Make Money Like the King of Exits | Eddie Wilson

In this episode, Travis talks with serial entrepreneur and private equity operator Eddie Wilson, known as the “King of Exits” for owning more than 140 companies and successfully exiting over 100 of them. Eddie breaks down how he went from corporate media to running a 30‑company portfolio, created the Empire Operating System, and co-built the Aspire Tour, the nation’s largest business event series.​

On this episode we talk about:

• How Eddie went from third‑generation real estate kid and corporate TV/radio executive to starting an ad agency, exiting it, and then suddenly helping operate a portfolio of 30+ companies

• The Foot Locker “measure-the-feet” story, how it inspired his Brick concept, and how extreme focus on one core metric evolved into the Empire Operating System now used across thousands of companies​​

• Scaling from 30 to 86 portfolio companies, then selling 76 of them in a single year to ~20 different buyers—while only owning a minority stake and learning how to systematize exits

• Why he and Andrew Kroeze built Aspire Tour as a front-end community and lead engine for financial services (tax, insurance, wealth) and how they fill arenas with speakers like David Goggins, Gary Vee, and Shark Tank sharks while often losing money on the event itself​

• Eddie’s deeper “why” behind all of it—his Impact Others nonprofit that feeds and educates ~5,300 kids a day in 100+ countries and runs massive projects like providing Christmas morning for 18,000+ children worldwide​​

Top 3 Takeaways

1. Systems are the only way to scale and exit repeatedly; Eddie’s Empire Operating System grew out of real portfolio pain and now focuses each company around a single “brick” metric that drives everything else.

2. Big, sexy front-end plays like Aspire are often loss leaders—what matters is the lifetime value created when you plug those attendees into masterminds, tax strategy, insurance, and other high-value services.

3. Money alone gets boring; tying business growth to a bigger mission—like feeding thousands of kids daily through Impact Others—creates the kind of purpose that keeps you building even after you could retire.

Notable Quotes

• “I realized I could do what I do—but at scale.”

• “Aspire is really just aggregation. It’s the community that lets us serve people with financial services long after the event ends.”

• “Success without impact left me empty; Impact Others is what keeps me going.”

Connect with Eddie Wilson:

• Personal site & bio: https://officialew.com​

• Operating system: https://empireom.com​

• Business tour (Aspire): https://aspiretour.com​

• Nonprofit: https://impactothers.com 

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