ChairWorld 2026 Resources
Welcome to ChairWorld 2026! I'm really excited to present some great information to help you build your chair practice. Our two sessions will help chairs with all levels of experience grow their practice and improve your ChairLife.
Session 1 Title: "Chair Life: How to Find the Intersection Between Your Purpose and Practice" (101)
Monday, February 2nd, 1:30-3:00 pm PT, Torrey Pines 1 and 2
Description: Interactive session to shape your chair practice strategy. Full-practice chair Tom Cuthbert guides designing your ideal ChairLife. Clarify purpose, set boundaries, identify perfect practice, plan actionable steps. Leverage Vistage Leadership Programs for personal goals and member needs.
Why Attend: Transform your practice into purposeful, balanced work. Avoid mediocrity, achieve high performance. Ideal for chairs seeking alignment between life and business.
Session 2 Title: "ChairLife: Best Practices to Optimize Your Time and Income to Build Your Ideal Practice" (201)
February 3rd, 8:30-10:00 am PT, Torrey Pines 1 and 2
Description: For scaling to full practice. Tom shares secrets: Maximize utilization/capacity, retention, referral culture, brand leverage. Streamline to serve more members, boost income per hour.
Why Attend: Grow efficiently, work less, earn more. Proven systems for top-5 ranking, 4-day weeks, sabbaticals. Stop reinventing, focus on impact.
We recently completed a video project describing our Vistage community in a visual and engaging way. This video, titled, “Let’s Create Something Extraordinary”, uses footage from group meetings and 121s.
We use this as a referral tool and way for candidates to get a peek inside our community. Our members were excited to support this effort and you will see group specific video throughout my website.
Reach out if you would like a connection to our videographer, Ruben Linder with Opcom Media.
Past ChairWorld Sessions and Resource
Check out the ChairLife Podcast, new video assets, Chair Success Services, new speaker, monthly newsletter and our ChairLife 101 and 201 sessions!
2025 ChairWorld Resource Page
Welcome to our ChairWorld 2025 resource page! We enter this year with 7 groups (2 CE, 2 Key, AL, EL and TA) and over 170 members. I am always happy to share our productivity tools and tips and we live out our best ChairLife! Here are links to the presentations and resources for our 2025 sessions. Reach out if we can help!
New Video assets for prospective members
Subscribe to the new ChairLife Podcast
The ChairLife Podcast, hosted by CEO coach and Master Chair Tom Cuthbert, is your go-to resource for blending purpose and success in both your professional and personal life. Tom shares expert insights, proven strategies, and practical tools to help you build your ideal “ChairLife” — a life where mission and purpose seamlessly intersect with a balanced, fulfilling work-life.
Learn about chair success services
Click here to learn how Chair Success Services can help you grow your practice while providing you a balanced ChairLife
New Longevity Speaker
Connect with our member Jessica Pierce, CEO of Longevity Architects. She is a Longevity coach and just launched as a new Vistage speaker.
Subscribe to the Grow CEO Newsletter
Click to see our latest issue of the Grow CEO Newsletter and subscribe.
ChairLife 2025 Session Information and Resources
PAST CHAIRWORLD SESSIONS
How to Create a Meaningful ChairLife - Recording / Powerpoint / Worksheet
Cracking the Compensation Code - Recording / Powerpoint
Productivity Power Plays - Recording / Powerpoint
Quick Links for the most requested information
In April 2024 I presented “How to Build and Grow High Performing Groups” in the Vistage ScaleUp series. We launched High Performing Behaviors in 2022 and they have been game-changers for our groups and members. The videos on the left are the cornerstone. We also have a High Performing Survey and Resource Page available for more information.
Emerging Leader Group video
Onboarding video
The most important goal achieved in 2023 was dedicating the Cuthbert Bridge in Greenwood, Arkansas. This bridge spans a cut on Greenwood Lake where my dad and mom lived for 30 years. After dad passed away in 2019, our family has been looking for a way to honor his legacy and my mom, and do something to give back to the community of Greenwood.
Chairworld 2023 “Building your ChairLife:
Designing a Purposeful and Productive Practice”
The work we do as Vistage chairs is both rewarding and significant. It can also be frustrating, exhausting and even unhealthy. So how do we find the intersection of purpose and productivity while maintaining a full and balanced life?
Join me at Chairworld to explore your purpose and unleash productivity to build your ChairLife! We will identify your path from here to there.
The intersection of fulfilling your mission and purpose while maintaining balance in life and optimizing work time.
Together we will set boundaries and build an ideal schedule. We will learn new tools and techniques to optimize capacity and increase utilization. You’ll walk out with the framework to design your perfect ChairLife and the skills you need to live there.
There is great opportunity to grow your practice and ability to influence more people through our work. I hope you’ll join us to begin the journey to your ChairLife!
Overview
There are nine steps we will discover as you design your journey to ChairLife. We will begin by finding your “from”, describing your “there”, understanding your “here” and then removing obstacles on the path to your “there”. Then we will build an ideal work week, month, and year by establishing boundaries. We will take a look at your numbers, past, present and future. This all leads us to helping you plan your ideal ChairLife practice. Let’s get started!
Design your Ideal Week, Month and Year (Step 6)
Start by setting your working hour boundaries. I recommend blocking off when you DO NOT want to work! Establishing this will help you identify your work time, defined as capacity.
From here, build your ideal work week. Fill in recurring meetings, 121s and group meetings. You will then identify available time that you can fill with activity. Extend your ideal work week to an ideal work month. Select the number of weeks you want to work and you’ll have a repeatable schedule to maximize your productivity.
Finally, look ahead at the year. Block off holidays, vacations, sabbaticals and weekends. The example to the right is my ideal work calendar for 2023. My available capacity is 161 workdays and this yields 1288 hours of available capacity.
Once you set the plan, it’s time to execute!
From Here to There (Steps 1-5)
Use the Personal Development Plan to understand your past, paint a picture of your future and an understanding of where you are today. This step is critical to design your ideal ChairLife. Take time to complete the questions in the order they are numbered. Look at your answers and find out what gets in the way. Then, move to the “to” section and identify what you need to get from here to there. These are the gaps to fill and the opportunities to overcome
Set your Boundaries (Step 7)
Jack Daly taught me that all of us will be at our best when we only do three things. What are the three things that you do, that no one else can, that has the greatest impact on your life and work? Mine are plan, coach and facilitate. Pretty much everything else I delegate or simply don’t do.
Lenses are guiding principles to keep us on track. I use lenses everyday to make decisions and say yes or no. Build your lenses by asking yourself simple questions to keep you from getting distracted or off track from your goals. My lenses and goals can be found here. Fill in your three things and lenses into the Practice Analysis document found in the session handouts.
This will help you develop a monthly calendar for meetings and 121s. An example of mine is to the right.
A concept to remember is “Let the work come to you”. This allows you to be present in the moment and make fewer decisions.
Know your Numbers (Step 8)
The metrics around our practice and life serve as the roadmap to get from here to there. Start with last year by answering these questions; How many hours did you work? How much did you earn? This presents us the important metric of income per hour. Then look at the number of members you had vs. the capacity, or available seats across all groups. This yields your utilization rate. Utilization rate and income per hour are the “crosshairs” to guide your practice to a higher level of productivity.
Plan your Ideal Practice (Step 9)
Fill in your goal for this year for both hours to be worked and total income. Calculate your income per hour target. Next move to groups. Enter your goal for number of members and capacity and calculate your utilization rate target.
Put it together in the Ideal Practice worksheet; available hours, target income, income per hour and utilization rate. USe the Groups section to set your group goals and begin to build your plan. Calculate the available income by using the Chairpay chart in the handouts in the Growth section. Bring it all together by adding up the incremental income and hours worked for the coming year. This is your “there” for the 2023.
Build your Flywheel
Jim Collins taught the concept of a flywheel. I keep one in my bullet journal to remind me what makes my world go around. Learn more at www.tomcuthbert.com/flywheel.
Additional Resources for chairs:
Explore our 12 High Performing Behaviors for Vistage members
Placemat including scores and High Performing Behaviors
Over 40% of our members are women leaders. I’m often asked how we do this. Simple, great women leaders attract other great women leaders. We are intentional about diversity and diversity makes us better.
We use member testimonials to describe our community. We focus on member selection and only one in five who enter the selection process end up joining one of our groups.
I have five criteria for an ideal member and do not compromise this.
Learn more about our Member Selection Playbook at www.tomcuthbert.com/memberselectionplaybook
Click here to learn how our Vistage community is supporting the Children’s Shelter in San Antonio supporting CEO and 5 year member Asia Ciaravino (on the right). In 2022 we raised over $50,000 and nominated 25 members for Vistage around the US.