The Wise Women’s Council is a gathering space for driven, ambitious women carving out a new world of work, leadership, and parenting. Applications are now open for our 2021 leadership program. Apply to join us—the program starts in March.
A few weeks ago, Tara McMullin invited me onto her podcast to talk at length about mastermind programs—how we run them, what we charge, how they’re organized, how many people are in them, and more. I asked her if I could share the episode with all of you, too, so I’m airing this conversation again on the Startup Pregnant podcast. This episode is a very detailed, behind-the-scenes look at both of our online programs and how we’ve designed our mastermind communities.
What does it take to build, run, and facilitate a group program? In this episode, I dig into how the Wise Women’s Council is put together and my personal experiences in designing and facilitating groups, masterminds, and communities. The Wise Women’s Council is my sixth run at a mastermind. In this AMA episode, I answer how I planned out the group’s structure, created goals, figured out what works for me (and what I hope works for you) and how we can get better at creating other mastermind groups over time.
Here’s the biggest thing people misunderstand about growing a network and meeting people in business. Rather than trying to be transactional about it, use this strategy that I’ve used throughout my career to form genuine connections, to nurture your tribe and your friendships, and to build your network (long before you need it).
Today, I’m walking you through what it takes to put together a mastermind and explaining why I chose to do it now—in the middle of my second pregnancy.
It’s fun to brainstorm, to be clever, to solve things. There’s a smattering of satisfaction associated with this—at least for me—because it feels good to solve things. It feels so good, in fact, that I notice sometimes I interrupt, break in, or try to solve something before we’ve even gotten to the root of the question. In our lives, it’s easy to jump right in and propose solutions before we even understand the scope of what’s happening. The trouble is, how do we know that our advice is what really needs to be said? Here’s how and why to listen, instead.