Sam Trumps

You need a CEO peer group. I joined a decade ago: - 10x’ed my businesses - I now “tapdance to work” - More time with family/friends Here’s my story. 🧵

My bud @girdley has built a massive holdco. 12 businesses, $100m. And he has a framework for finding businesses ideas I had never heard of. It's called Effectuation & it has 5 core principles: 1) Bird-in-hand: business ideas start with your means—what you know, who you know, who you are 2) Affordable Loss: estimated downside > expected return 3) Crazy Quilt: obsess over partnerships vs. competitors 4) Lemonade: treat inevitable surprises as gifts vs. annoyances 5) Pilot-in-the-plane: focus on what you can control, stop trying to predict Listen to our 24-minute Founder's Journal epi to help you find your next big business idea 👇

Announcing our latest Expert Partner! Kevin Shaughnessy, the President of Sales Implementation, LLC, is a Business Coach and serves as an Outsourced VP of Sales powered by Sales Xceleration. He's a pro at sales growth and building sales teams for small businesses.

We used a 120-day playbook to launch a cash-flowing business. @joinScalepath became profitable in month 2. Here’s how we did it — and the formula for you to copy:

If you want to learn more about this story, It's from @joinscalepath member @MarkMagaro, who recently ran a turnaround on a playground equipment company called EcoPlay Structures. Here is his story in detail:

You need a CEO peer group. I joined a decade ago: - 10x’ed my businesses - I now “tapdance to work” - More time with family/friends The Problem As a CEO, you’re on your own. It’s lonely and you’ve no professional peers. And, you’re missing skills. There’s no “class” to be a business leader. The Answer: A CEO Peer Group The members are running businesses like you. Same journey. People you bounce ideas off, get feedback, and talk about anything. There are many formats: - Online/In-person - By Industry - Location - Some even faith-based Most have confidentiality rules, and often non-competes or non-solicits. My Peer Group Story I had been a CEO for about 6 years. I was stuck. I asked around about Vistage, EO, Tab, all sorts of different groups. And it turns out feelings were mixed: Some people totally loved them, and others not. Making Peer Groups Work The people that loved them were all-in: - Totally open - Growth mindset - Humble - Leaned into the process Either you were coachable – or you wasted everyone’s time. My search I looked at many CEO groups Each had a personality. I wanted the most exclusive and hard-charging group. That’s my nature: lighthearted, but serious. The best ended up being @tomcuthbert’s @vistage group. I got referrals, references and joined. — Here are the 7 Ways My CEO Peer Group Changed My Life… 1. Defeated Impostor Syndrome Looking back at my 20s and 30s, I had it. I was terrified of failure. I wouldn’t even try. With other CEOs, I learned that they were trying things, failing, learning, trying again. If they could do it, I could do it, too. 2. Becoming Humble Girdley in his 20s/30s was a jackass. I was the “smartest guy in the room.”. I’d jump to a conclusion. In my group, I saw I had to be humble and coachable. These days, I say, “Here’s what I think, but I could be wrong.” 3. Inspiring Gratitude In a group of 18 CEOs, everybody brings in problems. I walk in feeling my problem is big. Every time, somebody else’s problem is 10x worse. Might be theft, or bankruptcy, or even cancer. I feel grateful for how good I have it when I hear my peers talk. That monthly dose of gratitude makes me better. 4. Accelerated Learning Nobody teaches you to be a CEO. Before, everything I was winging it. But my CEO peer group showed me new ideas. I made my biggest transformation: Systems-based thinking. Now for any issue: is there a system for this? Hiring, strategy, HR… I find the best system first. 5. 10x’ed Ambition I’m a competitive guy. (Shocker!) My CEO peers are friends. But deep down, these high-achieving people raised my sights immensely. My personal standards 10x’ed more. 6. More Friends CEO of a small business is the loneliest job in the world. You can be friendly to your employees, but you can’t be their friend. I've made lifelong friends through my peer group. I came for the learning, stayed for the friends. 7. Mindfulness Mindfulness is thinking about your thinking. When you’re neck deep in day-to-day operations, that’s impossible. I now slow down, think deeper, and take the long vie. My Advice: Just Try It! If you’re serious about growth, try it. Two groups I recommend: - In-person group? Vistage via @tomcuthbert. - Smaller biz or want virtual? @joinscalepath via @Sam_Trumps (I’m a cofounder!) Look at others, too. It will change your life. It did mine! — Please reply/bookmark/like this to help me on my mission: To fill Twitter/X with high-quality content. Follow @girdley for more like this. Michael

Announcing our latest Expert Partner! Heather owns Viso Business Capital and has spent 30+ years running SBA lending units for banks of all sizes. We get tons of questions on small biz financing and Heather’s a pro on this stuff. Who should we add next?

From the "Wins" Slack channel at @joinscalepath this morning. If you're not in a CEO peer group, you should be.

A peek inside our first cohort:

There are so many SMB owners that would benefit from community and basic best practices, but aren't big enough for EO or YPO. @girdley is trying to solve that - @joinScalepath is built (and priced) for folks in the knife fight.

This is cool. Even in an ideal business with sustainable competitive advantage, much / most of what you do every day is “tastes like chicken” stuff common to all businesses. Might as well get playbooks for that stuff, so you can focus more attention on your differentiators.

I reviewed my notes from the business mentoring I did in 2022. I noticed the same advice came up repeatedly. Here are the top 11: 🧵

I have a remote employee in New York. Given the hassle required to have one single employee there, I decided to delegate 100% of the state HR admin to him. It only took 3 days and he now refers to it as “The People’s Glorious Democratic Bureaucratic Republic of New York.”