In this episode, we have the privilege of speaking with Chandler Reed, the Owner and CEO of Get Green NOI, a prominent commercial green energy contractor. Additionally, he is the Co-Founder of SMBootcamp, an esteemed education platform specializing in small-to-medium business (SMB) mergers and acquisitions.
Chandler shares his remarkable journey of acquiring Get Green NOI alongside his Partner in May 2021, shedding light on the intricacies of navigating distressed deals and the resilience needed to operate a challenging business. We delve into topics such as seller carry strategies, the art of finding partners and sellers, and the complexities of turning a distressed asset into a thriving venture.
Chandler’s entry into the industry is an inspiring tale of seizing opportunities. Upon being identified by Sam via Twitter, Chandler boldly embraced the chance for his first acquisition through a simple DM, despite his initial unfamiliarity with ETA and the M&A industry.
His rapid immersion into the world of purchasing, operating, and expanding small businesses has equipped him with invaluable insights. Throughout our conversation, Chandler reflects on the experience of acquiring a project-based construction business and candidly discusses the associated challenges and rewards. Furthermore, he shares crucial lessons learned regarding the risks inherent in acquiring a business closely linked to interest rates.
This episode is a testament to the power of embracing unforeseen opportunities and navigating the uncharted terrain of entrepreneurship.
In this podcast episode, we discuss:
- Navigating distressed deals and the resilience needed to operate a challenging business.
- Seller Carry strategies
- The art of finding partners and sellers in SMB
- The complexities of turning a distressed asset into a thriving venture.
You can connect with Chandler Reed on Twitter: @ChandlerReedSMB
Additional Resources:
- Access our archive of video interviews on YouTube
- Checkout our upcoming Conference – https://malaunchpad.com/
- Get in touch with show hosts Casey Minshew and Feras Moussa at – info@equitylaunchpad.com
- Looking to invest in M&A opportunities or partner with an advisor to acquire, scale or sell your business? Visit Equity Launchpad
Transcript
00:00 all right on today’s episode with
00:01 Chandler Reed we went through a huge
00:03 variety of topics talking about a seller
00:05 carry talking about the power of Twitter
00:07 and how you can find partners and
00:08 sellers on there and ultimately talking
00:10 about how to do an unconventional deal
00:11 from a deal that has distress has a
00:13 single employee and has no recurring
00:15 Revenue so all the things people tend to
00:17 shy away from Casey what were your some
00:19 takeways man talk about getting an NBA
00:21 and owning and running a business I mean
00:23 taking down a distressed asset the
00:25 roller coaster ride holy cow what a
00:28 story man absolutely so on this one we
00:30 talk about the highs and lows of being
01:31 an entrepreneur so definitely listen and
01:33 check it
01:37 out hey everybody Welcome to the m&a
01:39 Launchpad podcast today our guest is
01:42 Chandler Reed Chandler is the owner and
01:44 CEO of get green noi commercial green
01:47 energy contractor that he acquired with
01:48 his partner Sam Rosati in May of 2021
01:51 he’s also the co-founder of SM boot camp
01:53 a leading educational platform in the
01:55 small to medium business m&a industry
01:57 Chandler welcome to the show thanks for
01:59 coming on hey Chandler guys thanks for
01:01 having me so much I’m so pumped to be
01:03 here a glad to have you on and you know
01:05 we did a little bit of pre- meeting
01:06 before this and luckily Chandler’s a
01:08 pretty open book candid guy similar to
01:10 us so we’re gonna kind of do a deep dive
01:11 on all sorts of topics and I’m excited
01:13 to hear this story because it’s it
01:15 sounds pretty phenomenal yeah yeah and
01:17 so maybe to get this thing kicked off
01:19 right you know let’s just go straight to
01:20 the to to the meat of It ultimately
01:23 distressed business right that’s kind of
01:25 you know maybe share a little bit about
01:26 what you bought and you know what made
01:28 you think to actually go for that of all
02:30 things because real quick before that is
02:32 not the traditional search model right
02:34 it’s yeah okay yeah and really quick
02:38 actually you know for for those that are
02:40 listening right Chandler was a Searcher
02:42 right which is someone essentially who
02:44 raised money to go focus on finding a
02:46 business to buy right and so that was
02:48 kind of Theo and the model he was going
02:50 down is that right Chandler well that is
02:52 almost right uh I didn’t know what
02:54 searching was until I realized I was a
02:56 Searcher I guess when I had a business
02:58 under Loi so we can we can certainly
02:00 about that more too let’s
02:02 jump yeah so I guess let’s set the stage
02:06 so uh I went to school for uh Finance in
02:09 real estate got a job out of school
02:11 working in real estate private Equity I
02:13 thought that was my lifelong dream that
02:15 was my trajectory you’re going to climb
02:16 the corporate ladder maybe be a CIO one
02:18 day who knows but that was what I was
02:21 dead set on and maybe had some
02:23 entrepreneurial aspirations but I had no
02:25 idea what shape it would take I thought
02:28 it was really just going to be maybe
02:29 opening up my own private shop or
03:31 development firm one day yeah cool so
03:33 Flash Forward uh or flashback excuse me
03:36 it is January of 2021 so as you guys
03:40 know we’re still very much in the throws
03:42 of covid I had been working from home
03:44 for about a year uh I started getting on
03:47 Twitter and reading more about you know
03:49 whether it was SB twit or rwit these
03:52 people that were kind of more
03:53 entrepreneurial and sharing their
03:54 experiences on how they were doing kind
03:57 of the stuff that I’ve been doing but
03:58 for themselves I’m like okay okay that’s
03:00 pretty neat and lo and behold one day I
03:03 see a tweet from my now business partner
03:05 Sam raditi um basically the impetus of
03:08 the Tweet was hey I have a deal here in
03:11 Tampa Florida I’m looking for someone to
03:14 buy it with me and then run the company
03:16 and here are my three criteria you need
03:18 to know multif family real estate pretty
03:20 well you need to have a little bit more
03:22 hustle than Capital which I didn’t know
03:25 at the time but that translates into
03:26 this is a big turnaround and then
03:28 finally you have to be either relocate
04:32 to Tampa Florida as soon as possible or
04:33 already be here so I kind of sit in
04:36 there and I I look at the Tweet I’m like
04:37 oh my gosh like was this like tweet
04:40 directed right at me I check all three
04:41 of these boxes so sure enough you know I
04:44 ended up dming them Mambo Twitter in
04:46 LinkedIn um we hop on a 15 minute phone
04:49 call kindy to figure out you know we
04:51 both went to the University of Florida
04:53 together we’re both from Tampa we just
04:54 didn’t know each other there’s about an
04:56 eight-year age gap between us but you
04:58 know we were probably one or two degrees
04:60 is separated from you know being best
04:02 friends pretty much we knew all the same
04:03 people very cool all that good stuff so
04:06 long story short uh about four months
04:09 later we end up closing on the business
04:10 together but I’ll kind of take you
04:11 through that I know just kind
04:14 of so really quick so Sam I guess he
04:18 came across the business and he was
04:20 looking for that person to come in and
04:21 run it with him or was it just even more
04:24 of an idea even before he even had the
04:26 business identified no so he so what Sam
04:30 does what Sam had done he was a
05:31 self-funded Searcher himself bought two
05:33 deals literally was going on a SE did a
05:36 search found one business bought it and
05:39 a month later another one came across
05:40 his desk and he bought that one too so
05:42 he literally bought two deals with then
05:44 two separate deals one was a patio
05:46 screening company and one was like a
05:47 dumpster rolloff business within a month
05:50 of each other um he also had his his
05:52 brother as a partner there but yeah some
05:53 crazy St there so he bought those uh
05:57 they did well with it I guess well
05:58 enough and sold them and all of a sudden
05:00 you know he’s got a pile of cast Ling
05:02 around and he by trade was an m&a lawyer
05:05 and a CPA so he kind of knew the space
05:08 but then started getting really more
05:09 tapped into the SMB world uh now he’s
05:12 kind of a an investor in at least in a
05:14 dozen kind of small businesses and also
05:16 does buy side m&a advisory so I brought
05:19 that up because he gets a certain amount
05:21 of deal flow that just comes across his
05:22 desk people know that hey he might not
05:24 be the guy for the job but he can do
05:26 something with it so lo and behold Here
05:28 Comes this disc in uh no one would touch
06:32 it with the 10-ft pole passed on by
06:33 multiple strategics um multif Family
06:36 lighting contractor called Onyx energy
06:39 that comes across his desk basically
06:41 with a note from his broker saying hey
06:44 just to want to let you know we had the
06:46 seal no one’s touching it you know
06:48 anyone that could do anything with it
06:50 and then he goes and takes that on
06:51 Twitter which ends up getting on my
06:54 timeline and we end up connecting and uh
06:57 yeah we ended up closing on the business
06:59 together four months later also right
06:01 place right place right time for you
06:03 right because it definitely sounds right
06:04 up your alley I’m surprised Sam would
06:06 that gutsy to think to find a partner
06:08 like that just tossing it out into ether
06:10 but you know what’s amazing is just the
06:11 communication on a lot of these social
06:13 media platforms you know we just hired a
06:15 CEO to run the company that we Acquired
06:18 and I connected with him on the buy than
06:20 build Facebook group he he posted a post
06:22 saying hey anybody doing manufacturing
06:25 Industrial in Houston and literally you
06:27 know two days later we’re having coffee
06:29 and he’s an ideal fit for what we’re
07:31 doing it’s just G it’s gone well so
07:34 far no so then so I guess you know walk
07:38 us through the deal so I guess once Sam
07:40 found the potential day-to-day operator
07:44 right you in this case yeah was it at
07:46 that point in time that he then
07:47 approached the seller and basically
07:48 started to work out you know deal and
07:50 really dive in a little bit for those
07:51 that don’t know what is multif family
07:53 lighting operator right what are you act
07:55 what is the actual product what is the
07:56 company doing and then how did that
07:58 conversation go with the seller once you
07:59 guys kind of found it you were match
07:02 yeah so what we actually did was so this
07:04 company was founded in 2014 back when
07:06 LED lights were kind of a new nent
07:08 technology um so they would come into
07:11 institutional multif family communities
07:13 think you know the 300 plus unit whether
07:15 it’s a garden style mid-rise high-rise
07:17 Etc um and come and retrofit all of the
07:20 old hallogen and um the CFL lighting
07:24 with this new efficient LED technology
07:26 one it’s brighter two a lot of them are
07:28 bulbless so you don’t have to do the
07:30 kind of repair and maintenance switching
08:32 out bulbs and stuff it let your
08:34 maintenance and um you let your
08:36 maintenance team go work on focus on
08:37 work quarters and then also and the
08:40 biggest kicker is that there’s a huge
08:41 Energy savings associated with it so
08:43 it’s almost like a no-brainer for these
08:44 people actually and I’ll add one more to
08:46 because I have that multif family
08:47 background during kind of 20 early 20
08:51 maybe 10 to 2020 21 there’s a really
08:54 popular thing in the agencies right
08:56 Fanny and Freddy where they had a green
08:57 program where essentially if you agreed
08:59 to do certain amount of energy savings
08:01 You’ actually get a better interest rate
08:03 as well so we did several deals like
08:05 that it was more for us what we found
08:07 the most bang for the buck was usually
08:08 more so on water savings but definitely
08:10 energy was a big part of that too and
08:12 we’ve we’ve done things all that same
08:13 vein to get that better interest rate
08:15 too yeah exactly so actually we we’ve
08:17 done some deals like that in the past
08:18 but the the kick the differentiator
08:20 there is like with those loans they
08:23 would make you go and make improvements
08:24 to the Interiors of the units which to
08:26 be candid and I’m sure you might know
08:28 this as well like teally if you’re going
08:30 to go retrofit your lights you only care
09:31 about what you’re on the hook for on
09:32 your energy bill wise so that’s Prett
09:34 the common are is the exterior the
09:36 amenity spaces stuff like that so
09:39 basically this company would go in and
09:41 retrofit all the lights that you could
09:43 think of primarily and the the owner on
09:45 the hook for energy saving or energy
09:48 bill lights but also in the green loan
09:50 programs you know we come in and do
09:52 units as well but so we saw that
09:55 business as it was um so what it
09:58 happened was why it was up for for sale
09:00 the previous seller who was kind of a
09:02 serial multif family um entrepreneur
09:05 vendor he’s kind of pioneered the valley
09:08 trash business model back here in Tampa
09:10 uh which is really cool which is now
09:12 like you know he sold it for gobs of
09:14 money and then the private Equity
09:16 company that bought it turned it I think
09:18 it’s now like
09:20 valet
09:23 living exactly so Valley living was the
09:27 I guess successor company to the the
09:29 company that the guy bought my business
10:31 from founded which is pretty cool so he
10:33 then was like all right what do I do and
10:35 he’s like oh these led Technologies
10:37 pretty cool oh there’s a huge Roi oh
10:39 it’s a no-brainer for these owners to do
10:40 it let’s go ahead and do that so he kind
10:42 of started it in 2014 2015 built it up
10:46 to doing about 7even million bucks Top
10:48 Line um and then about in 2018 he
10:51 realized oh hey this is a strictly
10:53 Project based business I want to get
10:55 something back into the recurring model
10:57 like the valley trash was um and so he
10:60 started I Apartments which is basically
10:02 a smart home installation um in in
10:05 management platform so and he ended up
10:08 raising he’s still crushing it with that
10:10 but rais series a for it like so he
10:12 basically took his time attention to
10:14 resources away from Onyx energy the
10:16 lighting business all towards eye
10:17 apartments and even some cases like took
10:19 employees from Onyx energy stuck them on
10:21 eye Apartments so he’s left with
10:23 literally this one business that’s still
10:25 getting a ton of inbound leads because
10:27 you know there’s obviously lights at a
10:29 Department those aren’t going away
11:30 anytime soon with one employee a project
11:33 manager that’s still with us today um
11:36 kind of doing all the Fulfillment side
11:37 there’s no sort of outbound sales and
11:39 it’s kind of dwindling treating it as
11:40 basically a lifestyle business that you
11:42 can run some expenses through you know
11:45 make a couple 100K A Year Without really
11:47 doing anything but at the time his
11:49 investors in the smart home business
11:51 were like dude you got to get rid of
11:52 this you’re you’re not focused 100% on
11:54 the smart home business you got to get
11:56 rid of it so he ends up listing it for
11:58 sale uh Co hits he listed at maybe one
11:01 of the worst times possible so kid
11:04 obviously capex projects like kind of
11:05 took a nose dive during that time frame
11:07 too no one was even going out on sites
11:08 and stuff so basically we’re buying it
11:11 not on its trailing 12 but on its
11:13 potential of hey this could be a $7
11:15 million business again one day and then
11:18 an additional kicker on that was in my
11:20 previous job what I was working before
11:22 doing this acquisition was for a full
11:25 service developer here in Tampa that
11:27 basically developed the first like well
11:29 certified lead certified neighborhood
12:32 with all the bells and whistles ESG that
12:34 you can think of so I kind of saw where
12:36 the market was trending every single
12:37 major kind of institutional Commercial
12:39 Real Estate Group is developing the
12:41 sustainability Department investing a
12:43 ton of dollars into these kind of Energy
12:45 Efficiency and green energy projects so
12:48 I kind of saw it as one hey let’s buy
12:50 this lighting business I know multif
12:52 family we can get it back to its former
12:54 glory and then also as well I know these
12:57 people are going to be buying EV
12:58 charging stations I know they’re going
12:60 to be doing the low flow Plumbing stuff
12:02 I know they’re probably going to be
12:03 doing solar eventually and they’re going
12:05 to be buying it and they’re already we
12:06 already have a relationship with them
12:08 why not service them in those aspects as
12:11 well so behold that was kind of our
12:13 investment pieces so what is the c like
12:16 go into the capital stack so you guys
12:18 when you acquired the business what how
12:21 how what were all the mechanisms when
12:22 you bought it yeah so the mechanism was
12:25 uh effectively you know if we would
12:27 brought this to an SBA lender uh they
12:29 would have said what the hell is this
13:31 there’s no way this is financeable I
13:33 think like maybe there was on the his
13:35 his last year of income taxes that we
13:37 saw there was maybe like 50k of of net
13:40 income on it so he’s like oh you’re
13:41 looking for SBA loan of this much uh
13:44 this is more than the income uh whatever
13:48 but um so anyways the final Capital
13:49 stack ended up being uh we purchased it
13:52 for he wanted a million bucks for it
13:54 again just banking on the potential of
13:56 it rebounding and coming back up with a
13:57 little TLC from an operator he wanted a
13:60 million bucks for it we ended up
13:01 negotiating it down to
13:04 $625,000 25% of that we put down in cash
13:08 up front which was a mixture between Sam
13:11 and I and then a third kind of more
13:14 limited partner that we ended up
13:16 bringing in and 75% of it was uh
13:19 structured as a seller note uh but in
13:22 the form of an earnout so it was
13:24 basically pry awesome structure yeah uh
13:28 especially for a first- Time acquir
13:29 granted like just to paint some more
14:31 picture I was 25 at the time so I’m like
14:33 hey I don’t even know all I’ve been
14:35 doing is running Excel models my whole
14:37 life basically I don’t know how to run a
14:38 business so I’m like all right it’s
14:40 something I can get my hands around and
14:42 like I know multif family granted I
14:43 don’t know about lights but I can
14:46 figure that out as we go and then hey
14:48 here’s a really friendly deal structure
14:49 for me to kind of keep my feet wet I’m
14:51 not servicing any debt like a you know
14:54 personally guaranteed debt if you will
14:55 like SBA loan so between all of that you
14:58 know it was really is a good opportunity
14:00 for me and I ended up pursuing it but
14:03 yeah I could talk a little bit about the
14:04 seller note too because I wanted the
14:06 last thing I wanted was to buy this
14:08 thing from a guy that is like literally
14:10 one of the best maybe mentors you could
14:12 potentially have in the multif family
14:13 vendor space and just pay him his cash
14:15 and like all right he he screws off and
14:18 then is trying to install Smart Homes
14:19 across keep him in the deal bab that’s
14:21 that’s it gotta keep exactly so we
14:24 wanted to keep him in the deal so we
14:25 ended up structuring it as an earnout so
14:27 basically it was a a minimum per quarter
15:30 it was
15:31 25k a quarter or 33% of gross profit
15:36 whichever number was higher um because
15:39 that also hey if we do really well
15:41 you’re going to get paid back better um
15:43 and so based on the minimums I think it
15:45 would have taken us maybe like four and
15:46 three quarters a year to pay off um and
15:50 I’m kind of jumping forward here but
15:51 long story short we ended up getting
15:53 that paid off in August of 2023 so about
15:57 halfway of what we were intending so
15:59 congratulations yeah you do this the
15:01 hard way right so you basically you know
15:03 one person business so that’s already
15:05 big risk you basically had it kind of
15:07 downtrending that’s another risk and
15:10 seller kind of staying out but at least
15:11 you the one thing you had kind of going
15:13 for you was motivated seller right
15:15 motivated seller you get the rice get
15:16 the get the right because and that’s
15:17 what I tell people I will buy any deal
15:20 for any price point if I can get the
15:21 right structure right I mean you know
15:23 even your business I’ll pay hundred
15:25 million for it if the person is going to
15:27 advertise it over you know a million
15:29 years
15:30 I’m paying you know a dollar a year
16:31 right I mean it works out and so you’re
16:34 able to get the right capital structure
16:35 to make the deal work and that’s always
16:37 important for thing deal structure
16:40 everything I mean that that made a big
16:42 deal the nice part is is you avoided the
16:43 personal guarantee so you’re going into
16:45 the deal you know to you you now have
16:48 free reign to to really run hard without
16:51 having to work out with a note or a
16:53 lender or deal with SBA it’s a lot of
16:56 work and plus you’re dealing with 11%
16:58 interest rates right around that time so
16:00 yeah yeah great great structure and it
16:04 was just purely purely an earnout right
16:05 no interest rate no kind of ownload
16:07 anything like that correct
16:10 purely those deals are out there but you
16:13 had to work your butt off to get to the
16:14 uh to get it right yeah so I mean the
16:17 running joke and the kind of you know
16:19 ETA Community is you never really want
16:21 to buy yourself a job and I bought
16:23 myself 10 jobs um so yeah the deal
16:26 structure was adequate for the business
16:28 that I was inheriting
16:30 got it and so then walk me through how
17:32 involved did the seller be afterwards
17:35 right was he actually valuable to have
17:36 as adviser do you still talk to him or
17:38 is he kind of guys split ways and he’s
17:41 kind of doing his own thing now no it
17:43 was great so at least for I mean until
17:45 um you know we ended up paying him off
17:48 uh we were meeting at least once a
17:49 quarter for dinner drinks or lunch I’m
17:51 bringing him my problems hey I’m running
17:53 into this did you see this he’s like oh
17:55 yeah here’s how I solved it and then as
17:56 well um because he’s still in the multi
17:59 family business right just granted a
17:01 different kind of vendor vertical so of
17:03 all the people that you know and he’s
17:05 got a pretty recognizable Name Across
17:08 you know multif family management
17:10 companies multi family investors Etc so
17:13 he would get emails sometimes from hey
17:15 Dave I’m looking to get this lighting
17:17 project completed are you can you help
17:19 me out with this and he would just pass
17:21 it along for us so you know he helped us
17:22 out when a bunch of deals and would get
17:24 us in the door with some people and he
17:26 was invaluable um as far as also one
17:30 teaching me how to run a multif family
18:31 vendor business but then also two just
18:33 kind of doors he was able to open for us
18:35 so this brings up a great point because
18:36 you and I have talked about this you
18:38 know in the multif family space right
18:41 you know how many sellers have you met
18:44 very few all all the melty F you bought
18:46 it’s all done through a broker I mean
18:47 you very very rarely the mo the most
18:50 time sellers whenever doing a buyer
18:51 interview and they’re interviewing us to
18:52 see if we can close a deal or not right
18:55 so Chandler how important is it in the
18:57 process to get to know your seller
18:60 yeah I would say critical um at least
18:03 for at least if you’re going to do a you
18:05 know a turnaround type deal where you
18:06 need a lot of help from the seller like
18:09 you got to be on friendly terms see a
18:12 big requirement for us is we we like to
18:13 see the seller try to stay in for at
18:15 least two years um we I mean that that
18:17 is one of the things you know we’re
18:19 looking at more of the silver tsunami
18:20 conversation right we’re looking after
18:22 the retiring guys buying a boring
18:24 business but there’s so much knowledge
18:27 they have that you’re just not going be
18:28 able to download in six months where
19:30 they where most of the Brokers are like
19:32 hey he’ll stay on for six months you’re
19:34 like yeah probably not our recipe is
19:36 pretty easy it’s the opposite of
19:37 Chandlers right so we’re looking for
19:39 non-distress looking for sellers that
19:41 will be stay in the business at least he
19:43 kind of had a little bit of that we’re
19:44 looking for kind of not one person knows
19:47 it all and that is everything is tied to
19:49 that person but hey I mean like we like
19:50 I tell people you can make money a
19:51 million different ways and it’s all
19:53 about the wherewithal and the drive to
19:54 kind of go do it right
19:57 exactly what were some of the B setbacks
19:60 in this your process from closing to
19:03 running the business the the biggest
19:05 setbacks were you know I didn’t know
19:07 anything about the types of businesses
19:09 that are more attractive for uh small
19:12 business m&a um like if you ask me again
19:15 what I buy the same business and again
19:17 probably not but what I do what I did
19:20 again 100% because it’s just opened so
19:22 many doors to me I’ve grown so much
19:24 personally not just business aside like
19:28 I’m a completely different person than I
19:29 was you know almost three years ago when
20:31 we acquired it and then also like I
20:33 viewed this kind of as like a you know a
20:37 a real world NBA that I was getting paid
20:40 to do with a call option of maybe
20:41 selling it one day and making a ton of
20:43 money so I was like all right sweet
20:45 let’s see that um but I would say some
20:47 of the biggest setbacks were one um like
20:51 buying a business that was so cyclically
20:54 tied to kind of transactions um or at
20:57 least just a very cyclical business and
20:59 especially it’s okay to buy a cycal
20:01 business but if there’s no recurring
20:03 aspects to it like you better make sure
20:06 that you know when when that cycle goes
20:08 down you have some cash in Runway to uh
20:11 support yourself until it starts picking
20:13 back up again so that was that was
20:15 probably the biggest thing and then also
20:16 just trying to like get respect from
20:19 some of these hard mode like blue
20:20 collared construction managers that I
20:22 was selling to when all of a sudden you
20:24 know some snot noos 25-year-old kid who
20:27 doesn’t know anything really what he’s
20:28 talking about was just trying to fake it
20:29 till he makes it is trying to sell him
21:31 products and stuff and then also I would
21:33 say um just with the one employee that
21:36 did transition you know he’s got me by
21:38 about eight years and all of a sudden
21:40 some kid is now his boss that you know
21:43 in the industry that he’d been working
21:45 in his whole life and he knows like the
21:46 back of his hand and I’m coming in here
21:48 like hey man uh how do we where’s the
21:50 where’s the bathroom at again like some
21:52 lowlevel stuff so just trying to manage
21:55 all this and you know at the same time
21:57 just you know trying to have personal
21:59 life as well so it was it was a
21:01 whirlwind but it was something I
21:02 wouldn’t trade absolutely experience you
21:05 know takes you to the path that you’re
21:07 on now and so question so obviously one
21:09 of the big risks of the business is that
21:11 it’s Project based right you need it
21:13 kind of going in have you been able to
21:14 think of any creative strategies to
21:16 actually shift it more towards kind of
21:17 an nrr model or sorry an ARR model where
21:20 you do have some sort of recurring piece
21:21 of that right and I know some companies
21:23 will do it but I mean an LED it’s a
21:25 little bit harder it’s like what do you
21:26 do replace the bulb that never burns out
21:27 you know
21:29 so and another Nuance of our business
22:31 too is we sub out all of our labor so
22:33 it’s IDE project yeah so it’s ideal for
22:37 Project based business right so we
22:39 typically go on site put together the
22:42 scope take pictures of Lights takes
22:43 counts um and then we can bid that out
22:47 to basically a handful of the regional
22:49 kind of subcontractors that we have they
22:51 come in knock out the project wash your
22:53 hands we’ll move on to the next one if
22:55 we wanted to do some sort of like
22:56 programmatic like lighting repair and
22:59 maintenance type program where hey we’re
22:01 gonna install these lights then you pay
22:03 us a hundred bucks a year or whatever
22:05 the math would come out to be and hey if
22:08 the light goes out we’ll be out there
22:09 tomorrow to replace it if we had our own
22:11 H House labor and we maybe only did it
22:13 in like a really tight Market we could
22:15 do recurring Revenue that way but we
22:17 worked Nationwide uh we did a project in
22:20 2021 Suburban Seattle knocked out one
22:23 last year in Manhattan and pretty much
22:25 all across the southeast we’re doing
22:26 projects in Texas right now got them in
22:28 Houston in um so it’s really hard for us
23:30 to implement that model it would have to
23:32 be like getting our subcontractors on
23:34 the hook for that which they probably
23:35 wouldn’t be too happy for it and it
23:36 wouldn’t make Financial sense for us to
23:39 do that but um one of the most exciting
23:41 avenues that we think that we can start
23:44 clipping some of that is with the EV
23:45 charging stations and granted we weren’t
23:47 in a position to do it number one
23:49 because most of our free cash flow is
23:51 going to pay back to the seller which is
23:52 the blessing in the curse of the earnout
23:54 it’s like yeah we’re doing great we’re
23:55 paying it back like oh that’s a lot of
23:57 money going out the door damn I really
23:59 wish I could have this go hire someone
23:00 else um we’ve
23:04 got exactly so what we’re we’re trying
23:07 to do now is between you know our
23:09 partners balance sheet and then also
23:10 working with some third-party lenders of
23:13 doing a kind of like shared investment
23:15 in these EV charging stations where or
23:18 just basically leasing the Stations from
23:20 us like hey we’ll come in we’ll install
23:22 the EVS all the electrical
23:23 infrastructure and then you pay us you
23:26 know basically we’ll split the revenue
23:29 with you and then we’ll pay you you know
24:31 whatever the spaces EV charging stations
24:33 are taking up you know we’ll pay you
24:34 like 50 bucks a month like renting your
24:36 spaces if you will and then we collect
24:38 100% of the revenue and then you pay us
24:40 back over time for the stations no it
24:42 works we’ve done that and we’re doing
24:44 that on a few properties usually there’s
24:46 a REV shair so you want I would actually
24:47 keep the Rev share piece right so you
24:48 can get suckers like me to agree to pay
24:50 for some of it or all of it right and we
24:52 get a refi share piece because I know I
24:54 can spend that $10,000 to do the install
24:56 but I’m getting back you know just to
24:57 make up a number 3,000 a year year off
24:59 the rev share right well obiously you
24:01 get a piece of that we get a piece of
24:02 that but it’s a longer term thing so I
24:04 think it’s a good model and I think that
24:05 makes sense but Chandler tell me this so
24:07 it sounded like were you guys just in
24:10 Florida or did you guys have the idea to
24:12 expand nationally no they were a
24:15 nationwide company so they were doing
24:18 projects all over the country yeah I
24:19 mean it’s a lot like the roofing
24:20 business right Chandler so the roofing
24:22 business right very few guys have all of
24:25 the labor on hand because you have to
24:27 ensure that labor you know it’s hard to
24:28 find Li Etc so instead you get really
25:30 really good at marketing and kind of the
25:33 you know this the putting together the
25:35 bids the pr you know understanding of
25:37 your pricing and marketing you can go
25:39 National and then you have other guys
25:40 that are going do the back end of it and
25:42 that’s exactly the roofing business it’s
25:44 it’s that exact model For Better or For
25:45 Worse right and so that’s yeah so that’s
25:48 basically our model as well um so it
25:50 gives you naal scale pretty quickly and
25:53 then on top of that you’re not having to
25:54 worry about well if a guy falls off the
25:56 roof what happens right who’s who’s
25:58 liable for that got its own set of
25:59 problems so when did you find when was
25:01 that moment when you were like okay we
25:03 we have arrived you know we’re here and
25:05 I know it’s hard to say like oh every
25:07 all entrepreneurs were like oh I can do
25:08 better I can do more but there had to be
25:10 a moment where you were like man we I
25:12 think we’ve pulled this off to a point
25:14 where where We’re Off to the
25:15 Races yeah so the the point where I
25:18 think we really pulled it off is when we
25:19 were able to drum up enough money to
25:22 also not only pay off the earnout but
25:24 also make our first hire outside of
25:27 myself obviously and then the guy that
25:29 transitioned with us that was like and
26:31 I’d never hired anyone before so it
26:33 stayed just you two essentially until
26:34 you guys paid off that guy no so this is
26:38 kind of the roller coaster story I think
26:39 we were talking about this offline but
26:41 so the we get a ton of our I would say
26:45 probably at least 33% of our Revenue
26:47 comes from value ad transactions you
26:49 know one of the big things T Big Ticket
26:51 items that they want to do when groups
26:54 buy a value ad property is freshing up
26:56 the lights you know even if they’re
26:57 already LED like a lot of times there’s
26:59 bugs in it the lenses are cracked and
26:01 yellowed and you can’t raise rents if
26:04 your potential tenants are walking
26:06 around and the lights look like crap so
26:10 we got a ton of business from those
26:12 transactions and then you know as we
26:14 alluded to earlier September 2022
26:17 interest rates spiked I think faster
26:19 than they have ever um and multif family
26:22 transactions especially value ad ones
26:25 after literally like a historic rip from
26:28 postco until Q3 of 2022 just grinded to
27:32 a halt um so at that time we had made
27:36 four hires um four take it back we had
27:40 made three hires in person two project
27:43 managers slash Engineers that were
27:45 helping with the Fulfillment side and
27:47 then one inside sales rep to help out
27:49 with our kind of inbound leads which fre
27:51 me up to go try to get some more new
27:54 clients into the door and then we hired
27:56 a couple vas as well and then lo and
27:58 behold you know I think so I guess to
27:00 paint a picture on what that runup was
27:02 like in year one so from May 20121 until
27:07 December
27:08 2021 we did 900k Top Line um which
27:13 basically annualized it I think it’s
27:14 like 1.1 million bucks 2022 because of
27:18 how hot the market was we clipped three
27:20 million bucks Top Line so I’m sitting
27:23 here 2022 is a good year for multi
27:25 family yeah exactly um so I’m sitting
27:29 here thinking number one I thought it
28:30 was a genius right I was like oh my gosh
28:32 we’re able to go from 900k to 3 million
28:34 bucks oh my gosh genius knowing like
28:36 chand’s like where’s my next business i
28:38 g to go find
28:39 a go I’m like oh this thing this is so
28:42 easy oh my gosh and then lo and behold
28:45 and then we scaled our overhead right to
28:47 match that growth rate and then hoping
28:49 to even you know make another growth
28:51 like that in 2023 and then lo and behold
28:55 um you know interest rate Spike we
28:57 didn’t and hindsight we probably should
28:59 have acted quicker but we just you know
28:01 we’re new business owners or at least in
28:03 this industry um and so come March of
28:09 2023 um after doing three million bucks
28:12 in Topline the year before it’s we’re in
28:14 mid-march and we’ve only signed $110,000
28:17 worth of contracts for that year so I
28:19 had a big ohshit moment of what are we
28:21 going to do and we’re project base right
28:23 so if we’re not doing projects there’s
28:24 no money coming in the door so we
28:27 basically you know look looked at our
28:29 whole cash flow forecast and you know
29:32 realized we had to make some changes we
29:34 had to make some changes fast so we
29:35 ended up having the Leo all the people
29:38 that we had hired last year minus one of
29:40 the vas so as it sits today um it is
29:44 still me the one guy that transitioned
29:47 with us and then one virtual assistant
29:49 kind of running the show but in that
29:51 time we paid off the seller note um and
29:53 the market is not fully where it was uh
29:56 I don’t think it may not even get back
29:58 to where it was in that time frame when
29:60 interest rates were basically zero but
29:01 it’s certainly stabilized more and we’re
29:03 thinking some more transactions will
29:05 come but uh we have some job postings
29:08 out now which is fun which I haven’t you
29:10 know been able to do that for at least a
29:11 year talk about talk about an NBA right
29:13 there that’s that is that is NBA all
29:16 right there you know it’s that moment
29:18 where you’re sitting there and you’re
29:18 looking and you’re going because I I
29:20 have a similar story not GNA get into it
29:22 but it’s like when you’re like oh my God
29:25 where did it go like yeah what happened
29:28 it’s out of your control because it was
29:30 interest rates it’s Market it’s whatever
30:32 it is it’s out of your control nothing
30:34 else you could do and it just takes you
30:37 and I always say man you could craw up a
30:39 ball cry do whatever you can do and you
30:41 get that moment you know I had my moment
30:43 I took 15 minutes and punched the
30:45 punching bag and did all my stuff that’s
30:47 where I found Casey crawled up in the
30:49 corner but then you step up and and be a
30:51 businessman you gota be an entrepreneur
30:53 you know you got to go at it so exactly
30:56 what was your moment how did you feel
30:57 that way what did you do
30:59 um well so the real shitty thing was is
30:03 when we came to that conclusion I was
30:05 literally um I guess what I was doing
30:08 was fun but I was on I went I was on one
30:11 of my buddy’s Bachelor parties um and we
30:14 skiing up in Whitefish Montana and I
30:17 literally you know I’m talking with our
30:19 with our accountant we’re sitting there
30:21 I’m talking with Sam and Bert or the two
30:23 partners and we come to the conclusion
30:25 like hey we got to let everyone go and
30:27 one of the one of the sales girl that we
30:30 had hired she had
31:32 was uh she was on vacation I think at
31:35 that point so I had to call her that day
31:38 because I wasn’t going to be able to
31:39 tell her in person by the time she got
31:41 back had to call her and literally tell
31:42 her over the phone hey here’s what’s
31:44 happening we have to let you go hold
31:45 nine yards uh it was super sad and
31:49 then fast forward a week I’m getting
31:52 back um I had a conference in the middle
31:54 of it I’m getting back literally had to
31:57 I spoke at my grandfather’s funeral on a
31:00 Saturday and then Monday I have to go
31:03 and fire the other two people in person
31:06 um which I hadn’t had to deal so yeah so
31:09 my my moment there was you know I took a
31:11 good a couple days of just like sulking
31:14 and sitting there like you know kind of
31:16 wo is me the world is ending all this
31:19 stuff um but then finally once I was
31:22 able to kind of pull myself up by my
31:23 boot trps a little bit I was like all
31:25 right here’s the situation here’s what
31:27 happened can’t can’t do anything about
31:29 it now how are we going to get out of
31:30 this um and I literally tried to double
32:33 down my sales efforts everything that I
32:35 had been doing um I just tried doing two
32:38 times more trying to get
32:41 creative you name it uh I was trying to
32:43 do it and then luckily um I don’t know
32:46 if this is the the business Gods
32:48 rewarding some tough decisions for us
32:50 but literally April probably a couple
32:53 weeks after and I think a lot of it too
32:55 was clients had kind of recognized oh
32:58 hey this is probably six months or so
32:00 after the interest rates it’s Spike they
32:02 were sitting there like oh hey this is
32:04 kind of The New Normal we’re going to be
32:05 operating in let’s go ahead and start
32:07 spending some money again because you
32:09 know this isn’t going anywhere anytime
32:11 soon and we still want to make these
32:12 projects so April 2023 was ironically
32:15 our best month today as far as signing
32:18 contracts so whether you want to call
32:20 that the business Gods like trying to
32:21 reward you but you’re making tough
32:24 decisions it’s the ups and downs of
32:26 being an entrepreneur he comes with the
32:28 good and you have to make those tough
32:29 decisions right and I think that’s I
33:30 think too many people myself included
33:32 probably Mak the tough decision too
33:34 slowly right and you end up paying that
33:36 price you wait an extra month or two or
33:38 three but it costs you a year or two to
33:40 unwind what you what you should have
33:41 done sooner you know there’s a lot of
33:43 there’s a lot of business gurus out
33:45 there and people talking about you know
33:46 buying a business how easy not they
33:49 don’t really say how easy it is but the
33:51 the context of it seems to be like hey
33:54 you know this is this path is the right
33:57 path you buy a company it’s just going
33:58 to be smooth there’s a lot of that in
33:00 the text in the content you know what
33:02 I’m talking about but you know when you
33:04 hear something like this and for the
33:05 listeners that are listening in and it’s
33:08 it takes a lot of work there there is no
33:11 free lunch here right it’s it takes
33:13 everything out of you the UPS the downs
33:16 and uh you’ve gotta you’ve got to enjoy
33:18 that in a sense not that it’s fun but
33:20 you’ve got to be able to push through
33:22 otherwise you shouldn’t be in this
33:25 industry that’s strong us yeah it’s kind
33:27 of like you know the the destination is
33:29 the journey uh the your end goal it’s
34:32 it’s all about just the process of
34:34 getting of getting there the ups and
34:35 downs uh that’s what you sign up for
34:38 when you do this absolutely one one last
34:40 question so let’s before we dive into
34:42 some of our flash stuff talk a little
34:44 bit about your uh your boot camp it’s
34:46 pretty cool what you have talk just
34:48 spend a moment tell us about it how it
34:49 came up and and what you guys do yeah so
34:52 so it’s funny because I did a
34:55 transaction and not knowing that there’s
34:57 this whole
34:58 space of people or Searchers or you know
34:01 lower Middle Market private Equity that
34:03 are buying some of these deals now too
34:05 of these people that just did it for a
34:07 living like it was a thing I didn’t know
34:09 there was any books on it I didn’t know
34:10 there’s any podcasts on it uh I just saw
34:12 you know hey people started businesses I
34:14 don’t know if people bought them um so I
34:16 kind of bought I kind of went into it
34:18 ass backwards most people learn about
34:19 searching go search buy a business and
34:21 then operate it whereas I bought a
34:22 business and then kind of stumbled into
34:24 it and Sam was a big door into that
34:28 no no I’m saying that’s a little my
34:30 story too I read the book after exactly
35:34 yeah so I kind of stumbled into it
35:35 backwards and then ironically it was not
35:39 it didn’t really sink in that there was
35:40 actually a full like community of people
35:42 that did this and not only just like any
35:44 other community like a community of
35:45 people that I loved hanging out with it
35:47 was like one of the first ones that
35:48 wasn’t like a zero some game of just
35:51 like people trying to grow the pie like
35:53 there’s something out there for everyone
35:54 and I kind of really like fell in love
35:56 with the space but it wasn’t until I
35:58 know uh SM bashed
35:00 2021 which or 2022 which was February in
35:04 Orlando Florida of a 100 people that did
35:07 this stuff for a living you know hold Co
35:09 owners Searchers people that have
35:11 searched and bought multiple deals just
35:13 like holy crap like I love this um so I
35:17 kind of fell into it backwards and then
35:19 kind of as we were pretty slow in summer
35:21 of 20123 you know I’d come so Sam my
35:25 partner had been running these inperson
35:28 in live boot camps for the past two
35:30 years which has started from after he
36:32 sold his two deals that he searched and
36:35 bought uh of just literally like people
36:37 asking him hey how’d you do this and
36:38 inviting him into his office and they
36:40 would get box lunch and they would just
36:41 white board out of like hey here’s what
36:43 I did here’s who you should talk to when
36:45 this happens Etc all the way to now
36:47 which is like a full like not
36:50 institutional you know it’s like like a
36:51 college class but it’s like a full
36:53 legitimate curriculum we have a full
36:55 deal team to help out um Searchers who
36:58 find deals to come and close them and so
36:01 I thought it was really cool I was like
36:02 Sam like you know what what’s your end
36:06 goal for this he’s like I don’t really
36:07 know man I’m like have you ever thought
36:08 about you know bringing it online or
36:09 trying to grow it or do more of them in
36:11 some capacity he’s like yeah but I’m
36:13 just not really sure how I can do that
36:14 well I’m like okay well I know online
36:16 stuff pretty well and I know some people
36:18 that kind of do stuff similar to this
36:20 granted into different spaces so how
36:22 about we partner up on this and I can
36:24 help you out with the boot camp um and
36:27 since then I think I formally started
36:29 helping him out earlier in about May or
37:32 the summer of 2023 and I think each boot
37:36 camps 10cent has just gotten bigger and
37:38 better um it’s gotten more valuable we’
37:40 brought in better deal team members uh
37:43 better tools for Searchers to come
37:45 through and kind of really honed in our
37:47 Playbook on how to make this happen um
37:50 how big is the class you know each round
37:53 and how long does it go for is it like a
37:54 two-month period and you have kind of a
37:56 round of people or what exactly is it is
37:58 only in Tampa or is it all virtual yeah
37:00 so the what we have been doing until our
37:03 first digital one is launching this
37:05 later this month but the live ones it’s
37:07 been three days here in Tampa three days
37:10 of kind of like full you know eight hour
37:12 classroom sessions drinking from a fire
37:14 host of not only like content like the
37:16 block and tackling how to set up your
37:18 search how to go to search best tips and
37:20 tricks working with owners working with
37:23 business brokers and then also once you
37:26 get that Loi sign then running your due
37:28 diligence process so we bring in all the
37:30 deal team members to that and then the
38:32 last day is is kind of case study so
38:34 it’s really cool now uh like I used to
38:37 be one of the people that would go and
38:38 do the case studies but like my story
38:41 isn’t really repeatable so we’re like
38:43 hey let’s probably get away from that um
38:46 you know it’s cool it’s cool and fun to
38:48 talk about but it’s not like anyone’s
38:49 gonna like have a strc of blck like I
38:52 did so it’s really what’s really cool
38:54 now is we’re having alumni who have
38:56 closed on businesses is come back and
38:59 speak and talk about hey here’s what it
38:01 was like when I went through the boot
38:02 camp here’s what it was like during my
38:04 search here’s what my clothes was like
38:06 here’s what I’m you know now that I’m
38:07 operating here’s what it’s looking like
38:09 so it’s been really freaking cool and
38:11 then we wanted to bring it online yeah
38:14 we wanted to bring it online not because
38:17 of any other reason because not everyone
38:18 can get the Tampa for three days in the
38:20 middle of the week or take out the time
38:21 or maybe they’re in San Francisco or
38:24 Pacific Northwest or wherever uh they
38:27 just can’t get the Tampa but we wanted
38:28 to help spread the good word so we
39:31 literally just pretty much recorded most
39:33 of the content that we talk about in
39:36 there and then also it’s
39:38 over six weeks it’s going to be a six
39:41 week
39:41 cohort of two calls a week with not only
39:45 Sam and I but each one of the deal team
39:47 members that I talked about they come in
39:49 give their feel um how to use them and
39:53 then also things to avoid and best tips
39:55 and tricks and practices and then Q&A
39:58 sessions um so that’s over a six week
39:01 period and another really cool thing
39:03 with that too is we’ve started a kind of
39:05 slack community of everyone that’s come
39:07 through a boot camp whether it’s live or
39:09 now going to be digital and live and
39:11 it’s like I think we have about 120
39:14 people in it right now and it’s been
39:15 incredible just the engagement in there
39:17 every morning I wake up and I have like
39:19 90 unread slack messages of like hey
39:21 who’s looking at these types of deals
39:23 hey have you ever structured an Loi like
39:25 this or hey what happens when a business
39:26 broker is telling you this
39:28 and you just get like 10 nuanced answers
40:30 from people that are either you know
40:32 just started searching or from Sam andai
40:35 or from the deal team or people who are
40:37 under Loi or even people now still stay
40:40 active after they’ve closed on a deal
40:41 just because they want to help out and
40:42 kind of pass it forward so awesome man
40:45 it’s about building a community and
40:47 adding value how many people were you
40:49 guys getting at the inperson one on the
40:50 tail end of that oh yeah yeah I forgot
40:53 to bring that up um so we cap it at 25
40:55 people we try to keep it at 20 just
40:58 pretty good 25 people come out for three
40:60 days that’s awesome no like and that’s
40:01 my thing I love about you know my
40:03 background is Tech and the things I love
40:04 about the space is people’s num systems
40:06 right so if you’re comfortable with all
40:07 three of those things typically kind of
40:09 tend to do well exactly so we’ve kind of
40:12 you know we’ve had the benefit of doing
40:13 these for two years now and we’re trying
40:15 to translate obviously with online you
40:17 have the ability to scale it more but
40:18 we’re trying to cap that number because
40:20 after a certain like critical mass or so
40:23 it just gets like less intimate you
40:25 don’t build relationships with the
40:26 cohort the people that you’re with and
40:28 you know you can’t get your questions
40:30 answered you know if you hop on a zoom
41:31 call and there’s 150 people trying to
41:33 all get their questions answered and you
41:34 have an hour 30 minutes you might not
41:36 even get to half the group so what we’re
41:38 trying to do is kind of like the the
41:40 anti- guru method of like hey let’s just
41:43 Market it and get as Jam as many people
41:45 in here as possible we want to keep it
41:46 intimate and valuable as possible and
41:49 that’s you know what I think we’ve been
41:50 building one of the things I I’ll say to
41:52 the listeners you know I I I buy all
41:55 types of programs I mean I think that’s
41:57 one of my things I buy books I buy
41:59 audios I get on online I mean I’m
41:00 constantly learning no matter how many
41:03 transactions we do no matter how many
41:04 things we do it’s like constant learning
41:06 so if you’re not learning you’re kind of
41:08 dying so I kind of encourage anybody
41:10 listening to this and you’re thinking
41:12 about it do not hesitate right I mean
41:14 you’re you you pay how much money you
41:17 pay to go to college I mean we all pay a
41:18 lot of money to go to college and what
41:20 do you really learn right yeah I mean I
41:22 can do like a 45 second Keg Stand like I
41:24 mean those are some yeah I was about to
41:26 say you learn how to shock beer yeah
41:28 yeah yeah but I’ve made some great
41:30 relationships but at the end of the day
42:32 everything I’ve learned is by doing and
42:35 you know you got to have the education
42:36 but you also have to have that Gus to
42:38 get off the couch and go do it right so
42:41 encourage those people to to listen get
42:42 on those trainings and uh and really
42:44 dive into that stuff it’s important yeah
42:47 so that was our thing it’s like you know
42:49 we like I said but we’ve been doing them
42:50 in Tampa there’s nothing wrong with do
42:52 them in Tampa but not everyone can get
42:53 down here and they want to learn and
42:54 they want to learn from us so it’s like
42:56 all right we got to have something for
42:57 everyone here well we got to go to this
42:59 Bash that’s gonna happen we’ll
42:60 definitely reach out we’ll put that in
42:02 the show notes for the listeners too so
42:03 happy to kind of help promote that
42:05 exactly well no so that I guess with
42:07 that said we wanted to move on to our
42:09 rocket round which is so something we do
42:10 for every guest right where basically
42:13 have three the same questions so I think
42:14 first one we wanted to ask is what do
42:16 you like to do in your free
42:17 time uh free time it is 100% golf uh I
42:22 played Sports yeah I played Sports
42:24 growing up all through high school I so
42:26 play like you know church is softball
42:28 league but there’s really nothing that
43:30 kind of like is scratching my
43:32 competitive itch these days as much as
43:34 golf is um I’m I’m not fantastic like my
43:37 handicaps a 20 I’m getting there but um
43:40 see I’m I’m I’m the world’s worst real
43:42 estate guy because I know nothing about
43:43 golf I don’t even know what a handicap
43:44 of 20 means I closest I’ve done is I’ve
43:47 gone a top golf a few times I’ve been to
43:49 a driving range for once but you know I
43:50 mean golf is one of those Sports man my
43:52 daughter you know she’s a competitive
43:53 offer and we’re out there every weekend
43:56 and uh it’s it’s it’s powerful for the
43:58 human mind it’s powerful for all of the
43:00 things that you do besides the handicap
43:02 right yeah I’m a plus I’m a 20 sometimes
43:05 I’m a 26 I mean but yeah I enjoy going
43:08 out and playing and and and and and
43:10 socializing and and it’s it’s a hell of
43:12 a game it’s great said it’s all about
43:14 your partner so if he’s a 26 then that
43:16 makes me a 26 so he said 20 to 20 to 26
43:19 sorry is biger is bigger better or worse
43:21 I don’t even know I will say the best
43:23 round of golf I ever played is when I
43:25 had a caddy yeah yeah was a gameer like
43:29 I shot in the 80s I was like good I was
44:31 like oh my God I can do this and then I
44:33 went out by myself and I’m like what
44:35 happened yeah exactly they’re they’re
44:37 critical awesome all right let’s see
44:40 next question what has been your most
44:42 memorable business
44:44 moment um I think it’s probably the the
44:48 moment when I when the wire cleared uh
44:51 for our first transaction that was like
44:53 oh I’m in the thick of it now money
44:56 leaves your account right yeah yeah yeah
44:58 when the wire left my account and we got
44:00 the notification from our lawyers that
44:02 everything was tucked and tied and then
44:04 literally not 30 minutes after the wire
44:07 came through uh I called my boss and I
44:10 put in my two weeks notice after I was
44:12 waiting to put my notice in until the
44:13 transaction cleared and settled so that
44:16 was something that sticks for me uh I
44:18 think it will stick with me forever I
44:20 still remember that first big wire you
44:22 know first time I did a seven figure
44:23 wire out and you know I feel like I
44:25 screenshot of that thing was yeah
44:27 definitely feel at the time so yeah all
44:30 right and last but not least favorite
45:32 business tool or resource it is without
45:35 a doubt Twitter uh or I guess it’s now X
45:37 but I cannot tell you how powerful this
45:40 platform has been in changing my life
45:43 both personally and then business and
45:45 professionally from finding my business
45:48 that I acquired uh on it to picking up
45:52 some of the most valuable insights that
45:54 in the best part is it’s all free you
45:56 just have to follow people um all right
45:58 well so then after the show you’re GNA
45:60 have to send us your favorite list of
45:01 people to to follow that way you I feel
45:03 like me and Casey are not invested
45:04 enough in you know in Twitter or X and
45:07 it sounds like that’s the place to be I
45:10 I promise you guys there is nothing more
45:12 I spend so much time on it it’s because
45:14 I get like actual Roi you think like oh
45:18 you’re doing social media you’re just
45:19 Doom scrolling you know you’re just
45:21 wasting your time no there’s something I
45:23 learned something from Twitter every
45:24 single day the people that you connect
45:25 with on there the valuing it so you can
45:28 learn on there take it and execute it in
45:29 your own business I’ve won probably 150k
46:33 worth of contracts from business owners
46:35 that I’ve met on Twitter so there’s a
46:37 actual dollar amount Roi associated with
46:39 it like I cannot I will die on that Hill
46:43 that X is the most powerful business
46:45 platform out there awesome man well
46:48 Chandler thank you very much before we
46:50 wrap up how can our kind of listeners
46:52 get a get a hold of you yeah so probably
46:55 first and foremost I’m most active on
46:57 going back to it
46:58 Twitter text now uh my app on there is
46:02 Chandler read SMB um I’m also I try to
46:05 be active on LinkedIn as well just look
46:07 me up Chandler Reed shoot me a
46:09 connection I’m happy to connect with you
46:11 um and yeah that’s pretty much the two
46:14 best places I would say all right yeah
46:16 very powerful man not only are you out
46:18 there buying companies making things
46:20 happen but you’re also giv back by
46:22 helping entrepreneurs which is all we
46:24 can do for this community we’re big on
46:26 that I mean like I said I think is
46:27 important we’re big on building
46:29 community and marketing and kind of
47:30 helping just others grow right I think
47:32 Zig Ziggler said it if you give everyone
47:33 what they want you can get whatever you
47:34 want kind of thing so that’s it very
47:36 much a lot of Truth to that exactly
47:38 perfect well thank you very much really
47:41 appreciate you taking the time yeah
47:43 thanks for having me guys and I wish you
47:45 guys nothing but success on this podcast
47:47 I know it’s going to be big you guys are
47:48 killers you guys are gonna make it
47:49 happen all right thanks a lot appreciate
47:51 it buddy take care talk to you soon
47:53 thank you for listening to the m&a
47:54 Launchpad podcast if you’ve enjoyed
47:56 today’s podcast and would like to
47:57 support us please leave us a rating and
47:59 a review after you listen I’m Casey menu
47:01 and I look forward to talking with you
47:03 next week
