Episode Description:
Peer learning plays a transformative role in the lives of business transitioners and successors. In this episode, Elizabeth and Andrea discuss how peer learning fosters vulnerability, transparency, and growth during critical transitions. They highlight the importance of creating spaces where individuals can exchange knowledge and gain clarity on complex issues. Tap or click the play button below to listen to The Power of Peer Learning in Business Transition.
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Elizabeth shares her experience leading peer learning groups and emphasizes their value in navigating business challenges. Andrea offers insights from her personal and professional journey, discussing how peer learning helped her grow into leadership roles.
Together, they explore how communities can provide essential support and accelerate the learning process for both transitioners and successors. This episode is a must-listen for anyone looking to harness the power of community in their transition journey.
Chapters in this episode:
(01:28) Defining Peer Learning and Its Relevance
(02:34) Andrea’s Passion for Peer Learning Groups
(05:04) What Makes Peer Learning Transformative
(07:07) Peer Learning’s Role in Business Transitions
(10:32) Vision for a Peer Learning Organization
(16:34) Addressing Challenges in Business Transitioning
Connect with Elizabeth Ledoux, Andrea Carpenter, and the Transition Strategists:
Website: https://transitionstrategists.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetransitionstrategists
Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethledoux/
Andrea on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreashaver
Transition Strategists on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/transitionstrategists/
Transition Strategists on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@transitionstrategists
Subscribe to “The Business Transition Roadmap with Elizabeth Ledoux” on your favorite podcast player:
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3MxSYA2
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3IhMMux
Get Elizabeth Ledoux and Laura Chiesman’s latest book, “It’s A Journey: The MUST-HAVE Roadmap to Successful Succession Planning”: https://amzn.to/3oq2LQv
This episode was produced by Story On Media & Marketing: https://www.successwithstories.com.
The Power of Peer Learning in Business Transition Transcript
Andrea Carpenter: It’s my transition to come into actually running the business. So you think of the transitioner and they’re currently running the business and then they start to think about transitioning. And I am transitioning in to eventually running the business and what that looks like and all of those changes.
And where do you have supporters? There are a group of people that you can go to as you work through, hey, I didn’t feel that that was fair. How do I have a conversation with someone about that?
Or I really have this thing is so new to me. It’s a little bit out of my comfort zone. I’m growing into a leadership role.
What does that look like? Who can I talk to? How does that work?
And so we’re envisioning a community. Like, frankly, what we’re hoping to build is something where successors and transitioners can come together and talk with other people who are going through the same thing.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Welcome to the Business Transition Roadmap. My name is Elizabeth Ledoux, and through my years, I have seen how communities thrive when business succession and transition are done well. Me and my team at the Transition Strategists have been helping business owners develop and implement transition strategies for over 30 years.
And on this show, we want to help you by giving you the roadmap to a healthy business transition. Let’s get started.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Hi, everyone, and welcome back to our Business Transition Roadmap podcast. You know, our topic for today is about peer learning. And we’re really focused in on helping people to grow and helping people to learn, both transitioners and successors.
And so Andrea Carpenter and I are here today just to have a quick conversation about peer learning, why it’s important, and especially why it’s important for this particular topic of transitioning your business. So, Andrea, thanks again for being here.
Andrea Carpenter: Yeah, super excited to be here and talk about this topic, which is one of my favorite topics from the perspective of someone who’s been a member of different peer learning groups who have supported me at different stages of my life to someone who’s now building peer learning groups and thinking about what a community might look like. This is a passion, a topic I am super passionate about, and I know you are, too. So excited to dive into this one.
Awesome, awesome.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Well, and, you know, we’ve been a consulting firm for a very long time at the Transition Strategist, and it’s been a foundation for me. In my career, I’ve probably had 25 years of peer learning facilitation experience, so I’ve been leading peer groups for many, many, many years at all levels. Always on the business side, typically, but, yeah, women entrepreneurs who are up and coming and, you know, growing in that kind of mid-market level and then now running Tiger 21 groups with people who have had liquidity events and, you know, are also those still active in their businesses.
And I’ve just found peer learning to be so valuable, almost invaluable to people. And if you look out in the marketplace, some of the most successful people, one way or another, have peer learning in their world. Yeah, whether it’s with their best friends playing golf, you know, same foursome every single week, having breakfast together with somebody who’s a mentor or being in a group, there’s peer learning everywhere.
Andrea Carpenter: Yeah, and my experience is quite the same, though maybe it started a little bit more personal. What’s my health? What are my goals?
How am I going to move forward? What’s my accountability on that? I have my pod that I meet with every week, and we’re talking about these things.
And so just having a group of people, whether it’s a long-term relationship or a short-term relationship, can really just enhance the learning of the collective. I think, speaking of collective, we started that new series called Collective Conversations, and we also have our workshops, and we’ve been running them kind of in these group-style conversations. And the feedback that we’re getting at the end is always, I just loved hearing other people’s experiences.
Like, it’s so cool to talk to other people who are also going through this. And so just to know that you’re not alone, whether you’re a business owner or a successor, and that there are other people out there in the world also navigating these changes, I think is super, super awesome. So maybe we can start to dive into really just what is peer learning and some of the different forms and how we see it really helping in business transition.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Yeah, well, gosh, peer learning, the way that I would define that is just a group of people getting together, being vulnerable and transparent in whatever topic is at hand, whatever it is that they’re working on. And it’s great when you can talk literally about a majority of topics going on in life, because even though the topic in some of my past experiences in my groups have been the topic and the focus is on the business, but when something is going on that’s personal on that side that really affects the business, then you have the opportunity to deal with that and keep the business going forward. So I just see, yeah, it’s sharing, being together, belonging, transparency, vulnerability, and the ability to learn from each other.
So you’re both you’re giving and you also are receiving in that environment. So the fun thing.
Andrea Carpenter: Yeah, I love the activity of a wisdom circle or issue processing, depending on what you want to call it. But just to have a structure like what am I thinking through? Let me reflect internally how I feel about this situation for a minute and then throw out what I know and let people ask me questions.
Because at the end of the day, a lot of what you uncover in peer learning is really that the answer is inside of you already. And just to hear it reflected back or to see yourself or something that you’re going through mirrored in other people can help you unlock something that you didn’t even know existed. Or maybe it was buried under 500 to do’s that felt more urgent or that were at the front of your mind and you just needed a minute to kind of settle in it.
So for me, even I have this time set aside every week to think about this thing that is important to me is also super a super helpful part of my groups.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Absolutely. Absolutely. So, you know, it’s it’s interesting as far as on our transition topic, you know, you and I were talking earlier before the podcast about this extra learning curve that people have.
And so peer learning, I think, is it’s invaluable in the running and the development of a business. So many owners in particular are used to the concept of having peer learning when they’re operating a business. I think the idea of having just peer learning focused around transitioning and succession is a little bit different in that.
You know, when you’re operating a business, you’re busy doing that and taking everything you’ve got. When you start to think about going in and, oh, gosh, I’m going to leave. Right.
So what do I do with my role and how does that work? And how do I bring somebody in and how do I invite them in instead of telling them that they’re going to get it? And how do I things are different, like cash flow has to shift in the business often to make this whole thing come true.
You’ve got taxes that typically are shifting also that you have that you’ve got people wondering what’s going on and how what are you doing? And and even if you’re not transitioning and you’re you’re thinking about it or getting old enough that you might be needing to think about it. You’ve got pressures from people wondering, you know, am I safe here?
What happens if something happens to you? And all these things, though, are kind of they’re kind of on top of whatever you’ve already got and whatever you’re already trying to manage. So I just think that it’s such an interesting thing.
They want to learn more and have to do it quickly. We don’t have a lot of time because we’re already busy. So how do you go and do that quickly?
I think peer learning is the answer.
Andrea Carpenter: And I love that. Mostly what you just shared was all from the perspective kind of of the transitioner. And I’m sitting in the seat of a successor and I’m like, oh, crap, like here’s this new role or these new things I’m supposed to be doing.
And what does that look like? And it’s my transition to come into actually running the business. So you think of the transitioner and they’re currently running the business and then they start to think about transitioning.
And I am transitioning in to eventually running the business and whether that looks like in all of those changes. And where do you have support or is there a group of people that you can go to as you work through? Hey, I didn’t feel that that was fair.
How do I have a conversation with someone about that? Or I really have this thing is so new to me. It’s a little bit out of my comfort zone.
I’m growing into a leadership role. What does that look like? Who can I talk to?
How does that work? And so we’re envisioning a community. Like, frankly, what we’re hoping to build is something where successors and transitioners can come together and talk with other people who are going through the same thing.
Since the business transition is such a unique and different thing simply from just growing and scaling a business.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Absolutely. And you know what that brings to mind to part of a peer learning group is to have. It’s kind of like a personal board of advisors sitting there on the topic because.
They are not invested in your company. They’re not invested in your life. They don’t have a hidden agenda.
And it’s a place where, you know, from a successors perspective or a transitioners perspective, you can come and you can bounce an idea or bounce a conversation off and say, hey, does this land OK? And is it going to be how do you think this person is going to receive it? Is there anything that I could do to soften it or to either or even make it a little bit more robust?
Because I’m a little bit shy and I just I’m sure I don’t want to rock the boat. So it’s a place where, yeah, people do not have hidden agendas and they’re going to give you a straight shot on what they think.
Andrea Carpenter: Yeah, and I think that’s so important. And also sometimes maybe there’s situations where it requires a little bit more than what the peer group can offer. I’ve seen that as well.
Like, hey, I can tell that this is really important to you or you’re really struggling with this. Like we are just not in a place or we’re not really the right people to help you. Who are the resources or the people that you need to get connected with to kind of help you do that?
And to also just have those people there to connect you and refer you out to other resources that are good. And we’re also hoping that our community, in addition to that peer learning component, just has different modules and learning and and lots of different things to help kind of answer some of those questions around the specifics of the process around like what is transition. We have our whole team of transition guides who have taken many different families through this and seen lots of different scenarios.
And so they’ll be there to sprinkle in that wisdom as well on top of that, that peer learning.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Yeah, yeah. So, Andrea, do you want to share a little bit about a vision about what our peer learning organization really looks like? Because for me, I’ve had this company for a long, long time and we’ve been very focused on the relationship of it being a client with a consultant or transition guide.
So we’re marrying those things up and it’s been in that environment that we’ve done that. This is exciting because it’s a shift and I think it’s a shift paying attention to what’s going on around us because, you know, our external environment is always changing. And for lots of reasons, business owners, they need to accelerate their learning.
They need to do it quickly. They’re seemingly more open and transparent than they’ve ever been. So people are talking where they used to not talk about these kinds of things.
Now they’re open to doing that. And I just think that the world is moving to where peer learning is a very, very important part of an entrepreneur’s development.
Andrea Carpenter: Yeah, well, thanks for asking. I am obviously super excited about what the future might look like. We don’t have a name yet.
We don’t know exactly the cadence. We don’t know exactly how much it’s going to cost. We will have all those details soon.
So definitely look in the show notes. We’ll definitely update this episode once we have details about ways for you to come work with us into our community. But the grand vision for the future, a place for business owners, successors and even advisors who help them, our transition guides to come together and share learning, share stories, celebrate the ups and the downs of business transition, because it’s hard.
And we know that it’s hard and we know that sometimes you think it might take this long and it takes longer or something comes out of left field and you weren’t really expecting it. So it really just a place and a hub for all of those things. The vision for me is that we can.
I’ll call it a co-creation. We want to create this community with the people we’re serving. So as we get our business owners and successors together, we have an idea of what it might look like.
Monthly calls, different cadences, a library of learning that people can come in and look at guest speakers, peer learning groups, longer programs like our big six and our master class. There’s lots of exciting stuff. And Elizabeth has been doing this for a long time.
And so I we can take and build on all of the things that you’ve learned working with clients one on one and just get that into a place where it’s a big library, a big community for people to access these frameworks, these proven tools and accelerate and kind of get into their transition a bit faster. So really excited about what the future of this might look like. And we just want to build what’s going to serve our people best.
So we think it’s some combination of those things, but we’re not 100 percent sure. And so we’re not married to any specific idea. We’re going to be flexible and just make sure that it’s always helping and serving people.
And I think most importantly, and why we’re talking about peer learning today is it’s just going to be a place for people to come have conversations about things that are going on and stuff that’s important to them to help you navigate the business transition. Because for many people, it’s a huge financial moment. It’s a huge family moment.
Relationships are really in play. And you want to come out on the other end, having everyone feel really good and positive about how everything transpired.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Yeah, including you as an owner is a great point, Andrea, because in play, too, is your purpose as a transitioner and also for the successor. It’s truly their next adventure, too, of just jumping in and diving in for, gosh, what could be 10 or 20 years of their life. So really want to make sure that this is that it’s a great fit.
The other thing that comes to mind is all these business owners, one of the funniest and biggest things that people tell me, it’s like, oh, my business is different or we’re farther along or where we haven’t started. It’s just like, you know, they’re different people in different stages of this transition. You could be in the very beginning.
You could have already implemented and, you know, things aren’t working as well as you thought or you don’t know what your next steps are. So you don’t know what what to do next. And so I think with this learning community, we’re going to be able to meet people where they are and they’re going to have a lot of choice in what they want to learn about and when.
So what’s going to be of value to them, what they need to learn today and then and not just being, you know, in a curriculum somewhere where, you know, you’re always going to end up with a roadmap or you’re always going to end up with something. If you need business governance now, why not come in and learn about business governance today and just use that and then take the next step at another time?
Andrea Carpenter: Yeah, and that’s what we’ve learned. You’ve done such a detailed job. Everything is so meticulous, but to provide different pathways, depending on where people are sitting and and what they need the most at this moment, whether you’re a successor or an owner.
What conversations are you about to have? Where exactly are you sitting in the transition process? I think even if you’ve already made a decision, I’m going to sell.
I’m going to do this thing. It’s never too late to come in and learn in some capacity. Maybe then all you need is how do I have a discussion with people who thought they were going to be successors and now I need to tell them that I’m going to sell.
And what does that look like? And so this is this is a place where you could you can come in for six months or you could come in for five years to really kind of work in a community type format and learn from other peoples and other people and get that good advice. Yeah.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Yeah. It’s an exciting time to be able to open up all of the intellectual property that we’ve developed over the gosh, 20 plus years, almost 30 years that we’ve been doing this. And, you know, our intellectual property and the processes that we use, they are proven and they’ve been used literally in, you know, overseas and in other countries, including the United States, with all different kinds of businesses in all different industries, all different types of families, partnerships.
Gosh. So if you think of it by coming into this community, not only do you get the community, but you also get a framework where you can dump your information into it and it makes sense. Right.
Because there are so many moving parts in a business transition that it’s like I think it’s like walking on marbles and everything is moving. So it’s kind of fun to be able when we do this work to be able to just say, hey, let’s just put it into this framework. And then when we do that, everything makes sense.
It’s all all of a sudden it starts to be very clear. And I’m excited to be able to put that in in our members hands. Right.
And have have them be able to do that.
Andrea Carpenter: So, well, all that being said, yeah, we’re just so excited for this to potentially roll out. If you’re interested in being a founding member, please just reach out. We would love to kind of share what we’re working on with you and build this community that’s going to work best.
And super excited to just have the premier peer learning space for business transitioners and successors.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Gosh, yeah. Thanks for being here today. I hope this was helpful.
And I hope that you’ll really consider taking a look and coming and joining us for some of our free workshops. And this collective conversations that we’re doing is like just having a cup of coffee together and bringing whatever you want to talk about into that time and into that space. We have incredible people that are showing up and just invite you to be a part of what we’re doing.
Elizabeth Ledoux: Thanks, everyone. Thank you for listening to this episode of the Business Transition Roadmap. If you are listening to this and you find yourself wanting to go deeper into these topics and start the process of putting together your transition strategy, I’d love to offer you a free initial strategy session with my team, where we’ll help you to explore the future transition of your business.
Head over to www.transitionstrategists.com to schedule a call. Thank you again for listening, and I’ll see you on the next episode of the Business Transition Roadmap.
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The Business Transition Roadmap with Elizabeth Ledoux
How do communities thrive? When businesses experience healthy growth and transition. Join CEO of The Transition Strategists, Elizabeth Ledoux as she and her guests identify what makes a successful business transition roadmap. If you know you want to transition or exit your business “one day”, today is the right day to start planning. This show will give you the roadmap.
If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, you can check out other episodes here: Podcasts – The Transition Strategists
