For chapter chairs and group leaders
A speaker for founder and CEO peer groups who has run the companies your members run.
Your members have heard plenty of speakers. They can tell in four minutes whether the person at the front has made payroll or just read about it. I led five companies as the operator, with the payroll on my desk, and I’ve advised more than a hundred B2B companies since. I bring one framework, teach it straight, and then put it to work on a member’s real problem before anyone leaves.
The room
A chapter of eight to sixteen owners. Ninety minutes to half a day. People who run companies, not people who want to someday. They are not there to be entertained; they are there because something in their business is stuck and the group is where they go to get unstuck.
That room punishes theory. It also rewards a speaker who knows the difference between the problem a member describes and the problem they actually have. That’s the part I’m good at, because I have had most of those problems myself.
Which talk fits
Creating a Culture of Accountability for groups fighting the same people problems: the manager who keeps missing, the team that nods and does nothing, the owner who has become the chief reminder. It teaches Coaching versus Catching and what to do Monday.
Build the Machine for groups where the founder is still the system. If the company stops when the owner takes a week off, this is the talk. It shows the path from heroic effort to a business that gets out of the middle of every decision without the company noticing.
Influence: The Intersection of Authenticity, Intention, and Trust for mixed-seniority rooms, where founders sit next to the key people they brought along. Influence is earned in small moments, not claimed from the org chart, and both chairs need to hear that.
Not sure which one? Tell me what your members complained about at the last three meetings. I will pick.
Sample agenda
A ninety-minute chapter session runs like this. Longer formats add more application time, not more slides.
- 10 minutes, context. Who I am, why I’m here, and the one question the session answers.
- 40 minutes, teach. The framework, with the stories from the companies I ran that show where it breaks and where it holds.
- 30 minutes, apply. One member puts a real situation on the table. The group works it with the framework, live. I referee.
- 10 minutes, commitments. Every member names the one thing they will do before the next meeting. The chair writes them down.
What chairs get
A call with me before the session. I want to know who is in the chairs, what the group is wrestling with, and whether there is a member you would like to see put on the spot. The session gets built from that call.
I stay for the hallway. The best conversation at a chapter meeting happens after the formal part ends, and I’m not the speaker who is in a car before the chairs are stacked.
Questions chairs ask
Do you work in a chapter’s existing format?
Yes. Tell me your chapter’s rhythm and I will build to it: presentation then processing, a teach block followed by member issue work, or a half-day with the framework applied to several situations in turn. I don’t bring a fixed deck and ask your group to fit around it.
Can members bring a live problem?
Please. The apply block in the agenda exists for exactly that. One member puts a real, current situation on the table and the group works it with the framework while I referee. Chairs usually pick the member in advance on the pre-call so nobody is ambushed, but a volunteer on the day works too.
Is there a sales pitch?
No. The session is the session. My coaching and advisory business lives at provenchaos.com and stays there. If a member wants to talk afterward, they know where to find me, and that is as far as it goes in your room.
Do you change the stories for our industry?
The framework is the same in every industry; the examples change. I have led companies in manufacturing, construction, and online and advised more than a hundred B2B companies, so I usually have a story close to your members’ world. The pre-call is where I find out which ones to use.
Check availability
Send the date, the chapter, and what your members are stuck on. I answer every inquiry myself.