Greg Vetter, a productivity consultant in Atlanta, whose client list includes Cocoa-Cola, recommends, “To learn ‘best practices’ fast without having to make a lot of frustrating mistakes along the way, start a ‘Mastermind Group.’” Greg has started a think tank of professionals who do work similar to him, some are even his competitors. “It’s smart to start a think tank,” says Greg, “to germinate new ideas, freshen up old ideas and to learn success secrets others have stumbled on the hard way.”
His group meets once a month for two hours and the members take turns as chairperson. Every meeting has a theme, an agenda and each person contributes at least one idea that they have personally found works or doesn’t work. The gatherings are up-beat, fast-paced and fluff is not tolerated. People are expected to bring handouts for each other if the topic is something visual, such as critiquing marketing materials or designing web pages. And every meeting includes 35 minutes of open forum for asking for solutions to challenges, such as how to find a great printer at a reasonable cost or draw more traffic to a web site.
And what about competitors working together? Greg says, “We may occasionally compete for an account but the bottom line is, the higher we raise the level of professionalism amongst ourselves, the better it is for all clients and us.”