Over ten years ago, I attended a dinner while on a business trip. The dinner had a guest speaker who spoke about her life and how she had started a business unrelated to our industry.
I wanted to leave and return to my hotel room, but I had a seat right in front of the speaker. So, not wanting to be embarrassed, I stayed to endure her "egg decorating" story. As I listened to her tell how she desired this craft from childhood, got married, divorced, then started decorating eggs which sold for $8.00 each at a craft fair. Eventually her eggs sold for $8,000.00, and were placed on the White House Christmas tree for several years, I was amazed! And she wasn't even a believer! Her story continued with her getting a spot on the "Good Morning America" show. Now, I could see why they invited her to be the guest speaker. She was a woman like most of us, in the interior design field, who loved her work.
She spoke of not having much outside contact, due to her home-based business, and no social life other than the grocery store or a visit to the dentist. She had no one to talk over ideas with, no one with whom to share business growth strategies or to network with. She felt all alone.
She started a Mastermind Group with other women whom she knew from the neighborhood, who were business owners, self-employed, and stay-at-home moms who babysat for a living. Her meetings grew in numbers and then shrinked to a consistent gathering of 15 women who still meet today. Then, the light bulb went off! I thought, "BRILLIANT"!
I could take this idea back home, and tell this friend to start a "Mastermind Group," then I would tell another and then another and then another.
Then the Lord said, "STOP!" "Who did I give the idea to?" He reminded me of all the ideas He had given me over the years, and how I would always tell someone else that they could do it. He showed me how I was always ready to encourage others, but not myself. He would put hope in me from the inside, but I always talked myself out of it, influenced by what I saw or heard from the outside. I had no courage to do it on my own. Consequently, I yielded to the Lord and began to ask God for the faith to do it.
I began to attend these awesome meetings called "Vertical Leap" with James, my husband. These meetings were Christian-based, not in a church, and the speakers were Christian business owners, Al Hollingsworth and his wife Hattie. My eyes were opened. God had placed me in a "spiritual boot camp", so That my hope could turn into faith, and my faith would grow to produce what God had placed in my heart like a seed. I returned month after month, building my faith with people from all walks of life, from CEO's, to bishops, to actors, to retirees, to laypeople like myself. We were all there for the same reason: we wanted more of God, more direction, more hope. Even though for years I never told anyone of my idea, I continued to support these meetings, encouraging everyone I could to come to see a businessman called of God.
Today with the support of others like you, I begin our meetings at our business, sharing, encouraging, and giving hope to those whom God sends across our path, through our doors, and the homes we visit. I believe there are others like James and me, who sometimes feel trapped in a business God has called you to, yet you have a great desire to minister to others and don't know how to marry the two together.
A mastermind group is a peer-to-peer mentoring group used to help members solve their problems with input and advice from the other group members.