E269: How to Sell Your Business for Top Dollar – Secrets from an Acquisition Expert - How2Exit: Buy, Don't Build - M&A of Small Businesses

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
So if you're walking away from this call, I want
you to walk away with the importance of having a
signature talk or a signature message that is clear and
you're confident in the importance of understanding where your people gather,
which might not be the same person that gathers the people.
So don't get me wrong, you got to get that
step done. It also builds confidence. But once you have

(00:22):
a talk, don't stop there. That's the beginning. And so
that's when we begin your stage strategy. What does that
look like? First is identify who do you want to
be talking to, Like, who are who's your ideal audience,
which obviously your ideal audience will be your ideal clients
or your ideal partners or ideal investors. I run a

(00:42):
business for five years and I figured out that other
people could actually have a value for this. So I
ended up selling my business for a million a million
dollars within five years of starting it. Now they're like, Wow,
that's a cool story. I want to learn more. So
these were just two examples, but that's how we get started.
So that's the number one. Get your audience to pay attention.

Speaker 2 (01:11):
Hello, and welcome to the how to acceit podcasts where
we introduce you to a world of small to medium
business acquisitions and mergers. We interview business owners, industry leaders, authors, mentors,
and other influencers with the sole intent to share with
you what it looks like to buy or sell a business.
Let's get rolling and now a moment for our sponsors

(01:38):
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(01:58):
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(02:23):
you tactics for business buying and selling you won't find
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(02:43):
and I want you to visit acquisition Afficionado dot com today. Hello,
and welcome to that hot Exit podcast. Today. I'm here
with the Lories Hirschman, and we are going to talk
about all the stuff in the world that comes to
the communications and the way that you sell your business
through conversation, through speaking, and through other stuff. She is

(03:04):
the founder of Masters and Clarity. It looks like she's
a acquisition entrepreneur herself and has been, you know, through
this process quite a bit. So this is gonna be
a fun conversation. Thank you for being here, Dolores.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Thank you so much for having me cool.

Speaker 2 (03:21):
We always start off with the origin story. Can you
kind of tell people the story of how you ended
up on a show about mergers and acquisitions so that
they can get kind of connected. We want people to
connect with you and know your stories. They feel like
they can carelate.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
So yeah, So, first of all, if you hear an accent,
is because I have one. I was born and raised
in Argentina and Buenos Aires, but I've been in the
US for over twenty seven years. I ended up marrying
the tourists. You're not supposed to marry the tourists, but
I married the tourists in Buenos Aires and we ended

(03:58):
up building our family here. We have four it and
uh and and first and for most of my mom
and I'm very proud of that. That is that is
my first business, my first for businesses and for for
launches I've done. My youngest is in college, so we're
empty nesters. But at the heart of this journey, that

(04:18):
that that we're going to talk about, Ronald is I remember,
you know, right from high school and I said to
my dad, I want to be an actress, and he's like, great,
go to business school and then we can talk and
and I suffered through business school, but it was the
best thing I ever did because I at heart, I'm
a creative and as a creative, having a foundation in

(04:40):
business has made all the difference because it's helped me
kind of create things, monetize them, build things that I look,
look and talk like businesses. And sometimes there's this misconception
that you have to be a numbers person to be
a business person. And actually know, I mean, having creativity

(05:01):
is one of the best tools you can have. And so,
so long story short, you know, I launched myself into
the world as a marketer. My graduating research paper was
back in nineteen ninety six. I'm fifty two. I graduated
with a degree in business and marketing and my graduating

(05:21):
thesis was marketing on the Internet relationship marketing. This is
back in nineteen ninety six, where Amazon didn't exist. Media
was not even in the plans. I was one of
thirty people connected to the Internet in Argentina, and that
actually set me up in a past that lo and
behold like. It stayed with me all along. And I

(05:44):
believe that marketing is the number one aspect of a
business that without it nothing else is possible. It's almost
like trying to host a party and you never sent
an invitation. So marketing is the things you do so
people know that you exist. And whether you're launching a business,

(06:07):
growing a business, scaling a business or exiting a business.
Without an outward communication and outward strategy of letting the
world know what you do, what you're up to, what
are your what you stand for, and what your goals are,
nothing really happens.

Speaker 2 (06:25):
So you're speaking my language. That's what my master's degree
is in, and I we're the same age, or I
might be a few weeks older. I'm about the term
fifty three and a few weeks here. So I appreciate
that a lot. And if anybody here that I know
that's been a lot of time in marketing, I'm kind
of put off by what a lot of businesses and

(06:45):
marketing agencies sell is marketing, and mainly just because a
lot of the stuff that's sold in my marketing agencies
doesn't get great results. It's just it's great marketing for
maybe a Coca Cola. It's branding. Maybe it's great for
Coca Cola or someplace like that. When we're talking these
small to medium businesses, you know, I'm a big believer

(07:06):
in whatever you do, you need to track the the
row as or you call it return on advertising spend
or even the return on investment or for the stuff
I do, X and Y happens, and so much of
this that you know, the agency is like, well, you're
just building a brand. And I was like, that's great.
If you're Coca Cola, right, if you got fifty million
dollars a throw it at launching a new product, that's
one thing. But for these small guys and stuff like that,

(07:28):
they need and to focus on activities and energies that
you know, create a result. And uh so that's one
of my touch points. Sort I get a little frustrated
when I see certain you know, marketing adencies and you
know small businesses are spending great money, tens of thousands
of dollars a month, and when I asked them, said cool,

(07:50):
how's that working for you? It's to return on investment
and they're like, I don't know, I just it's just
something you're supposed to do. How do you feel about
the you know what what the industry terms is marketing?

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, so throwing spaghetti to the wall is not marketing.
Throwing spaghetti to the walls is throwing spaget to the wall.
I think that what I like to teach and what
I like to talk about is is what is what
is marketing? And what is at the heart of marketing
and is humans attracting other humans for the purpose of

(08:24):
a common goal or a common interest or common need.
And so when you unpack that, it can look like
Facebook ads or Instagram ats. Absolutely, but are we connecting
with the right people for the right purpose in the
right way, Like just throwing an ad out there is
not going to get to clients. I've done it, I've

(08:45):
spent that money, I've spent I did all the things
that those agencies tell you, Oh, yeah, you just put
temper and you'll be fine. Like, no, it doesn't work
that way. And so I think that at the heart
of all of this, Ronald, this is clarity on what
are we say saying and how we are connecting. And
that's really where masters in clarity comes to play. Is

(09:06):
we work in helping our clients master their clarity, clarity
of messaging, clarity of audience, clarity of purpose, clarity of
strategy so that they can achieve their outcome, whatever that
might be. And in the place of acquisition, whether you
are the buyer or the seller, clarity on the communications

(09:29):
and the messaging, whether it's a one on one or
you're out in a podcast an interview like we're doing now,
or you're out on a stage, you know, it is
important for you to clearly communicate what you're looking to accomplish,
because what is the easiest way to get what you want? To?
Ask for it? So how what is the easiest way
to ask for the sale? Ask for it, But you

(09:51):
have to ask it the right way.

Speaker 2 (09:53):
I never thought about using the communication platforms, you know, podcasts.
Of course, I'm here every day, but I've actually told
a couple of people who I know they're thinking about
selling their business that they would do really well by
doing the rounds, bringing somebody on and help them do
one or two shows a week for the next twelve months,
just to because they had a product or a service

(10:14):
that they built they want to sell and it's just
not well known yet. And one of the fastest ways
to drive up that price of stuff is to have
something everybody kind of knows what it is. Right, you
can have you know, you could create the greatest widget
in the world. And if you know, and you might
be doing a million dollars a year, which you know
is a decent little business. But if nobody in that

(10:35):
industry knows, right, you know who you are and what
you want, then all your strategic acquirers are blind too,
So how do you know, how do you get that
in front of them and let them know this is
the space of the market we've carved out and you know,
draw some interest to it. And I think doing the
rounds on the podcast is a great way getting on

(10:57):
stages and trade shows and that type of stuff would
be brilliant too. So how do you how do you
work with these clients or how do you suggest they
go about doing something like that?

Speaker 1 (11:06):
Yeah, so we I've been doing this work for over
ten years. I'm a speaker coach. I used to run
of the largest I used to run one of the
largest TEDx events here in the East Coast, and I
ended up actually building a business around placing people on stages.
I partner with with someone. We ended up selling this

(11:29):
business to someone called Grand Cardon. I don't know if
you know that name, and uh and it was a
it was an amazing experience. I run that for four years.
But so how do how how does that happen? First
of all, I teach them a framework I've been teaching
for a long time that I can run through with

(11:49):
you about how to structure the talk. So the first
step is like, how are you going to say what
you want to say? So we can go through that,
and then once we have that, where does this such belong?
Which podcast, which stages? Which which spaces do you need
to bring this message to? And then we talk about
what's called the stage strategy, which really what it means

(12:12):
is like how do I create the path to the
right rooms for talking to the right people? So I
can do you want to, I can share my seven
step to write your talk if you want.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Absolutely. I'm a big favor of putting your stick in
the ground too, So this is a great way for
somebody to go and say, tell the world this is
my market, this is what I get to. This is
so yeah, give us your steps.

Speaker 1 (12:39):
Yeah. So this is actually I call it my paint
by number process of writing a chop because when you
break it down in the way I'm going to share
in just a second, it really brings down the confusion
on how to organize my thoughts. So these are seven
steps and I run them in order. First step number

(13:01):
one is make your audience care. Nobody cares about who
you are or what you have to say until you
make them care. So Step number one is understanding that
the first thirty seconds on stage are the most important ones.
So don't start by saying, hey, my name is the Lordest,
so good to see you. Think all that is noise

(13:26):
and all that. Actually, what that does when we do
that on stage, it actually turns the brain off from
our audience and they discount you like they're like, oh,
she's not talking to me. So the first thirty seconds
are all about getting your audience to connect with you.
So how do we do that. We can do it
in two ways or we can mix them up. Well,
there's many ways to do but I teach two main ways.

(13:47):
One is the restaurant question, asking something simple as how
many of you are looking to serve their business in
five years? Simple? And so just by doing that, the
audience kind of we'll have a hint of what you're
talking about. And if they're looking, if they're in business
and they're curious about exiting, they're gonna listen. That's one

(14:08):
way to do it. Another way to do the first
thirty seconds is to tell a story. But if you
tell a story, tell it in present tense and with
minimum contexts, So things like I got a million dollars
to start like that, it's like, whoa, what did you do?
So you can get and say this, say I got
a million dollars. I run a business for five years

(14:30):
and I figured out that other people could actually have
a value for this. So I ended up selling my
business for a million dollars within five years of starting it.
Now they're like, wow, that's a cool story. I want
to learn more. So these were just two examples, but
that's how we get started. So that's step number one.
Get your audience to pay attention. Step number two, tell

(14:53):
them what you're going to tell them. So here's where
you succaintly present your idea, like really, what is it
that you're going to be talking about? And so things
like I believe that if you are clear on your message,
or if you're clear on what you want, you can
actually create the outcome that you are looking for, or

(15:15):
something that I like, I believe statements or something like
in my experience, or some kind of way of introducing
the topic, but from the perspective of your authority. So
step number one, make your audience scarce. Step number two,
present your idea, present your topic now step number three

(15:40):
and by the way, these first three steps can be
accomplished in minutes. It doesn't have to take much time,
but they are very important steps to warm up your
audience to receive your message. So step number three is
about introducing yourself. I remember I had a client who said, well,
I don't really like talking about myself. I said, that's fine,

(16:02):
but how will your audience trust you if they don't
know enough about you? So I don't want you to
speak about yourself at the beginning because they don't care
who you are because you didn't give them a reason
to care. But instep number three, they're now curious enough
to know more from you. To learn from you now
is when you tell them who you are. So you

(16:24):
want to introduce yourself, but don't line up your restume.
Here's where your storytell your story. So how do we
do that? I could say something like I was about
thirty eight years old when I realized that my background
as a marketer was not going to be what I
wanted to do in the future, and I became I
went back to school and became a coach. So I

(16:46):
just told you that I'm a leadership coach without telling
you that I'm a leadership coach. I was just telling
you my story. And then it was not until I
was into my business helping people get their messages out
there that I ended up in a partnership with my
partner and we built up twenty million dollar business that

(17:06):
we exited in four years and we became a company
called TENEC Stages. I'm not telling you what I'm telling
you what I'm telling you that through the story. So
that's what you do. You weave your background, your authority,
your credibility in a way that is engaging, entertaining, not like,

(17:26):
oh look at me, I'm so great, but it is
what you did and it is what makes you be
in this podcast in this cold morning, so you have
to share it. So that's one, two, three, So far,
so good. Yeabsolutely, okay. So if you accomplish this first
three steps, well, now the audience is like at the

(17:50):
edge of the seat. They want more, they want to
learn more. So then you go to what I call
step number four, which is the teaching part, the adding
value your part. I call it the meat and potatoes
because really this is like the main course. If you
have twenty minutes on stage, the first five minutes are

(18:11):
steps one, two, three, Step number four will be most
of your time on stage, so you might actually spend
ten to twelve minutes on your step number four. This
is when you teach. So right now I'm teaching you
my framework. This will be my medium potatoes. This is
like this is like my gift to you, right my framework.

(18:32):
So this is when you teach whatever you are an
expert on. In my case, I can teach about speaking,
or I can teach about exiting, so when and so forth.
And you want to use a couple of elements to
teach your core content. You want to use story or
case studies. You want to use research. Like one of
the things that I always say is like seventy percent

(18:55):
of small business owners closer business and they don't sell it.
Why because they don't know how to structure the company
to sell. That's data that you can google it or
you can charge to be tore. Like, there's data around
the topic that you're teaching. So you want to bring
that data, third party data, because it validates your work.
And you also want so you want to case study

(19:16):
your story. You want some data or research, and you
want a lesson. And so if I were to be
talking about you know, seventy percent of businesses close up.
They never sell. I let me tell you about my
two businesses. When I was in my thirties, I launched
a school and I launched a clothing company that I

(19:38):
closed because I didn't know I could exit them. And
this is what I learned, and now I know blah
blah blah, and then I go teach. So bringing those
three elements storytelling, research and teaching into your core content
can really help bring your knowledge forward. So right now

(19:59):
we go all the way from step number one to four.
Now what happens. So you got your audience, you know,
nodding and recognizing that you're adding a lot of value
that is interesting what you're teaching. Maybe they have had
an aha or a realization, Oh my god, I didn't
know that, like this is so cool. Now it's time

(20:20):
to start closing your speech. How do we do that?
Step number five is to remind your audience of what
you're talking about. So in step number five, what I
would do, like right now, I would say, well, you
know remember that it's all part of like communication is
at the heart of moving your agenda forward. When you

(20:46):
master the art of powerful communication, you can get investors,
you can get buyers. You can get clients, you can
get partners. You get anything you want really because you
know how to ask for it. So that would be
like step number five is remind that what you're talking
about now. Step number six, when you are on stage
delivering your presentation, the audience only has one choice. Well,

(21:11):
they can they can tune you off. That's the choice
number two. But let's say that they're tuned in like
their choice, their brain can only be listening and learning
from you. Their brain is not really imagining something different
because they are attentive to you. So step number six
is when you create a moment from stage where you

(21:31):
invite your audience to turn on their imagination to imagine
in your reality. So I can say something like, imagine
what's possible if you have a powerful high converting signature talk.
Imagine who you can attract, Imagine the clients you can get,
Imagine imagine like you. You really create a space for

(21:54):
them to imagine how this content that you taught can
transform their lives and their work. Last, but not least,
probably as important as the first thirty seconds, the last
step is all about call to action. I always say
that speaking is like a first date what is the

(22:15):
desired outcome of a good first date a second date?

Speaker 2 (22:21):
Right?

Speaker 1 (22:22):
And so how do we get a second date from
a group of people that are watching us from stage? Well,
you get the contact information, you invite them to your community,
you you bring them into a lead magneto. There's many
strategies to do this, but basically, the the the opportunity
is that once you are on stage, you want this

(22:43):
to be a powerful first date for them to want
more of you. So that's when you invite them to
continue a journey with you.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
So if I can recap it, you're gonna You're gonna
help you. Go ahead, I'm going to try to recap it.
You're gonna help me fill in the gap. So step
one in our marketing phrases, I would call it a hook.
It's something to capture their attention. It's something whether it's
a thought provoking question. I love that you have experience
in ted X. I actually got invited once and I
turned it down with one of my mistakes. I should

(23:11):
should have taken it. I knew the local person. But
so you capture their attention with some thought provoking either
statement or question. Right, And then there was a story
element what was the second step? I think it was
like a you're kind of leading in with a little
bit of a story before your third step tell them
who you are indirectly.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Yeah, so step number one and you hook them. You
can use a restlant question, you can use some story.
And then step number two it's all about telling them
what you're gonna tell them.

Speaker 2 (23:41):
Tell them what you're gonna tell them. Then tell them
about who you are, why they should white, you know what.
You give yourself a little bit of authority, right, yeah,
and then you go step that was three. Four was
the teaching, right, you're actually teaching with some facts and
making sure you include both case studies and facts in
a story format. And then five was uh, let's see

(24:02):
if I can remember this. Five. I'm trying to trying
to narrow this down here. Five was so you did
the last part. The vision part was the end. So
that was the last step.

Speaker 1 (24:13):
So step number five is you kind of out you're
closing your content delivery, your core content delivery. So step
number five is like kind of back to the beginning.
It's like, remember, this is what we're talking about, so
you remind them of the main topic.

Speaker 2 (24:27):
So it's kind of like writing in our good article,
tell them what you're gonna tell them, tell them and
tell them what you told them, right exact. Yeah, So
you tell them what you told them, and then you
you make them live the vision, envision it right. So
I often say that there's two core skills in the world,
right and communication comes and play on both of them.
So don't just because I don't say communication in either

(24:50):
one of these, you can't do either one without great
communication skills. Skill number one is building deep reports other
human beings. If you can get to the stage where
you can listen to where people feel heard, acknowledge people
for where they're at in the world, and build true
human bond with individuals, you'll get so much further than

(25:10):
any other realm. And the second one, I honestly believe,
so that's step one is building deep rapport with other
humans and it's all done through communications. And the second
one is definitely what I call getting people enrolled in
your vision. Being able to share your vision, your story,
what you're up to in such a way that people
want to drop what they're doing and be involved with
and help you do what you can, help you succeed.

(25:32):
And there's there's there's case study after case study after
case study of where maybe the business idea wasn't the greatest,
or maybe the execution wasn't the greatest, but people raise
billions of dollars like rework we work as the exact
you know example, it wasn't the greatest execution, maybe the
idea was even flawed a little bit. But the guy
that was so he just had a way of karma

(25:53):
or karma with a charisma. He attracted people with money,
people liked, you know, liked you wanted to do something
with He told his story and shared a vision they
bought in on, and they threw money at the guy.
And I honestly believe that, you know, you can do
that really well from the stage or from even you know,
the stage might not just necessarily have to be a stage.
Maybe it's a boardroom in front of fifteen investors, yeah,

(26:15):
or maybe it's you know, it's a pitch in front
of the what they call it, there's one called the
cross two form or something like that. But you're in
the name, but you know, you're in the room in
front of fifteen or twenty angel investors, right, it's still
you follow the same frame at work, you gave and
you know it's that last step. I don't want people
to overstand that or over overstep it. If you can

(26:37):
get people to really, really truly imagine, and it's not
a simple thing to do most of us. There's a
reason why in real estate people stage houses. It's because
the average person can't walk into a room and see
what it see the possibility. You have to paint that possibility.
So when you know, when I was in the real
estate space, like we had a stage a lot of houses,

(26:58):
especially in the house that had a small room, because
people walk and go, what do I to do with
this room? And they don't realize a bed in a
lamp shade and everything you're in a night standing, everything
would fit until they see one in there. But they
walk into a ten foot by ten foot room and
they're thinking, no, this is no way, or twelve foot
you know, something small and they're thinking, there's no way,
this must be just an office for a baby's room.
And the same thing when you stand up here and

(27:18):
tell your whole story, I think that the critical part
as you're in there, you know you have to have
a call, the call to action. You have to have
the education part. People people love to to learn. They
hate to be sold, but they love to learn, So
have the education part. But if you can't truely, if
they can't see themselves capable in the vision that you painted,

(27:40):
they're just not going to do it. And that's one
of the real realizations a lot of people have, is
they just don't see themselves capable of doing something exactly.

Speaker 1 (27:49):
So you see how this can be a pain by
number process.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
It is. It definitely is makes me look at some
of the stuff I've done. It's like I gotta go
back and redo mine. So we've got the framework now
of I want to tell the world about my business.
I want to carve off a space, and here's how
to do it. Here's my twenty to thirty minute. You know,
you could probably get this done easily in twenty to
thirty minute. Anybody gives me an opportunity for twenty or

(28:15):
thirty minutes and be in front of them. Here's my
power punched outline of what I should do. How do
we pick the right spaces for that? You know, how
do you go about identifying where that story should be told?

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Yeah, and that's really where the ruremitts the road because
having a talk is great and is an important step, like,
don't get me wrong, you got to get that step done.
It also builds confidence. But once you have a talk,
don't stop there. That's the beginning. And so that's when
we begin your stage strategy. What does that look like?
First is identify who do you want to be talking to,

(28:51):
like a who's your ideal audience, which obviously your ideal
audience will be your ideal clients, or your ideal partners
or ideal investors. And then and you have to ask
yourself where do they gather? So I remember talking to
yoga kind of health coach and she said, well, they

(29:11):
gather in health conferences. Well, and I remember talking to
her and I said do they? Because if you're a
yoga health coach and you go to our yoga health conference,
you're going to talk to other yoga health coaches, which
are not your ideal clients because they're all they're all
like you. You want to go to the I Am very

(29:32):
stressed conference because those are your clients. So first it's like,
get really clear of who is the people that need
to listen to you and where do they gather. So,
if you're a buyer and you're looking to buy companies,
then go into the association of small business owners in

(29:55):
their sixties because you're like, you don't go to the
starf group because there's not companies to buy. In the
startup group, they haven't really started, and there many of
them will probably be very young and already. But going
to the ten, fifteen, twenty year old businesses of you know,
a mastermind of fifty something year olds or sixty or

(30:17):
seventy who might be thinking of like I want to
retire or I want to you know, whatever, I need
to plan out. So really get clear on who's audiences
and where do they gather. Once we're clear on that,
and what and what that looks like, because as you
just said, it can look like a LinkedIn interview, it
can look like a lunch and learn at a corporation.

(30:40):
It can look like someone's living room, someone's party. Like
a stage is a place where people gather. It doesn't
have to look like an auditorium. It doesn't have to
have a curtain or a race platform. It doesn't. And
so so be creative and open your mind to what
are all the places that we could all a stage

(31:01):
and that you can actually come and communicate. And so
the next question you're going to ask yourself is like, okay,
so who controls those rooms? Because people make the mistake
of Okay, I'm gonna go ask for opportunities to speak,
and they go to their ideal clients. Their ideal clients
are the audience. They're not the ones that control the stage.

(31:24):
So now we need to create a pitch for you
to be talking to the people that control the stage
that will give you open the door to their audiences.
And so that's a whole other ballgame. And so now
we need to understand, Okay, who are those people? Where
do I find them? LinkedIn is a great place to
find them. Where do I find them? What do I say?

(31:48):
And so that is when we get into what I
call the reach out strategy or the pitch strategy, or
you create your speaker assets, your speaker one sheet. You know,
every talk needs a title and it's a description in
its clear takeaways because you will need that information to

(32:08):
present it to the meeting plan and say, hey, I
talk about powerful communication. I my specialty is talking to
business owners to use powerful communiciation. And these are the
two or three things that they got to walk away
from listening to me.

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Awesome, awesome. Now are you familiar? Are you familiar with
the topic? What's out of context or out of Uh?
What am I looking for? I picked it up through
Dan Kennedy or where he learned it. For there's a
thing about being out of category marketing for against. A
good example would be uh. He gives the example of

(32:44):
a high end jewelry producer, like a custom jewelry designer
going to He's real big into race horses and racing
horses in general, but there's auctions where these quarter horses
are sold off and they're usually a quarter million dollars
to two three million dollars, right, and they always have
a trade showroom in the back. Whether there's usually saddles
and stuff like that, but usually you said, the people

(33:07):
that do really well in there is typically a custom
drewetry designer. And you know there's one person in that
and that shows up these horse trade shows that are
you know, they make custom beds and stuff and the
beds are ten grand or more. And the reason they
do so well is the husband buys quarter horse and
as they're walking through their wife's like you might quarterhouse,

(33:27):
I'm mana get myself some nice jewelry. Right. But the
beauty of that is what you said, it's where the
customer is. The customer happens to be there and that
and the the reason that works so well is that
that vendor is so out of context for with everything
else is there, they stand out.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
You are the unit corn in the room. You always
want to be the unicorn in the room. As a woman,
I've been in situations where I was the only woman
in a boatroom, or I was I mean, I'm from Argentina.
I was the only immigrant woman in a boat room.
And that was not my disadvantage, that was my advantage. Like,

(34:04):
you want to be different at all costs. Please be
different and stand out being different absolutely, Like you want
to be the one of a kind in a room
with a one of a kind message.

Speaker 2 (34:15):
So that's what I was thinking instead of what you
were telling. That's what it drew drew me to. What
you were saying is like, what if we could pick
a place where your target customer, your persona who you
need to talk to, they're in the room. There's a
bunch of them in the room, but they may be
there for another reason. And it's simply it's just slightly
related enough that when you get up or you're in
you're in front of them, they're like, I didn't even

(34:37):
come here for this, but this is this is what
I this is what I needed, and there's not five
other thing. That's why.

Speaker 1 (34:42):
That's why. Yeah, like a health coach in a female
executive conference talking about I don't know HR things or
anything like that, you will be the only one talking
about it and everybody's going to listen. I remember one
of my first pig engagements. I was invited to speak

(35:04):
at a conference called Seattle Interactive, all about technology, software coders,
and my talk at the time, I was promoting my
coaching business, not so much my business strategy business, and
my talk was all about personal leadership. They were like,
you know, we've never had a coach, but let's try it.

(35:24):
It was standing roomortely because all of the sessions were
about technology and the tactical, you know, industries type conversations,
but everybody can always use some knowledge around personal leadership.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
I really get this. I really get that you can
go out there, you can find you know, rooms and
audiences and stuff to get in front of to tell
your story with, and then it's going to move the
game forward. Tide us back to mergence and acquisitions, either
buying a company or even selling your company. Where you

(36:00):
see you know a person who's trying. Let's just start off.
If you're trying to buy a company in a particular industry,
should you go to the industry trade show associations and
talk about something like that or you know where where
would you have them starting?

Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, So if you're if you're a buyer, yeah, you
go to the source. Where do these mature businesses? Careful
because you might be in the right room at the
wrong time. So where could I find mature businesses of
the type that you want? The other the other way,

(36:35):
if you're a buyer, you also want to think of
who is talking to my ideal acquisition. So you might
actually be speaking to in a conference of CPA firms
that serve the manufacturing space for example, I don't know
making it up, or engineers that the associations of engineers

(36:59):
who are working with airspace manufacturing businesses. And you say
you look, I look, we're looking for partners to acquire X,
y Z. And these engineers, which are vendors to your
ideal acquisition, might be a door in. You know, you
always have to think about in the in the world

(37:22):
of AI and digital marketing, we're still humans having human experiences,
and so you always have to think of your strategy
as a network of tentatal tentacles and who is through
which brands, through which relationship can I come into this space?

(37:46):
And there's always one, There's always one to find, or
more than one.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
We led one hundred day challenge where I had the
goal was to talk to one hundred business sellers over
one hundred days, knowing that it would be really hard
to get there, but we fifty someone people start. Some
of them did it all online. We had we signed
accountability coaches and stuff. One of the things that worked
the best was those you know, who knows who knows

(38:12):
people who would be you know, nearing that age of selling.
You know, who are their attorneys, who are their CPOs?
Exactly who is the you know? I was telling people,
call your local chamber of commerce and like, find find
out who's on the membership board, build relationships to them
and say hey, when you're going out doing the membership

(38:33):
run this year doing everyone body's renewals. Who told you
that it's going to be their last years as you know,
or who do you think nearing retirement age? Who do
you think would be interested in, you know, retiring and selling.
Who do you who told you this is the last
year as a member because they're gonna They're gonna do
something else, right, those people are there. It's like in

(38:55):
the real estate space when I used to have rentals
and stuff, and now I have other owner finance my
properties off. I don't have any rentals anymore. But uh,
when I had rentals, I always would find the one
lady in the neighborhood that knows everything, and I'd make
good friends with her and give her my car yeah
Christmas cards because she always knew what was going on.
And my dad did this. So when I was young,
really young, I bought Carlton Sheets program on the online,

(39:18):
and I realized I couldn't buy houses because I wasn't
eighteen yet, I couldn't sign a contract. So I convince
my dad to do it. And one of the things
he did is we made really good friends and we
get calls all the time, Hey, your neighbor's moving out
in the middle of the night. You know, somebody's laid
on rent or whatever. But uh, there's the SAME's true.
Is there somebody out in your space that really just
has their finger on the pulse of that space? Make

(39:40):
friends with them? Yeah, exactly, they've got a state. You've
got a stage. Go spit, you know, go speak on
that stage. Right. That's whether these podcasts are important, you know,
if if you're out there, you know, I have people
want to Hey, can I come with your podcast? I
want to buy you know, industrial manufacturing companies. Have you
bought one yet? Like, then you probably won't fit on this. Well,

(40:01):
this isn't the right stage. The sellers are not listening.
There's a few, but the sellers aren't listening here. Your
stage is go out to the industry conversations. Find go
find somebody who has a podcast in your space that industry,
and then create a conversation around what does it look
like to go through the process. What do they need
to be ready for a guy like you? Right, Educate them,

(40:23):
teach them, give them something of value, and when they're
ready they'll call you. Right, Because this is this is
a looks like a one on one conversation. But this
when this goes out to thousands of people. I have
close to eighty thousand followers on Twitter, right, so you know,
and then I've got others, you know, other channels and
thousands of downloads and stuff like that. So this is
a converce and it lives like I get you know,
my first video is three years ago, right, yeah, you know,

(40:45):
this is the episode going to be episode in the
two sixties or two seventies. Probably one of the things
people miss a lot is you can make content once
and you can use it in all kinds of form,
like this conversation between you and I. This goes out
on the podcas cash World goes to thirty so much channels.
It goes to everything from Audit Audible, from for the
where they download process podcast, to Amazon Music to all

(41:09):
the standard woods, Apple, Spotify. It goes on all those channels.
Then we convert it to written articles, right, and then
it goes out to the article platforms, and he gets
put in our newsletters, right, and we cover it in
the newsletters to people to subscribe to those. The same
thing goes when they get on the stage. They can
turn that into you know, one piece of content, one
twenty minute speech, could could be your tentacles you're talking about,

(41:30):
could be you know, on thirty different platforms could be.
If you're really good at it and you're not too nervous,
I'd say, ran am room somewhere a stage and we're
to have somebody record you just given your spill and
put it online ones right, So a lot of people
got a lot of a lot of footage, a lot
of leeway. I've got friends that did really well with that.
Ted X talks right. Yeah, that was a that was

(41:53):
a market credibility like.

Speaker 1 (41:54):
That exactly exactly.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
I don't want to overstep the fact you sold the
comp for you too great cordon right, and you know
a lot of people here in the space, no zoom,
and then you stayed on. I guess you had to
earn out of some sort So you did, you had,
you know, stayed on for a few years and helped
them grow it.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
So how it went it was a little different. So
I launched a part of our company with a partner.
His name is Pete, and we grew that from zero.
It was a it was a licensing partnership and so
I came in as an advisor for the first two years.
We built that business and it was a business to

(42:32):
help people get on stages called stage agency, and then
Grant wanted to be part of it. So what ended
up happening it was is like I exited the partnership
before Grant came in, and I was like the negotiation
was I ended up hired to run the company. So

(42:53):
I became the director side CEO for the first two
years that it was owned between my partner and Grant.
So so it was it was kind of like that's
how we structured the deal. And yeah, and so I
ran that that company for two years and I kind
of exited that in twenty twenty three, and now it's

(43:15):
like a big company and serving a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
Now, how did he hear about it? Was he one
of the clients, was the talk.

Speaker 1 (43:23):
So the relationship came from Pete had a relationship with
Grant and so from before and from other things, and
asked Pete and I were building this this solution, you know,
it was part of the conversations that they had and
of all the things that Pete was doing at the time,

(43:44):
that's what Grant was very interested in being part of.
And so so it was a very natural progression of
their relationship and our relationship as well. And again it's
one of those things that you start things in you
have a vision and then it takes a life of itself,
and you are you need to be able to adapt

(44:05):
and grow and evolve.

Speaker 2 (44:09):
I see in my notes that you sent to me
that you and your team buy small businesses and preserve
their leguity. Can you speak legacy? Yeah, that's one thing
about you know, being on the MICA like A pronounced
certain words legacy. So what kind of have you already
made acquisitions? Is this something you've already done? Is this
something you've got a buybox when you're out there hunting?

Speaker 1 (44:30):
So we're doing both. I mean I've done some what
it's called partnering and acquisitions. So I come in as
an advisor with equity stake and help them scale and
then exit. I'm negotiating one of the first deal of
twenty twenty five in a couple of weeks. It's a
and we focus on professional service businesses because they're the

(44:52):
hardest to sell, and then the ones I have experienced in.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Now are you familiar with I think you're actually aren't
you one of the correct me? If I'm wrong, we
can cut this out if it's not right. Aren't you
like doing some coaching and one of the like the
mentoring programs inside of this, I thought, that's where we
found you, like you're in you were Yeah.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
So I'm one of the coaches at EPIC Network with
Roland Fraser.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Yeah, I thought, like I know. I was like, I know,
that's where we pull pulled you from there. Because I'm
part of Epic. I've done Jeremy Harbor's group, I've done
Rolling Fraser's. I've interviewed both of them, probably both of
them a couple of times now. And uh, you know,
I'm big fans Carl Allen. You know, great guy. I
haven't done his program quite yet. Maybe in one days
I'll just do it as a donation. I'll pay him

(45:35):
and do his program to be part of his network.
Right then. One of the things you get from these
programs is the network of people that are there. All
the stuff I'm working on right now, all the projects
I have in there, all of our partners come from
one of those programs, one or the other, and I
bridge the programs all the time. So our networking and
our calls and our stuff we do. The community I've

(45:56):
built of acquisition entrepreneurs, you know, comes from all the
different groups I don't care where they come from. Right,
if you're interested in buying a small company and I
want to and willing to believe in the blue ocean strategy,
where you know, a rising tide raises all ships, and
you're willing to help each other out, then I have
a community that I'm building that I'm not a mentor
of coaching. It's more of along the lines. It's like,
we'll give you access to our speakers, will give you

(46:18):
access to our guests on the show. And if you want,
you know, you know, if you want to be coached,
you want to be you know, have a I hate
the phrase guru, but if you want somebody like that,
tell me who you are and what you're up to
and the way you learn, and I'll help you pick
which one it is, because there's different ones. Right. If
you just want access to a ton of material and
access to all the knowledge in the world, rolling is

(46:40):
probably your thing. I've never seen you hand me so
many you know, access to so many videos and training stuff.
There was two hundred and sixty or two hundred and
seventy of them last time I looked inside of that
epic program. Right, everything, even like how to be a
better podcast posters that there's a whole little thing inside
of there. Right, if you want stream structure, step by
step guide, probably like you know what to do next,

(47:01):
what to do next week next, probably should be in
the space to start with. You got to be a
little bit of a self learner in this space because
things are so unique. For deal for deal, But if
you need that, I think Roland's probably not the right guy, right,
it's probably Carl Allen Karl and Holland probably has the
more direct here's what you do next, here's what you
do next, or even better if you've got some money down.
Walker Dabill has one Hakaba this is the logic next

(47:24):
day you know step model, But everybody has their own
their own thing. Are you inside of that? I'm a
big fan of rolling stuff, epic inside of that. Are
you getting some of your partners and ships and stuff
from that program? Is that where you're they're doing it.
They're calling work for equity or contract for equity. They
all have a different phrase for it.

Speaker 1 (47:44):
So there's so there's the consultant for Equity CFE and yeah,
so so as any community like you become partners with
everybody that it's in there. For example, I just posted
an opportunity that is not for me. It's something I'm
interested in, but I know people are, so we are
all kind of supporting each other. Sometimes people find something

(48:08):
that it's perfect for somebody else, and so that's a
great resource for deals or to work deals together.

Speaker 2 (48:16):
I don't know what the cost structure is now. When
I did it was like six No, I think it
was close to eight thousand when I did it, and
Jeremy's was six at the time. It's been two or
three years now, so I think they all have different
cost structures now. But hands down, the community that you
get involved with from these things are worth the money.
You know so much. The education is beneficial, right, you
can get educations. You can go to the library and

(48:38):
pick up education. Right. There's enough books written on how
to buy a business. If you read three or four
of them, you can get the gist of it, but
you'll never get the connection, the human connection, the joint
venture partners that people like to bounce ideas. Right, with
all my colleague degrees and all my education I've had
in every book I read, I'm still not a forensics accountant.
So if I see account accounting that looks so like

(48:59):
I don't know something up here. I reach the side
in my community and say, hey, I need somebody to
overlook this. It just doesn't feel right right. And in
the community they probably saved me more money than I've
ever you know, would imagine, because I thought I was like,
I think I'm gonna move forward to this, and then
I show it to through or three people, I'm like, yeah,
you better ask this question, this question to this question,

(49:20):
and they uncover things. It's kind of like an extra
due diligence. So what is your current buy box? If
you're out there right now, like somebody who's got a
business for sale or something, what is it you're interested?
Is it all contract for equity or you're looking to
buy something? And then you know with a given operator
or kind of tell us what you're looking to do.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
So I'm looking to do a couple of things. One
is consulting for equity, so businesses that are looking to
exit in the next few years, but I'm not sure
how to get there. So I come in as an
advisor that can be a retainer involved, that can be
equity share whatever deal we strike. And then my buybox

(49:59):
even and cfees is really professional services, so CBA firms,
marketing firms, coaches, consultants, people who have grown businesses. Maybe
they are the spokesperson or the face of the business
and they're not sure how to transcend themselves so that
that business can live beyond them.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Everybody's getting into the space too. I just seen an
email this morning that Dan Kennedy wrote a book on
selling businesses. Now you see that, really, I'll check that out.
So Dan Kennedy has a co author then they just
released a book today and how to sell your business
for the Best Value or something, and you know, so,
now I'll reach I was one of his students for

(50:39):
a little while. I'm going to reach out and see
if I can't maybe put him on here too. This
is a an incredible market space. There's huge potential inside
of this, and so many business owners that are needing
to sell on the next few years with the whole
baby boomer thing that just aren't really looking at it
quite yet. So the more of us that are out
there on this ages, the more of us that are

(51:01):
out there shining a spotlight on this problem, the more
likely we are to you know, be able to absorb
the onslaught of what's going to happen if you know,
if these guys don't transfer, it's there's so many things
coming down, the fight with AI and technology and everything else.
But you know that run risk factors for you know,

(51:22):
the economy and run risk factors. But one of the
biggest ones is something like fifty something percent of all
businesses or small to medium businesses, and in some portion
of those large portion of those, a large portion of
our GDP in this nation has owners that's retiring the
next you know, they're gonna either retire out or age out. Yeah,
there's sixty there's sixty plus now, so right, how long

(51:43):
are they going to work seventy eighty? You know, unless
we change the lifespan of the average human being, we're
gonna have a problem. So what is the best way
for people to find you? Work with you, you know, hear
your story already, find your content, that type of stuff.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
I would say, come to masters in clarity dot com.
You'll find all of our information. There's a button on
the top right corner of the website that says free.
That means you can help on a call with my
team for free and learn all about us. Masters in
Clarity dot.

Speaker 2 (52:20):
Com masters in Clarity dot com. I'll make sure to
include that in the show notes and stuff. Let's do
a few takeaways. If somebody can only remember two or
three things from the day, what would you have and
walk away with Yes.

Speaker 1 (52:32):
So, if you're walking away from this call, I want
you to walk away with the importance of having a
signature talk or a signature message that is clear and
you're confident in the importance of understanding where your people gather,
which might not be the same person that gathers the people.
So what is your ideal audience and who is hosting

(52:54):
and where who is hosting your ideal audience so that
you can meet them there. And third, remind remind people
that we are even in a digital world with AI,
we are in a space of humans relating with humans.
So always ask yourself, who can connect me with the
people or the groups of people that I'm looking to

(53:16):
connect with?

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Okay, awesome, and then I guess we'll wrap this up.
We'll call this a show. Thank you for your time
today and hang out for a few seconds.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Thank you so much.

Speaker 2 (53:26):
This episode of How to Exit is brought to you
by Final Assent to Batique m and a firm helping
lower middle market business owners achieve their ultimate exit a
Final Ascent. They know selling your business is one of
the business decisions you'll ever make, and they've been in
your shoes. Their team isn't just made of advisors, their
experienced business owners who have successfully navigated their own exits.

(53:48):
Final Assent specializes in preparing businesses for sale, building value,
and connecting with a national network of qualified buyers who
will compete for your business. They don't take on a
client unless they're confident they can sell your business at
the current market maximum value. Whether you're ready to sell
now or planning for the future. They'll craft a roadmap
tailor to your unique goal so that you can walk

(54:09):
away with maximum value and a peace of mind. Start
your journey today at Final Ascent. That's www dot Final
ascent dot com, because your next chapter starts with a
successful exit.

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E269: How to Sell Your Business for Top Dollar – Secrets from an Acquisition Expert

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}E269: How to Sell Your Business for Top Dollar – Secrets from an Acquisition Expert