Intentional Growth

In today’s episode, Sunny explains to us how the world of private equity operates, from the structure and lifecycle of the fund to considering a sale’s debt versus equity. We'll be delving into how private equity firms raise money, where the money comes from, what types of investors they work with, how the general partners of a private equity firm get paid, how they start the fund and what the fund structure looks like, and what the timeline means for the fund.   What You Will Learn In Today's Podcast Interview How private equity firms raise the money Where the money comes from and the types of investors How the general partners of the PE firm get paid How they start the fund and the structure of the fund How that fund structure buys platform companies and bolt-on companies What the timeline means for the fund and the partners What the lifecycle looks like from start to finish How this information relates to the Intentional Growth course   Are You Growing The Value of Your Business Sunny and I unpack the private equity industry and how it works in crazy detail.   Over the past four and a half years, I’ve hosted dozens of entrepreneurs that sold their companies to private equity firms, as well as PE firms that explain their models and approach. However, today’s episode is the necessary start to finish explanation of how private equity firms works, and it fills in any gaps in information and understanding you may have.   I reached out to Sunny to come on the show again because of his unique experience and perspective. Before starting Satori Capital, Sunny founded Data Return, a provider of managed services and utility computing, grow the company 40% every quarter for three years, sold it, bought it back and then sold it again. His decade at Data Return included a $3 billion market capitalization made him one of the youngest CEOs ever to lead a Nasdaq company. His multiple exits, gives him unique expertise as a founder of Satori Capital, a private equity firm founded on the principles of conscious capitalism. By providing real-world insights from its experienced team and long-term funding with no fixed time constraints.   As many of you know if you are a long-time listener of the podcast, the principles of conscious capitalism are incredibly important to us and our work. Sunny’s investment thesis keeps conscious capitalism at the forefront, and that common approach makes today’s episode an exciting conversation to share with you.   About the Guest: Sunny Vanderbeck is an investor, entrepreneur, best-selling author, and former military leader focused on accelerating the growth of mid-market companies and creating best-in-class, built-to-last businesses. Sunny is co-founder of Satori Capital, a multi-strategy investment firm founded on the principles of conscious capitalism. By providing real-world insights from its experienced team and long-term funding with no fixed time constraints, Satori acts as a true partner for its portfolio companies as it challenges them to pursue extraordinary outcomes for all stakeholder groups.   Quotes: 14:31 – “If I can sell a stock tomorrow, it’s theoretically worth a little more than if I can’t sell it for years.” – Sunny Vanderbeck, on liquidity premium 16:28 – “To put some precise language on it, in our case: so we manage a billion dollars, we don’t have a billion dollars. They’re very different things, I promise you.” – Sunny Vanderbeck 32:11 – “By and large, as companies get larger, they are more valuable. The markets seem to play that out, not always but generally true.” – Sunny Vanderbeck 44:45 – “Deeply understanding how your business generates or consumes cash, understanding how variable your cost structures are. That can help you understand, ‘Is debt an appropriate tool for what I’m trying to solve for?’” – Sunny Vanderbeck   Links and Resources: Intentional Growth #170: How One Week Killed the Perfect Billion Dollar Deal with Sunny Vanderbeck Sunny Vanderbeck, website Satori Capital “Selling Without Selling Out” by Sunny Vanderbeck, Amazon 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, on my LinkedIn.

Liam is a serial entrepreneur who runs Time Doctor and Staff.com (one of the most popular time tracking and productivity software platforms in use by top brands today). He shares his insights from hundreds of thousands of users, and what trends are accelerating at lighting speed. What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: What the future of work and business will look like post COVID vaccine The crucial difference between “remote working” and “work from home” Why managing remote working is like “printing money” Why 22% of Liam’s clients have already cancelled their commercial leases What 50% of Liam’s clients are thinking about as it relates to the future of their office How to free up one of the largest expenses on the P&L Ways to build a company culture “on purpose” vs by accident Why high performers are using the remote flexibility to get 2 more hours of sleep a day How one entrepreneur is buying traditional business and taking them remote to grow a portfolio of extremely valuable companies How their data shows that efficiency, instead of more time, leads to greater success How Time Doctor allows companies to evaluate performance both within the organization and among other similar companies What the hierarchy of communication is, and why less communication can facilitate your work flow Why the days of the $500k Google developer are gone How to analyze and optimize productivity for each position in a company Why Liam sees this time as a restructuring of our economy Podcast Interview Summary: Today’s guest is Liam Martin, the co-founder of Time Doctor (time tracking tool) and an advocate of remote work. With hundreds of thousands of users and clients like Verizon and Keller Willams, Liam has insights into how big and small companies are planning on managing remote working in a post COVID vaccine world. Since entrepreneurs now have to accommodate working from home for the foreseeable future (in one way or another), Liam is the perfect guest to talk about the impacts it has on business valuations, business models, culture, employee productivity and more. Liam discusses how the large work-from-home shift accelerated trends that were inevitable. He shares his opinions on why there won't be a snap back to the old "normal", what trends owners need to be aware of, and how to capitalize on opportunities that are already right in front of us.  Liam shares how companies who give employees more flexibility and control of their time can lead to a more valuable business, more productive and efficient work, while also reducing (or eliminating) the large cost of commercial office space. About the Guest: Liam is the co-founder and CMO of TimeDoctor.com and Staff.com. After graduating with a masters in Sociology from McGill University, Liam opened a small tutoring company which grew to over 100 employees, and looked to solve a problem with remote employees not reporting accurate work data which turned into Staff.com. He consults on outsourcing and process design and is passionate about how to gain insights into the inner workings of how people work.   Podcast Interview Quotes: 12:35 – “Remote work, when you look at it, your office costs are the second largest line item for any company...It’s payroll, and then it’s your office.” – Liam Martin 14:59 – “If you simply apply an extra 2 hours of sleep to everyone’s workday, right? So if you just take those two extra hours that you would commute and you turn them into sleep,  you’re going to have a more productive employee. That employee is going to be more productive during the day.” – Liam Martin 15:46 – “A developer, as an example, generally has the exact same footprint as a creative writer. So they might actually get into a flow state, they might work for 18 hours and then they might not work for 2 days. But that’s a more productive person than someone who works in the average 9-5 in which they’re just not inspired because they’re not in that flow.” – Liam Martin 29:03 – “When you consistently remote work, it has the single biggest thing that millennials ask for, to be able to improve their personal well-being in work” – Liam Martin 54:30 - “I think you’re probably going to see the cost or see the square footage of homes expand. I know for us, we’re looking to do a move right now, into a new place in Montreal and specifically, I’m looking for a separate wing that I can lock down and just say, ‘I’m at work.’ As opposed to just having an office.” – Liam Martin 55:25 - “The writing is on the wall that there is going to be a massive shift in the way that we accomplish work… My theory is that I think this has been the biggest shift in work since the industrial revolution (at least, in terms of speed).” – Liam Martin   Links and Resources: YouTube: Running Remote Official website: Time Doctor 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, on my LinkedIn.

Bo spent over twenty years as an editor and editor-at-large of Inc. Magazine and is the author of five books, including three of my personal favorites Finish Big, Small Giants and The Great Game of Business. Bo explains to us the wide range of “good” and “bad” exits from businesses built by owner-founder entrepreneurs, and why over 75% regret the sale 12 months later. What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview:  Why the word “exit” is a curse word for most business owners Why the word “exit” can mean different things to your role vs your ownership How to avoid regretting the eventual sale of your company How to get clarity on what you want from your business The 7 components of a sale that help an owner achieve the 25% who are happy The importance of understanding how the company value impacts your exit options and your personal drivers Bo’s 4 (sometimes 5) characteristics of a “good exit” Why missing just one principle leads to a “bad exit” and can put you in the 75% What to think about in order to prepare you to mentally for a sale How Bo’s work intersects with the 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles The Seven P’s of Evergreen companies according to Bo and the Tugboat Institute How companies that plan to last over 100 years think about their businesses Podcast Summary: Today’s episode is particularly special for me. I read Bo’s book Finish Big back in 2015 after our family company’s sale. His book was the reason I started this podcast and eventually created the Intentional Growth™ 5 Principles. I had the chance to interview Bo when this podcast was first starting (ep. #16), and today we have the chance to catch up and talk about the changes myself and my business have undergone over the past four years.   Bo explains to us the wide range of “good” and “bad” exits from businesses built by owner-founder entrepreneurs, and why over 75% regret the sale 12 months later. He shares what the entrepreneurs did who were proud and happy with their exit compared to those who were not. Bo and I reconcile his research with my four years of work and over 200 interviews.   One of Bo’s key takeaways from his research was: business owners that know “who they were, what they wanted and why” were the happiest about how things had unfolded during and after their exit. In my work, I found that the missing piece was a framework that helps owners figure these pieces out.   Bo emphasizes the value of our framework today when we talk about just how important is it to intentionally approach your company and plan for the future, which includes building a valuable company that gives you options, and why being educated is the missing link to eventually getting what you want from your business. About the Guest: Bo Burlingham is currently a contributor to Forbes where he produces the magazine's annual Small Giants section. Previously, he worked for 33 years at Inc. magazine, as senior editor, executive editor, and editor at large. He is the coauthor, with Jack Stack, of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome and, with Norm Brodsky, of The Knack (renamed Street Smarts in paperback). He is also the author of Small Giants and Finish Big. The popularity of Small Giants led to the creation of the Small Giants Community where business leaders learn and share practices and systems they can use to make their companies great, whether or not the businesses are big. Podcast Interview Quotes: 14:32 – “One thing that struck me was how many people I talked to were unhappy and wished they hadn’t sold their businesses and were full of regrets and that there were parts of the whole experience that they didn’t like.” – Bo Burlingham 21:42 – “People who have a clear idea in their own mind about who they are or what they want and why are able to make decisions that are going to make them happy. Whereas otherwise  you end up making decisions based on other people and what they think you should do.” – Bo Burlingham 22:00 – “It’s important to build a sellable company and by ‘sellable’ I mean that you’re able to sell your company to who you wanted, when you wanted, and why--or for an amount that you considered fair.” – Bo Burlingham 52:00 – “There are a lot of responsibilities that come with ownership and there are a lot of times where you have to do things you don’t want to do.” – Bo Burlingham 58:43 - “I really think the most powerful business tool that I have ever seen has been open-book management. At least, as it’s been practiced by Jack Stack.” - Bo Burlingham   Links and Resources: Episode with Norm Bordsky: From Bankrupt to $270 Million Dollars Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top, by Bo Burlingham Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big, 10th-Anniversary Edition, by Bo Burlingham 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, on my LinkedIn.

Definition of Unf♥<kwithable: "when you are a person who is truly at peace with yourself, and nothing anyone says or does bothers you, and no negativity or drama can touch you."  What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: How Sue defines “Unfuckwithable” and applies it to personal growth What resources business owners should seek out in the current economy Why we should open our ideas to being scrutinized and challenged The biggest challenge to this “suspension” of ideas Her advice to people to figure out who they are based on their experiences The power of self-care (and why most of us are not doing enough!) The benefit of listening to those with different opinions and experiences Tips on how to stay grounded and centered Why a company needs to have clearly defined and present core values for decision making   Podcast Summary: Sue Hawkes is back on the show to talk about being a good leader: what that means, what that entails, what it can do for your company or business in turbulent times, and what it means to be “Unf♥<kwithable” As the CEO of the company YESS!, Sue helps business owners achieve their goals through leadership and communication. Her book, Chasing Perfection: Shatter the Illusion; Minimize Self-Doubt & Maximize Success, gives leaders advice on how to overcome self-doubt and imposter syndrome.   After a challenging period both professionally and personally during the financial crisis, Sue examined herself and the value she placed on external things and opinions. By sharing her own realizations from that time, Sue effectively helps others become more at peace with themselves and their ideas.   Sue clearly explains the power of challenging your ideas, pushing down your ego to be vulnerable, and meaningfully engaging with those around you. This perspective comes at an appropriate time given the multiple challenges we are facing right now as a country.   This conversation drives home the point that a company’s core values should at the forefront of their decisions now more than ever if they are looking to build long term growth and success.  About the Guest: More than just a bestselling author, Sue Hawkes is a keynote speaker, Certified EOS Implementer, Certified Business Coach, WPO Chapter Chair, award-winning and globally recognized seminar leader, and an entrepreneur. She is CEO and Founder of YESS! – Your Extraordinary Success Strategies, and brings over 25 years of experience to her clients and has designed and delivered dynamic, transformational programs for thousands of people.  She has been featured and is a regular contributor to Inc., Entrepreneur, Forbes, Fortune, Fast Company, Business Insider, Parade, HR.com, Ladders, and Thrive Global. Hawkes has received numerous awards including the Dream Keeper award recognized by the Governor’s Council for her leadership program, the Regional U.S. Small Business Administration Women in Business Champion of the Year award, the Exemplary Woman of the Community award, Women Venture’s Unsung Hero award, Women Who Lead from Minnesota Business Magazine, and NAWBO Minnesota’s Achieve! Vision Award, in addition to being named a 2018 Enterprising Woman of the Year.   Quotes: 08:55 – “It doesn’t matter how many achievements you’re recognized for, or what your definition of success is. For me the moments of doubt creep in. Boy, if they haven’t crept in this year, for everyone--I want what you’re having.” – Sue Hawkes 11:14 – “I always knew how to dig deep; I’m an entrepreneur. I think we all have that.” – Sue Hawkes 17:20 – “Core values are huge for your business. Who are you? What is the purpose of your business? Have you got crystal clear focus on what your highest and best use is?” – Sue Hawkes 52:20 – “When you’ve done a good job, great core values were, are, and always be who you are. They might get a little nuanced in how you say it.” – Sue Hawkes   Links and Resources: Clash of the Financial Pundits: How the Media Influences Your Investment Decisions for Better or Worse, by Joshua Brown and Jeff Macke “Chasing Perfection: Shatter the Illusion,” podcast #157 with Sue Hawkes Chasing Perfection: Shatter The Illusion; Minimize Self-Doubt & Maximize Success, by Sue Hawkes Website: Say YESS! Website: SueHawkes.com Twitter: @SueHawkesYESS Instagram: @SueHawkes LinkedIn: Sue Hawkes 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, on my LinkedIn.

Whether you want to acquire, grow or exit your business, this episode is a must listen because it is packed full of information on about the state of lower M&A market, how to find companies to buy, creative deal structures,  valuations, things to do before you sell and more.  What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: Why deals in the $1-5 million value range are mostly about psychology and relationships Creative ways to structure the purchase of a company without putting any money down Why the age of a business owner can impact the value of the business Where and how to find companies to buy The limitations of using an SBA to fund a deal Why most business owners don’t decouple themselves from the day to day operations of their business The difference between being and owner operator and an investor in a business What holds most business owners back from scaling their businesses Why the number one “exit strategy” for business owners in the US is to shut their doors The biggest barriers owners face when it’s time to exit their business Why it is necessary for owners to have a plan for themselves after the sale Carl’s top 4 pieces of advice for buyers and sellers after doing 340+ deals Podcast Interview Summary: In today’s episode, Carl gives us a look into the depth of his expertise on buying and selling businesses, educating and advising owners, and best practices for conducting deals. After working on Wall Street in the beginning of his career, Carl worked as the Director of M&A for Hewlett-Packard. In this role, Carl went around buying companies for HP, which included his largest deal of 13.9 billion dollars. Twelve years ago, he made the decision to retire at the age of 37 after his son was born. However, he mentally struggled to handle the downtime after such a busy career.  He was motivated to take his expertise from the world of M&A to buying and selling business, and he has now been party to over 340 deals. He also brings his expertise to his online program, where he has over 5,500 participants learning about the deal process. Carl clearly lays out the dynamic of the lower market, meaning companies under 5 million in revenue, with powerful stats. Ten thousand baby boomers retire every day and nearly 20% own small businesses. Only 1 in 11 businesses will sell in the next 12 months though. Carl’s motivation is to help bridge this gap that comes from a lack of qualified buyers and the emotional attachment owners have to their companies. He describes how the intangible components of a deal and an owner’s relationship to the business can dramatically impact the business’s sale.  About the Carl Allen: Carl Allen is the editor of Dealmaker Wealth Society. Carl is an entrepreneur, investor and corporate dealmaker with almost three decades of experience. Carl has worked on transactions worth over $48 billion, which includes over 330 acquisitions and sales. For almost three decades, Carl has analyzed thousands of businesses, big and small, in 17 different countries and across nearly every business sector. Carl has also assisted hundreds of business owners in raising both equity and debt finance.   Podcast Interview Quotes: 16:27 – “There’s over 2.4 million businesses for sale in the US. Most of those are driven by baby boomers. We’ve got over 10,000 boomers retiring every day.” – Carl Allen 21:47 – “Now seller financing is always a tricky subject because you’ve got to build some really solid relationships. It’s like walking up to a girl at a bar and asking her to marry you. It’s never going to work. You have to date that person and spend a lot of quality time with that person.” – Carl Allen 34:00 – “The number one exit strategy in the United States for small business owners is actually to close the doors and turn off the lights and that devastates me.” – Carl Allen 37:40 – “There is generally a poor level of advice given to small and medium businesses.”    – Carl Allen   Links and Resources: TrainWithCarl.com/Intentional Dealmaker Wealth Society LinkedIn: Carl Allen Facebook Group: Dealmaker Wealth Society DnB Hoovers website infoUSA website 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, on my LinkedIn

Kellianne is a former attorney turned entrepreneur. She shares her story of starting, growing and exiting her Amazon business and how business owners can "get off the hamster wheel". What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: How to grow a company into a valuable e-commerce asset Why selling on Amazon requires its own strategy Where to start if you want to build an e-commerce business The advantage of selling your product through Amazon Why you should build your business around your life rather than your life around your business The power in always knowing the value of your business and your trailing 12 months of EBITDA What advisors you should have in your network if you are selling a company The difference between Investment Bankers and Brokers and how they can help you sell your business What the due diligence process is really like when selling a company Why Kellianne wishes she had built her business with an end in mind from the beginning Podcast Summary: Kellianne shares her story about what it was like to leave the world of litigation and start an e-commerce business from the ground up selling products on Amazon. She brings us awesome e-commerce specific expertise and understands the power of helping owners de-risk their lives so they can have a peace of mind that often doesn’t come with owning a business. Years into the business, Kellianne decided her ultimate business goal was to sell the company, so she intentionally spent the next year learning everything she could about how to successfully exit a business. She advocates for a powerful mindset shift for business owners: you shouldn’t wake up one day and decide to sell your business; instead, you should wake up one day and decide to build a valuable business that you can sell whenever you want. After her seven-figure exit, Kellianne is using her Amazon and exit expertise (and partnering up with our company Arkona) to help other Amazon sellers and business owners grow their companies with an end in mind.  Check out our Intentional Growth Virtual Cohort - We’re going to be kicking off on September 15th. There are four calls over four weeks. For $1450 you’ll get the course (and will always have access to the course after your purchase), but you’ll also be able to join 6 - 10 entrepreneurs. Together you’ll have roughly 2 - 3 hours worth of work in between phone calls. Each call involves case studies, materials, conversations, Q&A, and is an absolute blast. I really enjoyed the last cohort. If you want to check it out, click on this link or go to Arkona.io, go to the Digital Course tab, scroll toward the bottom of the page and click on the “Digital Course + Cohort” section. The first ten to sign up will be able to join my partner Pat and I on September 15th.  About the Kellianne Fedio: Kellianne is a former attorney turned entrepreneur. After deciding to move away from the world of litigation, she started an e-commerce business from the ground up selling products on Amazon. She intentionally decided her ultimate business goal was to sell the company, and she spent the next year learning everything she could about how to successfully exit a business. After her seven-figure exit, Kellianne is using her Amazon and exit expertise to help other Amazon sellers and business owners grow their companies.    Podcast Interview Quotes: 12:14 – “There are different models of selling. I’m going to classify it all as selling physical products online. That’s what I classify as e-commerce in general. And there are many different models. Whether or not you’re going to have a sellable, transferable business depends on that model.” – Kellianne Fedio 21:35 – “It’s also forced a lot of sellers to look elsewhere for their product manufacturing needs. We all wish we could manufacture in the United States, that would be awesome. For certain brands that’s possible but for a lot of them, it’s not.” – Kellianne Fedio, about the pandemic 29:35 – “No matter what, even if you never end up selling your business, you should always know the value of your business. It’s an asset and you should know the value of that at all times.” – Kellianne Fedio 52:10 - “You really want that fit and you want an intermediary who can identify who the best fit for you is, who is going to see the value in your brand and who is going to pay you top dollar for that.” – Kellianne Fedio   Links and Resources: Build to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You, by John Warrillow Digital Shelf Strategy LInkedIn, Kellianne Fedio Podcast Landing Page, Amazing Exits Podcast 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, on my LinkedIn.

On today’s podcast I have a friend from a peer group and the cofounder and CEO of Project EVO, Arman Assadi. Arman helps leaders and creatives find their flow. He was featured on the cover of Foundr Magazine — which has featured household names like Richard Branson, Brené Brown, Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Arianna Huffington. A flow state, also known as being in the zone, is the mental state in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. So much so that time feels like it dissipates. What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: How to avoid the extreme anxious feeling of being trapped in the role of CEO Why business is the ultimate mechanism for experiencing flow on a day-to-day basis Why finding your flow can enable you to focus on growing a valuable business​ Three questions you should ask various people in your life to become more self-aware What the Brain Type Assessment is and how it can help you understand how you see the world What the right amount of challenge is to foster your personal and professional growth How self-awareness is key to addressing business challenges and avoiding the sudden urge to “bolt” from the company  Why sometimes selling your business is not the right answer Podcast Interview Summary: I have been fascinated with this concept of flow and positive psychology for years. I believe owning and running a business enables owners and entrepreneurs to tap into this state of flow… whether they know it or not. ​​Flow can make the experience of owning and running a business amazing and addicting. ​​If your business is facilitating your personal state of flow without you knowing, selling the company and losing that feeling has a huge potential of leading to regret. ​​On the other hand, if you find yourself burnt out because you can’t tap into that state of flow anymore, you might decide to sell as fast as possible, leaving tons of value or other options on the table.    In order to reach your full potential AND be able to optimize the relationship you have with your business, you need to understand how you find your flow and how your business fits into that equation. ​​You can then engineer your ideal life before, during, and after owning a business. About the Arman Assadi: Arman Assadi is the co-founder & CEO of ProjectEVO.org where he helps leaders and creatives find their flow. He was featured on the cover of Foundr Magazine — which has featured household names like Richard Branson, Brené Brown, Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, and Arianna Huffington. Arman is the co-creator of the EVO Planner™ (the most funded planner of all time), the Elements Assessment™, and has been the chief strategist and copywriter behind 13 different 7-figure launches. Fortune 500 companies, Silicon Valley startups, celebrity thought leaders, and New York Times bestselling authors have consulted Arman and generated tens of millions of dollars with his strategies. He is based in San Diego, California.  Podcast Interview Quotes: 10:50 – “I speak to discover what I know sometimes. And I got that from a quote from Flannery O’Conner that said, ‘I write to discover what I know.’” – Arman Assadi 22:10 – “For me, flow is the optimal state of being. Flow is about supreme presence.” – Arman Assadi 23:40 – “2% more challenging than what you’re used to. And when you find that sweet spot you’re in the mode of growth and (another factor of flow is) there’s feedback. Feedback from the experience.” – Arman Assadi, on not working against something that is too challenging so your brain doesn’t shut down. 24:58 – “Flow, to me, is also a deeply deeply creative and arguably, spiritual experience.” – Arman Assadi   Links and Resources: Project EVO Arman Assadi, Instagram Arman Assadi, text: 619-825-2595 Arman Assadi website The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron 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, on my LinkedIn.

Jack shares how he increased the value of the business by 360,000% since he took a $100k loan in '83 and turned SRC Holdings into a company that now has 1600 employees and $600M in revenue by using open book management (now called the Great Game of Business). What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: What is different about the current economic climate compared to past recessions How the company’s financials can be used as a game to drive value and company culture How the “Report Card” of a business works Vanity metrics to watch out for and how to identify KPIs that drive future value How a long-term growth mindset can set both you and your employees up for success How the open book management approach can accelerate a company’s value growth The value of identifying the employee associated with each line on an income statement Why you should educate your employees on the financials of your organization The financial and personal value of an ESOP The “Four Legs of the Stool” small business owners need that they often do not prioritize The opportunities that exist if you have cash on the balance sheet in anticipation of economic downturns The eight places cash can go to within a company Podcast Summary: Jack shares how educating his employees on financial principles and integrating them into the company’s processes allowed them to grow the value of the business into an extraordinary place. Jack is the author of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome. He is also the Founder, President and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation, a 100% employee-owned remanufacturing firm, where he developed the “open book management” business model (now called the Great Game of Business), which promotes financial transparency with the company’s employees Under Jack’s leadership and with the “open book management” model, SRC Holdings has owned over 60 businesses, increased its stock value 360,000%, does $600,000,000 in revenue and saved an unbelievable $100 million dollars between the 2009 recession and now in anticipation of the next downturn. They also doubled the size of the business in the five years after each recession they went through. I’m excited to share this conversation with you today because the insights into sustainable and long-term growth from The Great Game of Business are invaluable for our current economic moment. Jack and SRC Holdings empower their employees to understand and participate in the company, creating the opportunity to find new ways to grow the value of the business on top of just growing the net income while creating wealth for everyone involved.   Take The 2-Minute Multiple Choice Assessment To Get Your Intentional Growth Score™ And 1-Page Vision Board. Are you company's current initiatives intentionally designed to increase the value of the business? Do you know what you want from your business long term and why? Do you know what your company is worth? Do you know the differences between Management, Family Transitions, PE Firms, ESOPs and Strategic Buyers? Does the business have a written strategic plan on how to achieve the desired normalized EBITDA and valuation?   About the Jack Stack: Jack Stack is the President, Founder, and CEO of a remanufacturing company based out of Springfield, Missouri called SRC Holdings. It is a 100% employee-owned corporation with over 1,200 people employed under their name. He is also the pioneer of a leadership technique known as “open book management”, and is the author of two books: A Stake in the Outcome and its predecessor, The Great Game of Business. Both books are about his unique and eye-opening vision for leadership, which some business owners had deemed “unconventional”. He has been a contributor for The New York Times and Inc Magazine. He has also served as the world judge for the Ernest and Young Entrepreneur of the Year awards and designed the initial United Way Entrepreneurial Fund for the non-profit community. Fortune Magazine has called him one of the “top 10 minds in small business.” He’s also managed to balance his busy professional life with his family life, being the father of five children and the grandfather of six grandkids. Jack operates over 30 business units, some of which include joint ventures with Navistar, John Deere, and Case New Holland. Under Jack Stack, SRC Holdings Corporation has received international recognition. It was deemed one of the “Top 100 Companies to Work for in America.” It has also won the Business Enterprise Trust Award and the National Business Ethics Award.   Podcast Interview Quotes: 15:17 – “We do not want leadership to stymie our growth. So in order to teach a leader, why not develop a program where you want everyone to be a leader.” – Jack Stack 28:30 – “What we’ve done, when we’ve transformed our business, when we support a charity (and we do support a lot of them), we give them an income generating idea that they can build on and they can grow on and that they can scale on.” – Jack Stack 35:00 – “If you can convert [a loan] into equity, that is the most incredible return that you could ever, ever imagine. And if you can get people to buy into it, we call it, ‘Get ‘em to the point of getting it.’.” – Jack Stack 49:00 – “If you’re running a six percent and your competition is running a two percent, you know,  you’ve got a significant problem that you have to have the courage to be able to fix. And if you fix it, not only does it build the value of the company but it puts more on the net income line and the net income line can be distributed back to the instant gratification, wages, things of that nature.” – Jack Stack   Links and Resources: Jack Stack and “The Great Game of Business” Twitter Instagram LinkedIn The Great Game 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, on my LinkedIn.

​Jason shares how he became cash strapped and burnt out as the company grew and what he did to recalibrate his day-to-day role and grow value before he sold the company to a strategic buyer. What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: How rapid growth can consume your capital and cash Strategies for deciding what work you love and who you should hire to help with the rest Why clearly conveying your mission and vision to your employees is valuable for success Jason’s framework for helping clients, The Three I’s: Issue, Impact, Importance Why you should delegate the outcomes rather than the tasks How implementing strategic systems and processes within your organization can allow you to take a step back from the day-to-day tasks The importance of having a plan on your own terms for life after the sale of your company How building your company with a clear end goal in mind gives you choices How being intentional about what you want as your goals should drive how you build your business The importance of building a valuable business in order to have options The different ways you can exit your (management) role in your company and your ownership. For example: ESOPs Private equity recapitalization Podcast Summary: In today’s episode, entrepreneur Jason Swenk shares with us how he grew and sold his 8-figure digital marketing agency. Jason founded the business after freelancing for many years and describes himself as an accidental agency owner. After 12 years of growth, hiring over 100 full time employees, and working with clients like Hitachi, AT&T, Coke and Legal Zoom, Jason found himself exhausted by the business and with less freedom than he had BEFORE he became an entrepreneur. He was strapped for cash, making less money than expected, and was working on the day-to-day things he disliked.So Jason decided to recalibrate his relationship with the business.Jason set up new systems and hired the necessary people in order to focus on the areas he enjoyed the most. By taking a step back to get clarity on what his vision for the company was, he shifted from an accidental business to a scalable AND sellable organization.Jason shares with us how he worked himself out of the business, why he decided to sell and what life was like working for the buyer... and how to avoid some of the mistakes he made (emotionally and financially) in the sale.   I’m excited to share the conversation with you today because Jason clearly explains the value of growing your business in order to have choices, rather than just growing to sell. About the Jason Swank: Right out of college, Jason was able to work for one of the five big consulting agencies in the industry, Arthur Anderson. But it didn’t take him long to realize that it wasn’t in his nature to work for other people. Jason always had an entrepreneurial spirit, so he decided to quit his day job start working freelance. He eventually met his business partner. After merging their businesses, they formed their own digital marketing agency where they worked up to building and marketing for companies like AT&T, Hitachi, and Lotus Cars. He sold the company in 2012, learned some lessons, and grew from those lessons, eventually creating a unique consultancy helping marketing agency owners grow their own agencies the right way (and faster).  Podcast Interview Quotes: 17:30 – “You gotta think about, like, I was accidental, like most people and I was just kind of going with the flow. I didn’t have that clarity to make decisions.” – Jason Swenk 19:57 – “If you would just tell the team where the f*** you’re going, you’d be good, right?” – Jason Swenk 20:05 – “If you hire people, delegate the outcomes, don’t delegate the tasks and they’ll actually do way better.” – Jason Swenk 34:18 – “That’s why I do what I do, because I wanted to be the resource I wish I had, right?” - Jason Swenk 02:20 - “Having that ass-backwards can lead to depression, anxiety, stress and unhappiness.” - Ryan Tansom, on the importance of building your business around your goals and not the other way around.   Links and Resources: Jason Swenk Official Website The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast Swenk Today Show 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, on my LinkedIn.

Xavier shares how he created a company that impacted the world, donated $20M+ to global literacy, maintained double digit growth for years and sold to a charity founded by the creator of Amazon's Alexa for millions of dollars. What You Will Learn in Today’s Podcast Interview: How and why Xavier sold his company to the creator of Amazon’s Alexa A framework to evaluate what problems in the world you connect with What a B Corporation is and how it works How rapid growth can lead to needing an investor Why Xavier would have had more options if he grew at 25% CAGR instead of 40% Xavier’s views on the “Triple Bottom Line” The value of transparency and public commitments How to approach working with venture capital How to integrate Conscious Capitalism into your business model How a strong mission and vision can lead to outsized long-term growth How to align your company’s vision and mission with a buyer How to learn and approach the sale of your company as an entrepreneur Tips for founders on how to pass along knowledge in your company Podcast Summary: What does it mean to bake your mission and vision into all aspects of your company? The guest on today’s episode, Xavier Helgesen, explains to us just how he did that as the Co-founder of one of the first B Corporations, Better World Books. B Corps formally combine public interest goals with profit earning throughout their business model—other B Corps you may know include Patagonia and Tom’s Shoes. Xavier shares how Better World Books raised over $20 million dollars for global literacy and donated tens of millions of books, while also maintaining double digit growth 15 years in a row. The company’s rapid growth led them to take on investors and ultimately sell to a charity, which is unique in and of itself, but the charity also happened to be founded by the creator of Amazon’s Alexa. Today’s episode hits home the power of building a company while intentionally linking it to the life you want to live. The underlying values and mission of a business can range from charity work to financial stability, and Xavier emphasizes the added growth a business can experience by integrating that mission into the company’s cost and future plans. This conversation focuses on how to intentionally align a social cause with a company’s mission at each stage of starting, growing, and selling a business—it is an inspiring story of how a “conscious capitalism” oriented company proves that good business is not just good marketing. About the Guest: Xavier Helgesen is an entrepreneur, technologist, global citizen, and builder of world positive companies. He co-founded Better World Books, the first ever b-corporation. Better World Books is an independent online bookstore with a unique triple-bottom-line model who has raised over $28 million for literacy and donated over 26 million books. He was also the founding CEO for Zola Electric, a solar energy company that powers over a million lives in Africa. Through Zola, Xavier raised over $100 million to make solar energy affordable through the mass market via prepaid, plug-and-play technology. Xavier is also the co-CEO of Enduring Ventures, a company that buys beautiful businesses and holds them in the model of Berkshire Hathaway, working to build a more sustainable economy where wealth and economic growth is broadly shared. Quotes: 06:07 – “It had even been the start of, what I considered the kind of, fetishization of entrepreneurship where there is this one very particular path of ‘I want to be like the AirBnB founder or like Jeff Bezos so I have to raise a lot of venture capital. I have to kill myself for a decade or so.’” – Xavier Helgesen 15:02 – “What I valued really highly was independence and probably what I valued second-most highly was working on something that, in some way, was bigger than just, like, a hustle. I really came into myself as an entrepreneur not as, like, ‘How can I make a million dollars quickly’ but ‘How can I build something?’” – Xavier Helgesen 20:57 – “If you do build your company to be an economic engine, that’s okay. But think about how you can share the wealth then, with more employees.” – Xavier Helgesen 22:15 – “It’s amazing what you can do when you really get specific and you say, Hey, this has to all hold together. This can’t just be something where we say, ‘We fund literacy’ and someone asks how and you say, ‘Oh… We give a little money to this charity.’ It’s gotta be a lot more specific and intentional than that.” – Xavier Helgesen Links and Resources: Twitter: @XavierHelgesen Enduring Ventures Better World Books 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, on my LinkedIn.