“Show me your friends, and I’ll show you who you are.”  

Maybe these sound like time-worn phrases, but they’re time-worn for a reason: They hold real truth. It is, in fact, important to have aspirational and supportive people around you. If you’re the biggest fish in the room, your growth stagnates. Surrounding yourself with people who bring different perspectives is like getting a cheat code to accelerate your own growth, both in business and as an individual. A strong network provides both support and inspiration. 

In our industry, having a strong peer network truly matters. The skilled trades are valuable — our businesses are essential, and they grow fast. There are, however, people out there whose intent is not to help business owners but to position themselves in ways that benefit them. So it can be hard to know who to trust. How do you find the right people to surround yourself with? 

Well, it’s much easier to trust people who are doing the work alongside you every day. I’m talking about the people in the trenches; the ones learning with you, facing the same challenges, and navigating the same changes. That shared experience builds credibility. With so much shifting in our industry, trust should come from people who are actually living the same kinds of experiences as you, not commenting from the sidelines. 

If you feel disconnected from others in the industry, or like you don’t know anyone who’s running a business like yours, that’s fair. You might not have met your people yet. But I’d encourage you to keep trying. Reach out to a business operator you admire; ask to meet up for coffee. Walk up to someone at an industry event and introduce yourself. Make a habit of it. You never know where those connections could lead.  

I know that when I attend industry events, it feels great to see familiar faces — operators, manufacturing reps, and service providers. Those people were strangers to me once, but no more. This is a tightly knit industry, and being able to catch up and hear directly how things are going from their perspective is invaluable.  

One of the most important connections I believe you can make is with people who are further along in their journey than you. A business owner at $7 million, for instance, might wonder why it makes sense to try to connect with someone running a $50 million company. From my personal experience, it’s always been easier to model what I’ve seen applied in the real world rather than rely purely on theory. You can read about an idea in a book or hear about it on a podcast, but seeing someone actively implementing that idea in their business makes it real. 

Those more established peers can also warn you about things you don’t even know to look for yet. You get answers to questions you didn’t even realize you should be asking. Simply observing where someone is today and understanding how they got there exposes you to a higher level of thinking and experience. That kind of perspective allows you to start preparing for challenges long before they arrive. 

At the end of the day, those old sayings about who you surround yourself with exist for a reason. The people you spend your time with shape how you grow. When you choose your connections intentionally, everything else begins to follow.