Podcasts about ebitda

In this episode of Run the Numbers, CJ sits down with Dan Bettes, CFO of SoundCloud, at the New York Stock Exchange. Dan breaks down how SoundCloud operates as a two-sided music marketplace, how he thinks about liquidity between fans and creators, and why great finance leaders need to make forecasting feel owned by the business—SPONSORS:Aleph is a modern FP&A platform built for teams that want more than another planning tool. By connecting your ERP, CRM, and other systems into one trusted data layer with AI workflows, Aleph helps you move faster with real-time insights. Get a personalized demo at https://www.getaleph.com/runRightRev is an automated revenue recognition platform that lets your product team ship new pricing without asking finance for permission, and your sales team close deals without creating downstream chaos. Check out their free tool at calculator.rightrev.com It scores your rev rec process, shows what's exposing you to risk, and tells you exactly where to focus before it bites you in the rear end. Check it out at https://calculator.rightrev.comRillet is an AI-native ERP built for modern finance teams that want to replace NetSuite and close faster. With revenue recognition, close management, multi-entity support, and native Stripe and Salesforce integrations, Rillet helps scaling companies run their finance stack in one place. Hundreds of teams, including Windsurf and Mercor, use Rillet to make the zero-day close real. Book a demo at https://www.rillet.com/cjEY has been part of Silicon Valley since it was just a valley, helping the most successful names in tech go from startup to exit to megacap. With teams across strategy, tax, audit, and transactions, EY helps you get your financials right early, long before your investors start asking for it. You build the next big thing, and EY will help you build it right. Learn more at https://www.ey.com/techstartupsSpendHound cuts your SaaS and AI spend by up to 30% using real pricing benchmarks across 10,000 vendors, so you always know what fair pricing looks like before your next renewal. Rated #1 on G2 in SaaS spend management, it's free forever for teams up to 1,000 employees. Sign up by June 12th and get $500 just for getting started. Go to https://www.spendhound.com/cjBrex is an intelligent finance platform with AI-powered agents that capture expenses automatically, enforce policy before the spend happens, and close your books in minutes instead of weeks. 35,000+ companies like OpenAI, Coinbase, Anthropic, and DoorDash already run on Brex. It's time to get Brex AF. Learn more at https://www.brex.com/metrics—LINKS: Mostly Talent: https://mostlymetrics.typeform.com/to/cLTxtAsNGuest: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielbettes/Company: https://soundcloud.com/CJ: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-gustafson-13140948/Mostly metrics: https://www.mostlymetrics.com—TIMESTAMPS:0:00 Preview and Intro2:17 First stock: a Vanguard index fund3:13 Most memorable IPO: Groupon4:54 Benefits of going public have changed5:47 SoundCloud and the music industry7:21 Three eras: physical, streaming, creator platform8:49 Streaming unbundled the album10:03 Artists don't need labels anymore11:40 Sponsors — Aleph | RightRev | Rillet15:00 SoundCloud's two-sided business model16:23 Touring replaced the album17:17 First metric every morning: net adds18:31 DAU vs. MAU: it's a funnel19:14 Viral moments and exogenous pops20:10 LTV and the subscription funnel21:38 Sponsors — EY | SpendHound | Brex24:35 Tops-down vs. bottoms-up: reconcile both26:21 Revenue is an output27:45 Handling forecast deviation29:24 How often to reforecast30:23 The final boss: indirect cash flow statement33:09 Cash vs. EBITDA fluency35:04 Plain English and the power of reps36:52 Tailor the message to the audience37:45 Lightning round37:45 Screwed up: miscounted corn at a banquet38:41 Lean into discomfort39:55 Craziest expense: a post-flight massage40:17 Credits

In this episode of the Grow A Small Business Podcast host Troy Trewin interviews Michèle Hecken shares how she built Alpha Translations into a global business serving top law firms while raising two young children after moving from Germany to Canada. She explains how creating systems and empowering her team allowed her to work just 4–10 hours a week for 15 years. Michèle reveals how her company was building early large language models long before today's AI boom and why she chose to sell instead of reinventing the business. She discusses the challenges of surviving the 2008 financial crisis, rebuilding stronger, and creating a company that could run without her involvement. Listeners will learn valuable lessons on leadership, delegation, mindset, business exits, and designing a business that supports the life they truly want. The Art of Offboarding: How to Transform Your Business to Run Without You by Michèle Hecken is a practical guide for entrepreneurs aiming to move away from day-to-day operations and create a business that runs independently. It focuses on the power of intentional delegation and structured exit from daily tasks to unlock greater freedom, focus, and sustainable growth. Why would you wait any longer to start living the lifestyle you signed up for? Balance your health, wealth, relationships and business growth. And focus your time and energy and make the most of this year. Let's get into it by clicking here. Troy delves into our guest's startup journey, their perception of success, industry reconsideration, and the pivotal stress point during business expansion. They discuss the joys of small business growth, vital entrepreneurial habits, and strategies for team building, encompassing wins, blunders, and invaluable advice. And a snapshot of the final five Grow A Small Business Questions: What do you think is the hardest thing in growing a small business? According to Michèle Hecken, the hardest thing in growing a small business is cash flow. She explains that even when a business appears successful, owners constantly face decisions about where to invest money, whether new initiatives will generate returns, and how to maintain enough cash reserves to navigate uncertainty. Michèle believes that managing consistent cash flow is critical because it gives business owners the flexibility to experiment, survive challenges, and continue growing without putting the company at risk. What's your favorite business book that has helped you the most? Michèle Hecken's favorite business book is Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott. She says the book had a significant impact on how she led her business, particularly in the areas of communication, feedback, and team culture. Michèle values its practical approach to having honest conversations, addressing issues early, and giving constructive feedback effectively. The book influenced her so much that she referenced some of its concepts and tools in her own book about helping entrepreneurs build businesses that can run without them. Are there any great podcasts or online learning resources you'd recommend to help grow a small business? Michèle Hecken recommends learning from a variety of sources rather than relying on a single resource. One podcast she particularly enjoys is the The Mel Robbins Podcast, praising Mel Robbins for her practical insights on mindset and personal growth. She also highly recommends John Warrillow and his podcast Built to Sell Radio, which features valuable lessons from business owners who have successfully scaled and exited their companies. Beyond podcasts, Michèle emphasizes continuous learning through books, coaching, entrepreneurial communities, and implementing what you learn, noting that the real value comes not from consuming information but from applying it to your business. What tool or resource would you recommend to grow a small business? Michèle Hecken shares that the number one tool to grow a small business is your mindset. She believes that without the right mindset, even the best tools and strategies will fail you. She also highly recommends Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott for building honest communication and a strong team culture. Above all, she encourages every entrepreneur to trust themselves and filter every resource through the lens of what truly works for their own business. What advice would you give yourself on day one of starting out in business? Michèle Hecken shares that the advice she would give herself on day one of starting out in business is to trust yourself because you already know what the right thing is to do. She reflects that even though everyone told her she was crazy for doing things differently, her instincts always led her in the right direction. She also emphasizes giving yourself permission to be courageous and not spending too much money on consultants who may not always know your business better than you do. Book a 20-minute Growth Chat with Troy Trewin to see if you qualify for our upcoming course. Don't miss out on this opportunity to take your small business to new heights! Enjoyed the podcast? Please leave a review on iTunes or your preferred platform. Your feedback helps more small business owners discover our podcast and embark on their business growth journey.     Quotable quotes from our special Grow A Small Business podcast guest: Success means having the freedom to choose how I want to live my life, who I want in it, and having the financial means to go after my dreams — Michèle Hecken Don't wait till you exit — exit yourself from your business so it can run without you and you can enjoy your life — Michèle Hecken If you're doing all the work, it's not a business, it's a job that pays you well — Michèle Hecken      

In this episode, the hosts analyze a railroad telecom infrastructure business generating $1.5M of EBITDA and debate whether its specialized certifications, railroad relationships, and fiber buildout tailwinds make it one of the most attractive acquisition opportunities they've seen in years.Business Listing – https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/specialized-telecom-engineering-and-safety-services-25-year-niche/2496836/?utm_source=bizbuysell&utm_medium=emailsite&utm_campaign=shtmlbot&utm_content=viewdetailtextWelcome to Acquisitions Anonymous – the #1 podcast for small business M&A. Every week, we break down businesses for sale and talk about buying, operating, and growing them.Looking to build a professional website in minutes? Try Wix: https://wix.pxf.io/c/6898629/3115214/25616?trafcat=templateHubSpot is the backbone for how businesses scale without chaos. Try them out here: https://go.try-hubspot.com/OeG9VrSubscribe for more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquisitionsAnonymousPodcast?sub_confirmation=1Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.acquanon.com/newsletter

In this episode, the hosts analyze a railroad telecom infrastructure business generating $1.5M of EBITDA and debate whether its specialized certifications, railroad relationships, and fiber buildout tailwinds make it one of the most attractive acquisition opportunities they've seen in years.Business Listing – https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/specialized-telecom-engineering-and-safety-services-25-year-niche/2496836/?utm_source=bizbuysell&utm_medium=emailsite&utm_campaign=shtmlbot&utm_content=viewdetailtextWelcome to Acquisitions Anonymous – the #1 podcast for small business M&A. Every week, we break down businesses for sale and talk about buying, operating, and growing them.Looking to build a professional website in minutes? Try Wix: https://wix.pxf.io/c/6898629/3115214/25616?trafcat=templateHubSpot is the backbone for how businesses scale without chaos. Try them out here: https://go.try-hubspot.com/OeG9VrSubscribe for more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquisitionsAnonymousPodcast?sub_confirmation=1Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.acquanon.com/newsletter

Vendor channel consolidation continues to restructure the MSP landscape, with private equity-backed rollups driving both market concentration at the top and increased deal volume. This episode centers on the sale of Worksighted, a 25-year-old, $27 million revenue MSP with strong vertical focus in healthcare and construction, to Thrive in a 35-day close. The structural mechanism at play is an increasing market segmentation where larger MSPs systematically acquire or merge with similarly sized providers, often leaving a gap for smaller operators as larger entities move upmarket. Primary evidence for this consolidation includes direct transaction data and workflow. According to Abraham Garver, his team handled 132 vetted buyer candidates for Worksighted, resulting in eight competitive offers after 76 signed NDAs. Thrive, having completed 27 MSP acquisitions, was able to accelerate the deal's timeline due to deep experience and preparation by both buyer and seller. The trend is further supported by Q2 market updates indicating 22 U.S. MSPs likely to come to market in 2026 and over 120 M&A transactions in Q1 alone, as reported by Drake Star. Related developments highlight the bifurcation of deal opportunities by provider size and the associated liquidity for MSPs. Private equity buyers increasingly favor acquisitions with a minimum of $3 million in revenue and $500,000 in EBITDA, while smaller MSPs are more commonly left to pursue peer-to-peer mergers or organic growth strategies. The episode also addresses the operational pitfalls of optimizing solely for high recurring revenue percentages, with evidence suggesting buyers offer premiums for organic growth and new client acquisition rather than rigid recurring revenue thresholds. For operators, these dynamics generate clear tradeoffs and risks. Larger MSPs face the challenge of integrating acquired firms and potentially divesting smaller clients who do not meet their revised minimums. Smaller MSPs may find opportunity by acquiring divested clients or targeting niche segments that fall beneath larger consolidators' thresholds. For all providers, the importance of thorough preparation, clean financials, and strategic clarity on post-transaction roles emerges as a key safeguard against value loss and disruption. Rigid adherence to target metrics not grounded in buyer behavior—such as focusing excessively on monthly recurring revenue—carries the risk of reduced flexibility and diminished exit prospects. Sponsored by:ScalePad ABCS Sloutions LLC

How do you take a 100-plus-year-old automotive company with 158 manufacturing sites, operations in 28 countries, more than 60,000 employees, and over 30 brands and transform it into a top-performing company?That's the question at the heart of Tenneco's remarkable turnaround story.In less than three years, under the leadership of CEO Jim Voss and his team, Tenneco doubled its EBITDA margins, becoming a leader within its peer group. But before the performance came the hard part: confronting a deeply entrenched command-and-control culture and reimagining how leadership works inside a legacy automotive company.In Part 1 of this two-part series, Jim shares his unconventional path to the automotive industry, his private equity background with Apollo, what he discovered when he arrived at Tenneco in 2022, and why culture became the foundation of the company's transformation.This is a conversation about leadership, trust, organizational velocity, and the courage required to challenge decades of legacy thinking.Themes Discussed in this EpisodeWhy Tenneco's turnaround began with culture.What Jim found when he walked into Tenneco in 2022Breaking away from command-and-control leadershipWhy organizational velocity is now a competitive advantageThe challenge of transforming legacy automotive organizationsHow leaders create cultures that drive executionHigh care and high accountability as a leadership modelWhy manufacturing plants should sit at the top of the organizational pyramid

Cem Atik is the co-founder and CMO of Harucon Ventures, a firm that acquires minority and majority equity stakes in e-commerce and SaaS businesses doing between one and ten million in annual revenue. Rather than operating as an agency or consultancy, Cem and his team get in with capital, take operational control of marketing and finance, and work to make the businesses they partner with structurally profitable.Most e-commerce brands that come to Harucon Ventures have the same underlying problem: they are optimizing for the wrong things. Revenue looks healthy. ROAS looks acceptable. But unit economics are broken, overhead is bloated, and the margin structure makes scaling impossible.In this conversation, Cem walks through exactly how his team diagnoses and fixes that. From cutting ad spend by 1.7 million euros in a single month to replacing a fulfillment provider that was silently overcharging a brand shipping 25,000 packages a day, the fixes are rarely glamorous but consistently high-impact. The conversation also covers his four-engine growth framework: acquisition, retention, conversion, and profit-first optimization, and why founders who lead with ROAS are measuring the wrong thing entirely.Cem also breaks down channel mix strategy, including why Pinterest and Bing Ads are consistently underused, why TikTok affiliate is one of the highest-leverage growth levers available right now, and why the real money in e-commerce is almost always made in retention, not acquisition.Founders who are scaling but not compounding, or growing revenue while watching margins compress, will find this episode unusually direct and useful.Website: https://www.vimmi.net Email us: info@vimmi.net Podcast website: https://vimmi.net/commerce-untold/ Eitan Koter's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitankoter/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@VimmiVideoCommerce/featured Guest: Cem Atik, Co-Founder & CMO, Harucon Ventures Cem Atik's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cem-atikHarucon-Ventures: https://harucon-ventures.com/Key Takeaways: • If a founder cannot state their customer acquisition cost in under 15 seconds, the business does not have a real financial foundation yet. • ROAS tells you how much revenue you generated per dollar spent. It tells you nothing about whether that dollar was profitable. Optimizing for profit on ad spend (POAS) gives you actual control. • Gross margin under 65% makes scaling structurally difficult in the US and UK markets. The margin problem cannot be fixed with better ads. • Agencies are typically three times cheaper than hiring in-house at early stages. Outsource acquisition first, learn from the partner, then bring it in-house once systems are proven. • TikTok affiliate is one of the most capital-efficient acquisition channels available: commission-based, creator-generated content, and scalable without a large internal team. • Pinterest is consistently overlooked despite an audience skewing 25 to 45 years old with average household incomes above $100K, and ROAS between four and six even at modest spend levels.Chapters:[00:00] Introduction: Cem Atik and the Harucon Ventures Model[01:27] The Founders Harucon Typically Partners With[03:45] The Post-Acquisition Audit: First 72 Hours[07:45] Cutting 1.7M Euros in Ad Spend: A Case Study[09:16] Why Gross Margin Under 65% Makes Scaling Nearly Impossible[13:51] The KPIs That Actually Matter: CAC, CLV, MER, EBITDA[18:35] The Four Engines: Acquisition, Retention, Conversion, Profit[24:00] Why ROAS Misleads and POAS Gives Real Control[25:41] Channel Mix: TikTok, Pinterest, Bing, and What Gets Overlooked

With the Co-Authors of The Greater Game and Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach and John Bowen of CEG Insights Louis Diamond speaks with Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach® and John Bowen of CEG Insights about founder dependency, enterprise value, and the architecture behind scalable businesses. In Summary Many advisory firms grow successfully while remaining highly dependent on their founders. Dan Sullivan and John Bowen argue that the difference between a successful practice and a valuable enterprise comes down to architecture. Louis sits down with the co-authors of The Greater Game to discuss founder dependency, enterprise value, intellectual property, and why some businesses scale beyond their owners while others do not. The conversation offers advisors a framework for thinking differently about growth, succession, and long-term optionality. The Storyline Many advisors spend their careers helping clients build valuable businesses. Far fewer stop to ask whether their own firms are being built the same way. That tension sits at the center of Louis Diamond's conversation with Dan Sullivan, co-founder of Strategic Coach®, and John Bowen, founder of CEG Elevate Group and CEG Insights. Their new book, The Greater Game, challenges a common assumption about growth: that bigger businesses are simply the result of working harder, adding more clients, or improving existing systems. Instead, they argue that enterprise value is created through architecture—the deliberate design of a business that can scale, transfer, and thrive without its founder at the center. The discussion introduces a framework for understanding why some entrepreneurs remain trapped in optimization while others build enterprises that compound in value over time. Along the way, Dan and John explore founder dependency, intellectual property, succession planning, strategic partnerships, and the role advisors can play in helping entrepreneurial clients navigate each stage of growth. For advisors, the framework creates an important mirror. The same forces that limit enterprise value for entrepreneurial clients often exist inside advisory firms themselves. The result is a conversation that extends well beyond business growth and into questions of optionality, transferability, and what ultimately makes a firm valuable. Topics Covered Enterprise Value Creation Founder Dependency Risk Business Architecture vs. Optimization Intellectual Property & Scalability Strategic Partnerships & Leverage Succession Planning & Optionality Legacy, Impact & the “Greater Game” Mindset > Download a transcript of this episode… Listen and Learn Highlights for Advisors What is The Greater Game—and why does it matter to advisors? (17:57) Dan and John introduce the framework behind their new book and explain why advisors should think about it both for entrepreneurial clients and for their own businesses. Why do only a small percentage of entrepreneurs create exponential enterprise value? (22:24) The discussion explores the difference between “architects” and “optimizers” and why most business owners remain focused on improving what exists rather than designing what comes next. Why is founder dependency such a significant valuation risk? (35:00) John explains how businesses that depend on a single individual often struggle to scale, transfer, or command premium valuations. How does expertise become intellectual property—and why does that matter? (35:00) The transition from expertise to transferable systems may be the most important bridge in the entire framework, creating leverage that extends beyond the founder. What prevents many advisors from fully serving entrepreneurial clients? (18:00) The conversation examines why most advisors are well-equipped for traditional planning needs but less prepared for the governance, succession, and enterprise-value challenges entrepreneurs eventually face. What does the next game look like after you've already “won”? (50:00) Dan and John discuss why many successful entrepreneurs and advisors eventually shift their focus from accumulation to significance, impact, and legacy. What's the single most important move an entrepreneur can make? (52:30) Dan shares the concept of Unique Ability® and explains why simplifying around your highest-value strengths often creates the greatest multiplier effect. Key Takeaways Enterprise value is created through architecture, not effort. Many successful businesses continue to grow while remaining highly dependent on their founders. The firms that command premium valuations are often built differently from the start. Founder dependency acts as a hidden valuation discount. The more a business depends on one person, the more difficult it becomes to scale, transfer, or sell at a premium. Intellectual property is often the bridge between a practice and an enterprise. When expertise becomes codified, transferable, and repeatable, value begins to exist independently of the founder. Advisors and entrepreneurs often face the same challenge. The same founder-dependency issues advisors help clients solve frequently exist within their own firms. Strategic partnerships create leverage that expertise alone cannot. Many of the most successful entrepreneurs grow through collaboration, ecosystems, and coordinated expertise rather than attempting to solve every challenge themselves. Most advisors are trained to solve early-stage problems. Entrepreneurial clients eventually require guidance around succession, governance, scalability, and enterprise value—areas that extend beyond traditional planning. The next stage of growth is often not about growth at all. For many successful entrepreneurs, the question eventually shifts from accumulation to significance, impact, and the legacy they want their business to create. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY5xOB8GTQY Quotable Moments “The exit multiple is downstream of the architecture.” “The difference between a three-times and a fifteen-times multiple is often whether the business depends on the founder.” “You have to simplify in order to multiply.” “We're not talking about a 10x game anymore. We're talking about a 100x game.”     FAQs Why do some advisory firms command higher valuation multiples than others? Dan Sullivan and John Bowen argue that valuation is often determined long before a transaction occurs. Firms that reduce founder dependency, codify intellectual property, and build transferable systems typically command higher multiples than those built around a single rainmaker. What is founder dependency and how does it impact enterprise value? Founder dependency occurs when clients, revenue, and decision-making remain concentrated around one individual. While those businesses can be highly successful, advisors find they are often more difficult to scale, transfer, or sell. What is the difference between an architect and an optimizer? An optimizer focuses on improving an existing business model. An architect builds systems, intellectual property, and structures designed to create leverage, scalability, and long-term enterprise value. What does Dan Sullivan mean when he says “100x is easier than 2x”? The concept challenges entrepreneurs to stop thinking incrementally. Rather than working harder within the current model, transformational growth often comes from redesigning the model itself through better leverage, collaboration, and systems. How can advisors better serve entrepreneurial clients? Many entrepreneurial clients eventually need guidance beyond investment management, including succession planning, governance, intellectual property strategy, and enterprise value creation. Understanding where a client sits in their business journey can help advisors provide more relevant advice and coordination. What is the expertise trap and why does it matter for advisory firms? The expertise trap occurs when critical knowledge, relationships, and processes remain inside the founder's head. Until that expertise becomes transferable and repeatable, enterprise value often remains limited regardless of growth. Dan Sullivan and John Bowen argue that valuation is often determined long before a transaction occurs. Firms that reduce founder dependency, codify intellectual property, and build transferable systems typically command higher multiples than those built around a single rainmaker. Founder dependency occurs when clients, revenue, and decision-making remain concentrated around one individual. While those businesses can be highly successful, advisors find they are often more difficult to scale, transfer, or sell. An optimizer focuses on improving an existing business model. An architect builds systems, intellectual property, and structures designed to create leverage, scalability, and long-term enterprise value. The concept challenges entrepreneurs to stop thinking incrementally. Rather than working harder within the current model, transformational growth often comes from redesigning the model itself through better leverage, collaboration, and systems. Many entrepreneurial clients eventually need guidance beyond investment management, including succession planning, governance, intellectual property strategy, and enterprise value creation. Understanding where a client sits in their business journey can help advisors provide more relevant advice and coordination. The expertise trap occurs when critical knowledge, relationships, and processes remain inside the founder's head. Until that expertise becomes transferable and repeatable, enterprise value often remains limited regardless of growth. Related Resources The Greater Game by Dan Sullivan and John Bowen Strategic Coach® CEG Elevate Group The Greater Game Dashboard Diamond Consultants Advisor Transition Report Dan Sullivan The world's foremost expert on entrepreneurship in action, Dan Sullivan has spent the past five decades empowering business owners to reach their full potential in both their professional and personal lives. His strong belief in and commitment to the power of the entrepreneur is evident in all areas of his company, Strategic Coach®, and its successful membership community. Dan is married to Babs Smith, his partner in business and in life. They jointly own and operate The Strategic Coach Inc., with offices in Toronto, Chicago, and the UK Dan and Babs reside in Toronto. John Bowen John J. Bowen Jr. is the founder and CEO of CEG Elevate Group, the holding company that includes CEG Worldwide and CEG Insights. Through these companies, he helps elite financial advisors serve fewer, wealthier clients exceptionally well while building more valuable and scalable businesses. Before founding CEG, John spent 26 years as a financial advisor and built a $2 billion wealth management business. That firsthand experience grounds CEG’s work today across advisor coaching, enterprise programs, empirical research through CEG Insights, and practical frameworks for advisors who want to move beyond practice growth to enduring enterprise value. John is the author of 21 books on wealth management, entrepreneurship, and success. His newest book, The Greater Game: Your 100x Blueprint for Exponential Growth, Freedom, and Legacy, co-authored with Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach, will be published by Hay House Business in May 2026. Today, John and the CEG team work with leading advisors and enterprise firms — including some of the largest advisor organizations in the United States — to help advisors deepen relationships with affluent clients, build scalable practices, and design lives of greater significance. NOTE: The views and opinions expressed by the guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Diamond Consultants. Neither Diamond Consultants nor the guests on this podcast are compensated in any way for their participation. View the transcript of this episode… Architecting 100x Growth: A “How-To” From Legends Dan Sullivan and John Bowen A conversation with Louis Diamond and Co-Authors of The Greater Game, Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach and John Bowen of CEG Insights.      Louis Diamond: Welcome to the latest episode of our podcast series for financial advisors. Today’s episode is Architecting 100x Growth: A “How-To” From Legends Dan Sullivan and John Bowen, a conversation with the industry’s top coaches and co-authors of The Greater Game. I’m Louis Diamond, and this is the Diamond Podcast for Financial Advisors. Mindy Diamond: At Diamond Consultants, we help elite advisors identify the right environment for their businesses to thrive, whether that’s at a wirehouse, boutique, or independent firm. With nearly three decades of experience, we’ve guided thousands of advisors and represented more than a quarter of a trillion dollars in assets transitioned. And each year, one in four advisors managing a billion dollars or more who change firms are our clients. Our process is education-driven and based on building relationships, starting as your strategic partner well before you’re even thinking of a move. To schedule a confidential conversation, call us at 908-879-1002. Wondering why advisors change firms and where they’re headed? Are transition deals going up or down? Those very questions and more inspired us to create our annual Advisor Transition Report. It’s the award-winning data-driven resource designed for advisors that connects the dots between the motivations around movement and the firm’s appetite for top talent. Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make smart decisions. Download your copy at diamond-consultants.com/transitionreport. Louis Diamond: Most entrepreneurs and many advisors spend years optimizing for growth without realizing they’re building a business that still depends entirely on them. Revenue and complexity grow; enterprise value, transferability, and freedom often lag far behind. Dan Sullivan and John Bowen argue that the issue isn’t effort or intelligence; it’s architecture. No doubt these are familiar names in the wealth management industry, but just to set the stage, Dan is the co-founder of Strategic Coach, and John is the founder of CEG Elevate Group and CEG Insights. Together, they spent decades coaching and studying high-performing entrepreneurs and advisory firms. Their latest book, one they joined forces on, The Greater Game, lays out a very different framework for thinking about growth, one built around scalability, transferrable value, and long-term leverage rather than incremental optimization. What makes this conversation especially relevant for advisors is that the framework cuts both ways. It applies to the entrepreneurial clients that advisors serve, as well as to the advisory firms themselves. And in many cases, the same founder dependency and expertise trap that limits a client’s enterprise value is quietly limiting the advisor’s business too. We talk about the difference between operators and architects, why 100 times growth can actually be easier than two times growth, where businesses tend to stall as they scale and how advisors can start thinking differently about their own firms, particularly when it comes to enterprise value, succession, and long-term optionality. It’s rare access to a conversation with two of our industry’s legends whose advice and counsel has not only helped to transform the business lives of many of our listeners, but also my own. So let’s get to it. Dan and John, thank you both for joining us today. Dan Sullivan: Thank you, Lou. It’s a real pleasure. John Bowen: I’ve had the privilege of joining you before, but never with my co-author, Dan Sullivan, and I’m excited to share what we’re doing because I think it can make a big impact in our advisor industry. Louis Diamond: No doubt about it. Yeah, this has been an interview I’ve been very excited to host. So let’s jump right in. Dan Sullivan, I think you are a man that needs little introduction. So many advisors in the industry are fans or clients of your firm, Strategic Coach, but for those who aren’t as familiar or need a refresh, can you just give some quick context into why you started Strategic Coach and what the company does today? Dan Sullivan: Yeah. Well, it goes back to 1974. I was a copywriter at BBDO, the Canadian branch of BBDO, big global advertising agency. It still is. But I’ve been sort of a lifetime coach. I remember once when my mother finally caught up with what I was doing in life and I was describing what I was doing, she says, “Well, you were doing that when you were a child. You were talking to adults and you were asking adults about their experiences.” And I said, “Yeah, I could do this when I was eight or nine years old, but it took me a long time to get a business model wrapped around it.” But I jumped out in 1974 and started coaching anybody, but it actually turned out that entrepreneurs were the best people to coach because they would write a check on the spot and they would make a decision on the spot and I needed cashflow and I did it. So I’ve been personally, as a Strategic Coach, which was named by someone else. You’re just out there trying to get cashflow to pay for the rent. So I started in ’74, and I was lucky and it really relates to your target audience, Lou. Right off the bat, I got what are called top-of-the-table life insurance agents. And that was really, really great because life insurance agents are purely a conceptual business. So someone can get a new idea at breakfast and they can have a new business by dinnertime just because they can change their mindset. And that moved on. And I did that for 15 years, just one-on-one, 1970s, 1980s. And then, I’d had enough experience that we turned it into a workshop program in 1989. We’ve been at it ever since. So I was at a talk. Joe Polish is a great friend of ours, Joe Polish with Genius Network. And he had a speaker there, and he says, “You’re one of the original gangsters, aren’t you? You’re one of the first people.” And I said, “I don’t know if I’m the original, but I think I’m the only surviving one.” So it’s 52 years that I’ve been doing what I’m doing. And I had the good fortune to meet John in around 2009. John, was that the year? 2009? John Bowen: Yeah, in the little economic downturn that everybody knows about here. Dan Sullivan: Yeah. And John had a great coaching program and we had a great coaching program. And over the years, we’ve talked a lot about what makes a entrepreneur exponential in their thinking. And finally, about two years ago, we decided, let’s write a book about this. And that’s the new book, which is called The Greater Game. That’s where this all started. It’s just been a great pleasure because we sync very well. Louis Diamond: Amazing. And Dan, I think a lot of people likely know you either from Strategic Coach. I know I’m personally a big fan of two of your books and I know of others, The Gap and The Gain and Who Not How. We’re going to talk about your new book, but I think it’d just be helpful. Can you talk about the key premise of some of your prior books, The Gap and The Gain and Who Not How? Dan Sullivan: As a result of my membership, I’m a member in other groups. And so Joe Polish of Genius Network fame, he’s been in my program for 28 years, and I’ve been in his program for 15 years. And there was a writer who was in one of the first Genius Network workshops, and he approached me. And I created a lot of books, but I create small books and they’re self-published. I do a book a quarter. I’m 82 in about three weeks. So when I was 70, I said, “I’m going to give myself a 25-year project. I’ll write 100 books in 100 quarters.” And this is quarter number 47, and I’m writing my 47th book. But they’re little books. They’re 60, 70 pages. They’re one-idea books. And Ben Hardy, who was, at that time, the number one writer on Medium, which is a blogging type medium, he approached me, and he said, “I know you don’t write big books and you don’t have publisher books. But,” he said, “if you ever did,” he said, “I’d like to collaborate.” And that was a great good fortune on my part. So we produced three books in five years. The first book was Who Not How. Who Not How basically says when you have a goal, the biggest problem with the goal, you’re excited about the goal, but you’re not excited about doing it. So you find “Whos” who help you and you build teamwork around it. And that was a big seller. And then, we had another concept which was called The Gap and The Gain that entrepreneurs, depending on how they measure their progress, can be perpetually unhappy or they can be perpetually motivated. And it all depends on how they measure their progress, how they measure their goal setting and their goal achievement. And then the third book, which has really turned out to be the big one, up until this book, this book will be bigger. It’s called 10x Is Easier Than 2x. So hence, Coach, everybody has a 10x game plan. Whatever number they want to choose, revenues, personal net worth, whatever, you have a framework of 10x, which is sometime in the future, but you use that future framework for deciding what you’re going to do today that will end up as a 10x result. I thought that was going to be our formula for the rest of my life until I met John. And then John is a great AI practitioner. And I began to realize that that 10x is now becoming 100x for really top-notch entrepreneurs, but the 10x is easier than 2x. And we just crossed the million mark with the three books, which is really good. And it’s great for lead… we’re having people show up and they’ve really bought into what Strategic Coach is. We have a good size company. We’re not a small company. We have 120 team members. We’re in five centers: Los Angeles, Vancouver, Chicago, Toronto and London, England. But it’s been really great because we’ve really grown with technological change and it’s basically, we teach people how to think about their thinking. And Lou, you were in for three years, both in-person and virtual. So you know what the starting structure of it is, but I’m in love with entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are crucial characters on the planet, but mostly they operate alone and what we’ve done is create a community for them. Louis Diamond: Fantastic. Thank you, Dan. And John, I think perfect segue to you, because I know you’ve spent your career serving and helping entrepreneurs as well, mostly within financial services or within wealth management. And you’ve been very kind to share some of your amazing research on advisors serving entrepreneurial clients in the past. But for anyone who’s missed those episodes, similar question for you, can you share what your companies do? CEG Elevate, CEG Insights, your new research, and then we’ll dive into your exciting new book. John Bowen: Thank you, Louis. And Dan and I are very excited about just entrepreneurs in general. Dan is, because he’s working with them directly. The best clients for financial advisors are entrepreneurs, largely, if you’re going to go high net worth, ultra-high net worth. So we have a company, CEG Elevate, which is our parent company. Two of the companies that are really interesting for this podcast is CEG Insights and this is our research arm. And we’ll study about 20,000 high net worth, ultra-high net worth clients this year in depth and 6,000 up to 7,000 we’ll do just of entrepreneurs. And this is in the partnership. Lou, I invited you up to… We were skiing two years ago in Park City and you couldn’t join us. But Dan and I made a deal to do a 25-year partnership studying entrepreneurship, one for Strategic Coach and his coaching clients, but really the opportunity for financial advisors. And it’s probably just as well because I came down, and I think, Dan, you were 80 at the time and I was 69. I’m 70 now. And I was skiing with a whole bunch of 40-year-olds, and they’re all going, “You guys are way too optimistic.” And Dan and I are just getting started on this. And the other company that’s applicable is CEG Worldwide, where we have the privilege of coaching and training some of the top financial advisors, those aspiring, and also working with the enterprises to really help move up market and do this great experience. Louis Diamond: Fantastic. Dan, question for you. What was the core problem you and John were trying to solve in your new book, The Greater Game? What is it that existing frameworks weren’t touching? And then John, I’ll have a follow-up question for you after that. Dan Sullivan: Yeah. Well, by the very nature of what we do, we’re not going for wannabes. We’re not going for entrepreneurs who hope to be really successful someday. We’re engaging with and we’re registering into both of our communities, people who, they’re already great. They’re already doing so many things right, but they’re kind of doing it unconsciously. They just have a unique ability for growth. They have a unique ability for networking and expansion, but the very, very core is they’ve done it on their own. And they’ve done it out of intuition and they’ve done it out of ambition and motivation. But their biggest problem is that they’re really lonely. I’m in my sixth decade now of coaching entrepreneurs, and people say, “Well, what’s the number one problem that entrepreneurs face?” And I said, “Loneliness.” They can’t explain themselves to the family they grew up with. They can’t explain themselves with their lifetime friends. They have thoughts about how they’re operating. And they take enormous pride in their ability to transform difficulties into breakthroughs, but they don’t have anybody to talk to. So what we’ve created is a community where when you walk in the room, everybody in that room immediately understands you. Everybody immediately applauds what you’ve done. Everybody is inspired by you. So my framework is I call, “What you’ve done on your own, you’re great. You’re a winner already, but who do you talk to?” You have to hide a lot of your success because they just won’t understand what it is that actually motivates you. And the beauty of the partnership with John is the vast majority of our clients are in 70 or 80 different industries, so they’re not peculiar. We start off with financial services, especially life insurance. But what I notice is that all the difficulty they get into life is they’re trying to communicate with people who don’t understand them. And what we’re saying is, “Stage one, you did it on your own, you’re great by any standard whatsoever. You check all the boxes for being a successful person, but you don’t really have any way to actually check out how other people are doing this.” And so we’ve created a community, and John has created a community where people, immediately, there’s understanding. And not only that, but there’s opportunity because they’re unique in their own ways. Every one of our entrepreneurs has created a very, very unique pattern of success that if they were with 10 other people, they could learn from this. If they were with 30 other people, they would learn even more. So that’s what we’ve done. So stage two is now joining a community where everybody gets you. Louis Diamond: Interesting. And that’s the premise of the book. We don’t want to have people not buy it, but what is the greater game? What’s the game that folks are playing and pursuing and how do you make it greater? Dan Sullivan: I tell you, what I’ve always been lacking, I’m sort of intuitive like most entrepreneurs are. We’ve done about 300 times growth since we started the program. But it’s intuitive. I don’t have any research to back this up. I’m low on fact finder. I find, generally speaking, the best facts are just the facts that I make up, but at a certain point, you’d like to have some actual research to back me up. So I’ve gone as far as I can go with our company without real research. Then John comes into the picture, and now we got some real research. And I will say this, this is generally true. It’s not just a problem with me that I don’t have research. I find that entrepreneurism is one of the least researched subjects on the planet. And John comes along and he’s done all the backfill for how entrepreneurs actually perform and I’ve got research to prove it. Louis Diamond: Perfect. Yeah, John, question for you. So what is The Greater Game? And then, how do you think it relates to what financial advisors have been missing? John Bowen: One of the things that we as financial advisors all want to work with people who have already won. And there’s no better group than entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs. If we look at people with 25 million or more of investible assets across all households in the US, 90% are entrepreneurs. And at the 5 to 25 million of investible assets, it’s three out of four. So at CEG Worldwide, we’ve always wanted to really understand advisors. And we said we’ll partner with Dan and his passion with entrepreneurs, we’ll go ahead and study them so that we can bring insights on how we can better serve them. And the very first thing we want to do is understand, yeah, there’s very different stages that we see of entrepreneurs and we talk about the whole concept of The Greater Game. And the idea here is we wanted to identify… And I’ll share some PowerPoint slides. I know a lot of us are listening and I just want to walk through this, but Louis will have it in show notes, his team will. We really saw four areas. The first one was level one, stage one was foundation for freedom. They had ambition, the vision, but they really needed security. And Dan calls this, and I love this term, “cash confidence.” But it’s really using a financial advisor to have security. And one of the things, the last time I was on with you, Louis, we talked about there’s 59.2% of entrepreneurs who want to switch advisors because they don’t believe they have that security. And that’s kind of the foundation. And this is why you’re never going to read a more friendly financial advisor book for entrepreneurs than this because in our coaching program, we’re developing workshops and so on to bring this message out. And then the second level is where now we saw… and there were four levels. Dan and I identified 5.4% of these entrepreneurs that were just killing it and they were going through all four levels. The second level was energy for expansion. They were very motivated, they were excited about getting up and really the intellectual property, and Dan’s been one of the big leaders in this, is so much of what we know… And as I go through this too, I want every one of the advisors to think about it’s not only your entrepreneurial clients, this is for you too, is having this intellectual property, getting it out of your head so that your business is not founder-dependent or personality-dependent. You’ve got this enterprise. And then, the third level where it really took off was collaboration and multiplication. And Dan talked about the power of community and this is so big. And for advisors, the community is often working with other professionals, the accountants, the attorneys, the investment bankers. Matter of fact, when we survey, we found that 40% of the people with 25 million or more that they invest with an advisor came through an investment banker. So creating that community, teamwork, having the right team and then autonomy. Can you step away from your practice? The entrepreneurs step away 30 days, 60 days, 90 days, making that independence, moving from the founder-dependent to the enterprise. And the last level was exponential. And this is all along the way, the AI opportunities to accelerate this and augment this is really real, but the agency where the blue ocean, creating new markets, then getting the commitment and courage. And at each of these levels, we saw different entrepreneurs just really taking off. And one of the things that’s so important, Louis, for what we’re talking about today is advisors all are ready to treat stage one, the foundation for freedom, but they don’t really understand the other stages, and that’s really what entrepreneurs want. So if you want to work in this market, it’s very important for you to understand what you can do to help. The difference is often for an entrepreneur, a three to five multiplier versus 15, the level one or stage one to stage four. And this is where it gets really exciting. Louis Diamond: This would be a question for John. You found, and he’s mentioned it, that only 5.4% of entrepreneurs operate as architects versus optimizers. Can you explain the difference between those two personas? John Bowen: Well, I’m going to set up the research and let Dan really bring it home. But Dan and I came up with this framework, The Greater Game and the 10 Multipliers, and we’ve got that and we’re putting it in order and we wanted to really confirm. And everything we do is empirical research. So we reached out to 1,000 very successful entrepreneurs, 1,016. And it became very clear that the 5.4% of them were actually executing on all these levels and they were just distancing everyone else. And what we came up with, and Dan mentioned it earlier, that his book, 10x Is Easier Than 2x, but we said, what we’re seeing… and we’ve got a whole bunch, I think it’s 26 stories in the book of entrepreneurs, we’re seeing so many people blow this out that 100x is easier than 2x, and it forces a whole different mindset where if you’re optimizing, you’re kind of looking incrementally. But when you step back as an architect, big picture, wow, huge opportunity, both for entrepreneurs and advisors that are entrepreneurs to make a real big difference. This is something you’ve really coached to and had the privilege of working with thousands of entrepreneurs helping them on that journey. Dan Sullivan: Yeah. One of the things that was confusing for me, Lou, when I first started coaching, because everybody who came in to coach, you remember when you came into your first Chicago workshop, that everybody in the room was motivated. I’m not a motivational speaker. I don’t have to motivate the entrepreneurs who are in Coach. They’re already motivated. The problem is the focus of their ambition and focus. And what we discovered was that there were two types that showed up. I didn’t really understand it, but they’re what I call status-oriented entrepreneurs. And what they are when they were a kid, they didn’t have anything. Their family wasn’t at the top of the pole. When they were born, they grew up in a certain community, but there were certain people who lived in the right part of town and they had really big houses and everything about their lifestyle was way above everybody else in the lifestyle. And they saw the lack of what they had, because of the way they were born, that they were going to match it. But the matching was based in not only what the big home looks like. They’ve got other homes, they’ve got vacation homes. They belong to clubs. There’s clubs for the winners, and the losers aren’t part of those clubs, golf courses and boating clubs and everything else. And what I noticed was their motivation was simply to get to that point where they had the same sort of status. And they’re interesting for a while, but once they’ve gotten to that level of status, they’re not interesting anymore. They go on cruise control at that point and they just want to stay within that framework. But the really interesting entrepreneurs, and we really highlight them in the book, it’s just about growth. So when they get to one level, they say, “That’s great. Okay, now I’ve got a new baseline and now I want to grow even further.” And we have one story, very, very interesting. When he came into my Chicago workshop, I met him and he said, “I’ve got a big engineering company.” This is Paul VanDuyne. He’s out of the Quad City area of Iowa. And he says, “My ambition for your program is for three years, I’m just going to plan my retirement.” And I said, “Well, we’ve got some thoughts about that.” So I said, “Just do your first workshop and we’ll talk about it 90 days from now.” And he came back and he had an entirely different game plan, and he’s grown basically 250 times in his last 13 years. He’s completely transformed the industry that he’s in and he had this growth. So what we’re looking for in The Greater Game, we’re looking for those entrepreneurs who are already successful, but they don’t see any stopping point. They’ll grow to one level and then they say, “Okay, that’s the new baseline. Now I grow to another level.” Meanwhile, three years ago, what happened is the world got a new capability called AI. AI, you’re not talking 10x. If you use it properly… a lot of people are in the very early stages here, but we can see the ones who are applying it for growth. John has set up an entire research structure just to measure the people, and what are the people who are just motivated by growth? They don’t see any stopping point. They don’t see any retirement age. They’re just growing. They’re in better health now than they were when they started their ambition. One of the great breakthroughs we’re having now is the impact of AI on physical fitness and health right now. And so you have 70-year-olds now who are way more ambitious at 70 than they were at 50. So we think a whole new world is being created in front of us, but there isn’t the research to measure what the real winners of this new game are actually doing. And The Greater Game is a lot of Strategic Coach thinking tools, but it’s also the phenomenal research that John is doing, and we’re measuring exactly what are these people who just constantly grow, what are they actually doing? John Bowen: Louis, if I can jump in, I want to go back to Paul just for a second because he was going to do something classical, and Dan is also my coach and I was going to do something similar. Paul told Dan that he was going to retire at 65, and his wife. And he were going to open up a little mom-and-pop coffee shop. And the reason so many of the entrepreneurs are caught in the 2x optimization is they’re grinding it out. They’re working harder to be more successful and the desire to do that isn’t very high. That’s why you retire. On the other hand, what we found, the ones working on 100x are building platforms and ecosystems. They’re architected. And as we were writing the book, CEG grew by 58%. I’m going to give a lot of credit to the book, because as Dan and I were working on the processes, I wanted to walk all the talks. This is where the world is changing. I want everybody to think as a financial advisor, you’re being served twice, one with The Greater Game, they don’t care about a few basis points on returns. That’s table stakes. So much of the level one is taking care of the investment side, mitigating taxes, taking care of the areas, protecting the assets, some charitable planning, maybe shoot in some succession planning. I can tell you only 6% of the entrepreneurs actually feel they’re getting that from you, but that’s only level one. If you can help them from each of the stages, stage one through four, and help them create that vision, they’re going to love you to death. Because many of them want to continue in this path and create tremendous value, bigger impact, not creating legacies in the sense of enduring legacies, but active legacies. Last year, my wife and I set up a private foundation. I called it The Greater Game Foundation. I just love this so much, the difference that you can make, and I want to do it while I’m living, not while I’m gone type of thing. I think that’s one Dan and I very much share. Louis Diamond: Awesome. You wrote the book 10x Is Easier Than 2x, but now you’re claiming 100x is easier than 2x. How can that be the case? Dan Sullivan: The interesting thing, one of my points of proof on the original idea, the 10x Mind Expander, I use a lot of what the entrepreneurs have already done to prove the future. In other words, I said… You’ll remember the exercise, Lou. And I said, “I want you to pick your best number.” Everybody’s got a best number. It’s revenue, it’s net worth, whatever. And I said, “I just want you to multiply by 10.” And immediately there’s this reaction. He says, “You know how hard it was to get to just where I am 10 times?” And I said, “Well, you’ve already done 10 times. You’ve probably done 10 times twice. So let’s go back to the beginning. When were you 1/10 of where you are right now?” And they can nail it. They can tell you the year, they can tell you the month when they were 1/10 of where they were. And I said, “Let’s write the actual structure that got you from 1/10 to where you are right now.” And there’s five stages, and usually it’s an event, it’s a new relationship and all of a sudden they get a big check. And we measure, as entrepreneurs, size of check is a good scorecard. When you’re first starting, you got a $10,000 check, that was the biggest check. But about five years later, you get a $100,000 check, and all of a sudden it seems strange at breakfast, but by dinner you’ve normalized the idea, “Well, I know what it’s like to get a much bigger check, a 10 times check.” And so I have them create five growth stages that took them from where they were 1/10 to where they are right now, and I said, “Now let’s go back and talk about doing 10 times more.” And what they recognize, 80% who’ve got them 10 times the first time is going to be the same. It’s relationship, it’s having a great team, it’s having a simple approach that always works and it’s about the kind end customer. It’s not about them. It’s about who is it that you’re being a hero to in the marketplace. Because the truth is people don’t want to have a lot of relationships as they grow. They’d like to have one relationship to grow. They’d like to have an advisor who’s growing with them. But then John introduced me to the whole world of AI and I said, “We’re not talking 10 times anymore. We’re talking 100 times.” I said, “If you apply this new form of thinking, because it is an entirely new form of thinking, to what you’re doing right now, you can see that 10 times is going to happen just by doing three or four things where you’re eliminating waste, you’re eliminating things that just don’t work anymore, changing relationships, changing teamwork, changing collaborations in the marketplace.” But meanwhile, this new world of thinking is making you healthier. It’s making you more fit. So where before you thought you wouldn’t have the energy at 70, you now have more energy at 70 than you had at 50. So you’re the only one who says when it’s going to stop. I’m 82 in three weeks. We’re having this… I’m 82 and I’m way more ambitious at 82 than I was at 52. And the world is, because the world outside in terms of technological capability and access is way, way bigger in my 82nd year than it was in my 52nd year, and I love the growth. I have to tell you that the greatest point where AI is going to have the impact is going to be making money. The big titans, the Metas, the Googles, the Nvidias, what do they have in common? It’s about the money and where AI is being applied most is how you do new things with money. So that’s where the 100 times now comes from. I’ve normalized it. I said, “We’re not talking a 10x game anymore. We’re talking 100x game.” But the number on the scoreboard isn’t the issue. The scoreboard is, are you actually having fun? Louis Diamond: Yeah, we call it living your best business life. That’s our major barometer in charge. John, I don’t know if you could pull up your slides again, but I want to talk about the bridge between stage two in your pyramid to stage three. So that’s from expertise into scalable property. Can you explain how this relates to a financial advisor or an independent business owner and why this concept is so important for the valuation of a business? John Bowen: The book, it’s written for entrepreneurs, but I wanted to create some bridges while we’re together with Louis on really what’s going on for financial advisors and how you can help them. So if they’re at our stage one, Dan and my stage one of The Greater Game, and they want to go to two, they’re kind of dreaming oftentimes, and we want to help them begin creating the architectural structure. And as an advisor, this is really going to encourage everybody to read chapter two, The Greater Security. It talks about really the VFO, Virtual Family Office structure that they want, and you got to help them get financially solid, building personal wealth outside of the business, tax, estate, insurance, business structure. That’s what we all do today. Then though, if they want to move from level two to three, what we find over and over again, advisors are not equipped to do this, because what we’re taking is that founder where everything’s in its head, we’re now helping them move from just having that expertise to having scalable property. This is that codifying the process of building IP that’s transferable. And this is where the real valuation changes. Now, I’m not asking financial advisors to be the IP experts, but what the entrepreneurs want is they want somebody to help them curate and then coordinate between each of these levels. We go from three to four that the founder is indispensable, oftentimes at three. Now we want the team there to be invincible. And it’s not just the individual team as Dan was talking about. It’s the community. The collaboration is where this really takes off. The noise of AI is making it harder to market, but by partnering, particularly as financial advisors, we can very quickly have groups. One of the reasons why I’m collaborating with Dan, I want to help our financial advisors to work with entrepreneurs. Dan wants that research. So this is the natural collaboration. But they’re interested here in governance, self-managing teams. One of the things that Strategic Coach is brilliant at, the pre-transaction they want. And what we find so often is the indispensable discount. So many businesses sell, if they sell at all, they’re selling for three to five times multiplier, not advisory, but traditional businesses. Well, if you can make it to four, all of a sudden you’re now talking to 10 to 15 times multipliers. And think of it as if I’m a buyer and I’ve been involved in 50-some transactions, what happens is if the business is the guy, the gal, they’re the business, then you’re buying a very expensive job type thing. So let’s just keep a simple one. They’re having a couple million dollars of EBITDA. And let’s say the high range of that, five times EBITDA is $10 million. Well, the difference at 15 times two million is 30. Now, a few basis points I don’t really care about. I really care about capturing that difference. And because there’s a machine working without, I can buy that machine and generate that cash flow and it’s also taking advantage of the vision. And then when we get to level four, this is where most advisors make the biggest mistake is, “I’ve won. I’m at level four. I’ve got tremendous wealth.” Okay, but I’m now looking at significance. And I do want to go, “It’s not enduring legacy I’m looking for. I’m looking for active legacy. I’m looking for family governance.” Do I want to continue to build it like Dan and I’m doing at 70? I’m building the business so I can continue doing it as long as I want to do it. At the same time, and I love the impact we have and I know you do too, Louis, for the impact you have. Why not build the platform that’s going to allow you to do that as long as you want to do that? And if you don’t want to do it, let’s create the most value to transfer. When you start having conversations like that with families, entrepreneur families, it just changes, and very few advisors can do that. And that’s what we’re finding. We have a coaching company, training company, we train those things. They’re winning, quite honestly, almost 100% of the time because entrepreneurs didn’t know that was available to them. Louis Diamond: Interesting. It seems like the difference between stage two in your pyramid, to leap to stage three or four, that seems like a pretty massive pivot point for valuation for building a scalable business, having a self-managing company, et cetera. Do you find or have you seen that advisors or entrepreneurs that are in stage two themselves, they kind of pattern-match when they’re working with their own clients and kind of manage their own clients into stage two, or is it not really connected? John Bowen: I think that once you get the bigger picture and see the greater game, you can help your clients. That is a very small percentage. Remember, it was only 5.4 of when we surveyed successful entrepreneurs were actually playing the greater game, all four levels, the 10 greater multipliers. So I think what we tend to do is we get stuck on what we can do. And all the training is for level one for financial advisors. We don’t know how to guide them through the other levels. And really, the big difference from two to three, Dan and I’ve talked about this a lot, and I think Dan’s one of the biggest champions of this, is collaboration, putting together strategic partnerships. It could be with your competitors. This is for entrepreneurs, competitors, it could be various vendor partnerships. But the ability to open up markets that way when you have now put together in level two your IP, value creation’s huge. For advisors, it’s putting together partnerships with centers of influence. When we survey top financial advisors, 70% of their best clients came through COI, Centers of Influence with accountants, attorneys, investment bankers, and so on. Well, let’s do it on purpose, be successful on purpose. Louis Diamond: Dan, question for you. In all your experience working with successful financial advisors, insurance producers, probably any entrepreneur, what do you feel are the most common things that folks do unintentionally to really hurt their enterprise value even long before, or if ever, they decide to sell their business? Dan Sullivan: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is they stay entirely within their industry. One of the first questions that we ask our entrepreneurs when they come into the program and where you see it most is in the professions: lawyers, accountants, engineers, architects. I’ll say, “Well, what is it that you are?” And they’ll say, “Well, I’m a lawyer. I’m a tax lawyer.” And I said, “Are you a tax lawyer or are you an entrepreneur who has a specialty in tax law?” Okay. It makes a big difference, because if you see yourself as a tax lawyer, then you’re saying that you’re a better paid factory worker. You’re a manual laborer. But if you’re an entrepreneur, it’s a fairly recent idea in human history. There’s always been entrepreneurs, but it wasn’t until about the beginning of the 1800s that you start seeing this really different class of people in the marketplace, who, it didn’t matter how they were born, they were taking advantage of some new multiplier technology. Steam power being a great example. Around 1800, steam power came on. And anybody who had a bright vision for themselves and had the wherewithal to figure out what needs could be satisfied with a new technology, all of a sudden they became rich. They became rich. And it was very disruptive, because up until then it was based on aristocracy and you were born into wealth or you were born into poverty. There was no crossover. So what we’re saying is anybody who comes into Strategic Coach, I said, “I’m not going to tell you anything about your particular industry.” I said, “You know all the best practice people in your industry and they have workshops and they have conferences and you go to them, but they don’t know how to be entrepreneurs. You know how to create a really well-paying job, but you haven’t created a company.” A company is a totally different realm and I would say the vast majority of entrepreneurs, 95% of entrepreneurs haven’t really created a company. They’ve just created a really well-paying job which requires their presence and their attendance. I said, “You don’t get any payout for your company. If you’re the company, you need to have a structure.” I’ll give you an example. We started the company in 1989, and we’re about 270 times what our first year revenues were, and that was a great year. I was very happy for the first year, but we’re about 270 times. Along the way, what I did is I created other coaches so it wasn’t just Dan, the coach. So we have 16 other coaches. And I’ll give you a little example. In 1994, that year our company did 144 workshop days, 36 per quarter. One coach: me. Last year we did 600 workshop days and I did 12. 588 were done by other coaches. And our coaches are great. They’re clients who have coaching instincts and they do it. So about four years ago, I met one of our clients who’s an M&A specialist, and I laid out all the facts just in conversation, “This is our revenues. We have no debt. It’s repeatable income, around 70% is repeatable for one year.” I put the whole structure together. And I said, “So right off the top, I don’t have any relatives on staff.” The first thing they look for, “Any relatives working for you?” And he gave me a number. It was a big number. It was probably four times revenue for that year. He said, “We got a lot of structures.” Then something happened in the marketplace, and this is a great breakthrough that the US Patent Office sometime in the last 10 years recognized that up until about 10 years ago, to get a patent, you had to have a technological component for what you were doing. Sometime in the last 10 years, the patent bureaus decided that the internet is the technological component. So they’ve introduced education and entertainment as patentable processes. So in the last three years, we’ve gotten 82 patents. 82 patents. And these are our thinking tools, Lifetime Extender, Free Focus and Buffer Days. You know the routine that you learn in the first three days, and we’ve got 82 of them. We’re averaging about 25. I get a new patent about every two weeks. So I saw this M&A specialist, and I said, “This has happened in the last three years.” And he said, “Immediately it doubles the valuation of your company.” So what John’s saying here, as you go through the four stages, more and more you get paid for your creativity, retail, you get paid for your retail. But if you structure it, you record it, you package it, it is even greater than what you got paid for your creativity. Louis Diamond: Super interesting personal anecdote, and I appreciate you sharing that because that definitely did drive the point home for me. I see the applicability to probably any industry, but especially to any financial advisor. Dan Sullivan: Oh, yeah. Louis Diamond: The best RIA firms, the best advisors, they pretty much all start off with a cult of personality founder who’s the rainmaker. And then the practices that really grow and scale and are valuable are more platforms. That’s what private equity wants to invest in. And those are the firms that get the higher multiples. Dan Sullivan: Yeah. So the big thing is there’s a really, really great IP lawyer. He’s in our program and he’s made the breakthrough, and he’s the first IP lawyer that doesn’t charge by the hour. He charges by the patent. If the IP lawyer charges by the hour, it’s a very slow patent. If he charges by the patent, it’s a very fast patent. But the big thing, he showed a slide that in just big corporations, 1980, you took big corp, Fortune 500, the S&P 500, more than 80% of their valuation was tangible. It was property, it was real estate, it was fleets, it was equipment. Last year, more than 80% were intangibles. It was your ideas, intellectual. If you look at Elon Musk, it’s all intellectual capital. If you look at Meta, you look at anything, it’s intellectual. It’s not tangibles. So we’ve entered into that new world and AI has introduced us to that new world. It’s new processes, new structures, new approaches and it’s really interesting. It’s hard for entrepreneurs to get their idea that your creativity is actually property. Louis Diamond: It sounds like the ultimate challenge for anyone listening is translate your process, your ideas, the stuff that you’re doing by instinct as you both had said, and turn it into something patentable or something repeatable that another advisor, another executive, another owner can pick up and deploy and scale. John Bowen: We share the process in chapter four. It’s the fourth greater multiplier. And we actually share Caldwell, the attorney that Dan’s talking about, his story and the value creation. He’s now the major player in that space. And this is where we as advisors, we’re given a twofer, Dan and Louis, is that you can help your clients, but you can do this yourself too. You’ve been involved in a number of large transactions. The difference, I had a $2 billion advisory practice I sold in ’98, and we sold for 16 times earnings. And a big part of it, we were in that blue ocean. We had agents that we created and strategic process that would run without me, and it did type thing. And it continued to grow and went for about 10 fold what I sold for a number of years later. This is something that’s very real. Louis Diamond: Absolutely. I got two more questions for you guys because I know you’re both busy. For an advisor who feels like they’ve won the growth game, they grow 10, 15, 20% per year, they’re charged up, they’re on the Barron’s list, the Forbes list, they’re hitting their AUM milestones, they built an amazing team, they have a family member in the business. They have everything that anyone could want. What does the next game look like for them? What’s the next frontier once you’ve achieved all those things that from the outside looking in, seems like you have it all? What’s the next game to play? John Bowen: Well, we’re going to both say The Greater Game, but the- Dan Sullivan: Well, tell them about the dashboard, John, because the book is just part of the deal here. It gives you the landscape. There’s a great tool that comes with the book. So tell them about the dashboard. John Bowen: Really what we wanted to do is to create kind of a community just around the book. Dan and I and team built a dashboard. We were very creative on naming, thegreatergamedashboard.com. You can go in and we’re now studying every month over 500 successful entrepreneurs. We have that data in here. You’ll be able to see how you compare at each of these stages, the four stages, the 10 multipliers. And you’re going to get specific recommendations. This is for entrepreneurs. But again, you should do it. If you’re a financial advisor, you have an equity ownership, you should definitely be doing it as well. And one of the things that we see over and over again, and Louis, you probably see this a lot in the conversations. They have advisors who have already won. They don’t know what the next game is. And it’s easy to check out at that point. It’s easy to frustrate the next generation of leaders and so on. If you take the time to really see what the opportunities are and architect to realize that vision, you can create, whether it’s selling the practice, creating tremendous value there or designing a role for yourself, maybe it’s executive chairman type for that business that you can guide it with the vision and what you’ve brought and strategy. But bring that team up. That’s going to create so much value, so much impact and you can design it for the life that you want. And that’s where I get very excited. Louis Diamond: I can hear the passion in your voice. Dan, let’s finish with you. Given all of your experience working with entrepreneurs, advisors, business owners, et cetera, what’s the one move that you’ve seen the most successful entrepreneurs in your orbit make that’s changed the trajectory of their firms and their life more than anything else? Dan Sullivan: I’ll answer it in a little roundabout way. Periodically, I have a thinking tool. I said, “If everything was taken away from you as an entrepreneur and they moved you 1,000 miles away, what’s the one thing that you would take with you? It has to be portable. So what is the most portable thing that you have that you would start over again with the greatest value that you had created previously? What would it be? And then you would rebuild what you’ve already created, but you would do it much faster. What would be the one thing?” It’s an interesting thought. But in our concept, it’s called unique ability, that there’s something about you, as an individual, that first of all gave you enough confidence to become an entrepreneur because it’s risky. It’s a risky proposition. It’s guessing and betting and it’s risky business and it’s unique ability. So the starting point for all growth in Strategic Coach is that there’s something about you that’s absolutely unique. You don’t have any competitors on this and it has two qualities. One is that you’re so good at it, you don’t take it seriously. You’ve done this since you were a child and it just comes to you naturally and you don’t see the significance of it. When you’re in Coach, you start seeing the significance of it. And the second thing is you just absolutely love doing it. It’s what you love doing most of all. It comes to you naturally. You don’t even have to think about it. And then you begin to realize that anything else you’re doing as the founder and the owner of your company, probably somebody else can do. So you’re doing 20 things, but really you should be doing three things. The other 17 things still need to be done but not by you. And that’s the breakthrough. You have to simplify in order to multiply. Louis Diamond: I absolutely love that. I know when I was in Coach, that was my biggest takeaway or realization was figuring out what my unique ability was because I think the two components,

In this episode of The Entrepreneur's Journey, Michael Pallozzi and Jason Gabrieli discuss the importance of building a transition-ready business long before an owner decides to exit. Jason shares insights from his Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) coursework and explains how business owners can maximize the value of their companies through proactive planning, operational improvements, and aligning their personal, business, and financial goals.Michael and Jason break down the concept of the “three legs of the stool” — personal, business, and financial planning — and explain why successful exits depend on all three being aligned. They also discuss how business valuation multiples work, why systems and processes increase company value, and how many owners unintentionally leave money on the table by waiting too long to prepare.Tune into this episode to also learn:● Why exit planning should be treated as an ongoing business strategy — not a last-minute event.● How systems, leadership, and culture can dramatically increase business valuation multiples.● Why many business owners don't truly know what their company is worth.● How proactive planning creates more flexibility, better outcomes, and less stress during a transition.What we discussed● [00:01:17] Defining what “exit planning” means for business owners.● [00:03:01] Jason discusses earning his Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) designation.● [00:04:51] Why exit planning should be viewed as a long-term business strategy.● [00:06:57] Understanding business valuation and the importance of EBITDA.● [00:08:45] Why most business owners don't know the true value of their company.● [00:10:04] How systems, processes, and leadership teams increase valuation multiples.● [00:12:42] A simple breakdown of EBITDA and how business valuation multiples work.● [00:15:08] How improving operations can dramatically increase business value without increasing profit.● [00:15:52] Internal succession vs. external sale options for business owners.● [00:17:35] The number one reason many business sales fall apart.● [00:18:53] Why balancing personal, business, and financial goals matters before exiting.● [00:19:55] Why business owners should start these conversations early — even if they are years away from selling.● [00:21:37] The importance of building a team of advisors and specialists around the owner.● [00:23:48] “A transition-ready business is a valuable business.” 3 Things To RememberExit planning is not just about selling your business — it's about building a stronger, more valuable company over time. Systems, documented processes, leadership teams, and reduced owner dependency can significantly increase business valuation multiples. The earlier business owners begin planning, the more options and flexibility they create for themselves, their employees, and their families.Useful LinksConnect with Michael Pallozzi: pallozzi@hfmadvisors.com | LinkedInConnect with Jason Gabrieli: jgabrieli@hfmadvisors.com | LinkedInExit Planning Institute: https://exit-planning-institute.orgEditing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant (https://thepodcastconsultant.com)Like what you've heard…Subscribe to our BuiltWealth™ Newsletter HERE

Two MedSpas pull the same revenue and sell for wildly different prices. The busiest, most owner-driven clinic often gets the lowest offer. This episode of The Scalpel of Truth breaks down what private equity is actually buying when it buys an aesthetic practice — and it isn't your lasers or last year's top line. EBITDA, recurring revenue, owner dependence, the factors that quietly tank a valuation, and the three-year runway it takes to be ready. The work that makes a practice worth buying is the same work that makes it worth owning.Not a member yet? No worries! Just head over to ScalpelOfTruth.com and sign up today! Get the full episodes in your own private, personal podcast feed all while ensuring this show continues to grow and thrive! Thank you!ScalpelOfTruth.com • Join Club Bitchacho for full episodes today!Check out our MedSpa Workshops and Trainings and schedule a discovery call today

The following article of the Finance & Fintech industry is: 'Why Company Valuation Demands More Than an EBITDA Multiple' by Eduardo Postlethwaite, Head of Private Equity and M&A, Actinver. 

BU Bregal Unternehmerkapital gehört zu den aktivsten Mid-Cap-Investoren im deutschsprachigen Raum und hält aktuell Beteiligungen an rund 30 Unternehmen, davon gut ein Drittel im Software- und Tech-Segment. Was den Ansatz des Hauses prägt, ist die operative Tiefe. Pricing wird nicht als reines Finanzthema behandelt, sondern als Wertsteigerungshebel, und das schon ab dem ersten Tag der Due Diligence. Dr. Stephan Schmid, der die Beteiligungen im Softwareumfeld verantwortet, erklärt, wie BU die Preishistorie, das Preismodell und die Außensicht der Kunden früh in der Prüfung analysiert und daraus noch vor der Vertragsunterschrift einen Value Creation Plan ableitet. Der entscheidende Hebel liegt für ihn oft im Modell, etwa im Wechsel vom einmaligen Lizenzverkauf zur Subscription. Besseres Pricing zahlt dabei nicht nur aufs EBITDA ein, sondern auf alle Treiber des Multiplikators. Wie Schmid es formuliert: „Verbesserte Preismodelle, verbesserte Preissetzung zahlt halt auf jeden Multiplikatortreiber ein“. Wie das konkret im KI-Zeitalter aussieht, zeigt er an Portfoliofällen wie dem Schweizer CRM-Anbieter BSI und dem Legal-Tech-Unternehmen STP. Über den Gast Dr. Stephan Schmid ist seit zehn Jahren bei BU Bregal Unternehmerkapital in München und dort als Partner für die Software-Beteiligungen verantwortlich. Zuvor war er bei BC Partners in Hamburg und bei Goldman Sachs in Frankfurt tätig. Er hat Physik studiert und programmierte früher in C und C++, bevor er ins Beteiligungsgeschäft wechselte. Sein Fokus liegt auf wachstumsstarken Softwareunternehmen im DACH-Raum und auf der Frage, wie operative Hebel wie Pricing und Go-to-Market gezielt zur Wertsteigerung beitragen.

Chewy (CHWY) hits a 52-week low after cutting its sales outlook, but Arun Sundaram notes its margin expansion remains intact with record adjusted EBITDA. Dan Geltrude points to strong demand, customer loyalty, and pricing power, while highlighting underappreciated growth in pet healthcare and pharmacy services tied to an aging pet population.======== Schwab Network ========Empowering every investor and trader, every market day.Subscribe to the Market Minute newsletter - https://schwabnetwork.com/subscribeDownload the iOS app - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/schwab-network/id1460719185Download the Amazon Fire Tv App - https://www.amazon.com/TD-Ameritrade-Network/dp/B07KRD76C7Watch on Sling - https://watch.sling.com/1/asset/191928615bd8d47686f94682aefaa007/watchWatch on Vizio - https://www.vizio.com/en/watchfreeplus-exploreWatch on DistroTV - https://www.distro.tv/live/schwab-network/Follow us on X – https://twitter.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/schwabnetworkFollow us on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/schwab-network/ About Schwab Network - https://schwabnetwork.com/about

In this special "After Hours" episode, hosts Damien Greathead and Penny Breslin sit down with Steven Ladd — recovering engineer, serial entrepreneur, and small business advisor — to explore what it really means to serve small business owners beyond the debits and credits.Steven shares his journey from engineer to entrepreneur to advisor, and how working with small businesses during COVID revealed a hard truth: most owners don't have a financial foundation — and most advisors don't know how to connect with them on a human level.In this episode, you'll hear about:Why speaking plain English (not EBITDA) changes everythingThe "Lemonade Stand" model for helping owners understand their own businessWhat the Catalyst program looks like in practice — and what real value delivery looks like in the first 90 daysThe difference between a compliance mindset and a true advisory relationshipWhy the best advisors ask great questions rather than have all the answersWhether you're an accountant looking to move into advisory, or a bookkeeper ready to offer more value, this conversation will give you the confidence and framework to take that next step.0:00 – Introduction & Welcome 0:22 – About the "After Hours" format 0:54 – Recap of previous episode: Defining Advisory Services 1:51 – Penny introduces Steven Ladd 4:17 – Steven's background: Engineer → Entrepreneur → Advisor 5:09 – Working with small businesses through COVID 8:28 – How Steven describes what he does: "Love and Systems" 10:40 – Why jargon (like EBITDA) gets in the way 16:35 – What the Catalyst program looks like in practice 17:10 – The "Lemonade Stand" model for business clarity 24:15 – After the Catalyst: bookkeeping options & the fork in the road 29:13 – Empowering owners to become the Operator 31:15 – How big is Steven's company? (The answer may surprise you) 32:44 – A client success story: from skeptic to $250K loan 35:46 – Wrap-up & connect with Steven on LinkedIn

In Part 1, Tom Kelly walked us through how EVONA scaled from four founders to 80 recruiters in three years, then deliberately cut back to 30 — and per-head revenue doubled. In Part 2, he hands over the framework that explains how he manages the leaner team. And it starts with a number most agency owners have never been forced to confront. If you haven't heard Part 1 yet, listen to that one first — it sets up everything Tom unpacks here. Brought to you by Atlas. The AI-first recruitment platform that captures every candidate conversation automatically. Atlas customers report 40%+ EBITDA growth and 80%+ increase in monthly billings. Get your exclusive listener offer at recruitwithatlas.com. Tom segments every sales team into four brackets. The top 10% who don't care about anyone else — they just want to bill. The next 20% who aspire to be that top performer. The bottom 10% who were never going to make it. And then the middle 60%. The bracket nobody manages correctly. Because the middle 60% don't measure themselves against the top performers. They measure themselves against the bottom 10%. As long as they're doing enough not to be the worst person on the team, they think they're fine. That's the bracket quietly sinking most agencies, and most owners can't see it because they manage everyone on the team the same way. The second framework Tom hands over is the activity benchmark EVONA uses to define elite. 25 interviews on a rolling four-week period. Reverse engineered from a 12-to-1 interview-to-placement ratio, the number means a recruiter hitting it consistently is doing two placements a month at minimum. Drop below 25 and Tom is direct — you are not fit to play at the top level. Tom also unpacks why he would hate to be running a big recruitment company right now. AI governance is about to break the firms that can't police what their recruiters are doing with dashboards, prompts, and outreach automation. LinkedIn is heading into a tidal wave of AI-driven spam. Vertical platforms are about to replace the way candidates look for jobs. And recruitment is now an IQ-over-EQ game — the people leveraging the tools and staying sharp are pulling away from everyone else. He opens the conversation with the moment that built all of this. Tom had a stutter so bad as a kid he was afraid to pay a phone bill. He chose recruitment specifically because it would force him onto the phone every day. That fear is the engine behind eight years of building EVONA — and the reason "evolving" is the company's core value. Tom closes with the books that shaped him (the Rockefeller Habits, Ronnie Wood, Alex Ferguson on man management), why Claude is the tool changing how he thinks, why he's not crazy about Bullhorn, and the one piece of advice he'd give every recruiter facing the next 18 months. Don't be a lone wolf. What You'll Learn: - The four-bracket framework Tom uses to manage every sales team, and why the middle 60% is the bracket quietly sinking most agencies - The 25-interview rolling 4-week benchmark that defines elite at EVONA, and the ratio behind it - Why Tom says recruitment is now IQ over EQ, and what that shift means for average recruiters - The vertical-platform shift coming for LinkedIn, and how candidates will find jobs in the next two years - Why a stutter became the engine of Tom's career, and what that says about the recruiters who succeed - The tools, books, and habits that shape Tom's leadership at EVONA Connect with Tom Kelly: LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/evonatom/ Email — tom@evona.com EVONA — https://evona.com

In this episode, the hosts evaluate a highly unusual ATM portfolio generating $1M in EBITDA from 642 ATMs located in gentlemen's clubs nationwide, exploring the hidden complexities, cash logistics, and risks behind what appears to be an ultra-passive business.Business Listing – https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/over-1m-ebitda-atm-route-gentlemen-s-clubs-642-atms-5-000-000/2500718/Welcome to Acquisitions Anonymous – the #1 podcast for small business M&A. Every week, we break down businesses for sale and talk about buying, operating, and growing them.Looking to build a professional website in minutes? Try Wix: https://wix.pxf.io/c/6898629/3115214/25616?trafcat=templateHubSpot is the backbone for how businesses scale without chaos. Try them out here: https://go.try-hubspot.com/OeG9VrSubscribe for more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquisitionsAnonymousPodcast?sub_confirmation=1Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.acquanon.com/newsletter

Many agency owners proudly hold the pitchfork of independence, but if your firm isn't growing, you are literally losing wealth every single year. The days of treating an agency like a personal lifestyle business while expecting a massive private equity payout are coming to an end.My guest, James Graham, Managing Director at Marsh Berry, joins me to give a "State of the Union" on the M&A landscape in the insurance industry. We break down why the M&A market has shifted from an era of "free money" to highly disciplined buying, why acquirers are intensely scrutinizing Quality of Growth (QofG) and EBITDA margins, and why the drop in public broker organic growth is a massive wake-up call for independent shops. We also discuss the biggest deal-killers in the 11th hour and why the most successful founders have mastered the art of delayed gratification. If you are an agency principal trying to decide whether to scale, partner, or sell, this episode provides the exact roadmap buyers are looking for in 2026.▶▶ Sign Up For Your Free Discovery Callcompletegameu.com/agaTimestamped Outline(00:00) Introducing James Graham(03:17) Why Do Agencies Sell? The Three Macro Buckets of M&A(05:02) The Wealth Trap: Why Holding a Stagnant Agency is Losing You Money(07:34) The Hard Truth: Selling Insurance vs. Operating an Agency(09:54) The 2026 M&A Landscape: High Multiples and the "Quality Spread"(12:30) Why Deals Fall Apart: Mismatched Expectations and Murky Ownership(15:00) The Scrutiny Shift: Why "Quality of Growth" is the New Buyer Metric(17:41) The Drop in Organic Growth: "The Water is Out and You're Naked"(21:45) 11th Hour Deal Killers: What Happens When Top Producers Walk Away(27:24) Start Now: Why You Must Run Your Agency Like It's For Sale Today(29:17) Delayed Gratification: The #1 Characteristic of Scalable Founders(32:49) The Power of Peer Exchange: Inside MarshBerry's Executive Network(36:55) James's Final Advice: Why Organic Growth is Your Greatest M&A LeverageCONNECT WITH ANDY NEARY

Ottieni 4% annuo lordo x 12 mesi fino a €1 Milione se apri Conto Corrente Arancio Business di ING entro il 25/07. Come si costruisce una delle aziende tech italiane più globali di sempre senza trasferirsi in Silicon Valley? In questa puntata di Made IT incontriamo Max Ciociola, founder di Musixmatch. Oggi Musixmatch non è solo la piattaforma che ha creato il più grande catalogo di testi musicali al mondo dietro ai testi sincronizzati che milioni di persone leggono ogni giorno su Spotify, Apple Music, Instagram e tantissime altre app: è una vera e propria data company specializzata in royalty intelligence e rights management. Partendo da Bologna, Max ha costruito un'azienda con oltre 100 milioni di euro di fatturato, 50 milioni di EBITDA e milioni di utenti in tutto il mondo. Parliamo di startup, imprenditoria, raccolta fondi, acquisizioni, proprietà intellettuale, AI e dell'evoluzione di Musixmatch da piattaforma di lyrics a leader globale nel royalty intelligence e rights management. In questa intervista scoprirai: Come nasce Musixmatch Come convincere aziende come Spotify, Apple e Google a diventare clienti Cosa succede quando 26 fondi vogliono investire nella tua azienda Perché ha scelto di vendere ad un private equity americano Come l'AI sta cambiando l'industria musicale Le lezioni apprese costruendo un'azienda globale dall'Italia Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Interview with Peter Akerley, President & CEO of Erdene Resource Development Corp.Our previous interview: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/posts/erdene-resource-development-tsxerd-first-gold-flows-as-multi-mine-district-strategy-unfolds-8931Recording date: 6th June 2026Erdene Resource Development has entered a new phase as a gold producer with the successful commissioning of its Bayan Khundii mine in southwestern Mongolia. The operation reached commercial production in early 2026 and is already generating strong financial results, including roughly C$100 million in revenue and EBITDA margins մոտ 50%. However, the company's immediate priority is improving ore grades, which are currently around 2.5 g/t compared to the 3.8 g/t reserve target. Addressing dilution and optimizing processing are expected to significantly lower costs and boost cash flow.The mine was developed through a 50/50 joint venture with Mongolian Mining Corporation (MMC), whose local expertise and workforce enabled construction to be completed in just 22 months at a cost of $120 million. This partnership remains central to operations, while Erdene retains long-term upside through a royalty structure that increases its economic share after certain production thresholds are reached.Looking ahead, Erdene is focused on expanding production within the Khundii Minerals District. Near-term opportunities include integrating the high-grade Dark Horse satellite deposit and evaluating a heap leach facility to process lower-grade material, potentially adding up to 35,000 ounces annually. Exploration success to the west of the current pit could also extend mine life and increase output.Beyond Bayan Khundii, the company holds additional assets that are not fully reflected in its valuation. These include the Altan Nar gold-polymetallic project and the large Zuun Mod molybdenum-copper deposit, with a preliminary economic assessment expected in late 2026. Financially, Erdene is in a solid position with no corporate debt and plans to fully repay project-level debt by 2027, after which it may prioritize expansion, dividends, or share buybacks.View Erdene Resource Development's company profile: https://www.cruxinvestor.com/companies/erdene-resource-developmentSign up for Crux Investor: https://cruxinvestor.com

Greg Fischer did not plan to spend ten years in recruitment. He joined a solo healthcare practice in LA as employee number one, figured it would pay the bills, and planned to open a gym someday. He never left.Instead he built one of the most profitable staffing businesses in the US. $4.2 million in NFI, $1.4 million net profit. 38 people and a seven-figure equity stake with a $50 million exit on the horizon.But he walked away with nothing!The push toward the exit had quietly changed how the business ran. “I think we started looking at people as much more like resources and just a means to an end than actually people.” Greg had spent a decade building his career on the opposite belief. But the drift was so gradual he hadn't noticed it.“I couldn't be the person I wanted to be and be in a good, healthy working dynamic. It was going to be one or the other.”On this episode of The RAG Podcast, Greg Fischer, founder of Well Oiled Machine, tells the full story. The gym that cost him $150,000. The 10 years building someone else's company. The walk away. And how he built a lean, profitable rec-to-rec from a mountain town in Colorado with no cold outbound and twenty clients in year one.Greg Fischer is not chasing the big exit this time. He is building something small, profitable, and built entirely around the person he decided he wanted to be.If you have ever wondered what it actually costs to chase a number, and whether the person collecting it is still someone you recognise, this episode has the blueprint.----------Episode Sponsor: AtlasAdmin is a massive waste of time. That's why there's Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built for modern agencies.It doesn't only track CVs and calls. It remembers everything. Every email, every interview, every conversation. Instantly searchable, always available. And now, it's entering a whole new era.With Atlas 2.0, you can ask anything and it delivers. With Magic Search, you speak and it listens. It finds the right candidates using real conversations, not simply look for keywords.Atlas 2.0 also makes business development easier than ever. With Opportunities, you can track, manage and grow client relationships, powered by generative AI and built right into your workflow.Need insights? Custom dashboards give you total visibility over your pipeline. And that's not theory. Atlas customers have reported up to 41% EBITDA growth and an 85% increase in monthly billings after adopting the platform.No admin. No silos. No lost info. Nothing but faster shortlists, better hires and more time to focus on what actually drives revenue.Atlas is your personal AI partner for modern recruiting.Don't miss the future of recruitment. Get started with Atlas today and unlock your exclusive RAG listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com/therag/Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn, but AI has turned templated posts and outreach into a commodity. When everyone sounds the same, the market stops listening. The recruiters winning now are the ones the market trusts.At Hoxo we help recruitment founders become the most influential name in their niche, using AI to multiply output while trust stays the product. Our clients turn their existing networks into £100K to £300K in new billings within months. Watch the free RAG listener training to see how: https://hubs.ly/Q03lBpYC0

Tom Kelly scaled EVONA from four bootstrapped founders in a tiny Bristol office to eighty recruiters in three years. Then he made the call most agency owners never make. He cut the team back to thirty. And in doing it, per-head revenue doubled.   This is Part 1 of a two-part conversation that pulls apart exactly how that happened.   Brought to you by Atlas. The AI-first recruitment platform that captures every candidate conversation automatically. Atlas customers report 40%+ EBITDA growth and 80%+ increase in monthly billings. Get your exclusive listener offer at recruitwithatlas.com.     Tom came up on the inside track at one of the biggest STEM recruiters on the FTSE. He spotted space as a high-growth vertical before almost anyone, pitched it internally, got shut down, and walked. He linked up with three other recruiters in the same office — Jack, Rich, and Ryan. They sketched the company out on a whiteboard at Tom's place: no KPIs, no fixed working hours, no fixed location, brand-first, give back to STEM. Eight years and over $40 million in fees later, they've stuck to every line of it.   Their first placement was a chef in a Bristol restaurant for £2,000. Hire number two was a head of marketing — a decision every advisor said was crazy. By Tom's read, recruitment and marketing are the same thing. Brand pull beats spam. That bet became the operating philosophy of the entire company.   Then COVID hit and the space industry — recession-proof, Tom argues, because satellites don't get sick — tripled their revenue and headcount. They paid LinkedIn a fortune ahead of a planned scale to three hundred people. They flew the whole company and their partners to Monaco after a million-dollar month. Tom calls that trip the moment the wheels were about to come off.   By 2021 the cracks were showing. Five account managers, thirty fillers, two RPO teams, a full operations and finance bench. Tom describes the peak as a hot mess. So the four founders sat down and made the hardest call of their careers. Contract team first — running $20K a week with no real strategy. Then perm cuts. Then operations. Then the advisors. Tom and the other three didn't pay themselves for six months. He moved his family to the US in the middle of it.   The episode ends on the moment the four founders agreed one of them had to lead, and that person would be Tom. Without ego. The single reason, Tom says, the business is still standing.   Part 2 drops Wednesday — the 25-interview rule that defines elite recruiters at EVONA, and the segmentation that explains why most agency owners are quietly losing 60% of their team.   What You'll Learn:   - Why scaling to 80 recruiters nearly broke the business, and the moment the four founders knew they had to cut to 30 - The pre-COVID hire every advisor told Tom was crazy, and why it became the engine of the company - How EVONA tripled in COVID while most agencies were frozen - The £300,000 company trip Tom now calls a warning sign - What it actually costs to let 50 people go — emotionally, financially, culturally - Why the four founders agreed one person had to take the wheel, and how they made the call without breaking the partnership   Connect with Tom Kelly:   LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/evonatom/ EVONA — https://evona.com  

In this episode, the hosts evaluate a highly unusual ATM portfolio generating $1M in EBITDA from 642 ATMs located in gentlemen's clubs nationwide, exploring the hidden complexities, cash logistics, and risks behind what appears to be an ultra-passive business.Business Listing – https://www.bizbuysell.com/business-opportunity/over-1m-ebitda-atm-route-gentlemen-s-clubs-642-atms-5-000-000/2500718/Welcome to Acquisitions Anonymous – the #1 podcast for small business M&A. Every week, we break down businesses for sale and talk about buying, operating, and growing them.Looking to build a professional website in minutes? Try Wix: https://wix.pxf.io/c/6898629/3115214/25616?trafcat=templateHubSpot is the backbone for how businesses scale without chaos. Try them out here: https://go.try-hubspot.com/OeG9VrSubscribe for more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquisitionsAnonymousPodcast?sub_confirmation=1Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.acquanon.com/newsletter

Most businesses don't fall apart from bad decisions.They fall apart from good ones made too soon.A second brand. A new offer. Another location. It all looks like momentum until the original thing starts cracking with confused customers, divided staff, and a message that doesn't know what it's saying anymore.John Hanrahan, franchise strategist and the man who's 4x'd EBITDA on a multi-billion dollar automotive portfolio, and Amanda Green, award-winning journalist and newsroom systems builder, get into exactly where it breaks and what to do before it does.We cover:The first signs that show trouble (beyond financials)How internal communication become a public brand problemWhat it takes to keep things pulling in the same direction when scaling across offers, locations, or audiences.If you're sitting on a growth decision right now, this one's perfect timing.-Often, I see businesses hit a wall when it comes to their offerings and brands not complementing or building on each other to the point of brand cannibalization. So, The Brand Scaling Tool was born to find the best solution for your mix and goals. Get direction right up front based on where you're at today:https://www.badasserybyb.com/brand-scaling-04:58 Why Businesses Add Too Fast08:36 PR And Rebrand Band Aids11:00 Early Warning Signs13:15 Franchise Cracks And Economics16:35 Internal Comms To Public Fallout24:39 Rolling Out New Offers30:03 Seasonal Push Planning37:18 Tool Break And The Fix38:25 Setting up your ‘Newsroom' style Content Hub40:07 Scaling Locations Playbook45:38 Adding Services Risks47:51 Training Systems Breakpoints48:58 Editorial Meetings and getting Team Feedback51:29 Surveys Versus Conversations01:00:36 Adapting Brands in New Markets01:03:49 Where Brands Resist Change01:08:48 Your ‘Where To Start' Audit-5 episodes to binge on:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The no bullshit strategy⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with Alex Smith⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Brand strategy in action⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with Cam Varner⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Repositioning to $10M⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with Nicole Downer⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Your Business Might Be Unsellable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ with Allie Beckmann and Alexandria Seydel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Repositioning Without Losing Customers ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠with Amy Heidersbach & Melissa Eaton-Reach out to guest speaker Amanda Green:LinkedIn | In Your Voice Media Works | NewsletterReach out to guest speaker John Hanrahan:⁠LinkedInFollow Beatrice Gutknecht:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Lee Benson, Founder and CEO of Execute to Win and Wall Street Journal bestselling author, joins John Golden to challenge the growth-at-all-costs mindset and unpack the three categories of value creation that powered his 21.6x EBITDA exit at Able Aerospace. Learn more at https://www.etw.com/about.

Send me a messageWhat if returns are hiding 4–5 points of EBITDA in plain sight?In this episode of the Resilient Supply Chain Podcast, I'm joined by Terry Boyle, CEO of Trove, to explore one of retail and logistics' most neglected pressure points: reverse logistics. Terry's argument is blunt and useful: if brands care about supply chain resilience, sustainability, risk, data, and visibility, they can't keep treating returns as the untidy corner nobody wants to inspect.You'll hear how online returns are reshaping inventory economics, why imperfect product too often gets parked on pallets until value evaporates, and how better returns processing can unlock labour savings, faster return-to-stock, stronger resale pricing, and fraud reduction. Not glamorous. Very profitable.We also break down why customer-reported returns data is often unreliable, how item-level visibility can feed back into design, sizing, packaging, supplier decisions, and quality control, and why sustainability may scale faster when it is sold as better inventory economics rather than moral virtue alone.Interestingly Terry also shares the very real problem of “boxes of rocks” showing up in returns, because apparently even fraud has a logistics department now.

Do you actually know what your business is worth? Most entrepreneurs think they do.Eric Coonrod is a 22-year investment banker and author of The Preparation Principle. He specializes in helping business owners get the maximum value from their exits. In this episode, he breaks down the pattern he sees most often: owners who go to market underprepared, find out their financials don't match their assumptions, and watch deals fall apart.This episode walks through what it actually takes to prepare for a business sale -- starting with the most common mistake Eric sees, entrepreneurs who don't know their real EBITDA, all the way through the five-person professional team you need, the tax strategies that can save millions before a deal closes, and the question most founders never answer until they're already at the closing table: who are you after you sell?What you'll walk away with: Why EBITDA mismatch is the number one exit killer and how to fix it before you go to market. The five professionals every entrepreneur needs at least two to three years before selling -- and why your existing attorney is almost certainly not on the list. The wealth management and tax strategies that can save you millions if you start early enough. How to structure earn-outs so buyers can't manipulate your payout. And the identity question most entrepreneurs avoid until it's too late.Get The Preparation Principle by Eric Coonrod at ecoonrodco.comConnect with Eric Coonrod on LinkedIn Hosted by John St. Pierre and Rich Hoffmann, Entrepreneurs United is built for founders and leaders who want straight talk on building businesses that actually work. New episodes every week.https://entrepreneursunited.us/links/

El episodio 119 llegó con framework, números y oportunidades que no te podés perder.Arrancamos con lo más accionable del episodio: los 7 principios de Y Combinator para construir una empresa en la era AI. No es AI como herramienta, es AI como sistema operativo de toda la organización. Loops cerrados en cada proceso, empresas legibles para los modelos, fábricas de software donde los humanos definen los specs y la AI construye el código, y equipos lo más flat posible donde cada persona tiene una responsabilidad directa y no hay lugar para esconderse. Si estás construyendo algo hoy, este es el episodio.Después el número que más sorprendió de la semana: Uber gastó 500 millones de dólares en tokens en tres meses y su CFO admitió públicamente que no vio ningún resultado. La contracara fascinante es que los propios modelos de AI no saben cuánto les cuesta producir cada token. Están vendiendo algo a un precio que ellos mismos no entienden todavía. Y mientras tanto, la mayoría de las empresas está descubriendo que un modelo open source más chico instalado en sus propios servidores les da el 90% del resultado al 2% del costo.También hablamos de la nueva métrica que define esta era: el EBITDA ya tiene una T nueva. Ya no es solo Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. Ahora es Before Tokens también. Si tu empresa no está midiendo cuánto gasta en tokens, no está midiendo bien.En el frente de IPOs, Anthropic hizo su filing privado, OpenAI apunta a septiembre y SpaceX está cada vez más cerca. Tres movimientos que van a redefinir el mercado en los próximos meses.Cerramos con dos temas más personales. Primero, el debate entre Oura, Whoop y Fitbit — cuál sirve, para quién y por qué el nuevo monitor de glucosa Lingo de Abbott a 30 dólares puede ser uno de los dispositivos más importantes para entender tus hábitos. Segundo, cómo filtrar el spam de family offices y brokers de secundarios que llega por LinkedIn todos los días sin perder tiempo.

Mortgage lenders track rates, volume, and affordability. But are they paying close enough attention to what's happening in real estate — and how it directly affects their business? In this episode of Connect, California MBA CEO Paul Gigliotti sits down with Coby Hakalir, SVP/Managing Director of Mortgage & Core Services at T3 Sixty, a firm helping real estate leaders think through strategy, brokerage performance, technology, and the future of how real estate companies operate. The conversation covers consolidation, the fight for the consumer, the evolving LO-agent relationship, and what AI is starting to do to the home search experience. This is the intersection of mortgage and real estate — and it's a conversation the industry needs to have. In this episode: • Why real estate brokerage EBITDA is hovering near zero — and the parallels to mortgage • The consolidation wave: Compass at 30% market share, Rocket-Redfin, and what it means for JV partnerships • Why 80% of borrowers and real estate clients never come back — and the stat behind it (88% don't even remember their loan officer's name 12 months after the transaction) • What agents actually want from lender partners right now — and why coffee and open houses aren't enough anymore • The dual technological journey borrowers go through — and why it's creating transaction trauma • How propensity data and AI-powered home search are reshaping the consumer experience in real estate • Answer engine optimization vs. search engine optimization — and why it matters for mortgage next • Why shifts in the market always create opportunity — and how to approach change with eyes wide open Connect is the California MBA's podcast where strategy, innovation, and leadership come together to shape the future of mortgage finance. Subscribe for new episodes featuring the voices driving the mortgage industry forward.

Michael Walrath, Chairman and CEO of Yext, returns to break down why the market has left a profitable, $400 million mid-cap public software company trading at one times revenue, even with over $100 million in EBITDA. He joins AJ Bruno and Asad Zaman to argue that the so-called SaaS apocalypse has almost no data behind it, that most AI layoffs are really a decade of go-to-market overhiring unwinding, and that boring compounders still out-return the hypergrowth darlings. Topics include how venture capital distorts software valuations, why no one is coming to help the 2021 unicorns stuck in broken cap tables, the great GTM despecialization, and the extend-and-pretend game inside venture funds. Plus, a Quiz Pro Quo on new business creation in the US and a Bulls and Bears debate on the future of mid-cap software and the stickiness of the AI platform. Read Michael's essay, No One's Coming to Help You: https://x.com/michaelpwalrath/status/2051364181237010778 Key Takeaways: - The market has left profitable mid-cap software for dead in favor of AI-native growth stories, and Michael Walrath, Chairman and CEO at Yext, leaned into how strange that is for a business that still prints cash. As he put it, "who's writing our obituary? It's the venture capitalists who are funding high-growth ARR companies," even as those same firms can't say what that ARR really means. - The loudest voices setting software valuations are venture investors, and Michael argued their certainty is out of step with their actual hit rate. He called them "remarkably sure of themselves for guys whose whole business model is being right 5 to 10% of the time," noting that being right much more often than that would mean a VC is playing it too safe. - Michael's answer to the hypergrowth-or-die mindset is that durable value comes from compounding cash flow, not chasing the next high-growth story. Pointing to a century of market history and operators like Berkshire Hathaway and Liberty Media, he said, "if you compound effectively, you will out-return these super high growth stories, unless those super high growth stories eventually become compounders." - A lot of the layoffs being blamed on AI may be a decade of go-to-market overhiring finally unwinding. Michael framed the skeptic's question directly: "is it really AI? Or is this a choice that you're making because you overhired for 10 years." Asad Zaman, CEO at Sales Talent Agency, agreed, pointing out that even inside the most AI-native companies he visits, the fundamental way the business runs has not really changed. Connect with the Hosts & Guests: Host: AJ Bruno, CEO at QuotaPath - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajbruno3/ Host: Asad Zaman, CEO at Sales Talent Agency - https://www.linkedin.com/in/azaman1/ Guest: Michael Walrath, Chairman & CEO at Yext - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-walrath-b63166/ Topline is more than a YouTube Channel: Subscribe to Topline Newsletter: https://toplinemedia.substack.com/ Tune into Topline Podcast, the #1 podcast for founders, operators, and investors in B2B tech: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-podcast Join the free Topline Slack channel to connect with 600+ revenue leaders to keep the conversation going beyond the podcast: https://www.joinpavilion.com/topline-slack Chapters:  00:00 Cold Open and Intro 02:33 Dead But We Just Don't Know It 08:47 Narrative Violations and Hype 11:00 VCs Right 10% Of The Time 14:22 Whose Case Are You Making? 19:20 Why Boring Compounders Win 24:55 The SaaS Apocalypse Myth 28:47 Are AI Layoffs Really AI? 36:16 The Great GTM Despecialization 39:55 Quiz Pro Quo 48:54 No One Is Coming To Help You 55:11 Extend And Pretend 1:01:41 Doubling Cash Flow In 5 Years 1:04:17 Bulls and Bears 1:07:30 What's The AI Moat?

Joe Polish sits down with Strategic Coach Founder Dan Sullivan and The CEO of CEG Worldwide John Bowen to explore the research-backed framework behind their new book, The Greater Game — a 100x blueprint that reveals why only 5.4% of Entrepreneurs are playing a completely different game than everyone else. Together they unpack the shift from Founder-dependent businesses to scalable ecosystems, the finite-vs-infinite game divide, and why AI is less a technological revolution and more a cognitive one. Here's a glance at what you'll discover in this episode: The number that reveals whether you're winning or losing the only game that matters... and why 94.6% of Entrepreneurs are optimizing a game that's already coming to an end (you've probably already done 10x without calling it that — what you do next is the whole point) Dan Sullivan's quiet observation after 52 years and 7,000+ Entrepreneurs... the exact moment a successful person stops growing isn't failure — it's something far more seductive, and almost no one catches it in themselves (the first exercise he runs at Strategic Coach is designed to show you you've already crossed the line once) Joe typed a question into AI and got back the most brutal case study in modern business history... Blockbuster, Kodak, Borders, Toys "R" Us — and the one invisible shift every company on that list missed before it was too late (this isn't a technology story — it's a thinking story) Why John Bowen started three new companies on his 70th birthday... and the dashboard he and Dan built for roughly $2,000 that a top vendor quoted them $50,000 a year to provide (his tech team called after the first meeting and said "we'll just build it and give it to you tomorrow") The four-hour version of something that used to take Dan Sullivan four weeks... and what it reveals about the only AI upgrade that actually changes your trajectory (this isn't about using AI more — it's about using it in the right direction entirely) What Joe Polish teaches Genius Youth Members that no business school has ever covered... and why writing handwritten postcards in an age of AI might be the single highest-leverage thing you do this week (the killer app of 2026 is not what anyone is selling you) If you'd like to join world-renowned Entrepreneurs at the next Genius Network Event or want to learn more about Genius Network, go to www.GeniusNetwork.com. Show Notes: The Book: The Greater Game and the 5.4% Dan and John's new book — published by Hay House and instantly a #1 Amazon bestseller — grew out of a 25-year research partnership to study what separates the highest-performing Entrepreneurs from everyone else. Their research across 7,000+ Entrepreneurs found that 94.6% are still optimizing the game they're in — while only 5.4% are architecting a completely different one. The book maps out exactly what those 5.4% are doing. The book's central premise: "Every system that got you here is optimized for a game that's coming to an end." From 10x to 100x: Dan's Framework Dan has been coaching Entrepreneurs to 10x since the 1990s — starting with an exercise where he had Clients identify when they were one-tenth of where they are today. Everyone in his program had already done 10x without labeling it that way. When he challenged a Client who said they couldn't go 10x in three years, the Client responded they could do it in 15 — and then voluntarily suggested doing it again. That's when the 100x idea crystallized. Dan's thesis: give yourself a long enough time horizon, use AI as a genuine collaborator, and constant growth becomes the natural state — not the exception. The Four Levels of The Greater Game Level 1 — Foundation for Freedom: Vision, security, and financial confidence. Getting off the couch. Level 2 — Energy for Expansion: Motivation and IP development. Dan has built an extraordinary amount of intellectual property; John and Joe have too. Level 3 — Platform / Ecosystem: Moving from Founder-dependent to a scalable system. John's own company grew 58% while writing the book — by walking the talk of this level. Level 4 — Agency: Creating markets. Courage, commitment, and building an ecosystem where you're generating the category itself. Finite vs. Infinite: What the Game Shift Really Means Finite game: competing for market share, managing dependencies, staying indispensable personally, reacting to market pressure. Business value: 3–5x EBITDA. Infinite game: designing an ecosystem, multiplying unique genius through others, engineering your own absence, redefining the market. Business value: multiples that reflect systems, not the Founder. Joe's examples (finite → infinite): Blockbuster → Netflix, Kodak → Apple, Borders → Amazon, taxi companies → Uber, Toys "R" Us → Lego. The pattern: finite players optimize the current game; infinite players keep changing what the game is. Dan's real-world example: Paul Van Dyne came to Strategic Coach planning to retire at 65. He went on to take his engineering firm from #40 to #1 nationally in nine years through M&A — and now plans to build his gourmet coffee shop inside one of his medical centers. AI as a Cognitive Revolution Dan's framing: AI isn't a technological revolution — it's a cognitive revolution. He compares its impact to the introduction of zero in mathematics, which made economics, double-entry bookkeeping, and science possible. Practical example: Dan used to need four weeks to structure a new book. With AI, the same work takes four hours. He now writes a new book every quarter. John's vibe-coding story: his Team built the entire Greater Game Dashboard for roughly $2,000–3,000 using Lovable — after being quoted $50,000/year from a top vendor. They own the code and iterate freely. Joe's counterpoint: the killer app today is being fully human — knowing how to bond, connect, and think for yourself. "Write with your hands, think with your brain."  The Greater Game Dashboard John built this free interactive tool at TheGreaterGameDashboard.com to put the book's framework into action. The 15-minute assessment shows you exactly where you stand relative to peers and the 10 Greater Multipliers. The dashboard automatically calculates what your company is worth to a buyer today — and shows how each improvement raises that number. Dan calls it the greatest tool he's seen in 52 years of coaching Entrepreneurs. Monthly updates include an Entrepreneur Pulse confidence index. Useful whether you ever intend to sell or not — knowing your number changes how you invest in your business. Building Great Teams: Cast, Don't Hire Dan's principle: Strategic Coach treats itself as a theater company — with backstage and front-stage roles. They don't hire for jobs, they cast for roles. Every new hire is there to free up someone already in the company. Babs Smith built the Strategic Coach Team around Dan from the start — several Team members have now been with the company 20–30+ years. Beware the Founder-as-salesperson trap: if you're great at selling, you'll hire the wrong people — you'll confuse their excitement for the role with fit for the role. John, Joe, and Dan all find talent primarily through communities — mastermind groups, Genius Network, Strategic Coach — rather than ads. Great people seek out great people. Dan's upcoming book (Hay House): Casting Not Hiring. IP as a Strategic Asset Dan has had 82 thinking tools patented by the US Patent Bureau (none rejected), with 75 more pending. Each patent is a borrowable asset — you can borrow up to half the appraised value, creating a private intellectual property bank. Joe Polish's company operates as an ESOP — all Team members become equity owners after a vesting period, creating a true ownership culture without requiring employees to buy in upfront. Genius Youth and the Human Connection Advantage Joe's Genius Youth program focuses on skills AI can't replicate: human connection, handwritten notes, cold plunges, cooking and hospitality, ethical influence. Joe's 2026 Genius Network Annual Event —  features Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler (Authors of We Are as Gods), live robots, and a mystery musician on 300M+ albums. Resources: The Greater Game (Book) — Dan Sullivan & John Bowen The Greater Game (Audiobook) — narrated by Gord Vickman, Hay House Business TheGreaterGameDashboard.com — free 15-minute assessment & company valuation tool 10xTalk Podcast — Subscribe — 10xTalk.com 10xTalk on Apple Podcasts Strategic Coach — Dan Sullivan's coaching program Genius Network — Joe Polish's community for elite Entrepreneurs Joe Polish's Genius Network Annual Event CEG Worldwide (John Bowen) — research and coaching for financial advisors Cleator Ghost Town, Arizona — Joe's 40-acre ghost town & the Cleator Bar and Yacht Club Inside Strategic Coach Podcast — Episode on Hiring — Dan Sullivan & Shannon Waller AI Killed the Modern Company (Video) — Peter Diamandis & Salim Ismail Why Microsoft AI Chief Predicts AI Automation of White-Collar Work in 18 Months — Fortune / Mustafa Suleyman

Most recruiters think AI is coming for someone else's desk. Riece Keck isn't so sure. Two years ago he said AI wouldn't replace great recruiters, but it would replace the mediocre ones sooner than anyone wanted to admit. He still stands by it, and he thinks we're a lot closer now than we were then. He's also taking the stage at the AI Recruiting Summit 2026 to go even deeper on this, so if today's episode lands, that's where you see it built live: https://ai-recruiting-summit-2026.heysummit.com/ This conversation is the proof. Riece built a tech recruiting agency to a $1.2M year, then watched it nearly die twice before it folded into a merger for a token amount. He stepped away during a brutal personal stretch, then cold-started the whole thing again in early 2025, and billed roughly $800K in his first year back without leaning on his old client list. The difference the second time wasn't more hustle. It was systems. Riece walks Benjamin through the no-code BD engine he built end to end: scraping job boards on a daily auto-run, identifying the right hiring managers, enriching the contacts, drafting the outreach, and dripping it out, all while he sleeps. He breaks down how he uses funding signals, new-hire signals, and backfill signals to reach companies at the exact moment they're hurting, and how he's now rebuilding the entire stack inside Claude Code with MCP connections so an agent runs his ATS and his sourcing for him. But this isn't a go-all-in-on-tech sermon. Riece is just as direct about the other lane: if your zone of genius is relationships, build the offline communities that pull you out of the LinkedIn noise everyone else is drowning in. The one move he says gets you crushed in 2026 is staying in the middle, the undifferentiated recruiter who takes a job order, fires off templated outreach, and hopes. You'll also hear how he turned strategic referral partnerships into a steady deal source, why persona-based messaging quietly outperforms everything else in the inbox, and what he'd tell a recruiter trying to go from average to elite right now. If you've ever watched your desk go to zero and wondered if there's another side to it, this one is for you. There is. The recruiters who reinvent now are the ones crushing it in 2028. This episode is powered by Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built to eliminate the admin that eats your day. Atlas captures every candidate conversation automatically and turns it into something you can actually use. Ask it who mentioned wanting a four-day week or who's open to relocating next year, and Magic Search pulls the answer from your entire database instantly. No keyword guessing, no digging through old notes. Atlas customers have reported over 40% EBITDA growth and over 80% more monthly billings after switching. Unlock your exclusive listener offer at recruitwithatlas.com. Also brought to you by Millee, the AI deal strategist that turns the gut feel of big billers into real-time guidance on every live process. Millee preps you before every call and drafts your high-caliber follow-ups so you lead from the first minute. Try it free at millee.ai.

In this week's news roundup, Ed, Simon Baker and Harvey Hancock unpack CoStar's $800M all-cash swoop for new-homes data specialist Zonda, and share their first-hand impressions of Realtor.com's new Google-powered RealAssist AI search tool.Chapters:00:00 Intro00:52 CoStar Buys Zonda for ~$800M09:40 Realtor.com's New RealAssist AI (with Google)18:59 Can AI-Native Challengers Beat the Incumbents?30:06 Are Portals Building Search or a Decision Engine?CoStar Pays ~$800M for ZondaCoStar Group is acquiring new-home construction data specialist Zonda in an all-cash deal worth roughly $800 million — its first major acquisition since Domain in Australia and its first US deal since Matterport. The team digs into why "more data wins" fits Andy Florence's playbook, the flat market reaction, and the hard road from owning great data to delivering a stronger EBITDA margin. Unlike Matterport, Zonda is a profitable B2B business, so the question becomes which costs CoStar can strip out and which products it can layer on top.Testing Realtor.com's RealAssist AIEd and Harvey got a behind-the-scenes demo of Realtor.com's new conversational search tool, RealAssist AI — co-developed with Google and currently a whitelist-only beta. They cover what stood out: searching by affordability rather than price, "Google grounding" that pulls in third-party data, and a commute/lifestyle mapping feature. That opens a wider debate on the API costs of grounding every search in Google, whether AI-native challengers gain an edge by pricing those costs in from day one, and whether portals are really building search — or trying to own the comparison and decision phase before Claude or ChatGPT does.Presented by:• Edmund Keith — https://www.linkedin.com/in/edmund-keith/• Harvey Hancock — https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvey-hancock/• Simon Baker — https://www.linkedin.com/in/stbaker/

Send us Fan MailIn this episode of the WTR Small Cap Spotlight podcast, Robert Ellin, Chairman and CEO of LiveOne, Inc. (Nasdaq: LVO), joins Tim Gerdeman (Vice Chair, Co-Founder & CMO, Water Tower Research) and WTR Analyst Eric Goldstein.LiveOne is a B2B-driven music, entertainment, and technology platform. Slacker Radio is embedded in every Tesla on the road today, and its subsidiary PodcastOne (Nasdaq: PODC) is one of the top podcast publishers in the U.S. The company is guiding for $82–$90M in consolidated FY2027 revenue with positive adjusted EBITDA across all subsidiaries.The conversation covers the newly announced AT&T partnership, the subscriber conversion strategy, AI content licensing through PodcastOneAI, and the broader case for audio in the streaming landscape.

Jason and Jeff break down 15 essential investing terms that are constantly thrown around in the financial world. The duo translates Wall Street jargon into plain English, explaining the difference between GAAP and non-GAAP metrics, why enterprise value is often more important than market cap, and how to efficiently navigate SEC filings such as 10-Ks and S-1s. Whether you're trying to figure out if your portfolio is properly allocated, want to understand where you sit in the capital stack during a bankruptcy, or just need to know what Charlie Munger really thought about adjusted EBITDA, this episode serves as the perfect reference guide for new and experienced investors alike. 03:24 GAAP vs Non GAAP Basics 05:26 Adjusted Metrics and Context 09:14 Dividends Distributions and Taxes 14:02 SEC Filings Overview 17:06 10-K 10-Q and Using AI 21:29 Proxy Statements and Incentives 22:48 S-1 IPO Filings Explained 25:29 Asset Allocation and Position Sizing 28:31 Bull Bear and Market Corrections 32:08 Board of Directors Role 33:27 Board Fiduciary Duties 35:03 Capital Basics Explained 37:33 Debt vs Equity Stack 41:33 Bond Market Signals 42:15 Dollar Cost Averaging 44:05 Earnings and EPS 48:31 FFO for REITs 51:08 Market Cap vs EV 54:18 Cash Flow vs Free Cash 57:25 Funds Indexes and ETFs 59:37 Sectors vs Industries 01:00:44 Valuation Metrics Overview Companies mentioned: AAPL, BN, BRK.B, COST, MA, SAVE, TSLA, TXN, V Find where to listen & subscribe,  portfolio contests, and contact information at https://investingunscripted.com ***************************************** To get 15% off any paid plan at fiscal.ai, visit https://fiscal.ai/unscripted Listen to the Chit Chat Stocks Podcast for discussions on stocks, financial markets, super investors, and more. Follow the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube ***************************************** Join our PatreonSubscribe to our portfolio on Savvy Trader Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if the way you've been thinking about buying a business has been costing you money before you've even made an offer? Not a little money. A lot. The kind of difference that turns a three-times multiple into a thirty-seven-times multiple. The kind of gap that separates someone who buys themselves a job from someone who builds a portfolio that works without them. Brad Sugars has been on the right side of that gap for thirty years. Founder of ActionCoach - the world's number one business coaching franchise across 80 countries. Over a million business owners coached. Sixteen books written. And a personal acquisition track record built on one thing most buyers never develop: a framework. He once paid double what every other bidder offered. And still got the business for ten percent of what he knew it was actually worth. Because he could see value nobody else was looking at. That's not luck. That's a system. In this episode, Jaryd sits down with Brad to unpack the acquisition philosophy that the top one percent use - and almost nobody at entry level even knows exists. You'll learn: The difference between a job buyer, financial buyer, and strategic buyer - and why most people are stuck in the wrong category their entire career Why 60% of businesses listed for sale never sell, and how to exploit that fact The 50-10-3-1 rule every serious buyer needs to understand before looking at a single listing How to use vendor financing, share swaps, and capital injection to acquire without a war chest Why Brad asks "are you looking for investors?" instead of "are you looking to sell?" - and why that one shift changes everything The three things to audit the moment you take ownership - and why missing one will bleed you dry The due diligence mistakes that kill deals, crater offers, and send serious buyers running And the one line that should be on every buyer's wall: The deal of the century comes along every week. Don't fall in love with the business. Fall in love with the deal. Most buyers skip the process, buy the dream, and wonder why the numbers never add up. This episode is the antidote.

Vyhledávač letenek Kiwi.com je zpět v plné síle! V novém dílu podcastu Money Maker zakladatel a šéf firmy Oliver Dlouhý otevřeně popisuje, jak firmu po náročných letech opět stabilizoval, proč kompletně změnil byznys model a jak mu v tom pomáhá umělá inteligence.V rozhovoru se dozvíte:

Broadcom heads into an earnings report after a four-day rally that added about $280 billion to its market value. The company supplies high-speed networking chips for AI data centers and designs custom silicon for large customers, and previously forecast roughly $11 billion in AI revenue for fiscal 2024. Broadcom closed its $69 billion purchase of VMware in November 2023 and has shifted VMware offerings to subscriptions, drawing attention to renewals and adoption. Prior guidance in December 2023 called for about $50 billion in fiscal 2024 revenue and around $30 billion in adjusted EBITDA, and a 10-for-1 stock split in July 2024 increased liquidity. Investors will watch order visibility, backlog, segment mix, margins, and comments from CEO Hock Tan and CFO Kirsten Spears on hyperscaler demand and software retention. Broader implications include AI deployment timelines, vendor selection, and total cost of ownership for hybrid infrastructure as VMware pricing evolves.Learn more on this news by visiting us at: https://greyjournal.net/news/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, welcome back to ValuationPodcast.com — a podcast and video series about all things related to business and valuation. I'm Melissa Gragg, a financial mediator and business valuation expert in St. Louis, Missouri.In today's episode, I'm joined by David C. Barnett—an international speaker, author, consultant, and one of the most respected voices in the world of buying, selling, financing, and managing small and medium-sized businesses.Together, we take a deep dive into what really happens in the lower middle market and Main Street business transactions. Most owners hear headlines about billion-dollar acquisitions, but the reality for the majority of business owners is very different. We break down how buyers actually think about value, why sellers often misjudge what their business is worth, and how emotional expectations, financing realities, and risk perception all collide during a deal.We also explore why many businesses never sell, what drives real valuation multiples in this space, and how sellers can better prepare themselves for a successful and realistic exit. This conversation is a grounded, eye-opening look at the “real deal” behind business valuation and M&A.Key Takeaways:Lower middle market deals are fundamentally different Most small businesses are owner-operated, emotionally driven, and far more sensitive to risk than large corporate transactions.Cash flow and continuity matter more than revenue Buyers focus on EBITDA and, more importantly, whether that cash flow will continue under new ownership.Seller expectations are often inflated by media narratives Many owners believe in unrealistic valuation multiples based on high-profile deals that don't reflect Main Street reality.Deal structure often matters more than price Seller financing, earnouts, and deferred payments are commonly used to bridge risk gaps between buyers and sellers.Preparation determines exit success Businesses that are clean, documented, and financially transparent achieve better outcomes and higher buyer confidence.Q&As from episode:1. What is the lower middle market in business valuation?The lower middle market typically refers to businesses with EBITDA under about $1–1.3 million. These companies are often owner-operated, have limited management layers, and are heavily dependent on the owner for operations and decision-making.2. How do buyers determine the value of a small business?Buyers evaluate two key factors: current cash flow (usually EBITDA) and whether that cash flow will continue after ownership changes. Risk factors like customer concentration, employee retention, and owner dependency heavily influence price.3. Why do many small businesses not sell successfully?Many small businesses fail to sell because seller price expectations are too high, financial records are unclear, or the business is too dependent on the owner. Additionally, a large percentage of listed businesses never find qualified buyers.4. What is seller financing in a business sale?Seller financing is when the business owner agrees to receive part of the purchase price over time instead of all at closing. It helps bridge risk for buyers and increases deal feasibility when bank financing is limited.5. What is the biggest mistake business owners make when selling a business?The biggest mistake is assuming their business is worth more than what the market and cash flow support. Many owners also fail to prepare early, clean up financials, or understand how buyers assess risk and deal structure.David C. Barnetthttps://www.DavidCBarnett.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/davidbarnettmoncton/ Melissa Gragghttps://www.valuationmediation.com/https://www.youtube.com/@BusinessValuationStLSupport the show

Paul Strouts has run a business of four people.His first business, James Harvard, quickly grew beyond 100 people and sold to Hays for approximately £20 million at 32.He then spent a decade running Hays Life Sciences globally. Got headhunted to PE Backed Acacium and quickly made two strategic acquisitions.He now runs:3 brands.250 people.12 countries.Contingent, SOW, RPO and Solutions revenuePredicted £45 million GM in 2026.£12 million EBITDA target.He has seen every stage of headcount growth. The good version and the expensive version.This week on The RAG Podcast, Paul Strouts gives the most direct answer we have had on this show about when headcount creates value and when it just creates cost.We cover:- The first question Paul asks any founder who wants to grow from 5 to 20 people- Why you need a minimum of £500K to grow headcount properly, and what happens if you don't have it- When headcount genuinely creates value in a recruitment business, and when it becomes a cost- The ceiling Paul believes exists in life sciences, and why going beyond it risks diluting everything you built- How Acacium Life Sciences grew from 160 people to a £45 million GM operation through two targeted acquisitions- Why Paul sold James Harvard to Hays three years ahead of plan, and whether it was the right call- What working inside a global corporate taught Paul that founding a business never could- Why AI will not kill specialist boutique recruitment, but will change the lower end of the market permanentlyGrowing headcount is not the right move for every recruitment business. Paul is the first to say that. But if you are building a people-based business and you want to know exactly what it takes to do it properly, what it costs, when to bring in outside funding, and where the ceiling actually is, this is the episode.If you've ever wondered when headcount creates value and when it becomes a cost... this episode has the answer.-------------------------------------------------------------__________________________________________Episode Sponsor: Remote RecruitmentHiring shouldn't be slow, stressful, or expensive. That's why there's Remote Recruitment — the smart hiring partner for modern businesses. They don't just help you find great people. They help you access elite South African talent that's ready to deliver. No PAYE. No NI. No bloated overheads. Just trained, remote professionals who integrate seamlessly into your team. Their process handles everything: sourcing, shortlisting, onboarding, and retention. Fully managed. Fully supported. Fully remote. And now, Remote Recruitments has entered a new chapter. From ops to admin, sales to strategy, we're helping businesses scale smarter with people they trust, at a cost they can afford. Clients have seen: * Up to **60% productivity boosts** * **300% ROI** on BD roles * **30% faster completion** of operational tasks No overhead burden. No talent shortage panic. Just growth-focused hiring that makes business sense. Remote Recruitment is your flexible hiring solution for the modern era. **RAG Listeners:** Get 5% off your first hire + a free strategy session at www.remoterecruitment.co.uk/rag -------------------------------------------------------------Episode Sponsor: HoxoEvery recruitment founder is investing in LinkedIn.Spending thousands on Recruiter licences. Building connections. Posting content. Sending outreach.But here's the problem. AI has turned all of that into a commodity. The same templated messages. The same AI-written posts. The same automated outreach landing in the same inboxes.When everyone sounds the same, the market stops listening.The recruiters winning right now are not the ones shouting the loudest. They are the ones the market actually trusts.That's what we build at Hoxo. We help recruitment founders become the most influential name in their niche. A niche audience that knows you, respects you, and comes to you when they need someone in your market.We use AI to multiply your output. Faster content, smarter research, better engagement. But trust is the product, and trust cannot be automated.Our clients are turning their existing networks into £100K to £300K in new billings within months. Not through volume. By becoming the recruiter their market comes to first.To show you how it works, we've made a short training video exclusively for RAG listeners.In less than 10 minutes, you'll learn why most recruiters are getting zero measurable ROI from LinkedIn, how small, niche teams build the kind of trust that generates consistent inbound, and how to turn LinkedIn from a commodity channel into your most profitable one.Fill in the form today to see how this could become your agency's most profitable channel: https://hubs.ly/Q03lBpYC0

Marketing leaders are being asked to drive more growth with less budget, fewer resources, tighter timelines, and more pressure from every direction while AI is being treated like the shortcut to replace entire marketing teams. But AI will not fix bad strategy, weak alignment, poor customer understanding, or broken marketing fundamentals. In part two of this master class conversation with Matt Hummel, CMO of Pipeline360, the focus moves into what it really takes to become the kind of CMO AI cannot replace. Not by chasing every new tool, adding more MarTech, or hiding behind automation, but by understanding the business as a whole, building trust across departments, speaking the language of revenue, and creating alignment between marketing, sales, product, leadership, and the customer. To lead marketing in a volatile market where expectations keep rising and the old playbook is no longer enough, you need to know how to: • Make sales an ally instead of your bitter rival • Build shared pipeline ownership across marketing and sales  • Communicate risk without becoming defensive • Connect marketing decisions to the larger goals of the business • Set clearer expectations with your team and leadership • Understand resource constraints without using them as excuses • Stay close to customers while leading strategy • Create momentum without pretending there is an easy button The best marketing leaders are not just managing campaigns, tools, reports, and dashboards. They are translating complexity into strategy the business can trust. The reminder is clear: AI will not fix bad strategy. More MarTech will not fix bad marketing. The CMO AI cannot replace is the one who understands the business, earns trust, aligns with sales, leads the team, knows the customer, and gets back to real marketing when everyone else is hiding behind tools. (P.S. If you haven't, listen to Ep. 149 for part one of this masterclass episode) Beyond The Episode Gems: Connect With Matt Hummel on LinkedIn Listen To Troy On Matt's Podcast, Pipeline Brew: The Evolving Role of CMOs & Community Building Visit Pipeline360 website to learn more about how they solve B2B marketers' biggest headaches Buy Troy's Book, Strategize Up: The Blueprint To Scale Your Business StrategizeUpBook.com Discover All Podcasts On The HubSpot Podcast Network Get Free HubSpot Marketing Tools To Help You Grow Your Business Grow Your Business Faster Using HubSpot's CRM Platform Support The Podcast & Connect With Troy:  Rate & Review iDigress: iDigress.fm/Reviews Follow Troy's Socials @FindTroy: LinkedIn, Instagram, Threads, TikTok Subscribe to Troy's YouTube Channel For Strategy Videos & See Masterclass Episodes Need Growth Strategy, A Keynote Speaker, Or Want To Sponsor The Podcast? Go To FindTroy.com  

Ann Berry is joined by Alan Ellingson, CFO of DraftKings, to discuss how the company is navigating the rising popularity of prediction markets, its new “Super App” designed to let users seamlessly operate across jurisdictions, and how DraftKings is working to maintain integrity in sports betting. 00:00 Alan Ellingson, CFO of DraftKings, Joins00:38 Q1 earnings highlights: revenue, EBITDA, and profitability01:25 Prediction markets: threat or opportunity?02:53 Cannibalization concern: what the data actually shows03:34 Why sportsbook users aren't switching to prediction markets05:26 Prediction market regulation: CFTC rulemaking and legislative bans06:38 Market integrity: fighting insider trading and gaming the system07:58 The Super App: from seven apps to one unified platform09:33 Super App expansion: lotteries, horse racing, and what's next10:06 Could DraftKings move into stock trading?11:08 Rail Bird acquisition: building a prediction market exchange12:07 Ad break: KeyBank12:38 ESPN, NBC, and Amazon: the content partnership strategy14:19 What exclusive broadcast deals actually do for the bottom line15:06 League partnerships vs. broadcast deals: a disciplined approach16:14 State tax hikes: the regulatory landscape17:21 Black market competition: offshore sportsbooks and the tax disadvantage19:26 Cost-cutting and margin defense20:07 Path to 30% EBITDA margins21:26 Breaking down the balance sheet22:23 Prediction markets as a billion-dollar TAM opportunity22:43 Outro and upcoming episodes After Earnings is brought to you by Stakeholder Labs and Morning Brew. For more go to https://www.afterearnings.com Follow Us X: https://twitter.com/AfterEarningsTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@AfterEarningsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/afterearnings_/ Reach Out Email: afterearnings@morningbrew.com $DKNG Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Most recruiters treat their client list like a closed account. You made the perm placement, the fee hit, and now you wait six months until they need you again. Dawson Henis looked at that same client list and saw six figures of recurring revenue nobody was collecting, so he picked up the phone.  In this episode, Dawson, the founder of the Atlanta-based Henis Group, walks Benjamin Mena through what happened in the four weeks after he bolted a staffing division onto the perm search firm he started at 24. Seven contractors. Two existing clients. Roughly ten thousand dollars a month in gross profit, built entirely off relationships he already had. His first two orders filled in 48 hours, a pace he would never touch on the perm side.   But the contractors are only half the story. Dawson hasn't made a cold call in two years. He breaks down the lead-gen system that replaced it, the ICP work, the messaging that doesn't sound like creepy automation, and the exact stack he runs, and why he fired three lead-gen agencies charging him thousands a month before building the whole thing himself. If you have ever paid an outside firm to book your meetings and gotten nothing back, this part will sting in a useful way.   This episode is brought to you by Atlas, the AI-first recruitment platform built to eliminate admin. Atlas captures every candidate conversation automatically and turns it into something you can actually use. With MagicSearch you can ask things like "who mentioned they're open to relocating next year?" and get answers instantly across your whole database, with no keyword guessing and no digging through old notes. Atlas customers have reported over 40% EBITDA growth and over 80% more monthly billings after adopting the platform. Get started and unlock your exclusive listener offer at https://recruitwithatlas.com   He is also honest about what it cost him along the way: the hires that didn't fit, what recruiters get wrong when they hire for their own shop, and the four-question screen from coach Diane Prince that finally fixed it. And he goes deep on the why, how he lost it chasing other people's playbooks and how he got it back.   Whether you are a perm firm owner sitting on contract revenue you haven't tapped, a newer recruiter wondering if you can really do this on your own, or someone who just needs the reminder that the opportunity is already in your book, this one delivers.   Connect with Dawson Henis on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawson-henis/   Resources and links:

Is your chiropractic practice actually a sellable business, or have you accidentally built yourself a job? In this follow-up conversation on preparing your practice for sale, Dr. Lauryn sits down with Dr. Jay LaGuardia to unpack the numbers, systems, and blind spots that determine whether a clinic becomes a valuable asset or quietly closes its doors.Together, they break down EBITDA, practice valuation, multipliers, profitability, private equity, succession planning, and why gross revenue alone does not determine what your practice is worth. Dr. Jay also shares why chiropractors need to increase their financial IQ, how strong systems and predictable cash flow raise practice value, and why waiting until you're tired, injured, or ready to retire may cost you hundreds of thousands of dollars.Key Takeaways:Your practice valuation is based on profitability, predictable cash flow, systems, team, brand, and future earning potential—not just gross revenue. A high-revenue practice can be worth less than a smaller, more profitable clinic if the business fundamentals are weak.EBITDA and multipliers are essential concepts for chiropractic practice owners to understand before they ever think about selling. The stronger your systems, documentation, team, cash flow, and patient base, the stronger your multiplier can become.Chiropractors need to start preparing for succession three to five years before they plan to exit. Illness, disability, burnout, and unexpected life changes can destroy practice value quickly if there is no plan in place.Financial IQ and business IQ are no longer optional for clinic owners. Learning how to read a P&L, understand payroll metrics, and make decisions from abundance instead of scarcity can dramatically change the future of your practice.Guest Bio:Dr. Jay LaGuardia has been an entrepreneurial enthusiast for more than 45 years, beginning his first business journey at just 12 years old. Over the course of his career, he has opened 18 companies across multiple industries, including chiropractic offices, coaching companies, real estate development, fitness studios, podcasting, and more. He is also an Amazon bestselling author and the founder of Triple P Life, where he helps entrepreneurs build thriving, profitable businesses while also pursuing peak health, strong family lives, and long-term personal fulfillment.Contact Dr. Jay directly drjay@tripleplife.comFind resources and ways to work with Dr. Jay at Triple P LifeFollow Dr. Jay on InstagramResources:Follow Dr. Lauryn: Instagram | Facebook | LinkedInFollow She Slays on YouTubeMentioned in this episode:To learn more about CLA and the INSiGHT scanner go to the link below and enter code SHESLAYS when prompted.CLAHolistic Marketing HubWant to attract ideal patients to your clinic? No time to utilize your clinic's social media pages? Holistic Marketing Hub teaches you (or one of your team members) exactly how to use your clinic's Instagram account to find and attract those patients in your community. Use code "SheSlays" to get $300 off!Holistic Marketing HubGo from surviving to thriving with Genesis Chiropractic Software. Learn more and get your special discount using the link below!Genesis Chiropractic Software

In this episode the hosts break down a wildly unconventional Shopify-focused business brokerage using a “spread-based” commission model, debating whether it's a scalable innovation or just an overpriced job disguised as a business.Business Listing – https://mailchi.mp/websiteclosers/new-deal-alert-ma-digital-business-brokerage-shopify-ecommerce-store-sales-65-repeat-purchase-rate-100-organic-strong-community-reputation-gmfgmhkz201?e=42dc999128Welcome to Acquisitions Anonymous – the #1 podcast for small business M&A. Every week, we break down businesses for sale and talk about buying, operating, and growing them.Looking to build a professional website in minutes? Try Wix: https://wix.pxf.io/c/6898629/3115214/25616?trafcat=templateHubSpot is the backbone for how businesses scale without chaos. Try them out here: https://go.try-hubspot.com/OeG9VrSubscribe for more episodes: https://www.youtube.com/@AcquisitionsAnonymousPodcast?sub_confirmation=1Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://www.acquanon.com/newsletter

Jörgen Wigh, CEO of Lagercrantz Group Jörgen Wigh has been CEO of Lagercrantz Group (STO: LAGR-B) for over 20 years. In that time he completed 90+ acquisitions, built a portfolio of 85 niche B2B companies, and delivered 15 consecutive years of record earnings per share. No capital raises. No forced integration. No exits. The Nordic compounder model has quietly outperformed global markets for decades, and Lagercrantz is one of the longest-running, most disciplined examples of it in operation. In Part 1 of 2, Jörgen walks through the deal model behind that track record.   What You'll Learn How Lagercrantz finds companies that are not for sale, and why the first call almost never closes a deal How Jörgen pushes for exclusivity in weeks when most sellers are running a banker-led process The earnout structure Jörgen uses to keep founders motivated for three years after signing What he says when PE shows up at 11x and the seller is tempted to take the bigger check Why founders walk away from more money for legacy preservation, and the conversation that earns it How to close 8 to 12 deals a year without breaking pricing discipline If you are holding pricing discipline against private equity and want to know whether your team would do the same, DealPilot, powered by M&A Science, runs the M&A Competency Assessment so you can benchmark deal judgment before the next term sheet. ____________________ This episode of M&A Science is presented by DealRoom. DealRoom just automated Pipeline Management with AI so you can spend less time updating deals, and more time working them.  Automatically push deal context from Outlook to DealRoom Pipeline and use AI to keep deal target data and tasks updated, so follow-ups never slip through the cracks. No manual logging. No stale pipeline data. See for yourself at dealroom.net/pipelineai ____________________ Episode Chapters [00:00] Introduction [05:48] Jörgen's path: analyst, McKinsey, and the Bergman & Beving spinout [07:00] Coming back as CEO in 2006 and rebuilding from scratch [09:21] Buy and hold, forever: how the model actually works [11:21] What makes a company worth buying (and what kills it) [12:28] A real deal: helicopter deck safety systems [13:52] Who sells to Lagercrantz, and why [15:44] The only two things Lagercrantz adds: energy and structure [20:17] Finding companies that are not for sale [22:36] When the banker shows up: getting exclusivity early [23:55] Holding the line at 4-8x EBITDA when PE bids 11x [25:09] The legacy preservation pitch that wins without matching price [33:38] Earnouts that keep founders motivated for three years [36:17] Running 85 companies with 22 people at HQ [36:46] The only three functions Lagercrantz centralizes [37:57] The annual MD conference and the peer network behind it [40:13] 8 to 12 deals a year, one a month

Trina Spear left Wall Street to build a billion dollar brand serving the 18 million health care workers no one else was designing for. Figs started out selling scrubs on sidewalks and grew into a NYSE-listed, direct-to-consumer powerhouse. For more on Figs and show notes click here Subscribe and watch Shopify Masters on YouTube!Sign up for your FREE Shopify Trial here.

Matt is the CEO of Westlake. Over the past 20 years, he has worked on over 140 completed transactions totaling over $5 billion in private placement and M&A value. Matt has gained in-depth experience working with companies from the lower middle market up to public companies with market capitalizations in excess of $1.5 billion. Since joining Westlake in 2014, Matt has advised companies with a combined annual revenue of over $1.8 billion in the areas of strategy, capital, finance, and M&A. He currently sits on the board of three companies. In past roles, Matt has had full operational and P&L responsibility for a NYSE-listed company division with $15 million of EBITDA, led a multi-million dollar revenue geographic territory for a privately held company, and oversaw a multi-million dollar revenue product line for a NYSE-listed company. Matt has an MBA in banking and has attended executive programs at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Matt holds Series 6, 7, 63, 65, 24, 27, and 79 FINRA licenses. Connect with Matt Andersen:Website: https://westlakesecurities.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/westlake-securities/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-andersen-8861811b/ Check out Matt Andersen's book, “Intentional Growth: A Proven Guide to Higher Performance and Better Outcomes for Your Company”: https://www.amazon.com/Intentional-Growth-Performance-Outcomes-Company/dp/1639081879/ TurnKey Podcast Productions Important Links:Guest to Gold Video Series: www.TurnkeyPodcast.com/gold The Ultimate Podcast Launch Formula- www.TurnkeyPodcast.com/UPLFplusFREE workshop on how to "Be A Great Guest."Free E-Book 5 Ways to Make Money Podcasting at www.Turnkeypodcast.com/gift Ready to earn 6-figures with your podcast? See if you've got what it takes at TurnkeyPodcast.com/quizSales Training for Podcasters: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sales-training-for-podcasters/id1540644376Nice Guys on Business: http://www.niceguysonbusiness.com/subscribe/The Turnkey Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/turnkey-podcast/id1485077152

Private equity already ate HVAC and plumbing. Roofing is next, and most owners have no idea what's coming. Watch the first ever CEO Roundtable episode and subscribe for the full series.This is episode 1 of the Forge Podcast, where the people actually doing the deals talk about what it really takes to scale and exit a home service business.The conversation gets into how PE values your company, where most owners leave millions on the table, and the EBITDA math that makes 1 plus 1 equal three.At the table with Sam: Cody Klein runs CommercialRoofer.com and has helped roughly 260 roofing companies clean up sales, ops, and finance after selling his own company in the early COVID-era consolidation wave.Josh Langford is the Chief Strategist Officer, the accountant-slash-marketer who sits with founders every week and forces them to actually look at the scoreboard.Ryan Nichols, the COO, spent 20 years building Eco Roof and Solar to around $100 million, then spent three years inside a private equity fund.What you'll learn in this episode:The EBITDA multiple math that lets 1 plus 1 equal 3 (and sometimes more)Why 90 percent of PE deals collapse in due diligence and what kills themWhy half of CEOs get fired after they sell, and how to not be one of themThe four-number weekly scorecard almost no roofer is actually keepingKey man risk: the silent number that quietly destroys your valuationCEO confessions from the table about the mistakes none of them want to admit out loudThank you for listening! Don't miss out on future episodes! Subscribe to The D2D Podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. You may also watch this podcast on YouTube!You may also follow Sam Taggart on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for more nuggets on D2D and Sales Tips.