So I sat there and I thought to myself, wow, what an impact, not smiling had
Welcome to builder nuggets hosted by Dwayne Johns and Dave young. Hey, our mission is simple, build freedom. We are a couple of entrepreneurs turned business coaches who have dedicated ourselves to helping our builder remodeler clients create the most rewarding businesses in the industry. My co-host Dwayne has been a successful builder and remodeler for over 30 years. He's seen the highs and the lows. From the beginning though, Dwayne has been on a quest to find a better way to run a contracting business. In 2016, he found that better way. That's how I met Dave, a lifelong entrepreneur and visionary who measures his success by the success of those around him. He reached out one day with a formula on how to transform my business and the rest is history. Since then, we've teamed up to help hundreds of contractors like you build better businesses and better lives. Now we've decided to open up our network and share our secrets so we can start moving the needle with you. It's collaboration over competition. Each week, we bring together industry peers and experts who share their stories so that we can all build freedom together. .
(01:08): Today's guest built his e-learning company from scratch still a bit green and inexperienced. He was approached by a savvy buyer and offered a seven figure buyout at three times EBITDA. He said no to that offer, but yes, to mastering the strategies and tactics for developing a value business, those tactics paid off two years later, he said yes to a different buyer. It was a nine figure offer. 13 times ABIDA that sparked deep wealth, a program where Jeffrey and his original business partner share with other business owners, what it takes to maximize your value from Toronto Canada today in a whole Hollywood, Florida. We welcome Jeffrey Feldberg. Hey Dave, Dwayne. Thanks so much to have me on the show. I'm both honored and delighted. Great to be here.
(01:51): Yeah, it's an, it's an important topic. We, we talk a lot about value on the show and, and, and working to build that into your business at any time, no matter where you are, maybe back us up for a second. We, we don't have somebody who's created a knee learning company on the show very often, but tell us about that journey. You know, Dwayne kicked it off in the intro that you got an offer when you were, you know, developing your, developing your business or still still growing. And you didn't have that business background, but wa walk us through the origin of that company, please. Absolutely. So the company in question is Enet, which back in the days stood for electronic MBA learning network. So Enet was started right outta my university program, my MBA program, and I had no money. I had no experience. I had no team. I was literally typical entrepreneurial story operating outta my parents' attic failure became my new best friend every day. And I just struggled through that for the first year or two. It was just tough because I didn't know what I was doing. Fortunately, my grit and my passion kept me in the game long enough that success came and with success, lots of things happened. But one of the things that happened was I, I had the proverbial knock at the door and it was from a very smart and sophisticated buyer from a fortune 10 company and long story short. And he said in the introduction, I was given a seven figure offer.
(03:17): And I'm just gonna pause right here, because at the time I didn't realize it, but I want your listeners to know two statistics. And I say these statistics almost every day, but each time I hear them, it just floors me when it comes to an exit or a liquidity event. And I'm gonna use the word liquidity event. That means maybe you're having a hundred percent sale of your company. Perhaps you're taking some ships off the, and you're gonna keep a portion of your company. Maybe you're gonna take it public. Who knows what it is. Maybe you're raising capital, but liquidity event covers all those things. So I hope you're both sitting down. I know you are. I, I can see you, but imagine this up to 90% of liquidity events fail, let's just stop right there for a moment manag all that time, that effort and that money, hip being honest about it.
(04:04): You're better off going to Las Vegas. You'll have more fun and you'll be put into your misery a whole lot quicker, but the quote unquote, successful liquidity events, 50% to over 100% of the value of the business is left in the buyer's pocket and, and insulted injury. The business owner doesn't know it. So when I got the seven figure offer, I just, it felt off. It was just intuition talking to me. And I said no to the seven figure offer. I said yes, to mastering the art and the science of the liquidity event. And ETT was a great company. We ran it like a cockroach startup. So it was bootstrapped and it was just pedal to the metal. And we did some incredible things, changed the social fabric of society, one E learner at a time. And it was like a family run business, even though we weren't all family with the, the ownership doing it, but had a terrific run. And then two years after the fact of that first offer a different buyer, different offer came with a nine figure offer. And it, it made sense for the company made sense for the employees. It made sense for us. And we said yes to that.
(05:13): Tell us a little bit about how deep wealth got started and what you've, you know, what you've learned after you made, first of all, you have this sale of your company. Was this a massive celebration? Like you wait two years, you 10 X, the value of your company. Are you sitting in a position where you go, wow, I I've got this idea for, for deep wealth next, did you take some time to enjoy it? Like what goes through your head when you've just had a success like that? Absolutely. I mean, firstly gratitude and highlight for me. I mean, lots of things happen in the liquidity event. I'm very proud of, but the proudest moment for myself, and I know I speak for my business partners when the liquidity event was done, we pulled aside certain team members and they weren't necessarily in the leadership role, perhaps some frontline employees that were there for a long time, just people who were really team players that were loyal. Some of them had been with us from the beginning, some were new, but we pulled them aside and we gave them each a, a bonus. And that this check you know, they were crying, we were crying, it just changed lives. And it was really the beginning of paying it forward, which has become a constant theme for myself. And that was really a highlight of the liquidity event and quite openly, you know, Haven, Dwayne, the story should have ended there.
(06:37): Jeffrey had a 90 figure, exit, rewarded the team. You know, we had a great ride and, and, and that's it. And today when I'm speaking to people, we'll get into default in the moment. What they're saying is Jeffrey, are you for real seriously, you're not on a beach drinking a pina colada. Why are you doing this? And let me share the big picture. What gets me out of bed for, for deep wealth. And then we'll go down to how deep wealth actually started the big picture for me. And, and it started with Ette and it continues with deep wealth. I always look at how can I leave a situation better than when I entered it. And with deep wealth for me, the big picture, it's my secret agenda. But Dwayne and Dave are no secret here because I share with every and one, but the secret agenda really is let's change the social fabric of society.
(07:24): One liquidity event at a time. What do I mean by that? How do we do that? Well, let's go back to the beginning. All of us are business owners, whether you're building homes or you're an entrepreneur, we're putting our blood, sweat, and tears into everything that we're doing. We're hop at nights, we're taking all the risk. We make the world go round. We solve painful problems. So why is it that at the end of the day, we typically get the short end of the stick. When we have a liquidity event. I mean, after all, how do you master something you've never done before? And most business owners make the fatal mistake of assuming the skills that built the business are the same ones to sell it. And they're completely different. They're not. So imagine now you've gone through the deep wealth, a nine step roadmap.
(08:06): This is our 90 day experience. And we'll talk more about that. And you have a liquidity event where if I can be blunt, you have more money in the bank than you would've otherwise you didn't fail. You had a terrific liquidity event. What we encourage people to do is after you've taken care of yourself, your family, your friends, your loved ones financially, you'll never have to worry another day in your life. You can't spend it all. So set up a foundation, take an allocation of that, put it towards a charity, find a cause a social cause that's not getting enough attention and put the capital towards that to make a difference. And, and for me, this is really social capital at the best and doing what it should be doing. It's just another terrific way of paying it forward. So that's the big picture, but how did I get into deep wealth?
(08:52): How did that start? When I wasn't on the beach, drinking that Pada immediately after the ENT liquidity event, friends and people in the entrepreneurial community approached myself, my business partner. And they said, Hey, congratulations. We're thinking about doing the same thing. Can you help us? And I'm always one that wants to just go the extra mile and go love and beyond. And my first instinct was, Hey, you know what? There's gotta be maybe a seminar or a program or a coach or a person or a company that can help you with that. Let me take a look around. So I did a deep dive. Remember I had a lot of time on my head. I did a deep dive into the marketplace and quite openly, Dave, I became angry because at that point I knew up to 90% of liquidity events fail. And I knew that business owners getting the short end of the stick.
(09:44): But what I saw were people charging big dollars who had never done it before. So imagine you're asking me to teach you how to fly a plane, but I've never flown a plane before. This is exactly what it was like. I thought, oh, here we go. Again. The hard working business owner were getting ripped off again by all these shenanigans that are going on out there. And I looked and I looked and I just couldn't find the kind of solution that I, I felt would help people get over that finish line. And so instead of feeling angry, both myself and my business partners see Wells and he's at winter park, Florida. So he is at stones throw away from where I am. We said, let's do something about this. Let's take our experience and let's get that out there, but let's do one better than that because nobody's perfect.
(10:30): And we made mistakes along the way. And I'll share another secret. I'll reveal that for you, the nine step roadmap that we have today, it wasn't always nine steps. Some of the steps came from our failures that we reverse engineering. And so we began to coach and mentor business owners of helping them prepare for the liquidity event. Again, we're not investment bankers, we're not brokers. We don't do valuations. We focus solely on the art and the science of the preparation through the INEP roadmap. And this was going well. But about four years ago, I spoke to Steve. I said, you know what? I know we're making a difference. I know we're paying it forward, but I don't feel like we're paying it forward with enough people. Can we scale this? Can we grow this heck? Can we do this at ETT? ETT had millions of enrollments.
(11:15): And so we put a pause in everything and started with a blank slate. And over the course of two years, we took everything that we knew from e-learning, everything that we knew from being part of CEO, peer groups, everything that we knew from liquidity events and working with everyone. And we put that together in the 90 day deep wealth experience, which is really comprised of three parts. You have access to these strategies, which is online, your time, your convenience, you have a mastermind group, other business owners who are successful and wanna have a liquidity event. And then you have success coaching. And then we launched this in March of 2020. Now, Dwayne and Dave for yourself and your listeners, you probably wouldn't have heard of what happened this small little thing called the coronavirus that came on the scene just when we launched, which was interesting.
(12:04): And, and actually when nothing was really going on, that's how the deep wealth sell my business podcast began because we just didn't wanna say it around again. We wanted to pay it forward. We started the podcast to help business owners, not to just survive, but to thrive. But about a year later, we got back into action. And so when April of 2021, our first group went through phenomenal, phenomenal results. It really changed lives and, and made the difference. The second group came through in September and again, graduation, it was the same as before, if not better and really big picture wise, that's how the default experience happened because business owners, I felt weren't getting the right advice from people who had done it before. If you wanna learn, you wanna learn from the best people that had been down that path and not necessarily smarter than you, but they've just been on the journey longer than you and why not have them do the heavy lifting. And that's what started the deep wealth experience. That's what gets me outta bed every day is working with business owners to help them with the largest, most important, biggest financial decision of their life. The decision to have either a full exit or part of a liquidity event, whatever it's gonna be for you to make them most of that, not capture just any deal, but capture the best deal.
(13:18): Dwayne has been building, working, collaborating now, coaching other builders for, you know, 30 plus years, Dwayne, this would be a good spot for you to share. You know, how often have you heard liquidity stories? Like what's the, what's the, what's the typical story for a custom home builder or a remodeler? What does the end of the business look like? The typical end is generally is to shut the doors. Unfortunately, sometimes it's some sort of cobbled together sale for way less than anybody thought. You know, as you had said, kind of the leaving the money on the table, a lot of struggled, fail transitions, you know, whether it was to, within the family or, or maybe some folks close to it. It just, it doesn't happen very often. I I've ventured to say it's probably successfully less than 1%, you know, of the custom home building or remodeling companies out there that have what you would consider a highly successful business exit sale or liquidity event just don't see it.
(14:16): And that was the reason we wanted to have you on the show and why it was so interesting to, to talk about this because we've started to, to talk about it more. We know that there's a, a number of builders who are coming to that age group, where they're ready to, to wind it down and they don't have a lot of options out there, but we also recognize there opportunity to create a more valuable saleable business from the outset. And so Jeffrey, when you're, when you're when, when somebody's looking at going through your program, are they only looking at it from a standpoint of, Hey, I want, I have a pending liquidity event or do you work with them to set the company up on a regular basis to be building around liquidity? And we'll talk after that in, in a segment about what, what liquidity means to you or, or, or, or could mean to somebody, but you must have people at all different stages of their business. How do you, how do you work with them at those different levels?
(15:14): Yeah. Dave, thank you. That, that's a great question. And Dwayne, I am not surprised by the stats that you're, you're putting out there. Here's the great news. And, and for all the listeners, please listen very carefully to this because it's, it's just great news for you. The strategies of preparation, the nine step roadmap, the strategies are one in the same for growth. So Dave, you tell me, you do the nine step roadmap and you now have a thriving and profitable business, which by the way, runs without you and Dwayne and D and Dave, I know for both of you, that's a big deal to have the business run without you. And as home builders in particular, a as we know the business, usually the sun, the moon, the earth, the stars revolves around the owner. And that's just not a good thing, but you have a profitable thriving company.
(16:03): You keep that forever, or you can sell it tomorrow. The point is the choice is yours. We've worked with companies that are Jeffrey. We have a good company. We wanna make it a great company. We're not looking at a liquidity event until 10 years from now. So not really on the radar, but we wanna be prepared and I'll share something that you don't hear a lot out there. So on my podcast, the deep wealth sell my business podcast. We've had business owners who were former investment bankers. So these guys were buying and selling companies all day long. This is what they did in their sleep. And it's the same story again and again, Jeffrey, the first day, day, number one that I go into business. I'm preparing for my future liquidity event, because I know the preparation for this is going to change how I run the business.
(16:53): And I know how I run the business is going to change how I do the preparation. And you, you get this positive feedback. Now I mentioned the pandemic, the COVID pandemic a while back, but let me put something out there for the listeners. Now, not in every industry, obviously some industries were just devastated by the pandemic lives were lost. And our heart goes out to the of those people, those families that had the negative impact, but there's always two coins, or there's always two sides to a coin. And on the flip side, some businesses had a liquidity event during the pandemic and it was a once in a lifetime terrific opportunity. So in other words, their liquidity event was better during the pandemic. Then it would've been, if there wasn't a pandemic, but these companies, they could do that because they were prepared to do that.
(17:42): And no one can control the market. As I like to say, if someone tells you that they know how to time the market run, run as fast as you can in the opposite direction, no one can control the timing of the market, but we can control when we go into the market or how we respond in terms of market conditions. So if your business is prepared and what the pandemic did, it created a perfect storm. The number of businesses that were having liquidity events dramatically fell. The, the so whole, the supply of the buyers though, that was the same, if not more. So you had all these buyers and they had to spend the capital. They didn't spend it. They had to give it back to the investors. So demand, supply, basic economics what's gonna happen. You have more demand than supply the enterprise value of the company's skyrocketed.
(18:31): They catapulted. And for those that were ready, they took advantage of that. Now this is not to say, it's gonna be another pandemic. You know, hopefully these pandemics don't come around all that often it'll be something else. We don't know what it is, but when you're ready, when you've been preparing, you can jump on that. And the one other thing, Dave, I'll, I'll share with you about preparation when you don't prepare. I mean, whether you're a home builder or you're a business owner more times than not, okay, you know what? I think I'm gonna sell my business, call up the investment bank or the broker. And you start that process. Well, you give up your health, your money and your time because you just can't do it all. Congratulations. You have a second full-time job while running your business and your business doesn't run without you.
(19:16): And it's just a, a disaster. But compare that to when you're preparing on your own time, on your own convenience, well, you're saving your health. You're saving your time and you're saving your money because you're not having to bring in outside expense consultants to do the work that you should have done in the first place with you and your team. So there's just so many positives of preparing, you know, make your company better. It'll be more profitable. You'll lose the golden handcuffs when your business runs without you. You'll actually enjoy the business and really appreciate why you got into it in the first place, when it just runs efficiently. And there I say, even better than when you were running it because you can't do it all. No, one's perfect in everything. And we can use all the help that we can get.
(19:58): Well, Dwayne and I are big fans of bringing experts into your business for the different elements. And it, it all starts with, with talking about this topic with your team and planning for it. And I think what, one thing, I don't know if it's confusing is the right word or not, but there's sort of a, a terminal feel to liquidity event that I think people think about, like it's a, it's a one and done and over, and it's something that you're shooting for or a goal post. And as you're talking, I started thinking about, well, what if you looked at it in terms of why Don build our liquidity opportunities or what are our liquidity? And you said, the other word is our liquidity options. We start to look at that as well. And because you don't know where that buyer is going to come from in the construction industry, it's often from your internal team.
(20:48): It could be your whole internal team. If you're, if you're doing a, a structured sale to to your team, it's likely going to be your general manager. It could be another builder. But it's very rarely from an outside investor for somebody like custom home builders and remodelers are not generally seen as an investor grade opportunity. But what is interesting is that, and Dwayne and I have seen this in some of the businesses that we've coached. Once they start putting in these things and say, Hey, I'm going to have a, a self-led company. I want my team to be able to lead this company. I'm gonna lead them. I'm out of the day to day stuff of the business. It becomes more valuable. You're multiply is going up. And the flip side of that, the ironic thing is now you become an acquisition. You become a buyer.
(21:35): You are now in the perfect position to go and replicate what you've just done with other builders and go and install that into there and grow your portfolio. So it's really an interesting opportunity in this industry right now, because you have so many people who are ready for a, a liquidity event. At some point, they don't know what they're gonna do about it. There isn't a plan for it. So somebody who, who you know, wants to work towards that event and, and could do it on a short runway in 90 days or nine steps, which we'll talk about more in a second. That's amazing. But part of the value I think you can to really add is how do I ramp up my business so that it's super valuable, but if I want to, and I'm excited about it, and I've attracted the right talent to my team, we can go in and start to absorb some of these other ones.
(22:18): So I'll turn it back to your Dwayne. Maybe you can add to that too, if you have anything else you wanna add. So I go back to what you had said earlier. You know, you wanna throw the hope out there, you know, I mean, yes, some of this is kind of doo and glue and it's, it's hard to do, but your, your point of you don't have the right tools to do this, you know, and it doesn't matter. Yes, our audience is for the most part custom home builders, remodelers, but from your stats. And, and you've actually the things it's usually this is across the board. This is all industries, most business owners, the vast majority of business owners have a specific tool set good at what they do. They simply don't have the tools, resources, maybe even the mindset for that matter for what it takes to get to the point where you could have a liquidity event.
(22:57): And I think that's, that's important. That's the message I'm trying to really I'm thinking about here is how do we get that through? How do we help people have access to that? And maybe that's where we could go a little bit here with that too, is what does that look like? You know, what kind of time do you have to spend? And that what you know, is that someone do you bring in people for that? I mean, what, maybe you could touch on that a little, the, the nine it's nine steps, right? And I imagine there's days when some of those steps are backwards, you know, that that probably happens. Nobody probably ever runs through this thing perfectly, but okay. Give us a taste of some steps, Jeffrey, Wanna level up, connect with us to share your stories, ideas, challenges, and successes.
(23:34): The builder nuggets community is built on your Experiences. It Takes less than a minute to connect with us@buildernuggets.com, Facebook or Instagram, want access to the resources that can take you and your Team to the next level. One call could change everything. Absolutely. But let me take a step back so we can take a few steps forward and with an analogy that everyone listening is going to relate to, because this is typically what happens. So for most business owners, excuse me, for most business owners, whether you are a builder or re, or you have some other kind of company, it's okay, I'm gonna have some kind of liquidity event. And it's like putting your house on the market. You're gonna sell a house. Most business owners are the equivalent of a homeowner saying, oh, you know what I, I think today I woke up and the sky is blue. I'm gonna sell my house. You don't get a real estate agent. You you're not prepping the house. Perhaps you're not gonna stage the furniture. You're not gonna do any landscaping. You just put the house on the market and you see what you're gonna be able to do.
(24:34): That's what it's like for most business owners with what's gonna happen from there. Well, we all know what's gonna happen from there. Probably nothing. Or if something does happen is not gonna be really at the best value or the best price that you're gonna get. I want you to compare that now as a home builder, you finish building the house. It's brand new looking incredible. What do you do next? Well, you're gonna make sure that outside, it looks like a magazine cover. The landscaping is terrific. Inside is absolutely gorgeous. Someone walks in, they be become excited. The backyard is over the top. You're finding an agent who's gonna help you with that. Who's a professional who has the experience and you're gonna go to market and you're gonna get top dollar for that. And that's really what the nine step roadmap walks you through.
(25:20): So let's talk about the nine steps and, and what that looks like. And I'll go through each one. If I'm going through too much deep details, or it's having you fall asleep telling me to check the ego at the door and, and we'll we'll address that. But the first step is the big picture. Hey, what's going on in the industry, what's happening in your business. What's happening outside of your industry that you really should know about. And so we're always looking at the big picture. How does it affect my business? What do we need to, how should I be thinking about things? Step number two is what we call X factors that insanely increase the value of your business. And one of the X factors that we already spoke about, and again, Dwayne and Dave, this is really your wheelhouse in this area. Having the business run without you.
(26:07): That's an X factor because I, I want you to think about the future buyer, which is step number three. We're gonna get there in, in the moment when the business runs without you, you just take the risk off the table. Another example of an X factor. Do you have clarity? We call it the four points of clarity. And this is anything from having documentation in the business of, of how things happen to having I'll use a fancy management consulting term, key performance indicators, KPIs it. It's just, you're tracking things. How long does it take? Are we on schedule behind schedule ahead of schedule, what, whatever that's gonna be, and everyone knows what they're doing and why they're doing that. So the four points of clarity would be another example of an X factor. And then we get to the future buyer and I'm gonna share something.
(26:54): I'll reveal something that is news for a lot of business owners. It's not necessarily your responsibility to number one, find the buyer and number two, know who the buyer is. It's now become a global economy. As we know out there. And the pandemic has shown this more than, than we'd like to think about or care about it. You just look at the supply chain and what's going on there and how it's delaying all the homes. While you now have outside investors. I buyers from different countries who are coming in and looking at what are my investment opportunities. So, whereas before perhaps having a business where you're building homes, wasn't necessarily viewed it as an investment. Things are starting to change and you never know who your buyer's going to be, where he or she's gonna be coming from. And talk more about that a little bit later on, but step number three, the future buyer, you're mastering the art of thinking like a buyer and as business owners, one of the fatal mistakes that we make is we're selfish.
(27:55): We only think about ourselves, Hey, is it good for me? We have a whole system where you learn how to think like a buyer. We have you tune into the world. Favorite radio station. You're probably doing this already. You don't realize it w ii.fm, the what's in it for me, radio station. And when you master the art of thinking like your future buyer, you can have a narrative that's exciting for them that has and say, Hey, this company has a bright and prospered tomorrow. Not only do I wanna buy it, but wanna invest top dollar in it. Step number four, due diligence. Now, a word of warning. If you wanna see a grown person, cry, just say due diligence, it can be painful. It doesn't have to be, but step number four, we are big believers in doing a internal due diligence audit. This is with you and your team and walk you through that process of what you need to do because the due diligence.
(28:49): And I'm gonna talk about this later with step number eight, with the skeletons and the remand, but what the due diligence does, it helps you find your blind spots. It also helps you find areas that you're shining in. And, and you probably don't realize that. And we're gonna circle back to that in a moment. But can you imagine whether you're approaching someone to buy your business, whether you're working with an investment banker or a broker and you show up and say, oh, by the way, I've done my due diligence. I've done everything here. I, here you go. You can take a look at it. When you do that. Internal diligence audit, a few things happen. Number one, it'll take less time to have the liquidity event happen. And as you know, whether you're selling a house or you're selling a business, speed always wins the quicker that you can do it.
(29:34): The better off you are. You never know what the market's gonna bring tomorrow, but when you've done the due diligence, you also increase deal certainty, and you increase the value of your business. And I can talk on and on about that. Let's leave it at that for now. It's a big part, obviously, of what we do in the deep wealth experience. And then going on to step number five, the winning mindset. Sometimes you'll get a buyer and, and you've probably seen this when you're selling your homes, a buyer, or maybe you as a seller, you want the other side to become tired. And just to, and, and you see this late night negotiations, you're selling a home and it's two in the morning and everyone is just tired. It's painful. They want the house to be sold. That you can often have someone agree to something that they otherwise wouldn't have agreed to.
(30:18): We call that deal fatigue. And in a liquidity event, it's a big deal. You don't wanna have that happen with a deal fatigue. So you learn strategies to protect yourself from that, but I'll share another secret with you. Just like when you're building house, you don't do it all on your own. You have professionals, the trades that are coming in, help you with it. We recommend the same thing. When it comes to selling the business. You're gonna find professional advice, whether it's a lawyer, whether it's a tax expert, the accountants. So list just goes on and on. Well, what's surprising for most business owners is they don't necessarily have the same agenda that you have. They may have a different mindset. So you also learn how to have everyone have the exact same winning mindset that you, you have get everyone on the same page so you can move forward together.
(31:05): And that ties nicely into step number six, the advisory team. Well, how do you hire? Not just any lawyer, not just your regular business lawyer, but a lawyer who specializes in the selling a business is very different. All lawyers are not equal. Their backgrounds do make a difference. Where do you look? What do you ask? Where do you even know if this person is the best fit or not? And so in the advisory team for every one of the advisors that you're going to require to not again, get any deal, but to get the best deal, you have questions. You have scorecards, you know where to look, you know what to ask, to help find the advisor who has the best cultural fit for you and your team. And by the way, your advisor team, it's not just outside advisors. It's also some of your key employees that you're gonna need to help through the process.
(31:56): So you're not doing this all on your own. And then we turn the corner here and we go to step number seven, timing and exit. What do you say to who and how? And most business owners drop the ball here. And I put myself in this camp after my liquidity event, I really drop the ball. And how do I effectively communicated that to all the stakeholders? Not just the employees, but my clients, my suppliers. And so here we have, again, all the frequently asked questions. We have scripts that you can take and make them your own across all the various stakeholders. You don't have to think about it, that you can just go to market and, and do that. And effectively the nine step roadmap, what you're really doing. It's two things. Every story is really a simple one. And let's not confuse simple with simplicity, the nine step roadmap and what preparation does.
(32:48): Number one, it helps you find the hidden skeletons in the closet and remove them. Those skeletons are the things that will do one of two things, and neither of them, they will lower the value of your business. So you'll get paid less money, or they will kill the deal, not what you wanna have. And it it's imagine that you're selling a home and you didn't do the pre-inspection before you put it on the market. And now you have a perspective buyer and they bring in an inspector and the inspector is going through, and the finding all these things that are wrong, that just shouldn't be there. And you know what those things are. You don't have to go into that. Well, you don't want that to happen. It's the same thing. When you're having a liquidity event, when you remove those skeletons in advance, you create confidence.
(33:32): You create certainty, you get top dollar. But the second thing that you're doing, you're finding what we call the hidden remand in the attic. And you're putting them out for public display. These are things that you are world class in that maybe you don't understand or realize a world class in it. Every business usually has two or three remand. If not more, when you know what those are, you can bring that out to the marketplace. And I'll give you an example. So Dave Wayne, when Enet was having a liquidity event and before we went to market, when we did our preparation, we had long term exclusive contracts. Now we knew those were important, but we didn't realize how important those were to the buyers. Until we went through this process, your future buyer, they may know most of your rebrand, but they're not necessarily gonna tell you what those re brands are.
(34:24): Imagine you're now buying a house. We're not selling the house. You're buying a house. Are you gonna go to the owner of the house and say, oh my goodness, this is the best house I've ever seen. It has incredible landscaping. The inside. I wouldn't have done it any different myself. I absolutely love it. Or are you gonna tell the seller of the house? Ah, you know, it it's, maybe the house is okay. I don't know. I'm gonna look at a few of the things. Some work needs to be done. I gotta think about it. So when you know what your rebrand are and you educate your future buyer on what your Rembrandt are, number one, they know that, you know, and that goes back to mindset. But number two, you're also demonstrating why your business is the business to buy or invest in and not someone else's.
(35:04): So the REM brands are, are huge. And then we rented rounded out to step number nine, which is the launch. So every step of the way what we're doing is we're looking within the business. We're working on the business, we're working in the business and we're preparing a launch plan to take to our stakeholders, to take the, the marketplace, whether it's internally, whether it's through our future buyers. And we take that launch plan and we put that out there. Now here's the thing. You can go out there and you could bring on board the world's best home builder, the most successful home builder. But I'll tell you one thing that home builder will never know as much about your company as you do, you are the world's expert when it comes to your company. What that home builder can do is you have the answers, but you don't necessarily know the questions.
(35:54): So you can be asked the questions to come up with the answers of what you need to be doing. And so on the 91st day, when you've gone through the nine step roadmap on the 91st day, what have you done? Well, number one, you've created a very specific blueprint for your business and your business alone of how you're going to increase the value. And then number two, you walk with these certainty. There's a difference between believing and knowing. I can say, I believe the sky is blue, but I don't know a hundred percent. But when I say, I know the sky is blue, because I've looked outside, I can say that with certainty. And when it comes to the largest and most important financial decision of your life, you've got to know you can't believe. And so when you have have that certainty, then you will know that, yes, this is this offer on the table here. And today, this is the absolute best deal. There is no better deal out there. Let's move forward with it. Or you know what? No, it isn't. And I'm certain that it isn't because of the preparation because of the nine separate roadmap, let's say no and keep moving forward. And so that's a long, long, very long winded answer to a, a relatively simple, but excellent question. But that's a nine separate old map.
(37:03): That's a lot to unpack there. Dwayne, what are, what are the what questions do you have about that? Where do you think we need to, to pause or dig into? What are some of those? The, the key steps that you think builders right now are, are listening to this going this where I need to focus. I look at it from the time standpoint, you know, I get, as you said, this isn't something you're gonna do and, you know, next week you're gonna be in a position to be all done and ready to sell your business. So maybe, maybe based on where you are already, I guess in your company, how far along you are, what types of things do you have in place? Almost like how does one assess where they are, or, or, you know, what kind of resources they're gonna need to attack a plan like this? Because, you know, obviously it, it's gonna take someone some time, as you said to put into this, but what kind of time is that really gonna be? Is that the owner? Does he have someone else helping him with that? Some of that I think would be certainly I, from a business owner, builder myself, I would, that would be one of the first things I have to think about is how, how am I gonna do this? You know, how am I gonna dedicate time and resources to, to pull off a plan like this?
(38:04): Yeah, it's a great question, Dwayne. So if I'm hearing you, what you're saying is, Hey, when I'm going through this, how long is it gonna take me to prepare my business? And, and how am I gonna do this? Yeah, I think, and I guess, you know, the, the second point to that is that could be a little different based on the business. You know, some businesses may be closer to that point. Obviously they need some, some tweaks and changes and others may be a long ways off based on not having dedicated systems, processes, things like that. So, Well, the short answer is it really depends. Cause for some businesses, the business owner and the team, they may do it in nine months. Others may decide to do it at a little bit more of a leisurely pace and it'll take two years. There is no right answer. There is no wrong answer. Generally speaking, we say about a year, it could be either side of that, but generally about a year or so. And with the nine step roadmap, each of a module that I shared and, and mentioned a little bit earlier, that's where you're creating the launch plan. And that's exactly what you're gonna be doing when it's time to begin the preparation process. So you'll walk outta that. You'll have different launch plans for each of the areas. And you're working through that to check the boxes, get it done are assigning it to the team.
(39:16): Some of the tasks are gonna be done internally, as many as you possibly can. And some of them are gonna be done externally. One of the things that we recommend, and we're a little bit different in this way, I'm gonna take you back to step number four, the internal due diligence audit you assemble you and your team to begin that process. But one of the things that we recommend is that you bring on board, a lawyer who specializes in the sale of businesses to help you through due through due diligence, because you wanna do it once you wanna do it, right? You'll save time. You'll save money that way, instead of doing it on your own, you think, you know what you're doing, but maybe you don't down the road. You bring in the lawyer who specializes in the sale of a business and oh no, Jeffrey, you miss these things here, go back and, and do that again. So at different points in the process and you know, throughout, because this is what we do in the deep wealth experience, you learn what advisors you bring on at what period in time to help you through that. And, and then you decide when you want to complete that and, and get that done.
(40:17): One of the things I can't help with thinking is as we're going through this, and again, it's coming back to looking at it as an event versus an opportunity. When I look at this, I see, well, here's a map of not only how do I determine value in my business, but how do I identify value opportunities within my business or value risks? So it's almost an assessment tool. And when you look at like anybody who owns a home, loves figuring out what their home is worth at different times, you know, during the, during the owner ownership of the home, sometimes it's mandatory because you're, you're needing the, a, the property reappraised or something like that. But it feels like this would be a valuable exercise is even if you don't wanna sell, because, or even if you're not ready to sell right now, because I think you're going to identify and Dwayne and I do this through our, through our coaching and business analysis and assessments and things like that.
(41:10): But you identify what are the areas where I can increase the value. So where do, where, where do I have holes in my systems where have holes in my training programs? Where do I have holes in my operating system or my, my go to marketing plan, you're identifying the holes. So the first thing you can do is use it as a diagnostic tool. The second thing that is coming to my mind here is, you know, the Rembrandt and the skeletons. If I dig into my closet and I find two Rembrandts in there will, and, and three skeletons, I can shed my business of those skeletons. And I can probably paint two or three more Rembrandt over the coming years. And that's probably, when you look back at the, at your, our company, that's where you were, you had skeletons and you didn't know what your rebrand were.
(41:57): Then you learned them, you dug into it. You did exactly the things that we're talking about here, and you 10 X, your, your profit. So to me, this seems like a really valuable exercise to go through, not just thinking of it as a liquidity event, but a liquidity opportunity. How do I position myself on a regular basis to do this? How do I know what my business is worth when I'm, as if I'm a custom home builder and I'm getting a mortgage on my property and, and I'm listing my, my assets and my liabilities and my net worth statement for my bank, what do you even put down for the value of your business? The bank's gonna put down next to nothing, but if you're looking to raise capital for something else, and you've done this exercise, and you can show this to anybody else who's looking, you know, O other things that you may be raising capital for.
(42:43): That's a very different story. That's hell than well, I've been building for 20 years, and this is, you know, my, my net profit, hugely different. So starting to see all different kinds of re reasons why you would want to ha to know the value of your business or why you would want to, to do this and how each of the steps would be valuable. And like Dwayne said, some of the steps you might be nailing. You may, I already have some of the connections. You may have a great lawyer who can help you with this already. But if you have one of these business, it's a great time to work on it and fill any each of these pieces here. And they're, they're only gonna get amplified.
(43:19): They you're exactly right. And, and what I really appreciate is something that you've shared, and, and that is the liquidity event itself, but you're right. The root of the word event. It's, it's really one point in time. And if you think about it, when you complete a renovation project, or you sell a house that is also one point in time, but it's all the steps that led up to that, that got you there. And that's really what the nine step roadmap is all about. It's to get you to that point in time. But you decide when that point in time is going to be, as an example, as we're talking, I'm thinking of one business owner, and he said, you know, Jeffrey, I just, I don't wanna leave the business. I, I wanna take some, some chips off the table. And so he's done that two times now.
(44:05): He sold the same company twice. He's still in there because he loves what he does. And, and the, the new owner, the, the buyer, the investor appreciates having him there. And then, because he he's doing that. He now financially he's secure, loves what he's doing. And I, when I was speaking with him the other day, he said, Jeffrey, I may have a third liquidity event. And the third one may be bigger than the first two combined. So when we're talking about a liquidity event, it's not the beginning of the end. You decide I've spoken to other business owners that have said, you know, Jeffrey, look, I I've been in the trenches here for decades, and I, I just want help. I, I wanna be done. I wanna move on. I wanna start the next chapter of my life. And for them, that is gonna be the conclusion, the one chapter to start another chapter. But the point is Dave, to your words, you mention options. You have options when you're prepared, you have options and options are a terrific, powerful thing that, that you have in your pocket when you decide to use it,
(45:08): Options are freedom when you have, when you have choices. So that's, that's really what freedom is, and you can execute those options or, or plan for them. And, and that's what I keep thinking of here is have a liquidity plan, usually a liquidity plan to create liquidity options. And they will trigger the events you want. And it, it can happen. You can have multiple, you can have multiple events. And the other thing that is, if you love it, like you're gonna like your business more. When you go through this, we see this with business owners, they're happier with their business. They're more excited about their business. And instead of thinking about just winding it down, they actually end up some of them growing it even more acquiring others. But yeah, thanks so much for this. What's the what's the best way for our community to learn more about your program or they can, where can they find you?
(46:03): Yeah, absolutely. Well, for starters, let me put my email out there. It's Jeffrey, J E F F R E Y. Deep wealth.com that goes directly to me and it, this same time, you can come to the website, deep wealth.com. And I really encourage everyone to book a free strategy call. And it's all about you. There's no selling here. It's all about educating. It's all about learning. Hey, where are you today? Where do you wanna be? What does that look like? And in the strategy call, go through all of that and, and see what that looks like for you. And if that's something that makes sense. And the other thing we always like to ask is tell us something you're excited about. What's something new that you're working on cooking up, or just something in the next six to 12 months that is, you know, increasing your energy and motivation levels.
(46:48): Well, Dave, you know, it's a bit of a, a repeat here, but I I've just gotta say that. And it's really what I'm doing. I, and so privileged to be surrounded by incredibly talented driven and smart business owners and working with them, whether it's through the deep wealth experience, some of them bring me on as an advisor to them, we call it a chief exit advisor and helping them literally help them build the foundation for the next level of the business, whatever the, that they want that to look like. And it's just paying it forward. And it's impacting not just the business owners, their employees, the family of the employees, their customers, and just making things that much better, that much easier for them changing their lives and having them have fun. I'm gonna use the F word fun. When's the last time you get fun in your business, and they're starting to have fun in their business again, and they're all smiles and, and enjoying that. So for me, again, that's part of what gets me outta bed every day, all excited and something that I'm just very privileged to be working on on a daily basis.
(47:50): Well, and the fact that you've done it goes a long way too. And it, it resonated with us for sure that, you know, one of the, one of the parts of the interview here that you could really experience that join that enthusiasm was when you were talking about your own success story and the lives that you got to impact and what it felt like able to do that. And the tiers of the people who were, who helped to get you there, the reward of doing that, and that became the fuel for this. And, and, you know, when you look at the alternative, which is shutting the doors or laying off your laying off your staff, or just dismantling everything, wouldn't you rather be working on a plan like this, like, it sounds way more fun. So thanks for those, those nine steps in your, your own personal story and your enthusiasm with our audience today. You know, you're excited about investing in people. So that's great. Yeah. Thank you, Dave. Dwayne, it's been truly both a privilege and an honor. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast today and stay healthy and safe.
Hey, thanks for listening, Dwayne and I love hearing from you. Your stories are inspiring and your challenges can be overcome. Got a cool tip idea for a show problem that you haven't been able to solve, or maybe just struggling to figure out what you need next and where to get it. We can help hit us up@buildernuggets.com and start building freedom.
