Friendships are one thing, but business relationships where you can bounce ideas off trusted peers are another.  

From 2008 until 2016, Matt Plapp was on an island.  I didn’t have a “Tribe” around me to talk to.  I was a business loaner.  You know the feeling, I’m sure, grinding all day and staying quiet about your issues all night.  It’s tough and lonely.  But it doesn’t have to be that way.  

In the Fall of 2016, I got lucky. I attended my first business mastermind in San Diego and stumbled into a new group of marketing pros. This group gave me 20-30 solid resources to converse with—people on the same journey as me who I could trust for no-BS advice.  

As I sit here in 2024, I have an even larger tribe, but more importantly, I’ve become a resource for so many of you.  Just today, I got a call from the crazy guy above, Avery Ward, about some EOS questions.  When I hung up the call, I thought how cool it was to have calls like that every week.  I also thought about how important it was for our businesses to have friends we could turn to for advice and motivation.  

It’s too easy to get stuck behind a keyboard in an office and in your kitchen.  You need to learn to get out and build a tribe that reflects your core values and can help you get to the next level.  But also a tribe made up of people you can help as well.   

P.S. In the picture above, Avery talks about how their food trucks’ seatbelts were orange…which is even funnier because today’s podcast was about…BRANDING.  LISTEN HERE!