Last week I was talking to a local entrepreneur about peer groups. This particular entrepreneur has built a multi-million dollar revenue business with dozens of employees after years of high growth. Now, the business is much larger than him and he’s spending more time as a business manager, and less as a scrappy, growth-oriented entrepreneur. He wants to scale to the next level, and is looking for a peer group to share ideas and grow as a leader.
My recommendation was to consider the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) and the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO), both of which have been immensely valuable to me. In addition to strong programming and networking, the heart of each organization is the small group (usually eight members) forum experience. Forums meet monthly for four hours in a setting of strict confidence and high commitment. The confidentiality is serious — nobody, nothing, never.
Forums often have a consistent agenda:
- Opening
- Lightning round
- Short questions for every person in the group to answer
- Monthly updates (10 – 15 minutes per person, inclusive of questions)
- Business
- Last 30 days
- Highlights
- Lowlights
- Next 30 days
- Most looking forward to
- Least looking forward to
- Last 30 days
- Family
- Last 30 days
- Highlights
- Lowlights
- Next 30 days
- Most looking forward to
- Least looking forward to
- Last 30 days
- Personal
- Last 30 days
- Highlights
- Lowlights
- Next 30 days
- Most looking forward to
- Least looking forward to
- Last 30 days
- Business
- Presentations
- Member does a deep dive on a topic, the groups asks questions, the group shares experiences, and the presenting member closes with any takeaways
- Closing
A small group of people committed to helping each other and meeting on a regular basis is one of the most powerful things I’ve ever experienced.
Entrepreneurs would do well to seek out a peer group like EO or YPO. For me, it’s made a tremendous impact.
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David Cummings, Khareem Sudlow
