Advising a business owner is about the best work we can do. The owner’s business is often their largest asset, primary source of income, greatest concentration of risk, and most important vehicle for creating future wealth. And privately held businesses in the middle market generate about half of our GDP, 46% of jobs, and a whopping 64% of new jobs. They are the backbone of our communities. When we say it is good work, you know what we mean.
The Growth-Drive 2026–2027 training agenda is designed to help our growing and professionally diverse community. We honor your need to collaborate as wealth advisors, exit planners, CPAs, growth drivers, investment bankers, private equity operators, and fractional CFOs.
Your new training calendar is organized around our collective commitment to lead our clients toward qualifying into the '85+ Asset Class'—our benchmark for business valuation and sustainable equity. My friends, there is nothing like it.
- C3D: We are moving to C3D Certification cohorts. A cohort is a quarterly class of advisors who complete their certification during a given quarter and meet for an extended review session that is open mic, allowing us to deepen our knowledge and expand our networks.
- Confidence—in sales and in engagements: The Fearless Business Advisor Facilitation Course has been offered for several years. This course is evolving and now includes both online learning and in-person facilitation training. As the saying goes, "You can't learn to ride a bike by reading a book," and this applies to facilitation skills. The course is specifically designed to help you confidently approach discovery, analysis, and the critical client-facing work we do, helping them make the changes they need to get the results they want. It is ideal for everyone from wealth advisors to private equity operators.
- The Business Owner Sales Mastery program with C3D Mike Garrison adds another essential capability: Building on the fearless business advisor skills—though not a prerequisite—you will learn the art of leading conversations that help clients understand the power and benefits of engaging you.
- AI for Strategic Capacity tackles one of the most important questions confronting every advisor and leadership team: What should humans do, what should AI do, and what should they do together? Advisors will learn how to lead clients through the thoughtful and systematic application of AI to increase organizational capacity without outsourcing leadership, judgment, accountability, or relationships. This is not technology training for its own sake; it is preparation for leading clients through a profound change in how work will be designed and executed.
- Anchoring the calendar is the highly rated annual Growth-Drive Summit in Charleston. The Summit brings the methodology, technology, facilitation skills, business-development practices, and advisor community together. Participants move beyond isolated knowledge and experience the Integrated Strategic Capacity Doctrine in action: the CEO, senior leadership team, advisory team, software, AI, and data working together in accordance with shareholder intent.
- Strategic Capacity Client Workshop: We are finalizing the launch of our first annual Strategic Capacity Workshop, coming in Spring 2027. This workshop offers a unique opportunity for advisors to bring their clients and prospects, or for CEOs and their leadership teams to participate independently, spending two days developing a one-year strategic capacity growth project. Imagine…. What do you think, good idea?
I hope you’ll agree this is far more than a collection of courses. It is a deliberate pathway for becoming the advisor business owners increasingly need—a Growth-Driver capable of connecting business performance, equity value, and personal wealth.
For wealth advisors, CPAs, exit planners, consultants, insurance professionals, investment bankers, fractional executives, and private capital professionals, this training creates a powerful competitive advantage. More importantly, it creates the capacity to deliver better outcomes for the people who have placed much of their lives, wealth, and futures inside a privately held business.