One of the best ways to pave the road for success is to gain inspiration from other successful people who’ve become legends in their fields. This can be true in your personal life, your professional career, and your Forum experience. In the world of EO and YPO Forums, becoming a legend requires openness, vulnerability, love, respect, and longevity—but due to challenges like member turnover, industry changes, and group conflict, some Forums struggle to achieve these goals.
The good news is that there are plenty of Forums that have built and fostered healthy long-term relationships, and we’re thrilled to highlight them in our ForumSherpa Forum Legends Podcast. In the first episode, we chatted with the EO Chicago Verus Forum to gain insight on not only how they’ve stayed together for over a decade, but also how they’ve continually grown closer as individuals and a group and provided consistent value to each other.
Forum Legends Aren’t Made Overnight
Inherently, a “legend” puts in a lot of hard work over a long period of time. After all, Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods didn’t become sports legends with short-term, mediocre careers. They achieved success through decades of dedication and perseverance to hone their skills and leave positive impacts on the sports world.
Becoming a Forum legend is similar. It requires deep commitment, willingness to be open and vulnerable, and an enthusiasm to evolve with the group and the world around you. And it takes time! Once a healthy group has been together for many years and has been able to maintain emotional closeness and personal and professional value, they may enter the realm of Forum legends.
Meet the EO Chicago Verus Forum Legends
The first episode of our Forum Legends Podcast features three members of the Verus Forum:
- Deb Venable, an EOS Implementer® with 22 years’ tenure in the Verus Forum
- Pete Horvath, owner of the Chicago-based moving, packing, and storage company Move-tastic! who’s been in the Forum for 13 years
- Ross Rocklin, President of Rocklin Manufacturing and a member of the Verus Forum for 8 years
Deb is also a ForumSherpa Certified Facilitator. She uses her own deeply meaningful Forum experience to help other groups grow and maximize their Forum takeaway value with custom retreat programs in hopes that they, too, can become Forum legends.
How the Verus Forum Became a Forum Legend
Years upon years of monthly meetings, annual retreats, and social events have deepened the bond among the Verus Forum members. Openness, honesty, and vulnerability have become pillars of their group, which has continually strengthened their relationships. “We don’t really hold back,” Ross says in the podcast. “We’ve built so many years of trust and support, and we’re accountable to ourselves and to each other.”
Strong, mature Forums like Verus can greatly benefit from the innovative Forum 2.0® tools and resources just as Deb, Pete, Ross, and the rest of their group did during a Forum 2.0® retreat several years ago with ForumSherpa Founder Ellie Byrd. For younger Forums hoping to develop the same healthy relationship and garner as much value as Verus, Pete offers some key advice: “I’d encourage any new Forum to get rid of all the emotional guardrails and just let it all out.” Thanks to the strict confidentiality and helpful nature of Forum, “you’re going to have people who care about you and want to help make things better. Without fully divulging the challenge, you’re not going to have a solution.”
Sharing Their Wisdom to Help Other Forums
Throughout the podcast, the three Forum mates discuss a variety of topics, including:
- Their introduction to EO and Forum, and why they chose to become part of the Forum community
- How their Forum’s diversity in both professional careers and personal demographics adds to their takeaway value
- What they’ve done to build and maintain deep connections with each other over the many years they’ve been together
- Tools and resources they’ve used to stay healthy as a group and resolve conflict when it’s arisen
- The core values they stick to and how they’ve evolved their Forum experience as their lives and careers have changed
- Ways in which the Forum experience has helped them become not only better business owners but better people
They also discuss the value of unique annual retreats. Deb, who has plentiful experience as both a retreat attendee and a facilitator, shares some key insights in the podcast. “One of the best things I think we’ve done is that we always go to visit another EO Forum” near their retreat location, which changes each year. “We always try to find some really unique, really interesting, really inspiring entrepreneur so we keep growing and learning”.
Over the years, the Verus Forum has continually looked at how they’ve functioned as a group, increased their value by adding Forum 2.0® to their meeting formats, and adapted and evolved as they’ve aged. They’re different people now than when they set foot in their first Forum meeting, and thanks to the unbreakable bonds they’ve created, they plan to stay Forum mates until retirement and friends for the rest of their lives.
Our Facilitators can Help Your Group Become Forum Legends
Healthy Forums know the value of tapping into the knowledge and experience that have made other groups Forum legends—and this often includes bringing in outside expertise. Our talented retreat facilitators can help guide your Forum to new heights whether it’s your first retreat together or you’re a veteran group that wants a boost.
For information on how we can help you build the foundation for a valuable Forum experience, to learn more about our Forum 2.0® suite of tools and processes, or to feature your Forum on an upcoming episode of our Forum Legends Podcast, please contact us.
Written by Britt Spread