What do Mark Victor Hansen, Robert Allen, Anthony Robbins, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Thomas Edison and Ben Franklin have in common?

They all leverage the power of the mastermind team.

The mastermind works on the concept that two (or more) heads are better than one. When you gather a group of like-minded people and focus on one particular problem, a funny thing happens. Not only do you get intelligent feedback on blind spots you may not have noticed. But a truly phenomenal thing also happens with a mastermind group - the psychic aspect.

"The human mind is a form of energy, a part of it being spiritual in nature. When the minds of two people are coordinated in a SPIRIT OF HARMONY, the spiritual units of energy of each mind form an affinity, which constitutes the 'psychic' phase of the Master Mind." Excerpted from Think and Grow Rich

See, when a group is united in the same purpose, the number of ideas in the room balloon off of other people's ideas. I witnessed this personally last month at a networking meeting lead by Jim Bunch of Six Figure Practice. In groups of 6-8 we brainstormed how to raise $10,000 in three days. The ideas were mind boggling. As we got more and more excited, our ideas became more and more bold. One group said they weren't stopping at $10,000. They wanted to raise $1,000,000!

So how do you harness this kind of power for yourself? Masterminds are rather subjective in that you must do what works for YOU and your lifestyle ultimately. I have been in my mastermind for a year now and I couldn't be happier. My business has hit an all -time high. And I credit the habit of masterminding with the lion's share of my success. Here are some of the qualities that work for us.

• Keep the number small. My group is 4 people but we could comfortably increase to as many as 6.

Meet regularly. We meet by phone once a week to go over successes and challenges. Plus we put one person on the hot seat for special focus. Then we also meet in person for an all day retreat a minimum of 3-4 times a year.

Don't make anybody wrong. There is no such thing as a bad idea.

As soon as you begin attacking the creativity of the mastermind, the ideas will shrivel up. Keep the brainstorm going and you'll be astounded at the new levels of insight you reach.

Treat each meeting as if you paid $100,000 a year to be a member. A mastermind meeting isn't a coffee klatch. The only way it can truly be effective is if everyone takes it seriously and shows up ready to focus.

Hold one another accountable. Got a goal? When do you expect to have that done by? Your mastermind team wants to know. There is great power in verbalizing your intention.

Make a wish list of people you would like to be in your mastermind. Write out the qualities you would like to see in the ideal candidates. Be specific.

A word of caution - be very picky about whom you choose to make this commitment with. You will likely be together for a long time. Make it a goal for this year to be a part of a mastermind team.

International copywriting trainer, author and speaker, Lorrie Morgan-Ferrero has been a freelance writer and journalist for over 25 years. Her words have made her clients hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now she focuses her vast experience on teaching others the skill of copywriting. Lorrie is the author of an award winning copywriting course, creator of the Red Hot Copywriting Bootcamp and founder of Copy Campus, a unique membership resource site designed to support copywriters and entrepreneurs on all levels. Visit her site to learn more at http://www.red-hot-copy.com.