By Andreas Pettersson, Founder, Leaders ADAPT
What is a mastermind group for? Start with my 47.
I said yes to 47 initiatives at Arcules in one year. A board director sat across from me and said I had built an efficient company that was solving the wrong problems. He was right.
It cost more than a million dollars in lost revenue and put us 14 months behind the market. We were perfect at everything that did not matter.
Nobody on my team told me. They could not. I was the one signing off on all 47. It took someone outside the company, with nothing to lose by saying it, to see what I could not.
That is what a mastermind group is for. I run one now at Leaders ADAPT, a virtual CEO mastermind of at most 14 members with no revenue gate, and this page is the plain definition, the history in one line, how a session actually runs, what the market charges, and a checklist for picking one that will tell you about your 47.
Quick answer: A mastermind group is a small circle of people, typically 6 to 14, who meet on a fixed schedule and use a structured format to work on each other's decisions. The term comes from Napoleon Hill's 1937 book Think and Grow Rich. In business today it usually means a monthly peer group with a hot seat, structured feedback and a commitment from every member at the close.
What is a mastermind group? The definition
A mastermind group is a small, closed circle of peers that meets on a fixed schedule and uses a set format to help each member make better decisions than they would make alone. Three parts of that sentence do the work. Small, so nobody hides. Closed, so trust can build. A set format, so it does not drift into lunch.
The term is older than the business use. Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, published in 1937, lists the Power of the Master Mind, the master mind principle, as the ninth of thirteen steps and describes it as surrounding yourself with like minded people who support and encourage you.
That is the origin, and it is also the trap. Support and encouragement are what a bad mastermind delivers. A good one delivers the thing you did not want to hear.
The one thing people get wrong about the word is that it describes a vibe. It does not. It describes a mechanism, and if the mechanism is missing, the word is doing no work.
How does a mastermind work in practice?
The modern CEO version runs on a monthly rhythm and a fixed agenda. Here is the shape most serious groups share, and the version I run.
| Segment | What happens | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|
| Ground rules | Confidentiality restated, recording bots off, the directness expected | Trust is re-earned every session |
| Check ins | Each member gives a score from 1 to 10, one win, one blocker | Scores tracked over months show who is drifting before they say so |
| Teaching | A short segment from the leader on one tool or pattern | Shared vocabulary, kept short on purpose |
| Hot seat | One member presents a live decision against a fixed template | The template forces real numbers onto the screen |
| Structured feedback | The group answers fixed prompts in a fixed order | Stops the loudest voice from setting the agenda |
| Hot topics | Open questions from the floor, time boxed | Catches what the hot seat missed |
| Commitments | Every member names one action, an owner and a date | A session without a commitment was a conversation |
The hot seat is the engine. In my group the host presents ten slides: goals, snapshot, unit economics, ideal customer, competition, roadmap, leadership, and a final slide of decisions and asks.
Then the room answers five prompts in order: questions, opportunities, what is unclear, what the host is not seeing, and kudos. The fourth prompt is where the 47 initiatives get found.
What makes a mastermind different from coaching, a forum or a network?
The words get used interchangeably, and they should not be. Here is the plain difference, with the organizations that use each term.
Coaching is one expert and you. Masterminds are many peers and you, and the leader may or may not be an expert. The comparison between those two, and when a CEO buys each, is on executive coaching vs mastermind vs peer group.
A forum, the word Entrepreneurs' Organization and YPO use, is a mastermind with a specific protocol. EO's Forum page describes 6 to 10 members, a trained peer moderator, monthly meetings, and a rule of sharing experience rather than advice. How that runs is on the forum group page.
A peer advisory group, the term Vistage uses, is a mastermind of 12 to 16 led by a paid Chair who also coaches each member one to one.
A network is none of these. It is a room with no format, and it is where the word mastermind goes to die when a group stops doing the hard part.
What does a mastermind group cost?
Published figures, where they exist. Vistage's CEO program runs a $2,500 initiation fee plus $1,380 a month, about $19,060 in year one, per Long Angle. Hampton runs $15,000 a year plus a $2,500 initiation fee, per Long Angle's Hampton review. EO and YPO set dues by chapter and publish nothing central.
Independent masterminds, mine included, usually share the price on a fit call rather than on a page. Treat that as a signal to ask one question early: what does the fee buy per month in hours, and who are the hours with?
Price tracks the gate more than the format. The groups that charge the most also require the most revenue to join. The full gate map is on ceo peer group requirements.
The checklist for picking a mastermind group
Run any group, whatever it calls itself, through these eight. A trial session answers most of them in an afternoon.
- How many people are in the circle? Six to fourteen. More is an audience.
- Who leads it, and how are they paid? A member moderator has no stake. A facilitator paid per member has one. An operator who ran a company has experience to put on the table. Each is a different product.
- Does the hot seat have a template? If the host can tell a story instead of showing numbers, the group will hear stories.
- Is the feedback structured? Fixed prompts in a fixed order beat an open floor every time.
- Does anyone in the room have your next problem in their past? Peers at the same stage share sympathy. Peers one stage ahead share experience.
- Does the session end in a written commitment with a date?
- Is confidentiality enforced or assumed? Ask what happened the last time it was broken.
- Will the room say the thing? Sit in once and count how many minutes pass before somebody disagrees with the host.
Number eight is the one I weight most. I have belonged to masterminds that stayed too pleasant to be useful, and I built mine to run hot on purpose, so that members confront each other directly instead of defaulting to polite.
A group that passes seven of these and fails the eighth is a very expensive lunch.
The mastermind built to find your 47
The Leaders ADAPT CEO Mastermind is a virtual circle of at most 14 founders and CEOs, no revenue gate, run by me. I grew a company to more than 150 people, including the year of the 47, and exited it to Canon, where I ran it as one of their youngest CEOs. I sit in the room as the operator who made the mistakes, not as a facilitator reading from a binder.
Every month one member takes the hot seat against the ten slide template and the group works the decision through the five prompts, including the one that finds what you are not seeing.
Everyone leaves with one action and a date. Weekly office hours and a Slack recap carry it between sessions.
It is not for someone who wants encouragement. It is for someone who wants their 47 found before it costs a year.
What is a mastermind group FAQ
What is a mastermind group?
A mastermind group is a small circle of people who meet on a fixed schedule to work on each other's goals and decisions, using a structured format rather than open conversation. The term comes from Napoleon Hill, whose 1937 book Think and Grow Rich listed the Master Mind as one of thirteen steps, described as surrounding yourself with like minded people who support you.
What is the meaning of mastermind in business?
In business, a mastermind means a peer group of owners or executives, typically 6 to 14 people, that meets monthly or more often, puts one member in a hot seat to present a live decision, and holds every member to a commitment at the end. It differs from coaching in that the value comes from peers, not from one expert.
How does a mastermind group work?
A typical session opens with short check ins from each member, moves to a hot seat where one member presents a decision in a fixed format, takes structured feedback from the group, and closes with each member naming one action and a date. A leader or moderator keeps the format and the time. Sessions repeat monthly.
What is the difference between a mastermind and a peer group?
The words overlap. A peer advisory group, as Vistage uses the term, is led by a paid Chair and includes one to one coaching. A forum, as EO and YPO use it, is moderated by a member and bans advice. A mastermind is the broad term for any structured peer circle, and the leader may be a member, a facilitator or an operator.
How much does a mastermind group cost?
Published prices range widely. Vistage charges a $2,500 initiation fee plus $1,380 a month for its CEO program, about $19,060 in year one, per Long Angle. Hampton charges $15,000 a year plus a $2,500 initiation fee. EO and YPO set dues by chapter. Many independent masterminds share their price only after a fit call.
How do you choose a mastermind group?
Check six things: the size of the circle, who leads it and how they are paid, whether the hot seat has a fixed structure, whether members are at a stage you can learn from, whether the meeting ends in a written commitment, and whether confidentiality is an enforced rule. A trial session answers most of them faster than a sales call.
Pick the mechanism, not the word
What is a mastermind group? A small closed circle with a format that makes people say the true thing. If the format is there, the name on the door does not matter. If it is not, no name will save it.
Take the checklist to one trial session this quarter and count the minutes until the first honest disagreement.
What are you saying yes to right now that nobody in your company can tell you is wrong?
