If you have spent any time researching peer advisory groups, you already know the names. Vistage. The Alternative Board. EO. YPO. C12. Each of them has a website, a pitch, and a track record. These groups are high quality operations and I have many friends who run these cohorts.
While they have many strengths, they share something else in common. They are each corporate offerings, built for scale.
Built for Scale, Not for You
The dominant peer advisory models were built around business owners across the spectrum of industries, business models and maturity.
Selling HVAC systems is very different from selling professional services and expertise. The mechanics are very different in almost every dimension. That is not a criticism of those organizations. It is a structural observation. They were designed for a more general audience.
The Franchise Tradeoff
Most of the established peer advisory brands operate through a franchise or licensing model. A certified chair runs a local group under the parent organization’s methodology, curriculum, and brand standards. There is consistency in that approach, and for some participants, that consistency has real value.
The “chair” is running someone else’s playbook. A generalized “curriculum” and materials.
The tradeoff is that the curriculum was built for a median member, not for sellers of expertise. The facilitator’s training was designed to serve a broad population of business owners, not a narrow population of people who sell intangible services, have to exhibit expertise and have deliberately stayed independent.
For someone running a professional services practice, the gap between what those groups offer and what you actually need can be significant.
Unicorn Groups
There is no shortage of peer advisory options for the entrepreneur who built a company. There is a significant shortage of structured peer environments for the independent expert – a person who makes their living from knowledge. It’s a unique type of business that needs a unique kind of peer advisory group.
The Independent Expert Advisory Council was built to fill that gap. Ten seats. One facilitator with nearly four decades in independent practice. Every person in the room is already successful and operating the same business model. The problems that get worked in each session are the problems that often arise with running this kind of practice – price pressure, poor fit clients, drifting positioning, operational challenges, etc.
The fact is these kinds of businesses tend to experience the same learning curve between years three and ten. It’s slow and painful.
The right peer group can speed knowledge acquisition significantly.
How to Evaluate Your Options
Before committing to any peer advisory group, it is worth understanding what each of the major options actually offers and who it was designed to serve. The differences in structure, cost, membership criteria, and facilitation philosophy are significant, and the right fit depends heavily on the kind of business you are running and the kind of problems you are trying to solve.
