This weekend my wife and I saw the movie “Thank You For Smoking,” a hilarious film about a tobacco lobbyist and his brilliance at pushing tobacco.
What does this movie have to do with web designers?
Well, Nick Naylor, the main character, gets support from a Mastermind Group, which is a strategy I’ve encouraged everyone on Sitepoint to use. A Mastermind Group is a group of 3-6 complementary professionals who meet regularly to discuss business issues, exchange ideas, and get support.
In Nick’s case, his Mastermind Group is made up of lobbyists for alcohol and guns. They call themselves the MOD Squad, or Merchants of Death. It doesn’t sound funny here, but it is funny in the film. Don’t post criticisms of this example until you see the movie, okay?
Anyway, if you want to see a visual example of how a Mastermind Group can work and support what you do, see this movie. Even if the characters are fictional and meant to be parodies, the example is a good one.
So pick a few complementary professionals (graphic designers, IT support, marketing consultants, small business attorneys, bankers, etc) and meet to help each other out and get support.
Related posts:
- UK MoD “How to Stop Leaks” Document is Leaked! The UK Government and the Ministry of Defence faces further...
- Is Coworking Right for You? Coworking is a growing global trend that gives professionals who...
I saw the trailer for this movie and it looks great :) What’s your rating out of 10 Andrew?
May 8th, 2006 at 12:27 am
What an awesome movie; I’d probably give it 9/10. I’ve always supported (and at times tried to implement) a “meeting of the minds” thing like you’re describing. It can certainly be helpful, so long as all parties are dedicated to it.
May 8th, 2006 at 12:40 am
Dean C,
Well, movie reviews are not my thing. Anytime I can get out of the house with the wife and without the kids, see a movie, and have a nice dinner I give it a 10. Gigli would have gotten a 10 from me, we get out so rarely.
But I’d give it a 7.5-8. The book is very good, too!
May 8th, 2006 at 5:24 am
I saw that movie and thought it was hilarious. The only problem with forming your own “mod squad” is finding complimentary skills not just in the areas you work with but the technologies as well.
If you’re not php/mysql you’re pretty much alone.
May 9th, 2006 at 4:52 am
I don’t think the technology matters at all when you’re looking at learning about customers.
May 9th, 2006 at 3:42 pm
I meet with a group a couple times a month. We usually just hang our at Barnes and Nobles and talk, but it’s been good. You get a chance to learn about a lot of things that people are doing and it’s a great way to see what’s working for people and what’s not.
It’s also nice to be in a group where I can make a joke about CSS and people actually get it.
May 10th, 2006 at 12:59 am
The “Mastermind Group” is more commonly know as a “Think Tank”.
May 10th, 2006 at 8:14 am
I have become close friends with a local restaurant owner, and together with him, a friend of his (an artist who owns a gallery) and two other mutual friends (who own a grocery store), the five of us try to get together weekly for Sunday dinner at the restaurant. We’ve all closed our businesses and it is nice to unwind in friendly, intelligent, unjudgmental company where we can just be ourselves.
We have nailed down more tourism- and marketing-related issues than I could begin to recount. I have learned volumes from these folks and we have all agreed privately that these Sunday dinners are helpful for each us emotionally too. It’s a relief to have a release where we can be brutally honest and challenge the status quo on thinking, without having to worry about making enemies or having it held against us at some point down the road. For a group of friends we certainly have a very diverse bunch of ideas, but we are very lucky that nobody in the group is a score-keeper. We walk in determined to learn from each other — even if it is just learning to look outside our own box and understand somebody else’s reasoning. :)
“Mastermind Group” – “Think Tank” – whatever…. there’s nothin’ like it. :)
May 10th, 2006 at 9:41 pm
We’ve all closed our businesses FOR THE DAY, and it is nice to unwind in friendly, intelligent, unjudgmental company where we can just be ourselves.
…sorry, didn’t mean to make it sound like we’d closed for good. :) LOL
May 10th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
Actually, MOD is real thing. There’s investment fund that is specialised in investment in tobbaco, alcohol, guns, pot and all other kinds of sin industry… But legal kind.
And they make BIG money…
I still didn’t watch the movie
May 11th, 2006 at 2:14 am
Well now, this feels a lot like a mastermind group to me!
Seriously,, I meet every month or 2 with an HR consultant, bookkeeper, marketing guru and whoever else that wants to join us, and I always walk away with good advice, leads, and maybe just a bit more sane becuase I had some other small biz owners to chat with. I highly recommend a mastermind group.
May 12th, 2006 at 11:36 pm
The ‘mastermind group’ was first thought up by a young (21yo) Benjamin Franklin. He called his group of young businessmen the Junto (sometimes referred to as the Junta, from a pre-existing word meaning “a body of persons acting towards a common aim” -OED), and from their meetings sprung the first lending library and volunteer fire department in the U.S., as well as the academy that would one day become the University of Pennsylvania. The Junto would itself evolve into the American Philosophical Society, and the concept was adopted by Napoleon Hill and renamed the ‘Mastermind Group.’ Yet another legacy from one of the most brilliant and influential people in history.
June 13th, 2006 at 12:13 pm