You built your business. Now it’s time to grow it without losing control.
As a business founder, owner, or CEO, you’re constantly pulled into day-to-day operations. You know you should be working on the business instead of being trapped in it. But stepping back can feel risky.
What if things fall through the cracks?
What if the wrong decisions cost you time or money?
What if growth creates more chaos instead of freedom?
Do you have anyone to rely upon to benefit from their experience?
So, you stay involved in everything ………
………. And eventually, growth stalls.
Running a business can be rewarding—but also isolating. That’s where The Alternative Board (TAB) comes in. TAB connects business owners, CEOs, and key leaders in non-competing industries to exchange insight, accountability, and proven strategies for sustainable success.
In TAB’s Fort Worth & West Region, TAB has become a trusted resource for entrepreneurs who want to strengthen their leadership, sharpen their strategy, and grow their businesses with confidence.
TAB’s Fort Worth & West team brings more than 100 years of executive leadership, operations, and advisory experience to the region, helping business owners turn vision into execution through TAB’s peer advisory boards and executive coaching programs.
What is The Alternative Board?
TAB members join an exclusive, confidential group of peers to discuss challenges, share insights, and hold one another accountable. Each group is guided by a certified TAB facilitator - Ed Riefenstahl, Val Riefenstahl, Cathy Trinh, and Dale Jackson - who ensure every session produces practical solutions and strategic clarity.
As a TAB Member You Don’t Have to Build the Future Alone
At TAB Fort Worth & West, growth-minded business owners look to join a trusted peer advisory board designed to help them scale with greater clarity, confidence, and accountability.
Our TAB Fort Worth & West members are typically business owners growing typically $500K toward $30M in revenue who want smarter strategies, stronger leadership, and a business that can scale without burnout.
Each TAB Fort Worth & West board includes 6–8 experienced business leaders who meet monthly to solve real business challenges together. Members bring opportunities, roadblocks, and decisions to the table. Through guided discussion, strategic questions, and shared experience, every member gains practical insights to apply immediately.
This is not a networking group.
Each member leaves each session with:
- Clearer thinking
- Practical next steps
- Greater confidence in their decisions
- Accountability and momentum
- A stronger path forward aligned with their vision
Business solutions are formulated and grounded in diverse owners’ business experience.
TAB’s Business Builder's Advantage
Monthly Peer Advisory Board Meetings | Member’s gain diverse perspectives from fellow business owners who understand your challenges.
One-on-One Executive Coaching | Member’s work privately with a TAB Fort Worth & West certified facilitator-coach each month to set goals, prioritize actions, and navigate complex leadership decisions.
Each TAB Fort Worth & West member will also have the opportunity each month to work directly with their TAB certified facilitator-coach to:
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Refine strategy
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Solve real-time challenges
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Improve execution
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Stay focused on growth goals
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Identify skills for their leadership teams needed for sustainable, profitable growth
TAB's Blueprint | Member’s develop a strategic blueprint for focused execution, hosted on our exclusive platform to track strategy with structure and flexibility as your business evolves.
StratPro | Member’s unlock their leadership team’s potential by aligning your top performers around a shared vision, clear priorities, and disciplined execution.
The TAB member works together with their TAB facilitator-coach to build a clear, actionable business roadmap in focused sessions that are Critical to Success:
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Aligning the leadership team
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Establishing, communicating, and living the organization’s Vision and Values
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Identifying Strategic Priorities
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Implementing and executing Operational Goals
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Accountability System to assess performance and effect changes
The High Impact Manager Accelerator Program (HI-MAP) | Comprised of cohorts, whether in-person or virtually, meeting monthly or bi-monthly in two-hour sessions with coaching in between each session. This hands-on, “do it to learn and adopt it style”, equips members’ managers with critical leadership skills that include:
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Understanding themselves
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Hiring and Recruiting
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Coaching and mentoring
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Running effective meetings
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Negotiating and decision-making
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KPI management
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Time management
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Culture strengthening and key team member retention
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Managing difficult conversations
Each members’ business can scale to effectively grow only when their people grow.
Assessments | Members make smarter hiring, promotion, and management decisions with behavioral, motivational, values, and competency insights to enable TAB Fort Worth & West members:
Tapping into and benefiting from TAB’s Business Builder's Advantage, TAB Fort Worth & West members consistently report stronger leadership alignment, healthier company cultures, and more sustainable growth.
TAB Fort Worth & West: Helping Business Owners Lead with Clarity
TAB Fort Worth & West serves entrepreneurs and CEOs throughout a diverse and dynamic region, including:
- Fort Worth & Tarrant County, Texas
- Weatherford & Parker County, Texas
- West Texas [Abilene, San Angelo, Midland & Odessa]
- Texas Panhandle [Lubbock & Amarillo]
- El Paso, Texas
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
Each TAB board brings together leaders from different industries and stages of growth. That diversity fuels better conversations, fresh thinking, and insights that members rarely encounter within their own industry circles.
Top Owner Concerns and Fears and How TAB Helps
Here’s how the top identified fears or concerns most owners quietly carry show up in real life—and how TAB helps them turn those fears into clearer decisions and concrete action. Sources included:
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- National Small Business Association (NSBA) economic survey data on top small‑business challenges
- National Federation of Independent Business (NFI) “Small Business Problems and Priorities”
- Bank of America “Business Owner Report”
- Goldman Sachs “10,000 Small Businesses Voices” capital‑access survey
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce
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Owner Fear Area
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What Owners Worry About
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How TAB Helps Address Owner Concerns
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Cash flow & running out of money
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Covering payroll, vendors, and debt when revenue is uneven
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Peer owners share real cash strategies; Blueprint tool suite clarifies priorities and action plans tied to cash and profitability.
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Economic uncertainty & recession
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Inflation, interest rates, and demand swings making planning feel like guessing
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Boards bring cross‑industry perspective and scenario planning so TAB members prepared for multiple futures, not just one guess.
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Hiring, retention & talent
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Finding and keeping strong people; the cost of bad hires
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Members share proven hiring and retention approaches; leadership tools like TAB’s HI-MAP development suite help you build stronger managers and teams.
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Burnout & isolation
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Carrying the weight alone, never fully “off,” constant pressure
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Members monthly TAB board and monthly 1:1 coaching sessions with TAB-certified coach creates a confidential space to think clearly, not just react, and redesign the load you carry.
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Losing customers & declining sales
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Key clients leaving, revenue volatility, and stalled growth
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Owner peers challenge assumptions, test your positioning, and help align sales activity with a focused, strategic plan.
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Fear of failure or collapse
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One bad quarter or mistake taking everything down
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Owners who’ve survived tough cycles provide perspective; structured planning turns panic into disciplined response.
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Cybersecurity, fraud & tech risk
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Ransomware, phishing, and payment fraud hitting unexpectedly
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Boards surface blind spots, share real incidents, and help members choose practical protections instead of avoiding the topic.
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AI disruption & being left behind
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Competitors using AI to move faster while you stand still
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TAB gives members a place to compare AI experiments and vendors, and to tie AI decisions to strategy, cash, and people.
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Succession & exit
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Not knowing if the business can thrive or sell without you
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Peers who have exited or transitioned share playbooks; TAB proprietary tools such as StratPro and Blueprint help members build a more transferable, less owner‑dependent business.
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Losing control as you grow
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Growth creating chaos, misalignment, and culture drift
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Strategic frameworks such as StratPro and Blueprint align member’s leadership team and create scalable execution discipline.
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Wrong strategic decisions
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Making big calls with incomplete information and little feedback
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The member’s board slows decisions down just enough to test assumptions, explore options, and improve decision quality.
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Inadequacy & imposter syndrome
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Feeling “not enough” compared to other leaders’ highlight reels
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Regular exposure to other accomplished owners’ real struggles normalizes each member’s experience and builds confidence.
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Missing critical opportunities
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Fearing you’ll overlook the big shift, market, or partnership
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Monthly TAB board meetings and Blueprint tools suite create recurring, structured time to scan for opportunities and act before they pass.
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Why Join a Peer Advisory Board in the TAB Fort Worth & West Region?
In summary, owners and executives find these common reasons for becoming part of the TAB Fort Worth & West Region:
- Overcoming the Isolation of Leadership
- Leading a business can feel lonely. TAB provides a confidential, trusted environment where leaders connect, collaborate, and support one another.
- Gaining Fresh, Objective Insight
- Receiving unbiased perspectives and creative problem-solving, as each board is made up of leaders from different industries
- Building Accountability and Execution
- Ensuring that plans don’t stall at the idea stage through the monthly goal-setting and progress reviews that create momentum
- Working with an experienced TAB Fort Worth & West facilitator-coach Who Understands the Region
The TAB Fort Worth & West team blends TAB’s global framework with a deep understanding of the Texas-New Mexico business environment, helping leaders focus on what matters most: people, process, and purpose.
About TAB Fort Worth & West Team Members
Since 2006, Ed and Val Riefenstahl have helped more than 100 business owners, CEOs, nonprofit leaders, and succession teams create healthier, more scalable organizations.
Alongside facilitators Cathy Trinh and Dale Jackson—both former TAB members themselves—the TAB team works with leaders who value growth, collaboration, and continuous learning.
Testimonials From TAB Fort Worth & West Members & Alumni
Start with a Conversation or Attend an Event
Explore success stories and learn more at: www.thealternativeboard.com and https://www.thealternativeboard.com/fort-worth
Connect with our TAB Fort Worth & West team:
To attend a TAB Fort Worth & West event in DFW, meet current members, and experience how business owners are growing smarter—together, contact Ms. Junezel Barobaro at jbarobaro@tabfortworth.com
“Through TAB’s 30 years of trusted peer perspective and Blueprint process, organizations achieve greater clarity, stronger alignment, and more disciplined execution — without the organizational leader carrying the burden alone.” Ed Riefenstahl
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
Your next breakthrough could start here.
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