When you are participating in a coaching session or a mastermind group you need to be very focused on what you want to get advice on. To do this you need to stay away from the “TMI” syndrome (Too Much Information). Many people think you can never have too much information but in a focused strategy session you can really ‘cloud the waters’ with information that may not be relevant or needed.

Here are a few tips to help you stay focused.

Use the Group

Remember, you joined this group or paid for this support to get advice from others. Because of this they already know about you and your business and they are committed to helping you. You don’t need to bring all your information. If you do your group may need to ask you for  additional information to get insight into your other issues thus loosing focus on the original topic.

If your group does not know enough about you or is unwilling to learn about you and your business, you may want to look for mastermind group. They should want to be your partner.

Structure Your ‘Ask’

Structure your ‘ask’ with these points:

• what is the goal of your focus
• what you have done already
• current results
• issue as you see it
• what you want them to focus on

By setting the focus for your partners you can really get deep into the issue you want to address and stay on track during the discussion. Without this you might find people bringing ideas and stories that do not fit with what you need. If  this happens, tell them you do not want to focus on that right now and stay on track.

Keep it Short

Keep your ‘ask’ to about 2 minutes. Since you don’t have to describe your entire business it should be possible to get your issue described in a few sentences.

These three things should help you focus on the issue you need advice on and really dig down deep to get great insight on things you can do to make your business more successful quicker.