– INSIDE ETJ LIFE
Power Circles: A Room That Shares Your Road
ETJ Life has always been built on one idea: the right room changes everything. This year we’re making that room even more specific.
Power Circles are small, curated peer groups of private-equity-backed CEOs and operators — organized by industry, so the leaders around the table are navigating the same markets, the same pressures, and the same questions you are. It’s a simple bet, and our members keep confirming it: a peer group of leaders from everywhere is interesting, but a peer group that shares your exact context is invaluable. As one member put it, the tighter the connective tissue, the more useful the room.
- GP Power Circle — built for PE-firm founders, GPs, and operating partners.
- Software & Technology — for CEOs leading through AI’s reshaping of the software landscape.
- Professional & Tech-Enabled Services — for leaders reinventing the services and advisory model.
- Business Services & Industrial — for operators driving growth and transformation across industrial and business-services platforms.
And the lineup keeps growing — including an emerging Software & Tech circle for $15–35M companies, a Founders circle for the zero-to-one stage, and the Sage Transition Accelerator for leaders stepping into their next chapter.
Power Circles are invite-only and curated by design. We build each one a member at a time — the way you’d build a private club by hand-picking every seat.
– LEADERSHIP & STRATEGY
Q3 Is About Traction
Halfway through 2026, there’s a lot to feel good about. Teams have matured. Plans made in January have had two quarters to take root. Real ground has been covered. The back half of the year is where that momentum gets to compound.
Here’s the encouraging part: the leaders getting the most out of this moment aren’t the ones pushing the hardest. They’re the ones who can feel the difference between motion and movement — between effort and traction.
It’s a useful distinction right now. AI has made all of us feel faster than ever, and that’s genuinely exciting. The opportunity in the second half is making sure all that speed is translating into real movement — more value created per person, better outcomes for clients, a clearer view of what’s actually working.
That kind of clarity is hard to find on your own. Even the sharpest operators can lose the signal in the noise of a busy quarter — which is exactly why the best ones pressure-test their thinking with people who get it. Not a room of leaders from everywhere, but a room facing the same road. Same industry. Same pressures. Same questions.
That’s where momentum becomes traction. When someone gripping the same road looks over and says, “yeah — I’m dealing with that too,” the picture gets clear fast.
Q1 was about alignment — slowing down enough to notice your rhythms. Q3 is about traction — making sure all that good motion is carrying you somewhere you actually want to go.
“Momentum is good. Traction is better.”
| Interested in ETJ Life? Contact Lyndsay at lyndsay@etjlife.com to learn more about membership and what’s available to you. |