angishields, Author at Business RadioX ® Page

BRX Reseller Tip: Invite Your Prospect On The Show

October 27, 2022 by angishields

BRX National

BRX Reseller Tip: Invite Your Prospect On The Show

00:00 /

BRX Reseller Tip: Invite Your Prospect On The Show

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX® Reseller Tips. Stone Payton here with you this morning. Today’s tip, invite your prospect on the show. It’s a marvelous way to begin a new relationship. It’s a terrific way to strengthen an existing relationship. It’s a good way to reciprocate to your referral partners, your most trusted circle of people who you are working with and through.

Stone Payton: [00:00:27] If you have purchased a Business RadioX® Custom Turnkey Podcast for your own business, invite them on your show. If not, then invite them to appear as a guest on one of our flagship shows. We call them house shows. We never, ever charge guests to appear on any Business RadioX® show, and for our resellers, we never charge you to sponsor episodes that you’ve organized.

Stone Payton: [00:00:52] There simply is no better way that we’ve ever come across for cultivating genuine relationships. It will put you in a position to have a more substantive conversation with them, and they will want to reciprocate. They’ll take your call. They’ll entertain the idea of your products and services with an open mind — and everything else being even remotely equal, they’re going to give you the nod. They’re going to want to do business with you.

Stone Payton: [00:01:27] And once they have had that Guest Experience and participated in that process, they have a heightened more informed frame of reference when you begin to talk with them about using the platform to grow their own business. So that’s today’s tip. Invite your Prospect, invite your Client, invite your Market Partners to be on the show.

Steven Palmer with Transworld Business Advisors of Annapolis

October 27, 2022 by angishields

Buy a Business Near Me

Steven Palmer with Transworld Business Advisors of Annapolis

00:00 /

Steven Palmer helps business owners start-up, scale-up, or sell their business.

He started Transworld Business Advisors of Annapolis in April 2021 after 17 years providing software engineering, data analytics, and project management support for the United States Government and Department of Defense.

He has an undergraduate degree (Computer Science) from the University of Mary Washington and a Masters Degree (M.B.A) from George Mason University.

Connect with Steven on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

As an individual, why buy a business when you can start one from scratch
Some advantages of, and when is it right to, grow your business through acquisition
Why rising interest rates are making this a perfect time to sell your business
Free, quick, down and dirty, tips that will help a business owner sell their business

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Buy a Business Near Me, brought to you by the Business RadioX Ambassador program, helping business brokers sell more local businesses. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:32] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Buy a Business near Me. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Transworld Business Advisors of Annapolis, Mr. Steven Palmer. How are you doing today, man?

Steven Palmer: [00:00:51] Stone. I’m great, man. Thanks for having me.

Stone Payton: [00:00:54] Well, we are delighted to have you on the show. One of the first things that I thought might be helpful to give me and our listeners a little context is if you could speak to mission purpose, what what you’re really out there trying to do for folks.

Steven Palmer: [00:01:11] Yeah, it’s it’s quite simple. We have a lot of very, very nice people that live in and around the Annapolis area. We have a lot of very, very hardworking people that have been working their entire lives to build a business, build a brand, provide a service to our community, and we are helping them with their exit strategy. So when it comes time for them to move on to the next phase, whether that’s to go play with grandchildren, whether let’s go hang out on a on a boat or read a good book or spend more time on the links, whatever that is. We’re not here to tell them what it is. We’re just here to help them put a value on their business. That’s really marketed the best deal we can and see them through the sale and the selling process.

Stone Payton: [00:01:55] So what’s the back story? How did you get into into this line of work?

Steven Palmer: [00:02:00] Yeah. So I am a recovering software engineer. I realized I like people more than software and thought I would move up the ranks in the government contracting world, which was completely fine. But my my wife and I made a made a family decision to get a little bit closer to 2 hours. Both her, her parents and mine. And we moved away from D.C.. Out to Annapolis. And in that process, I no longer really had ties to the D.C. area. So I started looking for for that next job. And Transworld grabbed me. Transworld found me on the you the indeed websites or the job boards. They reached out and they kind of said, Hey, we see you have some some background in selling, we see you have some background in management, you’ve got an MBA. Have you ever considered selling a business? Which I thought was intriguing because my father ran a business for 30 years and when he was done, he was just kind of done. He folded up and got got nothing for and I remember him telling me about it over beer, saying, you know, that our construction was no more. And I thought. That’s not right. That’s not right. You work. You’ve worked way too hard. That’s not right. But I didn’t really know what it was at the time. So when Transworld came asking, know, Hey, have you ever thought about selling small, mid-sized businesses? I thought. That would have been great for my dad. And I thought that it’s a good service that that’s sorely needed in my area and something that I thought I’d be really good at. I’ve been running at pretty much ever since.

Stone Payton: [00:03:43] So how would you describe the pros and cons or the decision making process for an individual between buying a business or just just starting one from scratch?

Steven Palmer: [00:03:56] Yeah, I mean, the the pros for starting from scratch is the cheaper is cheaper. The cons are everything else, 1%, everything else. And I could even make an argument that it’s probably not even cheaper once you factor in the amount of money and time and blood, sweat and tears it’s going to take to to reach the same level that some of these businesses that are some of the businesses that the owners have been growing for 20 years, you know, if you catch the right business under the right terms and this is something that we’re we’re very open with, with all of our potential buyers, whether we’re representing sellers or not, we let them know there’s kind of what we think our valuation is. You’re kind of how we came up with that valuation is because if we don’t do that, the bank’s going to do that immediately and the bank is going to shoot us down. So we’re going to have egg on our face. So we’re very upfront, we’re very honest. And if you look at that value and compare it to how much you would have to spend marketing and selling and then factoring your time commitments for all of that and the lack of sleep and the time away from family and the stress and the heartache and all that other stuff, I could probably make a make a case that it’s cheaper just to buy a good business.

Stone Payton: [00:05:11] So are some of your buyers, those that have an existing business and they’re really like acquiring something just like it or complementary to it? Speak to that a little bit.

Steven Palmer: [00:05:24] So there’s multiple ways that it makes sense to buy a business, right? We deal with the individuals that are know, I’m tired of working for somebody, Give me give me a business I can run. And but we also deal with exactly what you’re talking about. Right. And it makes sense if you’re an existing business to buy another business when you are looking to expand your your service providers, when you’re looking to increase the the amount of of customers that you have in a certain area, if you’re looking to expand into a new area, there are a lot of different scenarios where it makes sense. It’s called growth through acquisition, right? And it is by far, in a way, the fastest way to grow a business. So owners that are looking to do that, the questions are really how quickly do you want to scale? Do you have the capacity to scale now or are you going to have to hire? And what’s what capacity is really kind of coming with the business, right? Because, you know, and and what’s the overlap? Are there synergies between the two? Right, Or are you going to have to come in and immediately have to lop off half of the business they’ve been doing? Because you just that’s not an area where you compete. So, I mean, we we walk people through what the acquisition looks like, both from a game of hopscotch right here. Here’s one step, here’s the next step, here’s the next step. But also from a strategic level, once you get this, here’s what they’ve done very, very well and here’s what you’re going to be able to leverage. Right? So we work, we walk buyers through all of that.

Stone Payton: [00:06:50] So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for you for for your practice? How do you get the the new buyers, the new sellers is one more challenging than the other.

Steven Palmer: [00:07:03] Uh, yes. So we have been in Annapolis, has been around for since 1979, I think is when they officially kicked off. So we’ve got some center of gravity there where things are starting to kind of pull into us. And people are certainly aware of of our name and seek us out. Otherwise, we we are a franchised, so our owners go and live in the area that they service. So I live in Annapolis. I my my kids go to daycare in Annapolis. We go out to eat in Annapolis. We, we network. We everything that we do is in and around the area. So we know the players, we know the banks, we know the the lawyers. We know all the pieces that you need to buy a business. We we do. We do provide it. When we were starting out, we did some things like putting envelopes on doors of closed businesses. Hey, have you ever considered selling your business? If so, give me a call. We still do use postcards. We haven’t done as much with social media, social media, marketing, all that we have in the past and probably need to get back into it.

Steven Palmer: [00:08:08] But I mean, honestly, the next big thing that I’m really excited about is we we also do industry webinars, so we’re partnering with the business coach, we’re partnering with a financial advisor, and we’re going to be putting on a a webinar here in November to kind of not only talk people through what does this raising interest rate from the Fed look like? How does it affect you selling your business? But hey, if you’re are you are you ready to sell your business? If you’re not, let’s talk to this business coach and let’s talk to them about what they can do and what their timeline is to work with you to get you into a sellable position. And then once you have that check in hand. Well, let’s talk to let’s talk to this financial advisor and talk about ways that you can keep the most in your pocket and strategically invested. Right. And then we’re the business coach is is Patrick with Chesapeake think tank and the the financial advisors and also with Ken Alsina and they are two of the absolute best in the business and it’s going to be an absolutely great event.

Stone Payton: [00:09:06] It sounds to me like the work, at least the way you and Transworld choose to approach it, is far more relationship oriented than transactional, far more relationship oriented than I guess I was anticipating.

Steven Palmer: [00:09:22] Hmm, I think it can be run either, but I mean, from my perspective it is. It’s relationship driven, it’s different, you know? And I think I think all of sales should be I don’t think all of sales are. I think all sales should be. I think that is the correct way to go about the selling process. And that’s kind of what we’ve certainly implement here.

Stone Payton: [00:09:44] Well, I mean, you’re clearly enjoying the work. I can hear it in your voice. I know our listeners can hear on the airways. What are what are you finding the most rewarding at this point in your career? What are you enjoying the most?

Steven Palmer: [00:09:56] Oh, man, I got a we did a deal with an automotive shop back in July, closed in July, and this guy is ran the shop for 20 years and he was hoping to pass it down to a son. And his son just decided that that wasn’t really the path for him. And he and the father respected the son, which is the right thing to do. But he really didn’t know what he wanted to do or he really didn’t have an exit strategy at that point. So when I approached him about helping themselves business, because by the way, automotive in this industry, automotive Indianapolis right now is absolutely scorching hot for a number of reasons, but that that digresses from here. But for this specific deal, you know, I approached him and he’s like, yeah, you know, I see my getting out in a couple of years. But honestly, like, if we can do it now, that’s that’s great. I’d rather start spend some more time on the water. I want to go jump on a boat and sail down to the keys. That’s that’s my dream right now. So we we listed his business within a couple of months. We had we had a very intriguing buyer.

Steven Palmer: [00:11:00] Luckily for the buyer, we were able to bring him out of Jersey and down to the Annapolis region, which is just clearly a quality of life improvement. I’m kidding. All my all my Jersey friends out there. I’m completely kidding. I do like Jersey. Jersey’s a great time, but I just couldn’t resist. But we found we found a perfect buyer for him. He’s coming down. We negotiated a a deal where the seller was able to to sell or finance this purchase, which absolutely made the acquisition seamless. We closed it in just over three weeks and probably would have closed it in under three weeks if it didn’t fall. That was in straddling the 4th of July holiday and have a bunch of people that went out of town. So now this guy gets up and on the fifth of every month he gets a check for doing nothing but putting his pants on. And then he goes back into the same business that he always enjoyed working in. But this time now, not as an owner, just as a mechanic, because he still enjoys the work. He just didn’t. He was tired of of the overhead. He was tired of always having to be there.

Steven Palmer: [00:12:06] He was tired of all of the ancillary things that that that grind on those owners. Right. Over time. Yeah. And now he’s going to jump on a boat and take that Caribbean trip in October, November at least, knock on wood and hopefully it doesn’t fall through for him. So I’m really excited for him because, you know, again, he gets this 30 $500 check and start of every month. He gets a paycheck now from from working as an employee. He’s helping the this this new buyer grow this business because he’s got a he’s got a vision. But I don’t know if you’ve heard Stone, but hiring is a challenge. You know, so like he’s helping get this get this guy firmly planted in the ground, you know, bring this guy, this new guy into the community. And I really enjoy getting to know Mark. And Glen was a seller, and Glen is just a fantastic human as well. I mean, that was such a such a fun deal to be a part of, just so happy that it worked out the way it did. And best of all, you know, now hopefully I get a discount on my oil changes.

Stone Payton: [00:13:01] There you go.

Steven Palmer: [00:13:03] At least for the next one or two.

Stone Payton: [00:13:05] But but this example that you share, it’s a great way to underscore the what I’m learning in doing some of these interviews in this arena is that there’s a lot of opportunity to get creative and genuinely serve everyone with with the with the structure of the deal. It doesn’t have to be hand me your keys and I hand you a check, right?

Steven Palmer: [00:13:28] Yes. Yes. That’s that’s that’s exactly right. And we’ve again, been around the block once or twice. So we’ve we’ve seen some of these structured deals. We know how we can kind of help these guys get creative. There’s so many owners that I come to that don’t even know. Yeah. You know, I don’t entertain selling my my business. But how much how much do I ask for it? You know, like step one, which is to put it put a price tag on the asset. And while we we do ask for a commission on the back end, we take such a headache away because there’s always a part there’s always a point in the deal where the deal can just get stuck. And because we’ve seen it and because we have various contacts for, for that deal back in July, we always got we almost got held up for a couple of weeks because the guy was waiting on an insurance provider. Right. The guy guy was coming down from New Jersey, didn’t didn’t have contacts in the area, had to get insurance for for the the LLC that he was setting up to take over.

Steven Palmer: [00:14:29] So we structured the sale as an asset sale and the insurance provider just wasn’t wasn’t responsive. Well I’m in the industry, I live in the area. I know 30 insurance providers, five of which I’ve done deals with and like like a whole lot. So we were able to help them get that within 48 hours, within 72 hours of him reaching out, We we had an insurance quote, you know, like, you know, we’re able to kind of keep things move and keep things going. And because otherwise those deals hang, you know, not scare people away. If you if you can sell it on your own and keep 100% of the value of your business, do it. And you have a price point of mind that it makes sense for you to do it at do it know my services are not perfect for everybody. My services are not right for everybody. But if you’re if you’re nervous about the plan and would like somebody be able to kind of come in and help help you see help see you through it, we’d love to be able to help out however we can.

Stone Payton: [00:15:29] So I was planning to ask you a question about mentors and but it strikes me that one of the tremendous advantages of joining a team like Transworld, you must have some have had some built in mentors like Right Out of the Box that really helped you navigate some of this terrain early on.

Steven Palmer: [00:15:51] Yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You know, all of our. So what’s great about Transworld being a franchise is not just the fact that we’re interconnected to our 250 offices around the globe, but not that not just the fact that I can see every deal that’s being worked at any point in time or all the way back to 2014, 2015, and use that data to help my clients. But I mean, the training, not just the hey, you’re brand new, come hang out in Florida for a week and let us walk you through what it’s like to sell a business, but also the ongoing training as well and the refresher courses. And they provide all of that stuff for us. It allows us to kind of stay up to pace, stay up to date on the industry comings and goings. And I mean, starting with with Glenda dad, who was the the first guy to kind of talk to me about valuing a business and how how you go about recasting financials and what you’re looking for and how you how you ultimately get down to some of that to some of the other industry partners that that and Kyknet and team at Transworld have been able to bring in and provide us. We’ve got partners with with folks at Bennett Benetton’s that were able to are able to help people pull money out of their existing retirement accounts, early tax free to fund the purchase of businesses today. I mean, like some I mean some of the resources they’ve been able to just introduce me to or have been have been world changing.

Stone Payton: [00:17:16] Well, it certainly sounds like it. So this is kind of a tactical question, and maybe I’m watching too much news, but it has to do with timing. And for your listeners out there, if you you know, because sometimes people will hear this content six months, a year, two years after, after we’ve captured it, we’re having this this conversation at a time when interest rates are kind of on the rise. Does does that have an impact? Does that influence timing? Like is it a better time, a good time, a bad time in terms of buying or selling a business?

Steven Palmer: [00:17:51] Sure. I mean, money is never going to be cheaper than it is right now for the foreseeable future. Right. The Fed has has signaled that, hey, we’re going to need to continue to raise interest rates to fight inflation right now, which means every dollar that you borrow today is going to require. More overhead, certainly than yesterday, but less overhead is going to tomorrow. So it’s being able to get some of the buyers off the fence. With that being said, buying power has now certainly decreased as well. So if you’re considering selling, you’re going to want to be able to enter that market soon, because one of the things that we always talk to our sellers about is the number of buyers, the number of potential buyers, and how can we increase that buyer pool. Right. And, you know, sadly, what the Fed’s doing, whether it’s necessary or not, history will be able to tell us that I’m certainly not qualified, but the Fed is effectively lowering our buyer pool. So if you’re looking to get out in the next next year or next, next three years, now is probably a really good time to hurry up and and sit down and chat. So see if we can kind of get you out there sooner. But it certainly is getting some buyers off the fence as well, which is good.

Stone Payton: [00:19:10] Yeah. So maybe a related topic, just timing in general, irrespective of of current economic conditions. If you’re a business owner and you’ve got your eye on exiting at some point in some way, what kind of what kind of runway do you need? Because I’m operating under the impression you need more than just a than a few months. You’ve got to get some you’ve got to get some things put in place, right?

Steven Palmer: [00:19:37] Yeah. Yeah. It’s not it’s not short. 8.3. 8.3 months is the average sale time. I don’t nobody’s been able to tell me what 8.3 of a month is. So there’s that that makes that makes me think that a mathematician came up with that number and not a not a human. But even so, if we if we say eight months, it’s gonna take eight months to sell business. I mean, I mean banks are taking anywhere between 45 and 60 days for a loan alone, right. So you figure you’ve got, you’re walking into to two months. If somebody needs to borrow money, then there is the courting period and then there is the due diligence period. And lawyers are involved. And sometimes there’s there’s CPAs involved or bookkeepers that need to get involved to review everything and make sure the financials align. And we certainly recommend that all of those people play and make sure that both buyers and sellers have the appropriate professionals representing them on both sides because it’s an expensive purchase. You want to make sure that you are doing your homework and getting what you you expect to get out of it. You walk into these deals with eyes wide open. I mean, it’s it’s a long it’s just it’s just a long time.

Stone Payton: [00:20:52] Yeah. Yeah. And then before all that, as a as a seller, as a potential seller, I mean, you got to get your books clean, you got to get your value, you got to do a lot. So they need to be talking to you sooner than later.

Steven Palmer: [00:21:05] You know, it’s it certainly helps. We’re doing a deal now that I sit down with the owner and we’re we’re trying to get down to a number that’s that we the term is sellers discretionary earnings. So all the value all the profit that the owner is taken out of the business, which goes beyond just their paycheck. Right. It could be their health insurance, it could be their car payments, it could be their cell phones. It could be a variety of things. Right. Yeah. And then not to mention, you know, you kind of add all of that back against the value that you report to the IRS or subtract that if the value is negative, which hopefully most business owners are reporting something negative to the IRS. But if you’re taking money underneath the table, that gets more difficult to justify to the bank because it’s not going to necessarily show up on some of those financial documents as well. So it’s great for business owners to be able to kind of do that, to kind of be able to just put that cash straight in their pocket. But when it comes time to sell, it is advantageous to put as much of that back onto the actual paper as possible and to do that for two or three years leading up to it. And again, that’s typically what I end up doing, is trying to pass that along to to Patrick or some of the other really great business coaches that we have in this area. That’s that’s they they have they have plans. They they help people get back involved. But from my perspective, when it comes time to to to market this baby and certainly when I start representing you with a bank to get a loan, the cleaner your financials are, the easier my job, the easier my job, the faster your sale is, the faster your sale is, the sooner you’re on a beach.

Stone Payton: [00:22:42] I love it. Okay. I’d like to leave our listeners with with a handful of I’ll call them pro tips. Just to some do’s, some don’ts, some things to read, some things to be thinking about. And of course, the number one pro tip gang is reach out and have a conversation with Stephen Palmer. But but maybe there’s a couple of action we’ll just kind of down and dirty tips that a lot a business owner would benefit from maybe on both sides selling, you know, buying and selling anything you can offer on that front.

Steven Palmer: [00:23:11] Yeah. Reach out to me. Have a conversation. We’re we’re commission based and we only get paid on success. So we don’t take any money up front. We don’t. We don’t get paid by the hour. So even if you are just thinking about it at the start, let’s have a conversation. If you’re in the Annapolis area, let’s let’s sit down and have a cup of coffee. There’s there’s no reason we can’t. Again, to me, it is a relationship driven ballgame. So Thursday, there’s a book called the The Private Equity Playbook. I kind of enjoyed reading that and also know what the most important factors are for you, right? So sometimes that is let’s get X number and we’re going to hang on till we find a buyer that’s going to get us X number. Sometimes that is, I just need to get out, get me a ham sandwich. And sometimes you, sometimes there’s there’s somewhere in between, right? Yeah. We don’t want to just give it away. But at the same token, we really kind of we need to expedite this. So when we talk to you about things like let’s, let’s price this aggressively, let’s look at seller financing, let’s let’s use some of these other tools and tricks that have been proven to sell businesses faster. You know, not everything’s right. Don’t get me wrong. Everyone’s got their own situations. Everyone’s got to make their own decisions for themselves, but really give them some some consideration because we’re we’re saying this to you because we’ve been through it and we know we know what the outcome will be.

Stone Payton: [00:24:36] What a pleasure to have you on the show, sir.

Steven Palmer: [00:24:39] Oh, this was great, man. So. So thankful that you you reached out and we were able to make this happen. It was a lot of fun.

Stone Payton: [00:24:47] Me, too. Okay. Let’s make sure that our listeners have an easy path to to get in touch with you, man. Whatever’s best. You know, email, website, LinkedIn, whatever you feel like is appropriate.

Steven Palmer: [00:24:57] Yeah, absolutely. So don’t hesitate to reach out to me. My email address, which is s pal m e r et pt WorldCom. If you want to come check out our website and see what businesses we have for sale, it’s t worldcom slash annapolis. And then are the office numbers the easiest way to get hold of me? It’s 4108426063. And if you want to bypass everybody else, just hit extension zero. They’ll come right to me.

Stone Payton: [00:25:27] Well, thanks so much for hanging out with us this afternoon. Man. This has been fun. It’s informative, it’s inspiring. It has me believing that even on our exit at Business RadioX, maybe I can still hang around and do some of the fun stuff.

Steven Palmer: [00:25:41] Absolutely. That’s when the fun begins. You got it right, Stone.

Stone Payton: [00:25:44] All right. Well, thanks again. You’re doing important work, man, and we sure appreciate you.

Steven Palmer: [00:25:49] I appreciate you, sir.

Stone Payton: [00:25:50] All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today with Transworld Business Advisors of Annapolis, Mr. Stephen Palmer, and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you next time on Buy a Business near me.

Ann Griffin with Symptom Evolution

October 27, 2022 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Ann Griffin with Symptom Evolution

00:00 /

Dr. Ann Griffin developed and teaches Symptom Evolution, a revolutionary health care methodology that produces consistent and rapid relief of even the most complex pain conditions.

After several years in her manual therapy practice, she realized traditional diagnosis and treatment algorithms were woefully inadequate to get the kind of results she wanted for her patients. Why do two patients with the same condition get markedly different results to the same treatment? Why do symptoms return?

Symptom Evolution was developed to not only answer these questions, but create a system to dramatically increase the efficiency of health care as we know it. She holds two degrees from University of Western States and has been in practice for 12 years.

Ann still maintains a private practice in central Oregon and teaches this important work both at home and abroad. She also enjoys chasing her kiddos, rafting, skiing, and lifting weights.

Connect with Ann on LinkedIn and follow Symptom Evolution on Facebook and Instagram.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

Origin and mission of Symptom Evolution
Frustrations of patients and doctors alike in our current healthcare climate
Business mindset and modeling a culture of “Elevate and Celebrate”
Future of Symptom Evolution and shifting our health care model

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the high velocity radio show where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. This is going to be a marvelous conversation. You guys are in for such a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Symptom Evolution and Griffin, how are you?

Ann Griffin: [00:00:37] Oh, I’m awesome. It’s been a great day. Thanks for having me on.

Stone Payton: [00:00:40] Yeah, It’s a delight to have you on the program. I think a great place to start might be if you could articulate for us mission purpose what what you and your team are really out there trying to do for folks.

Ann Griffin: [00:00:55] Oh, same thing that you’re trying to do better results in less time. So the work that I do symptom evolution refers to a health care methodology, and this methodology is just a refinement of our question and answer or question asking during a history intake. And it’s also to identify really the root cause, because it’s one of the biggest plagues in all of health care. And it doesn’t matter what your stripe is, whether you’re a physical therapist, an orthopedic surgeon, a massage therapist, it doesn’t matter what flavor of health care practitioner you are, there’s a lot of guesswork that goes into it with our current model that we don’t really understand what’s causing somebody’s knee pain. We’ve kind of got a best guess, and so there’s a lot of trial and error, and that alone is the number one drag on. Our gross domestic product is low back pain because we can’t accurately identify what’s actually causing someone’s lower back pain, much less fix it in a consistent or an efficient manner. And so that’s the the problem that symptom set symptom evolution set out to solve is to have a much more accurate way of taking a history to get us a much more accurate diagnoses and therefore guide a much more efficient treatment progress moving forward. On average, even for very complex cases, we only treat somebody maybe 2 to 4 times and then their problem is expected to make a full resolution and not return.

Stone Payton: [00:02:23] Wow. That is incredible. I guess I already knew or felt like I knew that, you know, patients and doctors alike are probably very frustrated with the with the current health care climate. But I don’t think I anticipated the immediate and direct impact on economics, like the like the gross domestic product that. Wow, that’s alarming.

Ann Griffin: [00:02:47] Yeah. And unnecessary. We spend the most amount of money here in the United States on health care and our outcomes are pretty mediocre. So in admitting the emperor has no clothes, what we were, what our working diagnosis or our premises that we were rendering our health care was based on, there’s a glitch somewhere. And that is evidenced again by the inefficient or the ineffective care outcomes that we get. So, for example, it’s a completely acceptable course of care to see somebody 12 to 16 times in physical therapy, chiropractic, acupuncture, and you expect to have that dosage of care before you start to expect results, number one. And two, you already expect the problem to return. There is something wrong with this picture.

Stone Payton: [00:03:37] Yeah, I’ll say.

Ann Griffin: [00:03:39] Right. That’s you know, how many times do you need to bake a cookie? Right. I think you’re doing it wrong. And that’s not to disparage any of my wonderful colleagues out there in the field, but that there’s got to be a better way. There’s got to be a more efficient way, because the frustration that’s felt by patients when they see practitioner after practitioner and they can’t figure out why they’re in pain or the treatment, the trials of treatments that they’ve had maybe rendered some pretty mediocre outcomes. The problem still comes back, or maybe at worst didn’t have an effect at all or made them worse. The surgery didn’t work. The surgery made them worse. The cortisone injection didn’t work, the physical therapy didn’t work. And those patients start to lose hope because their practitioners can’t explain why they’re still having symptoms. But to enlighten patients, us as practitioners, we all get into this field because we want to be of help, we want to be of service. And when our patients come back and say, Doc, I’m worse. Doc, it didn’t make a difference. Yeah, maybe I got a day of relief, but not more than that. We feel the frustration too, but on our side to get curious about why that is, that’s really where symptom evolution was born is because as my patients were coming back and I was really good at the work that I already knew how to do, but I was still only hitting maybe an 86% success rate.

Ann Griffin: [00:05:00] And I couldn’t explain why to people with what I. It was the same knee pain. One would get better and I do the same thing for the other person and they wouldn’t y y. And there’s some patterns that started to show up. So I observed, for example, that when patients had more than three injuries, significant injuries or surgical events, and again, they’re interchangeable. The more stuff that happened to somebody in somebody to a person in someone’s life, the less likely the work I already knew how to do was going to be effective. And I also noticed if somebody had a lot of dislocations and not any broken bones, the work I was going to do didn’t work either. Just those kinds of things. So I started to do a lot of research and it really started to come together that when A plus B equals C, well, then it follows logically, the D plus equals F, and this goes all the way to Z. And when I started to apply the principles, I got amazing, miraculous, almost unbelievable results. And it just has to do with identifying some root causes that are not known by the health care profession at large yet. So on a mission to really change how we see the body and up the standards of what we think is an acceptable outcome of care I don’t think is good enough.

Stone Payton: [00:06:16] So then you find yourself beginning to educate other practitioners in this pursuit.

Ann Griffin: [00:06:23] Mm hmm. When I started to get some pretty amazing results, I was like, Oh, okay, I’m on to something. Because when I got hundreds and hundreds of patient reports and patient outcomes that were just unbelievable, I took on three students. They were practitioners whom I knew locally and it took about three months to train them. And these poor these poor first students didn’t have any visual aids. I didn’t have any lecture notes. I just firehose them with information. But we ended up crafting a course that is very digestible. The first level course is about 10 hours. It’s all done online and as I saw, these practitioners who then graduated became certified in symptom evolution, not only understand what I was trying to tell them, but apply it and they get the exact same amazing results. So this technique is reproducible that I’m not special. It’s just a few missing pieces of information that we lack as health care professionals to get the kind of efficient and effective care that both the practitioner and the patient really want.

Stone Payton: [00:07:32] You’re so energetic, you’re so enthusiastic. It comes through over the airwaves. You clearly find the work incredibly rewarding. What are you enjoying the most at this point in the evolution of this?

Ann Griffin: [00:07:46] Oh, it has to be the ripple effects. So here’s me just having lunch at the desk because I do have a private practice still here in central Oregon. Here’s me sitting at the desk just quietly eating my lunch because like a human being, like any other human being, I need some fuel to. And out comes the massage therapist to a graduate of mine and the lady who’s checking out, she’s just in tears. She’s in tears of joy because 20 years of jaw pain in one visit is now gone and she’s just so profuse. And thank you. I can’t thank you enough to this to the massage therapist. She has no idea who I am. She has no idea that I was the person that developed the work that has now changed her life. And it just makes my heart sing. So I know there will be thousands and thousands of patients that I don’t even know the names of that get the benefit of this work and can go back to being their best mom, their best dad, their best nurse, their best doctor, because they don’t have back pain. They don’t have any pain. Pain makes us grouchy. It makes us bad moms. It makes us bad wives. It makes us bad employees and bosses. When we hurt our world, hurts our lives suffer as a result of that. And so that excitement of spreading the work in and of itself makes it all worth it.

Stone Payton: [00:09:04] So have you had to to learn or create a whole different approach to the to the sales and marketing thing with with getting this course out there, this methodology out there? Or were you able to apply some of the same principles you did in growing your practice?

Ann Griffin: [00:09:20] Yeah, So great question, because when we have a product that is so what we’ll say unique or new to market, there is a great sort of untested credibility concern that comes up. So all the students that I have have had up until now, they have experienced the work personally and that’s why they decided to take the coursework. So when I travel to go cultivate a learning pod, this is quite different than I’m not selling selling fingernail clippers. Right. Everyone knows what a fingernail clipper is. There might be different brands. Some might work better than others, but you understand what it is and what it’s for. So symptom evolution because again, the work and the result is almost unbelievable. So when I go and do a demonstration with a learning pod of practitioners who are interested in the work, I have them give me set up four in a weekend to three patients that I would call a treatment failures, right where they’re coming in for the same thing. Everyone’s scratching their head and no one can figure it out. And almost wordlessly I just go to work and it takes me about 2 to 3 hours and the patient gets off the table and they say, My hip, 20 years of hip pain, it’s gone. And that’s when people really get curious. So in that regard, entering the town square, that is social media marketing, so on and so forth, I can use words, words, words all day long to trumpet the benefits and try to explain what symptom evolution is. But at this stage, seeing really is believing. So in that regard, my product, so to speak, it’s intellectual property, so it’s a bit abstract being a non tangible product already, but it’s even more abstract because it’s revolutionary.

Ann Griffin: [00:11:05] So that little piece of it, as you can imagine, I have a very multi pronged approach. You’ve got to get really creative. So yes, social media marketing is one thing, but I also have to build up my authority ship, so to speak. So I’m doing podcasts like these, spreading the word, having a long format sort of tome or body of work it’s called. So when people pop on to social media, they might get really curious about some Instagram videos that I posted or TikTok videos. They’ll go to my website, then they can read some longer format blogs or some go to some links to the podcast. So when somebody already opened the crack in the door, it’s not more Instagram posts or social media posts that really create what we call conversion, right, where somebody is interested. But what makes a difference between someone who clicks on a website versus click buy and opens up their wallet, right? So as a business owner, I’ve had some really interesting quandaries that are unique to what I do. Again, very different than selling fingernail clippers, right? You just got to seal the deal with your manufacturers and then bring that baby to market with some some jazzy marketing, that kind of thing. This is quite a bit different. And again, having a multi-pronged approach and really looking to create the credibility and the authority ship is a big, big, big part of when somebody like me has some intellectual property that’s pretty revolutionary and they’re onto something, that piece of it makes it, I guess, like a puzzle. But that in and of itself is pretty fun to.

Stone Payton: [00:12:39] Well, and you’re the kind of person who celebrates challenges. I can see that as you continue to sort of build out this this tribe and you’re building your your business, what counsel, if any, would you have to offer in terms of, I don’t know, keeping people as inspired and as as enthusiastic as you are about this and celebrating the challenge and celebrating the the wins, because obviously you’ve you’ve you’ve cracked the code on that avenue.

Ann Griffin: [00:13:11] So that’s so what you’re really harkening to is mindset. So yeah, and for all of us and it doesn’t matter if you’re a business owner or an entrepreneur or not, or if you’re just a middleman selling fingers, fingernail clippers and looking how to laterals and maximize your business or you’re focusing on margins, etc., or you’re somebody that is kind of an industry innovator or what have you. You can be a mom, you could be a dad, you could be a boss. All of those avenues invariably present us with challenges. And when we look at a challenge as a barrier, you’ll never jump over it. You’ll never you won’t even try. You’re defeated before you begin. And the opposite of fear is curiosity. So I knew instead of being afraid, no one’s going to believe me. Instead of that, I got curious How can I get people to trust what I’m saying? What have other people done? And when we get curious and we learn from those who’ve gone before us, and sometimes that means throwing out the book, that’s that everyone else is reading, right? Sometimes you just sometimes you have to reinvent the wheel, right, and go go with your gut. But I don’t think that I need to waste 3 to 5 years chasing my tail or doing it the hard way. And that has a lot to do with what we believe. So if, for example, in parenting or an employee employer relationship, the boss that yells at his employee, he’s just out of ideas, right? He just doesn’t have another tool in his belt.

Ann Griffin: [00:14:49] The number one guidepost for me is if I ever feel uncomfortable and that can be bored, lonely, frustrated, angry, afraid, whatever it is, if I ever feel uncomfortable all the. It doesn’t mean that something has gone wrong, but it does mean that I need a tool that I don’t currently have. And that’s where Curiosity comes in. It’s like, Well, I feel really frustrated about that technological platform. How can I make this fun, right? How can I turn this into a game? And the love of learning is so far outweighs my fear of looking stupid or getting it wrong. That right there, there’s no such thing as a barrier for me. Everything is an opportunity to learn. I just had a patient coming in today in tears because she was in so much pain. I’d seen her twice. She was great and then all of a sudden pain out of nowhere. And she says, I feel like I’m going backwards. So we had that conversation and we both got curious. I just learned how to recognize congenital stenosis in a 19 year old. Who would have thunk it, right? So instead of getting afraid, Oh, I’ve done something wrong. I’ve made this patient unhappy. I’ve lost a customer. I was like, What’s this about? And every time curiosity turns that barrier into a stepping stone or a springboard, it’s amazing.

Stone Payton: [00:16:12] Well, it makes perfect sense to me that the most powerful lever in this, this movement, if you will, is educating, inspiring practitioners. Is there any room in this pursuit to equip the patient to somehow make it easier to help create a symptom evolution climate in the in the conversation in the room? Is there anything from the patient side?

Ann Griffin: [00:16:40] Yeah. So think about let’s let’s let’s look at a different field. For example, think about the therapist that works with somebody for 30 years, like a talk therapist. A psychologist? Yeah. I would question your methodology. Why do you need to keep saying them? Because the huge part of the psychiatry field, et cetera, is to give tools, is to teach self sufficiency. Right? To teach people to fish, not to give them the fish. Right. Not to create that reliance. And that in and of itself is embedded in sort of the inherent flaws in the framework of how our are United States health care is structured because we incentivize quantity of care because it’s the far most profitable thing to do is very extractive, right? You make a lot of money when somebody needs you over and over and over. Right? So a big part of how a patient can get the most out of the care that they do have available to them. And again, I’m not disparaging my very talented colleagues in all flavors. I do refer out for drugs and surgery. I do refer out for physical therapy. We all have our own gifts to bring. But the patient who might be listening to this, or somebody who owns a human body, everyone to get the most out of the care that you are able to access is again, get curious was like, Well, you’re saying such and such.

Ann Griffin: [00:18:02] What happens if I add some foam rolling into the mix or you know, Doc, I like what you’re saying and I’m definitely feeling better. And I understand the course of care that you’re recommending. What are my other options? What can I do? Is there anything that I can do that would affect this? Or when somebody isn’t getting the effectiveness out of the care that they believe is possible? It doesn’t mean that you’re rejected that practitioner as a person, but it may not be the right key for your lock. Don’t kid yourself. Well, you know, I’ve seen you five times and it’s helping, but my issue keeps coming back. I want to do some digging. I want to go look around the patient that gets curious, both with whether they stick with the form of care they’re in or they look around or they do some research on their own. The patient that gets curious is always going to have a much, much, much better outcome and a faster outcome, better results in less time. And it’s just because your is based on our each of our individual willingness to do as much as we can where we can.

Stone Payton: [00:19:05] You have so much going on and so much to to do and you seem to be up for it from an energy standpoint. And I know I mean, you’re human. You got to sometimes run your tanks got to run low occasionally. When that does happen, where do you go? And I don’t I don’t necessarily mean a physical place, but to to to get inspired and sort of recharge. Where do you go for that? How do you do that?

Ann Griffin: [00:19:33] Oh, that’s a great question. So the the the not so mythical beast of work life balance, right? So even though my work juices me to the max, I am absolutely. I know with every fiber of my being this is what I’ve been put on this earth to do. I like to do other things too. So most of the time it’s simply a matter of scheduling. It’s a matter of self-compassion. When I let something fall through the cracks or if I drop a ball, it means I’ve got too many balls and I need to recalibrate what’s going on. So again, just like with the physical body, when we’re asking somebody about their knee pain, etc., there’s things that somebody’s knee pain behavior means. It doesn’t mean just because someone has knee pain doesn’t mean they have knee cancer. That’s not what that means. Similarly, if I’m overworked, fatigued, tired, resentful, it doesn’t mean something’s gone wrong, but it does mean something’s out of balance. And sometimes the tool that I need to recalibrate is how well I manage my time. Other times it might be how well I can delegate or, you know, I thought I needed to do this, but I think my assistant can take care of that. Sometimes it’s releasing all all of our first and worst vice, the illusion of control. Sometimes things just aren’t up to us. And to be able to admit that because when we drop the ball, it doesn’t mean that we’re a bad person and we suck at our jobs.

Ann Griffin: [00:21:01] Or we should just give up now. Oh, you idiot. I don’t let those those kinds of voices, they don’t even get to enter into my brain. I have long since kicked them out of my court, and it’s simply because it doesn’t get me anywhere, you know, berating yourself for a perceived mistake, etc. never moves the needle forward. You just it’s a blind alley. It just leads to a waiting place where you go nowhere and you do nothing. So when I run out of juice, oh, I do all kinds of things. I go weightlifting, I raft, I hang out with my kids, I read books that don’t matter. All that and every day it might be a little bit something different. Some days I don’t get as much me time as possible. But it is really important that if I’m uncomfortable, something’s out of balance and it doesn’t have to be that way. I’m not secretly a marine where I just think, you know, the more the harder, the better. I don’t believe in that. I don’t believe that struggle is the defining the definition of success. Right. I don’t think that I know that we can all do hard things, but we don’t have to do them the hardest way.

Stone Payton: [00:22:06] I am so glad that I asked. I found all of that to be incredibly helpful counsel. But what I wrote down in my notebook was read books that don’t matter.

Ann Griffin: [00:22:18] I try to rotate them, so sometimes I read a book about mindset or social media marketing or I have that in there. Right now I’m reading the Midnight Library by Matt Haig, Whoever you are out there, thank you for this book. Another super fun one. I like to double dip. If you haven’t read, you’re a badass by Jensen Churro portion. She swears a lot. It is hysterical. And it will. It is just a game changer. And the magic of of whether it’s what will, say, books that don’t matter or books that do matter. Or is this. Am I? Do I think I need to get something out of this or is this just going to be what it’s going to be thoughtful digestion of whatever’s presented, even if there’s only a little speck of gold in there, you can turn it into a fountain by letting it affect you, giving it some meaningful digestion, absorbing what’s useful and letting the rest go.

Stone Payton: [00:23:15] Well said. All right, so what’s next? And when I say next, I’m really talking about short horizon. I don’t know. Maybe 6 to 18 months. Yeah.

Ann Griffin: [00:23:26] What’s next? Again, the cultivating learning pods to make symptom evolution a modality that’s available in as many places as possible, and then refining the refining. You know, my third or second elevator speech, we can always be better. I don’t remember who said this was Abraham Lincoln. He said, if you if he asked me to write a speech that’s an hour long, it’ll take me a day. If you ask me to write something that’s two sentences that’ll take me three months. Yeah. To to be really, really concise in my ideas and my beliefs and just, like, symptom evolution as a methodology. Faster results in less time. That goes for myself to and not because I’m running out of time. Everything that I have is enough. The 16 to 18 month window is enough to start to see the change that I know is possible in this world. And again, the vehicle that I’m choosing to use is via health care innovation. But this is available to us all. And I’d invite everyone. Think different. Think lateral. Think upside down.

Stone Payton: [00:24:42] All right. Let’s make sure that our listeners have an easy way to tap into your work, maybe connect with you or someone on your team. Yeah, whatever’s appropriate. I just want to make sure that. That we give them an easy path to to to continue this conversation in this pursuit.

Ann Griffin: [00:24:58] Yeah. So for my social media platforms, all of my handles are the same, and it’s at Symptom EVO and you can also visit my formal website symptom EVO and there is a contact form you can get directly to me. I don’t have a CEO yet, so when you write an email on the contact list, it goes right to me and I respond very promptly.

Stone Payton: [00:25:19] Well, and it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this afternoon. Thank you for sharing your insight, your perspective, and mostly your energy. I just I have had the best time visiting with you and you’re doing such important work and we sincerely appreciate you.

Ann Griffin: [00:25:39] Oh, so are you stone like hats off to you. You’re just elevating and celebrating everyone. And I think it’s marvelous. Don’t stop.

Stone Payton: [00:25:48] Well, thank you. I’ll try not to. And it’s been my pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Anne Griffin with Symptom Evolution. And everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.

New Client Intake Form

October 27, 2022 by angishields

Business Broker David Jacobs

October 26, 2022 by angishields

Buy a Business Near Me

Business Broker David Jacobs

00:00 /

Business Broker David Jacobs helps owners of software and services companies across the USA to sell their businesses.

He does this using his large network of active buyers and past experience as a business owner with a successful exit.

David works with you and your existing advisors (attorney and CPA) through the entire process from initial discussions, valuation, packaging, finding potential buyers, negotiating deal terms, due diligence, closing, and transfer of funds.

His ideal client is the owner of a software, eCommerce or service based company having revenue between $3m-$20m and 15-50 employees within the USA. David’s clients typically receive multiple offers. He get deals done.

Connect with David on LinkedIn.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

Differentiate main street vs lower middle market as it relates to business sales
Differentiate tech (software, ecommerce) companies from manufacturing and services as it relates to business sales
Valuation vs deal terms
The Broker’s dilemma with respect to asking price vs selling price
Why so few businesses brought to market actually sell

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Buy a Business Near Me, brought to you by the Business Radio X Ambassador program, helping business brokers sell more local businesses. Now, here’s your host.

David Jacobs: [00:00:47] I’m good, thanks so much. Stone Glad to be with you.

Stone Payton: [00:00:50] Well, we’re delighted to have you on the program. I’ve got a ton of questions. I know I’m not going to get to all of them, but I’m thinking a good place to start is mission purpose. What are what are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks?

David Jacobs: [00:01:04] Well, you know, I was an entrepreneur in a past life and I went to sell my business, sold it myself. And it’s just not the way you think it’s going to be. And after I got the deal done, which took me almost two years, I thought, you know, there’s probably an opportunity here to help other business owners put together a nice, clean deal and allow them to sell their business and go on to the next phase of their life.

Stone Payton: [00:01:28] So now.

David Jacobs: [00:01:29] Have you found others?

Stone Payton: [00:01:31] Have you found yourself gravitating to a certain type of business or a certain area of the country? Have you tried to niche at all?

David Jacobs: [00:01:41] I did. So in the business broker world. We we generally and it’s slightly different by state depending on the regulations, but in most states we can do deals up to probably $30 Million. And within that, that subset of transactions, there’s two, there’s two markets and they’re pretty distinct. There’s the main street, which is I think what most people are familiar with, and these are restaurants, bars, liquor stores, auto repair, dry cleaners. A hot one right now is landscaping businesses, just nice businesses. They earn the owner a very good income, but they’re very geographically focused. And then. And that is not my focus, even though there are people I work with that do do those types of businesses up here in Northern California. I’ve chosen to specialize in a few industries that I know a lot about and work with clients all over the United States. The primary one is software companies, so I work with software and SAS businesses all over the US. My clients have 3 to $20 Million in revenue and 20 to $50 or 20 to 50 employees. And the reason that the lower middle market is different than a main street market is the main street is very geographically focused and you’ll find that almost all the buyers will be local, whereas my buyers are usually private equity funds or large corporations, and they’re looking across the country to find good businesses to buy. So it’s a slightly different buyer mix and that’s why the markets are different.

Stone Payton: [00:03:19] Well, it sounds like it must be incredibly rewarding work, man. What are you enjoying the most?

David Jacobs: [00:03:26] You know, there’s a couple of aspects about it that it’s a lot of fun. And I keep telling my sellers that they’ve been selling products all, all their life and they want to chase after the buyers. And I keep telling them, hey, remember, there’s only one business like yours. And if we can package it and make it really clear what you’re doing and how you’re doing it and the reason that the business exists and get it in front of the right buyers, you should get multiple offers. And it’s it’s just fun to work with them. And, you know, we build a relationship and we build up the trust. And then when I when I deliver what I say, I’m going to deliver and bring them multiple buyers and they’re looking between different deal structures, it’s just very rewarding.

Stone Payton: [00:04:08] So tell me a little bit about the valuation process that and I, of course, am uneducated and uninformed on the topic, but it seems like that would be a big hairy part of the process, especially for a first time seller or buyer.

David Jacobs: [00:04:27] Yeah. So know Main Street. The main street valuations are fairly straightforward and that’s usually a multiple of which is seller’s discretionary earnings. And if you Google it, there’s lots of descriptions of it online. It’s really how much economic benefit the owner can take out of the business. So it’s a salary plus whatever kind of dividends you pay yourself. And if you run some personal expenses through the business, which most people do like a car or your cell phone, internet, all that gets added back into the stock. And then there’s a multiple applied to it, generally ranging between 3 to 5 times, depending on what industry you’re in and how attractive it is. And the multiples do climb as the businesses become bigger in the lower middle market, it works in a very similar way, but sometimes like in software, there are assets that are being purchased that aren’t necessarily the cash flows of the business. And what I mean by that is a business might, let’s say, have $1,000,000 in revenue, but it might have it might be an app or something like that with 10 million active users. And if you can find the right buyer, they might be more interested in the users that you’ve acquired and the ability to sell other products to them as opposed to the cash flow that the business generates. And that’s that’s where the specific knowledge of the industry comes in.

Stone Payton: [00:05:48] So in your world, is there is it common for there to be a delta between the asking price and the selling price, or is it usually pretty close to what what the deal ends up going for?

David Jacobs: [00:06:02] So when I work with my software clients in the lower middle market, we usually I tell them to think about a low, a minimal acceptable offer. And really this just helps me screen out all the unqualified buyers. So a technology listing will attract a lot of attention, potentially hundreds of inquiries. And I just need a quick way. If somebody thinks their business is worth $10 Million and they won’t, they won’t consider anything less than eight. And I find a buyer who only has $5 million. It’s it’s very clear that that deal is not going to happen and it’s important to filter them out. What you do find when you get down to the the 5 to 10 qualified buyers that we’ve met, the seller, there’s a good connection there. Both personal and business strategy in the offers start coming in. The offers are going to be all over the place and the deal terms will too. And that’s why I think that kind of personal connection between the buyer and seller is really important. Somebody might offer $10 Million, but it’s 5 million cash and 5 million is an earnout and somebody else might come in and offer 8 million cash and 2 million as a seller note. And you need to be able to compare and contrast the differences. And that’s really up to the client to decide which offer they want to accept.

Stone Payton: [00:07:24] Yeah, we’ll say a little bit more about that, if you would, because I’m learning from hosting this show that that deal structure, there’s a lot of different ways to get the the deal done. It’s not always just a one big check at the at the table.

David Jacobs: [00:07:39] Yeah. When these small businesses sell it’s I’ve never seen one big check where you know you hand them the keys, they hand you a check and that’s it. It doesn’t work that way. There’s always some kind of a hold back. And it’s really just to protect the the buyer from something that’s not disclosed by the seller. If there’s a lawsuit or a tax lien or something that the buyer doesn’t know about, they got to have a way of getting you back on the phone. So there’s always going to be some kind of money held back. And sometimes it’s one plus one is three. And the the seller thinks they want to sell and they meet the right buyer and they get excited about working together and the seller will sell a portion of their business. Maybe they’ll hold on to ten or 20% and they now they have a business partner and they’re well capitalized and they go off and build an even bigger company and work on an exit five years from now and get a second bite at that apple. So it it’s really just it’s finding the right people and connecting together. And then you find the right people with the right deal. The it usually happens kind of automatically kind of like dating and love at first sight. I guess.

Stone Payton: [00:08:49] So. So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for you and your firm? Do you get out there and shake the trees or are you already working with active buyers or is there a little bit of both? How do you get the new business?

David Jacobs: [00:09:06] Yeah. So most of my clients come from referrals and they actually come from the referrer is usually a buyer for a previous listing that I had. So I spend a lot of time and effort upfront documenting the business and putting together a well structured information memorandum and. I think when the buyers see it, some of them are appreciative of how much time I’ve saved them in their initial due diligence. And when they hear of somebody else that wants to sell and maybe they’re trying to find their way and navigate all the different intermediaries that are out there. My name gets mentioned and those have always been very good clients for me.

Stone Payton: [00:09:51] So I’d like to learn a little bit about your perspective on timing. And I have a very personal, real example. My business partner and I, we own the business radio network. We’re not entertaining ideas of Exit right now, but I suspect if we were if we were, we shouldn’t be trying to get all this done now and try and try to exit next year, right? I mean, you got you got to give yourself some time to get get your ducks in a row, right?

David Jacobs: [00:10:22] Yeah. I mean, just like with any sales process, time kills all deals, right? So when you decide it’s time to sell and you don’t sell a business this week, it takes a few months to get a deal together. But you really need to prepare and get all your documents ready. You’ll need financial statements and copies of your contracts and just getting everything ready because there’s a lot more businesses for sale than there are qualified buyers. And once you get the right kind of buyers attention, you don’t want a delay where they start getting distracted on another opportunity. So being ready to go is, I’d say, key. And once you decide it’s time to do a deal, it’s time to do the deal. And you should be heads down trying to find a buyer for your business.

Stone Payton: [00:11:09] So where do these things come off the rails and not get? So it’s my impression that there are a lot of businesses, you know, are put on the market and fail to sell. First of all, is that an accurate impression? And if so, I mean, why?

David Jacobs: [00:11:26] Yeah. So, you know, the the industry floats around a number. Something like 80% of the businesses that come to market fail to sell. Ouch. Which is just tremendous. And our trade group, which is the eBay and they have a collaboration, I think it’s with Pepperdine University down in Malibu, California. They study this and they claim that of the businesses that fail to sell over half of failed to sell because the business is mispriced. And I think what happens is business owners and I mean, this was my situation when I attempted to sell my business myself. You read the you know, whether it’s The Wall Street Journal or the popular press, wherever you’re getting Yahoo Finance, wherever you’re getting your business news, and you see these articles about these high tech companies that get sold at 50 or 100 times earnings or 30 times revenue, and you think, well, they got 30 times revenue, I have a nice little business, maybe it’s worth 15 times revenue and it’s just completely divorced from reality. And the first thing that a really good business broker should do for you is to set realistic expectations by showing you past transactions that have closed and kind of what the multiples were in those deals and why why it sold for three times as the E and not five times. And it’s actually a little quirk in our industry where some of the brokers who charge retainers I do not they have a very perverse incentive to really inflate expectations in order to get the listing and to extract that retainer every month. And then at the end of the 12 or 18 months when the seller is upset because the business didn’t sell, the broker says, well, it was overpriced. And my statement to that is you didn’t set the seller’s expectations in the beginning. You extracted 18 months of retainer and did you really plan to sell the business for what you said it was worth? Or did you have some other kind of motive behind this?

Stone Payton: [00:13:31] There are so many moving parts to this. There’s the initial conversation, there’s valuation, there’s the framing, the packaging of the opportunity, there’s finding the buyers, there’s negotiating the deal. And in the deal structure, there’s the due diligence, there’s the the closing, there’s there’s the transfer of money. Do you find yourself working a lot with other trusted advisors to to help execute on some of this?

David Jacobs: [00:14:00] I do you know, I would say that the and this is what makes this job a lot of fun but also difficult and I like the challenge is you’re selling something the equivalent of an office building right it’s a 5 to $15 Million transaction so it’s a lot of money. But unlike an office building or a piece of commercial real estate, there’s nothing to see. You can’t go inspect a software company and see if the foundation strong or the roof needs to be replaced. It’s there all in. Tangible assets. So that’s that’s the challenge and the fun of this business. But as I work with my clients, we always work with a corporate attorney to craft the documents. Whereas a Main Street transaction will use a form in the lower middle market. They’re almost always customized purchase agreements created by attorney. And we usually have an accountant involved to produce the financial statements and the tax returns, because that’s that’s kind of what your what you’re selling.

Stone Payton: [00:15:06] Yeah. All right. I’d love to leave our listeners, buyers and sellers alike, if we could, with a couple a couple action items. I’ll call them pro tips. Just things we ought to be thinking about doing, not doing reading. Look, gang number one pro tip is reach out and have a conversation with David or somebody on his team. But, you know, like like if we’re really starting to to get our arms around this idea what are what are a couple of things we maybe should be doing buyers and sellers alike if you could.

David Jacobs: [00:15:38] Well, you know, in the end, I think this is really a transaction between people. So if if you meet somebody and they’re telling you a story that’s too good to be true, I’d be very skeptical.

Stone Payton: [00:15:48] Hmm.

David Jacobs: [00:15:51] But there are there are for buyers out there. There are lots of very good brokers that really want to do the right thing and help you buy a business and make it put together a good, clean deal. And there’s obviously a number of very good businesses out there, but it takes some digging to find them. And for the sellers, I would say the opposite is also true. There are plenty of buyers out there that are looking for a business potentially just like yours, and they’re willing to pay a fair price. They don’t want to overprice overpay, but they also are realistic and they want you to be happy with the transaction and help them transition the business. And they realize that a key part of having your buy in on the transaction is paying a fair price. And all of this is it just comes down to meeting people and the right brokers can kind of plug you into their existing networks because they do this all the time and it just save you a lot of time and a lot of headache and a lot of mistakes. That first time business sellers or buyers usually do on the first go round of this.

Stone Payton: [00:16:57] All right, man, what’s the best way to to reach out, have a conversation with you, learn more about these topics, whatever you feel like is appropriate. Email, LinkedIn, website. I just want to make sure folks can get connected with you and tap into your word. Man.

David Jacobs: [00:17:13] Sure. So I have a website that I run. It’s David Jacobs, business broker dot com. You can also call me for 152978562 and I live on email so that’s that’s probably best. It’s David Jacobs at ZBB Corp. Dot com.

Stone Payton: [00:17:33] Well, David, it has been a real pleasure having you on the show this afternoon. Thanks for investing the time and energy to visit with us and share your perspective and insight. This has been a very informative conversation and I certainly appreciate you doing it, man.

David Jacobs: [00:17:50] Well, thanks so much, Tony. It was it was great talking to you.

Stone Payton: [00:17:53] All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, David Jacobs, business broker and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you next time on Buy a Business near me.

Kerrian Latty with Number 1 Business Brokers

October 26, 2022 by angishields

Buy a Business Near Me

Kerrian Latty with Number 1 Business Brokers

00:00 /

Kerrian Latty can help anyone sell their business! She is very in touch with the market and the people who are moving it forward.

As a Connecticut business broker and licensed realtor, Kerrian is well equipped to assist you in all types of M&A and business brokerage dealings.

With a degree in economics from Fordham University and the depth of her personal experience as a business and real estate owner, Kerrian is someone you want on your side!

When not working on a deal, she is with her children or in the studio, pursuing her art as a boudoir photographer.

Connect with Kerrian on LinkedIn and Instagram.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:07] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Buy a Business Near Me, brought to you by the Business Radio X Ambassador program, helping business brokers sell more local businesses. Now, here’s your host.

Stone Payton: [00:00:32] Welcome to another exciting and informative edition of Buy a Business Near Me. Stone Payton here with you. You guys are in for a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the show with number one business brokers. Ms.. Kerrian Latty, how are ya?

Kerrian Latty: [00:00:49] I’m good. Thank you for having me. Yeah.

Stone Payton: [00:00:52] Really been looking forward to this. I got a lot of questions. I’m sure we won’t get to them all, but I think a good place to start might be just for you to share with us. Mission, purpose. What are you really out there trying to do for folks?

Kerrian Latty: [00:01:08] Basically the mission statement is I help business owners exit and I also let them exit tax free. So what that entails is a lot of education to business owners because two thirds of businesses close instead of selling. So it’s teaching them that you can sell because a lot of people only think you can sell real estate. They don’t think you can sell a business. So it’s always, what’s a business broker? Then the other facet is teaching them how they can exit tax free. So my main job is education at first, and then finally the rest of it is the sale.

Stone Payton: [00:01:50] How in the world did you get into this line of work? How did you start doing this?

Kerrian Latty: [00:01:57] I’ve always worked some type of facet with a business broker in New York. I used to work with start ups, working on their ideas, writing their business plans and so forth. And then I just, you know, over the years, I’ve had a couple of kids. We won’t go into how many. And so for the last five, I’ve transitioned to listing businesses and selling. And once in a while I’ll work with buyers too, and find them a listing of business that they want to buy.

Stone Payton: [00:02:33] Well, I would think that that would be incredibly interesting and very rewarding work. What are you enjoying the most about it?

Kerrian Latty: [00:02:45] Obviously closing day is my favorite day, but it is actually a very long and tedious sale. So I always go in initially telling the business owner, we got to like each other because we’re going to be with each other for a lot of months. I’m going to be very nosy. You got to tell me all about your financials. You got to tell me what you don’t put on tax return and all that stuff. So because I have to in turn be you all the time till I find qualified buyers. So it’s more it’s more about we got to make sure we mesh well and you can work well together first. Before I even talk about my sales skills. I’m an excellent negotiator, but all that stuff doesn’t come into play until we have the right buyer.

Stone Payton: [00:03:34] Well, you bring up an interesting point because I think I certainly had this impression before hosting this particular show, and I think maybe a lot of people do. I always envisioned the the business brokerage world as being far more transactional, but it sounds like relationships are really critical.

Kerrian Latty: [00:03:56] Yes, it it is transactional. However, you’ve got to win everybody over first, because sometimes I’ve got to win the buyer over to make sure that sometimes I have a listing that I need them to pay a premium because there’s contracts in the future and all that stuff. So it’s it’s very transactional, but those all those transactions have to relay into good relationships.

Stone Payton: [00:04:22] So talk to me a little bit about timing and we’ll use what we use me and Lee as an example. My business partner, Lee Kantor and I, we own the the Business Radio X Network. We’re not in a hurry about it, but, you know, at some point we might be interested in learning how to navigate an exit. How far out should we be consulting with you before we’re ready to pull the trigger?

Kerrian Latty: [00:04:51] I like to talk to people when they are obviously like 3 to 5 years ready to pull the trigger.

Stone Payton: [00:04:57] Wow. Okay.

Kerrian Latty: [00:04:59] Because I’d rather get your premium. And that’s why I try to explain the business owners when they’re like, Oh, I’m going to retire in five years, so I’m going to cut back. And it’s like, No, I want to get you top dollar. So the last thing you do is not cut back. You’re better off selling now or you’ve got to keep the business running. But I like to talk to business owners now that want me to list it in 23 or 24. It’s it’s better for you to hear from me what you need to do to get all your ducks in a row so we can get you to top dollar.

Stone Payton: [00:05:36] So. So let’s talk about that a little bit. What ducks in particular do we need to get in? I would think clean books would surely be one of them, right?

Kerrian Latty: [00:05:46] Yes. Yes. Clean book is always is perfect. But the beauty of a of a business broker is we’re able to talk to you about what you need to clean up and we can work with your CPA and your attorney. Also. Sometimes it’s you want to sell, but your partner doesn’t. So that could be where we start talking now. So we see what the partners objections are and we can work work out something between the two of you. So maybe you want to sell your portion or maybe he doesn’t want to sell until five or ten years more. So it’s all about finding out your whys, what’s going on and so forth.

Stone Payton: [00:06:26] So in terms of structuring the deal, it’s my understanding there are a lot of different ways to to skin that cat, as it were. It doesn’t necessarily have to be one big check at the table and then we’re done. There’s different ways to get to do this, aren’t there?

Kerrian Latty: [00:06:45] Correct? Correct. There’s ways that we can do seller financing because obviously everybody knows about the SBA, but sometimes the SBA doesn’t work out with businesses that don’t have great books. So seller financing could be in play. There could be you get a check at the closing day, but there’s earnout. So every year the new owner will open the books and say, We made this and you projected X, so we’re going to cut you an additional check because of that and so forth. So a lot of buyers like having some type of seller financing. So this way they know the seller is vested in the business and invested in the transition. Like, I have a buyer that he has tons of money, but he always purposely holds back some of it to make sure the transition is smooth and make sure that whatever contract or customers that were with the business stays, then he pays out the rest in a couple of months, but he’ll lie and say, I won’t pay you that out for two years at X amount per month and so forth. But it’s just a way to make sure that the seller is truly vested in the sale and going to transfer over everything possible to make the new buyer successful.

Stone Payton: [00:08:07] So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for for a practice like yours? Like you mentioned, not only were you talking about a seller, but it sounded like it’s a seller that you’ve worked with on on multiple deals. How do you get to to how do you get new clients like that?

Kerrian Latty: [00:08:26] Yes, sometimes it is sellers that we work with on multiple deals because, you know, once you’ve bought one business, you’ll buy another one. So you have some serial entrepreneurs that I deal with. I have some investment groups that I deal with overseas that are looking to buy here in America as well. So a majority of it is always networking. I always have that business broker on because you never know who you’re going to meet and stop and shop at a gas station. But the biggest thing is just keeping your name out there like we’re on Best Buy. Sell is the most popular. There’s another company that deals with more European sales. I apologize. The name’s not coming to me now, but there’s a couple different avenues that we advertise and market ourselves well. And then I’m on social media. It hasn’t gotten me tons of clients, but once in a while I’ll get one or two, so it helps.

Stone Payton: [00:09:27] So I want to hear more about this idea of exiting tax free that that got my ears perked up a little bit. Speak a little bit more.

Kerrian Latty: [00:09:35] Yes. Yes. I work with a financial advisor. He’s located he physically lives in California, but he’s licensed in almost every state here. So he’s able to help me regarding business listings and also the typical landlord that doesn’t want to sell either because they don’t want to pay capital gains. So they’re like, Oh, I’ll leave it to my kids and let probate courts sell it. And probate court takes so much in taxes to it doesn’t make any sense. So once we get in front of a seller and we can explain how the two of us work well together, it’s a win win for everybody.

Stone Payton: [00:10:18] So. You have so much passion and energy and it comes through the airwaves. And I know, you know, you’re a mother, You’re you’re busy. You’ve got to you got to run out of gas from time to time. Where do you go? And I don’t necessarily mean a physical place, but where do you go to kind of get recharged and inspired and fill the tank back up so you can serve these folks properly?

Kerrian Latty: [00:10:51] The biggest thing is I do stop during the day and pray. So like at 12, I’ll stop for a couple of minutes and I pray at night before I go to bed. And that entails really just turning off the TV, everything. And I’ll read a couple of chapters of whatever book I’m reading at the moment. I’ll relax, meditate sometimes, but that’s that’s my best way to recharge. Is that alone time and a couple of minutes of prayer.

Stone Payton: [00:11:22] So have you had the benefit of one or more mentors as you were getting into this business? Someone to kind of help help you learn the land, the landscape?

Kerrian Latty: [00:11:35] Yes, I’ve always had some type of mentor, and I’m actually looking for a new one now because I want to get into a couple bigger transactions as as we look at it, because, you know, once you close your biggest deal, then you’re like, Oh, let me go for bigger stuff.

Stone Payton: [00:11:55] So. Right.

Kerrian Latty: [00:11:55] Right. Yeah. So it’s a small attempt, like I do have the children. So sometimes I can’t always be in New York at the drop of a dime, but I do always attempt if I close a deal in it and I think it’s my biggest now, I’m like, okay, now I have to go after something bigger.

Stone Payton: [00:12:16] Now, did I see somewhere in my notes that you are also a photographer, like with a studio and the whole the whole bit, right?

Kerrian Latty: [00:12:26] Yes. Yes. I’m an artist at heart. Years ago, like in college, in high school, In college, I was a photographer, so I’ve always had my camera. So if somebody calls me now for a wedding, I will try and work with them and shoot it. But I’m necessarily my niche. Is boudoir photography The problem? Why I don’t bring it up too much is because people just hear it and then they think, Oh, nudity, porn. And it’s not. It’s art. The human body is art. And I wish people would realize how beautiful it is.

Stone Payton: [00:13:08] Well, I imagine that would be a terrific outlet for your creativity. Another way to kind of recharge and I love to hear when people are fired up about anything, you’re clearly fired up about your business and your vocation. But but I mean, I love it when I get a chance to visit with people and hear about other aspects of their of their lives. And it sounds like you really enjoy that as well.

Kerrian Latty: [00:13:33] Yes, I do. I think I’ll be 80 still shooting because it’s it’s a love for me. So and that’s that’s the beauty of me in general. I haven’t worked a day in my life in years, decades, because I love what I do with with helping business owners transition and retire well. And then on the weekends when I’m shooting a woman that has low self-esteem and I show her the back of the camera how sexy she really is, it’s so empowering, you know? So her and I feel great at the end.

Stone Payton: [00:14:12] That is fantastic. All right, before we wrap, I’d love to leave our listeners with a few actionable items, a few pro tips. And I mean, number one, pro tip gang, if you’re thinking about buying or selling and want some insight and you want to visit with someone that has some genuine expertise and specialized experience in this arena, reach out and have a conversation with Carrie or somebody on her team. But Carrie, could we maybe leave a couple of pro tips for for buyers and sellers alike so that they can begin to get focused on the on the right, on the right things if they’re entertaining this idea of buying or selling.

Kerrian Latty: [00:14:55] So for sellers, my biggest tip is take the emotion out of it. Then once we talk and we do it, valuation of your business is worth this, understand? That’s the number. And also I like for businesses to be open and let me know fully everything that’s going on, which is good for buyers. My biggest thing also is take the emotion out of it. You don’t have to buy something you love you when you’re buying, you’re looking for something that makes you money. And also the biggest takeaway for both of them is to be honest about your numbers because as a seller, it comes out during due diligence and then as a buyer, it’s going to come out when you need to show your financing to make the purchase.

Stone Payton: [00:15:45] Well, I’m glad I asked because, I mean, these are things that we need to be thinking about. And as I shared with you, it’s these are things Lee and I need to be thinking about. And apparently much sooner than I anticipated.

Kerrian Latty: [00:15:58] Yeah. Like we get people sometimes that are like, Oh, unfortunately, I’m ready to retire the end of the year. And you’re like, But it’s October, you know? So we definitely like for you to reach out earlier so we could come up with a good game plan.

Stone Payton: [00:16:18] Okay, What’s the best way for people to reach out, have a conversation with you or someone on your team, learn more, tap into your work, whatever you feel like is appropriate. Website, email, LinkedIn. I just want to I want to make sure folks can connect with you and start to tap into your work.

Kerrian Latty: [00:16:34] So the easiest way to get in touch with me is obviously by email. My full government name is Korean Lady so k e r r iron latte latte y at mi Mi.com. If you’re on Instagram or TikTok, you can find me under the name money for you Broker and that’s Mo and y the number for the letter U and then broker and also on LinkedIn. I’m Korean lady as well.

Stone Payton: [00:17:09] Well, Kerry, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show today. Thank you so much for for sharing your insight and your experience and expertise. What you’re doing is so important. It sounds like you’re doing a marvelous job with it. And we we sincerely appreciate you.

Kerrian Latty: [00:17:28] Thank you so much for having me. I truly enjoyed this conversation.

Stone Payton: [00:17:33] Me too. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Carrie Latte with number one business brokers and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you next time on Buy a Business near me.

WBENC 2022: Jennifer Barbosa with International Supply Partners

October 26, 2022 by angishields

Jennifer-Barbosa-GWBC-WBENC-National-Conference

GWBC Radio

WBENC 2022: Jennifer Barbosa with International Supply Partners

00:00 /

Jennifer Barbosa, International Supply Partners

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia, it’s time for GWBC Radio’s Open for Business. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Lee Kantor here, broadcasting live from WBENC’s National Conference 2022 inside the booth of GWBC, booth 1812, if you want to come by and see us. Right now, we have Jennifer Barbosa and she is with International Supply Partners. Welcome, Jennifer.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:00:35] Thank you.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:36] So, how’s the conference been for you so far?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:00:38] It has been amazing. We’ve made some awesome connections. So, opened up some new opportunities, solidified some great relationships. It’s more than I had anticipated.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] It’s overwhelming, isn’t it? You walk in and it just-

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:00:52] Oh, my goodness. All of it, it’s way more than I expected, but I love that the way they have the system, the schedule on the app, it helps you to navigate.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:07] Right. Because you could get—if you just came in here and thought you were just going to wing this, good luck.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:01:12] No, no. I would not recommend that.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:14] I would not recommend that.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:01:15] Have a plan of action.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:17] Exactly. Now, talk about International Supply Partners. How are you serving folks?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:01:22] Sure. So, International Supply Partners was founded in 2016 here in Atlanta. We are a full supply company where we leverage our relationships with manufacturers, international as well as domestic, supplying office, medical, janitorial, industrial supplies and equipments. We are really good at very innovative products new to the market and we are really good at sourcing products that are in high demand but maybe in low inventory. So, we can call up our manufacturer partners who produce those products, and say, hey, can you do me a favor?

Lee Kantor: [00:02:03] So, relationships are important, right?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:02:04] Absolutely. Yes. And that’s-

Lee Kantor: [00:02:06] And you have a lot of relationships in a lot of important areas.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:02:09] Hence, the name Partners.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:10] Exactly. So, now, how did you get into this line of work?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:02:14] Well, the funny story is I was a stay-at-home mom, former military spouse, and I had six kids at home, a new baby, and I was bored.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:25] Bored. So, let me just start this brand new business. It’s connecting lots of people all over the globe.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:02:30] Yes. I was just like, I want to supply, and my goal originally was to supply to the federal government. And it slowly started to expand, and now, we supply—we just finalized our partnership agreement with Overstock Government and the GSA marketplace. So, we will be supplying PPE to GSA, which both federal agencies and state governments will have access to. We also have served hospitals. We have hospital health centers that we serve on a regular basis. We have served state counties and local city governments, as well as nonprofit organizations. And we are steadily working on our relationships with corporate and Fortune 500 companies, which we are actively building up on those as well. So, we have a partnership, a master agreement with AT&T. We are working to leverage our relationships with CVS and some of the other major corporations so that we can be of service to them as well.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:39] So, how has the GWBC helped you?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:03:43] Well, aside from the amazing network that I’ve made, the relationships with other women owners, the cohorts, the programs, the webinars, I’ve received a lot of valuable information, some valuable skill sets, and just opened up my eyes to what I didn’t know.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:08] And what’s possible.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:04:10] And what is possible. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:12] Now, any advice for that stay-at-home mom out there that maybe has that itch, that entrepreneurial itch to take that leap, and to kind of trust your gut and to go boldly forward?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:04:24] Well, I’ll tell you this, if you have—if you are a stay-at-home mom, you have a lot of management skills, organization skills.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:34] Don’t discount that.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:04:34] Do not discount that, because it comes into great value and purpose when you’re running your business. And I always say if you feel that in your gut and your heart, and it keeps bothering you, then it means that you need to go ahead and do it. And you don’t need to necessarily have all of the tools or all of the plan in action, just start. You’ve just got to start somewhere.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:59] Uh-huh. And is that what you did? You started maybe small, and then were able to-

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:05:02] Yeah, I started—I registered the business with the state. I started—I went ahead and immediately registered and got my company certified as a minority-owned business.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:12] So, you knew that that was important?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:05:13] Oh, absolutely, especially when you’re serving the governments. But right now, the trend also is a lot of major corporations, they’re really big in supplier diversity and inclusion. So, having these certifications is essential.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:29] It’s not a nice to have, right?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:05:30] It’s not a nice to have. No, it’s an essential. It’s absolutely must have. So, I went ahead and started that process immediately. And I’m glad that I did, because it really set us apart very quickly.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:41] And then, it helped probably take you to a new level faster than if you had not done that.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:05:46] Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, conversations were a lot easier to have. You were able to get the decision maker’s attention a lot faster, because like I said, DE&I are big topics and it’s really important to a lot of organizations. And then, the federal government has mandated opportunities for women-owned, minority-owned businesses, and you have to take advantage of that.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:13] It’s like a fast pass.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:06:14] It is. It is.

Lee Kantor: [00:06:16] And it’s true. It’s one of those things where if you’re a woman-owned business or minority-owned business, you should really consider investing the time, because it’s not easy to get the certificate. It’s not like something you just check a box, and they go, here’s your certification, you have to do some work, but it’s work-

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:06:31] You got to do the work, and it’s not hard work, i’s tedious work. It’s paperwork and it’s a lot of back and forth, and some certifications take a lot longer than others, but it is well worth the time and investment for it. Absolutely. And there are free certifications and there are membership organizations that you can get certified through, which I highly recommend as well, like WBENC, like the Greater Women’s Business Council. There are so many out there.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:01] Right. And it’s worth—even if you just meet a person that’s a member of them, just ask them questions. It’s such a collaborative community. Everybody’s trying to help everybody. It’s not this cutthroat, dog eat dog situation.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:07:12] Not at all. Not at all.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:14] People are rooting for each other and they want everybody to succeed.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:07:17] And then, also, one great thing to consider is a lot of the decisionmakers in these major corporations sit on the board or are part of some committees of these organizations that do the certifications. So, the level of networking and connections you’re going to have are invaluable.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:38] Right. And it’s efficient, because like you said, these people are on the board. You can meet a lot of people quickly. And these people are the right people in the right organizations.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:07:46] Exactly.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:47] So, if somebody wants to learn more, what is the website for your organization?

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:07:51] Well, you can visit us through internationalsupplypartners.com or you can also go to queensupplier.com. That’s what they call me.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:00] That’s what they call you.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:08:01] The Queen Supplier. And reach out to us. We love to partner up with other businesses that do the similar thing, or if we can support you and make sure that you look good to your clients, that’s what we’re going for. We’re here to be a partner on every aspect.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:18] Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jennifer Barbosa: [00:08:22] Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:24] Alright. This is Lee Kantor, broadcasting live from WBENC National Conference 2022 inside the GWBC booth. We’ll be back in a few.

About WBENC

The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) is a leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping women-owned businesses thrive.

We believe diversity promotes innovation, opens doors, and creates partnerships that fuel the economy. That’s why we not only provide the most relied upon certification standard for women-owned businesses, but we also offer the tools to help them succeed.

About GWBC

The Greater Women’s Business Council (GWBC®) is at the forefront of redefining women business enterprises (WBEs). An increasing focus on supplier diversity means major corporations are viewing our WBEs as innovative, flexible and competitive solutions. The number of women-owned businesses is rising to reflect an increasingly diverse consumer base of women making a majority of buying decision for herself, her family and her business.

GWBC^® has partnered with dozens of major companies who are committed to providing a sustainable foundation through our guiding principles to bring education, training and the standardization of national certification to women businesses in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Bill Flynn with CGA

October 26, 2022 by angishields

High Velocity Radio

Bill Flynn with CGA

00:00 /

Bill Flynn, CEO of Catalyst Growth Advisors (CGA) has collaborated with Alan Mulally, pitched Steve Jobs, accomplished much, failed often, and learned many useful lessons from thirty years of studying the science of success.

Bill embodies his core purpose – simplified servanthood – by spending each working moment to help create a compassionately productive society by enabling enlightened leaders to focus on the few things that truly matter to their teams and key stakeholders. For having a great business is one way of making a better world. He has worked for and advised hundreds of companies, including startups, where he has a long track record of success spanning multiple industries.

Bill has been a VP of Sales eight times, twice a CMO and once a GM of a division of a $100MM IT services company before he pivoted to becoming a business growth coach in 2015. Prior to, he had five successful outcomes, two IPOs, and seven acquisitions, including a turnaround during the 2008 financial crisis.

As a coach, in addition to being connected with MG 100, Women’s Business Collaborative, MassMEP, Small Giants, and EforAll, Bill has earned certifications from ScalingUp, Gravitas Impact, Metronome United, Predictive Index, and The Neuroleadership Institute.

Bill’s best-selling book – Further, Faster – The Vital Few Steps that Take the Guesswork out of Growth continues to garner a nearly 5-Star rating generating demand for virtual and in-person national and international speaking opportunities.

Connect with Bill on LinkedIn and Facebook.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode

There is a meaningful gap between what science knows and business does. For example, a core customer is worth about 16X more than an ordinary customer.
Few things truly matter, but those that do matter tremendously. Leaders do not spend enough time here.
Leaders rely too much on effort, luck, timing and force of will to achieve “success”. These do not scale profitably.

This transcript is machine transcribed by Sonix

TRANSCRIPT

Intro: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity radio.

Stone Payton: [00:00:15] Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. You guys are in for such a real treat. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Catalyst Growth Advisors, Mr. Bill Flynn. Good afternoon, sir.

Bill Flynn: [00:00:35] Good afternoon to you as well. Great to be here.

Stone Payton: [00:00:37] Well, we are delighted to have you on the show. Got a ton of questions. Won’t get to them all, I’m sure, but I’m thinking a good place to start is if maybe you could share with our listeners mission purpose. What are you and your team really out there trying to do for folks, ma’am?

Bill Flynn: [00:00:55] Well, I think it’s a shame that really good idea is really good people. Really good businesses either struggle or die for completely preventable reasons.

Stone Payton: [00:01:04] Well, in the stats are not pretty or they the numbers are awful, aren’t they?

Bill Flynn: [00:01:10] But the numbers are surprising. Yes, a little alarming. And arresting the data coming from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as the Small Business Administration have similar numbers, basically says that most businesses die after five years and the numbers don’t get any better. If you go all the way down to 25 years, it’s about 16 or 17% of them left. And you’d think that after you’ve been in business for a while, you’d get better and learn and improve. But that doesn’t seem to be what the numbers bear out. So it’s unfortunate and that’s really only the ones who are no longer here. There are also a number of others that are struggling and they’re not gone yet, but they’re having a hard time. So it’s a very few businesses thrive, I’ve found, which is unfortunate.

Stone Payton: [00:01:56] So what are we doing wrong, you think?

Bill Flynn: [00:02:01] I don’t know that I have the answer, but my theory is that we do a lot of things wrong. Just not. We don’t do them completely wrong. We just sort of do them a little bit wrong and then they add up and you hire the wrong person and then they hire more people or you don’t quite get your strategy right. You’re not executing well. You just make sort of these small errors. And I think they just add up and it adds weight to the business. And the bigger you get, the heavier that anchor feels and begins to weigh on you.

Stone Payton: [00:02:38] But the information’s out there, right? It’s not like we have to to recreate and figure it out as if, you know, it’s not like we have to be pioneers. Information precedent about how to get this stuff right is it’s available to us. Yeah.

Bill Flynn: [00:02:53] Oh, it is. And it’s been around for about 100 years or so. It started with Frederick Winslow Taylor, who really taught people how to run a routinized business. So all about efficiency. There are some good books that come out of that. The goal is one that was written a number of years ago. Now I think we’ve come into a different era where it’s not really about routinized work anymore. It’s more about creative work and innovative work, etc. But management science has been saying the same thing for a long time. You’ve got Drucker and Deming and and Bennis and a number of other folks and more. In our generation, you’ve got Jim Collins and Pat Lindsay and a whole bunch of other people who have been saying, you know, this is sort of how really great businesses work. And at least what I’ve found or I think I’ve found is that those that that thrive and do well over a long period of time do the same few things really, really well.

Stone Payton: [00:03:54] So well. And I guess that leads me to ask about the other side of the coin. Is it because there’s so much information out there? Are we picking the wrong things and spending too much time on stuff that maybe doesn’t matter as much of a as the few right things?

Bill Flynn: [00:04:11] Yeah, Perito was a pretty smart guy, you know, the 8020 guy. And it seems that most of our the bulk of our results come from a little bit of our effort. And one of my favorite sayings and I say this to leaders all the time, which I think their job is, is is to really figure out the few things that matter because few things truly matter, but those that do matter tremendously. And if you can figure those things out, you have a leg up on your competitor.

Stone Payton: [00:04:39] So. So what’s the back story, man? How did you get involved in this line of work?

Bill Flynn: [00:04:46] So I’ve been so I did about 25 over 25 years. I did ten startups all in the high tech space here in the Boston area, and it was five or six for a while, ended up five for ten or five or seven, depending on what you count my contribution. But either way, it’s still a pretty good deal. But I’m also I have a curious nature and I was always sort of trying to figure out why do things happen the way they happen. And I’ve been studying business for about 30 years, really more so in the last six or seven pretty intensely. And that’s led me to be a coach to try to take what I’ve learned in my practical life in business, which wasn’t perfect, by the way. I certainly made a lot of mistakes and then combine it with what at least I think makes a big difference. And I’m I’m most. Most of it is said that 97% of it is not for me. It’s it’s from other great thinkers that I mentioned earlier and other people I’ve run into. And so I’ve been focusing on that. I’ve been working with leadership teams for the last six or seven years and helping them to try to figure out on their own how to make business thrive. As I like to say, help them take the guesswork out of growth.

Stone Payton: [00:05:59] I’ve always thought that if I if I knew a little bit more, I might enjoy being a coach. But it also it’s it strikes me as, I don’t know, a little bit nebulous about what to do. And when I talk about the work a little bit like when you first engage or a client engages you, what does the work look like, especially early in that in that process, where does it start?

Bill Flynn: [00:06:27] Yeah, we sort of do two things. One is we start at the ends, so to speak, and I ask my clients to write at least a three year vision. And it’s pretty it’s usually three, four, five, six, seven pages long. It’s pretty vivid to go into a lot of detail. And that sort of sets the bar up. Here’s where we’re going, because if you’re a leader, your job is to create followers. And followers want to know where are we going? And you need to create that for them. And there’s a great saying that Simon Sinek says a lot, which is you have to be able to articulate your vision as if it’s already happened. And so people will get an idea and say, Yeah, that’s I want to help make that come true or not. If they don’t want to make it come true, then that’s okay. They should go somewhere else and help their vision or whatever their purpose or mission or whatever you want to call them. Their life aligns with the company they work for or they create their own company. The other side of that is we help them really understand their identity, and that’s around values and purpose and objectives and sort of the main foundational things of who we are, how we behave, etc. Because most businesses unfortunately grow for growth sake. They’re like and they focus on revenue and really not important things.

Bill Flynn: [00:07:44] Revenue is great, but you can build $100 million company, but if it cost $100 million to run it, you’ve employed a lot of people and maybe you put out some products and such. But if if a stiff wind blows, so to speak, like a COVID or a 911 or a 2008 recession, you’re in trouble because now you know your business probably suffers and your costs haven’t really changed that much. So what I what I like to say is that if you if you grow for growth sake, then that’s the ideology of a cancer cell. And sometimes cancer cells kill their hosts. They certainly weaken them. So you’ve got to say, okay, these are ways that we can grow, but make sure it doesn’t violate who you are, doesn’t go against a core value or your core purpose or really what you’re good at and love and your passion, because eventually you will regret it. It may take years, and sometimes it’s hard to even tie it back to to that decision you made to three or four years ago, maybe even sometimes ten years ago, I’ve read. But it often happens. And I think that’s one of the one of those heavyweights I talked about earlier that start to pull in you as time goes by.

Stone Payton: [00:08:50] Well, it must be incredibly rewarding work. What what are you enjoying the most about it at this point in your career and in your practice? What are you enjoying the most?

Bill Flynn: [00:09:02] Well, I enjoy those two things that I enjoy. One, personally and selfishly, is is I love working with my clients. Time flies when I’m with them and I think about them often and I read a lot and I’m sending them things that I think might connect with them based upon general information or specific information I have from them. And then I really love that moment that comes every now and again when sort of the eyes open up and it’s like, Oh, right. They get their own epiphany. It’s not necessarily something that I told them, but through the work that we do because they’re really I, I truly believe that when you’re in coach mode, you know, that they either have or can come up with their own answers if you ask the right questions and keep pushing them towards that. When that happens, it’s really a great it’s great for me. And so an example is I was working with a client a few weeks ago and we were working on. Something called profit per X, which is if you focused on this one thing, this X mechanism, we’re going to call it, and and really optimize that either in volume or in margin or both, it would drive more and more profit and thus more cash into your business. And what I typically do is I say, one, write down what they think the X is, and then we put them up and we do that little sticky thing with coaches and we look at it and have questions and debates and comments, etc..

Bill Flynn: [00:10:27] And they’re they’re a two tier organization. I mean, they generally don’t sell directly to the end user. They sell through entities that go to the end user, but their X is revolved around what I call retail, right. Which is to the to the consumer. And I said, are you sure that this one of these is it? And I sort of lean back and it sort of seems to me that you’re more in front of that, that if you optimize something in front of that, whatever that might be, and a couple of them sort of set back and said, you know, yeah, if we optimize this, this more retail oriented thing, it wouldn’t necessarily drive our business, it might make our the end user happy, but it wouldn’t necessarily drive more profit into us and actually might drive more cost into us. So it’s great when when stuff like that happens and you get to see that on their face, like, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe we aren’t looking at this the right way. And I didn’t have the answer. I just I just said, you know, I sort of looked at it and said, I don’t know that we were done asking the questions.

Stone Payton: [00:11:28] So. So how does the whole sales and marketing thing work for a guy like you, a practice like yours? How do you get the opportunity? How do you how do you get the new clients?

Bill Flynn: [00:11:38] Yeah, it’s not easy, I like to say. So when people say, Who’s your best client and they’re they’re looking for attributes, typically they’re looking for size of company or industry that they’re in or something along those lines. And I say, you know what? I teach for most industries except maybe a few. What I what I work with clients on is pretty universal. I teach first principles more than anything, and I say, I’m not really looking for that. I’m looking for a mindset. I’m looking for a humble, hungry learner who’s comfortable challenging the status quo and stone I’ve found that they’re rare at the highest levels of company. So especially the humility part, they’re they’re not they feel uncomfortable bringing in someone like me because they might look weak or they might be seen like they don’t know what they’re doing. They have to have some third party sort of run their company for them, although I certainly don’t do that. So it’s difficult. So I wish I had a magic bullet and I could say, Hey, I do this and magically, you know, months later or two months later or whatever client pops up. But what I do is I get referrals from my clients, which is great. I do work with partners who have access to a larger pool of hopefully like minded people. I do some speaking and writing. I also try to run some some boot camps and workshops, so I sort of do a mix of things and it depends. I think it’s more the currently, it’s the activity. And then every now and again something happens. I just had a call today with I was on a podcast a week or two ago and this guy heard me and said, I like what you said. And so we’re we’re talking, so who knows?

Stone Payton: [00:13:14] Fun. Well, I actually wanted to talk about the writing. Tell us a little bit about this book of yours further, faster and there’s more to the title, The vital few steps that take the guesswork out of growth. I’d love to hear a little bit about it in general, but my first question is, when you were getting the book together to parts of it come together a little easier for you than other parts were some parts a little bit of a struggle? I’m interested to know about the experience of writing a book.

Bill Flynn: [00:13:46] Yeah. So I am I call myself an accidental author. I am not a writer. I don’t really describe myself as as someone who writes for a living. I was I was encouraged by others to do it, which I thought was pretty cool. They thought that my perspective on things was unique enough in this world of business books that many of them say the exact same thing, and it’s really only the first part of it that that is of any value. And then the next 200 pages are filler. I read a lot of business books and fortunately that happens too much. So I was really concerned about I didn’t want to put something like that out. I wanted to add something of value to the conversation. So as I said earlier, I like Paradox and I think that I took not everything that I know, I took the things that I thought made the biggest impact, thus the further faster and put them down in a book. I will tell you, I hired I hired a third party to help me, and I had a scribe. I worked with a company called Scribe Media and she was terrific and the process was great. So the hardest part was the sort of promoting of the book more than anything, to be honest with you, because I’m not necessarily a big self-promoter, although I should be since I work for myself. She made it super easy. We laid out an entire process of framework and then we sort of just filled it in. And I had already been a coach for four or five years. So a number of the things that I had learned and have been saying just sort of came out in the conversation with her and luckily she took it and turned it into something that was, I think, much more comprehensible and useful than I could have done on my own. So that’s what I did.

Stone Payton: [00:15:25] So if you would speak to the to the structure of the book and then maybe specifically to any counsel you would have to offer on how to help the reader get the most out of it, how to approach the book and really leverage it.

Bill Flynn: [00:15:39] Yeah. So the book itself is comes in all the formats that you could imagine. It comes in a paperback and then a Kindle and an e-book. And, and then I also have an audio version of it. There are three parts to the book. The first part really is about team and how to attract, build and grow and sometimes dismantled if you need to. A really great team. There’s a lot to that. There’s psychological safety. As part of that, there’s making sure that you’ve got people doing things they love as often as they possibly can, and really thinking about the team as a as a as a well rounded team made up of individual and idiosyncratic and spiky people. There’s an art and a science to bringing those sort of different aspects of people together to make a really well rounded team. The next part is really about strategy and execution. There are two sides of the same coin. I talk a lot. I talk a lot with people about strategy and execution. And most of the time when I talk to people and I say, you know, what’s what’s really in your way and what’s going on in your business is slowing you down or giving you trouble, that’s almost always an operational issue, which is really around execution. And I say, well, what do you what are you executing on? And I try to get them to say they’re basically executing on some kind of strategy. And as you execute on your strategy, your strategy evolves and gets better, hopefully.

Bill Flynn: [00:16:57] And so so they’re they’re they’re different things, but they’re definitely connected. And I sort of help to connect those things. And the last thing is about cash. The shortest part of the book is about cash. I think if you’re going to grow a business and you want to grow it in a healthy way, cash should you should be your primary financial metric because as is often said, revenue is vanity, profit and sanity and cash is king. And your job is to put money into the business so you can grow and you can invest in the people and do great things for them. And also make sure that you have enough cash to weather any storms that might happen. As we mentioned already with 28, nine, 11, etc.. The book itself is a do it yourself book. So there are, I think, about 20 to 25 exercises that go with the book. You can do it in any particular order that you want. I still think team is is primary so you can read along and then it’ll have a part of it that stops and says, Hey, go to the go to my website. You can download the exercise. Hopefully I’ve written some good instructions so you can do it yourself. And then of course, I’m also a businessman. If if you would like me to accelerate the process and expand the process, you can certainly hire me to to give you the full experience of building a growth framework.

Stone Payton: [00:18:13] I’m so glad I asked. And now I have a new phrase, and I’ll try to remember to credit you at least the first few times I use it. Spiky people. I love it. So have you had the benefit of a one or more mentors that helped you along your career? And I’m actually more speaking to when you made the the leap into the coaching world and running your own your own thing. Did you did you have one or more folks that kind of helped you work through? That.

Bill Flynn: [00:18:47] So I, I don’t know that I keep thinking about do I have a sort of a mentor or a set of mentors? I certainly have people that I’ve learned a lot from. I’ve had two or three people that have been most instrumental in that, in that growth, mostly in my startup stuff, because startups are certainly difficult and was nice to have a supportive and loyal set of people helping me with that. On the coaching side, I really tried to learn from other coaches, especially successful coaches, and I tried to see what they they were all about, how they approached things, what processes they they employed in order to be successful and found. Again, a lot of similarities in really great coaches is they had systems that they that they leveraged. I wouldn’t say that they used them all the time, but they certainly leveraged them in a in a in a foundational way. And then as as needs arose with their clients, they would expand into other areas. So my teachers there in my book, I give them credit in my book at the at the end. These are people that are out there that are thought leaders in what they do, like people like Amy Edmondson, Marcus Buckingham, Verne Harnish, Pat Lindsay. I think I list about 15 or 20 Bob Nesta who influenced me whether they knew it or not. I’ve actually become friends with some of them since then.

Bill Flynn: [00:20:15] And then my, my ultimate mentor is, is Alan Mulally, and he didn’t know he was my mentor. Alan Mulally used to be the head of Boeing and the head of Ford through 911 at Boeing in 2008. And forties, to me is probably the finest leader we’ve had, at least in the United States in a century. He led both of those companies through existential crises, and they came out better than they went in. And I wrote a little bit about him. There’s a book called American Icon, which was about his journey through Ford from 2006 through 2014, I think, and a lot of what he did there. Is what I do. And I thought it was really amazing that, you know, here’s this guy who I have admired for many years, and then I really learned what he did and why he was such a great leader. So I wrote an article and he reached out to me and talk about Humble. I mean, this guy is has no need to call me a little bit of Flynn. And he reached out to me saying, Hey, I read your article. I thought it was great, I want to meet you. And and I’ve been connected to him. I wouldn’t say we’re friends, but we’re definitely friendly. You know, he answers my calls and emails, and I do the same for him. So it’s kind of cool.

Stone Payton: [00:21:22] Well, and I suspect that you. You learn a ton things to do, things not to do. Mindset approaches from the from the client work. Right. You must learn a ton just getting out there and and doing the work.

Bill Flynn: [00:21:36] Yeah. I’m now seven years in or eight years into this coaching thing and I definitely do things differently than I did when I started, right? I was a little naive, a little ignorant. I started from scratch and I sort of followed all the rules. And then as you do things and you and you see what you stumble into, clients don’t quite get it. Hopefully you sit back and reflect and say, okay, how could I do that differently? Again, I reach out to my peers and say, Look, does it go very well and what would you do in this situation? And you hear a number of things. And so, yeah, I definitely learn from my clients. They ask great questions, they challenge me every now and again, which is great. So I owe a lot to them as well.

Stone Payton: [00:22:12] Well, you clearly have a passion for the for the work it comes through in your voice. I know it does over the over the airwaves. And I know you’re human. I know sometimes the you know, the tank probably gets a little bit low. Where do you go? And I don’t necessarily mean a physical place, but where do you go to to to recharge the batteries, get inspiration and get, you know, kind of ready for the next thing?

Bill Flynn: [00:22:40] Yeah, I will say, even though I’m tired at the end of each client session because I’m a bit skew a little bit introvert, so I have to sort of summon the energy, if you will, even though time is passing by. It definitely brings me up right Is the time flies by the next day or two. I’m still feeling really good about what happened, even if even if it wasn’t a perfect session, there was always something to draw on there. And then I’ll tell you, Stone, I do something extremely practical is that in the book there are about 30 or so reviews for my book, and all except for one is a five star review, which is kind of cool. Yeah, I go read them and some of the some of them are people I know, but many of them are people either I don’t know or haven’t seen in a long, long time. And they wrote some really nice things and I didn’t write them. So that’s pretty cool as well.

Stone Payton: [00:23:33] Well, I’d love to leave our listeners before we wrap with a couple of actionable items that I’ll call them Pro Tips, something that we can be thinking about reading, doing or not doing. Number one Pro Tip gang is reach out to Bill and have a conversation with him. But just, you know something, walking away from tapping into this conversation, just something to, you know, something we can take some immediate action on if you have anything to to offer on that front.

Bill Flynn: [00:24:03] Yeah, I’m I’ve learned that outcomes are extremely important. And it can be it could be in a larger sense or even a smaller sense. So I would whenever anyone who’s listening is thinking about doing something, picture the end first and try to picture it as an ideal outcome. It may not end up that way, but think about it that way and really write it down, describe it, and then work backwards from there. It’s like, okay, if I were to want that to happen, what would I need to do to change whatever? To have that be something that I can can get, can get from it? And I think the most practical example is meetings. We we across the globe do meetings very poorly. Most people don’t like meetings. They’re long, they’re boring. You get distracted, especially these days with social media and phones and everything. It’s easy to get distracted anyway. And that’s what I say to folks is, is if you have whatever meeting you have, whether it’s an ad hoc meeting or a regular meeting that you have on a regular basis, describe the ideal outcome of that meeting first, then figure out who should be in the meeting That gives you the best chance of achieving that outcome. Then write the agenda. And then once you’ve reached that outcome in that meeting, then end it. Whether it’s early or if it’s if you’re running over, then either decide whether you should continue or or then reschedule and finish the meeting another time. The goal is to reach the outcome of the meeting, not to meet for 50 minutes and not to get through the agenda. It’s just to reach the outcome of the meeting.

Stone Payton: [00:25:40] All right. Let’s make it easy for our listeners to have a conversation with you or someone on your team. I want to make sure they have easy access to this book and a good way to begin tapping into your work. Whatever you feel like is appropriate. Linkedin websites, email. I just want to make sure that they can get connected to you and start tapping into your work, man.

Bill Flynn: [00:26:02] Well, thank you very much. My website is probably the best. It’s Catalyst Growth Advisors. And if you want to reach me just bill at Catalyst devices dot com, you can send an email to me as well. But all my contact information is on there. My phone number. You can actually schedule a meeting through my calendar link that’s on there. My book is on there. You can actually download my book for free if you want in a PDF. You certainly go to Amazon or Audible and places to download it. I appreciate that. I think I make three or $4 every time you do that, which is cool, but that’s probably the best place. Wwe Catalyst Growth Advisors.

Stone Payton: [00:26:35] Well, Bill, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show this afternoon. Thank you for investing the time and the energy to share your insight and your experience and your perspective. I found the conversation informative, inspiring and I want you to know we sincerely appreciate your work, ma’am.

Bill Flynn: [00:26:56] I love it. I love being on high velocity radio. It’s it’s what I say to folks. You want to add velocity your business, do some of the things that I’ve learned and you’ll definitely do it. So very apropos. Thank you for having me on.

Stone Payton: [00:27:05] My pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today, Bill Flynn with Catalyst Growth Advisors and everyone here at the Business Radio X family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.