Ever feel like some business owners “just get lucky?” Somehow they’re in the right position to receive a windfall or somehow get ahead of the next big thing, though their operations don’t seem to differ much from your own. Why don’t you see any lucky breaks? This amazing episode with Mister Lucky himself, Mark Lachance, will show you exactly how to get lucky—on purpose—using the methods he developed through bringing multiple platforms into billion-dollar earners. Mark was one of the founding members of both VersaPay Inc and Pivotal Payments, helping set the course for these financial heavy-hitters.   In 2016, Mark successfully sold his last endeavor, EVO Payments International Canada—an end-to-end payment solutions provider and merchant acquirer which he founded in 2009 with only one employee. Currently, he is CEO of Maxy Media, a marketing agency that specializes in paid media on social platforms like Tik Tok, Instagram and Facebook. His ability to calculate and analyze risk, see the market for what it truly is and develop multiple platforms to capitalize on multiple markets makes him an excellent source of knowledge about marketing, blitzscaling and “getting lucky” in business. This episode is a story about how one entrepreneur kept taking strategic risks and the advice he has for other entrepreneurs ready to do the same.   What You Will Learn Why Mark chose the Blitzscaling model in his marketing agency and how it paid off What the “Entrepreneur's Dilemma” is and how to overcome it Why it’s important to drop the entrepreneur ego Some breakthrough questions to ask yourself when it comes to dropping your ego and growing the business What it means to stack the odds in your favor Why just meeting people at conferences can open so many opportunities How Mark took one guy highly skilled in paid ads and created a marketing agency with over 300 employees Why Mark pivoted his marketing agency from a service business to a performance business Some strategies a service-based business can use to create a partial recurring revenue model Why Mark believed he should go from 30 employees to 100 in less than three months   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: Mark Lachance (Mister Lucky) is the CEO and Lead Investor of Maxy Media Inc., one of the largest TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, and Google Display Network performance marketing agencies in the world. Mark is also the author of The Lucky Formula, a book that talks about what it means to stack the odds in your favor and reap the rewards from the success. Growing up in a hockey family, Mark started his career as a Hockey Sports Agent and quickly learned he needed a business that was simple to scale and had recurring revenue. Now Mark lives in Florida and has a goal to own the Florida Panthers Hockey Team.   Quotes: 05:02  - “We spoke about having a ‘why.’ My ‘why’ is to never have to work in construction, ever again.” - Mark Lachance 09:40  - “Never literally go all in.” - Mark Lachance 15:40  - “The first thing you learn when you walk in here (if you haven’t gone to one of these events, I highly recommend it) you learn that you’re the problem. You get hit in the face with a shovel, pretty much. The first thing Tony says is, ‘If your business is stuck, you’re the problem.’” - Mark Lachance 16:09  - “I can hire people that are smarter than me and not lose my CEO position and I can actually grow a business quickly and be happy growing the business. Because I can be focusing on what I want to do.” - Mark Lachance 16:52  - “Drop your ego and bring people in (that are better than you) to do the job.” - Mark Lachance 23:00  - “Doing things and helping people grow and developing business is what always gets me juiced and jacked up so that’s what I want to do.” - Mark Lachance 24:54  - “Because, if I deliver tons of positive value out there, there’s a pretty good chance that something’s going to come back to me.” - Mark Lachance 27:10  - “Is that luck or did I stack the odds in my favor that I’d be sitting in that situation? That’s the point.” - Mark Lachance 29:21 - “I’m going to engineer this situation and the value I want, to have as many freakin’ choices as possible so that, when I wake up in 2025, I’ve got the choices I want. But you have to engineer that from five years ago and value creation is going to be the number one mechanism to help you create those choices.” - Ryan Tansom 37:32  - “Performance is, ‘If this, then that.’ So if you’re going to pay me $2 per lead, then I better get that lead for $1.50 or $1.75. That’s why I like the performance model. It’s based on our efforts.” - Mark Lachance 39:29  - “If you diversify your business across many different verticals and many different channels and many different clients, then you have essentially created a recurring revenue business.” - Mark Lachance   Links and Resources: The Lucky Formula Quiz The Lucky Formula: How to Stack the Odds in Your Favor and Cash In on Success, by Mark Lachance Mark Lachance (IG) @Misterluckyofficial Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

If you have ever experienced the feeling of being overworked, miscommunicated with and unmotivated towards the greater vision, then this episode is for you.Dr. Stacy Feiner—a nationally-recognized innovative and business psychologist, leadership coach, and mentor—has helped hundreds of business owners identify their mental barriers and develop a plan to become a top performer. Today’s episode is a ruthlessly honest look at when business owners need business coaching and why putting it off will cost you. Dr. Feiner shares with us the inherent limitations that come with our own life experiences and how they impact the way we process what we’re experiencing now, from the deal table to a hard talk with our partner. We have mental blind spots where we can’t perceive a different perspective or experience properly, causing miscommunications and mismanagement of our lives and our businesses. This problem is more pervasive than we realize, but Dr. Feiner offers a solution in this episode. Are you ready to level-up your business?   What You Will Learn How to identify and solve the 7 invisible mental blockers that could be holding you back Why it’s important to organize all your priorities into one “ecosystem” of 7 stakeholder groups The four components to strengthen your mindset to achieve the growth you want; psychology, talent, environment, and brain science The difference between therapy and coaching; are you striving to achieve more or stop the fall? Why self-awareness is a crucial attribute of top performers Why Psychology is the most sophisticated science for channeling human drive, talent and potential The four phases to optimize your own psychology to improve performance and achieve your goals faster How to execute a single strategy to align all aspects of your ecosystem Why Dr. Stacy compares business owners to triathletes and how an athletic coach mirrors a business coach The importance of understanding what you want from your business and why when it comes to hiring a coach How Dr. Feiner uses the lens of psychology to tap into the invisible dynamics that make people tick and groups click - and how you can too   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: Dr. Stacy Feiner is a nationally-recognized innovative psychologist known for leveling-up the output of elite performers and the complex systems they lead. Using the lens of psychology, Dr. Feiner taps the invisible dynamics that make people tick and groups click. In your ear and at your side, Dr. Feiner coaches you to achieve the results you want in all areas of your life.   Quotes: 06:39  - “[The private sector] is fragmented but we are the sixth largest economy in the world…We are a huge part of the economy.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 08:35  - “What’s really important is the notion of psychology seems to be still underrepresented in the conversation about human health.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 09:43  - “We have a need for belonging and we have a need for self-expression.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 10:50  - “I think of the idea of performance coaching and mentorship and therapy all about learning about oneself. I think the difference between therapy and coaching, for example, is that therapy is about protecting you from the fall and coaching is about the climb.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 22:40 - “You don’t have to relive painful experiences in order to resolve them.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 24:39  - “We are taught to keep emotion out of decision-making. But the precursor to every decision is emotion. If you have confidence about a decision, that’s an emotion. If you are doubtful about something, that is emotion.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 29:41  - “We had something on each other. I was being naughty. They were being naughty. So we had naughty information about each other. That kept us confidencial.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 33:21  - “Each one of the circles has three imperatives and they’re universal. There’s governance, wealth distribution, and legacy which happens in ownership.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 41:24  - “Healing is health and health is growth and that’s powerful. And sometimes awareness is the byproduct.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 50:40  - “I’m your first base coach. If you’re running to second base, I want you to get there as badly as you do.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner     Links and Resources: Stacy Feiner Stacy Feiner, LinkedIn Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

In part two of this two part series, David Lekach dives deep into the details on why and how he sold Dream Water in 2018. The strategic buyer was a public cannabis company based in Canada, as well as one of Dream Water’s distributors. The unique relationship David had with the buyer was only one colorful part of the story… The buyer paid to do due diligence on David’s company! The deal process took months to complete and David even almost lost the entire deal the night before the wire transfer was supposed to be made. If you want a deep dive of the entire exit process, you do not want to miss this episode.   What You Will Learn Why the sale of Dream Water was so emotional for David The negotiation strategies David used that resulted in the buyer paying for due diligence Why creating and writing up a Plan B in the Letter of Intent can align everyone and create a commitment to get a deal done Why David's intention when selling was never centered on money. It was all about making sure the deal was fair for everyone involved - including his employee’s How understanding the deal structure of an exit will get you what you want and help you better understand the emotions of selling your business David and Ryan’s thoughts on the value of technical knowledge vs. common sense when selling a company Why learning financial literacy will set you apart from all other entrepreneurs How David used psychology during the negotiation with the buyers Why David set money aside after the sale to say thank you to everyone who helped him—and why that was written into the deal structure What makes mentorship and coaching so important The ways transparency and clarity can alleviate stress from the exit process   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: David Lekach is an entrepreneur from Miami, Florida. In the early 2000s, David started Dream Water and managed to get his products into big box stores like Walmart, CVS, Publix and Safeway. After eight years of being the owner and operator of Dream Water, David sold his company to One Harvest, a Canadian cannabis company, for 34.5 million USD in 2018. Before launching Dream Products, David worked briefly as an investment banker. Prior to that, David served as the managing partner in a small Miami-based law firm, handling a variety of legal and business development consulting projects, including the structuring and general oversight of international real estate ventures worth more than $50 million and numerous consumer goods projects, ranging from licensing to product development engagements. Since the sale of Dream Water in May 2018, he has helped several organizations across the consumer packaged goods, cannabis, direct-to-consumer and Amazon platforms, and travel retail spaces with innovation, executive team building, as well as with legal and deal structuring, usually while taking on a variety of strategic development initiatives.   Quotes: 04:25 - “You’re never going to forget when you’re in the sh*t, like, that grind, you know?” - David Lekach 11:23 - “I’ve negotiated this thing perfectly. Like, philharmonic level conducting. It couldn’t have been better. Then, a stupid joke at the end equals… Then I think there’s no transaction to be had. I just scared my company for no reason.” - David Lekach 25:06 - “I always wanted to be one with my role and one of the things I was very present to is the CEO. What does CEO mean? ” - David Lekach 25:11 - “One of the things that I thought was an important part of my job was to always be networking  into (in my case) the CPG, the private equity, or the institutional financing world and strategics.” - David Lekach 32:09 - “It starts with some sort of level of honesty with yourself. What do you feel like you know? What do you feel like you don’t know? And how to find the gaps in there.” - David Lekach 43:03 - “You never know when you’re going to get an unsolicited terms sheet.” - David Lekach 43:12 - “The more buttoned-up and uptight you are, the easier it is to get through tax season, the easier it is to get through a transaction, the easier it is to get through regulatory situations, whatever the case may be.” - David Lekach 47:30 - “I took ‘upfront dollars’ and that was non-negotiable.” - David Lekach 48:26 - “I don’t want to go get [money] after the fact. I want it in my bank account because I’m spending those dollars today and I’m taking my time today.” - David Lekach, on getting money up front for due diligence 67:36 - “Don’t count money. Don’t assume anything. Don't look for another job. We don’t know until this thing closes” - David Lekach 72:50 - “Because it wasn’t just me.” - David Lekach, on why giving back to his team was so important to him.   Links and Resources: David’s email: david.lekach@gmail.com Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

David Lekach is an entrepreneur from Miami, Florida and he got the entrepreneurial itch in the early 2000s when he was working as an investment banker in NYC and couldn’t fall asleep. To solve his own problem, David founded Dream Water - water-shot that is best described as the opposite of a five hour energy - and managed to get his products into big box stores like Duane Reed, Walmart, CVS, Publix and Safeway. After 8 years of being the owner and operator of DreamWater, David sold the company to One Harvest, a Canadian cannabis company for $34.5 Million in 2018. In this part one of our two part series, David talks about how he grew the company and his mindset along the way. In part two, we talk about what triggered him to sell the business. We dive into the nitty gritty of all the details of the process and how he structured the sale.   What You Will Learn David’s thoughts on whether you are born an entrepreneur or whether you choose to be one Why David founded Dream Water and what it meant to him personally How understanding what “business you are really in” is crucial to scaling a company Why David did not invest heavily into manufacturing - even though his business was a product - and how that impacted his grow strategy How the impact on the world you are having with the business can be the thing that keeps you going even when things are hard How David got into some of the biggest box retail shops like WalMart, CVS and Duane Reed David’s thoughts on the importance of stopping to celebrate the wins Why David prioritized data management from day one and how he leveraged it to help him scale the company How David was able to keep the company lean while scaling the business   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: David Lekach is an entrepreneur from Miami, Florida. Once working as an investment banker, David had the entrepreneurial itch. In the early 2000’s David started DreamWater and managed to get his products into big box stores like Walmart, CVS, Publix and Safeway. After 8 years of being the owner and operator of DreamWater, David sold his company to One Harvest, a Canadian cannabis company for $34.5 Million in 2018. Since the sale of Dream Water in May 2018, he has helped several organizations across the CPG, cannabis, direct to consumer and Amazon platforms, and travel retail spaces with innovation, executive team building, legal and deal structuring, usually while taking on a variety of strategic development initiatives. Before its sale, David, founded and served as the Chief Executive Officer of Dream Products, LLC, which manufactures and markets Dream Water, a natural, 0-calorie 2.5oz liquid sleep shot that is also available in a powder format that you can take with or without water. As the architect of the company’s growth strategy, David was responsible for managing all aspects of the business including sales, marketing, manufacturing, and finance.   Quotes: 03:56 - “I don’t like to publicize the JD part because I like to say that, ‘If you think I’m an ***hole, I should earn it. Not just because I told you I’m an attorney.” - David Lekach 08:21 - “[Entrepreneurs] don’t really know what we signed up for. And even if you’re a serial entrepreneur, every experience is different.” - David Lekach 09:48 - “I think, for everyone’s own individual entrepreneurial journey, there’s external factors that impact that, sort of, three-pronged analysis. Because, to me, it depends on where you are in life.” - David Lekach 20:11 - “I didn’t have a dedicated customer service department. A lot of it, and as much as it could, I wanted it to route through me because I wanted to be able to hear from people (good, bad, or indifferent).” - David Lekach   20:32 - “More days than not suck in this process, in this journey, at least it did for me.” - David Lekach 20:44 - “But when you take a prong like, “What is the impact that you are making.” That’s what kept me in the game. That’s what kept me going.” - David Lekach 21:16 - “When the money’s not there, what makes you go to the office the next day?” - David Lekach 29:59 - “What do we do with this? Where do we launch? What does this look like?” - David Lekach 46:58 - “I never wanted to be beholden to anybody.” - David Lekach 49:22 - “Let me or the retailer make the money, not FedEx.” - David Lekach   Links and Resources: Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Does the thought of hiring a sales rockstar give you a stomachache? If so, you’re not alone. The anxiety can be a result of a huge variety of reasons; brand and reputation risk, paying people what you think is “too much”, designing the right compensation plans, company cash flow issues, and we can’t forget - the thought of dealing with the difficult personalities of the stereotypical “salesperson”. These are all valid reasons to have anxiety, but it doesn’t have to be this way and is not a good excuse to figure out what to do about it. On today’s show, we have Doug C. Brown on the show who talks about how to find, properly hire and engage top performing sales people. He draws on an extensive background and experience as the CEO of Business Success Factors where he has coached, consulted and advised thousands of people in business, as well as companies like Enterprise-Rent Car, Nationwide, Intuit, Proctor and Gamble, CBS television, and others. He has also served as an independent President of Sales and Training for companies run by Tony Robbins, Chet Holmes, and Russ Whitney.    What You Will Learn Doug’s view on how sales and marketing work together Why it’s GOOD if your top sales performer makes more money than anyone else in the company - even you, the owner! What to do with the salesperson’s resume during the interview process Why a top performing salesperson wouldn’t be happy with 20 hour weeks and $175,000 How listening to your top sales performers can help you identify your next product or service The key features a top performing salesperson has and how to identify them in the hiring process What can make a top performing salesperson frustrated and how to deal with it Why it’s important to make room for the “mavericks” in your company processes and procedures Why you shouldn’t have to motivate a salesperson to get up and grind  Why it’s so important to keep consistency in your process of hiring salespeople What “Will to Sell” is and why it’s such an important characteristic to understand when hiring How to identify emotional resiliency with a sales person The measurable characteristics of a great salesperson who is able to close a deal Why it’s important to NOT hire your top producer as a manager Doug's strategic angle to find good, confident salespeople   Bio: Doug C. Brown is a highly acclaimed Sales Revenue Growth Expert and international bestselling author. He has coached, consulted, and advised thousands of people in business as well as companies including Enterprise-Rent Car, Nationwide, Intuit, Proctor and Gamble, CBS television, and others. Doug served as an independent President of Sales and Training for Tony Robbins, Chet Holmes, Russ Whitney, and others. Doug is a 12-year veteran of the US Army and a proud father of two wonderful daughters. His mission is to help companies grow their sales revenue and to have better performing sales teams. Additionally, he instructs B2B coaches and consultants on how to build a more profitable business.   Quotes: 06:11 - “I’ve succeeded or crashed and burned in about thirty-five companies at this point, helping others as well as myself.” - Doug C. Brown 08:47 - “I like to look at it as, ‘It’s a customer journey from beginning to end.’ So if marketing is starting that journey, the congruency of the messaging needs to be consistent, all the way through.” - Doug C. Brown 10:33 - “Mistakes aren’t a problem as long as we don’t continually focus on trying to fix the problem but if we fix the cause of the mistake then all of a sudden the problem doesn’t exist again.” - Doug C. Brown 13:17 - “You’re dealing with people and people want to have a trust level and confidence in what they’re buying.” - Doug C. Brown 16:08 - “Playing win-win through the process will never hurt somebody. It will only enhance.” - Doug C. Brown 21:10 - “I like to use sales specific assessments as well. Things that will be able to measure sales personality and sales DNA as well. A lot of people call themselves a hunter but they don’t know how to hunt.” - Doug C. Brown 21:45 - “All resumes are embellished upon. They are a bunch of lies.” - Doug C. Brown 32:45 - “If [sales people] do it [during the interview], they will definitely do it in the field.” - Doug C. Brown 35:14 - “The reality is that all of this can be measured, it can be quantified, especially if we have a systematic process for doing it. And you can save yourself a bunch of time if you have the system set up.” - Doug C. Brown 39:00 - “If you want to ruin two positions, hire your top producer and make them your manager.” - Doug C. Brown 46:20 - “A top producer, like yourself, gets up every single day and says, ‘I gotta go do this.’” - Doug C. Brown 47:05 - “A top producer does two things. One, always desiring to get up and do something. Two, never being satisfied with their current level of production.” - Doug C. Brown   Links and Resources: Doug C. Brown’s email: doug@businesssuccessfactors.com  Doug C. Brown’s phone number: 603-595-0303 Joel Trammell Doug C. Brown’s LinkedIn Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Do you have a strategic plan or a bunch of goals? Every business owner wants to grow their business, but very few have a written strategy on how they are going to use their company assets (both financial and nonfinancial) to create a high impact winning position. A clear and written strategic plan is completely different than a goal of growing from $5 million in revenue to $10 million in revenue.   On today’s show, we have Greg Meredith - Founder of Simply Strategic™ - is on the show again to dive deeper into the essential components of an effective - and actionable - strategic plan and how it is different from goals or an operating system (e.g., EOS©). Greg breaks down the 9 Keystones of the Simple Strategic™ process and how it helps you identify your company’s strategy to beat your competitors and win market share — no matter how big your business is.   What You Will Learn The definition of strategic planning and what is included in a strategic plan that is actionable The difference between strategic planning and an operating system like EOS© or Scaling Up How strategic planning and operating systems compliment each other if done right Why you need just one strategy that incorporates every aspect of your business The 9 Keystones of the Simply Strategic™ approach  What the difference between a guide and a facilitator is and why it’s crucial to know which one you are working with Different exercises that are in a strategic plan (e.g., the Ansoff Matrix) and how they help compare the tradeoffs between different ideas and strategies  Why strategic planning is an underutilized - yet extremely crucial - exercise every visionary needs to go through What the ‘opposite strategy’ exercise is and why it’s a great way to vet out ideas How to think about the process of incorporating your strategic plan into your company’s financials Bio: Greg Meredith is the Chief Strategy Guide at Simply Strategic in Dayton, Ohio. Simply Strategic is a network of strategy guides that bring knowledge and deep business insight to the table when business owners are looking to scale. Greg believes it’s important to be a guide and not a facilitator when working with high level executive clients. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration from The Ohio State University and a BSBA in Finance and Economics from Miami University.   Quotes: 07:49  - “What we say when we’re talking about strategic planning is, what we’re trying to do is create a compelling strategy. There’s a lot of activity that’s going to be around that.” - Greg Meredith 09:13  - “We want an integrated strategy. We want one strategy that incorporates how your business intends to use the assets of your company. [...] How are you going to use those to create a high impact?” - Greg Meredith 16:56  - “We’ve got these nine keystones that are a part of our planning process and one of them is very much about ‘What is your goal? What is your definition of success?’ We call it the bullseye.” - Greg Meredith 18:05  - “How are you going to run your business Monday through Friday, month to month, quarter to quarter? There’s a lot of value when you get that structure and that process and having a really clean operation when you run a professional management system like EOS. But that’s not what we're doing when we’re talking about when we’re talking about developing strategies.” - Greg Meredith 29:52  - “A foundational keystone means, ‘This is what we believe. This is what we understand. These are the things that are available.’ Those three keystones are your doctrine, your bullseye, and your opportunity.” - Greg Meredith 30:05  - “Your doctrines are your core beliefs about your business and your marketing.” - Greg Meredith 35:35  - “Enabling the keystone, it’s all about making it real and saying, ‘Hey, we’ve got this strategy. This is how we make it actionable.” - Greg Meredith 50:30  - “It’s easy to sit in a conference room and create incredible businesses in your mind or even on the whiteboard but when you actually have to go out and implement it… So we help to shine some of that reality into the space of some of our clients.” - Greg Meredith 53:40  - “How unique is [your asset]? How valuable is it? How rare is it? And how do we use them well?” - Greg Meredith   Links and Resources: Simplystrategic.us Linkedin Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Blinds.com founder, Jay Steinfeld, bootstrapped his company — with only $3,000 in 1996 — to a sizable competitor of the big box shops like Home Depot, who acquired the company in 2014. Jay was an early adopter of this thing called “the internet” and transformed his small retail business into the world’s #1 online blinds retailer as well as the leading e-tailer of hard-to-buy custom categories of home goods. Jay intentionally designed a successful exit to Home Depot that included him staying on to run Blinds.com for an additional six years after acquisition. Jay is a passionate advocate and frequent speaker on how company culture and authentic core values drive profitable growth. Throughout his journey, Jay identified four principles that guided his decision making in every aspect of business and life which lead to his continuous happiness and success. He calls them the 4Es: evolve continuously; experiment without fear of failure; express yourself; and enjoy the ride. Jay just packaged up his experience and the 4Es into his new book, Lead from the Core: The 4 Principles for Profit and Prosperity which was just released. He thinks business owners need to stop asking themselves how little they can do for their employees before they quit and start wondering how much more they can do, and why this is a smarter strategy. This is an amazing episode that shows how caring for the people in your company will scale your business to heights you never thought possible.   What You Will Learn How Jay shifted his mindset in his business after a personal tragedy Why it’s super important to understand what your employees want (including their personal goals) The four Es that that turned Jay’s business into a multi-million dollar company and competitor to Home Depot How to stay true to your purpose and the true north of your business, while still balancing the mechanics of your finances and shareholders Jay’s strategy behind going with private equity shortly before selling to Home Depot How he maintained an 8% turnover rate in his company Why Jay stayed on with his company for six years after he sold The importance of trying new things, in general, and how that transfers to your business life How intention led Jay to create his legacy Why Jay is so passionate about humanity in business The surprising motivation behind Jay today as he moves forward on five boards, some on the NYSE   Bio: JAY STEINFELD founded and was the CEO of Global Custom Commerce, which operates the world’s number one online window covering retailer Blinds.com. Bootstrapped in 1996 for just $3000 from his Bellaire, Texas garage, Global Custom Commerce was acquired by The Home Depot in 2014. Jay remained as its CEO and later joined The Home Depot Online Leadership Team. After stepping away from these roles in early 2020, he has increased his involvement on numerous private company boards and serves as a director of the public company Masonite (NYSE: DOOR). He also teaches entrepreneurship at Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business and supports numerous charities. Jay is an Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year and has earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Houston Technology Center. Active as an industry speaker on topics including corporate culture, core values, how to scale a start-up, and disruption, he has more than 100 published articles. Jay is passionate about adhering to his core values, which he calls the 4Es: evolve continuously; experiment without fear of failure; express yourself; and enjoy the ride. They have helped him make every business decision that led to his success and have turned into his new book, Lead from the Core: The 4 Principles for Profit and Prosperity.He also sings in the same barbershop quartet of which he’s been a part for nearly fifty years. He lives with his wife, Barbara, in Houston, Texas, has five children and seven grandchildren whom he proudly refers to as his seven start-ups.   Quotes: 07:20  - “I was doing as much online with those two people (with me doing virtually nothing) as I was with my store and I was working seven days a week in my store. I mean, what was wrong with this picture?” - Jay Steinfeld 14:30  - “Evolve continuously and that means you have to evolve and you have to evolve everything around you: processes, advertising, whatever it is in business. You have to get better.” - Jay Steinfeld 17:56  - “When you’ve got people who are themselves, and are free to talk, they can just be much more creative. They can solve problems much more easily because they try things that, in other organizations, they might not have tried.” - Jay Steinfeld 25:15  - “If you have core values and this is what’s making you tick, then you have to get rid of the things that are not making you tick.” - Jay Steinfeld 29:30  - “It was such an incredible outcome to building something with consequence by helping people become consequential.” - Jay Steinfeld 31:15  - “You do not need to gut your soul to build a business. You do not need to be harsh. You don’t need to be a jerk. You can be kind.” - Jay Steinfeld 34:25  - “But why are people wanting to leave in the first place? Because you’re not providing them with what they need.” - Jay Steinfeld 54:11  - “I don’t think you have to actually think about your business to get it to someplace, so that then you have the choice of doing what you want.” - Jay Steinfeld 54:22  - “I was just incrementally improving myself and my people, and the business did as well. As a result, that gave me the choice.” - Jay Steinfeld 54:43  - “But my definition of success is being in the process of improving and improving everything around me. So I can be successful every day.” - Jay Steinfeld   Links and Resources: “Lead from the core - The Four Principles for Profit and Prosperity” (Amazon, Website, Google Books) https://www.jaysteinfeld.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaysteinfeld/ www.JaySteinfeld.com (author website) www.JaySteinfeld.com/thebook (to download first chapter for free) https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaysteinfeld/ (LinkedIn profile) https://twitter.com/JaySteinfeld (Twitter)  Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

This week’s guest is the award-winning, brand-building entrepreneur, Ted Schlueter. Ted is the Founder and CEO of The Grist, a Boston-based brand and marketing agency, and is a pioneer in the world of pre-exit branding. Ted created, developed and refined the Branding For Buyout method over two decades and used it successfully on high-profile exits including Pop-Corners to PepsiCo and Embotics to swedish software enterprise, Snow. He just launched his book Branding for Buyout (which i loved and used the word intentional 3 times in the first 20 minutes) This episode is about a blind spot in the M&A market: branding. Ted Schlueter is an award winning, brand building entrepreneur. In this episode he talks about how increasing your EBITDA and multiple  is how your company is valued when valuing it through the lens of a financial valuation, but branding for buyout is how you are perceived to the market if you’re selling to a 3rd party, and increasing the perceived value your brand plays in the market can alone can raise your sale price when talking to third party buyers. Ted's work is all about branding for the future, looking at micro trends and positioning his clients as the authority in the space for the purpose of a buyout. Some companies will acquire others for their cash flow but some companies will purchase a company purely for their position and message in the marketplace. Ted thinks this is the future of M&A… listen to this interview and get exclusive insight on how to raise the value of your company through branding.   What You Will Learn Branding for buyout versus marketing business as usual What aspect of business Ted thinks is missing from the M&A process What branding for the future means How branding and positioning can increase a company's baseline price - no matter the intrinsic value The importance of forecasts, thinking about the future critically and how you should plan Why you should predict the market based of customer needs versus what competitors are doing How long it can typically take to brand for a buyout The importance of creating hypothetical scenarios when planning an exit Why the M&A structure is due for a remodel Why Ted thinks branding will change the climate of M&A   Bio: Ted Schlueter is an award winning, brand building entrepreneur. He’s the Founder and CEO of The Grist, a Boston-based brand and marketing agency, and is a pioneer in the world of pre-exit branding. Ted created, developed and refined the Branding For Buyout method over two decades and used it successfully on high-profile exits including Pop-Corners to PepsiCo and Embotics to swedish software enterprise, Snow. He just launched his book Branding for Buyout (which i loved and used the word intentional 3 times in the first 20 minutes)   Quotes: 08:17 - “I think marketing exists predominantly to see more of your product or service or technology to a customer.” - Ted Schlueter 09:42 - “The last thing the buyer wants is to buy who and what you are today. They want to know what you’re going to be three, five, seven years and how it’s going to affect their business.” - Ted Schlueter 32:15 - “Workforce by design wasn’t really a category; it was an integration solutions cell when everyone was selling the pieces.” - Ted Schlueter  36:50 - “Skate to where the puck will be, not to where the puck is.” - Ted Schlueter 41:42 - “Naming and branding the technology and then sharing the experience of them using the product in real world environments. That definitely allotted eight or nine figures to the exit price.” - Ted Schlueter 46:52 - “The emotional aspect you add to this buying and selling of businesses… It’s not just about emotion, it’s about leverage.” - Ted Schlueter 50:32 - “You want to tell the story of growth. That’s mandatory. That’s why marketing exists in the first place.” - Ted Schlueter 51:00 - “You have to know how the game is played. You have to know how your business needs to be put together for an exit. And you need a lot of smart people around you to help you do that to the best of your ability.” - Ted Schlueter 58:35 - “What kind of creative solutions and spin can we put on our company so that it stands out first and foremost?” - Ted Schlueter 61:28 - “You don’t want the people that just color by numbers and say, ‘We’re going to speed dial you to an exit.’ That might not be in your best interests.” - Ted Schlueter   Links and Resources: Brandingforbuyout.com Thegrist.com Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

My guest today is Peter Lehrman the Founder and CEO of Axial, and we’re going to be talking about the market of buying and selling privately held companies, the inefficiencies as well as the progress. Peter is CEO and founder of Axial, responsible for delivering the company’s vision to become the trusted platform where private companies and their trusted advisors connect with capital. Prior to Axial, Peter worked in private equity at SFW Capital Partners and was part of the founding team at Gerson Lehrman Group, where he helped to build the company’s global technology platform for on-demand business expertise. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and received his MBA from Stanford Business School. He lives in New York with his wife Eve and their four children. If you’re a business owner thinking about selling for the first time, and you have no idea where to start, this episode is for you. There’s a ton of information out there about how and when to sell your company, but not all advice is weighted equal. Bad advice goes a long way to souring your view on selling your company. Let’s turn to a market expert who will share how to find and assess M&A advisors that align with your goals. Peter Lehrman is the Founder and CEO of Axial — a marketplace where small businesses can find their next M&A advisor, investor or buyer — and he’ll help clarify what areas you need to educate yourself in and how best to achieve that education in time to make a positive difference in the sales process. On today’s show, we talk about inefficiencies between the buyer and seller, the state of the marketplace and the trends with entrepreneurs through acquisition (ETAs) in the lower middle market space. This is an awesome episode full of smart insights into the booming market of mergers and acquisitions.   What You Will Learn The inefficiencies in small business M&A and Peters solution The valuation process Peter takes when working with a small business The process of the buyers and sellers engagement within Axial Why it’s important to know what the buyer and sellers want and why right from the start of the deal How you can make more money as an M&A advisor in middle market organizations Why selling a bigger business can be easier than a smaller one The structural challenge with small businesses that Peter is striving to solve Why Peter sees ETA (entrepreneur through acquisition) as a growing category in the M&A industry and what that means for the M&A market The trends on the buyer’s side of an acquisition - and what a lot of acquisition entrepreneurs want and why How sellers have so many options in today's market dynamic do to the amount of investment capital right now   Bio: Peter is CEO of Axial and responsible for driving the company’s vision to be the trusted platform where private companies connect with capital. Prior to Axial, Peter worked in private equity at SFW Capital Partners and was part of the founding team at Gerson Lehrman Group, where he helped build the company’s dominant global technology platform for on-demand business expertise. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Virginia and received his MBA from Stanford Business School.   Quotes: 12:01 - “The number one goal for Axial is to create a set of introductions for buyer and seller, at the right points in time, on the right opportunities, with the right types of buyers and the right types of sellers.” - Peter Lehrman 16:38 - “I think we’ve made a huge leap forward in terms of the amount of people making content in the form of podcasts and books.” - Peter Lehrman 21:15 - “Sellers are reviewing a variety of indications of interests typically from a variety of different buyers and trying to get a sense of, ‘who do they want to spend time with?’ Because you can’t spend a huge amount of time with a huge number of buyers. I think that process can happen within the first month of a formal engagement with formal buyers.” - Peter Lehrman 24:13 - “You have to understand that, if you’re a financial intermediary, and your profession [...] is to sell businesses, if you’re extremely good at that and you’re extremely well trained [...] you’re going to make a lot more money as an advisor, advising bigger companies.” - Peter Lehrman 31:32 - “The reason you became a buyer is because you wanted to buy businesses.” - Peter Lehrman 32:56 - “[Axial] think businesses are fundamentally different because there are employees there. There are a lot of sensitivities. People often want to sell businesses very often confidentially or quietly.” - Peter Lehrman 35:34 - “I wouldn’t say that [FBA or Shopify] businesses can be bought and sold like publicly traded stock. But those businesses are more templatic.” - Peter Lehrman 43:39 - “You have this class of highly educated, highly capable and upwardly mobile but somewhat disenfranchised young talent that’s saying, ‘I don’t want to work for KKR for the next thirty years.’” - Peter Lehrman 47:41 - “You really have to do something different with that business once you own it, in order to get the return.” - Peter Lehrman   Links and Resources: Axial Peter Lehrman LinkedIn Middle Market Review Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Gina Schaefer is a passionate entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO of 14 Co-op Ace Hardware stores located in Washington DC and the Baltimore area. Gina founded her business after noticing that there was a shortage of hardware stores in the lower income, urban neighborhoods of DC. After 18 years of growing her business to 13 stores and employing over 250 people she decided to sell her ownership to her employees via an ESOP. Gina was a brand new entrepreneur when she opened her first store- formerly in SaaS - when she started in her early 30s. This is a great story of someone who saw opportunity in a low income place and created a mission to change the lives of people through “a few cool hardware stores.”   What You Will Learn Why Gina went left tech for Ace Hardware retail stores How Gina found a need in her community and leveraged it to create her hardware empire The difference between a co-op and a franchise How and why Gina made a mental shift from working in the business to working on the business - and what that means to her How Gina realized her core values - and specifically trust - were crucial when expanding and hiring Why hiring recovering addicts became part of Gina’s hiring and growth strategy How Gina’s hiring model can increase retention within a company Why trust is so important when scaling and what you can do to get past those barriers How realized she needed to start thinking about exiting her business and why the thought was surprising The power Gina gained when she started to understand valuations and more specifically the value of her business The reason Gina chose an ESOP compared to Private Equity or another Strategic Buyer How an ESOP helped Gina keep her company’s values and vision in place Why transitioning your role and exiting your ownership are two totally different things   Bio: Gina is a retailer, entrepreneur, public speaker and employee advocate based out of Washington D.C. In just 18 years she has started, grew and partially sold her 14 Ace Hardware stores to an ESOP where her employees can create wealth and enjoy work. Gina is three months away from completing her book, “Recovery Hardware” When Gina has time to relax she writes greeting cards because she believes in the power of a hand written note.   Quotes: 07:33 - “We hear this in various parts of our lives, right? ‘I wish somebody would do this,’ and ‘I wish somebody would do that.’ And one day I just said, ‘Why can’t that somebody be me?’” - Gina Schaefer 10:11 - “At its foundation, a purchasing co-op is a collective purchasing tool for independent retailers. It gives Ace the opportunity to go to… Milwaukee, for example, or Black and Decker or DAP and negotiates on behalf of all the Ace retailers.” - Gina Schaefer 35:21 - “We had the ability to take that money, use it to open a new store, and pay ourselves back in future stock money.” - Gina Schaefer   39:11 - “People are afraid to talk about [how much their businesses are worth].” - Gina Schaefer 41:31 - “She was bouncing off the walls! She was so excited to give us a tour. Partially because she was so excited to tell us that she was an owner of that damn brewery and they were an ESOP.” - Gina Schaefer 43:48 - “No one opens an independent business with enough phone lines to handle a pandemic.” - Gina Schaefer 47:04 - “That made us even more aligned with the idea of an ESOP because we felt like, if anything was going to help make a difference in incoming equality, social inequality, all of this crap that–as a country–we can’t seem to figure out, the ESOP was an answer” - Gina Schaefer   Links and Resources: Medium Interview Premiere Speakers Blog Linkedin AceHardwareDC Mastering Your Cash Flow Digital Course ARKONA Boot Camp   Reach out to me if you have questions about the boot camp!