastermind Groups bring to the table:

Accountability

When you effectively work within a Mastermind Group, sounding your goals and tasks with others holds you accountable.  Your group will diligently check in on you and see the progress you have made in achieving your stated goals.  This type of accountability keeps you sharp and dedicated to the big picture ahead.  In my first Mastermind Group we set weekly intentions at the end of our meetings, where we had an opportunity to let the group know what we planned on accomplishing throughout the week.  To follow up, we started the next meeting by discussing our previous week’s intentions and what we accomplished.

Resources

Depending on how you assembled your Mastermind Group, you mostly like have filled your group with same or similar people who are serious about growing their business.  The people in this group can provide resources and introductions that can help you get to your next level in your business.

Novel Ideas and Perspectives

Perhaps your Mastermind Group is filled with a few individuals who are in similar industries as yourself.  Maybe there are a few individuals that are in a completely unrelated fields than yours.  Having someone outside of your industry can provide a new point of view when you’re faced with obstacles. Better yet, the collaborative efforts of the group can help you overcome any sort of adversity faced.  The group can also provide significant “brain dump” sessions that can lead to fresh  and innovative perspectives.

Support and Encouragement

A Mastermind Group affords individual members with unruly support.  When faced with an obstacle or in the need of advice, you can count on your Mastermind Group to provide the support you need.  You will never be short of alternative solutions on how to overcome a difficult situation.  Besides working together to grow your businesses, you actually gain some wonderful and intuitive friendships along the way.

Growth

Being part of a Mastermind Group allows for business and personal growth.  When you enlist the support from other like minded individuals who want you to succeed, you inevitably grow and expand your wings.

Energy

Mastermind Groups provide external momentum to help you get to where you want to be.  Your group understands your objectives and helps you celebrate along the way.

These Mastermind benefits are just a few of many. Every group has a unique and different flow to it.  Some groups may specifically focus on growth and creation, while other groups will work on refining their businesses and networking.  In the end a Mastermind Group is a fantastic way to tap into your own unique brilliance and better serve your business while being of service to others.

Like Zig Ziglar said: “You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help enough people get what they want.”

The post The Power Of A Mastermind Group appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

It doesn’t matter what your occupation is, whether you’re a stay at home mom, civil engineer, media guru, or a fierce female building their empire.  Having girlfriends in your life is a necessary thing.

Yes, I’ll admit it – this tomboy primarily had male friends in my twenties.  At the time, it worked for me.  But as I’ve settled into my thirties, my male counterparts have slowly disappeared to be replaced with female additions to my life.  Why?

Female relationships provide a unique support system.  The inimitability of a female relationship allows for the freedom of expression, almost all of the time.

But let’s digress a bit further into the business aspect of the importance of female relationships.  According to a study on Business News Daily, women are generating approximately $1.3 trillion in revenue and employing almost 7.7 million people in the United States. How are women doing this?

According to the study, the success of female run businesses are largely due to the ability to form and maintain meaningful relationships.

I’m not suggesting that female relationships are the only relationships you should seek out, but if you pair up with another female business owner, they too will understand your maternal approach in building and maintaining relationships.

The Spirit of Female Entrepreneurship

Turns out women are actually pretty good at asking for help as our approach may be a different when compared to our male counterparts.  Let me explain, when men meet one another at a business networking event they immediately kick things off with a handshake followed up with their title, what they do and a business card.  Women on the hand will greet each other with compliments and acts of that will intentionally build relationships.

Personal Connection

By starting off the bat with a personal connection, either by complimenting the other person in some shape or fashion or getting to know them as a woman (i.e. “Are you married? I hear you have children…”) is what will lay the foundation of a friendship and further collaboration.

Societal Standards for Business Owners

Let’s face it, we still live in a male-dominated society.  I don’t like it and I’m sure you don’t either.  Maybe you can recall a time at a business meeting or networking event when you noticed how many males there were in the room versus females.  It can be nerve-wracking.  I often witness females falling victim to the need to assume male-like attitudes, meaning, adopting an attitude of aggressiveness, harshness, and being overly competitive.

It’s hard enough being a female entrepreneur when the space is dominated by males, but adopting their attitudes and demeanor at networking events does not serve the female community well.  Turns out female entrepreneurs that remained true to themselves while exemplifying confidence tend to be more successful in their business.  So while we women continue to fill up the rooms at networking events and business gatherings, let’s be sure to be of service to one another and be our genuine feminine-selves.

Opportunity Driven

Here’s the big one for me, when I am faced with a dilemma, do you know who I call?  A female.  Why?  Well for starters, we support one another and provide a moment of blowing off some steam with no judgement made, but we’re really good at finding the opportunities that lie buried deep within the dilemma.  We’re opportunists.  We look for opportunities for growth when faced with adversity.  It doesn’t matter what your current career is, a female relationship is a mutually beneficial relationship as we are continuously seeking opportunities that lie buried in situations.  So when in need, pick up that phone and call your girlfriends.

Passion

Maybe this is from our maternal instincts we all have buried inside of us; maybe it’s a strong facet to our character.  Being passionate is often referenced as being emotional when you’re a woman. I see passion and emotion completely separate.  Passion affords anyone the opportunity to explore their own pursuits of excellence, regardless of gender.  Whether it be entrepreneurial or at home, passion allows for the person to make room for improving the current situation.  When you blend two or more passionate driven females on a mission, they’re unstoppable.

Female relationships are vital to your success, not just as an entrepreneur, but in your personal life as well.  Our dynamic and complex components to our personality are what make us feminine.  The complexities can be frowned upon or can be celebrated.  I suggest we celebrate and that we celebrate with other females!  When you pair up a few females who are extremely driven, supportive and resourceful, the world can’t stop them.  Embrace your female relationships and let them carry you through to your next success.

The post Why Female Relationships Are Vital For Your Success appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

When you’re self-employed you get paid for what you do, or what other people think your work is worth.  Self-employment means if you don’t do the work, you don’t get paid.

Often, that is what deters people from leaving their corporate careers.  A steady paycheck, a retirement package and health benefits sound like a cushy pillow to lay your head on when you may need it.  However, there are some people out there, myself included, who can’t imagine going back to the corporate world.  

Why?  Working my tail off for someone else’s dream does not jive with me.  I know I have a vision worth chasing after and if need be, I can always course correct along my self-employment journey.  Although it’s been less than six months since leaving the corporate world, I have already learned some valuable lessons along the way.

Remaining confident and believing in yourself is non-negotiable.  But you also have to realize you’re going to face some successes and failures along the way.  Humility is what keeps you grounded and alert.  It allows you to push aside the voice of arrogance, keep your vision in check – gently reminding you why you left the comfortable confines of your corporate gig.  Remaining confident while pursuing your dreams and warding off arrogance is truly an artful balance.  I use humility to keep me grounded while I navigate the road ahead.

Lesson # 2:  Discomfort provides some valuable lessons

We have all heard the saying, “No pain, no gain.”  There’s some truth to it, actually a lot of truth.  A steady job gives us a sense of security, despite how hard or little you work.  You work hard, you get paid; you do the minimal things possible to secure your job, you still get paid.  The stress and hustle required to work for yourself accumulates over time.  It may have you questioning if you made the right decision.  Throughout the discomfort and uncertainty of being out on my own, the biggest lesson I have learned so far is to have a plan.  This thing called entrepreneurship not an overnight get rich quick scheme. I’m in it for a marathon and then some more. It won’t be easy, but so far, the rewards of being on my own far outweigh working for someone else.

Lesson # 3:  Passion is what keeps you going

How often do you hear of people dreading their Monday through Friday job and living life for the weekends?  Too often.  When you venture out on your own, passion is what keeps you going.  Passion is what gets you out of bed to conquer the day.  Passion is what keeps you hustling when your grand ideas aren’t going quite as planned.  Without discovering your purpose, you’ll be just as miserable working a 9 to 5.

Lesson # 4: Time

When I went out on my own, I realized how much time I had been sacrificing during my corporate career.  I was not only giving them hours, but years of my life.  When you start your own business the cash may not be flowing right away and clients may not be knocking on your door, but this is when the lesson of time hits home.  This is the most valuable resource we have regardless of our current occupation: time.  When you work for yourself, no one is going to hassle you to get your dreams off the ground and soaring into the sky – that’s on you babe.  Deadlines are real, when you set them for yourself.  Distractions are plenty – they’re everywhere.  Since time is our only commodity, I make it a point to write out a plan of attack before I go to bed.  The next day I try my hardest to stick to that plan, but sometimes it’s also nice to invest a moment or two in yourself. Seriously, stop and smell the roses.

Lesson # 5: Your Life. Your Rules.

There are no rules except the rules you give yourself.  Scary?  Liberating?  How about both.  At first, I found myself consuming books, studying the greats (I suggest you do the same), but then I realized while following someone else’s model is a fantastic approach to my business venture, I needed to play by my own rules to make this business authentically mine.   I’m always in search of the next lesson from great entrepreneurs, but at the same time I need to honor my own perspective and keep moving forward on my own journey.

Lesson # 6: You get a date with yourself every day

Trust me, you become your own best friend, confidant and worst enemy.  While pursuing a dream outside of the corporate world you really get to know yourself.  It can be great and scary at the same time.  Especially when you have heavily relied on Corporate America to tell you how to go about your day.  You know have the freedom to do as you please.  You will learn what routines will work for you to remain productive and “on-track” while pursuing your dreams or starting a business.  You will learn how to cope with self-doubt and overexcitement on a daily basis.  But most of all, you will learn nobody will hold your hand while you charge steadily toward your dreams.  It’s on you baby.  So I remind myself how far I’ve come in the last few months, never losing sight of that.  

The lessons from leaving the corporate world are lessons that will remain with me for the rest of my life no matter what path I choose to journey down.  Although it’s been less than 6 months, these last few months have been the most exhilarating, painstaking and hardest months of my life.  

The truth is, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I feel alive and I must say, it’s a wonderful thing to feel again.

The post What leaving the corporate world has taught me appeared first on HER Magazine ™.