In today’s episode of the New Normal Chronicles, we are given a chance to talk to two amazing gentlemen, Tom Healy and Joe Buzzello. We are going to talk about all of the great things that both of them are doing right now.

How did Joe and Tom meet?

Joe and Tom met on a golf course, almost six years ago. Of course, at first, they didn’t know each other, and for Tom, it was an interesting first meeting. It’s because they found something in common. Both of them have written a book and they also speak around the country.

One thing that kept the conversation between the two of them was when Joe shared his group of local entrepreneurs, and his activities around his peers, and talked about other details like their business and the issues, challenges, and opportunities that his group has.

For Tom, it was interesting for two reasons. One is that’s how he has been able to grow his own business, which started speaking on college campuses until it transformed into a consulting business. Then, he took everything that his team did across the country and it turned into an online education company.

After that, Tom got interested in knowing what Joe is doing in his group of entrepreneurs. He then found out that they have a great environment of people who are so vulnerable and have no ego and are very much willing to spill their guts. In one meeting, everyone gave feedback, Joe challenged them, held them accountable, gave them ideas and solutions, and introduced them to people.

Then, Tom told Joe that he wanted to build one of these in the future and Joe never disappointed him and helped him do his. Until one day, Joe came to Tom’s first meeting and it became successful. In fact, at some point, they just looked at each other and said, “Let's do this together. Let's co-facilitate these groups. Let's build more groups and a community of entrepreneurs and bring in speakers and do holiday parties and networking.” That’s how Joe and Tom met and began to build their friendship.

Is the Group Still Active Today?

The initial groups they have are still active five years later. The majority of them are founding members, which means that they've been in the group for four or five years. They've gotten a lot of value out of it. Otherwise, at some point, they would have left. Tom further stated that in five years of the entrepreneur’s lives, they've seen some people exit their businesses successfully. They've seen people merge with other businesses and seen major life changes. They've seen all of these incredible things happening and being able to help each other, support each other, hold each other accountable along the way.

In January of 2020, even though Tom and Joe had a desire to build a national platform, they both decided to do more than just be a local, in-person, and brick-and-mortar community. But they found that it’s not so easy to make that pivot. However, the start of the pandemic has significantly helped them because people at the time felt more comfortable doing Zoom meetings and being around peers across the country, spending a few hours for online meetings.

Tom said that what they did was really powerful and rewarding. They were able to identify people with talent and expertise. That expertise could be a topic within the business, like working with a certain type of business based on size and it could be inside of a certain industry. The exciting thing about it is that these people are willing to share their skills and wisdom with others in a way that’s best for everyone.

Moreover, Tom got really intrigued with the idea of taking 10 people, putting them in a room and helping them with his skills, wisdom, and expertise. He always wanted to facilitate an incredible meeting so that there's a lot of peer coaching and peer mentorship going on inside his group.

However, there are some people out there who disliked their idea and didn’t want to join and participate. But when they walked through the model and the impact it has, and the reasons why you may want to create one, a lot of people have realized that they need one of those in the future. That’s why Joe and Tom have been fortunate and were able to do what they needed to do. It’s because people can't build a national, certainly not a worldwide company with just two people running meetings.

Hence, Tom and Joe now are in the business with great people and train them on everything they know on how to build and run these groups at a very high level. They’re even supporting them as they build and run those groups and then making sure that the members have a ton of value while doing it on a regular basis from the community.

Why Do People Want to Join in Your Group?

According to Tom, one of the reasons that people join is because they are lonely. You may not believe it and it may sound horrible, but it’s true. When you're running an organization and you have an issue, a challenge, a problem, it’ll surely be difficult on your part. You may not have a board of directors and even if you did, you may not want to tell them about that problem. Even if you have a spouse, you may not feel comfortable sharing it with them or want to drag that into your relationship.

Moreover, some may be on a lonely island, which tends to become worse based on people being remote. That’s why they joined because they don't want to figure out every issue, challenge, opportunity, and problem on their own in a particular situation. They want to join because they believe that it’s a safe and helpful environment.

In addition, if you want to ramp up your digital marketing, someone may give you a few recommendations. So instead of Googling digital marketing agencies, you can simply get in touch with those people using their contact details. Hence, when you need something quick, you're getting it fast, and you're getting the right person, rather than searching a particular agency on Google, talking to ten options, and ending up picking the wrong one. That’ll surely make you spend so much money and time. You may all know that things that even seem small can be huge for an entrepreneur. So people join groups for that reason to get the help and the assistance they need.

Then, the feedback they get is not coming from one coach, a speaker on stage, but it's coming from people who have already dealt with anything they’re going through. They've seen it. They've done it. They've dealt with it. Besides that, they will also get a male and female perspective and from an introvert and an extrovert’s point of view. They will get all these diverse perspectives in the collective wisdom of the entire group giving feedback.

They will be given all this careful feedback from people who understand them and care about them. And ultimately, it’ll surely be better off 30 minutes later than they’re going into the meetings. So these are some of the reasons why many people today come to the group.

Being Not a Smart Person in the Room

I spoke with a business owner a couple of weeks ago and he said that he wanted to be in a room where he’s not the smartest person in the group. But, you may all know that being a small business owner, you tend to feel that you’re the smartest person in the room. However, if you feel that way, then that’s one of the big reasons why you can’t learn and grow.

Moreover, every business has problems, and you can learn from what other people have been going through. In fact, a lot of new businesses from different industries can benefit from being in an environment like what Joe and Tom have. I would imagine from the fact that they can see the path that other people have taken. They've got a new network. Not just the network of the people in the room, but a network of all their contacts.

In addition, Tom said that the business owner is the smartest, has the biggest repertoire of skills, certainly is the hardest worker, or else they shouldn't be an entrepreneur. You need peers that are on your intellectual level, on your work ethic and drive level, and on your value system level. Another interesting thing about Tom and Joe’s groups is that if you know you held a gun to my head and said, “Okay, in your Tuesday group, who's the smartest person there?” There’s no right answer because it is that level of entrepreneurship and that makes everyone different from each other.

There may be a person who has excellent management talent, leadership skills, operation management, or who is skillful at marketing methods and strategies. Tom even added that every business owner, every entrepreneur, or everyone has certain things that they're really great at, or really good at.

So when you put 10 or 12 people in a room, you get someone who is more on operations, marketing, analytical, great with numbers, and many other skills and talents that can be very useful in business. So those who have joined these groups are people who don’t have an ego. They don't assume they know everything.

Dealing With the Changes in New Normal

With the whole new normal concept, change is rapidly happening across the globe. If you can't be that person, one person alone can stay up with everything that's changing, especially in owning and running a business. It could be the change in the payroll guidelines and processes and other major parts of the company or organization. Besides that, the said changes may include how to deal with people coming back to work in the office and how to deal with people working remotely. So you can't be an expert at everything but still run the business.

Moreover, Tom mentioned that the rapid change has significantly influenced technology, the way people make purchases, the way people do marketing their business, and the list goes on. He even said that he had no idea about the new features on Zoom. But in terms of running these mastermind groups, he can put certain things on screen and he can add some little widgets and boxes.

So Tom keeps on learning something new to keep up with the new changes, especially when the pandemic starts in 2020. It’s because if you're not learning and growing and being around other people and having so much of that conversation in these groups, you’ll surely face different challenges in achieving the things you want.

When Tom facilitates any meeting, they don’t take a bathroom break. There's no filler. There's no networking. It's just a fast-paced environment. So over the course of three hours, they only sit there, they've got two pages of notes, they got to read a book, and got to check out the widgets.

In addition, Tom has to look into this new thing related to providing healthcare to employees. He just needs to go down the list, and if you weren't part of that group, you'd never know any of this. And if you're on two pages of notes, 12 months out of the year, 24 pages worth of stuff that is going to help you grow your business faster and be more efficient.

These are the best practices that are universal no matter what your business is. So over the course of the year, the amount of time and money you're saving, you can then see growth and progress because of all these tiny little best practices. It's tough to measure, but it's certainly significant. There is a time and place for everything. So the model that Joe and Tom are using is no better or worse than anything else out there. It's just different. For a certain type of person, it’ll be great and for others, it may be terrible.

What Can You Say About Networking?

Tom said that when you look at networking, that's what it is. You're not going there to work on your business, but you're going there to be connected to more people. So if you are selling property and casualty insurance, you better be in one of those groups, find a high-performing group, grab a ton of leads, and scale your business. You may spend 90 minutes for one meeting every week because that’s the nature of what you’re doing. In fact, many years ago, Tom was in one of those groups, a very high-performing group and he was doing a lot of training locally on social media marketing. So it was phenomenal for him at that stage of his business at the time.

However, it’s quite different from what they're doing in their groups right now. In fact, they actually have zero in common even though they have a few members who are part of a particular networking group. What they usually do is really just working on the business. Most of the members in their group today are actually making six figures in their businesses. They pick it up from just being with them. That’s not what they’re going around the room, talking about networking, but it absolutely happens and it's a great benefit.

In addition, when you need something for your digital marketing campaign, you tend to look for a particular digital marketing agency, which is the best one possible. So the difference is that it's easy to find people, it's just tough to find really good ones and be immediately connected with them. Then, the beauty of it too is when you're at that owner or co-founder entrepreneur level, you're talking directly to the owner.

So if you entered your information on the “Contact Us” portion of somebody's website, you might be talking to an inside salesperson. But when an entrepreneur connects an entrepreneur with another entrepreneur, now you got the owner on the phone. With that, you can then ask direct questions, get the expert within that business, and have a productive conversation. Hence, you can always find so much value in being in that network and space. So a business could happen inside of people between people inside of the group.

Making Business with People You Trust

You're building a very close relationship when you are in a particular group of entrepreneurs. It’s because people prefer to do business with people that they know, people that they trust. People that they’ve already seen their track record. So the longer those people stay in those groups together, the more their business and trust are intertwined. It may take a  few months or a year for that to happen. But again, over time, it happens and it happens more frequently.

Then, once you deliver it, that's the thing of networking is, when you're someone that does a plus work, and you're a great human being, and you're a nice person, and you do great work, and you don't rip people off, and your customer service is fantastic. Because of that, people get excited to refer you to them and people get really excited to go in. They love making that introduction because they know that they're in great hands. The recipient of what you offer will surely love it so much.

Besides that, the person that you introduce, they're happy to meet a great person in that space. So no matter what business you're in, you've got to be a great connector and you can connect a bunch of people. Again, it may take years, but the people who build a strong referral network of people that they can connect with, it's just such an important part of business these days.

It fosters a far deeper relationship. It’s far more vulnerable, a different environment, different place, but the groups that Joe and Tom have are an outlet for that. On top of that, what’s always surprising is how quickly that happens.

How Will People Find You if They Want to Join in Your Group?

Tom and Joe are happy to talk to anyone who wants to be part of their group. They help people how to get started because it is what they do. In fact, they even have a world-class training program, which is all on-demand 45 modules, six hours of video, and a bunch of templates that teach people how to do it.

Besides that, Tom and Joe also have a strategy call with somebody to make sure that they're designing the right group, the right practice, their personal brands on target, and then they mentor them along the way and actually put them in a peer group. But the first step is to visit their website: growth10.com/prospective, which is a page dedicated to people who are interested in potentially doing this work.

So it walks through what growth10 is, who is great at leading groups, why you may want to consider leading groups, and then what their training works for them. Because you can even do it on your own, if you want to, you will most likely be successful. Tom said that because there are so many stupid little important things that go into building these groups.

It’s because when one thing is off, everything's off. If everything's perfect, but your pricing is wrong, or your marketing plan is wrong, or your lead generation partners aren't delivering, or your LinkedIn profile does not align with the group that you're building, all these tiny little things make a huge difference.

Moreover, Tom and Joe are very deliberate in how they train people who they invite into the training, and then ultimately, how they support them in the building process. In addition, Tom said that there’s the most enjoyable work they've ever done leading these groups. They meet really interesting people, they build deep relationships with them, they make a tremendous impact on their lives. They offer three-hour meetings once a month. They love turning the camera on. They love having those people who want to join them and learn from them eventually.

How Does a Business Owner Find Out How to Do That?

Tom and Joe have a website that they can visit, which is growth10.com. It’s just their regular homepage, and there is an “Apply” button that they can find on there. One thing that it allows them to do is to figure out the best group. You may all know that most people want to be around other organizations that are doing the same revenue as them in their industry.

They have it because they have these really talented people all over the world who are building very interesting and unique groups. So when someone asks to find the best group possible, Tom and Joe are usually able to plug them into a particular group they fit and are most interested in joining. So they only need to visit growth10.com.

Moreover, Joe and Tom are easy to find for whatever reason, whether you want to join a group or start a new group. You can just start off by sending an email to us at tom@growthten.com and joe@growth10.com. You can get in touch with both of them and they will give you a call link.

These great gentlemen love talking to people and they are on Zoom almost the entire day. So they'll schedule a call and they can kick around some different ideas and answer any questions you have.

Book Launching

Tom and Joe have launched a book entitled “Entrepreneurial Landmines.” The book is all about the mistakes that most entrepreneurs make at the earlier stage of their careers. So if you've just started your business and don’t have enough knowledge and experience yet in the industry you’ve chosen, then this book is for you. There are 30 mistakes in there. It's broken down into the 10 key categories of running an entrepreneurial organization.

Do not go and buy it unless you really want a paperback version. But the audio, PDF, and ePub versions are all available for free. You can actually go to outsidethetank.com and sign up for the free book and Tom and Joe will provide it to you. The outsidethetank is the podcast Joe and Tom do where they interview Shark Tank entrepreneurs when people pitch the sharks. Every week, they do a really cool interview with one of the entrepreneurs and they have unbelievable lessons that you can also learn from.

Coping With the Changes of Work Structure

Tom said that the big mistake that organizations are making right now is they haven't picked the lane. It could be that we're all going back in person, we're going back to the way it was, or we are now a virtual organization where everyone else is going to be working remotely and permanently.

It’s because some people may prefer to go to the office. Some live locally and some don't. Others may work in the morning and some are in the evening, depending on their schedule. Besides that, some people are working in the office full time, rubbing elbows with all the leaders in the organization, and getting preferential treatment. So it's hard enough to manage people when you hold them to the same standards. Now, at some point, organizations are going to be okay with that and accept any changes that have been implemented.

As Tom said, if you don't want to be doing this, you can get out and look for your available options. You can either work from home or keep going to the office every day. It’s your choice. But sometimes, while making these blanket statements, there are younger people out there who want to work remotely. So the best thing to do is to figure out what's best for your organization.

However, one of the things that a lot of businesses are struggling with right now is a lack of decisiveness. So the key is to have a plan in place and ensure to make a decision that’s best for your organization. Things can either go back to normal, which some people are not yet okay with. So we are living in a new normal, but realistically what could happen in the future. All people always hope that the virus will be gone forever and everyone can do whatever they want anywhere.

Or, the opposite end of the spectrum is we're gonna have another lockdown or something in the middle. So everything could happen, and you've got to have a plan for every scenario. Besides that, Tom would argue that try to create a plan that will work regardless of what happens. So if we get locked down next week, are you prepared? If not, how are you supposed to prepare? Well, you're supposed to prepare by preparing yourself.

Tom added that in terms of the virus and lockdowns and not being able to go into brick-and-mortar places, it's already happened. We know how it's going to be dealt with. So prepare for it and have a plan for it so that you should not be surprised by anything that happens moving forward over the next couple of years.

The Bottomline

Tom said that if you live in New York City, you can probably walk down the street and meet up with a group of entrepreneurs. It doesn't work that way for everyone. Some people live in remote areas. Some people even have second homes, and you can't commit to 12 in-person meetings in the same city in a year for a wide range of reasons. So Tom believes that their model has created a lot more access to people than in the previous years.

From a marketing standpoint, the businesses that nail that help so much because they're able to convert more of those inbound leads into interested people. They're able to close more deals if you can really get granular on who you serve, why you serve them, how you serve them, and really why the business exists in the first place.

So for those who want to join a group or build a new group, you have to visit growth10.com. That’s the starting point for checking out the process and various opportunities waiting for you and your business.