EO Thought Leadership Forum - Episode 015

Hello everybody and welcome to the EO Thought Leadership Forum. This is episode number 15. Did we make it to 15, James?

We did, Joe. It's crazy. I, I don't know. I, I love, I love the energy today. We just wrapped a couple of episodes and we're just going straight into this next one without too much thought, you know. It's good stuff.

So my name is Joe Apfelbaum from EO Brooklyn.

And I'm James Askraw from EO South Florida.

What are we talking about today, James?

Well, I just threw out there, let's just talk about Entrepreneurs Organization and just kind of a macro topic, and we can dive into what it means to us, what changes it's made in us, uh, future events coming up, and just kind of just our general level of excitement within this organization.

So what's the most recent event that you went to, just to give an idea to the people watching as to what this does for us? Because, you know, there's, there's There's forum, there's events, there's Nerve, there's a lot of different things. So pick one thing that you recently did within the EO ecosystem and you talk about it, then I'll pick one thing and I'll talk about it, and then we'll go from there.

You know, funnily enough, Joe, I'm holding here my new Nashville coffee cup. So let's talk about Nerve, which is our big regional event for this Eastern Seaboard here. And it was 2 full days. Event. Yeah, I've got my harmonica. I think you might be able to see it over there.

I've been wanting to open this, you know that. This might be the episode where I open the harmonica.

Oh, well, I'm eagerly anticipating some killer riffs on it, Joe.

All right, so—

oh man, here we go. Um, so yes, so Nerve was an event, uh, it's a conference that goes on every year. Next year is gonna be in Boston. I believe you're on the committee for Boston, aren't you?

I am, I am on the committee. I'm doing their communications.

Excellent. So I'm sure it's going to be a fantastic event. Really looking forward. I'm already signed up, so I'm thrilled. Um, so, you know, it's a 2-day event and I'm, I think, uh, I think what they have on the Western is Alchemy or something. They do Alchemy, the, the East, uh, the Western side of EO. I think they do Alchemy, right? Yeah. Yeah. So it's a 2-day conference where we get to hear some of the best speakers, thought leaders, We get to interact with other chapters. What are you playing there? That's pretty good. We should actually maybe use that as the intro/outro music. Get everyone going. So, um, so yes, 2-day event. We get to hear all these thought leaders and it's just a, I really, really enjoy it. You know, the social angle of it's amazing. Get to see people like you, new friends, old friends, uh, get really get to mix it up. And the, and the speakers are fantastic and, and it's just a really cool event. I really can't think of anything on my calendar that provides more bang for the buck than that weekend. It's just, uh, it's just absolutely amazing. And I, I'll be going to it every year. That was a great one, you know. So how about you? What event have you done recently?

The most recent EO event that I've been to was a test drive for EO Brooklyn. And the crazy thing about it was we've done many test drives in the past, and a test drive is where we kind of like test out Forum for new members and just to kind of give entrepreneurs a feeling of what Forum is. So Forum is a group of entrepreneurs that get put together that meet on a monthly basis to talk about your personal life, your business, and anything that you want to talk about to be able to help you grow as an entrepreneur. And it's, it's like nothing anybody ever experienced. It's like nothing I ever experienced. And everyone that I meet, you know, there's a concept called forum confidential that you— whatever you speak inside that room, you can say anything and it never gets spoken about. And there's no place in the world that you can talk about those things But, you know, they had a mock forum and the surprising thing was, I'm the forum chair for EO Brooklyn, I'm on their board, and the most surprising thing was that I think every single person that came to the test drive signed up for EO Brooklyn. Like, mind-blowing.

Wow.

Like, you know, they curated the list to make sure that everybody was qualified, but I don't think this ever happened before. We've had test drives, but, and that only shows as to the commitment of the people on the board and how really awesome EO is and specifically Specifically EO Brooklyn, the most awesome chapter in the world, 30% women. Go EO Brooklyn.

Second best, Joe.

Yeah, second best to Brooklyn is South Florida. Actually, we're very close with South Florida because every time we do a board retreat, we end up going to Miami. We went last year, we're going this year, so that's exciting.

And we've got NERV in a couple of years, right?

Yes, you got NERV in 2 years, and your current president is currently joining the calls because he's going to be making sure that it happens properly and so on. So I'm excited about going to Miami for that.

Right.

So I would say that that was an awesome event, but I think another event that I went to for EO New York, which was just as awesome, was the, uh, an event about creativity. And we have learning events a few times a month, both in New York and in Brooklyn, so I can kind of like choose, or I can go to Jersey or Connecticut. There's chapters all over the place. There's 11,000 members globally. And in the New York chapter, I learned about creativity, and this guy came up with a very simple concept. Use your left hand to write to access your right brain.

That's great.

And I thought it was a joke at first, and I thought he was going to give us tons of more content, but that was it. Like, literally an hour and a half talk just about that. And at the end, I kind of, for a minute, I thought, oh, that was such a waste of time. You could have just said write with your left hand, and I kind of would have tried it out. Probably wouldn't have tried it out. But he went through a series of exercises asking questions, and with each thing we had to write with our right hand and then write with our left hand. And half the room left, half the room left, but the people that stayed got real value. And I'll tell you, as a matter of fact, when I write in my journal, I think I mentioned this at a previous episode, when I write in my journal every single morning, I first write with my right hand about 90% of the way, and then 10% I write with my left hand, and that's where the crazy ideas come out.

It's amazing how the brain works, you know, because recently I was just at a restaurant with my kid, a couple years ago, whatever. I was at a restaurant with my kids. You know how they put the paper out with crayons and stuff and you can write?

I love that.

I started writing with my— I'm left-handed, okay?

Oh, wow.

But I started writing with my left hand, so my usual hand, but I started writing backwards. So I actually wrote letters backwards and then going from right to left.

Like Hebrew.

Okay, is that how Hebrew— forgive me, I don't know. So it's backwards, but I can write. The first time I did it, I can write as fast backwards and from right to left as I can going regularly without ever practicing it. It was the most craziest thing at that dinner. My wife was like—

What made you left-handed? Like, how did that happen?

How did it happen? Well, I was just born that way. This is actually interesting. My paternal grandfather was left-handed. My mother's left-handed and I'm left-handed, right?

Wow.

My paternal grandfather in England during the, you know, when I guess he was a kid in the '20s, '30s, whatever, it was, it was considered evil to be left-handed. So they made him learn right-handed. So he went through his life as a, as a natural left-hander, but he had to develop skills to be the right-hander, which is interesting if you think about it, because that really kind of makes the brain sweat, right? So I would love to be able to Quantify what in his life, um, you know, what brought it to—

Have you ever tried to write something with your right hand?

What's that?

Have you ever recently tried to write anything with your right hand?

I can write pretty, I can write pretty well with my right hand, actually in cursive, better than like print words. I can actually flow pretty well, but it's, I think it's also, I think my brain's kind of wired crazy because I play guitar right-handed. So—

Why do you think that?

And I bat a baseball bat right-handed.

Okay, so are you really right-handed or are you like a fake left-handed guy just to get into the club?

Yeah, it's, it's the club of aggravation because every doorknob's the wrong way. So, so yeah, no, I'm a natural lefty. So, you know, just getting back to your point, I think that's a, that's an amazing point. My takeaway from that creativity talk, which I think is fantastic, that he would just have this one topic, um, is that, uh, is to mix things up, you know, is to make your brain sweat and kind of fire some different neurons and create some neural path— new neural pathways to, to, uh, to really develop yourself, you know.

But personal growth is not for everybody, and not all human beings want to grow personally or have the courage to do that. And that's why not all human beings are entrepreneurs, and certainly not the types of entrepreneurs that join Entrepreneurs Organization. It's a very specific type of organization.

Yes.

Some people look at it like a cult or like this club, but people are very enthusiastic about it because it really changes lives and it gives people a place to express their true entrepreneurship. And you, you know, when you find people that are like you, they're not exactly like you, but they have the same challenges as most people that are driving growing businesses have. And you see, oh my gosh, I'm not crazy. I'm not the only— because in our community You might be the only entrepreneur around that faces what you're facing. You might be the only person that's going through the challenges you're going through. And how great would it be to surround yourself with dozens, if not hundreds or thousands, of other people that are doing the same thing, that have done it before, where you can learn from their experience?

Yeah, I mean, I just look at it as a very efficient toolbox, right? I mean, it's, it's a great place to go and find people who are engaged in the same things that you're engaged in. which is work-life balance, which is growing my business because I want to be a leader. I don't want to work for anyone else. I want to create my own businesses and have my own successes. So, it's a great way to get in there and surround yourself with people that can help you and support you, love you, all the good things. And then also, see some of these most amazing speakers come. These guys charge a lot of money to speak and we can pool our resources and get these people down to South Florida and spend a day with us and ask the questions that we want to ask. I mean, it's just an amazing thing. Now, going back to your point about it not being for everyone. I wrote about this in one blog post actually. It's called personal development for a reason. It's personal. So no one can spring this on you. No one can force personal development on you. It's something that I've really learned that even if you want to share with certain people about your personal development growth—

They may not want to hear it.

They don't want to hear it because it's not personal to them. It's got to come from within them. So, that's been a really great learning curve for me too throughout this whole EO process is that personal connection.

Just the people. I would say the number one value of EO is the people.

Agreed.

The relationships that I built, people like you, people like the hundreds of other people that I've met around the globe, traveling to Athens, traveling to Israel, traveling to all over the United States, Canada. Anywhere I went, I met EOers and I could just say that they're a different breed. They're more of the type of people that actually take responsibility. And every single EOer that's a long-term EOer, that's an EOer for life, not an EOer that's kind of just trying it out and realizes it's not for them, but they say, this is my tribe.

Yep.

These are my values. I wanna learn and grow. I wanna be bold. I wanna boldly go. I wanna make a mark. I wanna do the things that align with the values of EO globally. I think that if you're like that, And you value— if you're a lifelong learner, if you value that, it's something you should consider looking into if you're not part of it. And if you are part of it, let me tell you, if you're not engaged in the local events and the regional events and the global events, you are missing out big time.

You sure are, Joe. And, you know, just to go to your point about reaching out to other chapters and such, we've actually got a forum coming up next week and we've got a forum coming down from South Carolina. So we're going to do a joint forum. Which is the first time we've done that. We're gonna be really excited.

Wow.

Yeah, it's gonna be really good. I think it's like 15 of us in one room together. We've got a joint agenda. It's gonna be fantastic. And also, I mean, I have firsthand experience of going down to places like Panama, Costa Rica, and reaching out to these chapters and just being welcomed with open arms, dinners and events and all these great things that never would have happened if it wasn't for EO. I mean, EO just kind of sets the bar and it's a social proofing process at its core. I mean, people, if someone calls me up and says, hey, I'm from EO so-and-so, you wanna grab coffee? 99% of the time it's gonna be a great coffee meeting, I'm gonna learn something and it's just really powerful stuff. So just to piggyback off your comment, absolutely. If you're not engaged, if you're not putting yourself out there to meet new people in EO, if you're not attending the events, and going to all the learning events and asking questions at events, you know, from the speakers and being engaged, then you really are leaving stuff on the table.

Value on the table. Thank you very much, James. Thank you all for watching this. If you found this valuable and you want more information, you can go to eonetwork.org to find out more information about EO. To find out information about EO Brooklyn, you can go to eobrooklyn.com. To find out information about South Florida—

eosouthflow.com.

Yes, southflow.com. F-L-O-W. .com.

E-O-S-S-L-O-F-L.

Okay, cool. And, um, if there's anything else, any ideas that you have, or any other value that you're getting from it, comments below. Share this, like this if you agree, and I hope to see you all at the next episode. Let us know what you think about this stuff. We'd love to hear your feedback. Take care, everybody. Thank you, Joe. Bye.