How to Build a Personal Board of Advisors

Founders and entrepreneurs are always looking for systems to increase their efficiency and traction.

One especially powerful component has a compounding effect on your growth…

Your circle of influence.

In a study done by social psychologist Dr. David McClelland of Harvard, he found that the people you habitually associate with determine as much as 95% of your success or failure in life.

When I realized how important my circle of influence was, I knew I needed to assemble an A-team around me.

So I created my own Personal Board of Advisors.

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to share how you can build out your own Personal Board of Advisors (which will increase your chance of success by 95%).

Let's dive in 🪂

The first thing to note about a Personal Board of Advisors is that this isn’t the same thing as a mentorship.

Having one mentor is ineffective for multiple reasons:

• Massive commitment for one mentor

• One-sided, transactional relationship

• Hard to find one person with shared goals, a wealth of experience, and time to spare

But, just because having a single mentor isn’t the best option, no one can deny the benefits that come from having a mentor in your life.

Benefits such as:

• Clear path to success

• Better understanding of what to prioritize

• Connections and opportunities with people in their circles

So, how do we bridge the gap between the benefits and drawbacks of having a mentor?

Simple, instead of putting all the responsibility on a single person, I decided to divide it amongst a group of people, a Personal Board of Advisors.

This creates a few advantages in my opinion.

It allows me to diversify the influences in my life and also ends up being more efficient from a commitment perspective.

When choosing my board members, I consider a few things in my decision.

First, there are 3 different types of people I want on my board - experts, peers, and mentors.

• Experts - Intellectual sparring partners

• Peers - Fellow founders who have your back

• Mentors - People whose outcomes you want

This gives me both lateral support (peers) and upward support (experts and mentors).

Experts and mentors are often only available during set times, and tend to be more advice or feedback-focused in the support they provide.

Peers on the other hand, can provide more day in and day out encouragement and “in-the-trenches” support.

Now, on to the second (and perhaps most important) consideration when setting up my board.

Obviously experience and expertise are important, but that’s really only part of it.

There’s actually a whole separate group of factors I consider when selecting my board members…

Factors I think are often overlooked by people choosing mentors…

Who the board members are as people.

• Are they willing to tell you harsh truths?

• Do they have your best interest at heart?

• Are they living a life you aspire to have someday?

These people are supposed to be a major influence in my life.

However, if they aren’t willing to tell me hard truths I don’t want to hear, or if they have a lifestyle I want nothing to do with…

How am I supposed to actually benefit from their presence in my life?

They end up being more like fancy trophies on a shelf that I show off to other people, rather than impactful and meaningful influences in my life.

Finally, just like the board at public companies, I want each member of my personal board to help me level up in a specific area.

Otherwise it just becomes an echo-chamber or my skills don’t develop equally.

Here are some of the people that currently “sit” on my board:

• Sales: Alex Hormozi

• Growth: Justin Welsh

• Strategy: Alex Lieberman

• Community: Greg Isenberg

• Mental Wealth: James Clear

If you’re interested in building out your board (and I HIGHLY recommend you do), here's the 4-step process to get started:

1. Map out your key growth areas

2. List out the pros and cons of each member

3. Identify the blind spots of your initial list and diversify

4. Treat your board as dynamic; your initial picks won't always be great → evaluate + adapt

There you have it, my personal method for building out a Personal Board of Advisors.

If you don’t already have your own board, I’d like to encourage you to set aside some time on Monday morning to begin building it out.

Since these people have up to a 95% chance of helping ensure your success, it’s an investment that’s worth the time involved.

And if you find you’re not sure which people would be the best fit for your needs, then I have a suggestion...

On October 19th, the next live cohort of my Founder OS program kicks off.

It’s a great place to get connected with other like-minded founders, and we’ve got some legends in the Founder OS community.

Not only will I give more insights for building your Personal Board of Advisors, I’ll also be sharing my whole formula for building a successful online business.

You can discover more about Founder OS here.

Let's win together 🥇

Matt

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Grow your business systems, content, and community here. (130+ students)

2. Build your clarity, systems, and growth with 1:1 coaching here. (Only 1 spot left)

3. Follow me on Twitter for more operating systems, marketing tips, and community-building shortcuts.

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