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A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS (Chapter 3) #5005 - THE PEER ADVANTAGE

A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS (Chapter 3) #5005

Peer Advantage, Podcast / By

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A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS (Chapter 3) #5005 - THE PEER ADVANTAGE

Today let’s talk about chapter 3 of the book, THE POWER OF PEERS by Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary.

This chapter is entitled – THE PATH TO PEER ADVANTAGE. This chapter is far deeper than the first two so there’s quite a lot to get to. I want you to listen carefully and make some applications so your business can benefit. And I want your life to benefit, too.

We participate in 4 basic methods of peer engagement: connect, network, optimize and accelerate. Mostly we do this simultaneously in a variety of ways.

Connecting and networking are mostly individual pursuits with less structure. Accelerating and optimizing are group efforts the authors call peer advantage, which makes them more strategic and structured.

We use Facebook and Linkedin (among other platforms) to connect and network. When we do this we exchange information, extend our reach by introducing ourselves to more people, we contribute to the conversation, we share a common interest during some given period of time, we rely on a high volume of peers we don’t know, we share with others in an open/unsecure area that lacks safety/privacy and we participate when we want to (it’s optional).

Dean Acosta is an Emmy Award-winning former journalist and press secretary for NASA who has led corporate communication teams at some Fortune 500 companies. Today he’s the global head of corporate communications and media for Phillips 66. He connects in different ways and for different reasons. Dean admits that he doesn’t buy anything online without first checking reviews. From Yelp to Amazon to Open Table Dean and his wife rely on reviews to make their choices. He also uses Facebook to stay connected with his fellow Seton Hall University alums. The Waze app helps him navigate traffic. Social connections serve him daily.

Dean is also a member of professional organizations like the Arthur W. Page Society, a professional association for senior public relations and corporate communications executives. He’s also a member of a group called Page Up where he can participate in a weekly online gathering of questions and answers. He has leveraged this group for his work at Phillips 66.

Dean is like many of us – he’s got many connections across a wide range of areas of his life, professionally and personally. Connecting and staying connected have never been easier.

Networking is about purposeful relationships. When we network we value the power of a personal relationship to achieve individual goals – both our own and the goals of those in the network. When we network we’re seeking out our peers to help us get a job, recruit clients, create business partnerships and more.

When people network we tend to not only exchange information, but work with others to create opportunities. We select peers based on specific, qualifying criteria. When we network we also recommend peers to others based on trust. We work with peers toward achieving a singular goal. By networking we understand there’s a higher degree of expected reciprocity. And we enjoy a moderately safer environment for exposing vulnerability. We also realize that participation is optional when we’re networking.

Networking gets trivialized because people tend to associate it with schmoozing at events or exchanging business cards. Jimmy Fallon credits networking for his rise from struggling stand-up comic to becoming a star on Saturday Night Live, and eventually host of The Tonight Show. He first benefited from the contacts of his agent, which led to auditions for Saturday Night Live. When he got that job he made sure to forge a relationship with the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels. When Conan O’Brien left Late Night, Michaels tapped Fallon for the job. Fallon reached out to Jay Leno for advice. All along the way Fallon was earning respect because he was a good listener and true student of comedy. In February 2014 he was promoted to host The Tonight Show.

Networking is about building relationships with a purpose. There’s a sense of reciprocity and that’s something you earn. It requires us to be selfless in our pursuit of our self-interests.

We need each other. When we put other people ahead of ourselves by helping them…they’re more likely to help us in return. This is so pervasive there are many organizations worldwide dedicated to helping people build their personal networks.

It’s the renewed purpose here behind Bula Network. To serve small to medium business owners with greater connectivity so together we can leverage joint relationships for improving our businesses and our lives. It’s the whole point of THE PEER ADVANTAGE.

There are a variety of organizations across the globe serving leaders and executives. Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) is one of the more prominent ones. In fact, just a few weeks ago we had Scott Mordell, the CEO of YPO on Leo’s podcast – YEAR OF THE PEER. Click here to watch Leo’s chat with Scott. It’s a terrific conversation.

Social media gives us instant, immediate and convenient connections. It’s less time consuming and less expensive giving us a great compliment to live events. Linkedin CEO Jeff Weiner understands the power of networking. His vision is that all 3 billion of the world’s workers will have a Linkedin profile and that every company, including non-profits, will have one, too. He wants a digital representation of every available job worldwide.

For professionals Linkedin is the place to go for networking. Not only can you have a profile, but you can also share what you care about and find others who care about the same things.

Optimizing growth is the point. Watch the Blue Angels perform and you’re left breathless at their precision and excellence. They achieve that excellence year in, year out with different pilots because of a process they call the debrief – a prime example of optimizing. After every flight – performance or practice – the pilots gather for a debrief session. They review every aspect of the flight, down to the smallest detail. They take turns talking about the errors each of them may have made. They also make firm commitments to the team that those errors will be fixed the next time. The debrief requires an acknowledgement and commitment among peers to get better with every single flight. What happens in those meetings stays in those meetings. Pat Houlahan says it best, “It’s not about who is right, it’s about what is right.”

They start the season practicing flying 45 feet apart and end the season flying in performances just 18 inches apart. Those early debriefs can last 4 hours each time. Eventually they dwindle down to 2 hour sessions and by the time the pilots are flying just 18 inches apart the debriefs are down to 15 minute sessions. Optimizing is about chasing perfection in the pursuit of excellence.

That can happen in business, too. It’s not just for precision flying.

You optimize when you work together in teams to bring excellence to a goal. Here’s what happens when we optimize: we work as part of a committed group to achieve a collective goal, we work in small groups or teams, we engage in an environment that’s moderately safe to share exactly what’s on our mind, we buy into the structure of the group as well as the collective goal and we realize that participation isn’t optional – it’s essential.

People who work together to optimize don’t just participate in the learning process, they drive an overall standard of excellence because they help one another become better! That’s how we accelerate growth.

Industry specific groups can be very valuable. We typically join them because we assume we’ll learn more and get the best advice from people who already understand the nuances of our industry. But there’s a problem. A common practice in one industry may be completely foreign to another. Stepping out of our industry into another one can offer us a perspective to help us achieve something new.

People who accelerate tend to be very particular about surrounding themselves with people who share their passion and determination to achieve a goal. They tend to understand the importance of engaging with peers who have points of view and experiences unlike their own. They’re committed to helping others because that’s how they help themselves. When people are committed to accelerate they also appreciate the unexpected, positive outcomes that are realized in deep discussions. They also value a safe, confidential space where they can share their aspirations and fears. Plus, they accept that participation is mandatory and that members hold each other accountable for what they do inside and outside the group meetings.

And you’ve just heard an ideal definition of THE PEER ADVANTAGE by Bula Network. It’s about accelerating your growth as a business owner so your business grows and so does your life! Visit The Peer Advantage to find out more. You’ll be glad you did.

There’s big value in putting an owner of a manufacturing business in the same environment as the owner of a professional services firm, and the owner of a digital agency and the owner of a custom home builder. By broadening the definition of the word “peer” there’s a diversity that brings high value.

Growth is about getting uncomfortable. I go to the gym every day. Some days I take it easy. I’m not 20 any more so wisdom prevails. But some days I know I have to push myself or I won’t benefit. Growth and improvement demand a degree of being uncomfortable.

Why does the peer advantage work? When peers engage in cycles of learning, sharing, applying and achieving there’s growth. Individually and collectively. Here’s why groups that optimize and accelerate are so effective.

Learning

It’s the 1st stage of the process. Sadly, for too many businesses it’s last.

Learning is about demonstrating the capacity to produce quality results repeatedly. Peer groups foster application of deep learning through collaboration.

Sharing

Peers engage in rich dialogue and also ask hard questions – and challenge each other to tackle complex issues. Peers reinforce and give one another permission to new ways of working.

Applying

Peer groups hold individuals accountable for practicing their craft and fine-tuning new ways of working. This peer-to-peer accountability is essential to the success of application of what’s been (and is still being) learned.

Achieving

Good behaviors replace bad ones. Achieving inspires believing. Believing fuels the hunger to learn and grow. It feeds on itself. It’s about walking the talk.

Those five factors for peer advantage will each get their own chapter, but here they are in quick review.

Select the right peers – it involves surrounding yourself with the right people.

Create a safe environment – deep conversations can best happen when you’re surrounding by people who won’t judge you, but will listen to understand.

Utilize a smart guide – every group needs a leader, somebody expert at facilitating the group’s discussions.

Foster valuable interaction – deep conversations happen by design, not accident.

Be accountable – being a member of a group that optimizes and accelerates well is to be part of a group where members don’t tell you what you should do, you tell them what you plan to do. Group accountability gives peer advantage its punctuation.

Generally, people connect more than they network. They network more than they optimize or accelerate. CEOs and business owners, whose time is extremely valuable, should invest their energy in these peer engagement activities in the opposite order. They should accelerate, optimize, network and connect.

Invest your time where you get the biggest value. Ask any high achieving, high performing business owner or CEO in a group. Peers will broaden and deepen your knowledge while helping you lead your company more effectively.

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A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS (Chapter 2) #5004 - THE PEER ADVANTAGE

A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS (Chapter 2) #5004

Peer Advantage, Podcast / By

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A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS (Chapter 2) #5004 - THE PEER ADVANTAGE

Today we’re going to summarize chapter 2 of THE POWER OF PEERS by Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary. This chapter is entitled, “The Pervasive Nature Of Peer Influence.”

Birds of a feather flock together. We’re all in the same boat. Great minds think alike.

We have a number of phrases and sayings that speak to the significance of peer influence. Bruce Cleland and his wife, Izzi, found out their 2-year-old daughter had leukemia. The survival rate was 55%. Bruce immersed himself into the world of blood cancer treatments, which led to a deep involvement with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Two years later, Bruce’s daughter was in remission.

To honor his daughter and show his appreciation to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society he rallied 38 people to run the New York City Marathon to raise money. With a few corporate sponsors (but mostly through individual donations), Bruce was able to raise $322,000. That was only after spending 5 months training and preparing. The group gathered regularly at a local restaurant or bar to compare notes and talk about their progress. Everybody was committed to the group and the cause. Because of that mutual support the group succeeded.

That 38-member team was just a start. That was the beginning of a successful endurance-sport fundraising program which came to be Team In Training, inspiring over 650,000 participants to achieve their goals and raise $1.3 billion for blood cancer research. That survival rate of 55% is 95% today!

Together anything is possible.

It Starts When We’re Young

Our folks knew the power of peer influence. That’s why they always wanted to know who we’d be with when we left the house. It’s why they wanted to know our friends.

In 2005 Gary Ladd, a professor of psychology and human development at Arizona State University, published a book, “Children’s Peer Relations And Social Competence: A Century Of Progress.” Peer relations are more balanced than parent-child relations. As children we’re largely influenced by these relationships.

Considerable research has proven that our level of self-confidence and self-efficacy is largely determined by peer influence. As we interact with our peers we learn things about others and ourselves that serve us with greater confidence.

Our peers also hold us accountable. Teachers threaten to punish the entire class if one class clown continues to disrupt the class. They do it because it works. We would all sit there thinking how unfair that would be, but the pressure on the evil doer to be held accountable to the entire class changed the dynamic of their behavior. Hopefully.

Peer influence drives learning. Lecturing is giving way to facilitating where students are more engaged.

  1. Students engage as colleagues not competitors. There are many benefits to collaboration and a sense of abundance.
  2. Students learn the value of dialogue. Dialogue trumps debate or discussion, providing students with richer and more meaningful conversations.
  3. Students learn to trust one another. Sharing and listening without fear of being judged builds trust. That allows for deeper, more honest conversations.
  4. Students get a taste of what abundance looks like. Students know that no matter how much they contribute to the group, they’ll always get more in return – and as they do, the group grows stronger.

Peer influence happens in the workplace, too. The Handbook Of Interpersonal Communication (by Knapp and Daley) defines peer relationships as “relationships between co-workers at the same hierarchical level with no formal authority over one another.” Peers serve as important sources of intellectual and emotional support.

The boss says something in a meeting, then the employees begin to talk about it. According to the book Seeing Red Cars by Laura Goodrich, they’re trying to make sense of it, but too frequently it results in people making assumptions and engaging in banter that doesn’t have much to do with taking action.

Author Ken Blanchard notes that up to 70% of all organizational initiatives fail. Leaders can’t impose their will, but they can create conditions that allow employees to make the organization successful and achieve those strategic goals more often.

Edelman Trust Barometer has tracked public trust in institutions for the past 15 years. In 2015 the barometer showed a decline in trust levels across the board. When we don’t trust our institutions, or government – we turn to each other. To our peers.

In 2003 Fred Reichheld, a partner at Bain & Company, created the Net Promoter Score (NPS). It’s determined by answering the ultimate question:

On a zero to ten scale, how likely is it that you would recommend us (or this produce/service/brand) to a friend or colleague?

The real power is found in our willingness to listen to our peers.

This influence isn’t always conscious. Are you a Mac person or a PC person? It’s more than technology. It’s community and you likely relate to one or the other. And if you relate to one, then you don’t relate to the other. At least not as much.

A study of buskers in a New York City subway showed that when people saw others giving money to the busker, they were eight times more likely to contribute than those who didn’t see other people contributing. As a lifelong retailer I can attest to the power of peers during a storewide sale. When shoppers see others pressing around the cashier counter making purchases they’re positively influenced to make a purchase themselves.

We have a yearning to be part of a community. Peer influence impacts that, even if we’re not consciously thinking about it. And it crosses all cultures.

The degree and how its manifested can differ from country to country, society to society – but the concepts and foundation are the same anywhere you go.

The power of peers is word of mouth at scale. We’re less inclined to trust institutional experts than the opinions and experiences of peers we’ve never met. We jump on Twitter and Yelp and listen to what others have to say. So powerful is this influence that in 2006 Time magazine name “YOU” as the person of the year.

Amazon, Linkedin, GlassDoor and many other online communities leverage the power of peers. We find ourselves collaborating through these communities. Even as members come and go, the communities remain strong.

Peer influence impacts winning. One of the most extraordinary examples of this is the women’s basketball team at the University of Connecticut. In 2015 the team won their 10th national title in 20 years. What makes them so dominant? Their head coach, Geno Auriemma, suggests it’s culture and having highly competitive players who are committed to each other. Players see other high-level players making sacrifices for the team. It influences all members of the team to put the team ahead of their own personal goals.

Having the support of a team is powerful no matter if you’re running your first marathon to raise money for a cause or if you’re part of a national title team of basketball players. At home, in school, at work or in sports – peers matter. Sometimes their influence is right up front, easily seen. Other times, it’s subtle and we don’t even recognize it. Peer influence doesn’t care if you’re the CEO or business owner because no matter where people work, or go to school, peer influence happens in person and online.

Your peers are critical to your success and happiness. They include everybody from those colleagues you see every day to perfect strangers who share a common interest (even if it’s just for a moment in time).

Conclusion

I hope you’re beginning to more clearly see the power of peers. Mostly, I hope you’re beginning to see how powerful it can be to help you grow your business and your life.

I’m working to help improve the business and lives of just 14 business owners to join me as I facilitate the charter groups of THE PEER ADVANTAGE.

Subscribe to the podcast

bula network podcast on itunesTo subscribe, please use the links below:

If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It’ll help the show rank better in iTunes.

Thank you!

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Let's Dig Into The Book: A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS #5003 - BULA NETWORK

Let’s Dig Into The Book: A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS #5003

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Let's Dig Into The Book: A Chapter-By-Chapter Audio Summary Of THE POWER OF PEERS #5003 - BULA NETWORK

Full disclosure: I produce the podcast for Leo Bottary, co-author of the book THE POWER OF PEERS. Maybe it produces a bias. Mostly it produces insights and enthusiasm around the topic as indicated by the subtitle, “How the company you keep drives leadership, growth and success.”

Chapter 1

“CEOs are faced with a singular reality: there are very few people they can reply upon for impartial advice.”

According to a study conducted by the Center For Leadership Development And Research at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance and The Miles Group, many CEOs struggle with isolation and a sense of loneliness. Almost two thirds of CEOs don’t receive any outside leadership advice. 100% of the respondents said they’d be open to making changes based on feedback.

Sir Richard Branson, “Many people think that an entrepreneur is someone who operates alone, overcoming challenges and bringing his idea to market through sheer force of personality. This is completely inaccurate. Few entrepreneurs — scratch that: almost no one — ever achieved anything worthwhile without help.”

CEOs can teach one another. A CEO can question the validity of joining a peer advisory group comprised of diverse leaders, “How will CEOs who know nothing about my specific business or my industry help me?” And some may wonder, “How much time are we really going to spend on issues that impact my company?”

By coming together CEOs help each other realize their individual goals. Instead of learning through reading case studies, they work in real-time on actual business issues. It provides a broader range of perspectives and business issues. Far more than a CEO would be exposed to from people at their own company.

But there’s something else…another benefit. CEOs in such groups begin to view their companies vertically and horizontally. They pay closer attention to the power of peers within their own organizations.

The power of peers is partly found in not getting answers, but in being questioned. That benefit is sparked because of a few fundamental elements found in an effective peer advisory group.

One, impartiality. Fellow CEOs aren’t bothered with the considerations of employees, board members, suppliers or customers. They have no agenda other than helping one another grow their business.

Two, shared challenges. CEOs in these groups serve completely different customers perhaps, but they share common challenges about employees, growth, profitability, executive development, technology, and a host of other things. Their diversity results in enhanced learning. The more they talk, the more they realize they have a lot in common.

Three, learning. Shared ideas across different industries, at different stages of growth…makes for rich conversations where deep learning happens. Sharing wins and losses builds trust, further deepening the conversation and learning.

Four, empathy. It takes one to know one. People who have never been a CEO can’t relate, but fellow CEOs can. The empathy of people walking in the same shoes is vital to creating an environment where shared experiences enrich everybody’s life.

Five, owning the solution. Peer advisory groups aren’t consulting firms. Instead of offering solutions they help members arrive at their own. And each member decides for themselves what actions they’ll take.

In 1991 Etienne Wenger-Traynor and Jean Lave coined the term communities of practice. It’s been described as “groups of people who share a concern, a set of problems, or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis.” That’s exactly what happens inside a peer advisory group of CEOs or business owners.

In ancient Greece craftsmen formed communities where members trained one another and shared innovations. During the Middle Ages guilds offered a similar experience for artisans.

Ben Franklin, in early American history, organized a group of 12 friends to provide an ongoing forum for structured discussion. That original group was diverse. There were printers, surveyors, a cabinet maker, a cobbler, a clerk and a merchant. They met on Friday evenings to talk politics, morals and philosophy. “Our debates were to be under the direction of a president, and to be conducted in the sincere spirit of inquiry after truth, without fondness for dispute or desire of victory,” said Franklin.

In 1793 the group originally known as the Junto became the American Philosophical Society, created “to promote useful knowledge in the colonies.” It still operates today!

Most people first heard of this idea in Napoleon Hill’s book, Think and Grow Rich. He described the advent of the mastermind group and how Andrew Carnegie and Henry Ford credited their mastermind groups for much of their success. Hill regarded these groups as the secret to success of all great men at the time.

As of 2015 Millennials represented 45% of the workforce. 28% of them serve in management roles. It’s a generation that relishes connection with colleagues. Digital and face-to-face connections are highly sought and valued.

The communities of practice found in a business peer advisory group – such as The Peer Advantage – gives business owners the ability to work on their current issues and challenges in real time. No case studies. No fictional scenarios. Real-time learning that happens from their own individual and collective experiences.

Peer influence isn’t the same as peer advantage.

We connect online or in person. Mostly we connect with acquaintances, even if they’re people we’ve never met before. We network online or at conferences and seminars. Maybe at local events. It’s likely more selective and with a purpose of advancing personal and professional interests.

There’s a difference between peer influence and peer advantage. In the first one we experience when we connect and network. In the later, we optimize and accelerate, two terms that are the focus of the book.

We optimize when we work together in teams to perform at high levels of excellence. Think Blue Angels or Special Forces. Accelerate is the ultimate means for gaining peer advantage. The objective is to grow, meet tough challenges, achieve lofty goals and grow as leaders.

Peer advantage is peer influence of the higher order. Peer advisory groups employ 5 factors essential to the group experience and to achieving desired outcomes.

  1. Select the right peers – find true peers who share your commitment to excellence.
  2. Create a safe environment – cultivate an atmosphere that is judgment-free, inspiring open dialogue and deep learning.
  3. Utilize a smart guide – someone who can effectively facilitate the conversation.
  4. Foster valuable interaction – establish a process that encourages rich and meaningful conversations.
  5. Be accountable – honor a shared expectation that you will do what you say you’ll do.

No CEO or business owner should have to go it alone. So ends chapter 1.

Buy the book here.

That way you’ll be able to follow along with greater detail. I hope to give you an overall sense of the book’s content, but would encourage further reading and study.

Peer groups are quite natural. We’ve experienced them whenever we’ve been part of a team or organization that works together toward a common purpose. As business owners and leaders most of us have NOT experienced them. Instead, we’re surrounded by our employees, including our executive team. And these are good, maybe even great people. After all, we had a hand in bringing them into our organization either directly or indirectly. We’ve also got vendors and suppliers. Some of them are close to us. We even socialize with a few of them because we like them. And we’ve got professional people helping us at every turn. Our CPA or accountant, our attorney and other professionals who help us navigate a variety of specific challenges. All good people. Some great. But they all need something or require something from us. It’s fine. It’s just how it is.

Through the years I’ve sat down with countless CEOs and business owners to discuss their challenges. In every instance, they’ve admitted there are many things in their lives that they feel must be endured alone. From the CEO who is having secret meetings to have preliminary discussions about an acquisition who confesses he can’t even take that to his CFO to the business owner whose wife has just been diagnosed with a serious ailment. Professional issues. Personal issues.

Every human being yearns for connection. It doesn’t matter how tough you are, or how smart you may be, or how resilient you’ve been (and still are). You need other people. There’s no such thing as the “self-made” man or woman. We’ve all had help. We all need help.

SMB owners are accustomed to going their own way. Maybe you’ve prided yourself in being unemployable because you just can’t work for anybody else. Maybe you’ve just been driven to do your own thing. Whatever your drives and motivators…you’re at the helm of your own business. It all rests on you and you wouldn’t have it any other way. That doesn’t make you immune from loneliness and the desire to have input from others.

There’s a trite proverb, but many would argue that doesn’t make it any less true. I argue that it’s completely false.

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.  -African proverb

Instead, I know that business owners can go fast and far together. Growth is accelerated when we have the help and support of others. We can reach higher faster when we go together. That’s what The Peer Advantage is all about. For more details just visit THE PEER ADVANTAGE.

P.S. Check out Leo’s podcast – YEAR OF THE PEER.

Subscribe to the podcast

bula network podcast on itunesTo subscribe, please use the links below:

If you have a chance, please leave me an honest rating and review on iTunes by clicking Review on iTunes. It’ll help the show rank better in iTunes.

Thank you!

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The Power Of Peers - GROW GREAT

The Power Of Peers

Entrepreneurship, Leadership / By

The Power Of Peers: How The Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth and Success by Leo Bottary and Leon Shapiro is a new book extolling the virtues of surrounding yourself with people willing and able to help you. Peers with no other agenda, other than to help you succeed.

It’s an experience most CEOs and top leaders have never experienced. Most of us are accustomed to going it alone. Well, sure we’ve got our direct reports, our employees, our vendors, our service professionals who help us with things like insurance and legal things — but we’re stuck knowing that at the end of the day, the decision is resting squarely on us and all these other people have a perspective based on what they need from us. It doesn’t make them bad people, and mostly they’re not driven by some conscious decision to tell us what we want to hear – it’s just how things go. People don’t want to disappoint us, so they acclimate to the culture.

It doesn’t have to be that way. There are better ways to go. Ways where we can surround ourselves with other CEOs and top leaders who are in the same boat we’re in. People capable and willing to help us move forward and people who need us to help them move forward. It so powerful that it can feel magical. The authors offer compelling reasons why CEOs should abandon the Lone Ranger mindset and find peers who will help them, and who will accept their help in return.

Randy

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The Power Of Peers Read More »

The Power Of Friendship On A Career (305)

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It was one of the first business books I ever read. I can’t be sure, but I think my grandfather (my mother’s father) had a copy. The book was published in 1949. It’s the classic book on selling by Frank Bettger, “How I Raised Myself From A Failure To Success In Selling.” 

There’s been a copy of this book in my collection ever since I started reading and collecting books. I picked it up for the umpteenth time the other day. The first page is by Dale Carnegie, followed by the author’s forward. These few pages demonstrate how powerful friends can be, especially friends who are peers with professional experience and know-how. Listen to them and learn.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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The Power Of Being Pushed Forward (303)

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Was Magic Johnson pushed by the likes of Larry Bird and Isiah Thomas? Were they benefited by competing against him?

Did Phil Mickelson push Tiger Woods? And vice versa?

People playing the same sport, but competing. Peers, but competitors. Each likely benefiting from the sheer presence of the other, knowing if they didn’t do their best – they’d be defeated.

It just speaks to the power of positive pressure, but in these cases, it’s the competition of the sport. For us, we’re competing in a market battling to hit the trifecta of business building:

  1. Getting new customers
  2. Serving existing customers better
  3. Not going crazy in the process

We have competitors who we want to best. Maybe we’re driven to excel because we want to defeat them, but our inner drive to excel needs to be deeper than that. Magic wasn’t just driven to defeat his opponents. He wanted to be world-class. And Tiger is still chasing a record-setting career.

What are you chasing?

Every human endeavor may involve testings, measuring, changing (trying something else) then seeing if that change is working or not. It’s the activity of forward progress.

In the case of professional athletes, the pressure of competition likely provides sufficient inspiration to try different things. A new move here or there. A different shot. Perhaps even a new strategy. To see if it may work against them better. And if it does, then to work harder to master it so you can keep advancing. And keep winning against them.

Business owners and entrepreneurs aren’t in a business that feels quite as personal as the world of a pro athlete. We don’t have an opponent on the schedule. Every day we face opponents. Things that would crush our business. Pressures from the market, regulations, relationships and more.

No sooner do we get one area pretty ironed out then we hit a snag in another area. Opponents are coming from every direction and we can feel overwhelmed to even spot opportunities. It’s the ongoing game of whack a mole that every business owner plays.

Our internal motivation is high. If it weren’t, we’d be doing something different than running our own business. But even our internal motivation can be tested after awhile. Energy to move forward is often tested. Complacency can settle in. And it can be hard to spot, harder still to overcome.

Enter the help others can provide. For us, as business owners, the persona of an individual competitor doesn’t do the job, but peers do. By surrounding ourselves with peers – other business owners, but not competitors – we’re able to experience the push to test, change, measure and move forward. Being part of a professional peer advisory group brings out our very best. It does for us what Bird did for Magic. But it’s very different because it’s not at our expense. Magic wanted to win. That meant Bird had to lose. Sports is a zero-sum game. Business isn’t.

A group of business owners is gathered. They’ve agreed they want to review their financials. A financial/accounting expert is going to help the group. Everything is confidential. This is a safe place.

The members are interested in key numbers and the ratios that indicate company health. Most admit they’re not as comfortable with this stuff. Some are savvier than others because the group is diverse. Not all of them have a financial background (or knowledge). Some admit they wish they were more fluent in financial understanding, but they’re just not as interested in it. That’s the reason they’re doing this.

Most admit they’re feeling a bit uneasy about it all. This isn’t comfortable. It’s like showing folks your underwear. It’s a level of vulnerability that everybody is feeling. But they know each other well enough to know nobody is going to judge them. They trust each other. And each of them is in an industry pretty unique to them. Profit margins vary wildly. So do costs.

The financial/accounting guru begins by telling them about key numbers worthy of their ongoing focus. He suggests a one-page dashboard each of them can craft for their own business by inserting some key numbers. He explains what the numbers mean so everybody can better understand how those numbers reflect their own company’s performance. They learn it’s like the dashboard of your car – it indicates what’s happening at this very moment. But the moment may change. Watch the numbers long enough and you’ll likely get some sense of a trend or direction he says.

They’re excited about what this push is going to do for them and their business.

As they dive into their own numbers, doing the exercises presented by the accounting expert, they’re filled with questions. The discussion is lively, energized by business owners who are sharing, asking questions and figuring out new things to test, measure and change. They’re all driven to grow by learning and understanding. Many of them admit they’ve never done anything like this before.

At the end of the meeting, they go around the room to provide any feedback on today’s session. Every member says it’s been one of the most profitable meetings they’ve ever been in. Not just a meeting with this group, but any meeting. Ever.

Almost every member mentions being pushed. Many confess entering into the meeting with some dread. None of them doubt the value of using what they’ve learned. In fact, they want their next meeting to focus on how they can incorporate what they’ve learned into their weekly management. So the agenda is set with unanimous approval to not let this excitement dwindle. “Let’s make this a permanent improvement in how we operate our business,” suggests one member. Agreed.

A private survey at the end of the meeting reveals that these high achieving, successful business owners would have NEVER done something like this were it not for this group. Wrote one member…

Never in a million years would I have told you I’d share my financial information, but it was eye-opening. It left me feeling more confident that my company is performing well, but I now know some things I can do to make it perform better.

Another said…

I was quite nervous about this meeting. I wasn’t sure how my company would stack up. So happy this happened though because my company’s success doesn’t depend on anybody else. Thank you.

Would this have happened without the group? Each member would tell you, “No!” And they all know they’d have lost one of their very best opportunities to grow and move forward.

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

Randy

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An Audio Book Summary: The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership by John C. Maxwell

The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John C. Maxwell (#12 The Law Of Empowerment)

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An Audio Book Summary: The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership by John C. Maxwell #5016 - GROW GREAT

First published in September 1998, The 21 Irrefutable Laws Of Leadership by John C. Maxwell put Maxwell at the forefront of leadership experts.

The book contains a variety of exercises that will help you not only plant the ideas firmly into your life, but they’ll help you improve your awareness and identify your needs. You’ll likely want to listen to each chapter more than once so you can fully grasp each law.

The Peer Advantage is all about leadership. The courage, conviction and drive to improve fuels the peer advantage. Leadership and personal growth aren’t for the faint of heart. The paradox is that vulnerability – the kind of vulnerability required to join a group of your peers so you can grow and transform your life – is the major requirement for anybody who will take full use of the peer advantage.

The pain of going it alone is an unnecessary pain. There is a better way – a more courageous path to higher success. Surround yourself with other business owners who want the same things you want – growth, improvement, transformation and success. They’ll lift you up and serve you. You’ll do the same for them.

If you’re interested in joining a small, intimate group of just 7 business owners from around the United States who come together via a video conferencing platform, then click here for details.

Now dive into this audio summary and get busy growing your leadership. Enjoy learning and performing each law –

12. THE LAW OF EMPOWERMENT: ONLY SECURE LEADERS GIVE POWER TO OTHERS

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Dealing With Saboteurs

Dealing With Saboteurs

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What do you do with a team leader or team member who is undermining the work and the culture? While you’re working hard to set sail for fast smooth, waters they’re behind your back (usually) drilling holes in the hull of the boat. 

Today’s show was largely sparked by two quotes. 

“Make sure everybody in your boat is rowing and not drilling holes when you’re not looking. Know your circle.”

And…

“Be careful who you let on your ship, because some people will sink the whole ship just because they can’t be captain.”

Every leader has or will experience saboteurs. It’s urgent that we find ways to quickly identify them, give them a short-period of time to stop their destructive behavior and get them on board or off our boat. 

Check out the work of my buddy, Leo Bottary. He co-authored the book, The Power of Peers. And he wrote two other books, What Anyone Can Do and Peernovation. Leo’s work is intensely focused on the power of who surrounds us. It’s a big part of the last sentence of that first quote, “Know your circle.”

Be well. Do good. Grow great!

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Traction & Momentum- Pursuing The Things That Work After Killing The Things That Don't

Traction & Momentum: Pursuing The Things That Work After Killing The Things That Don’t

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Do more of what works. Do less of what doesn’t. 

But that sounds easy. Empty even. 

Kind of like urging people who want to be rich with an admonition, “Get a million dollars!” Great advice. But how?

Today’s show is going to be full of vulnerability. Not whining or complaining, but explaining. Experience and insight are valuable. Expertise isn’t always transferrable – from person to person. Each of us is on our own unique journey. But we can all derive some benefit when we lean into understanding somebody else’s journey. It can help us figure things out for ourselves, which is the ideal outcome in all my coaching work. 

Success leaves clues, but so does failure. And modern culture often fools us into thinking the path forward is something different than reality. I recorded an episode over on my “hobby” podcast, Leaning Toward Wisdom that speaks to this.

There is enormous power in a mind made up. But that can work for bad, as well as good. A person bent on destructive behavior has made up their mind. Nobody can convince them that their behavior is harmful to their own life – and others. 

We want to make up our own minds. In spite of the times when we wish somebody would just tell us what to do – mostly, that’s not what we want. I’ve found that people crave somebody with whom they can shell things down. The obstacle is always safety. It’s hard to find people who are safe enough because we desperately want to figure things out, but we want to be responsible for our own lives. We don’t want others imposing on us, even if we do seek their help. Being helpful isn’t as easy as it seems. Mostly because selfishness gets in the way. 

These are important truths because every high-achiever or would-be high-achiever is chasing traction and momentum. We all want to build up speed so we can get some lift and go higher. But there are no principles of aeronautics to help us. This is life stuff. Everybody is unique in their environment, situation, natural tendencies, talents, connections, experience, and most everything else you can think of. 

Last week a client asked me for an answer – something I rarely do because my work isn’t about telling people what to do. Rather, it’s about helping them explore more deeply so they can figure it out for themselves. But once in a while, usually provoked by some specific challenge, a client will blurt out, “Just tell me what you think I should do.” This time I responded with more questions.

“Were you born in Ada, Oklahoma in 1957?” I asked.

“No,” he said.

“Then it doesn’t much matter what I’d do ’cause I’m not you. So let’s explore your options,” I said. 

We spent the next 45 minutes examining the choices before him. He settled on two and together we wrestled those down until he saw a clear winner. So it goes.

With that context in mind, I want to share with you my professional journey over the past dozen years since leaving the C-suite to set out to serve and help business owners, executives, and leaders. Traction and momentum are critical goals for every person I work with. And likely for everybody who aspires to their own growth and improvement.

One of the biggest questions we ask ourselves is, “When should I quit? When should I give up or pivot?” You don’t have to be an entrepreneur launching a new business to ask yourself those questions. Whether it’s about a relationship, a hobby, a fitness routine, or anything else we pursue – all of us wonder how long should we stick with it without seeing meaningful progress. 

Seth Godin wrote a book in 2007, The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick). It’s a short, but worthwhile read. I’m not certain it actually teaches you when to quit and when to stick, but I found it helpful even if it didn’t provide absolute answers. Frankly, I was never expecting Godin, who is quite smart, to provide absolutes. He provokes thought and that’s plenty good enough for me. 

We jump into the water and begin to pursue some outcome. After hours of swimming, it may be tough to know if we’re any closer to that far shore we were aiming to reach. At what point do you turn back? How much longer do you keep swimming? 

There are many stories of mythical failures – times when a person made a nominal investment at an early critical time in a company that wound up becoming a global behemoth, but the person accepted a modest return on their investment and walked away. They quit too soon, we think. Well, it’s easy to see that now, but perhaps in real-time that person made a choice that seemed best for them.  

How can we know? 

Sometimes we can’t. Time and chance happen to all of us. Sometimes good fortune falls our way. Sometimes not. 

Failure is our more commonly shared experience than success. We don’t want to admit it. Or talk about it. Ignoring or avoiding conversations about failure is more harmful than not though. We fret about our ego, our appearance, our image. Forget that we likely should fret more about our ignorance and our lost opportunities to learn so we can become better people. And in the process, perhaps find the traction and momentum we seek. 

I get it. We don’t want to be vulnerable to just anybody. Or everybody. I’m not suggesting we should be. It’s a decision best made by each of us for ourselves. 

I am suggesting that more of us step forward to be that somebody though because the world could certainly use fresh honesty. And wisdom. Plus learning. All of which can be had when we talk about, listen, and understand our failures. And the struggles we endure to capture traction and momentum. 

You drive through some muddy ground when suddenly you’re stuck. You give the car more gas. You put it in reverse. You put it back in forward. You’re going nowhere.

Eventually, you get out to take a look. It can’t hurt to examine the situation. The faster you do this, the better. I mean, how about stepping out to look when you’re first stuck? Isn’t that better than gunning the car and digging yourself in deeper?

Well, you’re outside staring at this wheel that’s about 3 inches deep in slimy mud. Nearby you spot some rocks and decent-sized sticks. It may not work, but you’re stuck. Best you can figure, putting a few good-sized rocks and sticks under the tire can’t hurt. So you give it a go. 

Back behind the wheel, you put the car in a forward gear and gun it. You hear the sound of the sticks breaking. But you’re still stuck. No traction. No momentum. 

Back outside you begin to think you made a mistake. Not with the sticks and stones, but in giving the car too much gas. You have an idea. You’ll repeat the process except this time, you’ll gently give the car some gas and attempt to ease out of the mud. 

Here you go. Nice and easy! The car begins to inch forward. You’ve got traction. It’s not racetrack traction, but it’s enough to get you unstuck. And right now, that’s all the traction you want or need. You inch your way out of the hole and within seconds…you’re free. Traction and momentum. And you’ve learned. You won’t make the same mistake of gunning it the next time. 

Our lives are like that. All the time. We’re making adjustments based on what didn’t work. Working to figure out what we don’t yet know. Or understand. 

So what can I share that may help you? Plenty! 😀 I have failed more than not, but I don’t suspect I’m much different than you. Or anybody else. Here’s the real rub. Some of us have won bigger than others and that can dwarf the failures. Others of us haven’t won so big so our failures can appear larger. It’s just a relative perspective. Mark Cuban’s failures and struggles don’t seem much to us as we admire his wealth ($4.4B net worth). But compared to Jerry Jones ($8.8B net worth), Cuban’s failures look larger. Fact is, we’ve all been fortunate, unfortunate and we’ve all failed and succeeded. Others can quibble over the difference and the magnitude. Who cares?

Professionally I ran companies until about a dozen years ago. It was then that I started doing roll-your-sleeves-up-get-your-hands-dirty consulting work. After a few years, I realized I didn’t enjoy the work. It was too disconnected from the people side of things to suit me. And my natural talents. So I pivoted into coaching entrepreneurs, CEOs, executives, and leaders in city government (that last one was purely serendipitous and I was thankful to one young man who reached out because he knew me…from there, word of mouth took over). Unlike consulting, this coaching stuff fit me like a glove. Deep, private, confidential conversations helping people figure things out – that’s how I’ve always rolled. It played into all the things I naturally do pretty well. Frankly, things that are easy for you. Best of all, it moved the needle in people’s lives and careers. Not me, but having somebody like me who could help THEM do the work of figuring it out – it made all the positive difference in the world. It’s rewarding. 

About 6 years ago I was introduced to the professional peer advisory world. Namely, CEO peer groups. I’d never been in one and I still wasn’t. But I was asked to form one here in DFW. As captivated as I was (and still am) with the notion of CEOs banding together to help one another, the situation just wasn’t an ideal fit for me. Culturally, I wasn’t a good fit. It happens. But I was still completely sold on the power of a group of people with one major commonality joining together in a peer advisory group. 

That’s when I introduced myself to Leo Bottary, co-author of The Power of Peers. Leo and I started a podcast. Today, our podcast is branded PEERNOVATION, after Leo’s company devoted to helping groups, teams and organizations elevate their performance through the incorporation of the five factors of peer advantage, as outlined in this book. 

For the past 5 or 6 years, I’ve studied the topic, talked with dozens of people who’ve been able to teach me firsthand the value proposition of people supporting and serving one another. I was a ready convert a long time ago though so it wasn’t much of a challenge for me to increasingly see the high value of peer advantage – people learning together by sharing insights, experiences, and wisdom. 

Almost 2 years ago, just months before the Pandemic kicked our butt, I’m sitting with a client and we’re talking about doing more of what works and less of what doesn’t. He asks, “How can you know? Sometimes I feel like things are very subtle.” As we talked through his circumstances, challenges and opportunities we both understood even more deeply than we had before – it’s difficult sometimes to discern. Recognition of traction and momentum – as well as recognition of the lack of those – isn’t always dramatic. His career was proof (so is mine) that sometimes it’s tough to figure out if you’re making progress. 

So I asked, “When you feel like there’s a lack of evidence, what do you do?”

He took a deep breath and mumbled, “That’s a good question. I’m not sure.” I encouraged him to think about it. We sat in silence for a few minutes. Finally, he said, “I suppose I follow my gut.” 

“What does that mean?” I asked. “Tell me what that feels like and what you’re thinking when you’re following your gut.”

He recited instances where he simply didn’t want to quit. He didn’t feel like giving up, even though there were no strong, definitive signals that things were working. As I probed more, he admitted that during these moments of determination, he believed success was possible. Even probable. He concluded that unless he had compelling evidence to show him progress (or failure), he based his actions on his confidence or belief in the thing. “I think I give up when I lose faith in it.” 

So we wrestled down whether he was losing faith in himself or in the activity. Sometimes both, he said. “Sometimes I finally conclude that the idea might be valid, but I’m clearly not able to carry it out. Sometimes I suppose I’m just the wrong man for the job.”

It wasn’t a statement of insecurity. Rather, it was a statement of big-time confidence and self-awareness. I told him about my son who operates a home inspection business. He got a master’s degree enabling him to rise in the land of public education. After a decade in that arena, he was completely bored, burned out, and sick and tired of being sick and tired. He loved the kids, but hated the system. Besides, he had an entrepreneurial bent. And he’s an extrovert. 

I told my client how different I am from my son. Now, you should understand that a big part of my work – especially early on in an engagement – is encouraging clients to become the best version of themselves. “Lean into being exactly who you are. Don’t try to be something or somebody you’re not.” 

Well, my son has skills that come naturally to him. Skills I don’t have. And I have skills that aren’t natural for him. I often envy what he’s able to do with ease…things I could never do, even with intense effort. It’s that old adage about asking a fish to climb a tree. Not going to happen. But squirrels do it with ease. While fish operate in the water with ease. 

Sometimes our failure isn’t really a failure. It’s learning. Sometimes we’re unaware of just how much of a fish we are. No wonder climbing the tree isn’t working out for us. Self-awareness is hard work. Coming face to face with ourselves is THE work I help clients accomplish. All our progress emanates from our ability to face our reality and if we’re displeased with it, to transform. Not by becoming something completely different, but by improving and growing. 

That encounter provoked me to think about my own traction and momentum. Within a few days, I had spent considerable quiet time looking more intently at my own progress – especially in this arena of peer advantage. My interest in it hadn’t waned, but over time I found myself doing exactly what I urged my clients NOT to do. Push water a hill. It’s a metaphor for attempting to do something not likely in our best interest. Or attempting to do something with such inefficiency that it’s basically not worthwhile. It’s a catchall phrase for futility. 

Staring into the mirror, I realized how guilty I had been in trying to push water up a hill. And like my client, I was going on gut – my faith and belief. I had no evidence my attempts were working, or moving me closer toward success. Fact was, I had very little evidence. But I so believed in it, I refused to quit. 

Meanwhile, other endeavors that I wasn’t even that focused on were growing. I was ignoring traction and momentum in these areas because I just wasn’t paying close enough attention. I eventually came to understand – with more clarity than I’d had in a long time – that I was a hypocrite. I was urging clients to do more of what worked and less of what didn’t. Yet I was doing just the opposite. I was paying almost no attention to what was working because I was obsessed with making what wasn’t working work! 

For weeks and weeks, I refused to quit simply I wanted it so badly. This thing I wasn’t succeeding at. Namely, my desire to build a professional peer group. I had long ago dubbed it, The Peer Advantage. So some weeks ago, in the middle of the night (when I do some of my better thinking and pondering), I decided to come to grips with it all. I coached myself through the process with tough questions and challenges. By the time I was done – and growing sleepy – I concluded that the idea is still valid, even terrific. But I’m not the right guy for the task. Like those things my son does so well that are almost impossible for me, I simply was unfit for getting traction and momentum. Rather, I’m ideally suited to facilitate groups when they’re gathered for a specific purpose, to achieve something specific. I’m also ideally suited for ongoing one-on-one deep interactions to help clients figure things out. But I am NOT ideally suited to sell and market and enroll folks into a professional peer advisory group. I love deep conversations, but I’m an introvert who despises selling in spite of the fact that I’ve spent most of my career selling. Influence is easy. Selling is hard. For me. But there’s something more important. A truth I came to better understand.

I love to craft and create content. Content to help my clients better understand. Content to help them figure things out. Content to help them paint themselves into a corner so they can at long last come face-to-face with themselves and move forward. 

I love to write. And to podcast. All that talk of “be a media company” is right up my alley. I’ve been a one-man media company for more than 20 years. I’ve just used it for more auxiliary purposes rather than more overt ones. And it makes sense. 

Couple my introversion with my need (and natural talent) to engage in deep conversations – and my natural curiosity to ask questions (and carefully listen so I can understand) – and it makes sense that the transactional nature of what many endeavors require…is something I simply don’t have. I could lean into trying to do the things I know work, but I’d have to go against my natural wiring to make it happen. And the older I get, the harder that is. And the less inclined I am to do it. 

I’m making notes. Pondering. Doing the mental wrestling we all do when we’re engaged in growth exercises and experiments. 

I come to terms with what I’ve long known about myself. Mostly by looking more closely at the things I do by default. Productive things. Things I love. In no particular order, I make notes. Writing. Podcasting. Videos. They all fall in the category of trying to share insights, experiences, wisdom – not in the spirit of “do this, don’t do that” but in the spirit of “this is what I’ve learned so far and it may help you, but I’m not telling you to do it this way – I’m challenging you to figure out if you can make application to your life.” 

Deep curiosity about others. I want to know as much as others are willing to share. The past dozen years of coaching have taught me that almost 100% (there’s always the very rare outlier) crave somebody with whom they can be completely free and uninhibited to share their fears, concerns, challenges, hurdles, and whatever else stands in the way of their progress. I love being that safe person for others!

So mentally – and emotionally – I made up my mind. I could hear Tom Petty sing, “It’s time to move on…it’s time to get going.” It was weeks ago, but I was afraid to go public. I told nobody. Not even my wife. Shame of failure was hitting me. Until I realized what I constantly preach to others – NOBODY IS PAYING ATTENTION TO YOU. They’re too busy with their own lives. We delude ourselves sometimes thinking that folks notice every time we trip and fall down. And we think if they do see us, they laugh. 

It was almost 4am when I smiled at the thought. And figured, if folks laugh, then it means they ARE paying attention. Good enough. Besides, it’s my life, not theirs. And I know what I’m really good at – and am not ashamed of what I’m not good at. It is what it is. 

Mostly, I was really tired of what I now saw as the reality – the hypocrisy. Soar with your strengths was a concept that the father of Strengthsfinder, Donald O. Clifton had taught me in his 1992 book entitled that exact admonition, Soar With Your Strengths. It resonated with me. And fit everything I’d long urged of my clients. Be more (and better) of who are you…instead of struggling to be something you’re not (and probably never will be). 

I was preaching solid sermons. It was now time to live them more fully. Mostly, to be true to myself in order to provide more value to others. 

So I’m pulling the plug on any attempt to build a professional peer group. I’m still very focused – as I’ve always been – in building and sustaining a high-performance culture (environment). It begins with helping leaders build the highest-performing careers possible so they can be more impactful. From there, it’s about growing people so we can have groups and teams that accomplish great things. It’s about leveraging high-performance right where we live and work so our organizations can benefit. It’s leadership. In a word, influence!

And now, for me, it’s about leveraging all my best skills, insights and experiences so others can derive the most value. Which, for me, means it’s about creating instructional, educational, inspirational and challenging content to help more people figure it out for themselves – faster and better!

What might that look like? I’m not sure, but I have some strong ideas. But I’ve learned this much, in order to grab onto something new and better, we’ve got to turn loose of something old that isn’t working. So happy Friday, June 4, 2021. I’m turning loose and it feels…pretty grand. Relief. 

Be well. Do good. Grow great.

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Small Business, Big Impact - GROWGREAT.COM

The Peer Advantage For Small Business Owners

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Exclusively For Only 8 Business Owners – Accepting Applications Now

Who You Surround Yourself With Matters

Designed for ambitious SMB owners intent on growing their businesses and their lives by surrounding themselves with other like-minded SMB owners. Now forming the charter group, accepting applications for just 8 spots. The group will be no larger than seven.

Are you willing to invest 6 hours a month to improving yourself and your business?

All the details are below, but you can circumvent that by clicking that APPLY NOW button below. Complete the short application. That will only spark a phone call or Zoom session where we can discuss this opportunity for you to grow your business, your leadership, and your life.

This is about hitting the trifecta of business building:

  1. Getting new customers
  2. Serving existing customers better
  3. Not going crazy in the process

__________________________________________

So whether you’re running a company, a business, or a household, you can’t know everything you need to know to be successful — no one can. We need the advice and feedback of people we trust.”
Keith Ferrazzi, Who’s Got Your Back

Create Your Best Future

Every day – many times each day – business owners face pressing issues. Some of them are opportunities. Many are challenges. Each must be faced with confidence, but that’s hard when you’re not quite sure what to do, or how to do it…and there’s nobody you can talk with about it. It’s private stuff. Secret. Not the kind of thing you want to go broadcasting. But deep inside you wish you could run it by somebody who has your best interest at heart. Somebody you could trust to help you.

Let’s get something straight: the concept of reaching out to others for support isn’t about changing who you are. It’s about enlisting the help and advice of others to help you become who you can be. This kind of peer-to-peer support and feedback is the often unacknowledged key behind the achievements of so many of the high-performing people I come in contact with every day. I’m convinced it’s the secret behind each one of us achieving our full potential in our careers, our businesses, and our personal lives.”
                                                                             Keith Ferrazzi, Who’s Got Your Back

Putting pressure on the truth changes everything.

You’ve got baggage that needs to be challenged with the truth. You could dump it on your family or friends, but it wouldn’t benefit you…or them. But your mental health – and your decision-making – are enhanced and dramatically improved by talking with people in a safe environment. That’s what you’ll find in the Bula Network – a safe, supportive environment where business owners can get the support they need, and where they can offer their support to other business owners.

As a small business owner you wrestle with a variety of real-life problems:

  • Cash flow
  • Sales slumps
  • Not enough hours in the day
  • Not enough competent people to help
  • Decreasing profit margins
  • Increasing costs
  • Too many unhappy customers
  • Family dynamics
  • Broken systems or non-existent processes
  • Uninspired employees

Frustration is too frequently a daily emotion.  Loneliness. Fear. Dread. They’re all contributors to helping us sometimes feel like we’re going crazy…all in the quest to own, operate, and grow our own business.

THE PEER ADVANTAGE

A group of trusted advisors, peers who understand where we’re coming from is the answer. You’re tempted to join the masses who think these relationships happen naturally, but they don’t. That’s why Bula Network exists – to help small business owners forge intimate, confidential relationships with other small business owners dedicated to helping each other achieve more. Your growth and accomplishment are largely determined by the people in your life. Bula Network puts you in the right room with the right people.

The peer advantage isn’t singular. It’s many advantages all rolled up.

  1. Bula Network will help you identify what achievement, accomplishment, and success really mean for you.
  2. Bula Network will help you figure out the most strategic path and plan possible to achieve what you most want.
  3. Bula Network will help you spot and identify what you need to stop doing so you can climb higher. Forward progress is enhanced when we can figure out what’s holding us back.
  4. Bula Network will surround you with people committed to ensure you embrace (and maintain) the change necessary to transform your life.
  5. Bula Network will give you the opportunity to grow in your own life by helping others grow in theirs.

Speed + Convenience = Saving Time x Making More Money

A PEER ADVISORY GROUP EXCLUSIVELY FOR SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS

You don’t feel like you’ve got enough time. You can also feel like you don’t have enough revenue, profits, or qualified people. Chase, chase, chase!

Here’s an answer. Not just any answer, but a great answer! One that will accelerate your growth while saving you massive amounts of time. An answer that will compress the time you need to solve your issues and seize your opportunities.

Right now you’re angry about something. It may be something nobody knows about. Something that you’re secretly stewing about. I want to know what it is.

Right now you’ve got some issue that is heavily pressing on you. Maybe nobody knows about it. I want to know what it is.

Business owners, particularly small business owners, are special people. We operate in a world much flatter than bigger enterprises. It’s less about our revenue. More about that flatness of our organization. It’s about how close we are to the actual work.

The small business owner is the #1. That proverbial buck stops with us. Always.

Unlike other leaders in the business world, the small business owner can’t point the finger at somebody else or look to somebody else for the answer. Instead, we’re the ones being looked at. Other people – employees, suppliers, vendors, partners, customers – are always looking to us to solve the problem, to seize the opportunity…to make things better!

It can be lonely. A grind. Exhilarating, but daunting.

Some people are ideally suited for that zero to 60 area where an idea goes from launch to reality. But gravity’s pull is still quite strong at 60. Startups can struggle to escape failure’s gravitational pull. Most don’t make it, but those who do can find the next stage less thrilling and more challenging.

Building a sustainable, predictably successful business is not easy work. The slog takes a heavy toll on the owner. Many pay a high price professionally and personally. We do it willingly, mostly with enthusiasm because we’re devoted to our idea, our business. We endure the burden of leadership knowing that many people are relying on us to make the business more successful. Many dreams and aspirations hang in the balance based on the strength and resolve of the small business owner. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Improvement. Growth. They’re not goals. They’re a process. It comes naturally to me because deep down I’m an operator. So are you. All small business owners are operators. We know that our business is a process, it’s how we spend our days that really matters. Sometimes we don’t get to spend our days doing what we feel best at. Or where we think we can really make the biggest impact.

 

The Five Factors of Peer Advantage*

*According to the book, The Power Of Peers by Leon Shapiro and Leo Bottary
(Year Of The Peer Podcast with Leo Bottary – Leo shares why he started his podcast here. It’s proof of how the power of peers can elevate our accomplishments and our performance.)

We’re pursuing all 5 factors of peer advantage as we organize the groups of Bula Network.

Select The Right Peers

  • A peer group is smarter than any one individual.
  • Leaders benefit from insightful questions and the impartial advice of their peers.
  • People prefer to implement their own solutions, rather than be told what to do and how to do it.
  • Success is the most effective means of driving positive behavior changes.
  • Leaders, regardless of industry sector, share common aspirations and challenges.
  • Leaders benefit from learning about industry practices not common to their own business.
  • Peer accountability is a powerful force.

Create A Safe Environment

  • Being vulnerable is liberating.
  • When you can share anything, knowing you won’t be judged, it’s a powerful force to help you grow.
  • A healthy respect for confidentiality is mandatory. What happens in a group, stays in the group. It’s not negotiable.
  • Vulnerability is seen as a strength, not a weakness.
  • Creativity and change are fueled by our willingness to be open.

Utilize A Smart Guide

  • True smart guides lead with the hand of a servant.
  • They listen, ask good questions, build camaraderie, consider themselves as coaches rather than consultants and wear their passion for the role on their sleeve.
  • The smart guide is part of the group and every member of the group has their back.
  • They reinforce group norms, create an atmosphere of learning and have fun – all at the same time.

Foster Valuable Interaction

  • Confidentiality is key. That safe environment fosters more open interactions.
  • Skilled, repeated interactions create close bonds among group members who share in the joys of repeated successes.
  • The use of a highly strategic and structured approach fosters more skilled discussions.
  • It involves properly framing the issue, asking questions informed by experience, and leveraging the power of a collection of successful business owners.
  • It provides an unparalleled opportunity for personal and professional development of every member.

Be Accountable

  • Accountability is where peer advantage comes to life.
  • It’s where the outcomes and takeaways each business owner realizes manifest themselves both personally and professionally.
  • It’s the whole point — to grow. To improve. To be more effective.
  • The difference between peer influence and peer advantage is that peer influence is an individual pursuit while peer advantage is a group endeavor powered by greater selectivity, targeted strategies for achieving goals, and structured engagement that inspires lasting results.

The Details. Nothing Hidden. 

It’s not complicated. Fact is, it’s quite simple. That’s why it’s powerful. 

THIS IS NOT A NETWORKING OR REFERRAL-BUILDING GROUP. It’s a business-building group comprised of small business owners determined to grow their businesses.

• The Peer Advantage by Bula Network is a paid peer-advisory group opportunity for 8 business owners to collaborate with one another, with me serving as chairman. Eight of us coming together with our collective insights, wisdom, experience, and perspectives.

• It’s a virtual group that will meet on Zoom. Easy, convenient, and reliable.

• We’ll meet twice a month for 90 minutes with a hard start time and a hard stop time. Speed. Convenience. Consistency. That’s 24 times a year for a total of 36 hours – the most important work you’ll ever do!

• Twice a month I’ll meet privately with each member for 90 minutes. Sometimes we need a more private stage where we can investigate options, weigh our choices, and put in the work to figure things out. These Zoom sessions will also provide an opportunity to help each member avoid their personal blind spots, accelerate their own leadership, and figure out if bringing an issue forward to the group might be their very best option.

• Additional learning via live/recorded webinars for members to attend/watch at their convenience. Lifelong learning is a common denominator in every business owner who seizes The Peer Advantage. We’ll help provide learning and insights on the hottest topics among the members. The Peer Advantage will also bring members other resources like book summaries, tip sheets, interviews, and more. These are in addition to our meetings – and these will be available “on-demand,” giving members the convenience needed for busy business owners.

• $2,500 quarterly (that’s right, quarterly – not monthly) There is a one-time enrollment fee of $1,200.* When you sign up you’re making a commitment not only to the group but to yourself. One day of mediocre consulting would cost you a whole lot more!

* Happiness Guarantee: The enrollment fee is non-refundable, but your first quarterly subscription of $2,500 is fully refundable within the first 30 days. No hoops to jump through. These 8 charter members will also get 3-Year Price Protection. Your quarterly membership will not increase for at least 3 years, locking in the current charter rate.

• No contract. Just the magic of experiencing personal, professional, and business growth. When you sign up you’re making a commitment to show up and begin making major progress in your business and your life. You’ll begin making major progress in your business and your life. You’re going to want to stay because the value is going to start out high, then SOAR. Failure to show up is on you. The value begins immediately, but the ongoing participation is where the real ROI kicks in. The more time we spend together, collaborating on our challenges/opportunities, the faster we can grow our businesses.

• “By invitation only.” The process isn’t painful or exhaustive, but it is intentional and purposeful. Every small business owner can derive big benefits from The Peer Advantage, but I’m not accepting just anybody or everybody.

The Ideal Candidate For The Peer Advantage

• Business owners only – just 8 very special small business owners to form the first charter group

• People willing to be human – people willing to share their experiences and expertise

• Smart, curious people anxious to learn – this is no place for know-it-alls

• Great listeners, great talkers – you must be willing to share and willing to foster that in others

• Hungry to grow, get unstuck and reach new heights of success/achievement – competitive and anxious to build more a more thriving business

• Fearless of accountability (and hard work) – this isn’t for dreamers; it’s for doers

• Committed to being high-achieving business owners

I’m currently interviewing small business owners to assemble the most effective group possible. Size and revenue considerations are just part of it. Don’t let your smallness or your largeness prevent us from talking, but I don’t want the investment to be burdensome to your business.

Quick Start Summary

You can submit your application in mere minutes. Click the “Apply Now” button at the bottom of this page. We use these details to ensure the quality construction of the group. The information you provide is completely confidential. Completing the application only obligates you to have a phone conversation with me so we can decide if this opportunity is right for you (and for me).

All applications are subject to approval.

Upon receipt of your application, we’ll schedule a phone or Zoom interview.

When your application is approved you’ll pay the enrollment fee plus the first quarterly payment via bank transfer or company check.

We’ll launch the group upon enrollment of the first 4 members. We’ll round out this charter group with no more than 8 members!

Enrollment Fee: $1,200 (non-refundable)

Quarterly Subscription Dues: $2,500*

*You’ll spend more on a monthly car lease. And your car won’t increase in value, help you make better decisions, or propel your growth and transformation. If within the first 30 days you’re unhappy, I’ll refund your quarterly subscription dues. Your happiness is guaranteed!

Total of your first payment, due upon approval of your application: $3,700

Now Accepting Applications For Charter Membership

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