Business Leaders Podcast

Are you executing the right strategies to market your products and services? Are you planning to buy or sell a business? In this episode, guest Cameron Kolb, senior broker at Raincatcher, speaks with host Bob Roark on how business owners spend their money, time, and effort in growing their businesses. Cameron explains his company's professional process so you can start analyzing yours. He helps and guides people to get the maximum value when buying or selling their businesses. He values being true and honest to the people who are asking for their help while getting the job done. Stay tuned to know more to scale your business up! --- Watch the episode here:   The Essentials Of Buying And Selling A Business With Cameron Kolb The big questions are how do business owners like us spending our own money, time and effort? How do we grow our businesses and jump the line that lets us accelerate the delivery of our products services in our community while being smart about our growth profits culture and still create a lasting value in our business? Those are the questions in this show. We'll share some of those answers. Our guest is Cameron Kolb. He's a Senior Broker with Raincatcher. Welcome to the show. --- Our guest is Cameron Kolb. He's the Senior Broker at Raincatcher. Cameron, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking the time. Tell us a little bit about your background and bring us up on where you are now. I started my professional career at Northwestern Mutual doing financial planning. We initially started with insurance and worked in the niche of business owners because we thought that was a good need there. As we expanded the team investments or more licenses they got, I started to specialize in exit planning. I worked with a lot of physicians and business owners. I did that for about six years and then, the debt in the family caused me to have to rethink things then, ultimately decided that based on what I've experienced with all these business owners and how difficult of a time they've had trying to sell their business, I thought there might be some opportunity to help essentially do business brokerage. My path after that was that I went out on my own, learned how to do business brokering, did it on my own for about five years and then was asked to join Raincatcher back in May 2021, which has just been great. I essentially went from being a solo practitioner to doing everything that there is to do with now. Now, I get to focus on what I'm great at, which is bringing buyers and sellers to the table and getting deals done. I think about the compare and contrast between the team approach to a business sale versus the sole practitioner approach to bring it to a sale. What it reminds me of is the difference between having a job and a business. For the sole practitioner, they might've been expertise that you didn't have, it might be franchising or one type of specialist event, whereas at RainCatcher, you have a depth of field. [bctt tweet="Continue learning. When you start working with people, you will realize that there’s a lot you don’t know yet." username=""] I thought I was smart then I started working with some smart people and realized there's a lot that I didn't even know I didn't know. It'll bring 4 or 5 months together on a deal we're working in. It's just made a huge difference in the execution and the progress that I've made as a business professional. I feel that one of the lots about what you can do to add a lot more value than I’m previously doing....

  If you want to grow as a company, you have to do it organically, not by following trends. Ask your customers what they want and then build from that. Stop anticipating the next trend and just work on your core business. Be creative and original. Join your host Bob Roark and his guest Dr. Angus Fletcher as they break down how you can lead your business to grow organically. Angus is a Professor of Story Science at Ohio State’s Project Narrative. Discover Angus's love for both neuroscience and storytelling. Come and join the conversation on how you can grow your company in a world that's so different from before. Be open to change and anomalies so that you can grow. Feed your creative brain so that you can grow. Grow organically today! --- Watch the episode here:   How To Grow Your Company Organically In This New World With Dr. Angus Fletcher Our guest is Dr. Angus Fletcher. He is a professor at Ohio State University's Project Narrative. He is a polymath with dual degrees in Neuroscience and Literature. He received his PhD from Yale, taught Shakespeare at Stanford, and published two books and numerous peer-reviewed articles. He has consulted with Sony, Disney, Amazon, and the Army Command and General Staff College. He is the author and presenter of the Audible Great Course Guide to Screenwriting. He was awarded the Rodica C. Botoman Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching and Mentoring 2020. Welcome to the show. --- Angus Fletcher, thank you so much for taking the time to be on the show. Thanks for inviting me. I'm honored and excited. In the pre-interview here, I was doing homework. The more homework I did, the more I knew I was lacking. I talked to another good friend of yours, Ken Long. He had some input too and he says, "Maybe he has this." We will narrow down the discussion as to how it might apply to the business community and narrative. What I was fascinated with is you have literature and neuroscience. It's like chicken and egg. Which one came first? I started in neuroscience and that continues to be the bedrock of everything that I do as a young neuroscience researcher. I was in the lab where, like every other lab in America, everyone thought the brain was a computer. They thought that the brain is operated by taking on data, storing it into memory, and then processing that data to make decisions logically and that the brain program has this thing called emotion. That was how everyone was working on the brain. I started to notice the human brain didn't work as a computer at all. First of all, human brains are much worse at doing logic than most computers. Human brains can't take on the same amount of data. Even when we do, we are much more irregular in how we process it. Humans are a lot smarter than computers in certain situations. Humans are much better at low-data decision-making. We are much better at figuring out what to do when there's not a lot of information. That's a situation where AI goes completely haywire. Humans are also better at being creative. Even though AI can be better at predicting the future, humans can be better at making the future and making it in ways that AI can't...

Your hiring process should not just start with stacking up resumes. If you want the right fit for the job and for your company, you need to be thorough. Joining Bob Roark today are Steve Urban and Scott Kegerreis, co-founders of Riderflex, a generalist boutique recruiting firm servicing all industries, all functions, nationwide, C-level to associates. The two recruitment experts share how you can optimize your recruitment process. It’s not just about credentials on paper but also the character and personality. It all comes down to a human element. Learn more about their process and how they’ve helped build successful companies through their work by tuning in. --- Optimizing Your Hiring Process With Steve Urban and Scott Kegerreis The big questions are, “How do business owners like us spend our own money, time and effort? How do we grow our business and jump the line that lets us accelerate the delivery of our products and services in our community while being smart about our growth, profits, and culture, and still creating lasting value in our business?” Those are the questions in this show. We will share some of those answers. Our guests are Steve Urban, CEO and Cofounder, and Scott Kegerreis, CRO and Cofounder of Riderflex, a global recruiting and consulting firm. Welcome to the show. --- Thank you so much for being on the show. It has been a long time. The last time we talked was in February of 2018 on one of the episodes of the show. You have been hitting it out of the park. You have amazing five-star reviews counting over 200. What is it that you offer to your customers? What is it that you do? For the readers, I'm glad to be back on the show. We are a recruiting firm and what we're here to talk about is our recruiting business. If it wasn't for you, I don't think Riderflex Podcast that we would do would not exist if it wasn’t for you because you gave us that suggestion way back a long time ago. I always think to myself, “The podcast we have would not exist without Bob.” Thank you for the mentoring and advice you gave us way back then. You have a wonderful show and all the guests that you have had on. I try to mimic that a little bit and follow your lead, especially early on when I was first getting started. Thank you for the advice and the relationship that we have. With Bob Roark is appreciated. For the readers, Riderflex is a generalist boutique recruiting firm for all industries and functions nationwide from C-level to associates. We are having great success building the company. Scott and I started it in late 2016. We both came from executive backgrounds. I was an operations guy and Scott was a sales guy. We had met each other working at a horticulture outfit. We bonded and had a lot of similarities. We enjoyed being around each other so we stayed in touch. I called him and said, “I want to turn Riderflex into a recruiting firm.” He's like, “There are 20,000 recruiters. Why do we want to do that?” I said, “Most of them suck. We can do a lot better.” I’ve got some ideas on how to do it the right way because I had dealt with and hired recruiters, and recruiters had worked for me...

For many business owners and entrepreneurs, the time comes when they have to move on. When this happens selling your business becomes a priority. What can you do to ensure that you get the most out of it? In this episode, Bob Roark discusses business exit strategies with senior business broker Gary Wofford of Raincatcher LLC. Gary helps businesses buy and sell their companies and here, he gives you what you need to know with how to sell your company. Curious? Then learn more by tuning in to Bob and Gary. --- Watch the episode here:   How To Sell Your Business With Gary Wofford The big questions are how do business owners like us spend our own money, time and effort? How do we grow our businesses and jump the line? That lets us accelerate the delivery of our products and services in our community while being smart about our growth and profit culture and still creating lasting value in our business. Those are the questions in this show and we will share some of those answers. Our guest is Gary Wofford. He's the Senior Business Broker at Raincatcher. Welcome to the show. --- Gary Wofford, thank you so much for taking your time to be a guest on the show. Welcome. Thank you, Bob. I'm glad to be here with you. I have been looking forward to this. You started talking about your experience in the franchise space. It seems like there isn't anything you haven't done. If you would tell us a little bit about how you got here. I have been reflecting on my background and experiences. I do cover a lot of bases. I first was on the corporate side of the franchising world. It was with a company based down in Dallas that decided to franchise all of their company-owned restaurants. That was Bonanza International. I was VP of Operations over about 250 stores. They allowed me to become a franchise owner as a little bit of a stay bonus. My franchise fee was waived and I was able to pick 1 of 2 or 3 stores that would be mine. That's when I first got involved in the ownership side of franchising. It was a wonderful experience. I was able to develop two additional Bonanza Family Steakhouses as a franchise owner in North Texas and Southern Oklahoma. I go back to that as a grassroots learning experience because with the adage, “You learn where the buck stops.” When it's snowing outside, you got a payroll on Monday and the business is down, you learn what you have to do as a business owner to take care of that. From that very early beginning, I started gaining a strong appreciation for business owners, knowing their world and what they were faced with on a day-to-day basis. That later led to an opportunity to sell those stores to a larger franchise owner after about 6 or 7 years because the town that I was in built another highway. The cows cut the traffic patterns down quite a bit. I could see the handwriting on the wall that it was time to consider moving on to something else. I did sell those three locations to another franchise owner and that system. I got affiliated with another franchise as the operating partner back in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Luther's BBQ. We built over 6 or 10 years of AAA locations. This was back in the day. We were selling barbecue sandwiches for $1.99 but we had $2 million on average with a lot of drive-throughs, takeouts and catering. Each of these restaurants would sit 200 people. We were very successful in the...

  Most entrepreneurs’ exit strategy is selling their business. But how do you sell your business at the best price? Mark Woodbury is the Managing Director at Raincatcher, helping entrepreneurs buy and sell remarkable companies. Today, he joins Bob Roark to break down the process behind how they help clients get maximum value for their businesses. He shares mistakes to avoid and things to prepare when you’re planning to exit and sell your business. Tune in for valuable insight on how to make your life’s work sellable! --- How To Sell Your Online Or SaaS Business At Maximum Value With Mark Woodbury The big questions are, “How do business owners like us spend our own money, time and effort? How do we grow our business and jump the line that lets us accelerate the delivery of our products and services while being smart about our growth, profits, culture, instilling increased value in our business?” Those are the questions in this episode. We will share some of the answers. --- Our guest is Mark Woodbury. He's a Managing Director of Raincatcher. Mark, welcome to the show. I appreciate you having me on. I appreciate your time. Tell us a bit of you and what got you from there to here? My background was in finance and I have worked in finance as my first job out of school. I always had an itch for a little bit more independence and less rigidity than I had. Since this is my first job, there is supposed to be some rigidity and you have to earn your stripes a little bit. I learned a ton. I liked what I was doing but I had an itch towards self-employment. They say, “Necessity is the mother of invention,” meaning if you want to start a business and you don't have any money, you better figure out how to start a business with no money. For me, that was learning the digital space. It was a very low barrier to entry to do business online, to build websites as a service. At that point, start a website, get into eCommerce with very low customer acquisition costs. That's what I did. I dabbled around online and figured things out the hard way. Initially, I taught myself a lot of hard lessons. I stumbled and fell many times but this was nights and weekends for a while and I ended up having some success. I was at the right place and at the right time. That was an easier time to get into eCommerce. It's much more competitive now. There are a lot of software that has decreased the barrier to entry even further. There are probably 10, 20 times as many merchants online competing for the same ad space as when I’ve got into it. I’ve got in and got my feet wet into self-employment. I learned the hard way about keeping your books and quarterly estimated taxes. I learned that lesson the hard way. Plenty of stumbles, as you have seen with yourself or potentially your clients. I ultimately ended up selling that. I didn't know what my next venture would be until I sold that company. Throughout the sales process, that's where I learned, “This is what I want to do.” I have done consulting at other firms before. I wanted to do consulting and eCommerce. I wanted to do consulting for some supply chains and logistics. It didn't ring a bell but when I sold my company, I realized this is what this person does. They understand the M&A process and know who all the key players are. It's a lucrative space to be. It provides value. It's fun. It's very goal-oriented. I'm not racking up hours on somebody else's bill. I'm working for free most of the time until I close something. That's how I’ve got into the business brokerage space. I started at my own company with a partner and we had a couple of employees. After a few...

  It’s not just what you say that matters, but also how you say it. Everyone communicates differently, and knowing how to approach different people at different times can make or break you.  Ethan Becker is the President and second-generation senior coach and trainer from The Speech Improvement Company. In this episode, he chats with host Bob Roark and shares some tips from his book, Mastering Communication at Work: How to Lead, Manage, and Influence. Ethan talks about the impact of communicating effectively and how that translates in different business situations. He also discusses the science behind speech and communication to give a better understanding of how it works. --- Watch the episode here Dr. Ethan Becker On The Impact Of Mastering Communication In Business How To Lead, Manage And Influence This is going to be quite the episode. We have Dr. Ethan Becker. He's the President and second generation senior coach and trainer for The Speech Improvement Company. It’s the oldest communication coaching and training firm in America. More importantly, he's created what I would consider a tool case, a set of tools for Mastering Communication at Work. That's the name of his book with the co-author, Jon Wortmann. It's how to lead, manage, and influence. It's the second edition. He was kind enough to provide me a copy, which I promptly read. It resides on my desk as a go-to resource and how-to in the speech side of the house. Dr. Becker, thank you so much for taking the time. If you would, maybe starting out with a story about your company and your mom and how this all came to pass. It's good to be here. I get asked that question about the company because we were founded in 1964. My mom and my dad were both at Emerson College, which for a long time is where you would go for communication. She was studying Speech Pathology and he was studying Rhetoric and Public Address, that was the vocation. They met, and dated, and they got together. They had this idea that if you could coach an executive, a businessperson, the same way an athlete was coached, you could help that person. Their specialty was in communication, so they did that through the lens of communication and the company name, they started right away. They said, “Let's name it what we do, The Speech Improvement Company.” Between the two of them, they found something that could focus on, in some cases, mechanics of speaking, and in other cases, psychology, persuasion, and rhetoric. Naturally, that grew into the business world. That's how it originally started a long time ago. Was there a recognition or a pushback when they started the company? Good speakers are born not made. You get some of that stuff. They also had other challenges. They were out of the norm. My mother, a blind Jewish woman who married a Catholic boy. In the 1960s, that didn't go over well. Your dad must have needed a lot of work for her to marry him and to try to improve. An Irish Catholic boy from Pennsylvania hitchhiked his way up to Boston and did what he couldn't to get through school. She came from a long line. Her grandfather was one of the founding members of Brandeis University. She came from a different place. These two were not from the...

  Interestingly, many banks receive customer complaints not about their services but their standard procedure of asking for ID all the time. Regulars often see this as annoying and repetitive, which sometimes leads to arguments with bank tellers and staff. Setting the record straight regarding this particular policy with Bob Roark is Robin Roberts, CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She explains why confirming one's identification is critical in securing one's money and financial information. Robin emphasizes why this simple action promotes better relationships between you and your bank.  --- Watch the episode here Robin Roberts: The Reason Behind Banks Asking For ID All The Time

  Negotiating with banks when getting a loan is not only about getting the most rewarding end of the deal. There are a lot of regulations and policies to be considered here after all, and you must be aware of each one to ensure a smooth process. Bob Roark talks with the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, Robin Roberts, to delve into the right approach to bank negotiations. She explains why you can't argue with banks about submitting tax returns and financial statements, delving into why it is not an invasion of privacy. On the other hand, Robin talks about loan covenants - which are negotiable - detailing how you should discuss its specifics with the bank to come up with a satisfying agreement for both parties. --- Watch the episode here Robin Roberts: What You Must Know When Negotiating With Banks Have you ever wondered why banks sometimes do things that are not quite clear? In this series, I have Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She’s here to demystify some of the things that might be bothering you. One of the things that we talked about at length is how to negotiate with your bank. There are so many people that miss this one particular component and it is not the 1/8 of the quarter that you negotiate on the loan. Oddly enough, it might be the covenants that you might want to spend some time on. Take care, enjoy, and I hope you learn something from this episode. --- What can you negotiate with your bank? If you’ve finished negotiating with your bank and you’ve got an extra 1/8 off on my five-year fixed 30-year amortization note, don’t necessarily pat yourself on the back. You may have missed basically the entire positive things that you can do. In this episode, we have Robin Roberts. She is the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank to illuminate and demystify what you can negotiate with your bank in the commercial loan for your business. The first thing that business owners who have not borrowed before, they equate commercial loans with getting a residential mortgage on their house or getting a car loan. That’s a consumer purpose loan and those types of loans have their purpose. They are very different. They’re regulated differently. They have different laws that cover them than commercial lending. Commercial lending is its own animal. It’s important for business owners to understand commercial lending, how it is different than getting their residential mortgage, and how the process was. Not just now when you get the loan, but over the course of the loan because the bank is much more involved with you on an annual basis with your loan than when you get your residential mortgage for 30 years. You make your payment every month and no one ever bothers you again from the mortgage company or the servicer. You make your payment and you’re good. Commercial lending is not that way and business owners can, if they understand the whole process of the loan, negotiate things at the beginning of the loan that will help them 2 and 3 years down the road. For a lot of them, when you do your home mortgage and you do it through a bank, most don’t realize or don’t realize until they get a notice that the note’s been sold. It’s not on the bank’s balance sheet and their responsibility and concern about your note is now gone. Whereas the commercial loan is the banks are intimately interested in making sure of the quality of your note because it resides at the bank that you have the note from it and it’s not sold. [bctt tweet="Most small business loans are not sold....

  It is often believed that bank lending is only accessible to those with money. But if that's the case, then it conflicts with the entire idea of getting a loan. Breaking this misconception with Bob Roark is the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, Robin Roberts. She explains how banks determine the qualified persons for bank lending. She enumerates the most important factors that come into play in such transactions, from the required cash of 10% to your overall credit/FICO score. --- Watch the episode here Robin Roberts: Is Bank Lending Only Available To Those With Money? Have you ever wondered why banks sometimes do things that are not quite clear? In this series, I have Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She’s going to talk about who banks lend to and why. I thought that might be interesting to the business owners out there so they might be a little more prepared. Enjoy. --- Robin, you and I talk a lot about some of the misconceptions and things that we hear on a regular basis. You’ve heard more times than you would like to count, “Banks only lend to people that have money.” That strikes me weird because what do you think they’re going to do. Let’s dive into that and talk about why that is. We have another in the series with Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, talking about questions she gets asked and some of the answers that people don’t know. Here we go. [bctt tweet="Banks lend based on your cashflow, not on the amount of money in your bank account." via="no"] The comment that is made frequently is that, “Banks only lend to people who have money. It’s when you need money that banks won’t lend and if you have money, then you don’t need to borrow.” Both of those are not true. Banks lend to people who can pay it back. Banks lend based on your cashflow not on the amount of money that you have in your bank account. We certainly look at that. That’s a measure of liquidity for you as a borrower but we’re looking at what cashflow is being generated either from whatever it is that you’re purchasing or generated through your activities. You have a job, so you get paid every month. That’s cashflow. Earnings after expenses are your cashflow and what is left over to make the payment on the loan. From a business perspective, what are your earnings? Were the revenues from your business after expenses you have profit? What is the cashflow available to take on this additional payment? We’re looking at what sources of repayment are there to pay the loan payment. You don’t have to have $200,000 in the bank in order for the bank to make a loan to you. They do look at also after cashflow then what happens if the business, for some reason, can’t make the payment. Is there cash in the bank? Is there cash in you, the business owner’s accounts where you have some liquidity and can make payments? When you’re looking at any business loan, particularly purchasing real estate, you’re going to need 10% of whatever. You’re going to need cash of 10%. There are government programs that can make up that difference, the down payment. You’re going to have to have 10% in. If you don’t have 10%, then there’s a problem. You need to think about it in that way. Otherwise, banks don’t make loans only to people who already have the same amount. If you want a $300,000 loan, you don’t have to have $300,000 in the bank in order for us to make a loan. [caption id="attachment_5897" align="aligncenter" width="600"]

  Since a bank is still a business, it has to follow specific rules and regulations. So when it comes to loan approvals, one must be prepared to abide by the required loan package. Bob Roark is joined by Robin Roberts, CEO Of Pikes Peak National Bank, to discuss what constitutes such a package and how business plans differ depending on your scope and reach. They also talk about why banks favor those mitigating risks and how banking changed a lot over the years because of politics and culture. --- Watch the episode here   Robin Roberts On Putting Together A Loan Package Have you ever wondered why banks sometimes do things that are not quite clear? In this series, we have Robin Roberts. She is the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She’s here to demystify some of those things. We’re going to talk a little bit in this short episode on the best practices to improve your odds and getting that loan that you’ve lived with for loan success. Enjoy it. --- I’m the business owner and I’ve done a good job. I have a reasonably good relationship with my bank. We have talked about this in some other series of things not to do. In the things of to, I want to take it and do a strategic acquisition for my business. I want to put together a loan package, present it to the bank, and do everything that’s within common practices to increase the out-of-the-bank gone. I understand what you are trying to do. I can see the numbers, we are willing to take in, and be a business partner with you in this note. What can they do? I have with me, Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. More of our series of things you didn’t know about banking but wish you did. [caption id="attachment_5877" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Loan Package: The better prepared you are with this information, the faster the loan decision will be made, and you can get to whatever goal you’re after.[/caption]   It depends on the type of loan that you are wanting. There are some things in your loan package. They are always going to have to be there. The better prepared you are with all of this information, the faster the loan decision is going to be made and the faster you can get to whatever goal it is that you are after. If you are doing anything new, starting a new business, adding a second product line, buying someone else’s business, or expanding and opening another location, you need to have a business plan. Now, it doesn’t have to be 500 pages. The bank is not looking for you to do something that is 500 pages. If you are an existing business, you are opening a second location or you are adding to an existing product line, the business plan is a validation of your business model. If you are a startup, you are writing a business plan to validate that the product or service that you are going to provide is needed. If you are already in business and you are generating revenue, that question is already answered. Somebody needs your product or service and you are generating revenue so you already exist. Less work has to be done on validating your business model and more work has to be done on, “Here’s how we are going to pay for the second location.” More financial projections, more talk about who the management team is going

  Banks has always been a secretive establishment, heightened even more so by The Bank Secrecy Act. This makes most, if not all transactions with them a bit unclear and complicated. Bob Roark sits down with Robin Roberts, CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank, to delve into this law and how the 9/11 incident strengthened it through the Patriot Act. She explains why it is better to simply go on with your usual bank transactions instead of structuring it. Robin also talks about the penalties that come with breaking the Bank Secrecy Act both on the side of the customer as well as the banks. --- Watch the episode here The Bank Secrecy Act, What It Is And Why Business Owners Should Be Aware With Robin Roberts, CEO Pikes Peak National Bank Have you ever wondered why banks sometimes do things that are not quite clear? In this series, I have Robin Roberts. She’s the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. She’s going to be talking about the Bank Secrecy Act and how that might apply to you as a business owner. Enjoy. Thank you. --- How many times you have said, “I’ve got a secret and I’m not telling.” The banks have secrets too, but it’s not because they want to have secrets. It’s because they have a Bank Secrecy Act. We thought we would take in, pull the cover off of the secrets in the Bank Secrecy Act. You talk about them and how they might affect you as the business owner and a client of a bank. Robin, thank you. This is Robin Roberts the CEO of Pikes Peak National Bank. We are in the demystifying stage of talking about lending, banking and business owners. I always felt like I need to talk about the Bank Secrecy Act because it’s a law. First of all, it was created in 1971 or 1972 to at least find racketeering, drug rings and money laundering being done through the banking system. After 9/11, with the Patriot Act, the Bank Secrecy Act was strengthened. Several things were added to the Bank Secrecy Act that banks have been doing since 2001. The Patriot Act continues to be renewed by Congress so they stay in place. I’m not telling any secrets. You can look up the Bank Secrecy Act and the regulations, it’s publicly available but I don’t think it’s public knowledge. [bctt tweet="Any business dealing in money is going to have to follow the Bank Secrecy Act." username=""] Most people do not understand how much the bank is reporting about you and not under penalty of law for the bank but under penalty of law for individual employees who do not follow the Bank Secrecy Act. This is a particular law where the employee themselves can be assessed that is called a Civil Money Penalty or assessment where they have to pay a fine because they didn’t follow the Bank Secrecy Act. There are severe penalties for not following it. That’s how seriously the Bank Secrecy Act is looked at by bank regulators and by bankers in general. [caption id="attachment_5889" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Bank Secrecy Act: Most people do not understand how much the bank is reporting about you and not under penalty of law for the bank, but under penalty of law for individual employees who do not follow the Bank Secrecy Act.[/caption]   With that being said, one must not cross the Bank Secrecy Act. Our favorite discussion is the one about if I deposit X dollars at this bank and X dollars at this branch, is that a reportable thing? Please don’t ask...

 The vast majority of business owners spend somewhere between 90% to 95% of their time working IN their business and only about 5% working ON the business. Running the business is working in it; exit and transition planning are working on it. However, when it’s high time to sell, most business owners don't know what they don't know about selling their company. They are unaware of how to transition or exit their business. Joining Bob Roark on today’s show is Cam Bishop, the Managing Director at Raincatcher, a business brokerage and M&A firm that partners with entrepreneurs and business owners looking for help in buying or selling remarkable companies. If you’re thinking about selling your business or in the process of doing so, you don’t want to pass up this episode as Bob and Cam dive into the exit planning fundamentals that will help you extract additional value out of your company.---Watch the episode here:[embed]https://youtu.be/eB4ILmWLn_g[/embed]Exit Planning Fundamentals With Cam BishopWe're incredibly fortunate we have Cam Bishop. He's the Managing Director at Raincatcher. It's a business brokerage and M&A firm that partners with entrepreneurs and business owners who are looking for help in buying or selling remarkable companies. He is the author of Head Noise: Perspective and Tales from the Executive Suite and Onward & Upward: Motivational Advice for Career Success. ---Cam, thank you from Kansas City and for coming on the show. We appreciate it.Thank you, Bob. You’re welcome. I'm glad to be here.Before the show, I did a little bit of homework. I looked at your long resume of experience. If you could, give us a quick snapshot or thumbnail of your experience prior to here.It has been an interesting journey. I went to the University of Missouri School of Journalism. I got a degree in Journalism and came out of school. I wanted to become an advertising copywriter. I thought I'll spend my entire career working in ad agencies. Instead, I started out in a marketing job and writing ad copy in a small publishing firm. It was a $7 million business. It got acquired and the new owner said, "We want you to go out and buy companies to grow this thing." We grew from $7 million to $13 million, to $90 million and then we got sold again. We grew from $90 million to $300 million. I stepped in as the CEO of that company and we grew it to $400 million. It was a profit machine. We were throwing off $100 million a year. We had 2,000 employees in 23 US cities in 4 or 5 foreign countries. It was a crazy ride.[bctt tweet="The integration plan is the absolute make or break of the deal." via="no"]The management structure changed and I said, "I liked this business model." I took six months off, wrote a business plan, flew around the country, pitched in the concept to about 50 different private equity firms, and ended up landing in a very happy relationship with JPMorgan Chase Banks' Private Equity Division. At that time, they had about $6 billion fund they were working out of. Unlike most PE deals, we didn't start with a direct acquisition. We started on my kitchen table. We went out and sourced a business as a starter, what they call a platform company.We ran the same model I had been running at the previous business, which they called in the PE world, the leverage roll-out business, where you buy a platform company and then you rapidly begin to tap companies that are strategic fits for your business. You build it up into a much bigger company, then you exit that...

 People often have this misconception that investments in marketing almost always run contrary to an organization's mission. They feel that any spending that isn’t directly tied to the mission runs counter to the good you accomplish in the world. Bob Roark and his guest, Stu Swineford, tackle this very subject today. Stu is the author of Mission: Uncomfortable - How Nonprofits Can Embrace Purpose-Driven Marketing to Survive and Thrive. Stu talks about purpose-driven marketing, showing that marketing isn’t really a bad thing, especially if you’re the leader of a non-profit organization or its marketing department.---Watch the episode here:[embed]https://youtu.be/XIxoAhUkEbc[/embed]Purpose-Driven Marketing With Stu SwinefordMarketing is not a dirty word. As a leader of a nonprofit organization or its marketing department, you may have been told that investments in marketing run contrary to your organization's mission. At the least, you may feel that any spending can't be directly tied to the mission that runs counter to the good you accomplish in the world. We're going to talk about that. My guest is Stu Swineford. Stu is the co-author of Mission Uncomfortable: How Nonprofits Can Embrace Purpose-driven Marketing to Survive and Thrive. He's also the co-founder of Relish Studio, a digital marketing firm and he's also the host of his own podcast, Relish This. Stu, thanks for taking your time.Thank you for having me on, Bob. I appreciate it.Fair disclosure, Stu and I are working together on a website. They do awesome work so I can attest to that right upfront. One of the things that we wanted to cover is one, we will talk about purpose-driven marketing and then the pillars of purpose-driven marketing, which are attract, connect, bond and inspire. Stu, maybe the first thing that we want to dig into is your thoughts on purpose-driven marketing.Thanks, Bob. Purpose-driven marketing is a phrase that we came to over the course of a few years where we're trying to give people the idea that marketing shouldn't just be an activity that you spend money on and check a box but it is something that should return an outcome. A lot of people think about marketing as a cost. One of the things that we've tried to establish in purpose-driven marketing is that it's more of an investment. It's something that you're doing to either run experiments or prove a hypothesis or tackle a challenge that you're having with your organization.There should be an outcome attached to that and it should be a positive outcome. That's what purpose-driven marketing is all about. Purpose-driven marketing can be applied to both for-profit and nonprofit businesses. It's marketing that has a specific goal in mind and we try to create all of the mechanisms by which you can attain that goal. In the context of Mission Uncomfortable, the book that I wrote, it's geared toward those businesses in the nonprofit sector specifically but the purpose-driven sector, additionally, to try and help them fuel growth.Fair disclosure, too, I read your book. Thank you for providing the copy. In the nonprofit arena, the folks that are in charge of marketing are trying to identify who their avatar or ideal donor and/or client might be.We usually start these discussions with an exercise that we call the values, vision and mission...

 Selling a business is much more complicated than handing it over for an amount of money and then walking out of the room. On the part of the buyer, it involves a meticulous process of diligence and preparation. If those buyers, who are experts in buying, are taking the effort to be prepared before the transaction happens, why should you, the seller, who is probably selling for the first time, not want to achieve the same level of preparedness? Joining Bob Roark on the show, Raincatcher CPA Aaron Linnebach has some advice for business owners who are thinking about selling their companies at some point. Old wisdom tells us that “The early bird catches the worm,” and it couldn’t be truer when it comes to M&A. Listen in and learn why you should already be investing in exit preparedness now, even if (especially if) you’re not raring to let go of the reins just yet.---Watch the episode here:Start Early: Hard But Necessary Advice For Business Owners Thinking About Selling With Aaron LinnebachThe one thing that I would tell a business owner is to start the conversation early. If you can find your advisory team before you're ready to sell, and start discussing the things you can do on your business so that when it comes time to close that deal, you're prepared. You've got a clear strategic goal. You've got a compelling investment thesis. Starting early before the deal is about to close is only going to create money. It's only going to create extended value for your business.Our guest is Aaron Linnebach. He is the Managing Director of Raincatcher. Aaron, thank you so much for coming on the show.Bob, thank you so much for having me. It’s always a pleasure to talk to you.We have a little history. We've shot out a few birds here a little bit, so that's a good thing. I've seen him in the field, in his natural setting for lack of a better term. Aaron, tell us a little bit about Raincatcher. What is your role at Raincatcher? Your backstory about how you came into this field is interesting.Raincatcher is a business broker and M&A advisor for small to medium-sized businesses. We help deliver it to you in our succinct form. We help business owners buy and sell remarkable companies. We exist to represent sellers when it's time to go to market. My personal role in that is incredibly exciting. I get to spend all day every day working with my team and our business owner clients to help shepherd that business through the process of getting ready to go to market, pulling the trigger and go into the market, navigating all the uncertainty in that path, and then successfully closing that deal. It is an incredible honor and privilege to be a part of that process.For us, it boils down to four main value add activities that we take. The first is emotional. It's a big deal to sell a company or your business. It's not all about the numbers and the Ps and Qs. Oftentimes, it's about the heart as much as anything else. We help navigate that part of it. We help take the mystique and the mystery out of selling your company. The next part is educational. It's making sure the business owners are smart on what they need to do today, what they need to do tomorrow, and what they need to do the day after that to complete that objective of selling the company successfully. The next one is strategic. That’s where we differentiate ourselves. It’s being able to take a strategic perspective on the overall life cycle of your business and why now is the right time to go to market, and then it’s tactical. It's the blocking and tackling. It's the boots on the ground grind of...

 Business acquisition is a unique challenge, especially if you’re an owner-operator who’s being pitted against larger private equity entities. Navy SEAL officer Ian Hossfeld knows where his competitive advantages lie and tries to stay within that lane in his ongoing search for a company to acquire. Ian is the founder of The Foss Mountain Company, which was created in 2020 for that specific purpose. He spends time with Bob Roark on the show to share what his company is looking for in a business, as well as some insights on what business owners should be looking at if they’re planning to sell. If you’re a business owner who’s contemplating an exit, listen in to know if Ian is a good fit for you. If not, then he would gladly help you find a buyer who is! ---Watch the podcast here:[embed]https://youtu.be/kcvjBqljX9E[/embed]Navy SEAL Turned Entrepreneur Lays Down His Business Acquisition Criteria - Ian HossfeldIn this episode, we have a special treat. We have Ian Hossfeld. He is the Managing Partner and Founder of The Foss Mountain Company. He's a SEAL Officer with the US Naval Reserves. Ian, thank you for joining us. Bob, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to join you. Ian and I ran across each other. He is working on purchasing a company. I thought we would take and dig in with his thoughts on the type of company he's looking for and some of the criteria. Ian, in a thumbnail sketch, give us a quick snapshot of what got you from the Navy to where you are now. I was a Navy SEAL Officer on active duty for eight years before transitioning from active duty to the Reserves, returning to school to get my MBA and pursuing this path. A couple of steps along the way that led me to this. What led me to transition from active duty was in 2016, my wife was pregnant with our first born. I was staring at my fourth deployment in five years and didn't see that changing while I was on active duty. I wanted to be around more for fatherhood and chose to leave active duty but still be able to serve while serving in the Reserves. You do when you don't know what you want to do and that's go back to school. I went and got my MBA. I wanted to do something with entrepreneurship. What led me to that was on my last tour on active duty, I was deployed to Iraq and was in charge of a 75-man militia in the Upper Euphrates River Valley helping lead the charge to clear ISIS out of the area. In my capacity there, I was in charge of manning, training, equipping and operationally employing this force. In many ways, I had wide left and right lateral limits. I got to be in charge of this force and in some parallels, it’s like being in charge of a company. I loved that autonomy and ability to make meaningful decisions and have to think on my feet. Having to problem solve, to work with individuals both inside and outside the organization. [bctt tweet="There is such a thing as a wonderful business to own, but not a wond erful business to buy." via="no"]It was a meaningful experience that I knew leaving from that, I wanted to replicate that and didn't want to be a cog in a larger machine. I knew entrepreneurship was the right path for me. While I was at business school, I met up with some...

 Not every entrepreneur goes into the process of putting their business on sale. But when the time comes that selling your business is necessary, whatever your purpose may be, you will have nothing to lose on your end if you prepare well. Demystifying the intricacies of business selling and acquisition with Bob Roark is John Warrillow, the CEO of Built To Sell. John discusses how to know the right time to sell a business, present it to potential buyers, and start a healthy bidding war. He also goes deep into the most critical responsibilities business owners must take on when delving into such a transaction, from breaking the news to your employees to treading carefully when signing a no-shop clause.---Watch the episode here:[embed]https://youtu.be/UtLDWtUfbrE[/embed]Preparing To Sell Your Business With John WarrillowEvery business owner will exit their business at some point. If you want to learn how to create value, understand what makes your business attractive to a buyer, and then how to negotiate the sale of your businesses, where John says, “Punch above your weight with that buyer.” You're going to improve your skill stack on this episode with John Warrillow. He's the best-selling author of Built to Sell, top ten Forbes ranked podcast host on Built to Sell Radio, and CEO of The Value Builder System. He has started an excellent four companies. You would agree it's safe to say a couple of things at a minimum. John is a subject matter expert and an advocate for business owners on creating value in their business, maximizing the return on their legacy. He's one busy guy. John, welcome to the show.It's good to be here, Bob.Thank you for taking the time. John, I've read your previous books and I bought additional copies to share with business owners. I’ve got it dog-eared and worn out. One of your books, The Art of Selling Your Business, is an important book. It's a must-have investment for every business owner. I have to ask, being as busy as you are, why this book and why now?It's funny you mentioned the podcast I do. I've done something like 300 episodes and what I've come to learn is that there are cadres, a small cohort of entrepreneurs, who seem to get much better offers when they go to sell their business than the prevailing industry benchmark. It got me curious about, “What is it that the small group is doing? What do they know that others don't? What are the secrets?” Independent of what industry you're in or what the mechanics of your business is. It seems like there was something they were thinking and doing differently. I tried to distill that down into some lessons and some secrets, and that's what inspired me to write the book.You're doing field research. You're talking to business owners every week on Built to Sell Radio. If you don't have your finger on the pulse of the business owner, no one else does. On the selling trends for business owners that were hit in a difficult patch during the COVID pandemic, what do you see the trends doing here during this period of time and post-pandemic?There are two big things that we've seen. We've done some research where we looked at people that complete the Value Builder questionnaire, which is...

 If there is one industry that can be tough to understand, especially if you are doing it legally, it would be the cannabis industry. Those who are in the medical cannabis business know how it can be challenging to understand the regulatory risks and compliance, to name a few. Stepping right in to help businesses and investors navigate this complex and new industry, Nic Easley founded 3C Consulting, LLC. He joins Bob Roark and Jaime Zawmon of Titan CEO this episode to share with us what goes on behind the scenes of this business as CEO, highlighting what characteristics will make one a Titan of Industry. Nic then gives some advice about leading and building a great business, no matter what industry.---Watch the episode here:[embed]https://youtu.be/9iEQcvXuA7A[/embed]Navigating The Complex Medical Cannabis Industry With Nic Easley, Founder & CEO of 3C Consulting And Co-host Jaime Zawmon of TitanCEOIn this episode, we have our special cohost Jaime Zawmon. She is the Founder and President of Titan CEO and our guest is Nic Easley. He's the Founder and CEO of 3C Consulting and he’s the Managing Director of Multiverse Capital. Jaime, Nic, welcome.Thanks for making the time.We were privileged by you taking the time and sharing your experience and wisdom with us. With that being said, if you would, tell us about your business and who you serve.I've been in the legal cannabis industry for many years. Originally, I was an Air Force Linguist and I speak a few languages. I was from the farm county Wisconsin. After the military, I got hurt after about four years and came to Colorado. Medical cannabis was legal in 2006 or 2007 and I got my first medical card. I saw how people were growing and was disgusted by pesticides and indoor lights which is very unsustainable, non-environmental and not safe for patients. I started my business many years ago to help the cannabis industry form in a responsible way.As you see it now being over a $30 billion industry, which is a drop in the bucket for where this would go. It was to help companies understand the regulatory risks and compliance of navigating this brand-new industry that is a medical product. It's an adult-use product, but then also getting into the hemp industry and making papers, plastics and fibers. Helping businesses and investors navigate this complex and new industry is how we established ourselves.What are the typical issues that a client you're serving now has that you were able to solve their problems? I'm trying to paint a picture in the reader's mind of what's your clients and who your clients are?One of the challenges with cannabis is that it's federally illegal and each state has come up with its own medical or adult-use program. At the end of 2020, we have sixteen adult-use states where 21 and older consumption and possession is legal and we have 47 states with some medical laws on their books. About 37 of those are also having medical sales. In a normal business, you're like, “I want to open a gas station or a restaurant,” you would have that state's Department of Health to deal with. When it comes to cannabis, each program is different. I'm working on applications right now in the State of Georgia. Eleven...

 Honing your skills in a certain craft is best done through first-hand experience. In the case of Jason Ganahl, he was able to start his own barbeque restaurant by spending time as a judge and competitor in the biggest professional barbeque contests. Jason sits down with Bob Roark, joined by his cohost Jaime Zawmon, to share how he founded G-Que BBQ and his strategies in maintaining its success, particularly in keeping good connections with customers even beyond good food. He also shares how his business dealt with the changes caused by the pandemic and how he plans to address any future adjustments that may come.---Watch the podcast here:[embed]https://youtu.be/i62p_M84UOY[/embed]Jason Ganahl, Founder Of G-Que BBQ With Cohost Jaime Zawmon, President Of Titan CEOWe are joined by Jaime Zawmon, my cohost, President and Founder of Titan CEO. We also have Jason Ganahl, the Founder of GQue BBQ and the Maestro of Meat.Good day, Jaime and Bob.Tell us about GQue BBQ. Tell us about your business and who you serve. In GQue, we got several different taglines. One of them is “Colorado's Only Championship Barbecue Restaurant.” I started out as somebody who wanted to eat good barbecue and then I became a judge for a professional barbecue contest. I started competing in a professional barbecue contest and opened up a barbecue restaurant. We are the only barbecue restaurant in Colorado that won a professional barbecue contest.How does one get to be a judge? I'm thinking that's clever. It's great but you pack on the pounds being a judge. You eat pounds of food at a barbecue contest, which is great, I loved it. I was a judge many years ago. We have a lot of judges that are 65 or 70 years old. I can't imagine how they feel for 2 or 3 days after they judge a barbecue contest. Even now, if I eat a big barbecue meal, which is nowhere near the amount of meat that you would eat while you were judging a contest, I still feel it the next day. I'll get the barbecue burst the day after at lunch or whatever. I'd burp up smoke and a little bit of the meat. I can’t imagine what it is like for some of these judges. These judges will do it every single week too for 35, 40 weeks out of the year.I think about the travel and the schedule. For you, how did you take and apply what you learned from judging to start to influence what you were offering in your restaurant? I tell people all the time, judging lent itself to a lot of the success I had when I was competing. When you're competing, you're trying to impress just the judges and being a judge for 2.5 to 3 years, I got to learn the entries of how they were presented. I got to see how they tasted but more importantly, I got to think like a judge. There are different strategies involved when you turn food in July at a contest when it's 100 degrees outside. If you're in a humid area, not in Colorado because we don't have a lot of humidity, but you're going to have a different type of flavor profile. If it's fall, in October or September, judges prefer different types of food given the different environments, climates and places of the country you're in.[bctt tweet="When creating a restaurant menu, include food that will not offend any particular person." username=""]It's also important to think like a judge when you're turning in your barbecue at these contests. I think judges helped me in that regard, more than any other regard. I don't know if it helped...

 There are many paths toward financial independence. But which can take you to it faster? Nicole Rueth, the Producing Branch Manager of The Rueth Team, believes it is in using home equity. In this episode, she joins Bob Roark and Jaime Zawmon of Titan CEO to tell us why that is so and how she helps people get to them and capitalize on their biggest asset and liability. Featured as one of the 2020 Titan 100, Nicole then shares what characteristics make a Titan of Industry and how you can build a company with the best version of yourself—from habits and rituals to mindset. Join today’s conversation as Nicole takes you into her journey of leaving a legacy and helping people.---Watch the podcast here:[embed]https://youtu.be/nwB-UwBCUZU[/embed]Leaving A Legacy Through Home Equity With Nicole Rueth, Producing Branch Manager, The Rueth Team, Fairway Mortgage, And Co-Host Jaime Zawmon, President of Titan CEOWe have our co-host Jaime Zawmon. She is the Founder and President of Titan CEO. Our guest is Nicole Rueth. She is the Producing Branch Manager of The Rueth Team at Fairway Mortgage. Thank you for taking the time.I appreciate the opportunity. Thank you for having me.Nicole, if you would tell us about your business and who you serve?As a lender, I serve people who own homes and want to refinance or buy homes but that's 1/100 of what we do. What my team does and what differentiates us in the market is the fact that we come alongside our clients to evaluate what is the swiftest way to get them towards independence financially using home equity. How do they capitalize on appreciation, principal reduction and rental income? How do they capitalize on what is the biggest asset and liability for most people? We solve the problem of how to finance that first purchase, that move up purchase and that investment property that's going to help take care of your family.When you first started on this path, was that your service offering?I first started as most lenders do dropping off candy at real estate offices, trying to connect with a divorce attorney, and trying to figure out who the financial planner that I was going to get referrals from. I operated it small and I was thinking about how do I get the next deal in my pipeline? It was a couple of years later when I started down this path of creating a team. I come from Corporate America so I manage large scale projects. This is back in the day of Andersen Consulting, now they're Accenture. I knew how to develop teams, strategies or solutions. I had no idea how to track that in mortgage lending.When I got out of the corporate business to have three amazing kids who are now young adults and then got back into a job, which that's all I thought it was. It happened to be in lending but I was trying to originate a loan. I started figuring out that I could originate more loans if I had people beside me that believed the same thing and then I got my first investment property. I had somebody come alongside me that cared enough to spend the time to teach me about what that meant because I didn't know, even though I was in the business.I started teaching other people. I had to pay it forward because I was generously given and I had to give it all away. As I'm giving it away, people want some of that and they're like, “I don't know how to build wealth.” Not real wealth

 Marketing is a vital part of the business. As such, there are so many subject matter experts that claim they have the best practices. However, when everybody's doing best practices, they all end up doing basic practices. Working his way around that by understanding how things fit holistically, Jason Cormier co-founded Room 214—a growth studio that helps bring coherence across an organization's brand marketing and sales efforts. In this episode, he joins Jaime Zawmon, Founder and President of Titan CEO, to share how he is helping businesses achieve that while taking us across their shift from digital marketing to growth and coherence. He also talks about the role of human intelligence, the iterative growth in digital, and the value of data gathered from customer conversation. Plus, Jason also shares some of his best leadership lessons, emphasizing how, at the end of it all, it is the people that leaders should take care of.---Watch the episode here:[embed]https://youtu.be/FgDaQWYUeKk[/embed]Jason Cormier, Cofounder of Room 214, with co-host Jaime Zawmon, Founder and President of TitanCEOWe are joined by Jason Cormier. He's the Cofounder of Room 214 and my co-host, Jaime Zawmon. She's the Founder and President of Titan CEO. Jaime and Jason, welcome.Thanks a lot, Bob. I appreciate it.We talked a little bit before the show. I am fascinated by what you do. If he could tell us a little bit about your business and who you serve.The name of company is Room 214. We are what is called a growth studio. We help bring coherence across an organization's brand marketing and sales efforts. We have a digital marketing agency background. A lot of folks come to us for those kinds of services. We've migrated a bit outside of what you would probably consider as traditional digital marketing and social media. Real quick to finish the answer to the question, the clients that we serve vary quite a bit. From funded startups to Fortune 100, across multiple industries over the last several years.The question that comes to my mind is you've migrated a bit from digital marketing to growth and coherence. Paint me a picture of what that looks like.When you look at digital marketing, in particular, and what you understand about marketing in general is that when everybody's doing best practices, what they're doing is basic practices. What you learn pretty quickly is what worked last season doesn't necessarily work this season, or what works for your competitor doesn't necessarily work for you. What happens is you get a bunch of people in marketing that are frustrated over time. They're working their butts off. The chief marketing officer and the chief revenue officer, these two roles these days, there's so much responsibility on their shoulders to increase leads, increase sales, whatever the case may be.The problem is they keep running up against the same walls. There are a lot of great subject matter experts in digital marketing and a lot of great marketing agencies out there, but what we found over time, and this is the migration, is that understanding how things holistically fit is where that's going to be most helpful to people. For example, this concept of coherence. If you look at a CEO or even ask a CEO, “Where's there coherence in your business?” You might get a deer in the headlights look from them. If you say,...