For the past three years, Jon LoDuca, founder and CEO of The Wisdom Link Inc. — a Holland, Michigan–based business-development and brand-strategy consulting company — has been hosting brainstorming events for clients in Chicago. The small groups of 15 to 20 clients meet at Workspring, an experience-design brand of Steelcase, and an all-inclusive meeting, events, and coworking space.
Highly successful, creative, and experienced business owners, each Wisdom Link client group that gathers at Workspring for a “Wisdom network meeting” are strangers to one another, and initially on guard. LoDuca’s goal is to facilitate meaningful dialogue among them, so they can help each other resolve their unique and shared business challenges. “These are folks who typically assume no one gets them, because they are usually isolated from other entrepreneurs,” he said. Gaining their trust so they open up with each other is what he calls a “high-wire act.”