Intentional Growth

EP. #3 [THEME ONE]   On today’s show we have someone who lives and breathes living life with intention. Rob Dube is the co-founder of imageOne, one of Forbes Top 25 Small Businesses in America, and on the list of the Inc. 5000.    Rob recently partnered with his friend and mentor Gino Wickman to create “The 10 Disciplines - manage and maximize your energy”. The 10 Disciplines helps entrepreneurs get unstuck so they can accomplish their long-term goals while avoiding burnout. Over the years, Rob has learned from top performers like Gino and Jack Stack on how to find your energy and focus on the things that matter, all based on “10-Year Thinking.”  If you are a business owner that feels stuck or is near burnout, get clear on what you want from your business and why by listening to Rob Dube give an overview on “The 10 Disciplines” on how to manage and maximize your energy.   // WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast   What You Will Learn What “The 10 Disciplines” are and how they help you manage and maximize your energy. The difference between 10-year thinking and goals. What led Rob to understanding what he wanted from his business and why. Why mindfulness and meditation is a huge core value in Rob’s life. What optimal life means and how it translates to what you want from your business and why. The definition of energy and how it’s used in the context of high performing. The outcome of envisioning your life 10 years in the future. Why Rob Dube encourages business owners to take 130 days off a year. Why knowing thyself is such a huge principle to understanding what you want from your business and why. The importance of saying “no” and why it’s hard for many people to do that. The importance of putting everything (action items, to-do’s, goals) in ONE place. Why Rob believes in preparing a plan for the next day–the night before. The $25/hour rule.   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: https://arkona.io/intentional-growth-financial-assessment   Bio: From Blow Pops to Forbes Best Small Companies! Rob started his first business in high school selling Blow Pops out of his locker. In 1991, he founded imageOne with his best friend, Joel Pearlman. imageOne has been recognized as a Top 25 Small Businesses in America on the list of Forbes Small Giants, an Inc. Magazine Best Places to Work, as the number one Top Workplace in Michigan, a National Best and Brightest Company to Work For, one of Inc. 5000’s Fastest Growing Private Companies in America, a Positive Workplace by the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business, and Crain’s Detroit Cool Places to Work. Rob is the Visionary/CEO of The 10 Disciplines for Managing and Maximizing Your Energy, a video-based journey that teaches people 10 fast, simple, powerful, and fully customizable disciplines to manage and maximize their energy and live an optimal life.  He is the author of the best-selling book, donothing,™ the most rewarding leadership challenge you will ever take and the host of the Leading with Genuine Care retreat and podcast.  Rob challenges business leaders and entrepreneurs to look inward with mindfulness and meditation by sharing his own mindful leadership journey.    Interview Quotes: 06:42  - “Along the way we met Gino Wickman, who created EOS Worldwide, the Entrepreneurial Operating System. After eight or nine years of running the business by the seat of our pants, we got some structure to it and got some control to what the heck we were doing. Gino was really instrumental in that.” - Rob Dube  14:06  - “What I learned from [mindfulness and meditation] is how to practice being in the present moment, and not be so concerned with what’s happened in the past, or worry so much about what’s going to happen in the future.” - Rob Dube 16:38  - “My anxiety manifests in that I have this vision and I’m not there yet and I wanted to be there yesterday.” - Ryan Tansom 19:49  - “Optimal life is when you can reach your full potential because we all have so much potential but oftentimes we’re blocked. It’s where we can be the best expression of ourselves. Our fullest capacity. Everything our soul wants us to be.” - Rob Dube 24:25  - “Energy is your powersource. It’s where you’re doing the things that bring value to this world, in a fluid way.” - Rob Dube 24:36  - “You and I talked about a word that we invented: you’re flow-ting.” - Rob Dube 29:12  - “You’re just trying to put yourself ten years from now.” - Rob Dube 32:12  - “When we slow down, we can get things done faster.” - Rob Dube 34:14  - “We encourage people to take 130 days off per year, and–here’s the kicker–don’t think about work the entire day. Just for perspective, if you took every weekend, every holiday, and a three-week vacation, you’re darn close to 130 days.” - Rob Dube 35:30 - “What happens is that we come back stronger.” - Rob Dube 42:00 - “People pick up on the energy of a chameleon but when you’re you, they know what they’ve got.” - Rob Dube   Links and Resources: The 10 Disciplines Rob Dube, LinkedIn   Arkona Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

EP. #2 [THEME ONE]   On today’s show with Dr. Stacy Feiner, she returns for her second time to go in-depth on why self-awareness affects your ability to enjoy work, create wealth, and make an impact and ultimately affect the long-term value of your business. Dr. Feiner is an innovative psychologist who helps elite performers identify and overcome mental barriers to achieve more, all with intention. Having worked with hundreds of business owners by now, she understands how emotionally-charged situations can derail even the best-intentioned leaders.    Dr. Feiner discusses the three things EVERY business owner wants and what happens when those three things don’t align. She then covers the five mental barriers every business owner experiences plus the cause and effect of those barriers. Finally, she shares what emotional maturity is in business and how to develop a high-performing ecosystem around that. Sometimes problems with an entrepreneur's vision aren’t an external problem–they’re from within. Learn some high-performing self-development concepts from this elite coach by listening to this amazing episode.   // WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast   What You Will Learn How the health of the business owner affects the health of the entire ecosystem. The difference between self-awareness and emotional awareness. The five mental blockers every business owner experiences. The difference between coaching and therapy. The common problems business owners experience when their actions and goals aren’t aligned with their values. How the three things all business owners want are impacted by one’s self-awareness. Why it’s so hard for business owners to get help and support from someone they trust. What defines a professional ecosystem and how to handle the different emotions from the major contributors. Why developing emotional maturity is so important for business owners. What the experience looks like when a high performer works with a coach.   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: https://arkona.io/intentional-growth-financial-assessment   Bio: Dr. Stacy Feiner is a nationally recognized innovative psychologist known for leveling up the output of elite performers and the complex systems they lead. Using the lens of psychology, Dr. Feiner taps the invisible dynamics that make people and groups click. In your ear and at your side, Dr. Feiner coaches you to achieve the results you want in all areas of your life.   Interview Quotes: 07:34  - “What business owners want is, they want health, happiness, choices, and wealth. You know. Having choice is really an outgrowth of having wealth, health, and happiness.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 08:27  - “Happiness and satisfaction and feeling good about yourself and feeling like you’ve accomplished what you set out to accomplish. Those are very fundamental human experiences for healthy development.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 10:21  - “It’s important to think about psychological or emotional health on a continuum.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 11:30  - “[Therapy] is about bringing you back to your baseline and [coaching] is about the climb.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 20:48  - “It’s hard for a business owner to get the help that they need because they don’t know who to share their information with.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 23:15  - “Business owners are distracted and when you’re distracted, you can’t perform at your best.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 24:49  - “You might get buy-in but buy-in isn’t momentum.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 27:40  - “I didn’t really understand the term ‘present’ until the beginning of the pandemic. When I got anxious, I believe that anxiousness was not a good use for my mental space. There is a quote, ‘Worry is a good waste of an imagination.’ I needed to practice imagination, not worry. How do you do that when the world is worrisome?” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 29:05  - “Being present magnifies gratitude.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner 33:35 - “Growth is based on necessary tension.” - Dr. Stacy Feiner   Links and Resources: Dr. Stacy Feiner, LinkedIn Stacy Feiner How I Work   Arkona Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

EP. #1 [THEME ONE]   My guest today is Bo Burlingham. I read Bo’s book (Finish Big: How Great Entrepreneurs Exit Their Companies on Top) back in 2015 and it was the reason I started this podcast and eventually lead to the creation of the Intentional Growth™ 5 Principles. I had the chance to interview Bo when this podcast was first starting 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.   In today’s episode, 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. Bo and I reconcile his research with my 4 years of work and over 200 interviews.   // WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast   What You Will Learn 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   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio 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.   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 Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, on my LinkedIn.

[START OF NEW CONTENT FORMAT]   You’ve risked and sacrificed a lot to build your business, and we believe you should get rewarded for your hard work.    In this special 300th episode, Arkona partners Matt and Pat join Ryan to discuss the takeaways after 300 interviews with some of the top minds in business. Their conversation is full of stories that tie their personal experiences of running, growing, buying, and selling businesses to their mission of helping business owners clarify a path to a more valuable business so they can turn their vision into reality.   Ryan, Pat, and Matt talk about how to use your business–and the Intentional Growth™ Mindset–to enjoy work, create wealth, and make an impact. They use examples to explain why this mindset helps business owners clarify what they want and why, how to view their company as a financial asset, and what it takes to track–and make progress toward–the long-term vision you have.   // WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast   What You Will Learn Why it’s so important to enjoy work, create wealth, and make an impact. The three levers every business owner must be in control of. Why a lack of education is often the root cause of anxiety, frustration, and a lack of progress Why viewing your business from a buyer’s eyes can help you focus on creating a valuable business. How business owners should track their progress toward their vision. Why the CFO is uniquely qualified to be a trusted guide for business owners. What the qualities of a good CFO are and how they are different from other financial roles a business owner might be used to (controller, CPA, etc.). How a business owner should organize their financials so they can see the story of their business and view it as an asset. The one line on the cash flow statement that tells the story of the whole business.  The one question to ask employees who have ideas on how to improve the value of their company. An introduction to the newest partner at Arkona and a recap on how Arkona came to be, as well as an update on the Intentional Growth™ Training and Fractional CFO services. The mission behind Arkona and how that ties to Matt, Pat, and Ryan’s WHY.   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Interview Quotes: 01:28 - “There’s something about being an entrepreneur where we have this desire for more and to get to this vision we have for our business and our lives.” - Ryan 02:25 - “We want to help people understand what they want from the business and why.” - Ryan 12:10 - “Matt came on board and it was exactly what we needed: a new perspective, point of view, someone with different skills than what the rest of the leadership team had.” - Pat 21:51 - “Everyday Matt would get a cup of coffee and walk around the office and connect with the employees. He would literally sit there and ask them about their lives, everyday for a half an hour. Everyday. He’s there trying to lift people up.” - Pat 23:55 - “When you’re not enjoying your work, life’s not good. And they want to create an impact” - Pat 29:18 - “Impact, what does that actually mean to you? What does have fun mean to you? What does wealth mean to you?” - Ryan 34:32 - “The owners put so much burden about taking care of the associates. Not just their families, but for the associates as well. And they haven’t taken time to carve out what it’s going to take to get from A to B.” - Matt 37:07 - “You know when you don’t know and that’s where the anxiety comes from.” - Ryan 40:43 - “It’s something drastically different to look at a business from a buyer’s viewpoint than an owner’s viewpoint.” - Matt 45:32 - “The owner doesn’t have to be a financial expert. But they do have to have a certain level of education to understand it.” - Matt   Links and Resources: Arkona Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

After her husband passed away in his early 30s, Sandy Hansen-Wolff had two choices: close down shop or take over and run the one-million-dollar-in-revenue business. Sandy, a former insurance agent, chose to take over the business with her A+ team and continue her husband's legacy. In this episode, Sandy talks about how she took over the business with little operations knowledge to scale it to eight million dollars in yearly revenue. She shares how it was a “we,” not “I,” effort because of the great employees she had who knew the business inside and out, how partnerships were her secret to scale when she couldn’t hire salespeople, and what personal drivers were at the helm when she sold. This is a great entrepreneurial story about starting with uncertainty and ending in success when tragedy hits.   // WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast   What You Will Learn How Sandy transitioned into leading the business after her husband passed away What Sandy’s first step was when taking over the business How the broken business helped Sandy develop and scale the company How partnerships helped Sandy scale the business when they couldn’t hire salespeople Why company culture was such a huge driver to Sandy Why Sandy describes the feeling you get after selling as a “hangover” What led Sandy to sell versus just shut down, and why she considered just shutting down What led Sandy to choose the eCommerce route to be the next stage of her business and what disruptive product she chose to sell Why the buyer didn’t want Sandy’s other eCommerce company (New Heritage) How Sandy felt after selling the company and how she describes it as “ripping the band-aid off”   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: Sandy began her speaking and consulting career after she was thrust into entrepreneurship in 2003 when her young husband of one year died of leukemia. She was determined to keep the business going despite industry pressures as well as challenges with the near-bankrupt business. Sandy turned around that multi-million dollar company from near bankruptcy to a successful sale and exit.  Now Sandy uses these key insights as the platform for her work with high-level business leaders and entrepreneurs so that they too are empowered to move from struggling to successful and profitable.   Interview Quotes: 08:05  - “It’s hard to sell a company that isn’t financially sound.” - Sandy Hansen-Wolff 14:24  - “Even though it’s a small company, how do we cross-train? And how do we document even the simplest procedures?” - Sandy Hansen-Wolff 14:34  - “My main goal is that these employees–these dedicated employees–would never have that happen to them again, if something were to happen to the owner now, which is a great business model to have.” - Sandy Hansen-Wolff 16:36  - “When you don’t have a lot to lose, you can try.” - Sandy Hansen-Wolff 24:24  - “The joy about not knowing the history is that you can think about everything so differently.” - Sandy Hansen-Wolff  47:13  - “How do you stay relevant as a small company against big players? You do that through people.” - Sandy Hansen-Wolff 49:04  - “What vision do I have when this gets better? What is it going to look like when this gets better?” - Sandy Hansen-Wolff 60:18  - “Going back to the roots of, ‘Your business should always be for sale, Sandy,’ I said, ‘I’m always willing to entertain a conversation.’” - Sandy Hansen-Wolff   Links and Resources: Sandy Hansen-Wolff Sandy Hansen-Wolff, LinkedIn Sandy Hansen-Wolff, Twitter   Arkona Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Girish Redekar is the founder of RecruiterBox, an IT pro and SaaS business expert. In this entrepreneur story, Girish talks about how he started his SaaS company and stood out among the thick competition to then sell internationally for an all-cash offer. In this episode, Girish discusses how he bootstrapped RecruiterBox and prioritized customer feedback for product development. He then talks about how he never made more features at one time than the company could afford, because many SaaS businesses go bankrupt when they invest too much into making new features without first acquiring new customers. From there, Girish talks about how he created an automated sales system with a very small sales team. This allowed him to scale RecruiterBox to 2,500 customers internationally, which he then sold to an American private equity firm for an all-cash offer. If you want to discover secrets to scaling a company using repeatable systems, this episode is for you!  // WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast    What You Will Learn What kept Girish on the entrepreneurial path after going two years without anything to show for it. How Girish realized that he was undervaluing what he was building (RecruiterBox). How Girish approached building a new software and why it needed to be better and easier than a simple spreadsheet. How Girish came up with his main KPIs while growing RecruiterBox. How Girish prioritized product development and feature requests based on mass customer feedback. Why Girish never spent more than the company made on marketing, product development, etc. How Girish sold RecruiterBox with automated systems and very few salespeople. How Girish and his leadership team confronted their out-of-the-blue offer with RecruiterBox. How Girish sold RecruiterBox internationally without an investment banker. How Girish was able to walk away with an all-cash deal.   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: Girish Redekar is CEO and co-founder of Sprinto.com., a company that helps SaaS brands become SOC-2 compliant, close enterprise deals faster, and pass vendor security assessments easily. Previously, he built and bootstrapped RecruiterBox to over 2,500 customers and over 50 employees in the U.S. and India. The company was acquired by San Francisco-based private equity firm Turn/River Capital in an undisclosed all-cash deal (no stock or earn-outs). RecruiterBox was profitable throughout its journey. Girish is a passionate programmer and entrepreneur, keen on helping other SaaS businesses demonstrate security chops and close enterprise deals faster.   Interview Quotes: 08:58 - “Because we were broke, it meant that we had to teach ourselves programming. In hindsight, I think the most useful thing that happened was that we taught ourselves programming and how to build these things ourselves and we got pretty good at that.” - Girish Redekar 11:23 - “[In India, being an entrepreneur] is relatively harder, given which pocket of India you are from… It is changing today, especially from fourteen years ago when I started.” - Girish Redekar 17:00 - “I think I undermined the value of the thing we were building. That was one of the lessons from the journey, for me.” - Girish Redekar 20:22 - “We never lost sight of the fact that [the customer] is a person and if you don’t give them what they want, they’re probably not going to use you.” - Girish Redekar 28:51 - “There’s always a lot of low hanging [fruit], things that you can do. You can build a feature or fix a bug. Things which, if you put in the main pipeline of your product, they will always seem distracting.” - Girish Redekar 38:28 - “You know the saying, ‘If you have a hammer, the entire world looks like a nail’? It was kind of like that.” - Girish Redekar 44:03 - “There was a certain trajectory we couldn’t surpass. It was important for us to be cognizant of that fact.” - Girish Redekar 44:22 - “It is possible that the growth of RecruiterBox is actually bottlenecked by the founders. There is a possibility that another owner or management team could do a better job than us at running the company.” - Girish Redekar 55:15 - “There is a lot of worry and it’s good to take a break.” - Girish Redekar   Links and Resources: Sprinto Email: girish@sprinto.com Tag Bryan Clayton and Greenpal   Arkona Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Dr. Craig Everett is on the show today to dive deep (in a way that a normal business owner can understand) into the world of valuations, where they come from, and how the research he leads at Pepperdine University is helping shed light on the middle and lower private markets.   Dr. Craig Everett is a finance professor at Pepperdine University and contributor to the Pepperdine Private Market Capital Projects and Executive Director for the Pepperdine Most Fundable Companies. In this episode, Dr. Everett explains why it's important for every business owner to understand their cost of capital, why weighted average cost of capital (WACC) matters, and why multiples are so high right now in the M&A space. Expand your financial literacy and learn more about how to view your business as a financial asset in this episode with Dr. Craig Everett. // WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast What You Will Learn Why it’s important, as a business owner, to understand how to value a business while you own it What drove Dr. Everett to teach finance after years of consultant work What cost of capital truly means and how to use it as a rule of thumb to determine whether you are growing the value of your business or if it is in decline How your weighted average cost of capital (WACC) fits into clearly understanding your multiple Dr. Everett’s definition of Company Specific Risk and all the factors that go into it Why venture capitalists are moving back to early stage companies Why multiples are so high right now Why your valuation varies depending on the exit you are taking Why people are choosing an exit to a private equity deal versus IPO   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: In addition to being an assistant professor of finance, Craig Everett is also the director of the Pepperdine Most Fundable Companies Initiative, which is a prestigious national startup competition. He is the primary researcher and manager for the Private Capital Markets Project, which publishes a quarterly Private Capital Demand Index and Private Capital Access Index, leading economic indicators. Craig is one of the leading authorities in finance, specializing in private capital markets, entrepreneurial finance, venture capital, business valuation, and financial literacy.   Interview Quotes: 11:44  - “I want [my kids] to be able to sit in a meeting, discussing finance, and know what the heck is being talked about. You can’t just Google stuff in the middle of a meeting; that’ll make you look like an idiot.” - Craig Everett 15:42  - “There are always other avenues to go if you don’t qualify or don’t get an investment from on source of financing.” - Craig Everett 15:58  - “There’s pretty much always money out there. It just depends on what the terms are.” - Craig Everett 18:50  - “With private companies, it’s not that easy. The only time you really know, for sure, the value of a company is at the time of a transaction. Like an equity transaction.” - Craig Everett 19:37  - “It’s ROI, return on investment. If your company[‘s ROI] is greater than your cost of capital, you’re growing your company. Your valuation is becoming larger. If your ROI is less than your cost of capital, you’re bleeding.” - Craig Everett 20:59  - “Generally what we’re talking about is a weighted average cost of capital, where if you have bank loans, the cost of capital for those loans is the interest rate.” - Craig Everett 25:00  - “My dad wasn’t trying to maximize profit because that would have maximized his taxes.” - Craig Everett 25:25  - “A lot of business owners are like that. They’re not necessarily trying to maximize profit because they’re trying to maximize their lifestyle and minimize their taxes. But if you’re trying to sell your business, you’re going to have to reverse that.” - Craig Everett 36:27 - “The higher the discount rate the higher the cost of capital, the lower the multiple.” - Craig Everett   Links and Resources: Privatecap.org Email: craig.everett@pepperdine.edu Craig Everett, Linkedin Craig Everett, Twitter   Arkona Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Being a business owner and entrepreneur takes more than just a crazy work ethic. On today’s show, we have Mari Tautimes, who has confronted a lot of challenges that required a lot of grit and intensity. She became a mom at 15 and had to raise her child by herself. Then, in her early twenties, she was brought into her dad’s insurance brokerage that she helped grow and sell for $16M in 2020.   In this episode, Mari explains that she adopted the “work harder and you’ll become successful” mentality from a really young age. She talks about how she gave her life to her family business and how she learned that the importance of slowing down and being self-aware can actually reap really good results for your company and your employees. She also explains about the importance of leading by example and what humans really need in business and life (psychologically). This is an awesome entrepreneurial story about someone who really narrowed in on what they want out of their business and why.   WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast   What You Will Learn How Mari faced the challenge of being a young parent and how it transferred to her drive in business How Mari confronted objections from her dad and brother within her family business How a business run by family members transcends into the company culture and employees Why Mari wishes she took more breaks and time off from her business for the company culture How Mari realized that she needed to “step off the gas” because of all the burnout she was experiencing What the six human needs are and how they translate into satisfaction with your business Why understanding psychology is so important when running a business Why self-awareness is so valuable to your team Why core focus is so important in the growth of your business Why Mari stepped back from her family business before it was acquired   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: Mari Tautimes is an entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience. She has served as a Co-CEO of her family business with her twin brother. Together, they took the revenue from $350,000 to $10M in only 7 years. She is also a speaker, a coach, an author, and an EOS Implementer, with over 400 hours of leadership training and development under her belt. Her passion is inspiring and motivating others so they can reach their full potential. She is also a devoted wife and mother to four kids.   Interview Quotes: 09:36  - “I got a job a month after I had the baby because I wasn’t going to use cloth diapers.” - Mari Tautimes   09:53  - “The moment I found out that I was pregnant– there’s this really great story I heard from somebody once, which is the story about the bison. So a bison, when it’s facing a storm, will turn toward the storm and instinctively walk through it, knowing that if you do that, you’ll get to the other side faster.” - Mari Tautimes 10:19  - “Ever since I found out I was pregnant… Everything has just been like, ‘Just face it. Whatever it is, just turn around and face it. Because it’s just going to take too long to go the other way. And we’re going to get there anyway, so the faster route is just facing it.’” - Mari Tautimes 12:07  - “I’m a hard worker but I’m also lazy. So every time we would do something, I’d be like, ‘That’s too much effort.’ And so everything was about finding efficiency.” - Mari Tautimes 33:52  - “It’s not that other people are keeping us in that position, we’re keeping ourselves in that position.” - Mari Tautimes 35:25  - “Learn about yourself so that you know how to better communicate and have better language to communicate your needs.” - Mari Tautimes 41:11  - “One of the things we teach on EOS is core focus. Like, ‘What is the one thing that you can do better than anyone else?’ And that became our thing.” - Mari Tautimes  49:25  - “It shouldn’t matter what product or service we’re putting into it. We should be able to eek out pure gold out of the other side, if we really understand what we’re doing.” - Mari Tautimes  60:17  - “The number one issue with a visionary [partner] is translating their vision and bridging the gap.” - Mari Tautimes  61:10 - “It’s your perfect puzzle piece of a partner that can decipher all the exciting things that you’re so excited to talk about and figure out what are the three things that you’re bringing to me right now, that we can actually take down to the ground and execute as an organization?” - Mari Tautimes    Links and Resources: #KeepGoing: From 15-Year-Old Mom To Successful CEO & Entrepreneur by Mari Tautimes Mari Tautimes   Arkona Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Private equity gets a bad rap when it comes to owners thinking about their legacy. Thankfully there is a new wave of players coming in who are focused on the long game and what it takes to see a company through multiple decades, not just years. Enter Trish Higgins. Trish, her husband James, and his brother Palmer started Chenmark with the mission to buy small businesses in order to hold on to them and preserve their legacies long-term.   Today Trish opens up about choosing the C-corp route and how that influences her acquisition choices. She also talks about why she looks at the owner's personal drivers as well as the cash flow statements of the company to determine fit. One thing you’ll notice is that Trish tends to buy up those “boring” companies because they have sustainable and predictable cash flow, plus those types of companies don’t require a lot of hyper-skilled managing partners to run them. Her unique strategy is proving quite successful—to the tune of 31 acquisitions since 2015.   WATCH THE INTERVIEW ON YOUTUBE: Intentional Growth™ Podcast   What You Will Learn Why Trish made the shift from finance to starting her own private equity holding company  What types of businesses Trish focused on out of the gate and why Why Trish never wrote up a “grand plan” for her investments like most business owners How Trish finds business owners that are ready to step back and sell Why Chenmark Capital is structured as a C-corp What drove Trish to allow her employees to use their holiday bonuses to buy equity in their company How Trish structured Chemark’s first deal Why Trish goes after “boring” and “uninteresting” businesses What factors into making a deal that preserves the legacy of a company and how that goes beyond numbers Why small business owners need to understand how to deploy their capital, even if it’s not directly into business operations Why Trish looks into a company's cash flow statements rather than EBITDA to evaluate the deal   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: Trish Higgins is a founding partner at Chenmark, a firm based out of Portland, Maine, focused on the acquisition and long-term ownership of small businesses throughout North America. She is currently acting CEO of Cap'n Fish's Cruises, a Boothbay Harbor-based whale watching, puffin tour, and sightseeing operation founded in 1936, which Chenmark acquired in February 2020. Outside of work, Trish can be found spending quality time with her husband and business partner, James, and their two kids. She also tries to get to her local Crossfit box as much as time permits.   Interview Quotes: 14:19  - “Fair valuations (nothing crazy). We can be long-term owners and we want to build a portfolio of these cash-flowing businesses. And we want to use the cash flow from one business to buy the next business.” - Trish Higgins  15:00  - “I definitely wasted some opportunities in business school. ‘Cause when I was in business school, I was very focused on going back into finance, primarily so that I could have the firm would pay for my business school debt.” - Trish Higgins 17:07  - “‘We want to own businesses for the long term, that generate cash flow. And have a portfolio of those things.’ Once you figure out that thesis, you don’t have to spend any time thinking about it.” - Trish Higgins 22:22  - “Our highest priority is long term compounding of capital.” - Trish Higgins 29:53  - “A lot of business owners are going to be most successful in their sale, if they first define what success looks to them.” - Trish Higgins 35:54  - “When somebody decides a great time to sell is a highly personalized decision.” - Trish Higgins 39:10  - “We look for things that are–what we call–reoccurring revenue. So it’s more like, ‘Can we get comfortable with the durability of demand?’” - Trish Higgins 65:12  - “Be successful on purpose, not on accident.” - Trish Higgins   Links and Resources: Email: trish@chenmark.com Chenmark   Arkona Website The 5 Intentional Growth™ Principles (5 Videos to Help Clarify Your Vision) Intentional Growth™ Financial Assessment Fractional CFO Services   You can also reach out to me via email at rtansom@arkona.io, or on my LinkedIn.

Have you ever wondered why certain brands have started investing in content marketing? This episode will shine some light on that question. Alexis Grant shares why her first and second exit were so successful because of her great content marketing and how she believes other business owners can increase the value of their business by focusing on more than the multiple—by focusing on the "story" of the brand and how it really reaches its market.   This entrepreneurial story is about growing true value in your business using high quality content, without sacrificing good business sense. Alexis found the entrepreneurial bug after starting her career off in journalism and realizing how important a personal brand was when she struck out on her own as a freelancer. Growing and selling her first business, a content media company dedicated to growing businesses with blogs, showed her that brand matters just as much to companies as individuals. Maybe more so.   Tune in today to learn what you might be missing on the brand side of content marketing.   What You Will Learn Why companies buy teams rather than other assets (called 'acquihire') What led Alexis to choose the acquihire route The benefits of running a company with a small team and why Alexis likes that approach so much Why Alexis chose to pivot from the content space to the M&A space How content marketing helps companies gain the trust of their customers Why increasing your multiple is not the right metric to solely focus on when selling What impact branding had on Alex selling her second business Why certain aspects of your digital marketing strategy can be worth more to a buyer than others When content should be your biggest expense as a business owner   // USE YOUR FINANCIALS TO CLARIFY A PATH TOWARDS A MORE VALUABLE BUSINESS: Intentional Growth Financial Assessment   Bio: Alexis Grant is a media innovator who specializes in building content teams and growth marketing. From 2015-2019, Alexis led the content division at The Penny Hoarder as Executive Vice President of Content. After joining the company as the third employee, she worked alongside the founder to scale, growing their audience to tens of millions of readers, developing their brand reputation as a leader in media, and building infrastructure to support 100+ employees. After selling her company, The Write Life, in early 2021, she began building They Got Acquired, a media brand that focuses on acquisitions of online businesses and is her current venture.     Interview Quotes: 07:07  - “I was only at that day job for a year before I started to realize, ‘You know, that side thing has a lot more potential and I’m really starting to get into it.’” - Alexis Grant 07:25  - “I was never interested in business but then I realized, business is figuring out how to make money yourself, without having to wait for someone else to give you a paycheck. And it’s really challenging and really fun.” - Alexis Grant 23:25  - “But then I just realized, I just didn’t want to do it anymore. It felt like who I was ten years ago and I wanted a new challenge.” - Alexis Grant 25:14  - “I think a lot of times (especially with so many people on this show and people that I talk with), finding out what they like… I’m crazy shocked at how hard that is. So people will just do things until it’s a breaking point. whether it’s emotional, or stress, or finance.” - Ryan Tansom 25:35  - “Figuring out that I didn’t want to do it was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out what I want to do instead. ” - Alexis Grant 32:35  - “It can be hard to find professionals that will support a six to seven figure sale, just because you don’t know where to look.” - Alexis Grant 45:12  - “E-mail list is huge because that’s your owned audience. That’s what they call it, is an ‘owned audience.’” - Alexis Grant   Links and Resources: Twitter: Alexis Grant They Got Acquired Website They Got Acquired 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, or on my LinkedIn.