Interview with Greg Atchison, Principal Chair for The C12 Group of Greater St. Louis for Christian Business Owners

Greg Atchison is the Principal Chair for C12 of Greater St. Louis, an executive roundtable forum exclusively for Christian business owners and their leadership teams.  He provides area business leaders with the resources, tools, business guidance, peer accessibility, and accountability to St. Louis companies building great businesses for a greater purpose.   

Greg came to C12 with a breadth of experiences that includes co-leading a $50M P&L, leading a R&D team charged with developing next generation training technologies, and overseeing more than 350+ technicians supporting a wide variety of military aircraft. His most recent efforts have been in the area of leadership development and executive coaching, where he was involved with the development of Boeing’s emerging leaders, senior managers, and executives from around the globe. 

Greg has a Ph.D. in Organization and Management with a specialization in leadership and served as an adjunct professor with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for more than 8 years. In addition, he holds a Professional Certified Coach credential from the International Coach Federation. 

You can contact Greg at:

Email: greg.atchison@c12forums.com
Phone: 636-866-8044
Website: www.c12forums.com

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Transcript

0:02  
Welcome to the You Don't Know What You Don't Know Podcast by Innovative Business Advisors. Successful business owners who have started, grown and led businesses share their journey and direction for the benefit of those traveling the same path.

0:19  
So today we're talking with Greg Acheson. And Greg is the principal chair for C 12 of Greater St. Louis. And C 12 is an executive roundtable forum exclusively for Christian business owners and their leadership teams. He provides area business leaders with the resources, tools, business guidance, peer accountability and accessibility for St. Louis area companies building greater businesses for a greater purpose. Greg came to C 12 with a breadth of experience that includes co-leading a $50 million P & L, leading an R & D team charged with developing next generation training technologies, and overseeing more than 350 technicians supporting a wide variety of military aircraft. His most recent efforts have been in the area of leadership development and executive coaching where he was involved with the development of Boeing's emerging leaders, senior managers and executives from around the world. Greg has a PhD in organization and management with a specialization in leadership, and served as an adjunct professor with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He holds a professional certified coach credential from the International Coaching Federation as well. Greg, after a very distinguished career with a famous fortune 60 company, what led you to jump into business ownership and start a C 12 chapter?

1:38  
Yeah, Steve, thank first off, thanks for the introduction. It's a pleasure to be here. And I was with Boeing as you, as you've already said, working, doing leadership development, an opportunity came up to even consider retirement. And retirement from Boeing, at least. I'm not retired yet from from work. The opportunity came up. My wife and I prayed about it, and we decided it was time just to take a chance and go out and do something else. I mean, I spent lots of time with Boeing's business leaders and talking about, really, what it means to run a great business. I was a little bit familiar with C 12 already, from a sense of at one point, I was asked to consider or to do some research around mentoring programs for our business leaders within Boeing, and that gave me this, just gave me some visibility into the idea of executive roundtables, and what the heck an executive roundtable was. So as I began to think about that, began to do some research around it, it opened up several doors and just, you know what, what did that look like? And it introduced me to several different executive roundtable organizations. I got familiar with them, and then when it came time for me to actually decide what I wanted to do with my, given my facilitation experience with with Boeing's leaders, teaching for the military, teaching at the college level, my executive coaching experience, I just decided, and I wanted to do it for the kingdom. So being a Christian, somebody of faith, I wanted to do something for the kingdom at this point. So there were a number of opportunities, and C 12 just had the best business model, and it was about a six month vetting process for the organization to make sure I was going to be a good fit, and for my wife and I, just to make sure that the company, C 12, the headquarters, was a good fit for us. And again, that vetting process was pretty darn extensive and and once we've kind of worked through that, in December of 2016 we stepped into it and have not looked back since. And C 12 isn't that old of an organization, either. How, at what point, I mean, it seems like it was much smaller in 2016 than it is today. Yeah. So actually, we are coming up on our 31st anniversary. Oh, wow. We're going to celebrate our 30th anniversary here.

4:01  
And later this month, matter of fact, we'll get together, the chairs will get together and in Dallas and do that celebration with Buck. But I'm, so C 12 proper, if you will, is a corporation, is a 30 year old company. And you're right. In 2016 it was much smaller. So promptly when I started in 2016 there were 65 chairs around the country. So again, the C 12 as a franchise business started in Tampa 30 years ago with just Buck Jacobs, a former business owner, starting his first couple of round tables. And one of his, one of his members, his C 12 members, another business owner said, Hey, I want to do what you're doing Buck and that kind of launched into the franchise model, where he launched out on his own and started another operation for C 12. And since then, there are now about 160 of us around the country. Wow, 100 in the last six plus years. Yeah.

5:00  
So it's, it's grown incredibly and now we're in three different countries, to include Brazil, Malaysia and Singapore, I believe. And we're, we're vetting other countries as we speak. You know, there are a lot of CEO peer organizations out there. Now, I was familiar with at least three others, Tech, Vistage and Tab, and I know I've heard of many others out there as well. Did you find that C 12 was the only one with the Christian focus at that point? Or was it just distinguished above others that that had that focus? So we're all in the business of of helping business owners climb that ladder of success I would say. You've named three of those. In addition to that, YPO, WPO for women. EO. All of, you know, we're all there to help business owners climb that ladder of success. I just want to make sure that ladder is propped up against the right wall. Yeah. You know, it is not worth a business owner putting everything he has to grow that business. And we talk a lot about 10xing a business, just, you know, multiples of 10 kind of thing. It's just not worth sacrificing a family for or your health, for example. So I when I say, I want to make sure that that ladder is propped up against the right wall it's really around, you know, what's most important. Well, you came from a strong military background, and then into the corporate world where, you know you you really had a quite a distinguished career. And leading the Boeing Leadership Center was unbelievable accomplishment, right? It had to be something special to step out on your own, because was this, was this your first kind of business entrepreneurial opportunity or? Yeah. I don't want to qualified to say I wasn't the leader of the leadership center, but one of the, one of the facilitators there. Yeah. And that was a blessing. And you're right, it was a stretch to step out. I had a very nice, comfortable salary. My wife and I, when we were planning our retirement were thinking five years later. And yet we felt like we were called to do something and just to rely on faith, you know, just to trust God, if you will. He's promised to provide for all of our needs, and we just took him up on that promise kind of thing. So we were comfortable where we were. But God doesn't necessarily call us to be comfortable. He wants to stretch us.

7:22
And I know from a leadership perspective that we develop best when we're pressed. You know, when we're stretched. Walking through the fire, so to speak. Exactly. Even retiring from the military when we spent 22 years in the Air Force, paychecks twice a month, very comfortable, and then to step into Boeing. When I stepped into Boeing, I was joining their very first joint venture in Seattle, and there was some angst, you know, there were some unionizations going on within the employee workforce. So there was even question, you know, on my, on my behalf, you know, what happens if there's a strike within this company? You know, do I collect a paycheck and things like that? But once again, we stepped out and and trusted that things would be okay, and it proved right, you know. So one of the things I say about a blessing at the Boeing Leadership Center, and you've been there, but the facility is just a gorgeous facility, and and part of that building is built on a curve. You know, it's a third of a mile long if you were to walk from one end to the other, it's a third of a mile long. And it's built with an arch in in it, if you will. So the hallways are curved. And part of the emphasis there is the fact that we never know what's around the corner. You know, we can do all of the planning we want, and yet we don't know what's around the corner. And it's just a good, you know, if nothing else, it just helps this to make a little more little more comfortable, you know, knowing that we don't have to have all the answers. Yeah. We, as as you know, we work with business owners all the time, and I think about, you know, franchises, when you talk about a franchise business model, there are some that are really good, and I suspect C 12 is probably in that, in that mix with good support and good guidance and so forth and and kind of that, you know, never flying alone, kind of a mentality, right, always have somebody to work with you. And there are others where basically you just get the name, and it's 100% up to you to go do it. That's right. And I saw the same thing in the peer groups. You know, some of those dependent upon the strength of the leader, but, but C 12 has got this backbone of curriculum, I think, which is, is really interesting. How is that, do you feel that's made it easier for you? Or has it made it more challenging? Is that, or is that just something you've you've learned to become accustomed to through your stewardship? Yeah, I will say that the curriculum is a differentiator for the company. You know, there again, there are other peer groups, peer round table or executive round tables out there. 

10:01
A lot of different ones, and they just all have different models whether it's a part of, it is a speaker's bureau, you know, and they bring in outside speakers to come in, and it's typically somebody who's recently authored a book, and they're kind of pitching their book and their model, you know, whether it be around productivity or what have you. So just perhaps a little inconsistencies. Our model is built on a year long curriculum, so we're planning a year in advance. In fact, I'm on the curriculum team. We got together a month ago and planned for 2023 so we're keeping our ear to the ground to say, what are the economists predicting for next year. What are they what are they saying that we're going to face? We're also asking our C 12 members, our business owners, what are the things that are keeping them awake right now? And you know, for right now, it's mostly around talent, it's around supply chain, and it's around the potential for a recession. So how to deal with those three things. So we are very intentional about the curriculum, and we plan for a flow throughout the year where we're early, the first trimester, if you will. We're focused on people and the culture kind of things. And then we begin to talk about business disciplines, and then we begin to move into the planning phase for the fall, planning for the next year, if you will. So very intentional about the flow of the curriculum. Yeah, that's pretty neat. Pretty, pretty big honor to be part of that planning, because that's an awesome responsibility too. It is. And the curriculum-- You're having to look around that corner a little bit, aren't you? That's right, and the curriculum is first rate. Without question. I mean, we were using, we're using noted thought leaders. We're pulling from the best, you know, from Harvard Business Review and the people who are writing for them or speaking for them.

11:46  
So it's not uncommon to be referencing sources out of the education, the academic field, things like that. So as you went into this journey, right, I, I got it, you want to, I love the analogy, right, I want to put my ladder against a pretty, pretty strong wall. And being Kingdom focused, it doesn't get any stronger than that. What, what was the thing that you didn't know that you had to learn once you got in? Were there any surprises once you, once you became a business owner and started down this path? Yeah, I'm sure any any business owner, faces the same thing, and that's probably to start with just the nos. You know, so in our business model, you know, it's about talking to people, right, I mean, sales. It's not a, you know, I don't have a storefront where people are going to come visit me, but it's about, you know, sitting down and meeting with people like you and and getting to know them, and asking the questions about, you know, what are they struggling with, and then just introducing them to C 12. And for a lot of those folks, it might be, this is not the right time, or I'm already involved with a peer group from another organization. And for some it's, I just don't have the time. I don't see how I can have the time. That was my biggest hurdle to cross was, how in the world do you devote one day a month? That's right. You know, and it seems like us as business owners, we've, and I use that, that term loosely, because you and I believe a little differently, we're really stewards, not really owners. Yeah. But how do you devote, you know, one day a month to being completely away when, you know, time is the most precious resource. That's right, yeah, and that's that's typically the pushback that we get. And yet, you know, I can talk to folks like you over time who will say, I, you know, for me, that day, being very intentional about working on my business might be the only time that I have that month to actually get away and to work on my business, to focus on the business, focus on my personal life.

Unknown Speaker  13:50  
Yeah, and I'll give you an additional testimony for me. It really helped me to have a closer relationship with God as as not only did I have to prepare to spend that time together with peers and deal with material that is very timely and very pertinent to what we do all day. But, you know, it enabled me to keep that communication channel with God open throughout the month, right-- Right. And take the learnings from the sessions, or, you know, concerns going in and and learnings coming out, and continue to work on that. So it's been quite a blessing. That's right. Yeah, it really is a time that most business owners don't allocate, but it's the time they're they're really working on themselves the most. That's right. And become better students. Right. And if you're just to add all the numbers up, I mean to spend seven hours together one day each month. I mean, it's, you know, it's less than 100 hours, and so it's just a small percentage of your total work life. You know, when you figure out at least 2000 hours on average for a business owner spending time working in their business. Yeah, it's, I agree.

15:00  
It's really small. It is, it is really small. But you do end up with this binder on your shelf that becomes like the encyclopedia. You know, you've got all this, this really impactful information at your fingertips. So that's really good. I'm, I'm curious. You've been in the business now six years. What are you most proud of in that period of time so far? Yeah, that's that's a fairly easy answer to say, and that I'm most proud of our members. Many of those members, I think more than half of the members, have been there for the last five or six years, and to see their businesses grow has been phenomenal. More than that, it's to see them grow in their leadership, and then also to see them grow and just their comfort with their faith in the workplace. The vast majority of business owners, if they're people of faith, they're afraid to mention God, and they're afraid to pray, you know, with their members, or afraid to even bring up the subject of church, or what have you, you know. And what we, what I help people understand, is that they are called to be people of faith 24/7.

16:08  
As a person of faith, as a Christian, I'm called to worship Him, you know, all day, every day. And yet, on top of that, I'm also a business owner. So I'm first a Christian and then a business owner, if you will. And to see that begin to shine and the people is just pretty phenomenal. I'm also proud to see that them begin to take bigger roles in their community. So as you know, we have business owners who are stepping into state politics, for example, perhaps school boards, city councils, right where they begin to take those leadership positions to begin to influence their communities I think is, for me, that's what it's really all about. Yeah, it's kind of fascinating, too, and to influence their community I've seen that conclusively. I've clearly seen a lot of the business owners growing their business too, but the more impactful thing is growing their involvement with the people that they work with every day, and the influence and impact. That's right. Positively that they have on people's lives is just just amazing. Yeah, you know, you and I have experienced that. And for us, we talk about business as a ministry, or well, we term it, BAM. Yes. And to see the cultural changes in the businesses where they begin this, to care for their employees and their employees family, and they begin to think about them differently.

17:29  
You know, as we routinely go into a business and interview their employees, it's not uncommon to say, This is my family. You know, it might be my work family, but it feels like family. And to talk to employees who say, I'll never work any place else. I'm could be offered more money in a different place, but this is the place for me, because they take good care of us. It is amazing how sticky that makes things-- That's right. Together, between, between folks. That's right. Could be a real secret competitive advantage we may have just touched on there we didn't know about. Yeah. It always fasc--, the first things that fascinated me on some of those earlier ones was the companies that we would go into the first or second time, they didn't fully trust us, right? They were still guarded in their responses to the questions. But I particularly remember the last one that I was on, where we went in and interviewed the employees of the company. They'd been through it enough that they really not only trusted us, they kind of empowered us to make sure we brought a couple of key messages back to the owner. That's right. You know, over time, some of those members have done this five times now. Yeah. And for them to take this seriously, to understand that the members who are coming out to interview that they're investing their time, that they want the best for that business and they want the best for their employees, so the employees begin to get a sense that my owners are our owners are taking this business seriously and they're making cultural changes over time. You know, whether that be enhancing the benefits or just the way that they treat their employees, just the way that they lead their employees. Yeah, it's amazing. They begin to talk about trust. Begins to turn the tide, if you will. Authentic trust discussions. Exactly. Yeah. Not just because somebody sent you a manual from corporate that said you got to go through this lesson. That's right. Yeah. Fascinating. I know there's been some frustrations as well in your business ownership as there always are. Any that you care to share or talk about? I think, you know, again, initially, early on, it was just getting used to the nos. You know, I know from my training as a C 12 chair that I typically have to talk to 18 people to actually get a new member to join. So, kind of thing. So I began to look forward to those. You know, I only need 16 more nos, and then I'll get a, get a yes kind of thing. 

19:59  
It became part of a game early on. In the middle of this journey, over the last say that three years or so, it was getting to the place where we were ready to launch a second group, if you will. And even over the last year, I, you know, a year ago, as we were kind of thinking about moving into 2022 we had about a group and a half. You know, our groups are typically 12 people or so, and we had a shortfall there and to come into the year and then to fill that second group very, very quickly. And it was really around referrals from our members, challenging our members to invite other members to ask that question, who do you know? Who needs to know about C 12? And that's been a blessing since then. You know, the people who've come to C 12 just in the last year are all referrals, which speaks very highly. Yeah. That they see the value in the business. Yeah, fascinating. What, what challenges you as you think about the business every day, are there, you know, learning, I love the way you said, I kind of gamified the no's, right. Yeah. Figuring out what my numbers were and figuring out, once I got over that, or I was, you know, a couple of no's closer to getting to the yes, that kind of thing. Yeah. If I were to think about challenges, you know, it's probably just how best to use my time. You know, I'm here to serve my members. I mean, that's really what I'm called to do. And sometimes that means prioritizing, just, I love to be involved and I love to help members. Sometimes that's might mean saying no, saying no to good things, to say yes to the great things.

21:40  
You know. Boy, is that a challenge, right? Learning to say no to the good things, so you can say yes to the great things. If you're a person like me who likes to please everybody, which means answering saying yes to every request. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I always found it be easier to say yes. Maybe it's because we encounter so many no's in our world. Exactly. Yeah. As you begin to think about the franchise model, so you, I would assume you've got, is it a geographic territory? Is that the way the franchise is built out? Do you have geographic areas? It is, I mean, C 12, the franchise model is based on a geographic area, and that that area is based on the number of business owners in the region. Okay. The size of the businesses and the demographics that are produced by Barna. So Barna Research Organization would does a survey every year, and they can pretty much detail the population in regards to faith. So all of that goes into play to determine an area, a geographic area. So for me, for C 12 of Greater St Louis, for example, we are, my, my franchise agreement would say that I can hold meetings, or we can hold meetings within St. Charles County, St. Louis County, and then just into the other side of the river into Illinois. So you think about Edwardsville, O'Fallon, Belleville areas, we can hold meetings in any of those areas. That's not to say our members are exclusively from there. So we have members in the Rolla area, in south of Mount Vernon, Illinois. So people could could drive some distance, even fly to some of their meetings, for example, if that's what they're willing to do. So you've got a couple of groups now, and and a key advisor group, which is basically the non owner leaders of the businesses, right? That's right. Have you measured, what do you think the total potential would be? How many potential groups does, does your market area encompass? Yeah, if we were just to look at the demographics and the number of businesses in this area, we would be talking about, so just from a pure capacity perspective, a chair like me, person like me, can handle about 36 business owners. Wow. That's three groups of business owners, and that's based on the amount of coaching that goes with, you know, our business owners not only get the the board meeting experience, that forum, but also the one on one coaching. So I could add another group, have the capacity to do that. But with all the demographics, there could be 100 just about 200 business owners here which which would tell you that we could have a total of five or six chairs here within our region. Amazing. That there's enough opportunity here to support another four chairs, at least, to come in and work with me to grow this opportunity. But unlike Chick Fil A, for example, you can, you can have as many locations, really, as you want in that regard, as long as you have enough chairs to do the job. That's right. Yeah. So we could populate meetings in multiple locations on multiple days during the week and throughout the month, exactly. Excellent. 

24:24  
So as you look around the corner into the future, what do you think about? Do you think about planning the future of your groups as well, and and where all that's going? Absolutely. I'm actively praying for and seeking another chair to come alongside me right now. So we would call those associate chairs. Right. To come alongside me. And you know what we see traditionally within the C 12 model is once one associate chair comes on, probably within another year, we begin to add another one and then another one. So kind of from a future planning it's very much like a, like a medical or professional practice in that regard then, right? That is. Adding another doctor, for example. Yeah. Yeah. Would be exactly. Interesting, yeah. And then ultimately, long term, you know, my goal is to be thinking about those chairs bringing on chairs that have some runway, you know, that might be younger and looking to take over the franchise, if you will, to ultimately give an equity share into that franchise, with the thought of at some point it'll be time to begin to think about downsizing my practice, you know, reduce the number of groups that I work with, and then turning it over ultimately, to somebody else or multiple people. Some of our models have two and three chairs who are the owners of those franchises. You said the vetting process was pretty extensive for you and Nancy, when you came in, right? That's right. Six plus months is that, is that similar if you bring in an associate chair, do they have to go through a similar process? It is not as extensive for an associate chair, and yet, there is still a process. There's gonna be background checks done, because the you know, we don't want to do anything that's gonna put C 12 in a bad light, you know. So there will still be background checks. There will still be a vetting process around different assessments, you know, personality assessments, as well as, can they work with me? You know, are we going to be a good fit personally kind of thing. Right. A lot of it is around calling, you know, this is something that unlike anything else that they would have ever done. It is, it really is service, being of service to others. It is. It is. Yeah. Well, interesting. We're honored that you took the time to come talk to us about this today. 

27:11  
It's amazing the business that you're in and the outcomes that you deliver. If people want to learn more about this, Greg, how do they get in touch with you? Yeah, absolutely. So the best way is to go to the C 12 website, which is C12forums.com. That'll take you to the headquarters website and then just to search on Greater St. Louis. Or they can reach me at Greg.Atchison. So G, R, E, G, dot Atchison, A, T, C, H, I, S, O, N, at C12 forums.com. Or if they wanted to call me, they could do that at 636-866-8044. Outstanding. Well, I can assure you that if they do, they will be blessed beyond measure. Thank you. As Tom Hill used to say, and I, and I fully endorse. Thank you so much, my friend. It's been a delight to have you today, and we wish you all the best. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

28:05  
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