I HATE TO BREAKT IT TO YOU, BUT YOU MIGHT BE A LOBBYIST

I’ve spent a majority of my first six months as NAPEO’s CEO on a road show of sorts. Visiting members, attending conferences, thanking sponsors and trying not to break anything. This kind of travel is expected, and predicted in most “so you’re a CEO, now what” guides.

Despite everyone telling me about the quality of the people, the complexity of the industry and the commitment to our shared success, those are hard things to comprehend in the abstract.

After my first PEO Capitol Summit and National PEO Week, I get it.

If you’ve been to a NAPEO event this year, you’ve likely heard me share how impressed I am by the selfless community that drives this great industry. The commitment each and every person makes to raise the PEO industry tide is special, and I can tell you definitively that it really isn’t like this everywhere.

This commitment was on full display throughout PEO Capitol Summit, but especially as we took to Capitol Hill. The energy and enthusiasm for engaging in representative government was encouraging and inspiring.

Collectively, more than 75 members took part in 65 meetings with policymakers and their staffs to discuss how we can work together to support businesses in every Congressional district. These productive meetings showed that our continued work to better define PEOs for those with the greatest ability to influence our business is working.

A common refrain echoed in the post-meeting buzz: they finally get it. We’ve been coming here for years, and for the first time we didn’t have to explain what a PEO is before we could get to the substance of our conversation.

I don’t know how many of our loyal PEO Insider® readers have gone through media training before, but this is the exact result you strive for. The fundamental lesson in the training is that your job isn’t to answer questions, it is to deliver a message. Then repeat it. And again.

Deliver a message, consistently and repeatedly, until you’re tired of saying it. Then say it a few hundred more times and the audience will start to hear it.

“They finally get it” because you’ve spent years showing up and showing out for the PEO industry. It didn’t happen overnight, and it didn’t happen organically. We’ve earned it. YOU’VE earned it.

Many of our industry colleagues told me how much they love having those meetings on the Hill. This doesn’t have to be a once-a-year engagement. Your elected officials will spend more time at home this year than here in Washington. Go see them. Bring a client that can validate the message we’re driving home: how your PEO helps their business and employees thrive.

We have to keep our foot on the gas to maintain this momentum.

Next year, Congress will consider the biggest tax package in our nation’s history, and we will approach it from a position of strength because of this persistence, and I know it will pay off.

You’re making a difference, but we’re just getting started.