62: Choose Your Peer Group: The Decision That Changes Everything

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Welcome to the With Intention weekly newsletter where I share ideas & learnings to help you live & lead with intention

At a glance:

• Essay: Choose your peer group
• Quote: Launching pad or ceiling
• Visual: You're the avg of the five people you spend the most time with

Happy Saturday!

Let me get right to the point - the people sitting at your table determine the size of your thinking.

Yesterday, I had lunch with someone I hadn't connected with in years. One hour. That's all it took for me to realize I'd been playing too small. This leader who's built incredible things in the creator and leadership space didn't just catch me up on his journey. He stretched my entire vision for what I'm building.

But here's what most high performers miss: We get comfortable with our existing circle. We stay in our lane, surrounded by people who think like us, challenge us in predictable ways, and validate our current level of thinking.

That's not growth. That's maintenance.

The Championship Team Principle

Think about elite athletes for a moment. The best ones don't just train with their teammates. They seek out the players who are better, faster, stronger. They intentionally put themselves in positions where they're the weakest person in the room.

Why? Because iron sharpens iron. Because systematic authenticity requires us to acknowledge where we are and pursue relationships that will take us where we need to go.

The same principle applies to leadership and business. When we're intentional about our peer groups, we must evaluate our circles and ask the hard questions: Are these people pushing me toward my next level of excellence? Or are they keeping me comfortable in my current limitations?

The Multiplier Effect of Right-Fit Relationships

Three+ months ago, I started working with Level Up Creators. It wasn't just another business partnership. It was the right team at the right time. They've helped me think exponentially bigger and build this business with systematic authenticity instead of hustle-culture shortcuts.

Last Sunday, I drove to Cleveland for dinner with the team. Face-to-face. Breaking bread. Getting to know each other not just as business partners, but as whole human beings.

That's when the magic happens. When you move beyond transactional relationships to transformational partnerships. When you stop networking and start building deep, meaningful connections with people who see your potential before you do.

The Two Types of Peer Groups

You have two choices here:

Option 1: Be the best in your current class. Stay where you're already winning. Enjoy the comfort of being the expert, the go-to person, the one with all the answers.

Option 2: Learn from the best. Join the conversation where you're challenged, stretched, and sometimes uncomfortable. Where your current achievements are just the entry fee to even be in the room.

Here's the vulnerability-to-strength truth: Most of us choose Option 1 because it feels safer. But safe isn't where transformation happens. Safe isn't where you discover what you're truly capable of building.

Your Systematic Authenticity Challenge

This week, I want you to audit your peer group with complete honesty.

Who are the five people you spend the most professional time with? Are they pushing you to think bigger, or are they confirming what you already believe?

When was the last time you had a conversation that completely shifted your perspective? If it's been more than a month, you might be in too comfortable a circle.

What leader or innovator have you been meaning to reconnect with but keep putting off? That delay might be costing you more than you realize.

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, but only when you're intentional about choosing the right parts.

The Relationship-First Approach to Growth

Here's what 25+ years of elite performance has taught me: The breakthrough moments don't come from grinding harder in isolation. They come from authentic relationships with people who see possibilities you can't see yet.

But this isn't about using people for your advancement. This is about systematic authenticity in relationships. It's about bringing your whole self to connections that have the potential to create mutual transformation.

When I sat across from that creator leader yesterday, I wasn't trying to extract value from him. I was sharing authentically about where I am, where I'm going, and what I'm learning. The collaboration opportunity emerged naturally because we both showed up with genuine curiosity and openness to possibility.

The Cross-Domain Innovation Opportunity

Think about your current peer group. How many of them come from completely different industries, backgrounds, or ways of thinking?

Some of my greatest insights have come from bridging athletics and business principles. From conversations with people who approach challenges from angles I never would have considered.

Cross-domain innovation happens when you intentionally seek out relationships with people who have solved different problems using different methodologies. Their solutions to their challenges might be exactly what you need for your breakthrough.

Your Next Right Step

I want you to take one specific action this week.

Reach out to one person who intimidates you professionally. Someone whose thinking is bigger than yours. Someone whose achievements make you slightly uncomfortable about your own level of performance.

Not to ask for something. Not to pitch them on anything.

Simply to reconnect. To learn. To be genuinely curious about their journey and their current challenges.

Here's the systematic authenticity approach: Be vulnerable about where you are. Share what you're working on and what you're learning. Ask questions that show you're more interested in their wisdom than their connections.

The conversation might lead somewhere. It might not. But I guarantee it will stretch your thinking in ways that staying in your comfortable peer group never will.

The Long-Term Transformation

Building the right peer group isn't a one-time decision. It's a systematic practice of evaluating, connecting, and investing in relationships that challenge you to become the leader your potential demands.

Every quarter, I look at my closest professional relationships and ask: Are these the people who will help me reach my 2028 vision of building a $2.5M+ peak performance ecosystem? Are they pushing me toward sustainable excellence, or are they enabling me to stay where I am?

The uncomfortable truth: Sometimes you outgrow relationships. Sometimes you need to spend less time with people who keep you small and more time with people who make you stretch.

That's not about arrogance. That's about stewardship of your potential and your mission to serve others at the highest level.

You have everything you need to reach your next level of impact. Maybe you just need the right people challenging you to get there.

Your peer group is either your launching pad or your ceiling. Choose accordingly.

Talk soon,
Jon

P.S. That lunch conversation I had today? We're already planning our first collaboration. Sometimes the relationship you've been avoiding is the one that changes everything. Don't wait another year to have that conversation.

You're the avg of the 5 people you spend the most time with

Source: Roberto Ferraro

Until next week!

Jon Giganti 

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