14 - Michael Gallagher & David Campbell - Four Reasons a Mastermind Might Work for You - #RTA

Welcome back Uncommon Leader nation. I'm putting these podcasts together for you, the uncommon leader, so that you can use this to equip you and go and grow more uncommon leaders. In essence champions who grow champions. We need a nation of uncommon leaders and you made to fill that need.

I appreciate that each episode I interview successful leaders that have a great story to tell.

In this specific episode, I changed things up just a little bit and chat with a couple of leaders. I chat with Dave Campbell, who I also interviewed in episode eight and also a new guest, my little younger, much better looking brother, Michael Gallagher. Michael the owner of GThree NC  printing company in Charlotte, North Carolina.  The three of us recently started a mastermind or accountability group. In John Lee Dumas' book,The Common Path to Uncommon Success, one of his suggestions chapter six was to start a mastermind, which he defines as  three to four people meeting on a regular basis to work on your big idea with those people who inspire you and motivate you. Dave and Michael do that for me and I hope I do the same for them.

In this episode, we talk about how to run a mastermind, the frequency, the structure, the benefits and challenges. Maybe this conversation will inspire you to get into, or even start your own mastermind!

Stay in touch with Dave ( https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidalancampbel/ )and Michael (https://www.instagram.com/gthreenc/).

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Transcript

John 0:26

So welcome back uncommon leader, podcast, nation. I'm truly enjoying the uncommon leader podcast and glad you chose to listen today. I'm putting these podcasts together for you, the uncommon leader, so that you can use this to equip you and go and grow more uncommon leaders. In essence champions who grow channel. We need a nation of uncommon leaders and you are a part of the uncommon leader nation. I appreciate that each episode I interview successful leaders that have a great story to tell. In this specific episode, I changed things up just a little bit and chat with a couple of leaders. I chat with Dave Campbell, who I also interviewed in episode eight and also a new guest, my little younger, much better looking brother, Michael Gale. Michael is a teacher in Charlotte, North Carolina. He's a dad and a husband. And he's the owner of G three NC shirt printing company in Charlotte, North Carolina, as well. And I'll put a link to his website. You can take a look at that. The three of us recently started a mastermind or accountability group. Now I had heard of them before, but really got interested when I read John Lee Dumas. The common path to uncommon success. One of his suggestions chapter six was to start a mastermind three to four people meeting on a regular basis on a regular cadence to work on your big idea with those people who inspire you and motivate you. These guys do that for me. And I hope I do the same for them. In this episode, we talk about how to run a mastermind, the frequency, the structure, the benefits and challenge. Pulling one of these things off, maybe this conversation will inspire you to get into, or even start your own mastermind. So let's get started. All right. Welcome back to the uncommon leader podcast. Dave Campbell, who's been here before with me and a new guest, Michael Gallagher. You may notice the last name as a Gallagher, but my younger and better looking brother is here to join us. But since I got him on just an audio podcast, he can't tell he's better looking anyway. He can still think that way, whatever ever want to go through. So God. You are the RTA group. We're going to have a great conversation this evening, and I'm just going to lock it out there to start the conversation. Cause we've said this before, quote from Jim, Rowan says you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. What does that mean to you guys? Okay.

Dave 2:51

Well, John, I think it's a quote that, you know, my wife and I certainly spew around our household pretty often because, you know, I firmly believe it. And it's, it's really about, your environment stronger than your will. Right? And so who's around you, who's influencing you. Who's challenging you and, you know, being choosy about that population of the five people that you're interacting with the most, because. They're going to pull you up or pull you down,

John 3:18

right? That's the whole thing they're going to pull you up or pull you down.

Michael 3:22

The most interesting part of the conversation is you can control it if you want to and the first time you hear that phrase, I know what I would do. I'm not worried about everybody else. I'm going to worry about what I would

John 3:33

do,

Michael 3:34

and that's how you grow. And you learn from experience.

John 3:40

Well, it's a piercing quote too, because when you hear it, it's, it's difficult to argue with and then you start to think about, oh wow. Who am I spending the most time with? I know that's a quote that my son, Joseph, it was something. I remember the conversation I was sitting in the kitchen with him about six or seven years ago with he and one of his buddies. And I told them both as they were kind of thinking about going out one night, I said, you guys got to remember, you're going to be the average of the five people you hang out with the most. So you better pick, right. You better choose right. And understand how that's going to be, because you're going to be mixed in to those individuals as you go forward with it. And it's something that, that stuck with both of them. They've actually both said something to me over the past couple of years about remembering that quote as well. So even as a young person, a teenager, they picked that quote up pretty easily as well.

4:25

No,

Dave 4:25

John, you just said something and I know you said the quote originally, the average of, and I always think of like grades, right. And how terrible it was to get a zero on a, on a test. Right. Because it just brought your average down, make sure your group of five people. One of them can't be a zero.

John 4:42

Yeah, you can't definitely can't have a zero

Dave 4:45

zero, and you can't have any deep blesses either. So

Michael 4:49

it's funny as a teacher, as a teacher, I'm seeing it all the time and you try and coordinates students, who's going to make the student better and I want this student to get better, but am I going to allow them to get pulled down by somebody that doesn't want to get. So I, I con I'm cautious when I surround people that I'm trying to see grow at the same time.

John 5:12

There's so many pictures that exist within that quote. I think. Unbelievable. So I'll throw another one out there for us to talk about, and then we'll actually get into the, maybe the structure of how we ended up starting this conversation on a regular basis, just a few short months ago. But I read a book recently. It actually gave me the idea of this mastermind. It wasn't that mastermind was, it was a new thought or anything else that came up in this book because I read it the book, the common path to uncommon success, but it did where I was on my journey in terms of starting a new business triggers, some thought in my mind, in the office, Had a quote in his that says to achieve uncommon success. You must spend time working your big idea with those who inspire and motivate you. So just another proof point of that, really the average of the five people you hang around with the most is that you don't want, you want people who are going to lift up your ideas. You want people who are going to support you and do whatever they can, everything they can to actually celebrate when you succeed rather than the other way around. Maybe upset or a little bit jealous when you succeed. So that's another quote that hit me inside of that chapter early on.

Michael 6:18

Yeah. I saw that, we've all spoken about it before and the way that we've been communicating with each other. Surrounding myself with you, John and new Dave, I have made myself better just in conversation. And it's just, if you surround yourself with the right people, you start to get ideas that you'd never thought about before and things that I never would have tried or attempted on my own. And it feels good. It feels good to try

John 6:47

and actually accomplish

Dave 6:48

these goals. Yeah. Michael is so important for us to get together with, friends and people who have the, kind of the same mindset and who we know. Are willing to listen to us and do nothing, but encourage us with, with other ideas or our own experiences and not do what we talk about sometimes as, give unsolicited advice or say, oh, why would you ever do that? Or, no, it's more about, Hey, what do you want to do with it? How big do you want this to go? What do you need from us? How can we help out? So it really does come down to. Understanding that the people you bring your ideas to, you gotta be selective, right? Because there is always going to be the folks that. Are the naysayers. Right. And we all have those folks in our lives where we get an idea and we tell them about it. And they're like, well, who do you think you are? And be able to do that and why I wouldn't do that. Or, just sit down here and watch some TV with me. So, you know, it just makes so much difference. And I, I love coming to these meetings with you guys, because I know I can come in and share my ideas. Here's what I'm doing. And all I get from you both is encouragement. Right. And not everybody's got that privilege, but they can, it's a matter of finding the folks. Looking to grow, looking to do better, and set up some time and start having conversations.

John 7:58

No, I think that, that, that really is something that's, that's been pretty powerful to say the least again. I think there's no doubt. Since, since I've got started in this group, the three of us, I know. There've been times where I would not have gotten something done as well. If there wasn't that accountability part behind it to not let the other person down, I make a commitment in this group and say that I'll get something done by the next time we have the meeting. I want to make sure that I'm getting that done because I don't, it's not just about me, but I don't want to let that other group down the meeting that we're talking about as we think, listen to. The podcast listeners who aren't here is, is not, again, not a new term, it's a mastermind. And if there's a definition, it's when two or three people you respect are holding you accountable on a regular basis. and I liked that because there has been a cadence to our meetings. We get together twice a week. We are a small group of three people. We've had my son in one. And the time just hasn't worked out for him, but that group of three or four, I believe works out really well, but it's important as we talk about that first quote on raising the average that it's, who is in the meeting is very important as well. So, no doubt you guys have been lifters in that group for my ideas and I've appreciated that But when you think about the meeting structure, you know, what are your thoughts on kind of that, you know, how important it is? How important is it to. Get together on a regular cadence on a frequency versus saying, yeah, we'll get back together again soon or something like that. That can be somewhat of a normal, has that structure been good in terms of the regular cadence?

Dave 9:28

So I think John, the structure of the meeting is important. What, we're going to actually talk about it. And I don't mean that specific topics necessarily, but Hey, come in with what you're working on or a success from the week, what are you working on for next week? That works really well for. And then I think you have to put it on your calendar. Right. it's the law of diminishing intent, right? If you absolutely. It's just never going to happen. You can talk about it all day, but until you put it on, it's part of that building habits too, from atomic habits. Right? Put it on your calendar, schedule it, invite other people. Cause then I'm not going to not show up. Right. I know Michael and Don are in the room. Right. Some will be there.

John 10:03

I think that's some of the power of small, right? I mean, we've done a book club before and a little bit different than a master to start out with 11 or 12 people. And if you have two or three or four, they kind of drop out. There's not as much urgency to be. There are the other six or seven people show up and I'll catch up the next time when it's a small group like this. And again, you have accountability to that person and you want them to succeed. I think it's important to be there. One of the

Michael 10:26

big things that I take from this is the relationships. Obviously, John and I, we have our relationship together. They've gotten to know you more since we've started doing this. I know you'd be before, but I know a lot more about you since we have gotten started. And. The few months we've been doing this now it's been really, really good. And then we've laughed and, we've shed tears together of joy because we push goals. And it's good. It's great. It's, it's amazing to be able to share experiences with people who were happy for you because you have that experience and it's been powerful. The power of positivity is.

Dave 11:12

Something funny guys, when Michael said, I've known you for a long time, but I'm not the same person you knew when I was in college either. So that's good too, for all three of us.

John 11:23

And if our kids would see this as well, hopefully they'll hear it and listen to that as well. Cause they won't be the same 25 years from now as they are now. But hopefully they learned from some of our mistakes. I don't know if they right. Learnings, wisdom that we've garnered over the years too, to see what we've had to do to change. No doubt about that as good. I was going to challenge you a little bit, Michael, cause you talked about some of the positivity about meeting with this session. Without diving too much into, I'll say specifics, but as part of the work that we talked to you about, we've talked about kind of your role as a teacher and some opportunities that you had that you've had there as well as your business and we'll put the links to both our businesses and our Instagram accounts and things like that for folks to keep in touch with us after this podcast. But maybe there's a story where you've actually been able to probably go further. As a result of being challenged by us or being held accountable by the group that you might not have done before he got a chair and a story you're willing to share.

Michael 12:24

Yeah. And I'll share a story from teaching. I I spoke to you guys about, I didn't know if I was prepared enough to become a math department head and I, I tend to shy away from asking anybody about it. And the more that we spoke here, we had a nice long meeting about a month and a half ago. The three of us, we spoke about it and you guys gave me some good advice. And one of the biggest things was you'll never know if you don't ask, and so. I put it out. I just put a feeler out there. Now, all of a sudden I'm a co-sponsor with the math department head for our math counts team. And we have our first meeting on Thursday with kids that want to come and they want to do math counts with us. And it's an opportunity for me to grew myself personally, in my field of education. So.

Dave 13:16

I

Michael 13:16

would love the opportunity, there's others inside the school. It doesn't pay anything. It doesn't pay anything. I get to work with some amazing students and I never would have even attempted to ask them. Had we not had our conversation here and you and Dave built me up and said, Hey, go, you know, what are you waiting on? Why haven't you already gone and done it? And you guys gave me some advice on how to approach it and solicited advice with that. And it was how do I do it? And you know, I, I want you guys as leaders and I'm trying to grow. Personally, and will benefit off of this as well. So the more my confidence grows at my own job, the more my personal business will grow as well.

John 14:05

That's pretty cool. I mean, again, you've got really two stories that are in there again, plus the relationships that are going on and we got. Really meeting for a few months. So while it's not always immediate like that, I'm glad that we've been able to have an impact in that short period of time. What about you, Dave? You got anything you want to share and then I'll, I'll go last in terms of that sharing. I know I have one that's worked out pretty well. I've had a couple

14:27

of

Dave 14:28

instances where I've had some ideas initially from some of my daily routines. And you know, one of the things that I like to remind myself of is that, Kind of left on our own. We may talk ourselves out of things or, or we may start to rationalize why we should or shouldn't do something. And, I had a couple of ideas where I was, I told you guys about get the band back together. And gosh, it was just one of those ideas. And I had talked to Susan about a little bit and it was starting to blossom. And then I, I talked to you guys about it and I got more and more excited and started, the, all of a sudden the logo ideas started coming to mind. Different activities that I could do with this group that I work with could happen. So, just being around this kind of environment where it was very encouraging and challenging at the same time and go, gosh, you know, I got something to share with John and Michael this week. Here's some exciting things that are going on and then it just, it just snowballs on you, right? The creativity starts to come in and the innovation starts to come in, when you almost start attracting kind of the great ideas, right. And so it's just been, it's been great to have. A couple people that I can meet with every once in awhile and then, you know, every other week and talk about what's going on in my career, what's going on in my ideas and what I want to do to raise the average on, I think I love this title of the group, right? It's like, what are you doing? Rate average. That's always in the back of my mind when I'm thinking about things going, you know, and I was just on a phone call right before this. One of my coworkers and I are, up against the situation and we're like, no, you know what? Let's be bold. Let's do it. Right. Let's we've, we've done it the other way for a long time. It doesn't work, let's do it this way. Let's

John 16:07

try it right now. Let's go do it right. Go for it

Dave 16:10

right up on the gas and raise the app. Well, and that was

John 16:13

one, cause I think it's natural at times for me and we haven't used this word, but I think we've at least talked around it a little bit and that's procrastinating. And I have a tendency, no doubt, especially in areas that I might not be really good in to procrastinate on something. And as an entrepreneur, as a sole proprietor, that is not a good thing to be able to do. You better either find someone to delegate it to which there are three people, me, myself, and I in that space normally right now, or you better take the step, you need to commit to it and get it done. And there've been two specific examples for me already. One is. Document to help put the codified and help put the system together for the coaching program that I'm working on. And it was, a success was getting it ordered if you will, based on coming through that and making a commitment to get that done over two week period, then actually that has come to fruition. The first coaching client the most recent coaching client that sent two, we'll be using that document for the first time. And we'll report out on that one on Thursday. So it's in use it's in the system, which is a good thing. I don't know if I would have gotten there, frankly, if it wouldn't have been for some of the pushing from the group. And then, the other side of that you touched on a little bit, Dave, is that, that critic that's always sitting on our shoulder. Right. And when we have an opportunity to motivate each other, to inspire, to encourage. One another to, to finish something and pull it across the finish line, knowing we got someone there cheering behind us. That's pretty cool. There's no doubt that that will work and work better. And again, I don't know that in a larger group, if that can be as effective because you just can't get the one-on-one or one-on-two conversation that goes back and forth with a small group like that. So those have been two really big wins for. I thought I'd throw a reverse quote out there before, because we talked about this before we jumped on the podcast and just to make sure we have this conversation and it's, sometimes frankly it's the elephant in the room, if you will. And that's not only at the five people you hang around. To going to raise or lower your average, how much time and energy to we do. We invest with relationships or individuals who are bringing that average down, call them the Debbie downers or whatever you want to call, but it forces us to be intentional about who we're hanging out with and who we're not hanging out with as well. You guys agree with that?

Dave 18:30

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that it's one of the most important things, right. Is to think about who you're going to be spending time with, who you include. And then just as important or more important as who are you excluding? And I don't mean that in a bad way. It's like Emma, right? Somebody completely out of my life. It's just, I'm very intentional and selective of who I share my new ideas with right. Or projects I might be working on just because I know, Hey, if I tell this person they're going to tell me every reason in the world, I shouldn't do it or why they tried it already and it didn't work. And I just don't have the time and energy for that anymore. Most of the time I'm looking for, I'm going to just kind of get to where I've got the results and what then see that. But I have liked having a close knit group of folks that I can talk with and share anything knowing, no. Hey, I'm going to tell you about a project I'm working on and it's not going to be any. All good. Right? So

John 19:19

you don't think you make such a good point about that, especially on the, sharing of ideas that you might have or sharing a thoughts. Because I know for me, if I own this, I had a, I have a tendency to want to just blurt to whoever's walking down the street that I've got an idea about. And while that may not be quite that loose with it, it feels like that sometimes when you get that first person, that, that once. Shoot it down or say, well, that's not gonna work, but you know this, I mean, it can really be a downer as you go forward with that. So we, we have to be very selective. We only have so many hours in our day to invest our time as well. And we need to invest it with the right people. Yeah. I

Michael 20:00

just have to keep accurate what you guys are saying. You, what you say and what you do, it has to be done with a purpose. And when you have that purpose and you're ready to go. The hardest thing to do is to hear negativity about it. And the best part about this conversation that we have each week is it's all positive. And some of the things that I do, I keep personal. I don't want to, I don't want to put it out there very often because I don't want to hear the negativity. You can't do it. You can't do it well. Okay. Now it's time for me to put it out there. So I'm excited about it. And it's been a very, very positive aspect

John 20:40

of my life as well.

Michael 20:42

As my family, you know, With Lisa and Connor, it's the best thing that it's happened to me is for me to get positive

Dave 20:48

around him.

John 20:49

Hm. Yeah, that was a word again. Another word you used David. So, so critical with these five people is mindset. What is your mindset? And you, I know you have invested a significant amount of that, of your time in that over the past couple of years, you shared the four, eight principle with me, which is one of the best books that I've ever written written I've ever read. I like to have written something like that, right? Absolutely. In terms of the power of it, but it's a book that's been there. That's been there for a long time. And so when we start to share some of those. Things as well, that can be pretty powerful as powerful for us. That's pretty important. So, and IRC, like one of the things we do now, even between meetings as well with our little hashtag of RTA, where we communicate with each other, when we do get small wins during the week, or when things get done, because that, again allows another opportunity for a celebration point, not waiting for the two weeks to get that done. So I like that hashtag that we send out whether it's on Instagram or Twitter, we post. Or just in a text message string as well. I think that can be pretty cool to have something like that as a recognition in between the time that you're working together. So if someone wanted to start one of these masterminds, what would be the advice that you would give them on what to do, guys? What do you think

Dave 22:01

well, I think, one of the things you've got to do first is you got to decide, Hey, you want to grow and you want to develop, right. I think that's, he goes, we've got to develop yourself first. And then yet you need to start looking for folks who are doing the same thing and start some conversations. This, this kind of group, right. Has been probably a long time coming. Right. This is the first time I've really had kind of an accountability group or mastermind, whatever we we've done the book club, we've done some level of a mastermind. I have a really good working relationship and what I would call almost a mastermind now with my team at work. But you gotta, you gotta start with some common ground, right? It may not be the, you can't probably walk up to three or four people and say, Hey, you guys want to start a mastermind. You probably need to get your friends first. Right. Go back to one of my favorite quotes. It's right. Opinions. Don't change minds, but apprenticeships do so, we'll make some friendships, right? That's right. Start there and find the folks who have a similar drive and motivation. Absolutely.

John 23:02

Yeah, the consistency has gotta be there and with the structure that exists, but the, but Dave, great point. The first thing you have to do as an individual is choose that you want to grow. Yeah. And then go look for people with a like-mind it may have benefits when they are friends, but go find people that are like that.

Dave 23:18

And they'll, they'll start showing up, when you move into that realm of I'm on a growth track or I'm on a personal development journey. You start reading certain books, you start having these things to talk about with other people that you're going to attract the right people. Right? All of a sudden people are going to start showing up that how many people, you know, John I've read the pouring principle or have read developing the leader within you or read, think and grow rich, or, all of a sudden your, your world starts to connect.

John 23:47

Right? Absolutely. That's right. I'm giving you the last word we're finishing up. I'm giving you a last word.

Michael 23:54

Another positive that I was going to say about it as keep it small, keep it simple and keep it the people you care about. And I care about you and care about what you want and you care about what

John 24:06

they want. Okay. Absolutely. Well guys, I am certainly grateful that both of you are in my life as we go through this. We're going to continue to grow ourselves and grow others as a result of some of the ideas that are gonna be coming out of this mastermind. So I would encourage others to listen in and, and reach out to any of us. I'll put our contact information in the show notes to get in touch with anyone on this list that you have, you would like to ask more questions about what a mastermind is and what it might be to hang out with people who are going to raise the average and you and your group. I hope that was helpful for you. Are you now interested in starting your own mastermind session? Here are some of the steps that we talked about an important factor. Number one. And I thought Dave hit a home run with this point. Cause you gotta make a choice first that you want to develop yourself before you get into one of these mastermind groups or look for accountability. You gotta make sure you're all in with this as well. Second step is find two or three others who raise your average. No, Debbie downers. No Don Doolittle's but those individuals who are going to inspire and motivate you to do more than you would on your own. Number three, you've got to commit to. Get on a regular cadence and put it on the calendar and make it happen. Make the decision to be there. And number four, communicate between the sessions with each other. Let each of the participants in the mastermind know how you're doing, and if you're succeeding, if you enjoy today's podcast, I hope that you'll share it or even consider giving a five-star review on apple podcasts. That would be good. Or you can subscribe on your favorite platform, such as Spotify, apple, or other platforms that it's available on until next time, go and grow champions and raise the average.