Masterminds or My Existential Crisis

Masterminds are interesting. About a year ago I didn’t even know they existed. If someone had mentioned the word Mastermind I would have shrug my shoulders and asked them what it is.

Since spring of last year I’m part of not one, but two weekly Mastermind calls.

One of the calls is part of the private location-independent entrepreneurs club I am a member of since February of last year – The Dynamite Circle.

The other call is organised by Startup Sauce Academy, a paid-for Slack and Mastermind community by two consultants-turned-SaaS-experts.

Last year I replied on a Facebook post where a guy asked if anyone wanted to join his weekly accountability call. A few months earlier I read about the idea of accountability calls and thought I’ll give it a try. Little did I know that after I replied to that person, someone else, Ryan from Startup Sauce Academy, would write and invite me to his community. I joined and haven’t looked back since then.

I’ve got very little structure in my days since I never actually learnt how to create structure and organise my life. Thanks school!

Add to that little knowledge about how to structure days two kids, a wife, my attitude towards family (hint: family is the most important!) and my attitude towards freedom and flexibility (hint: hugely important!) and you’ve got a toxic cocktail of no calendar, no planning and regular burn outs as a result.

So actually having two regular calls every week in my calendar that are at fixed times and take one hour each was a game changer. Just the feeling of having to show up already changed a whole lot.

And when you show up you feel like you need to share something – good or bad doesn’t matter. The most important is that you are accountable and that you have to share with others. What you share is almost secondary at this point.

That helps to articulate ideas better, to re-think plans as you tell them to other entrepreneurs and to have an amazing sounding board of seasoned business man analysing your every thought.

Especially my past two weeks of Tuesday calls have been tough and eye-opening at the same time. The other guys on the call listened to my thoughts and gave me room to express my emotions about my private as well as business life.

But they didn’t just stay silent.

They called me out on my BS when it was necessary and they were supportive where they felt I needed it. They shared their experiences and asked thought-provoking questions.

They asked exactly the questions I needed to think about at that moment and both times I ended the calls with more questions than answers. But that’s actually good, because it meant I made progress. My questions became clearer and more precise rather than open-ended and wide.

It’s too early to say, but they might have even saved me from my existential crisis.