Are you wanting to successfully
lead groups in your business?
Running groups can be really challenging.
Leading groups is a very different thing than seeing individual clients. Whether it’s a class, a mastermind group, or any other format, when you have multiple people in the mix, things can be wonderful! And… they can also get complicated and challenging very quickly.
Maybe you’re already running groups, even doing them well, and yet you sense they could be better, or there are some troubling dynamics you can’t quite clear.
Or you shy away from even starting a group. Or if you’ve tried it, it’s proven to be harder than it seems like it should be. If you haven’t done it before, it can feel intimidating to be in the role of teacher or facilitator.
Groups do take some care, awareness, and some learning, to make them run smoothly.
This is why I wanted to create this course, to make this all much easier for you, and anyone who wants to run groups in their business.
Note about testimonials on this page:
This is a new course, although I’ve shared the teachings for years.
All testimonials are from clients who have taken other offerings from us.
Running Groups for Your Business
A four-session course to gain strategy, healing and insights to effectively facilitate groups of clients.
There are several reasons why you would want to run groups within your business.
One reason is financial. Maybe you start to hit a ceiling with how many clients you can see, or you simply want (or need) to bring in more money, but you don’t want to charge extremely high prices. Running groups is a great way to keep pricing accessible and still make more money.
Other reasons include being able to help more people. It’s amazing to have six, or twelve, or twenty, or even one hundred people in a class, and see people getting so much.
And it can be really fun! To have the energy of a group can be so nourishing for you and for everyone. There’s a magic that can happen in a group that just doesn’t happen one-on-one.
Plus, your business becomes more and more dependable.
I want you to be able to depend on your business to support you.
Although running groups in your business is not a magic bullet that fixes everything, it can often be a wonderful addition by providing one of two things, or both.
Groups can give you an income bump, sometimes a serious one. ( And/Or ) Groups can help you maintain your income while creating a LOT more free time in your business.
Quick math: if you see eight clients in a week for $150 each, times four weeks, that’s 32 individual sessions bringing in $4800 per month. Yet, if you have two groups of 12, and each person is paying $200/month, that’s also $4800/month.
I’m not suggesting replacing all of your individual clients with groups, especially if you love doing individual work. I’m just wanting to show you, if you haven’t run the numbers yourself, how much time you can free up or money you can generate if you add stress-free, drama-free groups into your business.
This course is about a lot more than strategy.
The course will be a combination of healing, reframing, and actual strategies that can help you have a MUCH healthier and more successful relationship with any groups that you choose to run.
- Healing, because we all have inner reactions, beliefs and struggles that make even very simple things really hard.
- Reframing, because often when you see something from a different angle, it’s suddenly much easier!
- And strategies, because sometimes, sometimes, you just need to know what to do and how to do it.
My highest intentions for you with this course:
- Understand how to create a strong “container” that your participants can rest into.
- Be able to create connection within the group.
- Make conscious design choices about how you want to run your group based on your strengths and your own intentions, rather than just copying what someone else did.
- Know how to bring in safety for your participants, so they can really show up.
What’s more, I want to help you know how to handle the three most common dysfunctions in groups:
(1) When no one talks.
(2) When someone takes up all the airspace.
(3) When someone is challenging or otherwise confrontative of you as the facilitator.
Thank you so much Mark. I greatly appreciate the way you teach, and all that you have taught me. Blessings to you and your family.
Who this class is for (and who shouldn’t take it):
- On a traditional religious path: Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, among others.
- On very non-traditional spiritual paths, or who study with a spiritual teacher.
- Who have no particular path at all, and yet have some sense or connection to that which exists beyond the physical realm.
The spiritual teachings we use arise out of Sufism, and are powered by Mark Silver’s initiation into his lineage. At the same time, they are extremely accessible.
If you have no relationship to spirituality at all, or adhere to a very rigid spirituality, you probably won’t like this course.
- You’re a service provider or otherwise trained in a modality.
- You’re the main or only person working with clients in your business.
- You already have some experience and/or training working with people and holding space.
- You could be brand new, or you could be more experienced.
- You are currently only working individually with clients, and want to start to bring groups into the mix, for any number of reasons.
- You’re already running groups, but running into some pitfalls and challenges, and could use some healing, insight, and strategies around how to make them better.
Who shouldn’t take this course.
If you do not already have at least some foundation in working with clients and holding space, this course will not fill in that gap.
The topics we’ll be covering will help correct misunderstandings, give some real insight and allow folks to be much more effective with their groups. It does not replace foundational training in how to work with folks.
In other words, if you have never worked with clients of any sort, and are wanting to jump directly into ethically and responsibly holding groups effectively, this won’t do it for you.
FYI- I have a business degree in Marketing and International Business (LOL). Everything I learned is and was useful, so no regrets there. But they did not help me to create and have my own business. Entrepreneurialism for creative and heart-centered people looks different. We (I) require a whole, inclusive instead of a hole or separatist approach. This means listening for inner guidance while following a proven basic/simplified system. Too much detail or self-micromanaging is unnecessary.
HOB provided all that. It’s perfect for artists, spiritualists, and those of us who see the world in abstract forms and sometimes struggle to make headway with the concrete. Again, it’s the perfect course for where I was and where I’m heading. I also loved the honesty.
[Heart of Business work] has moved me into the next evolution of my business both as a creative artist and business-woman. I’m very grateful that I didn’t have to give up my love of art, activist, my life, and my business. Thank you so much Mark. I greatly appreciate the way you teach, and all that you have taught me. Blessings to you and your family.
The spiritual aspect of this work.
Spirituality in business has become all the rage, and I’m grateful for that. The acceptance of spirituality in business has been the work of many people over decades, and it’s a relief.
However, it’s not all equally effective.
Many versions of business spirituality take what I call the “gas tank” approach: fill up on spiritual connection, like filling your gas tank. Then, when your tank runs down while “doing business,” stop and go fill back up again.
Other approaches seem to be connected to versions of “think and it shall be” that can get caught inflating the ego and trying to use the world as a big shopping cart.
Neither of those approaches have resonated with me, and some versions of them do real harm.
This course does have a great deal of spirituality in it. That’s because there is no realm of human life that isn’t touched and permeated by spirit. What’s needed is not to integrate spirit and business, but to see how it’s already integrated.
Our relationship with spirit directly affects our relationship with the nitty-gritty day-to-day details of being in business, in profound and helpful ways. Instead of a gas tank or shopping cart approach, we’ll relate to the larger reality as a humbling, sacred mystery.
Those Crazy Sufis
The Sufis, which is the spiritual lineage Heart of Business teachings are based in, cling to a notion of devotional surrender, which attempts to live every moment of life with awareness that the Divine, the Source of Love (which is not, incidentally, an angry beard in the sky) is always present.
(If you’re unfamiliar with Sufism, perhaps you’ve heard of the poet Rumi? Or Hafiz? They are both considered Sufi saints and masters. I, Mark, have learned Sufism at the feet of a Sufi sheikh from Jerusalem, who was the inheritor of an unbroken 1400 year old spiritual lineage.)
The Heart of Business approach was born out of the realization that certain esoteric spiritual teachings are present within many nitty gritty business practices. The awareness of this already-existing integration means that the work of business itself can be a spiritual practice. There is no “tank” to run dry, just the always present invitation to remember Love even while you get your hands dirty… and the dirt is Divine as well.
About Mark Silver, M.Div. and Heart of Business.
I’m Mark Silver, M.Div., founder of Heart of Business, and author of Heart Centered Business. I’ve been teaching and running groups for over thirty years.
In addition to the dozens and dozens and dozens of small intimate groups, and large classes of 100+ that I’ve run within Heart of Business over the last 26 years, I have some other experiences that are really relevant.
In a former career, I was a paramedic in the San Francisco Bay Area, and as such, I was a Field Training Officer, mentoring student paramedics on 911 calls on how to apply the learning from the classroom to actual patients in the field. I was also an instructor for ACLS, PALS, PHTLS, and of course, CPR for health professionals, where I taught medics, nurses and doctors these advanced courses in emergency response for the SF Paramedic Association.
Also, in studying with my Sufi teachers, I was a graduate of a three year healer training, and a one year Sufi Teacher Internship Program for Sufi teachers, as well as attaining my Masters of Divinity (M.Div.). What’s more, I was hired as faculty, teaching the Sufi Teacher Internship Program, as well as being taught how to hold and run groups in multi-day spiritual retreats as part of my M.Div.
In short, I have a LOT of teacher and group training, and adult teaching experience, both extremely practical, skills-based, as well as spiritually-focused groups.
In the context of Heart of Business, I’ve developed curriculum for dozens of short and long courses and groups, and been praised for my courses and group structures by Instructional Design professionals.
Your program’s message applies to my work as a non-westerner, and I will gladly recommend it.
Now I had a change of perception, that having a business and being a business owner is part of my spiritual growth, not an opposite to it.
Overall, business and growing a business feels like an adventure rather than a cumbersome task. This shift is full of lightness and makes space for healthy growth that matches my spirit.
After my initial aversion, I fell in love with the Sufi teachings that the program included, and in the material. I found safety, serenity, and security in adopting, developing, and exploring each module from the perspective presented. I have a more profound respect for the process that I don’t want to be in a hurry to go through everything. Thank you, Mark and Team, for your work. As a beginner, I can learn and apply the material presented as I go.
We’ll be covering eight topics over four weeks
Class One: Intention, Container and Connection
- Intention: Intention is the first step. What kind of a group do you really want to run? It’s easy to jump over this, and just copy someone else’s structure or approach. But, by taking some time to contemplate your own heart’s intention, you can create a group that is truly in alignment with you and your business.
- Container: In studying with my Sufi teachers, I’ve come to understand the profound importance of the “container.” The container is the spiritual presence you bring to a group. You can establish a container that your participants can rest into, either in person, or virtually.
- Connection: Many people are understandably nervous and end up focusing on the content they want to present. While content and preparation is important, what is equally important is creating a sense of connection with your participants. I teach you how to do this, both in-person and virtually, through the heart. (And a little bit through video technique.)
Class Two: Design, Safety and Diversity
- Design: Beyond intention, already covered in the first class, the actual design of your group is incredibly important. There are strategic considerations. And, there is so much room for creativity available. You don’t have to just copy/paste what someone else does. You can craft a design/structure that truly supports your intention.
- Safety: Safety is critical for how a group functions. What elements do you need to consider in order to create safety within a group? There are power dynamics, comfort, visibility and other pieces that you want to take into account, so that people will really be able to relax and then thrive in your group.
- Diversity: You may well have people from a variety of backgrounds and life experiences in your groups, including race, gender, sexuality, ability, among others. These topics cause a lot of leaders to trip up, which can spiral out of control, hurting individuals in the group, damaging beyond repair the group dynamic, and perhaps hurting the reputation of your business. Everyone in this current century should have some awareness of this. And with this awareness, trust for you and within the group can deepen and thrive.
Class Three: The Three Dysfunctions of a Group
- Silence: It’s so painful to have prepared, marketed, enrolled and gathered a group, and, when you finally all get together, the participants are all silent! How do get people to participate? What do you do when silence is weighing heavily?
- Expansive: Then, there’s the other issue: when at least one person in a group takes up a LOT of air space. They keep talking and talking, on and on, draining all the listening-space and precious time from the group. But, if you interrupt too harshly, no one will feel safe speaking up, and the person you interrrupted may want to quit in a disruptive way. How do you handle this?
- Challenges: This is rare, but it still happens. When you get a participant who is challenging your authority, how do you handle it? They make suggestions about how you can do things differently, complain about how it’s going, and other kinds of painful challenges. How do you contain this without it becoming a power struggle that destroys the group?
Class Four: Getting Your Group(s) Going! And the Blessing.
Here we’ll do some final coaching and tie it all together so you can get going with your groups.
Leaning into the Sufi lineage that I practice, I like to end courses with a blessing, intended to support each of you as you step out into the world with your new or improved group offers.
Those are big topics!
Of course, each of these topics could be greatly expanded, and are absolutely worthy of that. And yet, each of them is also simple at heart. I want this course to give you the essence of each of these topics in a way that will help you get your arms around them.
I love taking complex topics and making them simple and approachable, and that’s what I’ve done with this course. You will, I hope, continue learning and growing with each of these. And I know that getting your feet into these topics will make your next groups so much easier.
How the program actually works.
Our time together on live calls is precious, and these topics are ones I’ve taught many times.
The things we’re teaching are not rocket science. You can do them, thousands of others have. However, real emotional and spiritual issues can get stirred up, and some people get stuck there. And this can touch on shame, because one can see that the doing isn’t hard… but following through can feel difficult.
Healing has been an integral part of Heart of Business from the get-go, and we’ll be digging into different healing processes, heart meditations (called Remembrances in Sufism), and openings, that will lighten the load and clear the way.
You do not have to be anyone else, or change who you are to be successful. You just have to be yourself. This can be tricky, scary even. Yet when you embrace yourself and your business honestly, and immerse in love, it all becomes so much easier.
Check-in assignments
Everyone will be encouraged to check-in through an assignment form prior to each class. These are important for three reasons.
1. It’s part of adult education best practices. By answering questions, checking in, you end up integrating what you learn much more deeply.
2. It’s a way for me to understand what’s going on with you all as participants. I can spot trends, misunderstandings, or stuck places, and address them.
3. One of the main complaints with live classes is that there just isn’t time to get to everyone’s questions. Each check-in will have room for you to ask me questions about the material. More on that below.
I can answer more questions in a written format than I can get to on the live calls. What’s more, it helps to even out participation. Some folks are shy or otherwise uncomfortable with speaking live on a call. Others have schedules that conflict that cause them to miss a live call. Plus, not everyone processes information at the same speed or in the same way. Many folks want to sit with an idea or teaching, and then formulate a question or a situation later.
This way, you can. You can ask a question on the assignment form after having all week to be with the teachings.
Although I can’t promise to get to all of the questions asked, I can get to way more than we could cover on the calls live. Folks regularly comment that they get answers to questions they didn’t know they had, or that someone else had asked their question, and so they got the answer they needed.
It’s funny to list the live calls last, after everything else. Normally, the live calls are considered the star. And, they are.
What I want you to see is how powerful a live call can be when it’s supported properly, when we don’t try to do everything inside the live call.
Instead, the live calls are for deepening. We start with heart connection, a healing Remembrance I lead that relates to the course work.
I start by teaching based on the assignments from you all. I’ll address trends I see, then I’ll answer as many live coaching questions as possible. The intention is to help you apply these teachings to your own unique business.
I end the class by introducing and framing the upcoming week’s topic, and we’re off and running.
Recordings and transcripts are included as well. Even if you have to miss one, or more, classes, you can watch the entire class, and ask questions through the assignment form that can be answered in the written Q&A, and still feel really supported.
The teachings, the exercises, and the structure all combine to help you have a much more powerful and easeful relationship with running groups.
In the last 23 years, I’ve helped thousands of people step into a much healthier relationship with their business, with more stable business models and heart-centered approaches. That healthier relationship means they can take actions that feel good and are effective. It works!
Here’s the bottom line: I want your business to fly! It’s so important that small businesses like yours have a real impact and take up space in the world. People do need what you have to offer. They do, absolutely. And if you want to help more people, I want you to be able to!
You can do it. I say that so confidently because, over the years, I’ve seen such a wide variety of people become successful on their own terms. Folks create businesses they love that they can also count on to support them consistently.
Pay from the Heart is not exactly
“pay what you want.”
Most simply, Pay From The Heart is a collaborative process where we are clear about what sustains us, and you check in with your heart and arrive at a payment that you can support, that won’t harm you.
I’ve seen people struggle with sliding scales and pay-what-you-want pricing. For us, Pay from the Heart is a way to truly welcome in folks who really couldn’t afford it otherwise.
Our economic system is far from fair. Yet all of our hearts and creativity are needed now. If you need this help, we want you to have it.
What other people charge.
Others with similarly structured courses have charged anywhere from $250 to $1500. In the context of these kinds of offers, if you went somewhere else, that’s what you could expect to pay.
The gift here is that if you truly couldn’t take this course at our sustainable (see below) price, this is a path of true welcome for you to join us.
And, if you are in a situation where you have more, and contributing more feels good to you, that supports us in making space for those who truly cannot.
What is sustainable for us.
It’s important to us that we are honest with you, and not pretending Heart of Business doesn’t have needs, because we do.
What we’re asking and the “food or shelter” exception.
There are two numbers we’re going to put out there for your consideration.
The sustainable price of US$300. If you can pay that, in a single payment or two payments of $150, that allows us to both sustain our service, and open the door to folks who truly can’t pay that.
The minimum requested is US$120. It is Pay From the Heart, and it has to agree with our heart as well as your own. Our hearts just didn’t feel good lower than $120, nor can we continue to show up for you if many pay less than this.
The “food or shelter” exception. We know that some people are in really hard spots. If paying $120 (or two payments of $60) is going to put your food or shelter at risk, we invite you to pay less. This is also true if you live in an economy where the exchange rate with U.S. currency means $120 is an absurdly large amount of money for you.
We want you to be able to join us.
If you can pay US$300, even if it’s a stretch, please do. If the stretch feels like it would break you, or cause you to walk away, then please let your heart find a price between $300 and $120.
If you don’t have access to even $120 (or two payments of $60), if it would put your stability at risk, then, and only then, do we invite you, truly with an open heart, to pick a number lower than 120.
How it works.
First, decide if you are going to join us. Feel into the possibilities of what this kind of support could mean to you, your heart, and your business.
Second, if you decide “Yes,” then make a second decision of how much you can give, in one or two payments. Take time to both think about the reality of your financial situation and to listen for what number feels right to your heart.
If you’re ready to join us in the Running Groups course, we’re honored to have you.
Read the program re-cap below, along with our Refunds & Cancellations policy right below the grid, and then either register or ask a question
When you register, here’s what you get:
1
The Program Itself.
2
Four Live Deepening and Coaching calls with Mark.
Four teachings delivered by a combination of written, audio and video.
Dates: XXX
3
Check-ins before every class.
Giving you the support to reflect on and integrate what you’ve learned.
4
Questions collected from check-ins.
With detailed written answers to as many as possible, distributed to every participant (with any personal or identifying details removed from the question).
Register for
Running Groups for Your Business Live
You first decide if you want to join us, then you choose from your heart what to pay.
We provide a two payment option if your heart feels moved to offer more, but it would be easier on your cash flow to make two equal monthly payments instead of one lump payment.
Payments
Did you scroll straight down to the price?
Jump back to the top so you can see what it’s all about.
Is it time to take the next step in running groups in your business?
If so, please join us.
Best to you, and to your business,
Mark Silver
Cancellations and Refund Requests Policy
We have poured our hearts into this program to make it comprehensive with plenty of support while also making it as financially accessible as possible. We’ve seen other programs charge 3-10x as much as we’re charging, and yet we feel great about offering this at Pay from the Heart pricing.
One thing that adds a lot of hidden costs to a program are administrative costs. Someone will ask for what seems like a simple thing, like a special payment plan, not realizing that hours of administrative time can be quickly eaten up.
So, after a lot of prayer and discussion, here’s our policy for this program:
Cancellations: You may cancel the program prior to xxx, 2025, and we will refund your money in full. If you want to cancel on or after XXX, we will stop any future payments (if you choose two payments). We cannot refund any payments already charged by XXX, 2025. We need at least 2 business days’ notice in advance of the charge being processed to give us time to stop the charge.
Custom/extended payment plans: We cannot offer any payment plans other than what you see on this page because of the work and administrative tracking.
Refunds: We are happy to offer refunds for the program on or prior to XXX, 2025. However, we won’t offer any refunds after this date. We can stop your second payment (if you chose two payments) if you want to leave the program before that second payment is charged. We need at least 2 business days’ notice (Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm Eastern) in advance of the charge being processed to give us time to stop the charge.
I know these are strong positions to take, and we’ve only come to this conclusion after spending literally hundreds, even thousands, of dollars in administrative hours to provide custom arrangements for clients.
We’re trusting you get the sincerity of our intentions here, and encourage you to combine strength and compassion in your own business.
P.S. – I understand that it can be a “big deal” to step past the limits that we’re comfortable with and challenge ourselves to grow more. Sometimes simply sitting with that anxiety and calming it down is enough to remind yourself that you’re not alone—that other people just like you are facing the vulnerability of running groups in their business, and doing it!
Running Groups in Your Business Course
– Priority Contact
Ask us any question at all about the Running Groups in Your Business Course.
Note: You do not need to ask us if it’s okay to pay a certain amount. Really! Follow the instructions above about paying from your heart. We trust your heart and encourage you to do so, too.
We are not able to make adjustments to this program – releasing information early, or changing dates, deadlines or the structure of the program to meet any unique circumstances. However, please let us know about any disability-related access issues, and we will do our utmost to accommodate you. Closed caption in Zoom is turned on, and there will be transcripts provided with the recording of every live call.