As a serial entrepreneur that is constantly curious about new businesses to invest in and grow, I don’t suffer from a lack of information about how to grow my business and/or sell it. I bet, one CEO to another, that we are both getting a ton of marketing, to our phone and email, that is overwhelming, irritating and making us more and more resistant to marketing.
This is a bad thing. Getting insular is not a recipe for success whether you are a one person startup and/or a 200+ employee experiencing massive growth.
The trick/challenge is this: how do you make sure you are making the best decisions and learning effectively ‘as you go’ so that you can continue to do so?
Another observation as a business owner that I am sure you share: not every communication situation is a ‘safe space’ to talk frankly about all the aspects of running a successful business. Holiday dinners are not often effective places to talk about how you are going to invest large amounts of capital to scale your business from a local to regional to national presence.
Let’s be direct, most people don’t own businesses and have no idea what is like, how many sacrifices we make to get there and how much money we create for our employees, families and communities. Often, all they see is our success and jealousy ensues.
Last Fall I joined an organization, the LX Council, as a member of a Peer Advisory Council (PAC) about an hour from where I live (at the time there wasn’t a local group I could join). I had gotten to know the moderator Henry Bass while referring a coaching client of mine to him and became so convinced of the value that when my client procrastinated, I jumped in and joined myself.
To go back to several months prior, I had been introduced to the owner and founder of LX Council, Tina Corner Stolz, at the 2023 Exit Planning Summit by the President of the Exit Planning Institute Scott Snider. We hit it off, immediately bonded over our prior commercial sales experience and began the process of becoming strategic referral partners…and good friends.
I joined the group, went through onboarding and began one of the fastest growth years of my 30+ year career. Btw, I ended up speaking at Tina’s conference and in January of this year bought my own license for LX Council to (a) start a group where I live with Henry’s blessing and (b) launch specialty PAC’s for financial advisors that own their own firms online at a national scale.
Back to my individual group. The group had been established for a number of years and, to be direct, I had a bit of a rough start. I was so excited about the prospect of being able to be a part of a peer group with other business owners that I talked too much, listened too little and came off as arrogant. The great news is that in spite of my early faults, I have gotten massive value from the group.
One of the biggest challenges for me when joining a group that meets for a ½ day per month is that time investment. It really is a challenge, especially when I am stressed out from trying to maintain control of several fast growing companies and joint ventures. The money to be a member is enough to get my attention, but not of any real significance to any moderately successful business owner.
Why is it worth my time and worth you exploring?
- I am darn well going to get value from something that I spend money on and devote a ½ day during the work week every month. That means that I have listened to the coaching from my mentor Henry, worked on being a better member and I prepare for every meeting.
- I learn something every single month. Sometimes, it is what NOT to do and that has been worth 10’s of thousands of dollars as I navigate the future. Sometimes, it is a perspective on a situation that I feel is unique to my business, but I find that the other business owners can provide valuable advice and feedback.
- I need to be able to break out of hyper growth mode and operating ‘in the business’ on a regular basis. The design of the meeting explicitly takes all members through a proven process to allow us to move into a more strategic and collaborative mindset so that the last half of the meeting all participants are doing deep work.
- In between meetings, I am thinking about and working on commitments I made at the prior meeting.
- Quarterly, I meet with my moderator and even though I am a veteran coach and business owner, we work together on my business(s) and how I am driving value acceleration and a culture that works for my team.
There are more reasons, but that should be plenty for you to make your own decision to investigate further or not.
Here is what I recommend you do:
- Visit www.lxcouncil.com to learn more about Tina’s amazing organization.
- Feel free to comment below or ask me in a message/zoom more questions.
- Remember that there are many different types of options for you in the mastermind space and that what is most important is to find the option that is the best fit for you and the group.
- Moderators are everything and not all organizations support their moderators equally. The compensation and support the moderator receives directly impacts your results as a member. I am confident that moderators with LX Council are at the top of the industry in training and compensation and that really matters.
- If you own your own financial services company you might want to visit my peer advisory council page on my website: https://strategicreferralteam.com/peer-advisory-council/
There are few things that can propel your business to another level and help you stay there than a properly moderated Peer Advisory Council/Mastermind group. Joining one isn’t like becoming a member of a networking group. There are multiple meetings and evaluations done by yourself and the moderator to make sure you have every opportunity of garnering all the value that the group can provide and to ensure you will be able to contribute as well.
You will not regret investigating one.
All the best,
Mike
