Leveraging Peer Networks: Navigating Change to Empower Your Business with Tim Schaefer

Hello and welcome to Mastermind Mastery, the podcast for professionals who want to create and run successful peer advisory councils, or as we call them, PACs for short, or they're also known as peer groups or business mastermind groups. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz, founder of Elixir Council, where I've been in the industry running groups since 2005 and now help those like you with education, certification, and support wanting to do the same. At one time, I ran 10 groups, nearly 100 members, and sold my groups For a Good Multiple and recently released my second book, Your Seat at the Table: How to Create and Run Your Own Peer Advisory Councils, published by Forbes, and grateful to you that it's an Amazon bestseller. I invite you to join each week where we share strategies and techniques to successfully launch and become a master of running your PACTs. You'll hear insights, perspectives, dos and don'ts, learn from my and my guests' mistakes, successes, and get the inside track to key takeaways. Each time we have a guest, we'll be having a bit of fun. So are you ready? Let's get going and dive into today's episode.

So welcome everyone to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. I'm your host, Tina Corner Stolz, and today's topic is actually multifold of a niche group. You're going to hear about farm agricultural group but also concepts and takeaways on like deep dives into how you drive change when you're leading peer groups, and also kind of a concept around peer review case study approach that you'll hear from our guest today involving family operations and ownership. So to talk about this is Tim Schaefer, who's certified financial planner, Encore Wealth Advisors and Consultants, where he advises family and business owners.

And welcome, Tim, to today's show.

Well, it's great to be here. Thanks.

Absolutely. So I love having you today because you are doing a group that's close to my heart. Because I— for many of the listeners, they know this, but I grew up on a farm in Missouri. And I always think back about, well, what if I had stayed on the farm and that was my career? And that kind of thing. Because I really valued that time growing up on the farm and everything it teaches you. And it's very, very hard business, which I know you're going to share some of those challenges that exist, particularly today, because it's evolved so much. But I am excited to have you to share your insights with the listeners today. And let's start off with, why don't you tell them a little bit about where are you, where are you from? Okay, like, where are you doing these groups? And just a little bit about the group's Executive Farmer Network is what you call them. And you've been doing this for 14 years, so you are a pro and a master. And so, um, I'm learning every day, right? That's right, exactly. It's never ending. Yes. So I'm going to turn it over to you and share a little bit about your group and where you're, where you're from, etc.

Yeah, so I live in Morris, Minnesota, which, which I tongue-in-cheek say is, you know, it's, it's Podunk Minnesota. And I love it. And the best part about my job is I get to go to other podunk towns all across the US and meet real— and Canada, actually. We have a fair number of clients in business in Canada as well. And meeting great people in small towns but running fairly significant businesses. And we often don't think of farms as a business. We think of it, you know, there's a lot of stereotypes. But no, these are, these are high-risk, high-dollar, uh, high-dollar operations that, uh, that we have in our executive farmer network.

So yes, and just to take a minute to help our audience, because I'm sure many people never thought like, wow, farmers could be part of a peer group. But a little bit about, to your point, is significant it is a significant business. And even if somebody's doing a group in kind of a more rural community, they could still have a farmer be part of their group, you know, with other business owners. But maybe share with the audience a little bit more about that when you say significant and risky.

Yeah, so, um, high risk. So on farms, a lot, a lot of what they sell are commodities. So, so they're— and commodities are, are typically traded on some sort of exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, or there's some, there's a lot of volatility in what they sell. And so adding, you know, a lot of the value-added type things, it's very difficult in farming. When we talk about significant, we, you know, we have, I would say on the small end, 5 employees up to over 500 employees in our peer groups, it really depends on what they're producing and how and The thing about agriculture is that these tend to be very private individuals, farmers, because they're always competing for resources. So, they want that land that comes up for sale next door. They're all competing for it. They're all competing for labor. So, if we think that labor is tight in metro areas, it's excruciatingly tight in rural areas. So talent for labor, you know, all labor and really resources in general. And so they tend to have historically kind of a bunker mentality, right? It's me against the, you know, I always say our farmers, you know, they have kind of a Superman complex and they need it every day because it's them against nature, you know, them against their neighbor in a good way.

Sure.

But with a peer group, here's the thing, a lot of the farms that we work with, they're the biggest, they're the biggest, most progressive. And it's like, who do they talk to when they have questions or ideas about how to take their operation to the next level? Well, the thing is, if they look to their left, they look to the right, there's no one there. They're at their pinnacle. And so we tend to work with really, really top-tier farms and move them even higher yet. And in order to do that, they cannot be talking to their neighbors.

Right.

So we have, you know, really at a minimum, we're looking at 100 miles between operations. And sometimes that isn't even enough, just due to how large they are and their footprint.

So, right.

So they can't be competing because when we take a deep dive in our peer groups, it's really deep. And we, you know, our process is pretty intense and we share everything, financials, operations. I mean, everything from our employee handbook to how we hire, how we fire, our transition plans, our estate planning documents for ownership. I mean, Everything gets put on the table, uh, sooner or later.

So a couple of points here. One, I would love for you to expand on the format because there is a reason you have your format the way it is, because the seasonality in the farming industry, etc. But also I want to point out and underscore something you said for the listeners, which is really your— the geography is, is the part of the non-compete aspect. It's, it's So you have everybody that's in the same industry. So geography is a big component of how you make sure everybody's comfortable for that confidentiality and vulnerability that you're talking about, right? Yeah. So will you share a little bit more about your format and kind of why it is that way and the success that you have behind it? Because it is a special format for them.

It is. So our format is we meet only twice a year. Okay, and the reason is, is because when you live in a rural community and you have to travel to another rural community that's not real close, that is a day of travel. And sometimes it's an expensive day of travel because some of these places are not served. You know, as an example, I'm 2.5 hours away from an airport. So, so unless I fly my own, my own self with my own airplane, locally here. If I have to hop a jet some days, it's a day's travel. That's for everybody. And so that's part of it. But then there's also the seasonality of agriculture where there's really busy times, and then there's the winter months tend to be just a little bit slower. So only 2 times a year is the time that we meet, and we meet face to face, and we meet for 2 and a quarter days. So, so it's a, it's a big commitment, but we only meet twice a year. Um, and then, uh, a little bit on the format is we create— so everyone takes their turn being a host. Okay. And when you're a host, can I ask a quick question about that?

Yeah. Do they stay on the farm, or literally can you find a place close enough for everybody to spend the night?

Oh, great question. So we've done all— pretty much all of the above. Yeah, I mean, pretty much every place has a hotel, you know, within a few miles and such like that. But we've done some really neat things where we'll rent— where the host farm will rent out— we just got back from Canada and they rented out a— it was a I don't know what you call it. It's kind of a retreat center, and we all stayed at the retreat center. So all of our meals were there, our rooms were there. When we got done at the end of the day, we were sitting around in chairs there. So, so you really— and we've done this at hunting lodges before, so it can be— so I guess we get to be really, really tight with each other because these groups are only between 7 7 and 10 farms in the group, right? And so you get to know each other really, really well. And sometimes the value is in the meetings, and sometimes it's an ad hoc conversation that just happens. But we get together twice a year, and everyone takes turn hosting, you know, about every— you know, there's a rotation. And when you're a host, you're the one that's actually under the microscope, so to speak. You're the one that we create a case study. So before, so before the meeting happens, our office is reaching out, we're creating anywhere, I mean, probably an inch to a 2-inch book binder made up of everything about that farm, from biographies to history to, to handbooks to financials to things that we call areas of concentration. So what do they want the group— what are the burning issues that they want the group to focus on? Right. So that, that's how we help prepare the host.

So you really work with them a great deal before that meeting to get all that data?

Oh, yeah, absolutely. And we do all the logistics. So we're planning here in this office. So we're almost like a travel agency of sorts because we're planning the venues. The meals, the, the transportation, all, all of that. So just, just because frankly we're good at it and, and we don't like to leave things to chance. And so we've got our standard operating procedures, our checklist, and we just, we got a great crew here that just, that just rolls on through it. So everyone gets this case study about 2 weeks before the meeting. That gives them time to look through it. That gives them time to really orientate themselves to what's happening. And when— and what that allows us to do is to walk into the meeting, all having a base set of knowledge about this farm that we're all, you know, pretty much all there. And then we— oh, by the way, before that, we also survey— we run through a series of surveys for all employees. So we're doing like an employee survey that covers a whole host of topics, stuff that the owners have never had their— asked their raised for before. It's all anonymous. We get the data and, and we, we keep it secret about who's, who said what.

Okay, amazing.

Yeah, so, so we're putting a lot of work into it.

Um, that's a lot of value.

Well, thank you.

Yeah, yeah, that's a— that has to be so much— how much about, you know, that's just tremendous value, etc., obviously. Yeah. And, and curiosity, because of your background as a CFP the whole financial side, that's kind of a wheelhouse, right? How does that play in with the whole planning and succession, et cetera? Because I know this will lead us a little bit into kind of the— oh, shoot, what you call that review process case study thing, right?

Well, actually, my CFP work is probably secondary to my certifications around business coaching. And strategic planning. That is typically where we spend, you know, leadership development, you know, my work there. That is a lot of times where probably I add the value in that and just the experience in the industry, a lot of very specific industry knowledge. But frankly, they don't come to this meeting to hear me.

No.

My job is to be the oil, right? Keep it lubricated, keep it flowing, keep it organized. Ask the questions that maybe a few people might be too shy to ask and just do that in a way so that when we're there, everything gets out on the table. And because then what we do is we basically kick the host out of the room. And these business owners, these farmers, when you get them off of their own, out of their own operation, they become fabulous consultants. They are so good at sniffing out pros and the cons and the good and the ugly. They're amazingly well. And so then we, we, we run them through a SWOT analysis without, without the host in the room. Then we say, okay, that's great. Now what are 5 recommendations that they can work on? No, no less than 3, no more than 5. Impactful, that they can make meaningful progress in 6 months.

I like that you have parameters like that.

Yeah.

Yeah. Very insightful. And I think it's insightful that you kick the host out. And so for the audience, tell why do you do that versus letting them sit in?

Well, because when we're making the sausage, the recommendations, that's really the— that's really, really what makes this pop. You know, sometimes we need to talk about things that we've seen or that we've heard that, that we want to be careful with, with people's, um, feelings, right? People invest a lot of, of emotional energy into, into their businesses and into their families. And, and sometimes the recommendations, um, we don't necessarily share all the reasoning behind the recommendation always. And so sometimes it's just good not to have the host there, especially when we're, when we're saying, hey, I was visiting with this employee, and this is what they said. We can't share that with a host, as an example. Or, or, hey, you know, sometimes there's sensitive topics.

Oh, sure.

It just, it just works so much better.

I would think so, because you also don't get the host trying to, you know, defend or argue or get defensive about banter that you guys are all, you know, trying to help until you actually come up with the right recommendations for them, right? So they don't need to be involved in that part of the process because that's the, the discovery and the creating. That makes sense to me. Yeah, excellent.

And as a group, we've already interviewed the owners and probably some of their key people anyway, and so we, we've, we've heard, we, you know, we, we've heard their story and, and, and that sort of thing. So, um, So yeah, so the hosts aren't in the room. We, we make the recommendation, or we, we put it together, and then we bring everybody back in. And sometimes we've had key employees join us, we've had spouses join us, we've had, uh, the owners. We've had the next gen. That is up to them to include the host, to include whoever they want.

Excellent, love that. And so Oh, go ahead. No, anything else about the format? And then how do— well, how do you end it and wrap it up? And then—

yes, yeah. So, so then what we do is we, we take them through the SWOT, right? And then we— because that helps, that helps say, okay, how did you come to these recommendations? So, so we run them through the SWOT, we bring— and then, and then we have the recommendations, and then, and then why. And I usually make that presentation And a lot of times I'll call on some of the key people, some of the non-host members to fill in because they'll have insights. So when we make a recommendation to, as an example, work on their onboarding process with employees, that may be a recommendation and all, but here's the thing. They will attach more significance if it comes from their peer versus if it comes from me.

I'm totally cool.

I'm totally cool with that. I get it. And so it's really important that the members lend their credibility to the recommendations, which they chime in. So we finish up that way, and then I capture all of the thoughts and the recommendations on about a 5-page report afterwards, and I email fill it out and I'll include pictures that I took and everything from whatever and just kind of memorialize it. And then 6 months later, that host gets to start out our meeting with, this is what I worked on, this is the recommendations, this is what I worked on. And was I successful or not? They'll answer that for themselves, and, uh, and they know that it's coming, so that— so procrastination really isn't an option, right?

So would you speak a little bit about the review process case study? That— okay, for the audience to know what that is.

What do you want to know about it?

Well, how about what is it?

So —so that case study is really that book. That's the base set of knowledge that we put together from biographies to education to their financials to all of that data that we pull together. That is the case study. And then the question is what we call areas of concentration that the host wants us to look at.

Excellent.

That's really the case study. And I'll tell you, half the time at least, the group will veer somewhat, if not completely, away from the areas of concentration. Of course. But they'll have a reason for it. They'll say, yeah, these are what you're focused on. This is what we're seeing, though.

Yeah, this is what you should be. It's their blind spots, right? Yep. Excellent. Well, you also, in— when we were talking earlier too, you had also mentioned a values deck. Oh, a values deck. Oh yes, yes. Okay. And sometimes you use that, and I think this is a really good tool to share with the audience. Yeah, what it is. And so can you explain a little bit like what it is and how you've used it?

Yeah, so I, I use something called a, a values card deck, and there's, and there's multiple, um You can buy them online. There's multiples of, uh, and some people just use a piece of paper with values on them. I like to use the card deck, but what it really does is it, is it puts a value. Basically, you have 52 cards with, with 52 different values as well as the definition on them. And what I like to use them for is to really help people figure out what's important to them. I've always said that the values, those are the emotional part of any conversation. There's the why, right? The why will carry you through because those are your core values. And then you can say, well, from that, what do I do? Well, the happiest people I know are the ones that live in alignment with their core purpose or their why. I believe Simon Sinek, he wrote a great book, Start with Why. And if anyone hasn't read it, read it. It's a pretty important methodology, I guess, of looking at things. So you start out with why, but then you have to take that a step further and say, well, if this is what's important to me, then how do I craft a vision for the future that's going to live in alignment with that? Because those truly are the happiest people and the most successful. And so we apply this on a business level, we apply it on a personal level, and, um, and then really create that, uh, really create that, uh, the vivid vision based on the core values and principles. Excellent. We don't do this during the peer group, but a lot of the coaching that comes after it, it's a component.

I could see that because it becomes very personal. I could also see sometimes it might work that you do it with the group in order for the group to decide what their values will be for the group.

Yes. So we will do it in a group setting. And it is very interesting because values are unique to each person. And they're really slow to change. People's kind of their core values and principles in amongst all the chaos of life and technology changes and all of that, core values and principles really don't change that much. And that, that's really that bedrock, that foundation that, that people build from. But doing it in a group setting is, is really interesting. We've done them with husband and wife teams, uh, whenever there's multiple generations in play, we'll pull that out and say, okay, let's look at, you know, let's look at how these are, are either in alignment or misalignment or how they complement each other. So perfect.

And I know as we are, we're kind of coming to the end, we talk a little bit about change, like you mentioned that And you've mentioned, you know, it's hard to drive change, et cetera. So as we kind of close out, you want to share a little bit of your thoughts about how to drive change with the audience in the next couple of, you know, in a minute or so?

Yeah. No one really can change if they don't want to. I mean, that's just the long and the short of it. I liken it to pushing on a string. You know, it really can't be done. So the people that are in a peer group, the best members, they are comfortable enough in their own skin to be vulnerable and they are open to change. That really is the criteria for the people that I allow into these groups. It's not for everyone. And I think that's a mistake that we can make as facilitators to say, well, a peer group can benefit everyone. And some people just really aren't ready for that change. The beauty that I've seen about change in a peer group is peers can hold others accountable that a consultant can't. And that's really the power that I've seen is that 6 months later or sooner, they're gonna be looking at somebody that they respect as a business person. And they don't want to let them down. So they're, they're going to keep moving on these recommendations. That peer pressure is— it's a pretty big component of a good peer group.

Huge, huge. Absolutely. So I love that. And as we close out every episode, we always ask our guests what one piece of advice, words of wisdom, would you love to give the listeners? So what would be yours today, Tim?

I think as business owners and entrepreneurs in the space that I work in, I guess I'm always amazed at the importance of emotions in their day-to-day lives. They'll do a lot of things that maybe aren't rational, but they have such a deep emotional connection either to the land or their families or even to each other in the peer group, it's a strong force that it's not to be manipulated, it's to be respected. And wow, when that all pulls together, watch out because there's a massive amount of change that can happen that frankly, I don't see with regular employees, if you will, just working for a paycheck and then someday retiring with your 401(k).

Well said. And I am sure our listeners can hear the level of experience and expertise you have over all these years as you've talked and shared all of that. You know, I mean, there's so much more you and I could talk about. And so if someone wanted to get in contact with you, can you share with them your contact information, maybe your website?

But so it's encore-consultants.net. That, that's probably the, the best place to start, and it has phone numbers and email and everything like that.

So, okay, wonderful. Well, Tim, you know, thank you so much for taking time and really helping a community that is running groups do so better, and hopefully giving some ideas out there to everyone about a niche group and maybe how you do it based on seasonality, um, and that you can actually drive so much value even if it's just meeting a couple times a year. And of course, I really enjoyed it just from the farming perspective, um, in listening, in listening to that. So you made my day on that front. So thanks again, everyone, for tuning in for another episode of Mastermind Mastery, and that your key takeaways hopefully is about change and just another format, and particularly the deep dive on the format, and that you could take away some nuggets and just incorporate them into your own existing format to take it to like the next level.

So until next time, go make it happen. Hey, moderators of peer groups, thank you for listening to today's episode. To get access to show notes and exclusive content and resources, go to Tina Corner Stolz. Or www.ellxcounsel.com, where you can also become part of our online exclusive community, attend our Academy where there are over 13 modules of how to create and run a successful peer advisory group, mastermind group, as well as free resources, white papers, checklists, and more. And you can even contact me there as well. If this episode resonates with you and you know someone who can also benefit from listening, please share with them by taking a screenshot or post it on your social media. I also love reviews and appreciate hearing from all of you, all of you who are doing this wonderful work of running peer groups. Please tune in next week for the next episode of Mastermind Mastery, and I will close by sharing something my mentor did after every learning moment with someone he connected with. He reached into his pocket and he shared a shiny pebble with anyone he passed knowledge to and asked them to forward that pebble knowledge on. Now I encourage you to pass on a pebble, the takeaways you learned today, to either your existing groups or fellow peers. Now go make it happen.