There’s an old saying I picked up early on in my recruiting career: “Don’t spill your candy in the lobby.”
It means don’t go blabbing your mouth about your business because you never know who might be listening, lying in wait to steal your candidates, clients, ideas, etc.
My recruiting manager told me that. He was very successful, and he moved mountains to help me in my career, so I followed him every word. By the time I starting running my second recruiting agency, he had retired. There I was with my mentor gone, running a team and no one to bounce ideas off. I read a personal development book once, and the author said something to the effect that leadership equals loneliness. Wow! That resonated with me. Initially, I felt that the mentality of keeping secrets and being a lone wolf made me and my job exciting like I was James Bond or something.
But after a while, I realized that this mentality which I call the law of scarcity mentality isolated me, stunted my growth and shut out my voice. Inside I wasn’t enjoying myself. Anybody who knows me would say that more than anything I make my voice heard. I was not myself. After coming to my senses, I decided to go back to being who I am and live the law of abundance.
The law of abundance is a mentality that there is more than enough for everybody. You can get yours; you can share it with others and then you can still get yours again. The law of abundance creates synergy; it creates excitement. It creates energy that permeates into your team, into entire companies and can even reach out to clients and candidates both current and potential. That’s why people like my friend Sandhya from Toastmasters wants to join Google. She had a dream as a little girl that she is supposed to work at Google, so she moved to America to do it. It’s Google’s law of abundance vibe that stirred that inside of her. You’ve heard that before, right? It’s been trending in the sourcing community; your vibe attracts your tribe.
With this law of abundance vibe in mind, let me share a powerful tool to help you in your sourcing. This is a tool that will increase your production. I have invested hours and thousands of dollars in discovering the tool I’m about to share with you. All my mentors use it. Top networking groups design events around it. It guides the most successful corporations in the world.
The largest companies in the world call it the company board or council. Networking groups call it a roundtable, one of the mentors along with many others call it a Mastermind.
A Mastermind is a group designed to engage in each other’s most significant challenges and goals to help achieve them. A Mastermind is a tool that can take you wherever you are to the next level.
Now let me tell you how to design a Mastermind.
First, you need to decide the purpose of your Mastermind. In this case, it might be to increase your income and your production as a sourcer. It might be to expand your business or build out your team. No matter the purpose define it.
Second, select your mastermind group. One of my mastermind groups only allows executives from companies that have over x number of employees and y in revenue. Another mastermind only allows recruiting/sourcing professionals who make over a certain income level and recruit in different industries. Along with these qualifications, most of my masterminds require a high level of trust and likeability. How you select the members of your mastermind will determine largely what you get out of it.
Third, organize your mastermind. Some of my masterminds meet in person. Some are over the phone. Others are via social media. Once you’ve established how to meet, you can decide the frequency of your meetings. I have masterminds that communicate every day and others that meet once a month. Figure out what makes sense for what you’re trying to accomplish.
Fourth, decide on a format for your meetings. The most successful masterminds work on solving problems or reaching goals.
This is so powerful! Imagine the vibe you give off creating a Mastermind? Think of the law of abundance at play here.
Now you could just go back to doing it alone. But do you think those that you look up to did it that way? No. The only way to increase beyond your capabilities is to collaborate with others. Think of the problems you will solve and the goals you will achieve. See yourself working together with a group of trusted sourcers creating new ways to source, new ways to engage, new ways to produce. You grow. You develop. You increase your production. You become a leader.
If you feel isolated, if you feel like you are not growing, if you feel like you don’t have a voice, you need to change your vibe and create a Mastermind. It will make all the difference.