March 25, 2025 • 44 mins
Karl Maier didn't set out to become a business growth advisor. After studying economics and systems in college, he reluctantly joined his family's industrial distribution business—only to help scale it an impressive five times larger in just three years. That journey through entrepreneurship's trenches taught him lessons no classroom could provide, especially after a break-in left them with stolen computers and missing customer payment records.
From recovering that early setback to riding the dot-com wave (and subsequent crash), Karl developed a sixth sense for the realities of business growth that most entrepreneurs desperately need but rarely possess. His most valuable insight? Everything takes twice as long and costs twice as much as founders expect—and sometimes that "twice" becomes four times when reality truly hits.
Today, Karl works with entrepreneurs who have brilliant technical ideas but struggle with the business fundamentals required to scale. One founder approached him needing $5 million to build his dream of reaching $50 million in sales, only to discover the harsh mathematical reality: investors would need approximately 125% ownership to make the deal worthwhile. These moments of truth allow Karl to help founders adjust their expectations and strategies, often by focusing on smaller, achievable goals that establish cash flow before attempting full-scale expansion.
Whether advising on fundraising approaches (which typically take 6-12 months, not the 60 days many founders expect), helping select appropriate business partners, or guiding operational scaling decisions, Karl brings the rare combination of financial expertise and entrepreneurial battle scars that make him an invaluable resource. If you're considering scaling your business or seeking funding for growth, connecting with Karl through his website Abunden.com or LinkedIn could be the most important 30-minute conversation in your business journey.
From the Zoo to Wild is a book for entrepreneurs passionate about home services, looking to move away from corporate jobs. Chris Lalomia, a former executive, shares his path, discoveries, and tools to succeed as a small business owner in home improvement retail. The book provides the mindset, habits, leadership style, and customer-oriented processes necessary to succeed as a small business owner in home services.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
like everything.
We've watched too much onYouTube, we've watched too much
HTTV in my world andeverything's that can be over
and instantaneous, even for us.
Well, I'm not going to put youwith me, even for this old guy,
it's not as quick as we'd alllike it to be.
Uh, we all think it's going totake exactly half the time.
Uh, but it's really going totake double the time we're even
thinking, and sometimes doubleis actually four, x and so, um,
(00:22):
that's another great lesson.
I think a lot of people don'trealize it's just how long it
takes to get a startup going.
When I first started my biz, Itold everybody I'm like I'm
going to break even in 16 months.
Yeah, 36 months later, Ifinally broke even.
How am I doing?
Yeah, welcome to the SmallBusiness Safari, where I help
guide you to avoid those traps,pitfalls and dangers that lurk
(00:44):
when navigating the wild worldof small business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
and professional goals.
So strap in adventure team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
(01:06):
Hey, everybody, we're gettingready to rock and roll and we've
got some great info for you.
Today we're going to be talkingdoubling, but I'm going to be
talking doubling with half thestaff.
What happened?
I let Alan take off and he'strying to be a big daddy on me.
(01:26):
Going to be talking doublingwith half the staff.
What happened?
I let Alan take off and he'strying to be a big daddy on me.
Going to LA, going to partydown with Cousin Brad.
Probably going to go out there,hit the links, hit the thing.
Probably going to hit RodeoDrive.
I don't know what he's going todo, but Alan is off today and
I'll let him go every once in awhile.
But I can't go off without goingoff on him.
(01:46):
I can't believe he's taken thisopportunity to soak up the
spoils of being an entrepreneurwho does his own thing.
You know we don't talk enoughabout Alan, but Alan is a
commercial real estate agent now.
But he has been through acouple of small businesses, he's
been through the corporateworld and he's finally getting
to enjoy some of the spoils ofmaking this commercial real
estate business a real go here.
A lot of people are coming tohim because they realize he's a
(02:08):
straight shooter.
We've had Chad his businesspartner around with us and so
you guys know him, he's good.
But today we're going to betalking about scaling your
business with Carl Mayer.
Founder of Abundant is anexperienced CFO and business
advisor, so this stuff's goingto be really heady.
Everybody you better be able tohang on and figure out what
he's saying, because I think forme he'll probably go right over
my head and I'll bring him backdown and say hey man, you got
(02:29):
to dumb it down for the dumbhandyman here.
But, carl, welcome to the show.
Man Can't wait to get into this.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Hey, chris, I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Cool.
So, carl, let's back it up alittle bit, and then we'll start
diving into what you do.
But how did you get into thisbusiness?
Is this something you wanted todo from the moment you went to
college?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Talk to us a little bit about that.
Well, I guess I went to college, did economics undergrad and
then it was more systems-typestuff in my MBA but of course
you had some numbers in there,accounting and finance type
(03:10):
stuff, and I guess after aboutseven, eight years in the
corporate type of setting, myparents twisted my arm to come
work for the family business andso I came in, used my financial
background as well as whateverother experience and was the CFO
.
So that's how I kind of gotinto it and just been a little
bit of a wild rideentrepreneurial opportunities
(03:34):
and helping companies grow eversince.
So what was the family biz?
It was industrial distributionof things like pipes and valves
Pretty sexy stuff yeah, Right,Way sexy.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But but because that's what we're leading into?
Uh, because the family and youare from originally where.
Originally from Ohio,cincinnati, okay so that's where
you guys were doing the pipeand distribution up there in
Ohio.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Well, no, we, uh we moved down to Houston.
There was an oil crash.
My dad became an entrepreneur,not necessarily by choice, and
then, after he grew it for aboutfive or six years, that's when
I came in and helped him grow itfrom there.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So you guys were supporting the oil industry, oh
yeah, oh, there we go.
So that's what I was talkingabout.
So you want to talk about beingan entrepreneurial man?
There is a show out there onParamount Plus called Landman,
so I finally got to go watchthat and went holy crap, I knew
it was a hard business, but, man, they make it look really hard
was a whole new appreciation forwhat it takes.
And they definitely had I don'tknow if you watched it, carl,
(04:51):
but they definitely werebringing their own support of
the oil industry and howimportant it is to the entire
world to that show and I reallyappreciate it, especially as a
business guy.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, I love that.
There's some great clips thatI'll watch kind of rerun
occasionally on YouTube orsomething.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So yeah, have fun with that, all right.
So you got in.
You got into the family biz,you helped them.
Now let's talk about.
I know it was mom and dad's biz, but when you got in there, how
big did you grow it?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
and, come on, they're not going to listen, so you uh
so, yeah, we, um, I mean they,they kind of ramped it up, um, I
guess a little over five5million, something like that,
but we took it over the nextthree years.
Well, I guess maybe up $4million because we grew it 5x in
(05:37):
three years 5x in three years.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
All right, let's talk about that.
Everybody says, I mean thatsounds so sexy, right?
Oh my gosh, you just went fromfive to you said five, or you
said four, so four times five.
I'm no economic major, but theengineering background still
works.
So carry the one, so that's 20.
You guys got to 20 million andthat sounds so sexy.
Everybody's like, yes, please,Can I have one, Can I have 20 of
(05:59):
those?
But let's talk a little bitabout the trials and
tribulations, the things you'velearned you.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But let's talk a little bit about the trials and
tribulations, the things you'velearned you've been able to
apply and help other people with.
Yeah, yeah, it had a few bumpsand hisses and spinning and
whatever in the course of that.
But I came in and you know it'slike you know it's been a while
ago and we had three PCs andthis was before internet and
networking and all that.
(06:24):
So we had three PCs and we hadfloppy disks we backed it up on,
and one PC was for invoicing.
One invoice was for payingbills and another was to kind of
try and put it all together anddo some financials.
And one day we came in theoffice and somebody had thrown a
(06:45):
rock through the glass frontdoor, came in, took all three
computers and all the floppydisks that were sitting next to
them, that were the backups ohmy God Right.
So we had printouts of a lot ofthe invo for customers but we
(07:08):
didn't know who had paid.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Holy crap, right.
So that is so.
You talk about redundancy intoday's world and you know, you
know I tell this all the timeyou want to age yourself.
Let's just talk technology,because technology has gone so
fast, so quickly, and today I'mnot even getting into AI with
you on this stuff.
You go back to then.
(07:31):
I mean, we were printouts withthe old dot matrix pin drive
still, uh, oh yeah, and so youdidn't even know who paid.
So how about going back tosomebody going, hey, um, you
know, uh, did you pay us or not?
I mean, I'm sure that wentreally easy right, yeah, you
know you're going.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Hey, are we?
You know, uh, are we up to date?
When's the next check coming?
Let's see.
Oh, my records aren't realclear.
Did I apply this correctly?
So you get to do a little dance, and then the vendors were a
(08:01):
lot easier because they'd callRight.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, you knew you were still with them.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
That's right.
So then it's like like okay, wedon't know who owes us what.
We don't know what we owepeople.
Let's try and put somefinancials together.
It's like, okay, yeah, this isgonna be fun that's not a way to
five extra biz.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So right, that was a fun way to start.
Yeah, so you started that way.
So that next inflection pointwas it grabbing a big bender,
was it?
You guys were chasing the carand the proverbial dog chasing
the car and you caught a bumper,and it was just a really big
job that helped you jump to thenext level.
How was that growth phase there?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Right.
So a lot of what we were doingwas project-based.
So somebody's you know whateverbuilding a refinery or doing a,
you know, upgrade or maybe youknow, just turn around, you know
, replacing a lot of stuff allat once, and so we get this, you
know big purchase order, andthey beat us up on margins.
(09:05):
So the margins could be prettythin on some of those big deals,
but a lot of it was those bigorders that come in.
My dad had the connections.
He's been in the business for along time and so he'd get to
see those orders and then you'dgo talk to the vendors and see
if you could get a littlediscount.
It was such a big order and so,um, you know it's a, it's a
(09:33):
middleman business.
You know you're.
You we'd buy the material.
Generally it'd get shipped tous.
Occasionally it gets shippedstraight to the customer.
So, um, you know it wasn't ahuge margin business.
This wasn't software.
You know something like that.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Well, you mean something like a handyman
business?
Oh yeah, I know what you'retalking about.
So that's the thing you hit onwhere I was going to go with the
5X.
So 5X man dude, it sounds great, oh God, it's great.
But you just hit on exactlywhat happens Sometimes in that
growth.
You lose sight of the bottomline.
All right, and because to getsome of those bigger jobs in the
(10:07):
beginning, you're buying somebusiness and, yeah, you're
thinning down on margins.
So sounds like you were atleast wise enough, or dad was
wise enough to go.
Now we gotta go, we gotta bringthis all the way down, man, I'm
talking to my vendors.
So I gotta get some of mymargin back, right, um, was that
?
Was that kind of the constantebb and flow as you guys were
growing?
Was keeping the margins tightor keeping your profit better?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, you know, we were very aware of what our
margins were and thought aboutour overhead, but you know you
also had to finance it, so therewas, you know, a lot more bank
debt and you know questionsabout inventory management.
You know how much stock do wekeep?
(10:48):
That was a lot of interestingdiscussions there.
So, yeah, it wasn't simple.
It wasn't simple.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, you had a lot of moving parts.
It obviously got you ready tohelp people like you do today.
So you helped the fam to get upto the 20.
You learned your lessons andthen it was time to go out there
and hang your shingle out andstart helping other people.
How'd you get that idea to goout and start helping others?
Did people start coming to yougoing hey, carl, you know I know
mom and dad kind of dad's, kindof the whiz, but we think
you're the whiz bang.
(11:16):
Can we, can we use you?
Is that how it worked?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Well, you know, you might have seen those charts,
that kind of you know straightline, go from the bottom left to
the upper right, you knowsmooth line, and then you've got
that squiggly squiggle,squiggle, squiggle.
Yeah, that's my career was thesquiggle, squiggle squiggle.
So, you know, after about fiveyears Dad had said you know, I
(11:42):
don't want it any bigger, and sothat meant not a lot of
opportunity left, you know, forme.
So I went off and did someentrepreneurial stuff.
This was back in the dot-comera, so I ended up starting a
dot-com deal.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Was it like Amazon?
Was it Walmart?
Where did you you start, didyou?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
start yahoo.
Uh well, it's kind of.
You know, I was trying to besort of like amazon for the
industrial valves, the, thethings, the same products.
But hey, let's, you know, helpconnect people.
And you know it sounded likegreat idea and, uh, you know, I
got some invest, got someinitial investors, and then the
(12:29):
second round of funding wasscheduled to close a month after
the dot-com crashed.
So you can kind of guess howthat went yeah, I uh.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
so that's one that I did not participate in in terms
of dumbass, dumb ass moves thatChris has made.
Um, the only I didn't.
I didn't.
I was at Accenture.
I was going to go out and startup, uh, with a group.
I was going to do a smallstartup.
I said no, had a young kid athome Um, probably the only time
I said no to something and itactually worked.
Um, but no, I went and startedmy business in the middle of the
(13:07):
downturn in 2008.
So, don't worry, I got plentyof dumb ass mistakes as well.
Everybody's heard this beforebut so that's a pretty humbling
experience.
Right, you've been on top ofthe world, you've been with, you
know, helped your family get tothat spot.
You get out, you start going Ican't be beat and you're like
well.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So what happened next ?
So that crashed.
I was doing a little consultingand I met a guy who was a
consultant to these bighospitals.
His background was runningstaffing in their physical
therapy areas, and so he kind ofwas doing consulting with them
and so he had all this data andagain, technology's changed a
(13:48):
lot since then.
So he had them, like entering,typing in data into a
spreadsheet, and then he'd takethe floppy disk and bring it
back and then do some analysison it.
And he's like, hey, can youhelp me?
You know, with this thespreadsheets.
And I'm working on thespreadsheets, helping to, you
know, because he'd take thefloppy drive and then they'd
keep working on it.
(14:09):
And so you, you know, the datadidn't always match.
And so I'm sitting thereworking on it and one day I say,
you know, if we did this on the, you know, the internet, you
know we wouldn't have all thoseproblems with the matching the
spreadsheets.
And he's like we can do that.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Uh-oh, you just said voodoo, you do that, voodoo that
you do.
So you said how about using theinternet?
And again, people today go well, of course, right, yeah, but at
the time this was going down,no, that's not something we
thought about.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Right, this was like 2001,.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
know where you know that's, that's modem time.
Right, right, yeah, all right.
Oh, I got 20 000 bought.
Yeah, let's go.
While I'm cranking today,you're like, if I'm not 5g, it's
nothing.
Yeah, right.
So how did you, how did youhelp him implement an internet
way of handling this andanalyzing the data?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, on the first startup I'd learned some basic
internet programming.
I wasn't you know super wiz,you know Wozniak or Apple or
something like that, but I knewenough to be able to make
screens so that the hospitalpeople at the hospital could
enter the data, put it into adatabase and then make charts to
(15:33):
show them how their departmentwas going, how they're utilizing
their staff.
And you know, it was just the.
You know the type of analysisthat he was doing on Excel, but
then, because it was on, youknow the type of analysis that
he was doing on Excel, but then,because it was on, you know the
internet and we could do allthese.
They could click and get agraph and click and get the
graph and drill down and, um,you know, so we, we just started
(15:58):
, you know, using hisconnections, get another
hospital, another hospital,hospital, and so we had like
major hospitals in 14 states.
At one point, um, yes, yeah, youknow, in houston, methodist
memorial herman.
Um, we had ucla out on the westcoast.
(16:19):
Stoney broke up in new york andso now you're dropping.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I know I'm not in that world, but you know what
you're doing.
You're doing some serious namedropping right there brother.
I got you, I heard that I meanwhen you say UCLA and you say
Houston, cause Houston, uh, youknow, the network down there is
amazing.
And then, yeah, so you, youwere nailing some big, uh, big
fish, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah and but uh, you know, and we kind of partnered
on the deal and so we got thesegreat accounts.
But this kind of comes back toyour earlier comment on pricing.
So he came out of the staffingworld and he's like Carl, if we
market up 20%, we're going to befantastic, we'll make a ton.
(16:59):
And I was like, yeah, but it'ssoftware, there's nothing to
mark up.
And we never were able to kindof square the circle.
He wanted to do it for like adollar a day and, and it's
software, so there's nothing tomark up.
(17:21):
So we went back and forth andback and forth and he wanted to
charge a dollar a day to thesemajor hospitals.
And I'm like we'll never makeany money.
And he's like but it'll goviral.
And I was like I don't thinkit's ever going to go viral.
And the big hospitals take time.
(17:44):
I mean, it takes time to getinto these hospitals.
You know it can be a year ortwo.
You know sales cycle.
So my code ended up staying onthe internet for over 15 years.
But the business really didn'tlast, you know that long.
At some point I kind of sold itback to him and said you know
(18:05):
that long At some point.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I kind of sold it back to him and said you know,
good luck.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
So what was the lesson, the biggest lesson you
learned out of that, you knowit's when you pick your partner.
I mean this guy, experiencedbusiness owner, he had grown and
sold his staffing company for alot of money, you know, sharp
guy.
But he was really strong in thearea that he understood, which
was staffing.
(18:32):
And when you brought him overto software it was just like a
whole different world and he, hejust didn't get it.
But he, you know the way we setit up, he still wanted control
of the area that he didn'treally understand.
So you know, a little bit moreplanning on bringing in partners
(18:52):
you know, business partners wasreally the thing that I learned
from that.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
That's a good one, that's great, all right.
So today you're helping a bunchof people and let's jump
forward to now with what you'redoing.
What are some of the areas thatyou come in and really been
able to help people?
People get a flavor for that.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Right.
So there's probably, you know,a handful of most common
situations.
You know.
One is a young company that,hey, we've got this cool thing,
we just need some money to growit.
So helping them think through,kind of make a plan of attack
for how we're going to raise themoney, how we're going to
(19:33):
present to potential investors,and so that's, and usually a lot
of times it's some kind oftechnology or new business that
requires some money.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Now this is something we have not talked about much
in our podcast over the threeand a half years, just because
we've talked about funding andone of the things that we all
know about me is that I'm justnot a very good partner and I've
used basically my line ofcredit for my home to start the
business and I have a businessline of credit that I use during
the slow periods just to kindof augment some funding.
(20:05):
So let's talk about how you gouse this funds to go the right
way and how do you help pitchthis Right.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I guess the one thing for me is that getting money is
a sales process.
It's.
You know, it sounds great tojust say I'm going to raise
money and it sounds like somespecial thing, but it's really
you're trying to get somebodywith money to give you some
(20:36):
money in exchange for, you know,part of the company, or debt,
some form, some piece of paperbasically, and so that's really
a sales process.
And so when you sell mostthings, there's some sort of
sales collateral.
You kind of have to have astrategy, explain the value, and
(20:57):
on something like this, there'sa lot of numbers involved.
Well, you're betting on thefuture.
Well, what's the future goingto look like?
If it's debt, can you pay thedebt back?
I mean even like real estate.
We're going to expand.
We've got a business.
It's been growing, it's great.
It's not a new business, it'snot a startup.
(21:19):
Know we need to buy this realestate to expand to the next
level.
Great, you want a bank to loanyou money or somebody to loan
you money.
How do you show them you'regoing to pay it back?
And that's something that noteverybody thinks through.
They're like, well, this is agreat deal, we're going to make
(21:39):
a bunch of money.
So the bank will lend us money,right?
Well, not always.
The bank needs to reallyunderstand your numbers and be
able to understand how you'regoing to pay it back Somehow.
That's important to the bank.
They get picky about that.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
As the former banker, I know what you're saying, man.
You know what.
I really love your business,I'm enamored with your business,
but you need to pay me.
Me, and I'm in number oneposition there, big boy, and you
better be paying me.
So people have that idea, theyhave the whiz-bang widget, the
idea, the software, the productor whatever it is, and you're
(22:18):
saying that most of these peopledon't know how am I going to be
able to pay back the people whogive me all this great money.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
That's part of it, and to me that's great money.
That's part of it, you know,and that's to me, that's part of
the sale.
You have to understand.
You know what they're lookingfor because you know well, I'll
invest in your business.
Well, some people want, youknow, a convertible note.
Other people want equity.
Other people, you know, justsay I want to loan you money.
Other people say I want to takeover your business.
You know.
(22:41):
So you have to understand whoyou're talking to back to having
the right partners.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
My friend, that's right so you gotta understand so
you help them navigate how totake this and navigate those
waters of what's the rightposition, right funding method
for you, then I guess that'swhat I'm hearing, yeah yeah,
exactly, exactly, yeah so takeme through that.
A lot of this stuff is a lot offoreign for us.
So if you really want to startgrowing your business, you're
saying funds to unlock it.
You've got to figure out whatsource of funds and then you've
(23:08):
got to always be selling, whichnow we talk about stuff we talk
about here all the time Alwaysbe selling.
So how do you figure that out?
Take us through an example ofone of them.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
A lot of selling is telling a story.
I mean, that's just talking topeople.
If you tell them a story, one,it's easier to remember and a
lot of times people need to beable to explain your business to
somebody else.
If it's a high net worthindividual, you know, yeah, it's
their decision, but they'reprobably going to tell their
(23:41):
wife or their accountant orsomebody about this deal and why
it's a good deal.
So if you tell a story thatthey can remember, it's
compelling, it's interesting.
That's going to improve yourodds a lot.
And so thinking through whatdoes that story look like is a
(24:02):
big part of what I'm doing, andpart of it's the numbers.
What's this thing going to looklike in five years?
And is that a reasonable set ofassumptions we're making and
then also just telling a storythat they can relate to If
they've started a business or ifthey're more of a corporate
(24:23):
type or whatever that person'sbackground is.
That you're going to bepitching to.
Hopefully that story's gotsomething that can resonate.
A lot of times we're going touse slide decks to help tell the
story, websites, tools likethat.
I may not make the website oranything, but I want to make
(24:46):
sure we've thought through thestory and have a plan on how
we're going to explain this tosomebody.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Interesting.
So when people come to find youand everybody, you can find
them at Abundant, and that'sCarl Mayer and he is going to
talk about that.
As people come to you, what'sthat first ask?
Is it you trying to educatethem on what you can do and help
them with it, or are you tryingto seek their problems?
How do they come to ask you?
How do people know where tofind you?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
A lot of it comes through referrals or LinkedIn.
I had somebody reach out to meearlier today on LinkedIn going
hey, I've got, and it's somebodyI haven't talked to in like 10
years.
On LinkedIn you actually havethe timeline and last message
was 2016.
All right, okay.
(25:35):
And he's like hey, I've gotthis situation, you have time
for 20, 30 minute call.
I was like, yeah, how aboutFriday?
And so you know, that's notuncommon, is to.
You know, just haven't talkedto you in a long time, but I've
got the situation.
I know I need some kind offinancial guidance.
(25:57):
I had a guy that reached out tome.
It's been about a a year now,but we'd gone to undergrad
together and that's.
You know, I got some some.
Hey, I'm right with you, man,I'm in.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Uh, you know everybody knows that I'm in the
hair club for men and uh it's sofunny.
I just got done doing anestimate, uh, and the guy is
talking to me.
He goes you know the oldgeezers like 60 and 70.
I'm like, yeah, dude, I'mdouble nickels man.
So, uh, you know, lighting upon the old geezer thing and I
actually think you're older thanme, it didn't matter, yeah.
So he reached out to you fromundergrad, knowing your
(26:28):
background and your expertise,and clearly you've made a lot of
good connections and thatburned a lot of bridges, so
people know how to find you.
So he reached out.
What's his ask?
What did he ask for you?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So he's developing.
He's developed like these pumps, industrial pumps and great
engineering background, but he'strying to understand, really
understand the math.
Well, part of it he's justunderstanding how do I raise
funds, and part of it, really,you know, he kind of had some
(27:01):
ideas and he had some good ideas.
But one of the things that youknow, I kind of had to walk him
through and it starts with a lotof questions understanding his
business, understanding whathe's trying to do, understanding
where he's at right now.
So I definitely asked a bunchof questions.
But one of the things thatbecame clear from the
(27:22):
conversation in this situationwas you know the numbers, you
know I want X million to growthis business to Y million and
it you know, just a quick glance, you're like, okay, well, you
know, let's just say 5 millionto get to 50 million.
Okay, that sounds good.
But once you really start tolook at it and go, how much does
(27:45):
somebody who's going to putfive million into a risky
startup type situation or earlystage business, how much do they
really expect to get?
And you know, in order to youknow, if you sell for this
amount, you sell for $50 millionin five years and they put in
$5 million, you can do math andfigure out what percentage of
(28:07):
the company they really need toown.
And he's an engineering guy.
So, you know, when I kind ofexplained the numbers to him,
walked him through the numbers,he's like I get it, I get it, I
get it, I get it.
But the problem was, you know,where he started was something
like you need to sell them about125% of the business in order
(28:33):
to make this a good investmentfor them.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
How big did his eyes get when you said that number?
Speaker 2 (28:43):
My eyes just about came out of my head.
Yeah, that was one of thoseeye-opening conversations.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
He's like oh, so, carl, carl, I'm going to go back
to my college years.
So six years in school and Iwas so proud that you said
you're an economics major andthen a systems guy as an MBA and
I got my master's in mechanicalengineering.
Systems guy as an MBA, and Igot my master's in mechanical
engineering.
And coming out of that, Iexactly had two business classes
(29:12):
, which you had two per semesterat least.
So you know exactly what thisguy was doing.
He was like I had no clue.
But, carl, my pump's so muchbetter, my technology, my
whiz-bang solution's so muchbetter than everybody else, and
I mean, but it's amazing, youknow, like I understand.
But in business, this is whatwe're looking at.
And so obviously that's thekind of advice you give to
people, right?
Yeah, oh, boy, and all you haveto do is sell them 125% of your
(29:33):
business.
Oh, wow.
And so you know that first kidthing.
You know that's always overusedanyway, but you know you chop
off your leg and you probablygot a deal here, oh, okay.
So what did you end up advisinghim and what did he end?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
up doing Right.
So the you know I mean it'sgreat to you know say it makes
for a good story to say, oh,125%.
But what you can do then ishelp him look at how do you be
more efficient with that capital.
When you're getting started,you know, what can we do to.
You know, maybe instead ofmaking a full line of pumps, you
(30:13):
know, maybe we start off and weget a cash flow break even with
, you know, two models of pumpinstead of eight.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
How hard was that?
I just work with so manyengineers.
How hard was that?
One, because I would have been.
But, carl, all eight are great.
Eight is great, and you're likeI know they are, but look just
how.
About two, yeah, but thoseother six are even better.
Why don't you pick your best?
Two, yeah, but then the othersix are even better.
I could just hear thatconversation going so.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I well, I have absolutely been in that exact
conversation had this you knowgreat idea and he'd put it
together and, you know, figuredit all out and spent all this
(31:16):
time.
You know he'd quit his job andspent all this time developing
the technology and he's ready togo and he's like okay, I just
need some money for go-to-marketand you know it's only, you
know, whatever half a milliondollars or something like that.
So help, help me raise that,and then we can.
You know this will take off andit's going to be great.
It's like fantastic, fantastic,good.
(31:39):
Well, how, you know we'll get.
How much time do you havebefore you?
You know you just absolutelyneed that money.
You know you'd have to, like,go find a job and he's like 60
days for for an engineering.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
You know again pump and you know the sales.
Yeah, so all right, go ahead,tell us the story.
They like us all on this oneright, and you know I'm like
that.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, that's great.
You know, if you're an existingbusiness and you just needed to
expand your line of credit froman existing bank, we could
probably do that.
But for just about anythingelse, no, you know, we're
looking at six months to a year,more than likely to, you know,
(32:26):
be able to raise equity for astartup, and I've and I've
definitely seen it take longer,you know, to do so.
You know he really didn't, hewas just like no, that can't be,
that can't be right, man, thatjust can't be right, don't you?
You know people, they'll just,you know, like dude, if you get
(32:48):
an attorney just to write up thedocuments, it's going to take
30 to 60 days, you know, justfor the documents for this deal,
and you know that's not… sojust, like everything.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
We've watched too much on YouTube, we've watched
too much HGTV in my world andeverything can be over and
instantaneous, even for us.
Well, I'm not going to put youwith me.
Even for this old guy, it's notas quick as we'd all like it to
be.
We all think it's going to takeexactly half the time, but it's
really going to take double thetime we're even thinking, and
sometimes double is actually 4X.
(33:20):
So that's another great lesson.
I think a lot of people don'trealize it's just how long it
takes to get a startup going.
When I first started my biz, Itold everybody I'm like I'm
going to break even in 16 months.
Yeah, 36 months later, Ifinally broke even.
How am I doing?
Yeah, but that's what happenswhen you start the recession,
bro.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, yeah, I helped an entrepreneur, a lady in the
healthcare space and good ideafor business, definitely a
market for it.
We had to build out someoffices.
She'd never done that before,it's okay.
(34:00):
So we, um, we said, okay,here's how much it's probably
going to cost, here's how longit's going to take.
And it took twice as long andcost twice as much as she
thought.
And then you know we say, okay,well, how fast are you going to
add?
You know, build up your clientbase.
And well, you know that's goingto.
(34:22):
It's, that's probably going to.
It's going to be tough.
It's going to take a year.
Well, after know twice as longbuilding it out.
Yeah, she still hasn't hitbreak even, but she's, she's
looking good, she's growingevery month and you know she
sees the end in sight.
So there's hope.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
That's uh.
I actually had somebody whocalled me out.
Uh, because I said this before.
I said if you can take yourbusiness plan and have the
revenue and double the expensesand it still works out for you,
now you've got something you canwork with.
Because that was my big failingin the beginning is that I did
not have best.
I had expected case and I hadbest case, but I did not have
(35:03):
worst case.
I wasn't even close to how badmy worst case was, because my
expenses were almost literallydouble what I expected, because
I was doing a lot of advertisingto get my business off the
ground and my revenue was almosthalf of what I had actually had
in my projections.
And that's the hence to forward.
That's why, 17 years later, I'man overnight success For a lot
of people.
(35:24):
Learn from what I just did, man.
Listen to what Carl's tellingyou.
You can do it differently.
You just got to listen to theright people.
So, carl man, this has beengreat.
I don't want to take too muchmore of your time, but I do want
to make sure everybody can findyou.
So you mentioned LinkedIn.
I know you got a ton offollowers out there, big boy, so
how does everybody go find you?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
The easiest place is Abundantcom A-B-U-N-D-E-Ncom.
Abundencom A-B-U-N-D-E-Ncom.
Or you can look up Carl Meyeron LinkedIn K-A-R-L-M-A-I-E-R.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
And that's a podcast bullpup for Chris everybody.
I've been calling him the wrongname so and he did not correct
me, so thank God.
So, because if you try to saymy last name, lala me, it
doesn't work.
So, meyer, carl, m-a-i-e-r onLinkedIn or Abundant
A-B-U-N-D-E-Ncom.
So, carl, if they reach out toyou, what can they expect to
(36:15):
hear back from you?
Can they talk to you for 30minutes?
I mean, what's it going to take?
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, a 30-minute conversation is usually, you
know, plenty of time to get ageneral idea of what you're
looking at, give you a sense ofif I'm the right resource or if
I need to redirect you to.
You know, I'll probablyintroduce you to somebody.
If I'm not the right one, I'llprobably introduce you to
somebody that will be able tohelp you.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Man, if you've got a great idea, you've got a great
product, maybe a great service,and you're looking to scale it,
man, give this guy a shout right, tell him you heard him off the
small business safari.
He's going to throw you alittle nugget.
Man, give you a littlesomething, something.
You know what I'm saying.
He'll hook you up.
But, carl, before we let you goand I say we because I'm so
used to saying that Alan, comeback.
It's been so hard without Alan.
(37:03):
I got to be the straight guy,the funny guy, and, let's face
it, he's just not that funny.
You know what I'm saying, he'sjust not.
But anyway, way I miss him and,uh, I mean I can't ask for a
better co-host.
Alan has been amazing.
But I want to ask those famousfour questions.
We ask because I just get theso jones off these things and we
get them all out there.
So, carl, I want to ask firstgive us a book you would
recommend to all of our audiencebook I'd recommend.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Let's see I would probably.
There's so many I hate to haveto pick one, but I guess I would
go to.
I'm going to go with AtomicHabits.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
James Cleary.
Yeah, yeah, james Cleary,what's your favorite one that
you picked up that youimplemented yourself, cause I've
read the book as well.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
You know, building the yeah, just kind of getting
that first habit in place, isalways the toughest thing.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
He's right.
He's right, and we've talkedabout that.
So eating less, drinking less,still can't do it.
But I'm at the gym six days aweek.
I just can't outrun the damnfork.
And drinking bourbon while I dothese podcasts doesn't help me
either.
But yep, he's right.
But your habits build.
I mean, I talk about that withmy team even your habits form
your systems.
Your systems form yourcharacter and your character
(38:27):
forms who your identity becomes.
And you've got to just do thatfrom your habits.
So great, that's a great one.
All right, Now I'm in the homeremodeling business.
We got a handyman businessEverybody knows that here in
Atlanta and in Athens growingand talking to people about
growing even bigger.
So what is the favorite featureof your home?
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Favorite feature of my home, of my home.
We have a whole floor that'sgot the kitchen, dining room,
living area, tv all in one, nowalls, and that's great for
(39:07):
family cohesion and entertaining.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
So we love that.
That's awesome.
Yep, you know we do a lot ofthat too.
We've been blowing out so manywalls out of these 50s and 60s
ranches here in Atlanta, on the3-2 ranch, where there's that
wall going right down the middleand people say, hey, we want to
be able to see everybody nowwhen back in the day we wanted
to make sure nobody saw anybody,and the less the better,
especially.
No, don't take that the wrongway, dad, not that Dad's
(39:30):
listening, but yeah, so that's agreat one.
Well, another one, a questionwe've got, because Alan and I
are customer service freaks.
We're customer service freaks.
What is a customer service petpeeve of yours when you're the
customer?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
When I'm the customer , when I go to a restaurant, I
get great service, you know.
They bring me bread, they bringme my entree, they take my
order, they get it all right,it's fantastic.
And then they forget about mewhen I want to pay the check.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Well, isn't that the worst too?
You're like done, you're readyto rock and roll, and I can be a
little ADD.
I'm like all right, man, let'sgo, let's go.
We use restaurants so often asanalogies, because when we do go
out to eat with so many peoplethat we talk with, and that's a
great one.
Because, number one, it's areally hard damn business.
That's the only one where Ifeel like they're got a harder
(40:32):
business than I do and I feel sobad and I've actually, I
wouldn't say a whisper's breathaway, I'd say probably three
whispers breath away of going inwith one of my buddies on a
restaurant concept Cause he'slike, hey, man, you know how to
do this.
I'm like, yeah, and my and mywife's like I think you've done
enough.
You know, you know, I thinkthat's enough.
So, yeah, that's a great one.
I love that one.
All right, last one Again, I'min the remodeling business.
I want a DIY nightmare story.
I mean, I love fire, I loveflooding, I love, in my case,
(40:55):
nails going through your foot,you know, or maybe a nail going
through your finger, maybe youknow one thing I was just
talking about with somebody I'venever had a stitch in my life.
That's not because I didn'tneed to, it's just because I
just never did it.
So I didn't tell them that part.
And they're like, really, afterall those years in construction
and playing football and doingall this, I'm like, no, never
had a stitch.
(41:16):
Now you look at my body, you'relike, oh, I get it.
This is why you go on podcastsand radio.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
But give us a DIY nightmare story, wow, wow.
So at one time I had a olderhouse, I think built in the 30s,
so it had been around a while,and we didn't understand why we
were getting some leakage in thebathroom, till finally, we
(41:53):
pulled up the toilet andrealized that the lead pipe had
completely dissolved.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Oh my God, I've seen that.
I've lived it, I've seen it.
Um, I actually, uh, back in theday, one of the things, one of
my guys came across one.
He did not know how to changeout a lead lead ring and, uh,
I'm the one that had to go do it, and we had to.
Actually, there's no other waywe could have done it, and this
is now you know again, you can'tuse lead anymore.
But we could at least replacethe flange.
So what'd you do next?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
It was replacement, so, yeah, we just had to figure
out what size was it, becauseit's gone.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
It's completely gone, friends, oh.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
So it was sizing and you know if you're eating your
lunch in your truck and you'relistening to this one, yeah,
you're gonna want to.
You're gonna want to pause fora minute and come back, because
if you've ever pulled up atoilet with a rotted cast iron
flange over time, when you pullthat sucker up, that first whiff
is brutal, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (42:51):
it is.
Oh yeah, it was brutal, so.
So there you go carl knowsfinances.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Carl knows what bad smells look like.
Carl knows what bad deals looklike man, because he can smell
them from a mile away.
Go check him out.
Carl meyer, on linkedin, orabundant a, b, u, nn If you
didn't learn something aboutfunding, you didn't learn
something about hey.
I'm thinking about taking thatnext step and I need to get some
better people in my camp.
Go get this cat on your camp.
Make it happen, make it.
(43:20):
Keep going up that mountain,because we're going to check you
guys out next week.
Go make it a great week,everybody.
Ciao.
like everything.
We've watched too much onYouTube, we've watched too much
HTTV in my world andeverything's that can be over
and instantaneous, even for us.
Well, I'm not going to put youwith me, even for this old guy,
it's not as quick as we'd alllike it to be.
Uh, we all think it's going totake exactly half the time.
Uh, but it's really going totake double the time we're even
thinking, and sometimes doubleis actually four, x and so, um,
(00:22):
that's another great lesson.
I think a lot of people don'trealize it's just how long it
takes to get a startup going.
When I first started my biz, Itold everybody I'm like I'm
going to break even in 16 months.
Yeah, 36 months later, Ifinally broke even.
How am I doing?
Yeah, welcome to the SmallBusiness Safari, where I help
guide you to avoid those traps,pitfalls and dangers that lurk
(00:44):
when navigating the wild worldof small business ownership.
I'll share those gold nuggetsof information and invite guests
to help accelerate your ascentto that mountaintop of success.
It's a jungle out there and Iwant to help you traverse
through the levels of owningyour own business that can get
you bogged down and distract youfrom hitting your own personal
and professional goals.
So strap in adventure team andlet's take a ride through the
safari and get you to themountaintop.
(01:06):
Hey, everybody, we're gettingready to rock and roll and we've
got some great info for you.
Today we're going to be talkingdoubling, but I'm going to be
talking doubling with half thestaff.
What happened?
I let Alan take off and he'strying to be a big daddy on me.
(01:26):
Going to be talking doublingwith half the staff.
What happened?
I let Alan take off and he'strying to be a big daddy on me.
Going to LA, going to partydown with Cousin Brad.
Probably going to go out there,hit the links, hit the thing.
Probably going to hit RodeoDrive.
I don't know what he's going todo, but Alan is off today and
I'll let him go every once in awhile.
But I can't go off without goingoff on him.
(01:46):
I can't believe he's taken thisopportunity to soak up the
spoils of being an entrepreneurwho does his own thing.
You know we don't talk enoughabout Alan, but Alan is a
commercial real estate agent now.
But he has been through acouple of small businesses, he's
been through the corporateworld and he's finally getting
to enjoy some of the spoils ofmaking this commercial real
estate business a real go here.
A lot of people are coming tohim because they realize he's a
(02:08):
straight shooter.
We've had Chad his businesspartner around with us and so
you guys know him, he's good.
But today we're going to betalking about scaling your
business with Carl Mayer.
Founder of Abundant is anexperienced CFO and business
advisor, so this stuff's goingto be really heady.
Everybody you better be able tohang on and figure out what
he's saying, because I think forme he'll probably go right over
my head and I'll bring him backdown and say hey man, you got
(02:29):
to dumb it down for the dumbhandyman here.
But, carl, welcome to the show.
Man Can't wait to get into this.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Hey, chris, I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
Cool.
So, carl, let's back it up alittle bit, and then we'll start
diving into what you do.
But how did you get into thisbusiness?
Is this something you wanted todo from the moment you went to
college?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Talk to us a little bit about that.
Well, I guess I went to college, did economics undergrad and
then it was more systems-typestuff in my MBA but of course
you had some numbers in there,accounting and finance type
(03:10):
stuff, and I guess after aboutseven, eight years in the
corporate type of setting, myparents twisted my arm to come
work for the family business andso I came in, used my financial
background as well as whateverother experience and was the CFO
.
So that's how I kind of gotinto it and just been a little
bit of a wild rideentrepreneurial opportunities
(03:34):
and helping companies grow eversince.
So what was the family biz?
It was industrial distributionof things like pipes and valves
Pretty sexy stuff yeah, Right,Way sexy.
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But but because that's what we're leading into?
Uh, because the family and youare from originally where.
Originally from Ohio,cincinnati, okay so that's where
you guys were doing the pipeand distribution up there in
Ohio.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
Well, no, we, uh we moved down to Houston.
There was an oil crash.
My dad became an entrepreneur,not necessarily by choice, and
then, after he grew it for aboutfive or six years, that's when
I came in and helped him grow itfrom there.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
So you guys were supporting the oil industry, oh
yeah, oh, there we go.
So that's what I was talkingabout.
So you want to talk about beingan entrepreneurial man?
There is a show out there onParamount Plus called Landman,
so I finally got to go watchthat and went holy crap, I knew
it was a hard business, but, man, they make it look really hard
was a whole new appreciation forwhat it takes.
And they definitely had I don'tknow if you watched it, carl,
(04:51):
but they definitely werebringing their own support of
the oil industry and howimportant it is to the entire
world to that show and I reallyappreciate it, especially as a
business guy.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Yeah, I love that.
There's some great clips thatI'll watch kind of rerun
occasionally on YouTube orsomething.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So yeah, have fun with that, all right.
So you got in.
You got into the family biz,you helped them.
Now let's talk about.
I know it was mom and dad's biz, but when you got in there, how
big did you grow it?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
and, come on, they're not going to listen, so you uh
so, yeah, we, um, I mean they,they kind of ramped it up, um, I
guess a little over five5million, something like that,
but we took it over the nextthree years.
Well, I guess maybe up $4million because we grew it 5x in
(05:37):
three years 5x in three years.
Speaker 1 (05:39):
All right, let's talk about that.
Everybody says, I mean thatsounds so sexy, right?
Oh my gosh, you just went fromfive to you said five, or you
said four, so four times five.
I'm no economic major, but theengineering background still
works.
So carry the one, so that's 20.
You guys got to 20 million andthat sounds so sexy.
Everybody's like, yes, please,Can I have one, Can I have 20 of
(05:59):
those?
But let's talk a little bitabout the trials and
tribulations, the things you'velearned you.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But let's talk a little bit about the trials and
tribulations, the things you'velearned you've been able to
apply and help other people with.
Yeah, yeah, it had a few bumpsand hisses and spinning and
whatever in the course of that.
But I came in and you know it'slike you know it's been a while
ago and we had three PCs andthis was before internet and
networking and all that.
(06:24):
So we had three PCs and we hadfloppy disks we backed it up on,
and one PC was for invoicing.
One invoice was for payingbills and another was to kind of
try and put it all together anddo some financials.
And one day we came in theoffice and somebody had thrown a
(06:45):
rock through the glass frontdoor, came in, took all three
computers and all the floppydisks that were sitting next to
them, that were the backups ohmy God Right.
So we had printouts of a lot ofthe invo for customers but we
(07:08):
didn't know who had paid.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Holy crap, right.
So that is so.
You talk about redundancy intoday's world and you know, you
know I tell this all the timeyou want to age yourself.
Let's just talk technology,because technology has gone so
fast, so quickly, and today I'mnot even getting into AI with
you on this stuff.
You go back to then.
(07:31):
I mean, we were printouts withthe old dot matrix pin drive
still, uh, oh yeah, and so youdidn't even know who paid.
So how about going back tosomebody going, hey, um, you
know, uh, did you pay us or not?
I mean, I'm sure that wentreally easy right, yeah, you
know you're going.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
Hey, are we?
You know, uh, are we up to date?
When's the next check coming?
Let's see.
Oh, my records aren't realclear.
Did I apply this correctly?
So you get to do a little dance, and then the vendors were a
(08:01):
lot easier because they'd callRight.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Yeah, you knew you were still with them.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
That's right.
So then it's like like okay, wedon't know who owes us what.
We don't know what we owepeople.
Let's try and put somefinancials together.
It's like, okay, yeah, this isgonna be fun that's not a way to
five extra biz.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So right, that was a fun way to start.
Yeah, so you started that way.
So that next inflection pointwas it grabbing a big bender,
was it?
You guys were chasing the carand the proverbial dog chasing
the car and you caught a bumper,and it was just a really big
job that helped you jump to thenext level.
How was that growth phase there?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Right.
So a lot of what we were doingwas project-based.
So somebody's you know whateverbuilding a refinery or doing a,
you know, upgrade or maybe youknow, just turn around, you know
, replacing a lot of stuff allat once, and so we get this, you
know big purchase order, andthey beat us up on margins.
(09:05):
So the margins could be prettythin on some of those big deals,
but a lot of it was those bigorders that come in.
My dad had the connections.
He's been in the business for along time and so he'd get to
see those orders and then you'dgo talk to the vendors and see
if you could get a littlediscount.
It was such a big order and so,um, you know it's a, it's a
(09:33):
middleman business.
You know you're.
You we'd buy the material.
Generally it'd get shipped tous.
Occasionally it gets shippedstraight to the customer.
So, um, you know it wasn't ahuge margin business.
This wasn't software.
You know something like that.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Well, you mean something like a handyman
business?
Oh yeah, I know what you'retalking about.
So that's the thing you hit onwhere I was going to go with the
5X.
So 5X man dude, it sounds great, oh God, it's great.
But you just hit on exactlywhat happens Sometimes in that
growth.
You lose sight of the bottomline.
All right, and because to getsome of those bigger jobs in the
(10:07):
beginning, you're buying somebusiness and, yeah, you're
thinning down on margins.
So sounds like you were atleast wise enough, or dad was
wise enough to go.
Now we gotta go, we gotta bringthis all the way down, man, I'm
talking to my vendors.
So I gotta get some of mymargin back, right, um, was that
?
Was that kind of the constantebb and flow as you guys were
growing?
Was keeping the margins tightor keeping your profit better?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, you know, we were very aware of what our
margins were and thought aboutour overhead, but you know you
also had to finance it, so therewas, you know, a lot more bank
debt and you know questionsabout inventory management.
You know how much stock do wekeep?
(10:48):
That was a lot of interestingdiscussions there.
So, yeah, it wasn't simple.
It wasn't simple.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, you had a lot of moving parts.
It obviously got you ready tohelp people like you do today.
So you helped the fam to get upto the 20.
You learned your lessons andthen it was time to go out there
and hang your shingle out andstart helping other people.
How'd you get that idea to goout and start helping others?
Did people start coming to yougoing hey, carl, you know I know
mom and dad kind of dad's, kindof the whiz, but we think
you're the whiz bang.
(11:16):
Can we, can we use you?
Is that how it worked?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Well, you know, you might have seen those charts,
that kind of you know straightline, go from the bottom left to
the upper right, you knowsmooth line, and then you've got
that squiggly squiggle,squiggle, squiggle.
Yeah, that's my career was thesquiggle, squiggle squiggle.
So, you know, after about fiveyears Dad had said you know, I
(11:42):
don't want it any bigger, and sothat meant not a lot of
opportunity left, you know, forme.
So I went off and did someentrepreneurial stuff.
This was back in the dot-comera, so I ended up starting a
dot-com deal.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
Was it like Amazon?
Was it Walmart?
Where did you you start, didyou?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
start yahoo.
Uh well, it's kind of.
You know, I was trying to besort of like amazon for the
industrial valves, the, thethings, the same products.
But hey, let's, you know, helpconnect people.
And you know it sounded likegreat idea and, uh, you know, I
got some invest, got someinitial investors, and then the
(12:29):
second round of funding wasscheduled to close a month after
the dot-com crashed.
So you can kind of guess howthat went yeah, I uh.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
so that's one that I did not participate in in terms
of dumbass, dumb ass moves thatChris has made.
Um, the only I didn't.
I didn't.
I was at Accenture.
I was going to go out and startup, uh, with a group.
I was going to do a smallstartup.
I said no, had a young kid athome Um, probably the only time
I said no to something and itactually worked.
Um, but no, I went and startedmy business in the middle of the
(13:07):
downturn in 2008.
So, don't worry, I got plentyof dumb ass mistakes as well.
Everybody's heard this beforebut so that's a pretty humbling
experience.
Right, you've been on top ofthe world, you've been with, you
know, helped your family get tothat spot.
You get out, you start going Ican't be beat and you're like
well.
Speaker 2 (13:25):
So what happened next ?
So that crashed.
I was doing a little consultingand I met a guy who was a
consultant to these bighospitals.
His background was runningstaffing in their physical
therapy areas, and so he kind ofwas doing consulting with them
and so he had all this data andagain, technology's changed a
(13:48):
lot since then.
So he had them, like entering,typing in data into a
spreadsheet, and then he'd takethe floppy disk and bring it
back and then do some analysison it.
And he's like, hey, can youhelp me?
You know, with this thespreadsheets.
And I'm working on thespreadsheets, helping to, you
know, because he'd take thefloppy drive and then they'd
keep working on it.
(14:09):
And so you, you know, the datadidn't always match.
And so I'm sitting thereworking on it and one day I say,
you know, if we did this on the, you know, the internet, you
know we wouldn't have all thoseproblems with the matching the
spreadsheets.
And he's like we can do that.
Speaker 1 (14:28):
Uh-oh, you just said voodoo, you do that, voodoo that
you do.
So you said how about using theinternet?
And again, people today go well, of course, right, yeah, but at
the time this was going down,no, that's not something we
thought about.
Speaker 2 (14:42):
Right, this was like 2001,.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
know where you know that's, that's modem time.
Right, right, yeah, all right.
Oh, I got 20 000 bought.
Yeah, let's go.
While I'm cranking today,you're like, if I'm not 5g, it's
nothing.
Yeah, right.
So how did you, how did youhelp him implement an internet
way of handling this andanalyzing the data?
Speaker 2 (15:08):
Well, on the first startup I'd learned some basic
internet programming.
I wasn't you know super wiz,you know Wozniak or Apple or
something like that, but I knewenough to be able to make
screens so that the hospitalpeople at the hospital could
enter the data, put it into adatabase and then make charts to
(15:33):
show them how their departmentwas going, how they're utilizing
their staff.
And you know, it was just the.
You know the type of analysisthat he was doing on Excel, but
then, because it was on, youknow the type of analysis that
he was doing on Excel, but then,because it was on, you know the
internet and we could do allthese.
They could click and get agraph and click and get the
graph and drill down and, um,you know, so we, we just started
(15:58):
, you know, using hisconnections, get another
hospital, another hospital,hospital, and so we had like
major hospitals in 14 states.
At one point, um, yes, yeah, youknow, in houston, methodist
memorial herman.
Um, we had ucla out on the westcoast.
(16:19):
Stoney broke up in new york andso now you're dropping.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
I know I'm not in that world, but you know what
you're doing.
You're doing some serious namedropping right there brother.
I got you, I heard that I meanwhen you say UCLA and you say
Houston, cause Houston, uh, youknow, the network down there is
amazing.
And then, yeah, so you, youwere nailing some big, uh, big
fish, yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:37):
Yeah and but uh, you know, and we kind of partnered
on the deal and so we got thesegreat accounts.
But this kind of comes back toyour earlier comment on pricing.
So he came out of the staffingworld and he's like Carl, if we
market up 20%, we're going to befantastic, we'll make a ton.
(16:59):
And I was like, yeah, but it'ssoftware, there's nothing to
mark up.
And we never were able to kindof square the circle.
He wanted to do it for like adollar a day and, and it's
software, so there's nothing tomark up.
(17:21):
So we went back and forth andback and forth and he wanted to
charge a dollar a day to thesemajor hospitals.
And I'm like we'll never makeany money.
And he's like but it'll goviral.
And I was like I don't thinkit's ever going to go viral.
And the big hospitals take time.
(17:44):
I mean, it takes time to getinto these hospitals.
You know it can be a year ortwo.
You know sales cycle.
So my code ended up staying onthe internet for over 15 years.
But the business really didn'tlast, you know that long.
At some point I kind of sold itback to him and said you know
(18:05):
that long At some point.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
I kind of sold it back to him and said you know,
good luck.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
So what was the lesson, the biggest lesson you
learned out of that, you knowit's when you pick your partner.
I mean this guy, experiencedbusiness owner, he had grown and
sold his staffing company for alot of money, you know, sharp
guy.
But he was really strong in thearea that he understood, which
was staffing.
(18:32):
And when you brought him overto software it was just like a
whole different world and he, hejust didn't get it.
But he, you know the way we setit up, he still wanted control
of the area that he didn'treally understand.
So you know, a little bit moreplanning on bringing in partners
(18:52):
you know, business partners wasreally the thing that I learned
from that.
Speaker 1 (18:59):
That's a good one, that's great, all right.
So today you're helping a bunchof people and let's jump
forward to now with what you'redoing.
What are some of the areas thatyou come in and really been
able to help people?
People get a flavor for that.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Right.
So there's probably, you know,a handful of most common
situations.
You know.
One is a young company that,hey, we've got this cool thing,
we just need some money to growit.
So helping them think through,kind of make a plan of attack
for how we're going to raise themoney, how we're going to
(19:33):
present to potential investors,and so that's, and usually a lot
of times it's some kind oftechnology or new business that
requires some money.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Now this is something we have not talked about much
in our podcast over the threeand a half years, just because
we've talked about funding andone of the things that we all
know about me is that I'm justnot a very good partner and I've
used basically my line ofcredit for my home to start the
business and I have a businessline of credit that I use during
the slow periods just to kindof augment some funding.
(20:05):
So let's talk about how you gouse this funds to go the right
way and how do you help pitchthis Right.
Speaker 2 (20:14):
I guess the one thing for me is that getting money is
a sales process.
It's.
You know, it sounds great tojust say I'm going to raise
money and it sounds like somespecial thing, but it's really
you're trying to get somebodywith money to give you some
(20:36):
money in exchange for, you know,part of the company, or debt,
some form, some piece of paperbasically, and so that's really
a sales process.
And so when you sell mostthings, there's some sort of
sales collateral.
You kind of have to have astrategy, explain the value, and
(20:57):
on something like this, there'sa lot of numbers involved.
Well, you're betting on thefuture.
Well, what's the future goingto look like?
If it's debt, can you pay thedebt back?
I mean even like real estate.
We're going to expand.
We've got a business.
It's been growing, it's great.
It's not a new business, it'snot a startup.
(21:19):
Know we need to buy this realestate to expand to the next
level.
Great, you want a bank to loanyou money or somebody to loan
you money.
How do you show them you'regoing to pay it back?
And that's something that noteverybody thinks through.
They're like, well, this is agreat deal, we're going to make
(21:39):
a bunch of money.
So the bank will lend us money,right?
Well, not always.
The bank needs to reallyunderstand your numbers and be
able to understand how you'regoing to pay it back Somehow.
That's important to the bank.
They get picky about that.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
As the former banker, I know what you're saying, man.
You know what.
I really love your business,I'm enamored with your business,
but you need to pay me.
Me, and I'm in number oneposition there, big boy, and you
better be paying me.
So people have that idea, theyhave the whiz-bang widget, the
idea, the software, the productor whatever it is, and you're
(22:18):
saying that most of these peopledon't know how am I going to be
able to pay back the people whogive me all this great money.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
That's part of it, and to me that's great money.
That's part of it, you know,and that's to me, that's part of
the sale.
You have to understand.
You know what they're lookingfor because you know well, I'll
invest in your business.
Well, some people want, youknow, a convertible note.
Other people want equity.
Other people, you know, justsay I want to loan you money.
Other people say I want to takeover your business.
You know.
(22:41):
So you have to understand whoyou're talking to back to having
the right partners.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
My friend, that's right so you gotta understand so
you help them navigate how totake this and navigate those
waters of what's the rightposition, right funding method
for you, then I guess that'swhat I'm hearing, yeah yeah,
exactly, exactly, yeah so takeme through that.
A lot of this stuff is a lot offoreign for us.
So if you really want to startgrowing your business, you're
saying funds to unlock it.
You've got to figure out whatsource of funds and then you've
(23:08):
got to always be selling, whichnow we talk about stuff we talk
about here all the time Alwaysbe selling.
So how do you figure that out?
Take us through an example ofone of them.
Speaker 2 (23:19):
A lot of selling is telling a story.
I mean, that's just talking topeople.
If you tell them a story, one,it's easier to remember and a
lot of times people need to beable to explain your business to
somebody else.
If it's a high net worthindividual, you know, yeah, it's
their decision, but they'reprobably going to tell their
(23:41):
wife or their accountant orsomebody about this deal and why
it's a good deal.
So if you tell a story thatthey can remember, it's
compelling, it's interesting.
That's going to improve yourodds a lot.
And so thinking through whatdoes that story look like is a
(24:02):
big part of what I'm doing, andpart of it's the numbers.
What's this thing going to looklike in five years?
And is that a reasonable set ofassumptions we're making and
then also just telling a storythat they can relate to If
they've started a business or ifthey're more of a corporate
(24:23):
type or whatever that person'sbackground is.
That you're going to bepitching to.
Hopefully that story's gotsomething that can resonate.
A lot of times we're going touse slide decks to help tell the
story, websites, tools likethat.
I may not make the website oranything, but I want to make
(24:46):
sure we've thought through thestory and have a plan on how
we're going to explain this tosomebody.
Speaker 1 (24:53):
Interesting.
So when people come to find youand everybody, you can find
them at Abundant, and that'sCarl Mayer and he is going to
talk about that.
As people come to you, what'sthat first ask?
Is it you trying to educatethem on what you can do and help
them with it, or are you tryingto seek their problems?
How do they come to ask you?
How do people know where tofind you?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
A lot of it comes through referrals or LinkedIn.
I had somebody reach out to meearlier today on LinkedIn going
hey, I've got, and it's somebodyI haven't talked to in like 10
years.
On LinkedIn you actually havethe timeline and last message
was 2016.
All right, okay.
(25:35):
And he's like hey, I've gotthis situation, you have time
for 20, 30 minute call.
I was like, yeah, how aboutFriday?
And so you know, that's notuncommon, is to.
You know, just haven't talkedto you in a long time, but I've
got the situation.
I know I need some kind offinancial guidance.
(25:57):
I had a guy that reached out tome.
It's been about a a year now,but we'd gone to undergrad
together and that's.
You know, I got some some.
Hey, I'm right with you, man,I'm in.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
Uh, you know everybody knows that I'm in the
hair club for men and uh it's sofunny.
I just got done doing anestimate, uh, and the guy is
talking to me.
He goes you know the oldgeezers like 60 and 70.
I'm like, yeah, dude, I'mdouble nickels man.
So, uh, you know, lighting upon the old geezer thing and I
actually think you're older thanme, it didn't matter, yeah.
So he reached out to you fromundergrad, knowing your
(26:28):
background and your expertise,and clearly you've made a lot of
good connections and thatburned a lot of bridges, so
people know how to find you.
So he reached out.
What's his ask?
What did he ask for you?
Speaker 2 (26:40):
So he's developing.
He's developed like these pumps, industrial pumps and great
engineering background, but he'strying to understand, really
understand the math.
Well, part of it he's justunderstanding how do I raise
funds, and part of it, really,you know, he kind of had some
(27:01):
ideas and he had some good ideas.
But one of the things that youknow, I kind of had to walk him
through and it starts with a lotof questions understanding his
business, understanding whathe's trying to do, understanding
where he's at right now.
So I definitely asked a bunchof questions.
But one of the things thatbecame clear from the
(27:22):
conversation in this situationwas you know the numbers, you
know I want X million to growthis business to Y million and
it you know, just a quick glance, you're like, okay, well, you
know, let's just say 5 millionto get to 50 million.
Okay, that sounds good.
But once you really start tolook at it and go, how much does
(27:45):
somebody who's going to putfive million into a risky
startup type situation or earlystage business, how much do they
really expect to get?
And you know, in order to youknow, if you sell for this
amount, you sell for $50 millionin five years and they put in
$5 million, you can do math andfigure out what percentage of
(28:07):
the company they really need toown.
And he's an engineering guy.
So, you know, when I kind ofexplained the numbers to him,
walked him through the numbers,he's like I get it, I get it, I
get it, I get it.
But the problem was, you know,where he started was something
like you need to sell them about125% of the business in order
(28:33):
to make this a good investmentfor them.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
How big did his eyes get when you said that number?
Speaker 2 (28:43):
My eyes just about came out of my head.
Yeah, that was one of thoseeye-opening conversations.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
He's like oh, so, carl, carl, I'm going to go back
to my college years.
So six years in school and Iwas so proud that you said
you're an economics major andthen a systems guy as an MBA and
I got my master's in mechanicalengineering.
Systems guy as an MBA, and Igot my master's in mechanical
engineering.
And coming out of that, Iexactly had two business classes
(29:12):
, which you had two per semesterat least.
So you know exactly what thisguy was doing.
He was like I had no clue.
But, carl, my pump's so muchbetter, my technology, my
whiz-bang solution's so muchbetter than everybody else, and
I mean, but it's amazing, youknow, like I understand.
But in business, this is whatwe're looking at.
And so obviously that's thekind of advice you give to
people, right?
Yeah, oh, boy, and all you haveto do is sell them 125% of your
(29:33):
business.
Oh, wow.
And so you know that first kidthing.
You know that's always overusedanyway, but you know you chop
off your leg and you probablygot a deal here, oh, okay.
So what did you end up advisinghim and what did he end?
Speaker 2 (29:47):
up doing Right.
So the you know I mean it'sgreat to you know say it makes
for a good story to say, oh,125%.
But what you can do then ishelp him look at how do you be
more efficient with that capital.
When you're getting started,you know, what can we do to.
You know, maybe instead ofmaking a full line of pumps, you
(30:13):
know, maybe we start off and weget a cash flow break even with
, you know, two models of pumpinstead of eight.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
How hard was that?
I just work with so manyengineers.
How hard was that?
One, because I would have been.
But, carl, all eight are great.
Eight is great, and you're likeI know they are, but look just
how.
About two, yeah, but thoseother six are even better.
Why don't you pick your best?
Two, yeah, but then the othersix are even better.
I could just hear thatconversation going so.
Speaker 2 (30:46):
I well, I have absolutely been in that exact
conversation had this you knowgreat idea and he'd put it
together and, you know, figuredit all out and spent all this
(31:16):
time.
You know he'd quit his job andspent all this time developing
the technology and he's ready togo and he's like okay, I just
need some money for go-to-marketand you know it's only, you
know, whatever half a milliondollars or something like that.
So help, help me raise that,and then we can.
You know this will take off andit's going to be great.
It's like fantastic, fantastic,good.
(31:39):
Well, how, you know we'll get.
How much time do you havebefore you?
You know you just absolutelyneed that money.
You know you'd have to, like,go find a job and he's like 60
days for for an engineering.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
You know again pump and you know the sales.
Yeah, so all right, go ahead,tell us the story.
They like us all on this oneright, and you know I'm like
that.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Well, that's great.
You know, if you're an existingbusiness and you just needed to
expand your line of credit froman existing bank, we could
probably do that.
But for just about anythingelse, no, you know, we're
looking at six months to a year,more than likely to, you know,
(32:26):
be able to raise equity for astartup, and I've and I've
definitely seen it take longer,you know, to do so.
You know he really didn't, hewas just like no, that can't be,
that can't be right, man, thatjust can't be right, don't you?
You know people, they'll just,you know, like dude, if you get
(32:48):
an attorney just to write up thedocuments, it's going to take
30 to 60 days, you know, justfor the documents for this deal,
and you know that's not… sojust, like everything.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
We've watched too much on YouTube, we've watched
too much HGTV in my world andeverything can be over and
instantaneous, even for us.
Well, I'm not going to put youwith me.
Even for this old guy, it's notas quick as we'd all like it to
be.
We all think it's going to takeexactly half the time, but it's
really going to take double thetime we're even thinking, and
sometimes double is actually 4X.
(33:20):
So that's another great lesson.
I think a lot of people don'trealize it's just how long it
takes to get a startup going.
When I first started my biz, Itold everybody I'm like I'm
going to break even in 16 months.
Yeah, 36 months later, Ifinally broke even.
How am I doing?
Yeah, but that's what happenswhen you start the recession,
bro.
Speaker 2 (33:38):
Yeah, yeah, I helped an entrepreneur, a lady in the
healthcare space and good ideafor business, definitely a
market for it.
We had to build out someoffices.
She'd never done that before,it's okay.
(34:00):
So we, um, we said, okay,here's how much it's probably
going to cost, here's how longit's going to take.
And it took twice as long andcost twice as much as she
thought.
And then you know we say, okay,well, how fast are you going to
add?
You know, build up your clientbase.
And well, you know that's goingto.
(34:22):
It's, that's probably going to.
It's going to be tough.
It's going to take a year.
Well, after know twice as longbuilding it out.
Yeah, she still hasn't hitbreak even, but she's, she's
looking good, she's growingevery month and you know she
sees the end in sight.
So there's hope.
Speaker 1 (34:42):
That's uh.
I actually had somebody whocalled me out.
Uh, because I said this before.
I said if you can take yourbusiness plan and have the
revenue and double the expensesand it still works out for you,
now you've got something you canwork with.
Because that was my big failingin the beginning is that I did
not have best.
I had expected case and I hadbest case, but I did not have
(35:03):
worst case.
I wasn't even close to how badmy worst case was, because my
expenses were almost literallydouble what I expected, because
I was doing a lot of advertisingto get my business off the
ground and my revenue was almosthalf of what I had actually had
in my projections.
And that's the hence to forward.
That's why, 17 years later, I'man overnight success For a lot
of people.
(35:24):
Learn from what I just did, man.
Listen to what Carl's tellingyou.
You can do it differently.
You just got to listen to theright people.
So, carl man, this has beengreat.
I don't want to take too muchmore of your time, but I do want
to make sure everybody can findyou.
So you mentioned LinkedIn.
I know you got a ton offollowers out there, big boy, so
how does everybody go find you?
Speaker 2 (35:43):
The easiest place is Abundantcom A-B-U-N-D-E-Ncom.
Abundencom A-B-U-N-D-E-Ncom.
Or you can look up Carl Meyeron LinkedIn K-A-R-L-M-A-I-E-R.
Speaker 1 (35:55):
And that's a podcast bullpup for Chris everybody.
I've been calling him the wrongname so and he did not correct
me, so thank God.
So, because if you try to saymy last name, lala me, it
doesn't work.
So, meyer, carl, m-a-i-e-r onLinkedIn or Abundant
A-B-U-N-D-E-Ncom.
So, carl, if they reach out toyou, what can they expect to
(36:15):
hear back from you?
Can they talk to you for 30minutes?
I mean, what's it going to take?
Speaker 2 (36:19):
Yeah, a 30-minute conversation is usually, you
know, plenty of time to get ageneral idea of what you're
looking at, give you a sense ofif I'm the right resource or if
I need to redirect you to.
You know, I'll probablyintroduce you to somebody.
If I'm not the right one, I'llprobably introduce you to
somebody that will be able tohelp you.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Man, if you've got a great idea, you've got a great
product, maybe a great service,and you're looking to scale it,
man, give this guy a shout right, tell him you heard him off the
small business safari.
He's going to throw you alittle nugget.
Man, give you a littlesomething, something.
You know what I'm saying.
He'll hook you up.
But, carl, before we let you goand I say we because I'm so
used to saying that Alan, comeback.
It's been so hard without Alan.
(37:03):
I got to be the straight guy,the funny guy, and, let's face
it, he's just not that funny.
You know what I'm saying, he'sjust not.
But anyway, way I miss him and,uh, I mean I can't ask for a
better co-host.
Alan has been amazing.
But I want to ask those famousfour questions.
We ask because I just get theso jones off these things and we
get them all out there.
So, carl, I want to ask firstgive us a book you would
recommend to all of our audiencebook I'd recommend.
Speaker 2 (37:24):
Let's see I would probably.
There's so many I hate to haveto pick one, but I guess I would
go to.
I'm going to go with AtomicHabits.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
James Cleary.
Yeah, yeah, james Cleary,what's your favorite one that
you picked up that youimplemented yourself, cause I've
read the book as well.
Speaker 2 (37:56):
You know, building the yeah, just kind of getting
that first habit in place, isalways the toughest thing.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
He's right.
He's right, and we've talkedabout that.
So eating less, drinking less,still can't do it.
But I'm at the gym six days aweek.
I just can't outrun the damnfork.
And drinking bourbon while I dothese podcasts doesn't help me
either.
But yep, he's right.
But your habits build.
I mean, I talk about that withmy team even your habits form
your systems.
Your systems form yourcharacter and your character
(38:27):
forms who your identity becomes.
And you've got to just do thatfrom your habits.
So great, that's a great one.
All right, Now I'm in the homeremodeling business.
We got a handyman businessEverybody knows that here in
Atlanta and in Athens growingand talking to people about
growing even bigger.
So what is the favorite featureof your home?
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Favorite feature of my home, of my home.
We have a whole floor that'sgot the kitchen, dining room,
living area, tv all in one, nowalls, and that's great for
(39:07):
family cohesion and entertaining.
Speaker 1 (39:09):
So we love that.
That's awesome.
Yep, you know we do a lot ofthat too.
We've been blowing out so manywalls out of these 50s and 60s
ranches here in Atlanta, on the3-2 ranch, where there's that
wall going right down the middleand people say, hey, we want to
be able to see everybody nowwhen back in the day we wanted
to make sure nobody saw anybody,and the less the better,
especially.
No, don't take that the wrongway, dad, not that Dad's
(39:30):
listening, but yeah, so that's agreat one.
Well, another one, a questionwe've got, because Alan and I
are customer service freaks.
We're customer service freaks.
What is a customer service petpeeve of yours when you're the
customer?
Speaker 2 (39:49):
When I'm the customer , when I go to a restaurant, I
get great service, you know.
They bring me bread, they bringme my entree, they take my
order, they get it all right,it's fantastic.
And then they forget about mewhen I want to pay the check.
Speaker 1 (40:06):
Well, isn't that the worst too?
You're like done, you're readyto rock and roll, and I can be a
little ADD.
I'm like all right, man, let'sgo, let's go.
We use restaurants so often asanalogies, because when we do go
out to eat with so many peoplethat we talk with, and that's a
great one.
Because, number one, it's areally hard damn business.
That's the only one where Ifeel like they're got a harder
(40:32):
business than I do and I feel sobad and I've actually, I
wouldn't say a whisper's breathaway, I'd say probably three
whispers breath away of going inwith one of my buddies on a
restaurant concept Cause he'slike, hey, man, you know how to
do this.
I'm like, yeah, and my and mywife's like I think you've done
enough.
You know, you know, I thinkthat's enough.
So, yeah, that's a great one.
I love that one.
All right, last one Again, I'min the remodeling business.
I want a DIY nightmare story.
I mean, I love fire, I loveflooding, I love, in my case,
(40:55):
nails going through your foot,you know, or maybe a nail going
through your finger, maybe youknow one thing I was just
talking about with somebody I'venever had a stitch in my life.
That's not because I didn'tneed to, it's just because I
just never did it.
So I didn't tell them that part.
And they're like, really, afterall those years in construction
and playing football and doingall this, I'm like, no, never
had a stitch.
(41:16):
Now you look at my body, you'relike, oh, I get it.
This is why you go on podcastsand radio.
Speaker 2 (41:24):
But give us a DIY nightmare story, wow, wow.
So at one time I had a olderhouse, I think built in the 30s,
so it had been around a while,and we didn't understand why we
were getting some leakage in thebathroom, till finally, we
(41:53):
pulled up the toilet andrealized that the lead pipe had
completely dissolved.
Speaker 1 (42:00):
Oh my God, I've seen that.
I've lived it, I've seen it.
Um, I actually, uh, back in theday, one of the things, one of
my guys came across one.
He did not know how to changeout a lead lead ring and, uh,
I'm the one that had to go do it, and we had to.
Actually, there's no other waywe could have done it, and this
is now you know again, you can'tuse lead anymore.
But we could at least replacethe flange.
So what'd you do next?
Speaker 2 (42:20):
It was replacement, so, yeah, we just had to figure
out what size was it, becauseit's gone.
Speaker 1 (42:28):
It's completely gone, friends, oh.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
So it was sizing and you know if you're eating your
lunch in your truck and you'relistening to this one, yeah,
you're gonna want to.
You're gonna want to pause fora minute and come back, because
if you've ever pulled up atoilet with a rotted cast iron
flange over time, when you pullthat sucker up, that first whiff
is brutal, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (42:51):
it is.
Oh yeah, it was brutal, so.
So there you go carl knowsfinances.
Speaker 1 (42:59):
Carl knows what bad smells look like.
Carl knows what bad deals looklike man, because he can smell
them from a mile away.
Go check him out.
Carl meyer, on linkedin, orabundant a, b, u, nn If you
didn't learn something aboutfunding, you didn't learn
something about hey.
I'm thinking about taking thatnext step and I need to get some
better people in my camp.
Go get this cat on your camp.
Make it happen, make it.
(43:20):
Keep going up that mountain,because we're going to check you
guys out next week.
Go make it a great week,everybody.
Ciao.
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