When we decide to generate the Mastermind coaching groups, there were two major exclusive benefits we wanted to add. These are webinars and peer coaching. Both options look very trivial in the first glance, yet they are very complex to hack for your maximal benefit.
The basic need any of our students experiences during his training is the need for feedback. While we have a big ecosystem of helpful resources, there is no recipe that works for everyone. Being a person rather than average statistics, it is easy to miss the exact guidelines that fit our situation, make mistakes, get confused and even develop harmful habits. Moreover, we all experience occasional lapses of motivation. We all ask ourselves whether or not the particular decisions we take will be successful.
Coaching is the best answer we have for these needs. Since we have many tens of thousands of students, the coaching we need to offer must be cheap and reliable. So far we came up with three options:
- Premium no-bullshit facebook group, dedicated to the learning methodology and coaching.
- Peer coaching where the students provide 1:1 coaching to each other.
- Video webinars where students can ask us questions and get demonstrations of specific techniques.
While using a facebook group is pretty much straightforward, webinars and peer coaching are more complex to use.
Tips for using the webinars:
- Webinars are different. A webinar by Jonathan is very different from a webinar by Lev or a webinar by Anna and Lev. A webinar with a demonstration is very different from a webinar with discussion. You might think “if I saw one, I saw all of them”, but this is very far from the truth.
- There is nothing quite like the live event. The energy is very similar to sports. You can have actual conversations with us and with other students and get tons of useful information. This is well worth the effort. It is much better to participate in a part of a webinar than not to participate at all.
- It is good to discuss webinars afterwards in the Facebook group, share thoughts etc. We also try to make polls and discussions before the webinar. Webinars are more about the energy of open discussion, then they are about getting accurate answers for accurate questions.
- It is OK to miss a specific webinar. If you watch a replay within a day, you will still be able to participate in the discussion. If you are asking questions for the webinar, we will probably integrate these questions in the webinar itself.
- There are many recorded webinars. Watching them is not like being present in a live event, yet you can see many exclusive explanations and demonstrations. We do not like to repeat ourselves, we do like to clarify issues that were unclear in previous webinars. Recommended to watch at high speed and slow down on important explanations…
Looking a peer is very much like dating. We can provide you with a peer that may be OK for you, but it is your job to generate meaningful relationship. The experience itself is not very positive and seldom goes beyond the second date, if you do manage to generate meaningful peer coaching relationships, it will be very worthwhile. We know that you do not have two years to find a good peer, so we encourage you to try multiple peers.
Once you find the peer, you can do the following communication:
- Skype talk to boost motivation and to know each other. This is basically the first date and relationship maintenance procedure, like going to a restaurant with a spouse. Fun, occasionally necessary, and very expensive in time. If someone makes the effort to Skype with you, this means some level of commitment.
- Personal Whatsapp of Facebook Messanger communication. Each time you see something that you want to share or that is bothering you, tell it to your peer. Brainstorm together on how to practice more effectively. Discuss reading issues and computer training, daily schedule and motivation issues. This is the most important communication and it requires very little effort.
- Email communication (with optional CC to [email protected]). Be accountable. Send your partner the diary record of your training and your reading. Share your mindmaps. Get an honest feedback on your progress…
Here are some cool things you can do only with a peer:
- Read an article together and recite the article from your memory to your peer. The peer will check your level of understanding and tell you where you make mistakes. If there is a trend. contact us [email protected] for further guidance. Switch roles occasionally.
- Compete on a reading assignment to generate motivation. Who read faster? Who remembered more? Who still remembered after a week?
- Research a subject together and then discuss it. It is OK to disagree and to argue. Try to argue with authors and authority.
- Try to see some subject together from as many perspectives as you can. Brainstorm together. Learn from each other.
- Explain your peer some complex subject you remember. Try to think together what makes you remember it and how you organized information in your head to remember better.
The mastermind group is not a quick fix, but a long-term investment. The more you stay with it, learn how to use the tools it provides and contribute to making it better, the better learning experience you will generate.
