Putting faith in your peer group

Shay

Foulk: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Ag View Pitch. Today you have Shay Foulk and Ken Stewart, and today's, you know, discussion is going to be focused around peer groups, but more specifically faith-based peer groups. And Ken, it's an honor to have you on. We've known each other for, well, I suppose a little over a year now is about right.

Ken

Stewart: Yep, sounds good.

Shay

Foulk: So, you know, it's been a pleasure being part of the Convene team, which we'll talk a little bit about. But I wanna back up and maybe just talk about peer groups in general, Ken. Many of the listeners have heard of the peer groups that the Ag View Solutions team facilitates, and many in the ag space and business space know of other peer groups. But I want to talk a little bit about, you know, maybe how you got into this and a little bit of your background. So let's start there, Ken. What's your background, and maybe how did it get you to where you are today with your peer group facilitation?

Ken

Stewart: Thanks, Shay. And just Out of the outset, I want to thank you again for the, just the privilege and the opportunity to even have this conversation. I respect you a great deal. And even though it has only been a year, just your, the integrity of the way that you live your life and run your business has had a great impact on me. So thank you for that. Backing up to what got me here, boy, it's been A bit of— I'll call it a lifetime of experiences that I believe— you mentioned faith-based— I believe God has used to shape me into this next season of life. I spent a couple decades in corporate America. I did a ministry— Marketplace to Ministry jump and did full-time ministry exclusively for about 6 years. So I've had— and there was a, there was a, a long train of leadership within the church community that led up to that.

So I've had a parallel path of business and faith-based leadership development over the course of almost 30 years. I did about 5 years of coaching and consulting in the church leadership space. And I really wasn't sure what I was going to be doing next because I was trying to get feel, my feel for where I was going in, I'll say, the latter half of my working career, latter third. And I didn't know what peer groups were. I'd never heard of them before. Didn't know they existed.

I got a number of people in the business space, and I've been a part of leadership groups, but they were very short-term, sometimes as short as one weekend, other times maybe over the course of 6 or 8 weeks, but not an ongoing relationally-based peer group that was walking alongside one another in their business life and in our circumstance, faith, and really like pouring into one another's lives on a limited basis because we're only together so often and only have so many interactions. But when those interactions happen, they are pretty deep, pretty quick, pretty— and incredibly effective. And I've never seen that in action before. I've never seen a community like that before. So to hear that they'd been around for a long time in a lot of different spaces and a lot of different emphases was very encouraging to me when I started to get into this space.

I was like, wow, that looks like a powerful model, and sure enough it is. And so I've been a part of the peer advisory space for about 5 years now, and just, I continue to be almost, agape my mouth, just like in awe of the power of this model. It really is, I just, it's a blessing to be a part of.

Shay

Foulk: It is, and I think you summarized it really well. It's almost overwhelming on both sides of it. You know, Ken, you and I both have the opportunity to facilitate peer groups, but even experiencing it as a peer group member or as a facilitator, You know, being filled with that awe, being awestruck of that deep, meaningful, and I like the word that you used there, was really effective impact of this time for leaders to take and not just focus on their business, but focus on themselves, on their relationships, on their community, on their family and personal development through interactions with others that are walking similar steps and similar lifestyles. And a few things that I wanted to hit on here real quick, that value of the relationships and the opportunity for networking with like-minded individuals is very hard to come by.

And I think it's hard to come by and gets more complex, especially as business leaders and in our space, Christian business leaders grow, add complexity to their operations, take on more, you know, stress and burdens, whether willingly or unwillingly. And it's really hard to explain that experience until you've experienced. Would you agree?

Ken

Stewart: Absolutely. We were talking just a little bit before we hit the record button. And that's one of the big challenges in talking with people about this, if they've never heard of it before, for one, but definitely if they've never experienced it. And just, you know, even as you and I are talking, it sounds like we might even be overblowing it, or it sounds too good to be true, or we're just hyped up on our own experiences. But I've just seen it time and time again. Someone will reflect back on a conversation and the depth of their takeaway, I didn't see it, I didn't write the same thing down that they did, but something that they got out of a conversation with another person or in hearing someone telling their story that they were able to apply to theirs.

You call it, you know, I'm not a big fan of the networking, for networking's sake relationship, but to see the power of the ecosystem when the networks start to get connected, that's the, the exponential effect that I start to see here. Because at least in our— and different peer groups have different focuses, and I get that and I respect that— in our particular situation, the goal isn't necessarily to build a network so that I can make more sales through you. That's not at all what's going on here, right? It isn't so much a what's in it for me, but in the interaction and in the relationship and in the awareness of what someone else is doing, how they're doing it, and how I can apply their thought processes to what I'm doing over here. And, oh, they— and I'm going to use this as a specific example, but, oh, you used that consultant for that particular issue.

I kind of have that issue too. Would you recommend that consultant? You know, just those kind of things that can happen in this, I'll call it a trust space. Because we've walked alongside one another long enough that I trust the way that you approach business. I trust the way you approach life. I trust the way that you would filter the value of, in that particular instance, that particular consultant. And boy, A friend of yours is a friend of mine kind of thing. And I'm not in it just for that. That's not my primary driver. But it does become that, that exponential value that comes out of through those interactions.

Shay

Foulk: And I want to emphasize a word that you said there, and it was connection. And I really want to lean into that because I think everybody listening to this recording, and it doesn't matter whether you're listening to it the week, the month, the year that we record this, or if it's 5 years from now, everybody listening to this seeks connection. And I think we are really lacking this in our, in our world, in our society today, but especially in the roles that we have chosen and the paths that many of us walk that are business leaders or key members of businesses, we miss that connection. And to take the time, in this case, you know, a day out of the month for in-person interaction, the one-on-one calls that you facilitate as part of what you do, and the emails in between and daily uplifting messages and things like that, I can't stress enough the importance of that.

And, you know, it's spoken to me personally of I didn't know that I was missing that piece in my life. I maybe had an inkling of it, but I didn't, I couldn't identify what it was until we knew that that was, until we had participated, and then it clicked in my head of, man, it's that connection. It's seeking out like-minded people that can identify the challenges and the struggles that I have that can push me in ways that maybe others in other circles of our life can't. And I want to go back to the peer group real quick too, because this is always something that I think you were spot on with what you said earlier, is people have different connotations when they hear the word peer group. You know, some people think, well, we get together, we have a business peer group and we get together once or twice a year and talk about things in the industry.

That's a great form of peer group, but that's not what we're talking about here today. Some people think, oh, you know, I have a peer group that I do as a Bible study or as a men's group or as a, you know, whatever it may be in your community, and we get together and have dinner and talk about things. That's also not what this is. This is very focused on business and faith interaction. And I just, I really think it's a cool model. So I know that was kind of a lot there. I don't know if you have any thoughts on that, Ken.

Ken

Stewart: Oh, I just, as you're going through it, I'm sorry, I want to come back to that. I want to come back to that. So I'll just hit a couple of them anyway. One of them is this idea of connection, and the other is that we don't know what we're missing. So I say that publicly or out loud so that you can help me come back to it. But let's go back to the connection. You know, again, I come at it from a bit of a faith worldview. So that's the lens that I'm coming at this with. And I believe that we as human beings have been created to be in community. There are times when we have to be able to stand strong and stand on our own. Because, uh, and in our walk with God in particular, we're never alone. And so I get that piece of it. But, um, another key biblical teaching is in the, the, the power and the strength of the body.

And different ones of us have been made to be different parts of the body, and the body works together. If you're an eye, you can't say to the hand, I don't need you. And in this very— there's a select few people that are at the helm of their organization. And they've— many of them have gotten there because they've known how to stand alone. And they've had to be in lonely places. And sometimes they've had to be the only one that stayed after hours to get the job done. Sometimes when other people have walked away, they've had to be the only one to keep the business rolling forward. They know what it means to stand alone. They've survived. They've gotten to the place where they are today alone. But they don't have to be alone if there's a peer group out there that's available to walk alongside them that understands those very struggles and that can identify with those situations.

And that's the piece that bridges the community with, I don't even know what I'm missing. And which makes it a difficult pitch, if you will, a difficult conversation with someone who's never experienced it. Because they don't, they aren't able to really even see, none of us know what we don't know. And this is an arena they don't know because they have been able to get to where they are without it. But once they've tasted and they realize, wait a minute, there's other people that not only have walked this road with me, or, or have walked the same road, have had the same sleepless nights, have had the same cries out to God or to something because they don't, they don't know where to turn next. Um, they've been there and they're not there right now. Thankfully, we're not there right now. So this isn't a a hospital for the dying necessarily.

This is people that are, at least in our situation, that are doing well in business and have a great possible opportunity and trajectory forward, but they also realize that, what's the adage? If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.

Shay

Foulk: Exactly.

Ken

Stewart: This is an opportunity to have the encouragement, the— it gets into the breadth of insight too. So, Shay, you are one of the most experienced people in my life, just with life experience, with your military background, with your business background, with your family background. But even with all of that, you only have Shay's experience. Mm-hmm. And now that you're married and, you know, that combines that with Hannah's experience and now you have that mixed experience. But what does it look like to have 5, 8, 10 other peer business experienced business people and bringing them into your inner circle? And now bringing that wisdom within your reach, that is a powerful resource.

Shay

Foulk: The number of times I've been sitting there in one of our meetings, Ken, with our group and been like, you know, this person has that problem, I have that problem together, and then there's someone across the room that they're like, oh, I had that problem one time. Here's what I did about it. And then, and then I feel like I'm years ahead of struggles and strife and late nights that I avoided because of the experience that was sitting in that room. And so, you know, I appreciate your comments there. But one thing that I've come to realize, and it's actually something my dad taught me at a pretty early age, is you can't make all the mistakes. So you have to learn from someone else. You know, bless all the people that are in that room together. We've all made different mistakes that maybe the others haven't that we can learn from.

Uh, so to go back to, you don't know what you don't know, that, that right there, um, the value— and, and I'll, I'll just talk in dollars and cents for a minute— the value and what I have gained in a year of being part of this group is probably 10x what we have paid into the group. And I mean that from a very, very practical business standpoint, not to mention the more meaningful impact that it has had on our faith, in our interactions with the employees in our business, and something that we'll get to here later, which is our kingdom purpose, our outlook on how our business impacts well beyond just what we're doing in this lifetime and really looking more closely at why we feel God has put us here, how we can minister through our business. But man, it's really, really, really impactful. And so I want to pause here for just a second.

Just, you know, there's people that you'll send this to, Ken, that you think would benefit from this group. There's people that I'm going to send this to that would benefit from this group and/or peer groups in general. But, you know, I want to talk about this one specifically today because I really like the style and the format of it. If you're considering something like this and you feel that it has been on your heart, or Ken has asked you to consider it, or, or that God is, you know, whispering in your ear that this is something you need to try, I really highly recommend it from the standpoint of it will impact and improve your business and your life in some way.

So, so what I want to, what I want to take a step into here real quick, Ken, to make sure that we don't get too into the weeds on any particular topic, is I would like for you to talk through a little bit about the structure and the process and maybe, maybe like the schedule, I guess that would probably be part of the structure there. Of how you facilitate your peer groups and what that looks like for someone that may be interested in being part of the Convene team or being part of a future group, if you would please.

Ken

Stewart: Yeah, yeah, appreciate the question. If you're taking notes, I don't have a piece of paper in front of me. I apologize for falling down on the job, but I want to come back to the trust factor. So if you would, let's get there before we close. But so Convene is a national organization. We're bridging into some international International Zones. And we facilitate peer-to-peer advisory teams for primarily Christian business owners, presidents, those at the top of the organization, but we're also dipping into key leader groups. And we do so for smaller size businesses ranging from about 1.5 million to 3 million in annual revenue, and then for larger size businesses anywhere from 2.5 million, 3 million on up to $50 million and kind of prime zone. Of course, we'll go larger. We've got some billion-dollar businesses, so we're not going to cut you off if you make too much money.

But just talking about the sweet zone of the size of businesses that we serve. And you and I are a part of the Central Illinois team right here in the Peoria area. And we meet on the second Tuesday of each month for our large business team and on the second Thursday of each month for our smaller business team. And different groups around the country are going to meet at different times and days. But the typical pattern is one day a month in meeting. And for larger business teams, that's an 8-hour day. And for smaller business teams, that's a 4-hour day. And then we've got some virtual groups as well that work similar model. But the in-person is where I land because that's where my strengths lie.

So I, and I just, I love the relational component that happens when you're sitting in a room together and you have all the interpersonal dynamics that come from actually seeing and hearing and kind of feeling one another's vibe. We start the day with a time, I divide the day into 3 components, a minimum of 3 components. A time of connection, and we talked about connection already, the need for community. So we spend a good amount of time in checking in, and that's not just, hey, how you doing? I'm doing fine, I'm doing great. We actually use different tools to help us to get a little deeper into our lives and our, where we are emotionally, and not that we're in just to deeply emotionally connect, but we want to get beyond the surface. That's the goal of that time. So we'll use different tools to check in and then to have a time of devotional because we are a faith-based peer group.

Then we'll transition from our connection time into our business learning segment. And we got a couple components of the business learning segment. First, we have 26+ years of assembled MBA-level learning content from the national offices that convene out of California. And so, we'll bring that content in, and there's nothing new under the sun. I'm not going to bring— I'm not going to bring something in that you've never heard of.

Shay

Foulk: I was going to say that earlier, Ken.

Ken

Stewart: Great.

Shay

Foulk: I'm glad you brought that up. There's nothing new under the sun with these peer groups. But it does not change the value of the experience. So sorry to interrupt.

Ken

Stewart: Yeah, no, there's nothing new. So we're going to bring, we're going to bring things in. We're going to talk about problem employees. We're going to talk about how to, how to manage payroll. We're going to talk about HR issues and organizational structure issues and strategic thinking issues. But we're also going to talk about kingdom purpose. We're going to talk about conflict in the workplace. We're going to talk about those The thing that we might bring in that most business groups may not talk about have to do with our faith side of things. But my point in saying that there's nothing new under the sun is, you know, people aren't coming expecting a revelation necessarily, but they also don't necessarily know what we're going to talk about. And I'm going to take them somewhere they probably haven't thought about for a long time.

And so, oh yeah, You know, it's been a while since I really thought deeply about that particular issue. It's an important business learning concept, and not only am I going to get this MBA-level content that we're going to be discussing together, I get to hear what every person in the room— how they interpret it, how they apply it in their businesses— and I'm going to learn from their application. So it really— I've used the word exponential a couple times now, but it expands the content level and deepens it and widens it and all that stuff because of the conversation that happens in the midst of that. So, we have our business learning content. Sometimes that business learning content will come in the form of a guest speaker. 4 times a year we bring in a guest speaker. And then when we don't have a guest speaker, we also do a deep dive into one of our member businesses.

So, I work with a— a member like yourself, and I do a little prep with you to say, okay, come present your business to the team. Uh, it does a couple things. It helps you to do a bit of a deep dive on your organization and then have to articulate that in words. And I'm going to walk you through that. That's part of my facilitation process. So it's not a big deal. You know your business better than anybody and you can respond to questions and it's all going to be good. But there's a little bit of prep for that. And then what the rest of the team learns from that is how you think about your business, the passion that you have about your business, but also, oh, I didn't know that about your business. Like we recently had somebody who talked to us about employment services. I didn't know anything about that industry, so I learned a lot about that industry. You're in the ag space.

I've been around ag for a long time. I've heard a lot of things about ag, but to hear you talk about what you do on the seed side of your business and what you do on the consulting side of your business and what you do on the planting and harvesting side of your business, that was fascinating to me and to the team. And then when you have an opportunity, which is the third major part of our converse— of our day, it's called opportunities and challenges. When a member brings an opportunity or a challenge to the table to get feedback from the team, well, I know a whole lot more about your business now because a couple months ago you presented your business. And so any feedback I might have for you is now much— comes from a more educated place.

So those are the 3 main components: our time of connection and devotion, a time of business learning content, and a time for opportunities and challenges. And that opportunities and challenges is probably the biggest value that I mean, there's a lot of value throughout the day, but to the point of really tapping into the wisdom in the room, I've got this situation that I'm facing. It could be positive, it could be negative, it could be future planning. It could— I just, I'd love to hear your thoughts as I move down this path so I can maybe make fewer missteps, or maybe you can affirm something I'm thinking, but I just, I don't quite have the confidence level where I want it to be yet. And all that can happen in the presentation of an opportunity or a challenge.

Shay

Foulk: Man, Ken, this is, this is so good. And I, you know, I'm getting pumped up just thinking about it. Like, that's, that's how excited I am. And I'm not exaggerating that because it's just, it's really, the process is phenomenal. And I'll give you commendation for that, how you facilitate, because that is an important piece of it. The structure is really good. It's obviously been developed over decades of refining that process and procedure. But, but what I want to point out, I want to highlight a couple things and summarize a couple things. So the summary that I want to make is it's the same process month in and month out. So you know what to expect, you know what to look forward to, you know that you're going to have that time of connection and the business outlook and the opportunities and challenges and the business presentation.

So you know what to expect, and I think most of us in business leader positions maybe don't always have as structured of a day as we would maybe like. And so the consistency in that day and the impact that it has is something that I found a lot of consolation in, I guess, that I've really enjoyed. And I want to go back to, you know, that monthly, that monthly meeting, that monthly 8 hours together or 4 hours together, kind of depending on the business, but we'll use 8 as the, you You know, how did you say it? Large business group over there. You know, I need more frequently than monthly, probably, but I need a monthly reminder that my time and my talent and my treasures are not mine, that it is a gift that has been given by God and that I need to reset and refocus monthly on how I'm driving our business, how I interact with people, And that is one of the most refreshing things for me.

And really, a monthly deep dive into another business answers so many questions about challenges that you're facing or opportunities that you may want to pursue. And not even in the same industry, but, you know, this last meeting that we had, the person presenting brought up an idea or a concept that I thought, that is phenomenal, and that would work in our business. And again, that's one of those things that, you know, who knows what the value is to our business, my business, long term as a result of hearing and being a part of that conversation. But I know it's not insignificant. And so this is where this should speak to you as the leader of your organization. This should speak to you as a key member of your organization. To want to be a part of that, to want to have those engagements.

And there's going to be days, Ken, and I've missed some meetings, and I kick myself every time I have to miss a meeting. But the intent, I believe, is that you will be at as many meetings as you can, if not every meeting. And the purpose behind that is, and we say this all the time for those that have listened to our podcast for quite a while, We need to spend more time working on the business and not just in the business, because someone can step into our role. Someone can do the leadership things that we need to do. But for most of us that are listening to this and that are searching for something like this, we are the only people in our business that can and should maybe in some cases be the ones working on the business because that is the talent, that is the gift that we've been given, or that's the desire that we have.

And so, man, just to lean into that structure, lean into that process, and have someone facilitate those conversations is great. And the third thing here, Ken, you mentioned speakers, you kind of glossed over that briefly. These are world-class speakers. You've joked many times that you haven't had a miss yet. And I hope we don't, but man, there's not been a miss. Every time that those speakers come in, they're really phenomenal. So I wanted to not let you just walk past that one because it is, it's pretty eye-opening.

Ken

Stewart: I laugh as you say that because I do, I'd say that, I don't say that while the speaker's there, but I do say that to our team because I just, these, I'm not, for many of these speakers, they're on a national speaker circuit. So I'm trusting they're going to have a lot of really good value. They've passed the muster of our organization. Organization. But you just know there's going to be one that doesn't quite hit. It just hasn't happened yet. So in 4— I've been doing this for 5 years but actually been bringing speakers in for 4. So real thankful for that track record. And they are really, really good speakers. I want to speak to the working on real quick. Did you want to take that somewhere?

Shay

Foulk: No, go ahead on that. And then I'm going to come back to trust and come back to kingdom purpose here, Ken.

Ken

Stewart: Awesome, awesome. So, oh, I got distracted. What, what I want— was I getting ready to talk about? Oh, on the business versus in the business.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah.

Ken

Stewart: All due respect to anybody listening right now, okay, I want to, I want to just paint the ideal— the ideal world of a business owner or an executive business leader is to have built the systems and have the people in place that you can Watch it run. That is ideal. You are— that business is operating in health today, and my job as the visionary executive leader is to, to make sure, to ensure future value, as one of my coaches used to say, is to ensure the future value of this business. So I'm looking ahead, I'm looking for obstacles, I'm looking for where we might crash into the curb. I'm looking for, you know, somebody up on the hill throwing rocks. I'm looking for an opportunity for growth. I'm out ahead while the business is running today.

Shay

Foulk: And Ken, yes, I interrupt your roll here for a second because there's a really important question that I think you're going to like that I often use. And when I ask people this that are considering a peer group, If you're not in this peer group and you're not participating and you're not the one working on your business, who is?

Ken

Stewart: Who is? That's right, that's right.

Shay

Foulk: And then with all that, with the black air, you know, it's usually because the answer is nobody. Nobody. Yeah, that's right.

Ken

Stewart: Uh, so, so again, respect, because I know And you mentioned that sometimes you've got to miss a meeting, right? Because sometimes priorities come up that supersede what we might be doing, and I get it. But by and large, ideally, you've got things to a point. If you don't have things to that point, all the more reason to be in a space where some other people have started to get to that point and can lead you there. So if you're already there, we can help you with the, you know, the forecasting of the future and making sure you're taking your business into a healthy place and keeping it healthy and all those things. But if you're not there, what better way to get there than to be around people that are also striving to get there or have gotten there at some level.

Shay

Foulk: And on that, again, I want to make a point here. If you're already in a business peer group of others in your industry, that's phenomenal. If you are already in a faith-based connection group that is, you know, part of your church, part of your community, part of your beliefs, that's phenomenal. I would encourage you to think about the impact that the marriage of those two things can have together when you bring in that faith-based background to your business leadership, your business acumen, and your business purpose. And maybe this is a natural segue into kingdom purpose, I guess, Ken, but bringing those components together, maybe you could speak to what you've seen as the biggest value and the impact that that brings onto people in their business and in their personal lives.

Ken

Stewart: That is a big one, Shay. And I want to be careful that I don't outpace my words here. Yep. Get out over my skis or whatever analogy you want to use. But so we live in compartments, by and large. And I talk about the integration of business, life, and faith. That's, that's my, that's one of the areas that I focus in on. Because we want to be integrated people. But when you operate at the level that high-performance business leaders operate, there are very few people that live in that space. The subset is small. Now take a sliver of that, and you're looking at The people that operate in that space and care about their faith, care about leveraging or, uh, stewarding the everything about the gifts that God has given them in the space of business. Well, I refer to that as very rare air.

I don't know of, you know, again, I don't want to speak too blindly, but I don't know of any church that offers a setting where those people can get in a room and say, "I get you," on a consistent basis that's facilitated by someone who also speaks their language. And I certainly don't know anybody in the pure business space that is going to say, oh, you're willing to sacrifice profit for character? Uh-huh. You may be in the wrong room.

You— so this— the uniqueness of at least, you know, and there are other peer groups like ours, but the space that we're trying to provide It is so unique, and to be able to come into that space and be super conscientious of how God is working in and through my life, and appreciate the fact that I have a very high business acumen and demands on my life that the average person can't hardly comprehend, and would even maybe look at me and think I'm stupid because I'm spending inordinate amounts of time and energy on this particular situation. But I know that this is my calling and that I know the families that our business is impacting. I know the economies that our business is impacting. I know the breadth of the impact of— and the weight of what I'm trying to do. And I'm trying to do it to the best of my ability. And I don't think you can quite understand if you've never sat in this seat.

All of that kind of— when you can get in a room that— okay, I haven't sat in your seat, but I've sat in a seat awful lot like it. And I get exactly what you're saying. I understand the stresses of payroll. I understand the stresses of a downturn in the economy. I understand the stresses of the difficulty of hiring into, like, just to use one of today's issues. Just, I get that, and at the same time trying to be so conscientious about the way that our organization is impacting the economy, the environment, the city that I'm in, the community that I'm in, and how are we giving back. I'm rambling a bit here, but all that stuff, to be sitting in a room with people that understand the felt pressure in those, in the decisions I make, and it's just a powerful thing. I may have strayed from your original question, but—

Shay

Foulk: Yeah. I would maybe outline that, you know, in our group, and I would say that the consistent message with other groups and what that'll look like moving forward is, It is, and I say this, I say this with humility, but also to be, to be straightforward, because I don't know any other way to say it. It's a group of, it's a group of uncommon people that are looking to do and make an extraordinary impact and to do extraordinary things in their business, with their family, for their community, and for the purpose that they feel God has put on their heart and that they know to be true. And I've, you know, Hannah and I have had that discussion of, you know, how we raise our family and talk to our children and how we think about our business moving forward. And we always joke that we're going to have to tell our kids someday that we are not an ordinary family and in a good way.

Yeah, because we— that's not who we want to be. That's not who we feel that we were called to be. And I think that will resonate with a lot of people listening to this is that you don't want to be an ordinary individual, but to surround yourself with extraordinary people that have their faith at the center of their personal lives and at the center of their business. And when I think about Kingdom Purpose, you know, this is something that we're on a journey ourselves that you're helping us work through, Ken. You know, what with the working years and the time and the talents and the treasures that God has blessed us with and continues to bless us with, what do we do with that? You know, so what is our relation— in our instance, what's our relationship with Christ? And then what do we do with the gifts that were given to us?

And it's a big question and it's one that takes a long time to navigate. But to have the group of people that we are a part of in this peer group, I can't think of a better group of people And I also want to point out the fact that we maybe haven't emphasized here, Ken, not saying it couldn't look different or won't look different moving forward, but no one in our group is in the same industry. Correct. And that brings a tremendous amount of value. Even if there were people in the same industry, though, I, you know, there might be a lot of connections or other networking that would occur as a result of that, but I wouldn't see it from a competitive environment.

But there is a true gift and a true power in the people in the room having the same goal and the same message and the same things that they're seeking, whether it be connection or business acumen or faith-based outlook, but being totally different at the same time. And that's, that's huge. That is an environment that takes a good facilitator to put together. It takes a a good facilitator to navigate that conversation and work through those nuances. And that's where I think the peer group value has such an impact as a result of that right there.

Ken

Stewart: Yeah. Couple things come to mind as you're talking. One is that in the convene model, it's very intentional that we do not have industry— multiples from one industry in any one group because we want that diversity of thought for one, But also we want— we are creating— and I, you know, the words have a lot of meaning in today's day and age, so I want to use this in the right sense. But our goal is to create an ultra-safe place, a safe space, which means not only can I bring whatever I need to to the table, but I can also bring strategic ideas and ways that I want to enter into the market and And, you know, if we have multiples from the same industry in that same conversation, that becomes a guarded conversation. And so, by intentionality, if we have multiples in the same industry, we try to get them in different groups.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah.

Ken

Stewart: That's a good point. Which speaks to how, you know, and we don't have to go there today, but we are wanting to build convene throughout Central Illinois. We've already got a number of groups in the Chicagoland area. I want to build multiple groups so that we can have multiple spaces for whether it be people from the ag space or from the financial planning space or from the trucking industry or from wherever. We want to make sure that there's opportunity for everybody by having multiple locations and/or seats at the table for various industry groups.

Shay

Foulk: I do— I do want to go there today, Ken, so I'm going to take advantage of this as a segue because that's actually where I wanted to go next. Okay. You know, I know, I know you're looking to add groups from the standpoint of the demand that's out there. And like you said, one of the challenges that we run into as a facilitator, and I think it's just, it's been time, it's been networking, it's been conversations, it's been people that we've worked with making connections with other, you know, farm operations or ag businesses in our instance. For the groups that we facilitate, it's taken some time, but that critical mass has built to where we are starting to see an influx and have a large waiting list of people that want to get in and be a part of the peer group because they're really starting to click and understand the value of it.

And I see that happening very rapidly with the CONVENE teams. And so I'd like you to just maybe speak to that just a little bit more on that you are looking to get a couple, 1 or 2 or maybe 3 more groups started as you move forward. And what I would first offer to maybe help you segue into that is it takes time to get the right group together. And the sooner you know as a facilitator that people are interested, the better impact that you can have on finding the right group getting them started when they need it in their lives for their personal lives or their businesses and just getting that impact up and rolling. So, could you maybe talk to that about a little bit on kind of what your outlook is there for getting some new groups rolling, Ken?

Ken

Stewart: Yeah, first I'll just talk geography. When I started, you know, boy, that's again a big question. But There are a number— when I first started, there was a group in Milwaukee and a group in Chicagoland. Now there are other groups throughout the nation as well, but just in this like Midwest corridor. And now there are a number of groups in the Chicagoland area because we've had some intentional growth design. And of course our group, I've got a couple groups down here in the greater Peoria area that serves— I've got members that come from Champaign-Urbana. I've got a guy who comes up from Southern Illinois. I've got a guy who comes over from Bloomington-Normal. So, and you come from the great metropolis of Sparland. So, so we have people traveling to come to the greater Peoria area.

But there is, as you know, the backbone of, of our economies is business, and there are there are Christian-owned and operated businesses throughout this part of the region of Illinois, throughout Central Illinois, and I could easily see there being teams that meet in Bloomington-Normal and Springfield and Champaign-Urbana, just to name a few. I could see something happening in the Galesburg area. So I could see some breaking our Central Illinois region into some sub-regions And not that we have territories or anything like that, but I'm looking at a matter of convenience for access for member businesses. But it's a chicken and egg conversation because you need 5 to 8 businesses that are interested at the same time to come together to get a group started.

Ideally, from a— just like a really healthy perspective, because health is one of the things that I I quote unquote preach in life and in business and in faith, but a healthy peer group in our environment has about 12 members. Yep. You can have a little bit more, you can have a little bit less, but we're shooting for 12. So you want 5 to 8 just to get launched out the door, then you want to grow at least to that level of 12 so you have critical mass and an ongoing community and all that good stuff. So it's a chicken and egg of, hey, I'd love to plant something over and Bloomington Normal, but I've got to get a— I've got to get— I can facilitate maybe one, but if I want to have multiples, you know, my time and energy is limited. So who else might share that? And then do we have the interested businesses and their business leaders that want to come together and grow in this way?

And I'm— as that model grows, I have every intention of actually coaching those leaders of those other groups and and helping them to become the best facilitators they can. So it's not like it's a cut and run, and so they're going to be supported in that. But there's a— there's a— like a domino effect building process that has to take place to see what I hope to eventually be a network of Christian businesses that are meeting in their own communities and that realize the phrase that keeps coming up to my mind is you don't have to run this race alone. You don't have to run this race alone. We're called to run the race, to fight the good fight, to run the race, but you don't have to do it alone. But it's a process.

Shay

Foulk: One thing that I would say too, and I'm just going to say this from, you know, I would consider us on the younger end of kind of the business leader group, certainly in our group, but from a business leader standpoint, you know, we looked at it and it was— it's a financial commitment for sure. But I was almost at the point of like, you know, questioning myself of, is this what I— am I ready for this? You know, I think that's a valid question. I think there's a lot of people that will listen to this, Ken, and say, man, I don't know if I'm— I don't know if I'm ready for that. I don't know if I'm at the point in my business where, where I have it under control or whatever. Let me, let me stop your thoughts right there. You don't need to have your business in order to get your business in order.

Ken

Stewart: Amen.

Shay

Foulk: And there is so much power in just diving into a group like this. And, and I told Hannah after the first meeting, I said this was the best decision that we made at this time in our lives. It's exactly what we needed. I just didn't know that we needed it to this extent. I knew we needed it. I knew we needed it for a reason, but man, just, just that impact. So if there's someone listening to this and thinking, well, I don't know if I'm ready for that, or I don't know, I promise you, reach out to Ken, reach out to me. And I would offer, I would offer that, Ken, you know, you and I had talked about this briefly offline, but for anybody listening to this, if you're considering being a part of a convene group or peer groups in general or want to have a conversation, you know, my number and email will be posted in the podcast notes here, and Ken will have that available too.

I'll give you an unbiased perspective, unbiased from the standpoint of I felt comfortable having this conversation because I see the value in it. Ken's not paying me. Ken's not paying me to do this podcast. I offered this because I truly do see the value in it. I'm in the peer group facilitation space as well. And we wanna bring that value to people. And I would just encourage you, don't wait to reach out to be a part of this. If you're in any of the communities that he listed, or if you're within, I would argue, Ken, that if you're within 3 hours drive of any of those places, it's called the convene group, not the convenient group. Maybe that's a little play on words there, but we do have people that drive a significant distance to be there, and they're there, and they're part of the group, and they're committed.

And while locality is maybe a good factor, it's not the most important factor.

Ken

Stewart: Oh man, Shay, first of all, I just really appreciate you saying that. And I would open— you can post my phone number and email as well. I'm not here to convert you into a convene group. I want, if you'll pardon my play on words, I want to preach the gospel of peer groups in the sense of the value that they can have on your life, your business, and in our case, your faith walk and the integration of that. We are human beings and there's such value in walking this this journey together. Um, and then to another— to your other point, oh man, I could tell you story after story after story because in addition to the, the daily meeting, the once-a-month meeting, I do individual coaching, one-on-one coaching with each of the members once a month.

Shay

Foulk: Yep, that's huge.

Ken

Stewart: And I'll get into a one-to-one with— I've got $5 million budgets, $10 million budgets. I've got one that's— man, she's probably pushing between— well above 6-figure budgets. We've got major leaders of organizations with a number of employees. And I'll sit in a one-to-one with them and they'll be like, I can't believe the wisdom in that room. I can't, I cannot believe what so-and-so just said about that. I can't believe I get to be a part of that. And again, it sounds like I'm overselling it. That's not my point.

Shay

Foulk: I would interrupt you where you're not.

Ken

Stewart: Okay, okay. But, and I'll just, I'll just take one example. She is the superintendent of a large school system. And she has some of the strongest leadership acumen that I've experienced. And she's got the track record to prove it. She's got the ambition and the wisdom and the the strength to make hard calls and really be a compassionate, conscientious— just, she's a leader. And yet every time we meet, the humility that comes through her when she's like, I just— when she looks at the other people around the table and talks about how she learned from this person, learned from that person. I mean, she is so highly capable in and of herself, and yet is responding in that way to the examples and the experiences that other people are sharing in the room. It just speaks— so my leadership organization is called the H3 Leader, and the 3 H's are humble, healthy, and holistic.

And to see the level of humility in these highly accomplished leaders and the willing— their willingness to share their lives, which gets into that trust factor that we tipped our hat to a little bit earlier. It takes a— just a little bit of time. We don't have any long-term contracts, but I do ask for new members to give us 6 months. And in that 6 months, you'll get a feel for how things work and you'll start to build the relationships and you'll start to see the level of trust that is growing in this group. And that trust level is, is part of what's so important because I talked about earlier the rare air. As a business owner, who do you take your doubts to? Who do you take your deep— I mean, you may have some fears that are cropping up. You may have some, some real— like, you don't know the answer.

But you have to be careful in the things that you share with your employee base or even your leader base. I mean, I'm not saying you, you veil that stuff completely, but you, you, it's, you can't be raw because you want that, you want to give a positive outlook. You want them to be hopeful. You want them to be encouraged. And some of those burdens are your burdens to bear, not theirs. So where do you talk about him? Well, this is where you talk about him. And the only way that you're going to bring that into this room is if you explicitly trust every single person in that room. You know that they can hear your voice because they've been there, and, and you trust that they're not going to take it anywhere. They're going to take it to their grave because we are under covenant relationship.

Shay

Foulk: And, and the other thing that I would say is, uh, you got to be in the room to experience it. And that's where I want to, I want to close and then I'll give you a chance to leave your parting thoughts here, Ken. But, you know, to wrap up here from my end, if you're thinking about this, if Ken has asked you to consider, if you feel God has put this on your heart, lean into it and get into one of these groups. And, and I just, I really want to encourage that. Um, there's, there's a reason I wanted to take the time to do this. And as I mentioned earlier, if anybody wants to reach out to me, please do. Ken, what would the process be if there is someone listening that maybe you haven't shared this podcast with? Or, you know, what does that look like for someone that is interested in being a part of one of your next groups?

Ken

Stewart: Yeah, well, it starts with a conversation. And in a classic sense, you might call it a discovery conversation. But just, man, where are you? What are you looking for? And let's talk first. You get to know me just a little bit. I get to know you just a little bit. And we'll explore together about whether or not this is a good fit for you. This is something that is going to be good for you. Chances are it will be, but let's openly discuss it. And so it starts with a conversation. And I love those conversations. I love getting to know new people. And even if it's not the path that that person is going to take today, they're that much more aware of resources that are available out to them, out for them when and if that time comes in the future. So it starts with a conversation.

Shay

Foulk: Yep. What are your parting thoughts here, Ken?

Ken

Stewart: I have two. One, you tipped the hat to it earlier, and I just want to briefly— yeah, this is is not an inexpensive journey. But I want to put it in context, in a couple contexts. First of all, in this space of peer groups, we are very conscious of where we fit in the spectrum across peer groups, and we are on the lower end of the investment strategy when it comes to the actual cost associated with being a part of a peer group, we wanna be conscientious of that. So we're not trying to be extravagant, we're not trying to be on the leading edge of that, we're very, try to be very responsible. But the reason that there are finances involved the way they are is because the chair, me, and the organization convene are dedicated to this. This is our business.

So just like any other business would charge for their services or their product, this is our service and our product, and so there are expenses involved. So, but we do try to keep it reasonable, but I just want to mention that. That's the one piece of that, but the other is that it— you talk— it's difficult to talk ROI, but— Yeah, I was going to go one direction and then I shifted in my head there. But it just strikes me at the level of— I'll call it lip service to leadership development that organizations give to leadership development. And they want to offer classes or they want to offer maybe a conference or something along the way, hit it once or twice a year, maybe pay for somebody to go through a class. It's a one-and-done kind of thing. And then if the budget starts to get tight, what's the first thing to go? Leadership. Leadership development, exactly.

Shay

Foulk: I just listened to another military podcast this morning that said the exact same thing. We talk a good talk, and then when it comes to budget or it comes to time, the first thing that gets cut is leadership training, and it needs to be the other way around.

Ken

Stewart: That's exactly right. And I would take it just a step further if I could, at the risk of stepping on toes. Yeah, is there a line item budget for executive leadership development? I mean, a hard, protected, significant line item budget? Because like you talked about earlier, if you're not taking the ship somewhere, who is?

Shay

Foulk: Yep, and no one's hearing.

Ken

Stewart: And let's face it, we are taking our ships, our businesses, into probably the most unpredictable future of any recent memory. We do not know what tomorrow is going to bring in our world, in our economy, in our nation. We don't know what's next. And that is, to me, that's a, that's a scary scary place to be alone. And so again, I— it may sound like inflamed language, I don't mean it to be, but there are options out there where you don't have to run this race alone. And I would encourage you, it doesn't have to be Convene, doesn't have to be Ag View Solutions, find something that is going to give you the support and encouragement and challenge and direction that you need to take your ship into the future with as much health and vitality as possible.

And then the other, uh, the other kind of walk away would be— and you know, I'm into Marvel and, uh, all those movies— and, uh, it's the Spider-Man's dad's quote. Peter Parker's dad said, "With, with great power comes great responsibility." And Jesus said something similar. He said, to those of you who have been given much, much is to be expected. And as executive business leaders, as owners of businesses, you've been given much. You've been given the mindset, the mentality, the grit, the mental toughness. You've been given resources. Now you could say, hey, I went out and I scrapped for every bit of that. Okay, but then who gave you the, the physical resources, the mental resources, the— I mean, everything is God's in my worldview, and, and you have been blessed with it. Now what are you going to do with it? And that's where we get into this kingdom purpose as well.

And, you know, I like to talk about the fact that the purpose of business is to facilitate human flourishing. How are you facilitating human flourishing in your employees' lives, in your clients' lives, in your vendors' lives, in your community's lives, in your family's life? How are you doing that intentionally? How are you— how are you ensuring the fiscal viability of your organization into the future so that it can have lasting impact for future generations? These are tall orders that most people in our world do not have to think about or deal with, but you do because you have been given much, much is expected of you. And I just, I want to dedicate the rest of my life to helping people like Shay and Hannah Folk do that well.

Shay

Foulk: That's awesome, Ken. I can't tell you how much I appreciate this conversation and for those of you listening, if something hit home with you here, if you liked what you heard, if you get value out of it, send me a message, give me a call, shoot us an email. My information will be in there. Ken's information will be in there. We always love hearing from you. But Ken, I can't stress enough the value that your facilitation, that you bringing us and trusting us to be a part of this peer group has had on our business over the last year. And will continue for a very, very long time to impact our business and our outlook. And I just thank you, and I truly hope that you know the impact that you're having. Sometimes it's good for us to take a step back and realize that.

And, you know, I really hope God blesses you and your family and your outlook and your continued journey for this impact that you hope to have. I just really appreciate that, Ken.

Ken

Stewart: Ah, Shay, man, I thank you so much. It's been a privilege and an honor to be on a conversation with you. I appreciate our ongoing relationship. Praying for you guys, and thank you.

Shay

Foulk: Yeah, awesome. And thank you everyone for listening here to another episode of the Ag View Pitch, and we will catch you next time.