Welcome back to the show, my fellow extraordinary Americans. Today’s guest is Leo Popovic. 

Leo is the founder and CEO of Leading Peers, the premier community for CEOs to connect, collaborate, and grow. With over 20 years of experience as a successful entrepreneur and business leader, he is passionate about helping leaders live impactful, rewarding lives. Leading Peers’ mission is to help CEOs succeed so their people and businesses prosper. The organization’s vision is to be the largest organization in the world, supporting CEOs seeking to evolve as leaders and grow. 

With his master’s degree from Harvard, he became a public servant and politician in Argentina at age 24. At 26, he was Argentina’s Under Secretary of Public Administration. After leaving office, he launched a new political party and ran as a candidate in two elections. He published a book advocating for a monetary union in South America and ran two public policy think tanks. 

At 30, he launched his first company in leisure travel. On the other hand, he founded another farming company, and his business took off. However, his political party required too much commitment to succeed, so he quit politics.

At 32 in 2008, he left his first two companies to launch his third international corporate event management business, moving to Brazil as part of the plan to grow the business. As CEO of his events company, he helped it grow from inception to $12 million in annual revenues. However, the pandemic halted his company’s multimillion-dollar revenue, which led him to start Leading Peers. 

Leo is extraordinary, and I’m glad and honored to have him on the show. Leo, are you? Are you there?

I am Cosmos. It’s great to be here with you.

Leo, thank you so much for taking the time to do this podcast with me. I know you’re an entrepreneur. Can you tell me and the audience more about yourself, your background, and how you got started?

Absolutely. I am the child of Argentinian parents, and they had me in Brazil. I spent my childhood there until I was seven. I lived in Argentina from 7 to the age of 10. When I was 10, we moved to St. Louis, MO. This was my first time visiting the United States, and we stayed here for 5 1/2 years, and then my parents moved back to Argentina.

So, I lived in Argentina through the second half of high school and college and then came to the US to get my master’s degree. I was at Harvard University. I studied political economy for a couple of years, and with my master’s, I returned to Argentina and got. I was involved in public sector work, government public policy, and politics through my late 20s, and when I hit 30, it was time to start my first business. I started two, as you said because I wasn’t sure what industry I wanted to do it in or with whom I wanted to do it. 

After five years of having these two businesses, I decided to go all-in-one business only for international corporate events, which I owned until today, but it stopped being me. Primary occupation. 

When the pandemic hit, it put everything on hold, and that business became my main experience in entrepreneurship. I did that for 12 years. As a CEO, as you mentioned before, I grew that company to 8-digit revenues and a team in 10 different countries. It was just a thrilling ride where I learned so much. I met such great people. There are many great business ideas, support systems, advisors, etc. 

When the pandemic hit, I knew I wanted to bring all I had learned in entrepreneurship, business leadership, and being a CEO to others leading small and midsize companies. So that’s what I do now. Through Leading Peers, I have been living in Florida, just outside Fort Lauderdale, for the last 7 1/2 years, and I plan to stay here and join the ride. I’m also a husband; I’ve been with my wife for 20 years. I’m the father of three children, and that’s pretty much me.

Leo, this is uncommon for somebody to go through, like, you know, like Argentina and Brazil, have, like, go through politics, do entrepreneurship and business, and then raise a family to the same point. This is like two weeks. Sorry. 

So, could you tell me and the audience what your strategic vision was from when you were in your 20s to now, from politics to doing all the businesses, and how it evolved over the years? What got you to this point?

Yeah, it’s a great question. The main thing is that I always knew I wanted my life to be about making a difference. And I wanted to have a positive impact on the lives of others, though. With that clarity that I’ve had throughout my life, even as a teenager, if I felt that calling to have a positive impact, I’ve always found my way to bring that up. I’m a very entrepreneur. I’ve been very entrepreneurial since I was a little kid, and I’ve always been drawn to entrepreneurship. I wasn’t aware that it was called entrepreneurship. When I was a little kid, I tried a lot of different businesses as a child. Yeah. 

These things sound very childish now, but you know, from raking people’s leaves in their backyard to selling gum at school to having a tennis clinic to making bracelets, even when I was six years old with my older brother, I’ve always tried to find a way to make money on my own, work and creativity. I’ve never really thought of myself as somebody who would go and look for a job and go up a corporate ladder, even though that’s what my father did. 

And I have a lot of respect for her. For his career. I just see myself as being more entrepreneurial, and as a kid, I also wanted to do other things like sports, you know, and be an athlete. Other things, like many kids, but by the age of 12, I realized that’s not, you know, what was on the cards for me. And I was going to be entrepreneurial. And I was going to be a leader. I didn’t know if it would be a political or business leader. And it took me a while to figure that one out. 

As you shared in my story, it took me another 20 years until I was in my early 30s to realize that what I was meant to do was be a business leader and an entrepreneur in the business sector. And that’s when I dropped politics all together in Argentina. 

And at that point, I became, you know, single-mindedly focused on. I’m a family man with a business, and eventually, you know, now I’m on my fourth business. All of them have been incredibly rewarding and supportive, so if there’s a guiding principle, I want to serve and help. I just found ways to bring my talents into the world most effectively and enjoyably because, you know, we only have a life to live. I firmly believe that you have to love what you do to bring out the best in you and have the best impact on other people, so I’ve always really loved the businesses I’ve started, and they’ve been very revealing of who I am. 

For example, when I had the corporate events business, it wasn’t just about organizing corporate events. It was about combining my mission and life and bringing people together to learn from each other, contribute, and collaborate. I only did international corporate events because I also wanted to bring people together, help people think more openly about different cultures, and do things at a global level.

I have been, at the core, very similar whether I was in public policy earlier in life or business for my last twenty years of adult life.

So, Leo, making a difference is an amazing thing, right? Like in entrepreneurship. It’s ultimately about serving your products and services, and it’s also about going to politics. So, at one point, you started a new political party, which is, well, not many people think about doing that. Right. 

And then you came at that juncture. You have to choose between your businesses, like doing your business and then going down the road of business and entrepreneurship, or continuing with politics. 

So, what was that motivational factor or crucial factor? The point where you decided that, like, I’m going to serve humanity through entrepreneurship and business and not through politics.

Yeah, great question. And the people who know me well have heard this story because it was a day I’ll always remember. So, I started my political party when I was about 28 years old. When I was 32, our brand was taken over by one of the pre-existing parties. They started using our brand; you know you have when that happens. Legal protections. 

And I went through the legal authorities. I went to a federal judge in Argentina; I said they’d taken my brand. I have exclusive use, just like any trademark, right? And that judge fell asleep during the hearing where I was presenting my case. He fell asleep, and I will always remember this. This is somebody I had met with before who complimented me on starting a political party at such a young age. She had received us in her office when I brought in several of our party’s co-founders. 

So I knew that this wasn’t just a tired judge. It was somebody who had already made a decision. She wasn’t interested in hearing what was going on. And it dawned on me that you can only. Fight battles that you stand a certain chance of winning if that life gets very frustrating, and that’s when I realized that some of these bigger parties just had resources and that it was going to take a lot of time and dedication for me to get to the point where I was competing with one of the three main political parties in the entire country. They became the main political party within 5–10 years after this happened. 

So, I realized that unless I was 100% in on that, there was no chance my vision or my dream would be successful. And I wouldn’t say I like to do things without impact. As I said before, what drives me is making a difference, so I didn’t just want to have a party. For the sake of it, I wanted to have a party as a vehicle to transform things for the better. 

And when I saw that, I wouldn’t be able to do that unless I went all in, and I just didn’t feel like I had that luxury anymore. When you start a political party, you don’t have an income. It would be best to have that income from other things. So, I was teaching at a university. I was getting donations for my think tank to write books. But all these things consumed much of my time, and I couldn’t focus on politics. 

And so, I’m like, how am I going to be able to get to the? The point where we’re bigger and more influential than these other parties? When 80% of my time at this point goes into the work that I need to do to sustain myself and have an income, it also goes into the two businesses I had started that were starting to produce an income for me. 

On top of that, there was my personal life, my love life, which I had recently. My wife and I were already engaged to be married—wife and so on. I said certainly. I don’t have a full-time dedication to this political party. When I was 32, I just realized, you know, you got to pick your battles. This is not a battle I can win at this point.

So, I could join. Then I could join the party that had, you know, stolen my brand and become a part of them. And I met with several of their leaders. I met with the most important of the leaders, the party’s founder. And I realized at that meeting that I didn’t feel something positive in my gut. I’m strong enough to say I’m going to follow this person. I will dedicate the next 15/20 years to helping this person become president. The person did become president, and I felt that would happen. But I’m glad I didn’t do that and didn’t dedicate 15 to 20 years to it. I’m helping him to become president and govern the country. I’m glad I picked entrepreneurship, not because of anything negative toward him, but because it was right for me. And I can see it now. I wasn’t meant to be in politics, nor wasn’t in politics in Argentina. 

And so, I was meant to be a business entrepreneur, and I see it so clearly now that I was meant to do it in America. If I had chosen to stay on the other path, I would have missed out on the most rewarding and incredible moment of my entire professional life, which is the one that I’m living right now.

Leo, your story hits me on another level, and I’m pretty sure many people in the audience are listening to it. It resonates with them because they strongly feel I found it extracting America because it was all about practicality, right?

Many people in the audience are independent, which does not resonate with either political party in America itself. They might be either right-leaning or left-leaning, but there is a huge demand in America itself for a new political party, and the same issues you are going through are the same issues that go through so many people’s minds when they think of starting a third party. That is for the people. 

In my case, I realize that the best way to serve people is through a business and entrepreneurial education because it is only through this that you can control your own life and help other people’s lives as well. And a lot of us are struggling with this. What you’re struggling with right now is the same thing that many people in Australia, America, and this nation are also struggling with. 

Do you want to start a political party, focus on business and entrepreneurial education, and help people that way? If you help people that way and give them values and everything, they can still live their best lives.

We learn much more when raised as kids in the education system—well, political leaders—than what we learn about business leaders. I mean, what’s cool today? Whether it be elementary, middle school, or high school, dealing with children is an example of an entrepreneur who has made a difference in helping the fabric of their communities and their families, which has had a lot of rewards.

It’s just that it doesn’t happen. It’s not in the textbooks our kids read, the textbooks I was taught, or anything the teachers discussed. What that ultimately did, at least in my case, was create this idea that if I wanted to make a lasting contribution to the world, it would be very significant—a contribution to humanity. 

As you know, our brothers and sisters are on a journey with us. I had to become a political leader because these are the people we would talk about growing up. You know, the big political leaders. We studied history in high school and middle school, so it felt like that was the case. We all had to do something to make a very important difference. 

It’s a shame that that’s the way it is, but it’s sort of inevitable because, if you think about it, you know features, they are employees, usually of the public sector. 

So, they’re not the right people to share the stories about entrepreneurs. This is. Leaders and, I guess, the people creating the school curriculum want to make sure that kids have a background in history and understand things like our political history as a nation and as an international community. And their focus on things like world wars and all of that is great. 

And I find it fascinating as well. But there’s very little. Talk in, in, in the classroom, in. The core curriculum. How we can create value and make change happen from organizations, private organizations for profit, nonprofits, whatever they may be. 

Kids can join clubs where they learn about these things, but it’s very much a, you know if you get that interest, you join that club, and these clubs compete at least in my kid’s high school, which is very large. It’s a public high school. With so many other clubs and things you know, you are your kids; they might miss out on the clubs where they can learn about business, entrepreneurship, and whatnot. 

So, my journey is very common for many people like you who are in their teens, 20s, and even 30s. Do they think they have to go into politics to make you aware of a profound transformation and be like the people they looked up to as kids? You know, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or whoever you admire; you want to be like those who have changed many lives for the better. 

There is something extremely rewarding when you are a business entrepreneur, and you love your private life as much as I do with all that comes with it—private family time for friends, enjoying the freedom of my time, having hobbies, everything. That comes with the entrepreneurial life. It’s so rewarding that it doesn’t matter if we’re not the most significant figures of our time. That’s completely irrelevant. 

The question is, are we living our best lives? That’s the question I think everybody should be posing themselves, or at least in my mind. That’s the question I want to pose Myself at all times, and you never stop evolving. You never stop. If you’re posing that question, work on it. Something you’re tinkering on in some area or another, whether as a parent, as a husband, or as a business leader, in the volunteer work you do and the contributions you make to society, there are so many aspects to your health, with your spiritual life, there’s so much to work on and your personal growth. 

Your knowledge bases your wisdom, and it’s just fascinating. It’s just a fascinating journey for me, and I feel I would have given up so much to pursue political power, and that, you know, I’m. He said some people should pursue political power. There’s nothing wrong with a political track or business. Entrepreneurship is not for everybody. I strongly believe we need workers in factories. 

We need teachers working for public or private institutions. We need firefighters, you know. Firefighters, we need police. We need armed forces. We need many people to do a crucial job in our society, even though they’re not meant to be entrepreneurs. I’m here to advocate for entrepreneurship and business leadership. But with the understanding that. Other professions are important as well, and that political leadership is also extremely important, and I think, you know, I’m very grateful for the political leaders that we have that do it for the right reasons; not all of them do, unfortunately, but for those who do it for the right reasons, I’m very thankful that we have them because of our democracy and our freedoms. We can only be protected if those people do it for the right reasons: serving society.

So, Leo, what you’re saying is amazing, and I’m glad you advocate for entrepreneurship and business. And I wanted to ask you this question: You meant a 20- to 30-year-old version of yourself, but like an idealistic American, right? 

And he approached you and asked for advice, saying, Hey, Leo, look, I’m about 30 years old. And I’m concerned about the state of the nation. I have two political parties that don’t represent my generation’s ideals. Well, I’m more independent-minded and have values on both sides. But I am also into entrepreneurship, and I’m also into business, and I’m going to do the same. I’m going to the same junction that you went through in Argentina. 

How would you go? How would you go about advising this person? Should he start a third political party? He put all his resources into fighting the system. Or should he start a business and entrepreneurship and help others become financially free? 

I would say that.

Yeah, I would say that. If that person showed up before me, I would say that 99% of those people would just start a business and be happy. You know, you won’t have time to create a third party. Look at this country’s history. If you’re in America today, no third party has had a solid shot at leading the nation for the last 150 years.

But most people don’t come under either of the parties. They believe in the values of an independent third party. But yeah, go ahead.

So, precisely for that reason, I would say to become an entrepreneur or make a difference through your own, you know, company, through your venture, through your organization. And if you don’t want it to be a for-profit company, start a nonprofit, that’s what. 

I would say to 99% of the people, however, I don’t regret for a second what I did. As you said, in that age bracket, a certain type of individual between the ages of 28 and 30 is just. I have to try it. They just have to see if they can accomplish this feat, and if that’s what’s in their hearts, they should pursue it. I don’t think that there is a prescription for what everybody in the world needs to do. There is no one-size-fits-all.

Everybody is unique, and if somebody dreams of seeing a new political party come, come, come about, they should pursue it as long as they can, meaning they have the economic means to sustain themselves. It means they have other resources, such as emotional support, family, or friends, who will be there for them. As They do this, and they. Have the health to do it. If they had that, which I did, I had the support of my family and friends. I had the health to do it and the—economic means to do it. Then I think they should. 

I started if it meant as much to them as it did to me, and I think we need to try the things in life, even if we fail. That is important to us. I failed at creating a national party that governed, you know, Argentina. But I have no regrets. My biggest regret would have been to. I do not try it, and I always wonder what would have happened if I had done what I wanted to do. 

And the same applies to business ventures. If you have a big dream and want to go all in, you should do it. In my case, I could go all in until I hit a certain age where I wanted to start a family and realize. I no longer have enough income to do politics. I no longer have enough time to do politics in the way I would need to do it; I would need to start a new party. But once I hit that wall, it was no longer sustainable. 

But for somebody else who maybe doesn’t want to start a family or maybe has more wealth than I did already in their name, you know, in their own, you know, bank account, they can carry on with it longer, and some of those might be successful. I mean, I think about, you know, Ross Perot. He tried a new party back in 1992 and got 10% of the vote nationwide. I definitely could have. Become the founder of a third party that governs the country. Maybe he lacks certain attributes that would have allowed him to do that. 

So, it can happen, or at least it can happen at the municipal level. You know, at the city level, at the county level, and the state level. And we see that third parties have a bigger chance of gaining office at these lower levels in many different countries. I would never discourage that 1% or that one in a thousand. They have so much in their hearts. If they don’t do it, they’re always. I am going to regret it.

Leo, that’s well said because many people, like those in my age range, are so tired and disillusioned with the system that they desperately want a third party. But as you said, there are many considerations: family support, friend support, etc. Being financially free and yet having your happiness considered isn’t an easy thing to do. And as you mentioned, you have to go all in if you have any chance of doing that.

And another, and by the way, the current President of Argentina, Javier Miley, started a third party only four years ago. And today, he’s the president of the country. However, it’s rare in the United States to see somebody eventually start a third party. They become presidents in other countries with other political systems. It does happen much more than here, though my advice in the United States is different than that in other countries regarding starting a third party. Here it would be. Like, make sure you know what you’re doing if you want to be president. This is going to be an extremely low-probability event. You’ll need to go, you know, extremely all in, and many things will have to go in your favor or even luck. 

And in the case of Argentina, you still have to go all in, but you still need luck. But it’s more likely that you will eventually get the price because their representation system differs. It’s the proportional system of representation in Congress, which is very different from the type of system we have here in America. Each district chooses just one candidate, and if you win the election, you know you get the seat, and the other party gets a note. With the system in America, it’s very difficult for a third party to win any important election at the gubernatorial or national level.

So, Leo, one of the things I wanted to ask you is, since you’re into business and entrepreneurship, you’ve also been into politics in the past, right? In America, lobbyists control the politicians that they represent. They just buy and sell politicians and think they can because big businesses support them. Who created these mega-rich companies, right? 

So, from your perspective, what is your view on the importance of business and entrepreneurship for the common person? In a way, it is a means to counteract that in terms of getting their American dream.

To ensure I understand your question, you say many lobbying and politicians are being bought. But what is my take on what exactly?

In individual entrepreneurship, like attaining your American dream for yourself and the people around you, because you cannot control the big things, but you can control—your surroundings.

Absolutely. I believe anybody can succeed if they have the attributes of an entrepreneur in the business world. And those attributes are very important, and entrepreneurship is not right for you if you don’t have them. 

Some of this comes genetically, and some is developed. But you have to be somebody who likes to have high control over their destiny. You have to be self-motivated, you have to be able to envision the future, you have to be focused, and you have to be accountable to yourself and other people. You have to be able to sell your vision to other people. You have to be able to manage your own time and resources. 

And you have to be able to motivate yourself through the highs and lows. If you have these attributes and like leadership, would you like to put a team together? You can thrive in entrepreneurship. Everybody can use these attributes. It’s an entrepreneurial set of talents and mindset. That is required; if you have this, you only need to look at yourself and figure out what you enjoy doing. What you’re great at doing. And what can create money or drive your economic engine? 

These three things are very well described in Jim Collins’s book, Good to Great, which discusses the three circles. What are you, you? Know the best. What are you passionate about, and what drives your economic engine at the intersection of these three circles? Why is that what you should do? And the Japanese philosophy of Ikigai is also about the intersection of these circles. Once you have found that, you can make money doing something you love. Going, and you’re great at it. Then that’s. That’s a business that you will succeed in, and there is no question that you will succeed if you find that and have the entrepreneurial qualities and attributes. 

But many people end up in the wrong line of business because they’re looking for a quick fix, like somebody came to them and said, hey, you want to invest here, or you want to join me on this thing. They need somebody else to drive them when that happens, or they don’t have the entrepreneurial spirit. They’re required to succeed as entrepreneurs, so they’re hoping just to follow somebody else. Or they are in a desperate situation where they feel that they don’t have the time to nurture their vision and dream, and they just have to join forces with somebody else, so they’ll compromise. What is at the intersection of these three circles? 

And it could serve them for a while. But ultimately, it’s. You are not going to be a success. Ultimately, they’ll lose interest because they’re not passionate about it. Not that good at it. What are they doing, or is it just not bringing them the economic results they want?

This is important to understand, like the three circles and you, because I want the audience to know what it takes to succeed in entrepreneurship. But what brings me to the next question, Leo is that I know you. I know you scaled your business to a multimillion-dollar business. 

So, my question is, what is the most important mindset or character trait you need to scale your business to a multi-million dollar company? Not everybody can do that, but obviously, there are some. You had a character trait that made you different from many others. People.

I believe diligence is probably the most important, as is the consistency of action that shows up daily, with the best of yourself and putting your ideas into action. That diligence—Is it, I think, the greatest of all the required talents or skills? And I do believe it’s. You know it’s a very important gift our Creator and nature gave us. We are given the ability to be diligent. 

And if you don’t have that, nothing else can compensate for it. You can have a great idea. You can be super creative, you can be visionary, and you can be a good salesperson. You can be a great public speaker. But to scale a business, you need this trait in my mind, above all others. You have to get through the bad times. You have to weather the challenges you have to face in good times, continue building, and not, you know, lay down and relax. You have to be constant. You have to be consistent. You have to be dedicated. You have to be committed.

I put all these things under the umbrella of diligence; everything else can come your way. You will find the right people. If you can do the things you’re not the right person to do, you’ll create the right team. You’ll come up with the right vision with their help, and you will come up with the right strategy again with their help. You will develop the right systems and processes with the right funding and have the right types of clients and vendors. 

And everything will work very well if you do. You have that, but again. To be diligent, you have to do what you love because there’s no way you can show up consistently and stay in action mode. You don’t love what you do or if. The market is not rewarding you. Because you’re that good at it, it drives your economic engine. There’s no way you can keep showing up. They’ll first figure out what’s at that intersection. And if you have that trait of diligence, it helps to have some other traits. 

As I mentioned before, you like to have control over your destiny. You like leading other people. You like managing your own time and having more freedom to decide. You like the creative process, developing a long-term vision, learning about business trends and how, trends and tools, etc. The business world is evolving. It’s extremely like you’re going to succeed.

Leo, thank you so much for that wisdom. Because yeah, you’re right. You have to love what you do and feel like you’re going to go through highs and lows in business, but you also have to have the diligence to keep persevering. And that’s a very important trait. 

And Leo, which brings me to my next question, can you tell the audience and me a little bit more about the premise of how leading peers started, including what it does and what it’s all about?

I ran my corporate events business until the start of the pandemic. The pandemic. Lose the entire world of international corporate events. It froze it for two years fully and then started coming back very slowly. Two years after the start of the pandemic, I knew that I needed to start a business in an entirely different industry. I couldn’t stay in corporate. Travel or corporate events. I didn’t want to do the online version of this because I thought there were pretty good technologies like the one we’re using here, which is Zoom, and that we’re already bringing that solution to the market, and they already had the funding and the brand name. I needed to figure it out. I knew my new business venture and wanted to stay an entrepreneur because that’s who I am. That’s just part of my identity: to be an entrepreneur. 

And so I brought these challenges to my vision group. I had joined Vistage a year before the pandemic and was just bouncing these ideas off of other CEOs’. And then there was the pandemic. Started. I had to let go of all of my employees. I had to shut down offices that my company had in 10 different countries, and that process was gut-wrenching. But I held on to my Vistage membership so that I could at least talk with my peers there about the new company I was going to start, and then eventually, the money that we had coming in trickled down to zero, and I was living off of it. Savings.

So, I also had to leave Vistage because it cost me about $25,000 a year back in 2020. And so, I looked for a solution that would be as effective as Vistage but for 1/3 or 1/4 of the cost. And I just could not find it. I looked at YPO and EO, which are some rivals I had to part ways with for over $10,000 just to be able to go to my first meeting, and I found that very frustrating. 

And I realized this as I kept looking online. It didn’t. Being the entrepreneur that I like and am, I like to create a solution for real. There is a problem that exists in society, and the problem that exists is that the vast majority of entrepreneurs. Do not have the financial resources to join one of the existing organizations that help CEOs evolve. These are good organizations. They serve a very good purpose, and they’ve been around for decades, but there wasn’t one that was accessible. 

So, I set out to design one that was accessible to the vast majority of entrepreneurs. It needed to cost way less, so I created one that would cost 1/8 of what it cost me to be in this stage. So, we launched with a cost of 1/8, which is 1/8.

There was no competition for 7% less cost than what I paid to be envisaged. I was in a blue ocean, not a crowded space with blood. You know, the red ocean. I was in an entirely blue ocean. And that’s the best place to start. A new business is where. You have a tremendous amount of room to grow, and I knew these pre-existing organizations were not going to develop an offering at $250, which is how we launched back in 2020 and to this day. 

Fast forward four years, and our membership is $310. We haven’t changed much, even though there’s been high inflation, as you know. You know very well, Cosmos. Yeah, we haven’t changed much. So, we’re keeping it accessible to most entrepreneurs while still creating an enormous product. The power lies in its ability to affect positive change. We’ve designed a system that helps entrepreneurs get the guidance they need. The clarity that they need, the confidence they need, the support they need, and the accountability system that they need to take decisive action in the right direction.

Leo, if there’s any, I would recommend that anybody watching this, if they’re entrepreneurial-minded, take a look at your organization and get help from it. This is definitely what we need in this country—on a higher level. 

So, Leo, can you tell me, do you have any projects you’re doing right now other than leading peers that you’d want the audience to glimpse?

Not really. I’m focused right now on leading my peers. I think I shared with you that I learned very early. With my whole political face, you have to be all in on what you’re passionate about, and I’m very passionate about growing and leading peers. I own another company, my previous corporate events company. 

And I’m still the owner, but I have a CEO to run it. Who’s passionate about running that company? And who doesn’t want to be an owner? He wants to be a paid CEO with a, you know, profit-sharing system. He can do what he’s passionate about, and what? Where is what drives his economic engine? I am doing what I’m passionate about, helping dozens. We are way past 100 members, and we’re now in. I am in a position to help hundreds of entrepreneurs and CEOs. And that’s my cause now and in the foreseeable future; that’s what I will be doing and who. Knows what the future may hold out. I’ve learned to be open-minded. 

I learned to be flexible. I couldn’t have predicted everything I’ve done in my life. And I’m 50. I’d like to say I’m alone—50, you know—because there’s still so much possibility, even at my age.

Leah, you have achieved so much in these 50 years; it’s astounding. Like the things that you did, you’ve had an exciting life. From the perspective of a lot of people, it’s almost like a movie. You know, like starting a political party, traveling across nations (Argentina, Brazil), then coming to America. It’s almost like an American dream.

One of the things that I would say that you mentioned is so true: you’ve got to go all in. What’s your passion about? Because that’s when you will find true fulfillment in your life. And so, I agree with that, you know. And Leo, how can the audience connect with you and learn more about you and your leading peers? All the work that you’re doing.

First, I’m happy to share my email with your audience—anyone who wants to write me. You know, I checked my inbox for this. Day, they can just write me at L. Those are my initials, right? Because I am Leo. So, the L is for Leo, and the P is for Pic, my last name. So, LP@leadingpeers.com. or info@LeadingPeers.com

 OK, so just remember, our brand is leading peers. These are peers leading their companies—so LP@leadingpeers.com. The second thing they can do is just go on our website. There are plenty of forms on our website that they can send out. 

If you request that somebody in our team speak to us, we’d happily provide them with information. We don’t fail in an initial conversation. We just learn about who you are. You have a business, and we want to ensure you are the CEO. You know, currently, we’re only open to CEOs of companies, so we want to ensure you are one of them. You know, and also, do you have any sales? If you’re not yet at a point where you have at least $200,000 in revenue in the last 12 months, we’re not the right organization. Some organizations can help somebody start their own company. We take you from the moment that you’ve already been running the company and can make your income from the company itself, and we help you grow that, and that’s where we belong. 

So, if you’re just considering starting a company, look for resources to help you. Other organizations do that. Some nonprofit organizations can help you without even charging you a fee. And if you. Are you the type of CEO we can help where you already have sales, bringing in revenue of at least $17,000 a month or $200,000 in 12 months? Paulus, and let’s talk. And by the way, we have members that generate $50 million in revenue annually. 

So, if you’re making millions, we will find the right group for you. Our organization is built around groups of people. These are pure advisory boards, and when you join one of these groups, they want you to join, and you want to join them. So, we created an interview for that to happen. Then you can become a part of our organization. 

So, we take you through this process: You must find the right people and leading peers to work with before becoming a member. Then, you can become a member, sign the Member Agreement, and pay monthly. That’s the other beauty of leading peers, and we’re. Keeping it that way, you don’t have to pay an upfront annual enrollment or annual fee to cover the first year; you pay month to month. 

And if you are, finding value. You’ll stay for years; you’ll stay, maybe until your last breath on this planet. We are a community for life. We’re not an academic program with a start date and an end date. We are a community where you can continue learning, growing, and evolving. You might need to change boards after a few years if you feel you’ve outgrown your current group, and we have all the possibilities and flexibility to find the right spaces. We have networking events, and we have workshops. We organized one-on-one coaching sessions within your board. We have a great system of networks for people with similar and shared interests, where they can mingle about the things they are working on. We are passionate about even people from other boards, so we are connecting these entrepreneurs so they can connect, collaborate, and grow.

That is awesome, Leo and Leo. I am so honored that you took the time to share your wisdom on the show. You have had an amazing life, and your understanding of business and entrepreneurship is truly amazing. I hope you return to the show later this week.

Yeah, I’d be honored to do it. Cosmos, congratulations on your work promoting financial independence and freedom and giving hope to everybody wanting to pursue their American dream. This is an incredible country with so much freedom. It’s an opportunity; we must use this great platform to serve others.

For sure. Leo, I appreciate those kind words. I want to conclude this episode by letting my fellow extraordinary Americans know that, hey, look, there’s something extraordinary within every one of us. And so, we must awaken it and unleash it until next time. Bye for now.