Let’s talk about forum.
Forum is defined as a place, meeting, or medium where ideas, views, and experiences can be exchanged.
I learned about forum through YEO (Young Entrepreneur Organization), now called EO, about 20 years ago and it’s amazing what it taught me. It’s structure, which I didn’t like at the time! It’s also a set of rules and agreements. The main things that I got out of the forum experience were to have that structure and to have the non-negotiables, which I’ve often fought against or said “Forget what’s worked over the last 30 years, I think I can make it work in a better way”. It’s counter-intuitive to the visionary entrepreneur that I am to stick to it and yet it works. It’s structure. It’s confidentiality. It’s connection with others. It’s a safe space to hear myself think with a group of people and I have a chance to get things out of my head and share it. It’s about experience-share and learning from each other. So, to me, to have a finite peer group is HUGE. I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of forum and EO. I’m also still in my forum that’s been together for over 20 years. I have put together a virtual forum for the visionaries that I work with, and a lot of other visionaries, as we’re all learning together. We’re using the structure, the confidentiality, the connection, the safe space, the experience-share, and we're learning. Learn more at www.TheVisionaryForum.com. To find a forum that works for you… It could be a parent forum and like the one, I am in its great because all the people in it have a finite, focused, and common interest and are all parents in our city between a certain age bracket. Ultimately many of us are here to choose what matters and it helps to also find or create a peer group for support. I love the idea of the word forum and what it stands for. It’s been very important for me and I highly suggest it, especially in these crazy times where we’re not connecting with people as much and having the face to face interactions as much. We have to get creative and use technology to interact with one another now. I thought I would never get another computer, it’s been 3 or 4 years, and now I have a new one. I didn’t think Zoom and other technologies would work, but it actually does in shorter spurts. To have had a forum that I used to think had to be monthly and in-person and now for us in my forum groups it’s been about shorter increments, quicker blasts, and checking in. It’s a benefit of technology and this new age we are in. Figure out the forum, get a safe space to share, and change our world.
