14d • Biggest Opportunities
Why I Paid $200K to Be the Least Impressive Person in the Room
Ten years ago, I joined a Vistage CEO group where I was clearly the smallest fish in the pond—one member owned 100% of a $1B company. It was uncomfortable—but transformative.
Since then, I’ve spent ~$200K on coaches, consultants, masterminds, and elite certifications (Harvard, Stanford, MIT, etc.). Expensive? Yes. But easily the highest ROI investment of my career.
Why? Because a single conversation with someone ahead of me often saved 6 months of spinning—or $100K in mistakes.
Here’s What Most CEOs Miss 👇
If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room.
Comfort is the enemy of growth. Surrounding yourself with people who don’t challenge your assumptions keeps you solving $10K problems instead of $10M ones.
I learned this the hard way. Early on, I stayed in a "Small Business" group. Nice people, but no one far enough ahead to challenge my thinking. When I leveled up—paying 5x more to be around CEOs 10 years ahead—it changed everything.
Even top founders seek out bigger thinkers. I saw it firsthand at events like the EY Strategic Growth Forum—where billion-dollar CEOs were still seeking mentorship from even bigger operators.
How to Do This Intentionally 👇
Build Three Growth Networks:
- 10 Years Ahead – People whose "normal" is your stretch goal. Get in paid, curated groups or invite-only events.
- Shoulder-to-Shoulder – True peers. Share wins, losses, and real talk.
- The Unrelated Genius – Outsiders from other industries. They’ll help you see what you’re missing.
Pro Tip: Give value first. Promote their wins. Introduce them to helpful people. Invest in the relationship before you need it.
How to Build the Right Rooms 👇
- Audit Your Current Network → Who are your top 10 professional relationships? Who challenges you? Who’s ahead of you? If >30% aren’t above your level, you’ve outgrown the room.
- Identify What’s Missing → Do you lack mentors? Peers? Outside-industry thinkers?
- Map It Out → For each gap: List 2–3 people to connect with → Choose 1 paid group to join → Pick 1 event in the next 90 days → Hire 1 fractional expert to solve a stalled “important but not urgent” item in 30 days
Budget it. Block the time. Treat it like a key hire.
What You’ll Gain:
- Faster, more strategic decisions
- Borrowed wisdom that took others years
- Real systems and execution—not just ideas
- Opportunities you’d never see in your old circles
This approach helped me double profits in “maxed out” businesses, build systems other CEOs now pay me to install, and see opportunities I’d have missed.
If you haven’t felt out of your league lately, you’re probably falling behind.
Find the right room. Pay to get in if you have to. Show up ready to listen.
The right room will change everything.
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Why I Paid $200K to Be the Least Impressive Person in the Room
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Grow your B2B services business past $10MM in revenue with multi-award-winning entrepreneur Corey Peck and the Ops Transformation System™.
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