The greatest value of a peer council — call it a mastermind group, a CEO peer group, or an advisory board — is rarely one big breakthrough. It is the accumulation of better decisions made over time.
Members gain a trusted group of business owners who can look at a problem without the baggage that naturally exists inside the company. They have no job to protect, no product to sell, and no reason to tell you what they think you want to hear.
That perspective can save time by helping an owner stop fighting the same problem repeatedly. It can save money by identifying a bad decision before it becomes an expensive one. It can uncover opportunities to make money by bringing different experiences and perspectives to the same challenge.
“Here is what is really happening. What am I missing?”
But I think one of the greatest benefits is simply having a place where you can put something on the table and ask that question. Over time, that does something else — it reduces some of the weight that comes with being the person everyone expects to have the answer.
Our councils also create accountability. It is one thing to leave your office thinking you should make a change. It is another to tell a room of respected peers what you’re going to do and know they’re going to ask you about it the next time they see you.
The relationships matter too. When you regularly work through real business challenges together, the conversations become deeper than traditional networking. Members learn each other’s businesses, leadership styles, strengths, families, ambitions, and occasionally fears — and that creates the camaraderie and trust necessary for people to challenge each other honestly.
Ultimately, I want a member to leave a TRC meeting with some combination of more clarity, more confidence, less stress, better decisions, and specific actions to take back into the business.
I understand what it feels like to sit in the owner’s chair, because I’ve been there. I led 12+ companies generating $25M+ in annual revenue, managed approximately 160 employees, developed leadership infrastructure, and expanded operations along the way. I know how exciting that journey can be — but I also know how easy it is for the owner’s world to become increasingly small as the company becomes increasingly large.
The irony of leadership is that the further you advance, the fewer people you can have a completely open conversation with. Your employees need you to lead. Your family loves you, but may not understand the problem. Your banker, CPA, attorney, insurance professional, and other advisors are incredibly valuable, but naturally approach an issue through their own areas of expertise. And there are some conversations you simply shouldn’t have with the people inside the business.
That leaves the owner trying to solve increasingly complicated problems with fewer places to speak completely freely. I wish I had understood the value of a true peer council earlier in my own career.
A good council doesn’t run your company for you. It gives you a confidential room filled with people who understand what it means to make payroll, hire leaders, lose employees, pursue opportunities, make expensive mistakes, grow too quickly, grow too slowly, and occasionally wonder whether they’re making the right decision at all.
They don’t take the responsibility away. They help make sure you aren’t carrying it alone.
TRC Peer Advisory Councils are intentionally structured. This isn’t breakfast networking, a leads group, or several hours of business owners trading war stories.
Members meet monthly for a focused half-day session designed predominantly around the businesses sitting at the table. We begin by checking in on the members and their businesses:
From there, the real work begins. Members bring issues and opportunities into the room. The group works to understand the situation before jumping immediately into advice — we ask questions, challenge assumptions, identify information that may be missing, and use the collective experience of the room to help the member see the problem differently.
Other conversations can involve partnerships, acquisitions, succession, sales strategy, leadership-team performance, employee retention, cash flow, major investments, owner dependency, or simply getting time back from a business that has gradually consumed too much of the owner’s life.
I don’t want every member walking out with my answer. I want them benefiting from the collective horsepower of the entire room. That distinction is important. The moderator’s role isn’t to be the smartest person at the table — my job is to create the structure, ask questions, protect the process, make sure different perspectives are heard, and help the group get to the heart of the issue. The CEO ultimately makes the decision.
They just get to make it after some really smart people have helped them pressure-test it.
Revenue and company size help us determine which council makes sense, but they don’t determine whether someone belongs in the room. Mindset does.
I’m looking for business owners and executives who are successful enough to have experience worth sharing, but humble enough to recognize they can still learn from someone else. They need to be willing to talk honestly about what’s happening inside their company — if everything is always “great,” a peer council probably isn’t going to provide much value.
Members also need to contribute. Sometimes you’re the CEO bringing an issue to the group. Other times someone across the table needs your 20 years of experience. The model only works when people are willing to do both. I look for leaders who will:
And I take those expectations seriously. A TRC membership isn’t simply a monthly subscription that guarantees someone a chair forever. If a member regularly comes unprepared, stops participating, misses meetings, violates trust, or consistently takes more from the room than they contribute, we’ll address it — sometimes that means coaching someone back into being a productive member, sometimes it means helping them find a group that better matches where they are. That selectivity protects everyone else sitting at the table.
We aren’t trying to build the biggest room. We’re trying to build the right room.
A peer council is also simply a different format — it’s not the right fit for everyone. If you’d rather work through these same kinds of decisions one-on-one, that’s what I offer as executive advisory and leadership development through JeffreyRands.com.
20–45 minutes, no pitch — if it’s a fit, great. If it’s not, I may know who can help you out.
Looking for one-on-one executive advisory or leadership development instead of a peer group? Visit JeffreyRands.com.