Intentional Growth

  Stever Robbins, Executive Business Coach, podcaster, MIT and Harvard Business School grad, musical writer, producer, actor, singer, investor, and business owner, has made a life out of living in the moment andStever Robbins, Executive Business Coach, podcaster, MIT and Harvard Business School grad, musical writer, producer, actor, singer, investor, and business owner, has made a life out of living in the moment and focusing on the journey, not the goal. If you listen, you will learn: What it means to live an extraordinary life Four major myths of living a successful life To focus on the journey, not the goal The four major aspects or questions of journey How your sense of identity may be limiting the things you do in life Focus on the Journey Stever spends time looking back at the careers of his clients and going over what their goals had been and where they are today. He finds more often than not that people are not doing what they really want to be doing with their lives even if they have “achieved’ the goal they set out to do. Most people set a life goal and then figure out how they are going to reach it. Stever explains in the podcast how this is not a smart course of action. Goals will change over your lifetime while you figure out who you are and what you want to be doing with your life. “Things that are attractive to you at 25 that inspire you to create your 40-year plan may not be as attractive at 65,” he explains. “You don’t know where you are going to want to go because life happens.” Put yourself out in the world and enjoy the journey. Don’t focus on a goal you made years ago, focus on your journey and allow yourself and your goals to change and evolve. “Decide the journey you want to take and then choose any goal that will force you to take that journey,” explains Stever. Living an Extraordinary Life Stever set out on a three-year experiment to just follow his heart and see where it went. He allowed himself to do things he had never done before. He put himself out in the world to see what would happen. He added author, podcaster, producer, and playwright (among other things) to his resume during these three years. He did not focus on a goal. He focused on taking the journey. He had conversations he wanted to have with people he wanted to have them with and ended up doing things very different from what he was doing before.  Not Just a Business Person Stever urges everyone he meets to not limit their self-identity. He explains in the podcast to not base your identity on one single thing. Someone may identify themselves as a “business person.” Identifying as this only limits your life experience to only what a “business person” can do. Opening up how you define yourself will allow you to do things you have never thought you would have done before. It gives you more options and opportunities in life. This is the only way you can figure out what you like doing and want to continue to do to make every day of your life extraordinary. Contact Information and Bio for Person: Website: http://www.steverrobbins.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stever/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GetItDoneGuy Twitter: https://twitter.com/GetItDoneGuy Twitter Handle: @GetItDoneGuy Stever Robbins creates online and in-person programs to help people “Live an Extraordinary Life.” His programs combine business savvy, “life hacking,” and personal development to help people make their lives extraordinary. When he’s not being a thought leader himself, Stever is CEO of Ideas Unleashed, a company that helps thought leaders build businesses around their areas of expertise. He is a serial entrepreneur, executive coach, and executive curriculum designer. He co-founded the early internet success story FTP Software, served as COO of Building Blocks Interactive, CEO of JobTacToe.com, and has been an initial team member of ten start-ups, including four IPOs and three acquisitions. He was project manager at Intuit, where he co-led the development of the award-winning Quicken VISA Card. He serves as business plan judge for the Harvard Business School business plan competition, the Pete Conrad Spirit of Innovation Awards, the William James Foundation social enterprise competition, and the Mass Challenge entrepreneurship competition. His experience developing organizational leaders began as co-designer of Harvard Business School’s “Leadership and Learning” curriculum redesign, and has gone on to include being an advisor and mentor to senior managers in several high-growth companies. His Get-It-Done-Guy podcast has spent weeks as #1 in the iTunes business category and has been downloaded more than 28 million times. He has been a repeat commentator on CNN-fn’s Entrepreneurs Only and hosted a regular segment on the nationally syndicated radio show Entrepreneurs, Living the American Dream. He is a featured expert in Harvard Business School Publishing’s Harvard Manage Mentor, as well as appearing as an expert in critical thinking and memory in Houghton-Mifflin’s forthcoming Skillbuilders series. He has been interviewed in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, NBC Nightly News, The New York Times, ABC News Now, MSNBC, FOX News, BusinessWeek Online, and Investor’s Business Daily. He has written for Harvard Business Review, The Boston Business Journal and has had columns on Entrepreneur.com, Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge, and the Quick and Dirty Tips network. He is the author of It Takes a Lot More than Attitude…to Lead a Stellar Organization and Get-it-Done Guy’s 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More, an Amazon Business & Investing top-10 best-seller. Stever is co-writer and lyricist of the musical Work Less and Do More: The (Zombie) Musical. He served as producer and executive producer of the promotional video for the musical. Stever holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School and a BS in Computer Sciences from MIT He is a graduate of W. Edward Deming’s Total Quality Management training program, a Certified Master Trainer Elite of NLP.

John Brown, owner of Business Enterprise Institute (BEI), fell into the world of exit planning before there was even a term for the process. As an estate attorney in the 80’s, John was approached by clients wanting to exit their business without a clue how to do it. BEI was born from John’s realization of this unmet need in the marketplace. Now BEI educates, certifies and provides tools to Exit Planning Advisors who help owners create exit plans. If you listen, you will learn: The three universal goals every owner needs to answer before exiting their business Goal vs reality in exit planning Importance of a written exit plan well before you want to exit your company Realizations owners have about their business in the exit process Definition and significance of transferable value The role a capable management team will play when planning for an exit You Can’t Exit on Friday Back when John was an attorney in the 80’s he had one of his clients call him up because they wanted to exit their company. He said “that’s great when are you thinking” and they responded, “Friday.” At that time, John didn’t quite know what “exit planning” totally entailed. However, coming from the estate planning world, he knew in order to truly maximize the hard work of building a business, longer term planning was a necessity. After some research John realized there were a lot of owners who thought they could just “make the decision” to sell and it would be so. John states in his book, Exit Planning: The Definitive Guide, that “as a consequence of poor or no preparation, owners cannot leave when they want, with the money they need, and/or to the person they choose.” Now after decades in the business, it is clear to John that to exit in one week (or even one year) is impossible if the owners wants a truly successful exit. What Constitutes a Successful Exit? “It’s All About the Owner’s Goals” Every owner has a different view of what their life should be like after they sell their company. Certain parts of the process may be more important to one owner versus another. John and BEI’s mission is to educate advisors so they can simply “help owners benefit from their lives’ work.” Exit Planning Advisors need to ask a lot of questions of the owner and understand their individual goals but also have a clear picture of where they stand on the three universal goals. The 3 Universal Goals [questions you need to answer]: When do I want to leave the business and what does that mean? How much income do I want for the rest of my (and my spouse’s) life for as long as we live? Who do I want to transfer the business to? See how we at Solidity incorporate the 7 Steps and 3 Universal Goals in our Value Advantage™ program HERE John dives deeper into these universal goals in the podcast interview and how they drive the exit planning process. The Bottom Line A written exit plan will give you the roadmap to the rest of the life of your business. Starting with the end in mind is key to any project, goal or strategy. If you know where you’re going and what is important to you, then you can put all the advice and obstacles you come across into the context of your grander plan.  Without a bigger vision you can be lead astray and find there are unintended consequences to decisions you made in a vacuum. The goal is to build a business and legacy that gives you freedom and options. “If you know what you want and know what your business is worth, you can find your GAP @BEIexitplanning @ryantansom” quote=”“If you know what you want and know what your business is worth, you can find your GAP .” In order to find out how to continue your level of income and maintain your lifestyle [with or without the business] you need to know how much your biggest asset is worth! Many business owners (including us when before we sold) have a situation that looks way to familiar to this picture! Build your financial score card: Run a normalized EBITDA, or at a minimum pre-tax earnings, for a benchmark going forward. Perform a business valuation [included in our free consultation call] using best in class valuation tools and technology. Analyze what your income needs are: salary + distributions + grossed up perks back into a liquid portfolio that you would need to maintain that lifestyle without the business Determine if there is a value GAP, or surplus, between what your business is worth and what it would take to maintain your lifestyle. Begin making the plan to fill the gap OR what do to with the additional future added value and capital. An exit plan is derived to fill this gap. It will determine everything you do (or don’t do) as the owner of the company from that point on –  how much to invest in people, how much to spend, and how much growth is needed to hit your goals. John urges owners to take the next step…

After selling his online publication with over 220,000 subscribers, Mark Daoust was approached by a friend also wanting to sell his business. This was the start of what would become Mark’s next adventure, Quiet Light Brokerage, has currently sold over $100M in online companies. If you listen, you will learn: What it means to be an online company The different types of online businesses How online businesses are valued How to increase the transferable value of your company The power of analytics online How a traditional business can leverage the internet Where It All Began Mark Daoust didn’t start out in the online business brokerage world. He first worked for an internet company in Maryland and made it through an extreme downsizing where he was then tasked with taking care of hundreds of clients. Through this experience, he learned a lot about working with online businesses and eventually started an online publication called Site Reference. Site Reference generated revenue through sponsorships of the newsletter as well as direct mailings to their list of contacts. [clickToTweet tweet=”“In the online world, if you have eyeballs..if you have an audience, you can make money.” ” quote=”“In the online world, if you have eyeballs..if you have an audience, you can make money.” ” theme=”style2″] Mark was admittedly a little naïve and sold Site Reference for less than what the company should have been worth if he would have made slight changes. It is hard to put a price on a company where he was the sole contributor to the business and all he had was a list of followers. Admittedly, his business lacked transferability. Making Your Business More Transferable & Valuable Mark now owns Quiet Light Brokerage which is in the emerging niche of selling and buying websites. He helps his clients with what he lacked in his previous business – how to make a business more transferable. In this podcast, Mark discusses four main things that will impact the value of a company. Risk Growth Transferability Documentation. Check out Mark’s Ultimate Guide to Website Value here: https://www.quietlightbrokerage.com/resource/website-value Marriage of Traditional and Online Business Quiet Light Brokerage works with different types of online companies including eCommerce, service based businesses, software as a service companies, content sites, subscriptions sites, and lead generation sites. Online companies are not just websites. Traditional brick and mortar businesses that have a company website are not online companies. According to Mark, traditional companies have the opportunity to grow their business in a way they haven’t before with leveraging the internet. “No one wants to talk to a salesperson. People don’t want to be sold. They want to make up their mind on their own.” The marriage of online and offline worlds is happening. Mark gives examples and elaborates on this point in the podcast. Business owners do not have to get rid of what they have developed offline but they will need to apply it to the online world to continue to be successful. There is only a ton of upside for their business. Contact Information and Bio for Mark: Email: mark@quietlightbrokerage.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markdaoust/ Twitter: @markdaoust Company Website: https://www.quietlightbrokerage.com/ Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/QuietLightBrokerage/ Main Office Phone: 800-746-5034 Mark is the founder and President of Quiet Light Brokerage. He started Quiet Light after selling an online publication that he built which boasted over 220,000 subscribers. Mark is an in demand conference speaker and a guest contributor to publications such as Entrepreneur, Forbes, Inc., Huffington Post, among others. In 2007, a year after having sold his first online business, a friend asked Mark if he would be willing to help him sell his web hosting company. During the previous year, Mark was evaluating whether or not to start a consultancy firm to assist owners of profitable websites who wanted to divest of their websites. With the call from this friend, Quiet Light was officially born. Mark retained his friend’s business, put the listing out to market, and within two months had found a buyer at a price that was higher than average web hosting companies were fetching in the marketplace. Since that first business in 2007, Mark has personally helped dozens of small business owners and entrepreneurs and has also expanded Quiet Light to the team it has today. In building out a team of advisors to help other small business owners, Mark has always emphasized the importance of honesty, working in the client’s best interest (even if that means not working in his own best interest), and thorough preparation of all listings before they are brought to market.

When approached by an inventor with 7 patents for a new giant fake tree hunting blind, Clint Fiore went out on limb (a very lifelike tree limb) and quit his current job to raise capital, build a prototype, find an angel investor, manufacture, market, and sell what would eventually become Nature Blinds. If you listen, you will learn: The process of getting a start-up company going What it is like working with angel investors Opportunities and downfalls that may come with angel investments The trouble with valuing a start-up company How Clint sold ownership interest and exited his business How he leveraged his skills and migrated into buying and selling businesses in the middle market Nature Blinds Comes to Life Clint Fiore was an aviation specialist, pilot, and insurance salesman from Texas. He was a self-proclaimed business junkie but at this point in his life, was not a business owner and definitely not a hunter. “So here I am, this salesman for an insurance company who is reading business books and all of a sudden I get connected with this dreamer, inventor, artist guy who has patents and knows how to make cool looking stuff but doesn’t know how to do a business. I guess I read enough books by that point where I was like, you know what, I can do that.” Clint raised money for a prototype of the new age hunting blind which was basically a hyper realistic looking tree that hunters could hide in. He found an angel investor who saw opportunity in the Texas exotic hunting ranch market. Within a year, the company went from 6 to 50 employees, hit over 2 million dollars, and despite some bumps along the way, continued to grow. Valuing and Exiting Nature Blinds Being a minority owner of the company, Clint didn’t have control of the vision or direction of the company. The company started to succeed in more than just hunting blinds. They started selling smaller consumer products that had mass market appeal. Cash was thin because of earlier manufacturing issues so the angel investor, who had ownership in the company, was willing to invest millions more in the company. Great! The catch was that he wanted to be in the driving seat. “He who makes the gold, makes the rules.” Clint was given a buyout offer. This was personally rough for Clint as he helped to start the company and get it to where it was. Clint describes his buyout offer as “fair” but has a hard time putting a value on the start-up. They had millions of fans, were in 25+ states, had intellectual property, etc. How can you put a price on that? Texas Business Buyers After a forced exit from Nature Blinds, Clint searched for what he was going to do next. He owned, operated, and sold a technology start-up before looking to buy another business. Looking online was easy but getting a business broker to call you back was the hard part. He realized how disjointed the business brokerage industry was and wanted to change it. Texas Business Buyers emerged and put a new spin on the process. Listen and learn more about Clint’s journey and exit of his first company and the start of his newest venture, Texas Business Buyers. Contact Information and Bio for Clint: Email: clint@texasbusinessbuyers.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clintfiore/ Twitter: @clintfiore Texas Business Buyers Website: https://texasbusinessbuyers.com/ Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/texasbusinessbuyers/ Facebook Tag: @texasbusinessbuyers Main Office Phone or Fax: 210-774-6800 Founder and President of Texas Business Buyers, Clint Fiore, has a unique combination of entrepreneurial, executive leadership, and high-tech systems experience. He has utilized these attributes to create a first-of-its-kind business that systematically removes the mystery and obstacles associated with finding a business, buying and financing the business you want, preparing your existing business for sale, and marketing your business efficiently to its next owner. Clint is in the sweet-spot to bridge the gap between Buyer and Seller. He’s old enough to have real-world experience as an entrepreneur and have been in your shoes as a business owner, yet young enough to fully-understand the needs of today’s young and tech-savvy business buyers. His experience includes: Founding Partner of a Texas-Based, 50 employee, Manufacturing Company that launched two national consumer brands each with multi-million dollar sales and nationwide distribution. Successfully sold ownership interest of founded company. Has raised 7-figures of Angel Investment for two different startups, both still operating successfully. Former Vice President of a successful startup technology and social media company currently valued over $20M with users in dozens of countries. Former Public Speaker that has spoken in over 20 US States to over 100,000 live audience members. Three years experience as the #1 Commercial Broker for the largest privately-held Aviation Insurance Agency in the USA. Many high net worth, aircraft-owning clients and small business relationship in the Aviation world. Clint lives in the Texas Hill Country with easy access to Austin and San Antonio (as well as Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Marble Falls, Boerne etc). He’s also a private pilot and flight instructor and travels around the state frequently. He’ll happily come to meet you at your business or a local coffee shop or restaurant nearby, anywhere in the state. He and his wife Melissa have 4 wonderful children; Amelia, Sophia, Cecilia, and Jetson. Clint grew up in Wichita Falls where he was part of his family’s 4th generation family business, Smith’s Gardentown Farms. He also holds a Professional Aeronautics Degree with minors in Business Administration and Navigation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Chris Yates owned and operated a digital marketing agency, chained to his desk day after day managing employees and client demands. After a call came in from an old employer looking to partner with Chris for his “next thing” after selling his own company, Chris’s life changed and the one he envisioned for himself started to emerge. If you listen, you will learn: The process of buying an online company The risks and opportunities of buying an online company How online companies are valued How online businesses are different from traditional business The 8 different types of online businesses Criteria (sniff-tests) to decide to buy or not to buy an online business Where to turn for analysis and advice on this process The Perfect Partnership Chris and his old employer, David, had differing skill sets that made for a perfect partnership. They had an idea to find online companies, acquire them, and take over their operations. These companies had to be the perfect balance of risk and opportunity to make the deal worth it. Within the first year of their partnership, Chris and David bought 10+ businesses and had triple digit annualized return on their money overall. This “work” and life was way more fun. Tips and Tricks From Chris’s perspective, the biggest myth or misconception that most people have is that “websites are different than real businesses.” You must treat an online business the same way you would treat a traditional business. Chris talks to us about the process of buying an online business, the due diligence that goes into the process, his personal recommended “sniff tests,” and other tips and tricks on how to figure out what to buy or where to even start looking. Entrepreneur Life Can Be Lonely Even though Chris started doing something he really enjoyed and was extremely good at, he was used to being around a company of people. He was not working in an office setting anymore where he could build relationships and friendships or even just have someone to bounce ideas off daily. He started to feel lonely and wanted to share his ideas, successes, and failures with people that would understand. Chris created a now annual event that brings together people who share experiences and knowledge on investing and buying online companies. His online businesses pay the bills but his passion is now this event that grows every year. Don’t Be Overwhelmed Chris leaves us with the comment that even if someone is looking to get into the business of buying online businesses, you don’t have to do it alone. Not only can you attend events such as the one Chris describes in our interview, but there are also lots of people that can help you with the technical aspects of the deal. Online business can be intimidating. He encourages entrepreneurs of all ages to explore this type of industry and don’t be afraid to bring in some help. There may be some (or a lot) of risk but also an extreme amount of opportunity online. Anyone can make it their passion just like Chris has done and there are communities of people to share in the experience. Contact Information and Bio for Chris: Email: Chris@chrisyates.org Website: https://www.chrisyates.org/ Online Entrepreneurs Event Website : https://rhodiumweekend.com/ Chris Yates is an entrepreneur who actively acquires and manages websites. In addition to buying and selling internet businesses, he also educates and coaches others to safely make money buying and selling websites. He is considered a website monetization expert and can take an internet business from an idea to generating solid revenue quickly. He has the ability to spot undervalued assets in websites and make improvements to transform them into top performers. Chris currently co-owns some of the top companies in the industry including: RhodiumWeekend.com – The annual live event for website buyers, owners, and online business portfolio creators. Centurica.com – The top provider of due diligence services for online acquisitions in the $50,000 to $5 Million dollar range. BuyingAndSellingWebsites.com – The oldest provider of educational training for online business buyers. VisionGroupManagement.com – The parent company providing digital asset management services for online investors.

From zero to $120+ Million in 6 years to bankruptcy, then to the cover of Inc. Magazine and the eventual sale for hundreds of millions of dollars, Norm Brodksy deserves every ounce of praise and money he received when he sold! The battle wounds of his first tragic business venture turned him into one of the wisest entrepreneurs I have ever encountered. The stories Norm shares with us are incredible! It was fascinating hearing him recount how he used his articles in Inc. Magazine to showcase his selling process with his potential buyers and then rejecting the offer at the last minute despite having appeared on the front page with the headline “Norm Says Yes”. Norm also shared with us some great real-life examples of how he made his companies so successful. Always to the point, it’s impossible not to be inspired by what Norm has to say. What are the lessons we can learn from Norm’s first business? Norm was crystal clear that even though there was a change in the marketplace and a variety of external factors, it was up to him to take responsibility and not to slip into the “Groundhog Day Syndrome” as he called it. His first piece of advice was: [clickToTweet tweet=”“If we blame others or outside forces for what happened, we’re destined to make the same mistakes over & over again.” ” quote=”“If we blame others or outside forces for what happened, we’re destined to make the same mistakes over and over again.”” theme=”style2″] 3 key takeaways: If you want to expand your own empire, don’t pledge the assets from your cash cow to the new risky venture. Don’t get hung up on a sales revenue target. You want to build a profitable business, not just a high volume business. Build your business as if you’re going to keep it forever, but at the same time, build the business as if you need to sell it tomorrow. This looks like a contradiction but as you will see in the case of Norm’s second business, the culture you create with the “keep it forever” mentality is what actually makes the business more sellable. What was the main thing he did differently with his second business? The first (and most important) thing Norm did was take a look at who he is, what he wanted from his business, and why. At this point in his life as an entrepreneur, he decided the culture, vendors, and clients he worked with were the most valuable parts of a healthy and sustainable business. Bo Burlingham, the Editor at Large from Inc. Magazine, partnered with Norm on the column when he was selling CitiStorage. He also featured him in his book “Small Giants: Companies That Decide to Be Great Instead of Big“ because there were multiple times Norm had to decide whether he wanted to chase the revenue number again or maintain a profitable and healthy business. How does Norm define “company culture”? In short, it’s the way the employees are treated within the company. He viewed his employees more like being part of his family than just merely his workers. The best part is, by putting in effort and energy into his culture he was able to enjoy what he did and see the ROI the culture brought in his exit. With help from his wife, he built a lasting culture at CitiStorage that happened to be a vital part of the value of the business. He discovered the most important assets he had were his personnel. In his words, “Once I discovered that, business became easier.” Hands-on or hands-off? How did Norm manage to be so hands-on with his staff but not devalue the business by being in the hub rather than the spoke? He would go all out and be hands-on at the beginning of a relationship with a customer but then withdraw and hand over everything to his sales and customer service teams. His strategy was to give customers his cellphone number at the first meeting but stress that they should only use it if there was a very serious problem. At all times he was clear that they were dealing with a company, not just one person. How else did he build bridges with his customers? He would do what he could to make sure there was face-to-face interaction. Norm would take his sales and customer service people to visit the customer, or if a customer would come to his company, he would make sure they met. Using old fashioned snail mail was an effective tactic for Norm. He would send new customers a handwritten note and send existing customers birthday cards. Norm’s rules on hiring salespeople: They had to have had two previous jobs (not necessarily in sales). Never hire from competitors. They may be less open to learning new methods and if they left a competitor to go to you, they could leave you just as easily. Never hire a hotshot. You’ll never keep up with them and they’ll struggle to fit in with the company culture. What was the triggering event for Norm to sell CitiStorage? Norm was at an industry meeting and said jokingly to the head of his largest competitor, Iron Mountain, “Do you want to buy it for $33 Million?” The reply came back, “Do you think it’s worth that much?” Norm laughed and said it wasn’t. Then the CEO of Iron Mountain replied with, “If you send me your quarterly financial statements and I help you until you get there, will you give me a crack at it?” The cordial competitor went to CitiStorage after the conference and did a thorough valuation of the business and came out with some recommendations. It was not worth $33 Million, however as promised, if Norm sent quarterly statements they would take a look and give some help until he inched closer to that valuation. One day they gave him a call saying they wanted to buy, but Norm replied that he wasn’t ready to sell! Wise words for the road: There were just so many great things Norm said during our discussion. Here are some of the best: [clickToTweet tweet=”“It’s not how much you do in sales, it’s how much you keep.”” quote=”“It’s not how much you do in sales, it’s how much you keep.”” theme=”style2″] [clickToTweet tweet=”“Smart people have to learn their own lessons. Wise people, on the other hand, learn from other people’s mistakes.”” quote=”“Smart people have to learn their own lessons. Wise people, on the other hand, learn from other people’s mistakes.”” theme=”style2″] [clickToTweet tweet=”“Don’t do what everybody else does, think what everybody else doesn’t do.”” quote=”“Don’t do what everybody else does, think what everybody else doesn’t do.”” theme=”style2″] [clickToTweet tweet=” “If you go back on one word, I can assume you’ll go back on another word.”” quote=” “When somebody goes back on their word on one thing, you have to assume they’ll go back on their word on a lot of things.”” theme=”style2″] Norm Bio and Contact Info: Twitter: @normbrodsky Email: brodsky13@aol.com Book: Street Smarts Inc. Magazine: https://www.inc.com/author/norm-brodsky Norm Brodsky, who co-authors Inc. Magazine’s “Street Smarts” column, is the founder of six businesses, including a three-time Inc. 500 company. He began writing “Street Smarts” after being featured on Inc.’s cover in July 1995. The column was nominated for a National Magazine award in 2006. He recently concluded a nine-part series, “The Offer,” about his ultimately unsuccessful attempt to sell his companies. A graduate of Rider College and Brooklyn Law School, Brodsky began his professional career as a lawyer, but the slow pace of the courtroom made him want to do something different. His first entrepreneurial endeavor was Perfect Courier, a messenger service and trucking company in Brooklyn, New York. When the rise of fax machines in the early 80s decreased the need for messengers, Brodsky began looking for other opportunities.A phone call from a customer asking about box storage prompted him to call storage facilities in the area. Recognizing that others were charging too much and the potential market was great, Brodsky began CitiStorage with the profits from his trucking company. The archival storage and retrieval company now holds more than three million boxes. Brodsky and his wife, Elaine, run both CitiStorage and PerfectCourier from their Brooklyn office.

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text] This week we have a great story of someone that worked really hard to figure out who she was, what she wanted from her business and life, and why. Tana Green has done some exceptional things along her journey into her second half. She decided to use her current business as a platform to accomplish her life’s aspiration to change people’s lives. If you listen, you will learn… How one person used her business to empower her and answer her calling in life How Tana used her business as a platform to raise $10M for charity The power of having access to a large workforce and contact base How real change can happen on a large scale Lloyd Reeb’s low-risk probes in action: the concept of trying meaningful and fulfilling pursuits until something sticks The benefits of taking time out to evaluate your own mind How to create a humane culture in your firm from the top down The value of the Strength Finder system The negative connotations of the term ‘CEO’ and how a ‘CLO’ could be the future of corporate governance Before figuring out what she wanted from her business and life, Tana would find herself breaking down in tears on Sunday night watching Extreme Makeover on TV. The stories were striking a chord deep inside and even though she was very successful in business, she couldn’t help but feel there was something missing… Tana originally thought she could only find fulfillment outside of the world of business but once she understood the massive platform her business offered her, the sky was the limit. Where was the turning point? Tana attended an event put on by her CPA firm. It just so happened that the keynote speaker was one of our friends, Lloyd Reeb, from the Halftime Institute.  After the event she met Lloyd for coffee and decided it was time for her and her husband/business partner, Mike, to get some next level coaching to help them figure out what was next. What did Tana do next? She determined that her passion was helping women stuck in domestic violence. Her personal experience pulled her to help people in need of an escape from abusive relationships.  But what did that mean? After some internal reflection and help from close friends and the Halftime Institute, Tana realized that her company could be used as a platform to magnify the impact she could make. She didn’t need to completely cut ties and sell the company to do what she wanted to do. Owning a company with thousands of employees and having influence in the community gave Tana amazing resources to serve the cause WHILE still keeping her company. How did she do it? Tana DID NOT DO the typical thing that entrepreneurs do after they come back from a conference. She did not walk back into the business and immediately bark orders on the new direction she was taking with her role. Tana wanted to help change people’s lives and that first started with mentoring and guiding her executive team. Getting her executives on board with the new vision was a slow but effective process. She gave them the resources they needed to become the next level team that would allow her to move into a different and more distant role. Everyone on her team first took their Strength Finders 2.0 to help guide the process. After the Strength Finders, Tana set up a monthly meeting to touch base with her team. She also wrote a book called Creating a World of Difference that she gives to every employee so they can get a full understanding of the company culture and values. What impact has Tana made? Tana raised $10 Million for a Domestic Violence Center and became a spokesperson and board member of some of the industry’s biggest charities, i.e. SafeAlliance, to help victims of domestic violence. One of the most generous things that Tana has done is donate 2% of net proceeds from her business to a foundation that helps in domestic violence. Can you imagine trying to raise that money without a company!? What’s next? As a typical entrepreneur, Tana has her fingers in many different ventures. She is keeping busy in the non-profit world helping Safe Alliance and other domestic violence causes while at the same time tending to The Greene Group and her (fairly) new company, The Blue Bloodhound Group. Contact Info and Bio for Tana: Email: tanag@creatingaworldofdifference.com Book Website: https://www.creatingaworldofdifference.com Company Website: https://www.greene-group.com/ Tana Green is co-founder of The Greene Group, a national staffing corporation that places temporary employees in industries ranging from transportation, medical, scientific and light industrial. She, in partnership with her husband Mike Greene, established their first staffing entity more than 20 years ago. An active member of Women’s Presidents’ Organization, Tana is the driving force behind establishing Creating a World of Difference, a foundation that sets aside a portion of The Greene Group’s corporate profits to benefit employees of client companies. Honors include designation as on of INC Magazine’s Top 5000 fast growing national companies in 2007 and 2008, as well as Enterprising Women magazine’s 2006 Enterprising Woman of the Year. Tana also advocates on behalf of victims of domestic violence. She lives with her husband and business partner, Mike Greene, and their daughter, Kelly, in Charlotte, NC. Tana’s son, L.J., his wife and their baby also live in the area. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

We have a serious high achiever on the podcast this week – a man who managed to buy 11 companies (one in just three days) and sell his own $42 million company in just six weeks. After moving back home, Terry Lammers bought the family wholesale fuel and lubricants business. He became prolific in the marketplace by then buying up more and more of the competition. You will not find a man more experienced in the game of M & A… If you listen, you will learn… Tricks to avoid nasty taxes in a sale What you need in place to be able to sell a company in just six weeks The benefits of recurring income How Terry used the power of the Value Builder System without knowing it How best to tell employees you’re selling up How to use non-compete clauses The importance of advisors Where did Terry find the 11 competitors he bought along the way? Terry knew that in the limited area he did business, there was only a finite amount of competition and business to be had. He was always on the lookout for people that were trying to find a way out. Terry knew that once the competition was actually ready to sell, he had to jump on the opportunity. Some of the acquisitions were a bit more cumbersome and hairy (like the deal Terry explains went bad after the kind-hearted man went back on his word). However, most of the businesses that Terry bought had returns that the best of us could only dream of! How were most of the deals structured? Terry had a knack for knowing exactly what a business was worth to the seller and how to make it a great deal for both sides. He didn’t just let the professionals dictate the terms and conditions for the deal…he made a huge effort to make it a no-brainer for everyone. Some of the deals were bonus structures (earnouts), some were cash offers, some were stock purchases, and others were a combination. The only thing on Terry’s mind was to find a way to make a deal fair for everyone involved and get it done! What did Terry do differently because of his experience buying companies? After buying 11 other companies over the course of owning Tri-County Petroleum, Terry realized that things really needed to be buttoned up if a good deal was to be made. Following are some of the top things he did with intention before the sale of his company: Signed agreements with all of his customers Put in place non-compete clauses with key employees Built out a high-caliber executive team that allowed him to focus on the business and not the day-to-day Reviewed financials every year Updated equipment Leased equipment to clients to make them more sticky Created a private label lubricant What about the employees? Terry called everyone into a normal monthly meeting when he decided it was time to tell all of his employees about the sale of the company. There was no guarantee that a job was lined up for each employee under the new ownership…but the good news was that everyone was offered a job but one employee! The reason the one employee was not hired was they had an entitled attitude during the interview process with their new boss (weird how that didn’t go well!). All the employees were treated very fairly because the buyer decided who they wanted to keep on the payroll. The fact that they hired all but one person showed that Terry had an amazing group of people working for him. What did Terry do after he sold? After selling the company, Terry sat at home for a few months watching The Morning Show, Doctor Oz, Opera, and every other daytime television show until his wife told him to go do something! Because of his love for the deal and the financial engineering of the process, Terry decided to go and work for a large commercial bank. With three years of working the business marketplace and providing loans, the large 20,000 employee bank started to put more rules into place. One rule in particular was a tighter quota that would lead Terry (an entrepreneur who sold a $42 million business) into possibly getting written up in his retirement gig… That was all it took for Terry to break off and start his own venture again. This time it was filled with passion and purpose as he helps business owners accomplish what they want through the sale of their companies. He specializes in Mergers & Acquisitions and making sure the deal gets done where everyone feels like a winner. Bio and Contact info for Terry Lammers Innovative Business Advisors Broker – Kunkel Commercial Group, Inc. Innovative Email Link  Join Our Newsletter 618-530-8922 Cell Terry is a graduate of Webster University in St. Louis with a bachelor degree in business management. He was the President and Owner of Tri-County Petroleum, Inc. TCPI was a wholesale fuel and lubricants supplier servicing Southern, IL and the St. Louis Metro area. From 1992 until the company was sold in 2010, Terry grew the business from $750,000 in sales to over $42,000,000 including the acquisition of 11 different companies. This business was sold in 2010 to Growmark, Inc. and 8 of its FS Member Companies. After the successful sale of his company, Terry spent three and a half years with Regions Bank as a Vice President of Commercial Banking because his wife told him he had to have a job. In July of 2014, Terry teamed up with Dave Kunkel and launched Innovative Business Advisors. Innovative is a comprehensive business brokerage firm that helps people buy and sell companies, performs business valuations, and provides exit planning. You can visit their website at www.Innovativeba.com. In December of 2015, Terry received his official designation as a Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) from the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts (NACVA).  In 2015, Innovative Business Advisors purchased Cecil Management Group, a residential and commercial property management company. CMG manages approximately 900 residential properties and several commercial buildings. CMG also manages 65 homeowner associations, encompassing over 4,500 homes and has a maintenance crew of 5 technicians. CMG is located in O’Fallon, IL and most of the properties they manage are in the Metro East area. Their website is www.cecilmanagement.com. Terry is a lifelong resident of the Highland, IL area where he currently lives with his wife Julie of 22 years and their three children. Sydney (20), Caitlin (18), and Trent (16). Sydney is a junior at the University of Kentucky where she is studying to be a doctor. Caitlin is a freshman at the University of Columbia and is studying to be a CPA and would like to specialize in forensic accounting. Trent is a sophomore at Highland High School and enjoys football and basketball.  He is leaning towards pursuing a degree in finance. Terry is an avid outdoorsman and has enjoyed several North American large game hunts. He is also looking forward to publishing his first book in 2017. His local involvement in community organizations include, President of the Highland-Pierron Fire District, 22 years as a volunteer fireman for the Highland-Pierron Fire Dept., Past President of the Pierron Improvement Club, Past President of the Highland Rotary Club, Member of St. Joseph Hospital Friends Board, President of the Highland Area Community Foundation, and Member of the Highland Optimist Club. [/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

He’s worked in sports management with the likes of Brett Favre, he bought and sold four businesses by the time he was 35, he’s done multiple M & As in his time as an investment banker, and now he’s a bestselling author (Networking is a Contact Sport, Moving the Needle), speaker and coach. He also loves the work of our recent guests Dean Niewolny and Lloyd Reeb over at the Halftime Institute. With that kind of background and experience you can probably guess, we were not exactly short of conversation! Listen to the show for some absolute gold advice about how to set yourself up for a fulfilling life after business, or read on for some of the highlights…  How did Joe get started? The 8th in line of 8 older brothers, a negative net worth of $50,000 and a love for manufacturing, Joe had no doubts he was destined to be an entrepreneur. He went to the library and built his own database of manufacturing companies, pre internet, with the goal of calling all the owners to see where they were at. Joe’s main goal was to find someone that would be willing to take on a hard working, ambitious young man that would be willing to sell their company over time. After finding his perfect situation Joe did just that… and then acquired 3 more manufacturing companies before selling! What happened when he first sold his companies? He sold his companies at a relatively young age because he had 4 little kids at home and was starting to realize that he should reprioritize some things in his life. After Joe sold he got to work on his bucket list, i.e. single-digit golf handicap, running the Boston marathon etc. But soon it just wasn’t cutting it. In his words: “I thought I’d either have to create a new list or go back to work, or I’m gonna die!” That’s how he ended up in sports management, specializing in acquiring companies on behalf of sports stars. What has he learnt from the people he’s worked with? Most people don’t have any idea how to pause, call the whistle, and look at the replay.  How can you go onto to a life afterwards of passion and purpose if you have not assessed how you have played the game so far?  Having intention in the second half is hardest part! What he noticed about people who succeeded in their second half: Anyone who has successfully transitioned into their second half has taken time to reflect and take a look at who they are and what they really want. In the first half, we are busy working to create a stable household and to provide for our family. Many people measure success on the things we can see, i.e. flash cars, big houses etc., and this is more the domain of the first half. In the second half it’s more about things we don’t see, like respect, dignity and serving others. In the second half it’s about finding a purpose and having a life vision. Joe’s advice on how to measure your life after business: If your life turned out really great, what metrics would you use? Not enough people really define what success means. They can easily assume they’re unsuccessful, or on the flip side, aim for something they assume will make them successful; but it could all end in tears if they haven’t focused on what success really means to them. The questions Joe asks himself at the end of each day: What’s the best thing that happened today? What did I do today to create my ideal day? What am I most grateful for? What’s one new thing I learned today? What did I do today to make X dollars for my family? What did I do today to allow God to work through me? What am I looking most forward to tomorrow? Wise words for the road: “We find things that burn inside of us, and I think we’ve got to listen to that calling. It isn’t one day we have an epiphany, I think it’s a gradual step, kind of like putting a jigsaw puzzle together.” [clickToTweet tweet=”“The problem with keeping up with the Joneses is once you catch the Joneses they refinance and you’re screwed!”” quote=”“The problem with keeping up with the Joneses is once you catch the Joneses they refinance and you’re screwed!”” theme=”style2″] [clickToTweet tweet=”“It’s more important to ask good questions rather than have all the answers.”” quote=”“It’s more important to ask good questions rather than have all the answers.”” theme=”style2″] Contact Joe: www.joesweeney.com Joe’s Biography Being the ninth in a family of ten children, compromise, loyalty, developing relationships, and discovering ways to help other members of the family were instilled in me at a young age. I feel very grateful that I have had the opportunity in my lifetime to establish some incredible relationships and combine my love of business with my passion for sports. I have owned and operated 4 manufacturing firms, was President of the Wisconsin Sports Authority, and founded and ran SMG, a sports marketing and management firm that represented coaches and athletes including 3 time NFL MVP Brett Favre. I am also an investment banker, private equity investor, New York Times best-selling author, trainer, and national speaker. A common theme in every aspect of my career is that I try to be well networked and develop life-long relationships along the way. I have also served on 28 boards of directors over the past 30 years and am currently active on six including the Bradley Center Sports and Entertainment Corporation, The University of Notre Dame Graduate Alumni Board for the Mendoza College of Business, DMT Corporation, Dielectric Corporation, Town Bank, and Wintrust Financial Corporation

We speak to a man who has been there and done it… from the business buyer to the eventual seller of his own company.  Jamison West overhaul his business model from the traditional IT, time and material (trading dollars for hours), to the new Managed IT Services monthly recurring model.  His new business gave him a 15%  jump in EBITDA, from the original 4%, so he was averaging to a healthy 17%! Jamison gained great insight into the whole sale/valuation process during his acquisitions of multiple Managed IT firms and then used this experience to consciously prepare everything in his business before he finally sold to a strategic buyer. This episode is a perfect example on how to maximize the value of your business while simultaneously achieving the day-to-day efficiency of your business and TRULY moving from the hub to the spoke. Why did he start acquiring businesses in the first place? There are certain benchmarks in the Managed Service Industry for recurring revenue and overall company size that are benchmarked by a Managed IT Service peer group called HTG.  This lead Jamison on a quest to grow organically, AND acquisition, in order to hit the numbers he thought he needed to achieve for a future buyer to pay top dollar. The first two acquisitions helped add staff and mass to his firm and allowed Jamison in make strides in the direction he wanted to go.  The third merger / acquisition proved to be a much bigger challenge due to culture and management, but the right intentions were there! Why did he change business models from time & material to recurring revenue? Jamison was charging more than a fair price for his time but quickly realized he was needed by multiple clients at once. Obviously he couldn’t be in more than one place at a time and his clients had a top stop on how much they were willing to pay.  Therefore, there was a problem that was ready to be solved! Not only was his time a limitation but the current situation came with serious highs and lows. In order to change the company’s emphasis from the revenue ups and downs of project work, Jamison flipped his business model and expanded so he could provide fixed-fee services and thus improve his own potential scalability. Ultimately he realized that the clients were not just paying for the time he’s working, they’re also paying for peace of mind and immediate availability to any question that needed to be answered for the business’s technology. To do this he needed a lot of staff. Thanks to advice from his peer group of similar businesses, he decided to increase his price by 20%. He figured that if 20% of his clients left he’d only have 80% of the work to do with 100% of the revenue he had before. How did it affect his valuation? Like we said soon he had a business that was 17% EBIDTA rather than 4%! In terms of take home dollars, and the formula that his buyer used to acquire his company, it was worth a TON more.  Jamison knew if he had locked in contracts that a buyer who collected money the first of each month would pay WAY more than if he had to resell new agreements / time and material each month. Therefore, it was less risk for a buyer (especially a strategic competitor) to take Jamison’s company and their clients and bring them into their platform.  They had more time, energy and resources that they could apply to keep those customers.  With a contract in place it allowed them to prove their service, trustworthiness and ability to exceed the client’s expectations before the agreement came due. How did he structure the deal to sell? He used a specific industry broker that created a slightly different structure than the standart multiple of EBIDTA. It was actually a company who he’d used and dealt with when he was doing acquisitions for his own company. To judge the risk he dissected the deal into 2 different buckets: The “guaranteed bucket” – this is the guaranteed section which would be structured with equity, downpayment and the guaranteed payments over time. The “high-risk bucket” – the high-risk would be taken up with the earnout and certain benchmarks that had to be hit to receive the payment.  Almost a commission if everything went right.  He thought of this like icing on the cake if it all went well! What did he learn from previous acquisitions that helped him when it came to his own sale? He knew he had to secure his clients on very strong, detailed contracts so the buyer could be certain there was value in those contracts. He also set revenue targets where he knew certain types of investors were willing to spend higher multiples of EBITDA. The maturity balance: One of Jamison’s key drivers in his plan came from the operational maturity level (OML – created by Paul Dippell) of an Managed IT Services business.  Jamison realized from this method that he should strive to bring on clients with the same, or within one level, of operational maturity as his own. The OML is on a scale of 1 – 5 and it had a variety of factors based on Key Performance Indicators and EBITDA requirements. The OML model help vet out his potential clients, how much work they will be, and how much profit he could expect.  It allowed Jamison to understand and size up the potential companies he wanted to buy AND what potential buyers he thought would be a great strategic fit to sell to. The risk of a bad deal was significantly mitigated based on the method of analyzing customers and competitors. Why did he sell: He hired and acquired an excellent COO, along with a high caliber management team, after his third acquisition.  After his COO and he sat down and went into some deep budgeting exercises, they recognized they had a leadership team and company structure that cost too much and needed to be restructured. Once that problem was solved, the  business was in a much better place and Jamison knew the company numbers were in the range of what he originally planned for a potential sale. Not to mention, after years and years of working his tail off Jamison wanted more freedom to pioneer new concepts in the marketplace, not to mention to hedge his bets by taking some chips off the table to safeguard his and his family’s future. What’s it like being an employee for a buyer? He has lasted a year at the new company.  In industry terms, they were on the top of the OML range with over 100 employees and lots of systems and processes… which is great for a company like that to make money and continue to grow!  However, for Jamison, who is a creative and ambitious entrepreneur, it was difficult to be constrained by the systems of a mature company. What’s he doing now? Jamison has many different opportunities that are knocking on his door, from startup, to CEO of other multiple companies.  He is in the middle of figuring out what his journey looks like in his second half!