Wins the Week | Reaching “The Peak” | The Process of Selling a Business w/ Ethan Lynn (The founder of Peak Medical)

Audio Transcription

On today’s show. One of my longtime friends and business coaching clients, a man by the name of Ethan Lynnewith peak medical recently had an opportunity to sell his company for a life changing amount of money. So on today’s show we talked about his process of starting his company, growing his company, it ultimately selling his business. There are so many knowledge bombs during today’s interview. I know it is going to help you and your business.

Well, I’m excited to interview you, my friend because a, you have reached the peak of entrepreneurship, the summit of Mt. Entrepreneurship. Could you tell the thrivers about what just recently happened in your life? You have to get into all the nitty gritty details obviously, but what, what just happened?

Sure, sure. Yeah. So I started working with you a couple of years ago and just sold my company. So I had been in business for from on my own for almost 20 years and sold a company and, and there you go.

Talk to us about those 20 years when you first started peak medical, like what is peak medical now and what was it when you first started?

Sure. Well, peak medical really is a, it was and still is a consulting company and we do, it’s, it’s a niche market that we deal in specifically with pathology laboratories across this great nation. And so we, we do consulting services, I t consulting services of all kinds. So interfacing laboratory information support is, you know, I junk staffing, you know, you have it, whatever kind of has to happen with the laboratory system at a, at a pathology laboratory that we were dealing with. And so it was basically kind of a a lot of I guess we were in one aspect of, of the business and we were purchased by a software company who felt that we were a a good I guess additional resource for them. So they, they have a obviously a software package that we’re looking to put out in the market and they needed people with experience who we’re working with, all the different laboratory systems out there and that. So we kind of are going to be their integration arm for that. So, but it was a, it was an interesting, I guess if I could see down the line what would have happened. I never would’ve seen this happening.

Now, when you started peak medical, how did you go about getting your first 100 customers? You know, how did you make that phone ring?

Well, it was, it was kind of interesting. It kind of how it happened. It wasn’t that I had to go and find the customers at the beginning of the customers were coming to me. I had learned a software package at working for a hospital and decided to go out on my own because I had met all these other software users. And I could tell that there was a market for it and people were asking me to help them even when I was working at this hospital. And so, you know, the initially the customers weren’t the, weren’t the difficult part.

So you found a problem that you, you saw a problem. And did anybody come to you and announce to you that they wanted the solution or did you, did you have to come up with a solution and see if they wanted it? Walk us through that. When you first saw the problem, did are people saying, Hey, I would pay you to do this?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean I was actually meeting these different, through the, every year they had a user’s conference for people across the country that use the same software package. Right. I started meeting all these people across the country while I was working for this hospital and towards the end of my time at the hospital, you know, did you, the conferences people were starting to ask me to, for me to help them. So it was, it was, it was kind of handed to me on a, on a silver platter, so to speak. You know, it’s a little different than some of the other entrepreneurs I go out there. They start from scratch and you know, have to drop all their customers, you know, from, from, you know, phone calls or how and whatever else they’re going to do.

Oh, Ethan, do you like apple stuff, apple products? Are you into that? Do you care about it?

I don’t care either way. I, I mostly use PC, but Apple’s apple software is cool. Iphone apple stuff is cool. Yeah.

Well I was going to say, I mean something that I certainly don’t have this level of, of genius and I’m not saying that you’re not a genius, but you are doing what I would consider to be 90% of entrepreneurship. You know, you’re looking for a problem that you can solve. Whereas like Steve Jobs you know, Elon mosque, these guys are sort of geniuses in that the world wasn’t running around saying to, you know, a Thomas Edison, hey, I would like a light bulb please. Cause they didn’t exist yet. Or no one was going up to Steve jobs saying, hey, the mainframe is too big. I want a personal computer. They were just unaccessible by the average person, you know? What do you on Musk is doing with space x right now in, in, in Tesla? That’s kind of that genius level entrepreneur. And I feel like what you’re doing is like the very realistic entrepreneurship that anybody out there could do. However, it had to have seemed a little scary when you first started peak medical, do you remember what it was like to start the company?

Oh, it’s terrifying. It was terrifying. And you’re going on your own and, you know, leaving that that warm place, you know, it’s a very terrifying experience. Yeah, it’s just a matter of, of, you know, I got to a point in my life where I was like, it’s either now or never. And I never liked the idea of somebody kind of holding the purse strings and holding things over my head and making decisions that I didn’t know about. So to me was a, I weighed the goods, I weighed the badge. And the goods out far out with about as far as I was concerned. And you just gotta go for it.

Now, did you and your wife talk about like, Hey, when I get to this much money in the bank, I’m going to start the company? Or did you have a certain jump point that you determined or how did that decision to go full time all in starting your own company a come about?

Well, at that time I actually wasn’t married.

Oh Wow.

Was, was, was fully mine. And I actually got offered a, a consulting contract by a, a different hospital. And so the, the reason that it was, it was easier for me to make that jump was I did have a level of stability. I had a, I had a full year contract with them. And as an independent consultants, you know, I was able to bring on other customers as well. I, I wasn’t, I wasn’t hindered by, you know, noncompete and that kind of thing. So it, it was, it was the best, it was the best of all worlds. You know, had I not have that contract, you know, maybe I wouldn’t have got out of my, I don’t know. I don’t know.

And so when you, how did you pay the bills when you’re first getting started? Like how long did it take you to actually make a profit?

I, you know, I was topical right off the Bat and I know that that’s kind of unique scenario, but I didn’t have a few months where I was really digging into my savings. I didn’t take any time off. You know, I kinda quit my quit one job and started right the next and that’s what made me comfortable.

So what was the hardest part in growing peak medical as you look back two decades? What was the hardest part?

Well, the hardest part for me was, was as the market changes and as the, the job changes, you have to kind of look internally, I think, and, and, and, and change the way that you look at the business and change the way that you operate. And, you know, it’s easy to get kind of set in your ways, so to speak. And one of the great things that, you know, working with you was, is that, you know, you forced me to take a look at things and reevaluate and I think that’s one of the most important things.

You’re a very coachable soul, which is awesome. I know like for me I might be to have no idea what I was doing wrong, you know, with my businesses, I had no idea early on I just, I just was doing it because that’s what I always do. And then I get to a point where I knew I was stuck and I knew that I needed some help but I didn’t even know where to turn to for help. So I turned to a lot of these, you know, contract consultants where they sign you in for like a one year deal and they talk in circles about metaphysics and then you don’t have any action items and it’s just sorta like you just leave with feeling like I must be an idiot cause I’m not getting it or I definitely don’t want this anymore, but I’m stuck with the contract.

I think the neat thing with, with us is when you told me you’re selling the company I’m not sitting there every month going, well, you know, you need to pay me for two more years, you know, there’s none of that kind of stuff. And I was really excited for you to, to sell the company. Walk us through the process of selling the business. What were your initial emotions when somebody contacted you and said, hey, I want to potentially your business. Was it, was it a negative? Was it a positive? Was it, what were you feeling?

Oh Gosh, it was across the board. You know, my first thought was like, you know, this guy is, this guy is just kind of blowing smoke,

Smoke blower

And, yeah, exactly. And so, and this is, that was the first time I’ve ever done it. No. The first person who had ever come to me asking me, you know, potentially to buy, to buy the business. So I, you know, my first thought was like, wow, this is, this is really different. And I guess going down the line I would go, I was getting kind of excited about it. But one of the great things about working with you was that you, you, you were looking at it from a, a, a very, you know, conspiracy theory type of, of I guess the point of view. And you really helped me to kind of stay grounded on that on stuff. And cause I think you have to, during that process, right, it’s not a fast process. It takes a long time. You have to do due diligence. It’s a very involved process and you can’t get to the point where you’re just going to saying, okay, forget it, whatever. You really have to, it’s Kinda like you’re redoing your house, right? And you know, it starts getting difficult and you say forget it or whatever. And then in the end it looks like crap. Right, right. So, so that was, that was a fantastic, you know, service that you provided me as far as keeping me grounded and helping me through the process and looking at it from a conspiracy point of view. For sure.

Now when you went through the process of agreeing on some initial terms, what was going on in, on the home front there? Was your wife a big fan of this idea? Was she saying, don’t do it? Were you saying I’ve got to do it? Was there any back and forth? Was it a deal where she was like, please sell and you wanted to sell? Was there no discussion at all? What did life look like at the Home Front at that point?

Well, the home fries in, I guess I’m very lucky on the home front end is that you know, my wife is, is very, very she, she’s not somebody that’s gonna sit there and, and tell me not something, not to do something she would because she has a problem with it. You know, we always worked together on that kind of thing. Yeah. But there was definitely a lot, there was definitely a lot of discussion around it. And you know, we looked at the goods, we looked at the bads and and the end, all the goods from the sale far outweighed any of the bags, you know, and again, it, it takes looking at yourself, it takes looking at the business and it takes reevaluating kind of everything. And when I looked at the, at the, at the whole picture it was a good thing for me. It was a good thing for my employees. And it was a, just kind of a, it was a merger that was sl, just good all around. And something interesting is, is that as soon as the sale went through, you know, three days later we’re in major discussions with a couple of, a couple of potential customers. Whereas if, if I hadn’t merged with those people and they hadn’t merged with me, then those discussions never would’ve never, never would have happened.

And I know you really care about your team, you know, quite a bit. So before you sold the company, how many people were on your team?

I’ve got five people on my team before. I still got five people now.

Okay. And I know you that weighed on you, you want to make sure that everyone had a job. They had a future. Right. They weren’t, you know, in a bad spot. So after you had all those issues resolved in your mind and then you agreed to terms the moment that the wire came through, you know, when the money comes in, whatever that amount was, right, they wired inch true. Did you get a big check? Did you get a, like a sound effect they sent you to, you know, did you get a Facebook message saying bling bling? Did you know, did w Ed McMahon show up and say, hey, oh, I mean, what happened?

Well, I’m sure I was looking at it from a conspiracy, you know, point of view as you were business coaching me on. Yeah. And so my biggest worry was that I was going to sign everything and they’re like, oh, wait a minute, we’re not gonna. [inaudible]. Yeah, right, right. So, yeah. So basically it was a, that the long drawn out process ended on basically a Friday morning. And as soon as I docusign the documents, I kept watching my bank account and within 10 minutes the wire actually was initiated. So now I can see it as a pending in my bank account. And so it was something that was, you know, is a big relief.

And when, when the money came through, what were you feeling at that moment? Where you going yes. Or [inaudible] or what were you thinking?

Well, definitely arrangement emotions. Well, my first one was like, thank God, you know, that I had, you know, that in the end, you know, they came through on their promises and I did as well. And it was, it was, it was a big relief actually, because the whole selling process is really, you know, I was very much out of my comfort zone. You know, it’s going through something that I had no idea. You’re, you’re, you’re spending a lot of money on lawyers. You spending a lot of time and effort, you know, reviewing you’re, you’re, you’re signing your name to, you know, reps and warranties that, you know, you’re, you’re pretty sure on you know, but there’s always places where you can forget things or, or that. And so it’s a stressful process. So when the, when the money finally came through and everything was signed, it was a relief.

So you, you mentioned, you know, you have to sign these representations and warranties, documents, what other kinds of documents did you have to sign? Cause there there’s gotta be other listeners out there who are trying to sell a company right now. They’re going through this right now. What are the kind of documents that you have to sign?

So obviously the, the, the, the process starts with the due diligence. So which basically means that you have to disclose all of your contracts. You have to disclose all of the company’s assets. You have to basically have an open book to everything that they may, you know, that they may have an issue with. Idea being is that you want to be as forthcoming as possible because the, the company that’s purchasing, you know, it doesn’t want to, you know, get down the line and think, oh, I didn’t know that. And so, you know, hopefully, you know, you know, if people are out there selling their businesses or trying to, you know, one of the big things that that is, is, is you know, a, a strong bookkeeper that knows how to, how to do those kinds of things. So my bookkeeper’s in Austin and so our books were, were tight, they were good.

There was no real, you know, serious questions from the potential buyers. So we got through the, the first due diligence process. And then, you know, a big old fat contract comes our way, which is basically the purchase agreement. And so the purchase agreement really, you’re going through there and you, you know, you’re negotiating back and forth on that, on different terms. There’s again, you’re, you’re, you’re warrantying certain shoes about the business that as they understand it and that you understand it. Yeah. You’re disclosing any kind of contracts that may be in conflict. You know, you have to look at it that way and the end. I also signed an employment agreement, so, and a noncompete. So by selling my business, I was agreeing to not compete against them and I was also agreeing to work with them for two years.

Okay. So I’m going to make sure I’m, and I’m getting, I’m not trying to hold you accountable to remembering every single document you had to sign, but this is, this is powerful stuff for somebody out there. [inaudible] You did, did you, did you guys sign a nondisclosure at some point? Did you sign that?

Yes, yes, yes we did. And Ida, correct.

It was that pretty quick, pretty quick into the deal. Yes. Okay. That was great. Quick. And then you had a, you know, a due diligence document, which basically let them know like, Hey, I’m going to provide conflict of interest. You know, my contracts, you know, as far as any contracts have you’re gonna fold customer disclosure, you know, full asset disclosure a purchase agreement. All these things are being agree. Is there any other documents you remember the end to look at and go, what is this?

Oh, I know you’re leading me somewhere, but I don’t recall.

No, it’s okay. I had, I had a a rule, I wanted to share the listeners out there and I don’t know if you and I ever had to go over this rule because you had your stuff together, but a lot of people have to go over this with them. They say, I want to sell my business. And I go, yes. And they go, here’s my problem. And I say, what’s that? And they say, I haven’t really done my accounting for a couple of years, man. You know, and still, I’ve been having a lot of these brownies, man, and I’ve been running around the mountains, you know, having success and having these brownies. And you know, a lot of times people are, are get to get to a level where they’re, you know, profitable. And if you have loose books, you really don’t get any second looks because if somebody calls you and you’re way behind on your taxes or your numbers aren’t accurate that would have been a nightmare. Now you’ve used the same bookkeeper for a long time or they did a full time bookkeeper or a

No, she was a, she’s a part time part-time bookkeeper.

Oh Wow.

So yeah. And you know, the good thing about working with heroin is that if she had access to a fantastic CPA, yeah. So all of our taxes and that kind of thing, we’re really in order. And so that was really the easy part of the whole process.

You should probably buy her a big Burrito or something. I’m sorry. I should probably buy her a big Burrito or something to celebrate her book keeping this.

Yeah, exactly.

Do you have a Qdoba in town or a chipotle a or what? What do you, what do you guys have there in Boise?

Yeah, we’ve got, we’ve got your polo here also have a local co-op that actually has fantastic breeding.

Oh my gosh. Yeah. You pray to get her a nice co-op Burrito, it’s probably what you have to do there. I’ll tell you that. Yeah. Now, now, now that you you know, have got worked out in an agreement and obviously this is a show that hundreds of thousands of people listen to, so I’m not gonna get into the details of the math, but now that you’re in a spot where you really, you know, you don’t have to want for money in the near future and you’re also part of the team, which is cool. They wanted to keep you around for a couple of years. They’re at least, that’s pretty cool. How, how do you feel, what’s going on in your head? Talk to me about the future of peak medical as you see it. And what title did they give you? Did has your title, like now are you the assistant waterboy or what title did they give you as part of the new deal?

To be honest, I don’t even know what my title is.

Oh Nice.

They actually gave me a title, but to me it’s a different perspective because, you know, when I was on my own, you know, and everything was resting on my shoulders. You know, as far as the, the, the, making sure that all the, everything is taken care of. You know, everything with the business owner, rest with that person and so now and so, and the money is always a worry and I’m a warrior anyway, so I was always worrying about money. So now that you know, that’s not really a concern anymore, it’s a different perspective for me and I’m able to concentrate more on the work. I’m able to concentrate more on what I want to be doing. And so there, there’s a sense of relief there. And so you know, I’ve got the job as the same, but it’s, I’m, I’m learning a lot more. I’m seeing kind of ways that I should have been doing when I was running it by myself. Yeah. I, I’ve, I’ve given my employees a lot more room to, to grow in their own, in their own careers. I’ve given them a sense of, of I think a little bit more of a relief also because with the new company, they’re able to get medical insurance. So, so you know, everything there is just been a big relief for me.

Now, you know, you think you, you know, this, the, I know you know this Ethan, but our listeners don’t know this. A lot of times there’s business coaching programs that what they do is they’ll say, I will be your business coach you for this much money poor per a month. But in the event that you sell your company, I still need to be paid after the transaction and I will help you negotiate the transaction for an extra fee of, you know, so instead of paying somebody 2000 a month, all of a sudden it’s 4,000 a month now because they’re going to help you negotiate. You didn’t have to pay me any extra fees throughout the process, but how helpful was it to know that you had somebody kind of looking out for you during the process who actually was sincerely excited for you to sell it and that you didn’t have some obligation afterwards to continue paying?

Oh, the whole thing was fantastic. Yeah. The obligation piece on a payment is always been fantastic with you. And just having somebody there to help me through the questions that I have and to keep me grounded, that was, that was so, so valuable. Like for instance, you know, the, we weren’t even done with the due diligence and I wanted to go and tell everybody, you know, like, Ethan, you gotta keep it quiet. Which was the absolutely the right advice. You have to wait until things are more concrete because you know, it’s an up and down process and you have to be, you have to be concrete before you tell people. So just having you to talk to you every week, talk to the Pi about the problems, helping, helping me, helping me get through. It was invaluable.

Now we, this is, I won’t be talking to you on a weekly basis with our business coaching anymore. You know, you can still text me and I’m available, but at the same time I kind of feel like I need to just talk to you weekly to get my weekly fix of, of Ethan here. So this might just be like a podcast format of the future here, but in all sincerity, we’ve worked together for a couple of years essentially. Could you share with the listeners how you and I first met did you stumble through a dive bar? And I was there like the job of the head of the bar or how did we meet?

So I, I’m good friends with Brett Denton who is owner of Cavell academy here in Boise. And he’s a business owner also. And I was going through a rough time in my business and I asked him for advice and looking back, I think, you know, the issues that I was dealing with from maybe over his head a little bit and and he got me in touch with you and which was, which was really great. And so it was definitely through a friend. But I’m just so glad that we were able to, to get hooked up and the everything that you’ve been able to help me with

And I want to make sure that we go over a few things with the thrive nation that, that, you know, obviously Ethan, but to listeners probably don’t your website that we’ve helped you modify and build. I mean, you’re fully aware that you own that website and you don’t owe me any ongoing fees afterwards. Right? I mean, I think you know that, I know that we all know that. But again, these are things that a lot of companies hold these things over your head, all the deliverables. Could you kind of explain some of the things that your Dropbox account, some of the assets that peak medical has now that some of the deliverables that you have that we’d helped you build over the years that are yours and part of that sale that, that we don’t make commission on. Just they can kind of know, you know, what all the things are that you get to keep.

Sure. Yeah. Like everything. Yeah. So I guess for the listeners out there, when you work with clay and the group there he assigns you a Dropbox folder. So in that Dropbox folder he starts putting things as you start working with them. So sales scripts you know, we worked on so many sales scripts to kind of work those out. So those are all there and available for me now to use. All of the branding, all the, all those, all the look and feel, the business that’s all there. We did a lot of head shots of me going in there and right.

I didn’t keep 87 of those for myself. I just kept 87 of those for myself. Just something I’m into. Is your head shot? Nothing weird here, but when you come to Tulsa next time we’ll have a fat head of you on the wall. Nothing weird. Just a fat head of you on the wall. Continue. I’m sorry.

Excellent. I actually know all the headshots are there. I still use them here and there depending upon, I’m trying to do obviously all the thing on the website, a client lists there’s also a bunch of flyers in there about different things like the deal wheel. So just everything that we’ve worked together on together is there and available still for me. Even though essentially we’re not working together anymore.

So what does the future look like, new you for, for you now? I mean, now that you’re, you know, a big baller, you know, now that you got the spinners on your, are you, would you get like a nice, like a Honda with, with the spinners on it? Did you, what kind of car do you drive and then what do you drive? What you drive?

I drive a 99 Volvo. I’m definitely a cheapskate.

Okay. You and bill Bellacheck are driving the same vehicle essentially. Okay. Did you, you didn’t, now that you’ve added spinners to your Volvo and subwoofers to your Volvo, and now that you’re running around wearing a mink in the office and you know, now that you’re getting botox done on your face at all times, now that you’re kind of at Jerry Jones phase of your life, what, what do you see the next 12 months of your life being like? What do you, what do you, what do you picture for the next 12 to 12 months to let’s say five years?

Well, so it’s the next 12 months. I’m just going to continue to enjoy my, my work that I’m doing now. It’s, it’s a, a lot of the same work I was doing before, but just on a, on a bigger scale now. And I’m, I’m learning a lot and having fun. As long as I’m having fun, I’m gonna, I’m going to stay. So again I’ve got a two year contract so we’ll see what happens after two years. I may stay on I if possible or I may just want to go do something else. But I’m definitely not somebody who’s going to sit around and do nothing. So but the, the, the beauty of it is, is that I, I have now that the, I guess the means and the, the kind of the, I will have the time to kind of figure out what I want to do and then be able to do it.

What advice would you have for anybody out there that is in that startup phase of where you were, you know, 20 years ago and they’re going through a rough patch? They, they, they, they started the business because they had some initial wins, you know, some early customers. But now they’re like a decade in and they’re in that wilderness and they don’t know what to do next. And they’re just sort of, I don’t know, you know, they’re just overwhelmed by, you know, just trying to tread water. But also knowing there’s a problem and they’re just kind of, what advice would you have for anybody out there listening right now who wants to get to where your company is now? And they’re not there yet. They have a, you know, they got some initial wins, some early customers, they can pay the bills, but they’re just overwhelmed and stuck.

Yes. Well firstly piece of advice is definitely call clay and get business coaching. That’s number one. Yeah. but I guess the first question I think that you have to ask yourself if you’re going through a rough patch of business, which I don’t know of anybody who hasn’t, and it, it’s a, it’s a difficult process and number one, because if you’re a business owner, if a very lonely place to be, but I think that you, you have to really ask yourself and be honest with yourself. If it’s, do I believe in the business? If you believe in it, then I say, keep going. Don’t give up. Because if you do give up, then all the you’ve put into there is really, you know, it potentially may be for nothing. So I just say keep going and figure it out. There’s always a solution and it’s just a matter of, of keep going and figure out that solution. And that’s really what it’s all about.

And I think that you know, it’s, I loved working with you because you did tap into a lot of the different resources. I mean, you came to Tulsa for headshots and in video and we did print pieces and stuff. We’d also did some software enhancements, you know, where we made the software look better graphically for you. And then you came to a conference. Could you explain for the thrivers out there what your experience was like at our conference? And feel free to air your grievances too if you’re like, it was bad. I mean, feel, please feel free to share.

No, no, no. Absolutely. So the, the conference actually was a really great experience. Number one, what I always really appreciate about anything that are all the Times I’ve come to court, to Tulsa to work with you or to be be there is it is everything there is very positive. If you, the minute you walk in the door, everything there is positive, the people that they’re there I think feed off of that. And so it’s a very, very just kind of good experience to be there because you’re talking with other people here, you’re learning about new things. You’re, you’re, you’re able to kind of figure out problems and talk to other people who have gone through the same issues that you are. And there’s just a ton of information that you can take away to just simply about how to hire people, how to do interviews. You know, everything that, that you know, you struggle with, with your business. You know, you guys have gone through and figured out solutions for. So you know, if you’re struggling with your business, if you’re doing, you know, and if you need help, I definitely recommend going into one those conferences, number one, because it’ll make you feel good. But two is that there’s actual practical solutions that you learned there.

I feel like at the conference you came to, and it’s been awhile, but I feel like you came to the conference where the delricht Research was in town. The other business coaching for clinical research companies client in New Orleans were the, did you meet those guys? Tyler and Rachel, do you remember meeting those guys?

Absolutely. They’re fantastic. I had lunch with them.

Okay. I was going to say, yeah, so I mean, you, you w I just want to make sure the listeners out there know too. I mean, you’re not an idiot. They’re not idiots. I think one great thing to be is be an a, it’s really hard to have a positive environment when you’re surrounded by idiots. Could you maybe talk about the quality of people you met there and maybe our super high pressure sales techniques that we did between every session, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, that definitely everybody that I met there was very of a, of a high caliber PA person. So and there were definitely were nose those high pitch sales in between. It was basically you guys wanting to impart your knowledge w which was, which was fantastic. It was. So as far as the people there that they’re, they’re great. You know, it was just a great experience.

Well, I’ll tell you what Ethan, we’re, we have a lot of listeners who listened to this podcast all around the planet and I know that you a niche business, you know, a niche, niche business, but ah, maybe there’s one out there listing right now that could benefit from your, you know, from your company. Can you tell Toby what your web address is and what exactly you do?

Yeah, definitely. So I was peak medical tech.com and now I’m, I’m, we were hired by, or sorry, purchased by a company called Gusto at a Spokane. And what gestalt does is, is basically the, they bring the digital age to pathology. So if you think about radiology the, you know, people are doctors looking at radiographs and you know, turning broken bones and those kinds of things. They took that technology and moved it into the realm of, of pathology, which is looking at slides, slide images. So the idea being is that is that you can have a pathologist who’s a doctor sitting in his office and he can be getting a slide images from all around the world or the country and be looking at those slides and making diagnosises with them. And so what Gusto does is that they have a software package that is really a digital platform. So back in the day and you know, historically, you know, pathologists have always look at the actual glass slides. So and that’s, that type of technology as you is really, or that type of workflow is really kind of going away with the advent of digital. So it’s a very exciting time. And it’s, it’s a, so if anybody’s out there looking for a digital platform for their pathology business, definitely look us up.

And my final question here for you, you know, a lot of people say, Gosh, you know, sometimes I sell a business. There’s a secret rebel inside me, you know, that entrepreneur, rebel, rebel spirit that I used to have. You know, and I feel like now that I’ve sold my business, I’ve kind of, in order to become the man I’ve had to sell out, you know, have you find yourself wearing like cutoff peak medical tee shirts to work and just chanting peak peak, peak peak even though you’re now clearly a part of get good stilt?

Well, the transition was a good one for me. And so I’m actually, I’m actually excited to be a part of gestalt. And I’m kind of jumping in with both feet. The people that I’m working with now are fantastic and so it’s just a good thing for me.

Is that a subliminal way, passive aggressive way to explain it? You’re wearing peek branded shoes.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Okay. Nice. Nice. Well, Hey, I thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to share about the transition. I’m so glad that it worked out well for the three PS. The people who work for you, that is so cool that the people who work for you you thought about them before making that transition, so they’re in a great spot. That’s awesome. Too, it’s awesome that the purpose of this business now, the two businesses combined are going to be able to achieve so much more than they would’ve been able to be able to have done individually. And then three, it’s great that you made some profit there, man. I mean, I’m excited about.

Yes, that’s great. That’s a great experience.

Well, I tell you what, my friend, don’t be a stranger and a, you know, texted me if you ever need something and I just am super honored to know you and I appreciate you taking the time to come on on this podcast. We have so many of our listeners that have reached out about wanting to sell their business or in the process of selling the business and you’ve and part of the lot of wisdom that I think that through the firsthand knowledge that really is hard to come by and I appreciate everything you’ve done. All right, my friend, you take care and have an awesome day. Andrew, how are you doing my friend? I’m doing fantastic. And you and I are at the same phase of what I would call devcon seven project. We don’t recognize that we’re sick. That’s true.

What are your symptoms over there? You know, the, the good old stuffy nose and cough. What about the, the meat sweats? Do you have to sweat like too much meat? Like spicy meat? I wasn’t going to bring it up, but okay. So you’re experiencing the spicy meats, sweats. Are you, are you, are you, you got the nasal thing going on? Yeah, the nasal thing. But you sound like you’re a B. You still like, you’ve smoked a lot of packs of cigarettes. Your voice is a little different, especially, yeah. Sounds like events. What other symptoms? You, any other symptoms where you almost at the bottom right now? Or are you at the peak? I feel like I’m coming out of the bottom. Same here. Yeah. Yeah. Here’s what, here’s what happens is we have a process here. A system, a culture, a theory, a principle, a way of life.

Really thrive time show that we call no days buff. Oh yeah. And why do you and I really not take days off unless we have to be the hospital. Because if you only work on the days that you feel like it, then you can never get anything done. Think about how screwed we would have been this week. If on Monday I didn’t come into work. Right. And you didn’t come in. Oh yeah. It went in. Somebody would have to fill in to run my meetings. So would have to fill in for your ad reports and your meetings. Yep. And then the person who was filling in, now it’s gonna have to fill in for them. And pretty soon you’re running out of people to fill in and all of a sudden you’re like, aw man. So if you’re out there today, I just want to do, I want to make sure that everybody here does your due diligence.

Do some research because I want to brag on this Guy Ethan with peak medical tech. This guy has been a client of mine for years. He was referred by a friend of his, Bret, didn’t over there at a Cavell fit a fitness facility based in Boise to different industries. He was referred by a friend who’s been super coachable guy and however, Andrew, nothing works unless our clients do. So what if we had recommended for Ethan to get his website updated and he didn’t do it then? It would never happen. He wouldn’t have any progress. And it’s because I asked him to record, you know, monthly podcasts that you can find on his website, but he never did it. Well, he would never reach the top of Google. What if I advised him to lead his staff meetings differently? He never did it. He would have a depending on how we managed it, possibly dysfunctional staff.

So are you saying that he had results because of what he did? Absolutely not based on what he just learned based off of action. Yeah. Really? Yeah. That seems like a profound idea. I’m not, I’m not really sure if everybody out there is getting this. This is a guy who diligently did what he’s supposed to do each and every day, which is why his company was able to achieve extra ordinary success. Ordinary’s just working when you feel good. Right. But extra ordinary is working when you don’t feel like it, you know, extra ordinary is going beyond the ordinary and that’s what Ethan’s done there. And how cool does it feel to work with a company, Andrew knowing that when the com, when he sold the business at the very moment when he should be the most excited. Yup. He doesn’t have to deal with a business coaching or a web program that would call them off a web company.

They would say, oh, by the way, you owe us for your website. It’s so much relief knowing that you have everything, knowing that you don’t depend on someone else at that moment anymore. Once you’re ready, you haven’t, and working here, doesn’t it feel good for you to know that your clients, when they sell their company, they don’t owe us some ongoing fee? Yeah, absolutely. I think about this. I didn’t charge them extra to negotiate the sale of the business either. Right. There’s a lot of companies that do that though. Yeah. They tried to squeeze every penny out of you. You’ve worked with, like I think about papa gallows if you were talking to them today. Yeah. I talked to them today. They’ve had crazy winds today. Crazy. What kind of wins do they have today? Today, just as this past week, they’ve been they’ve been trying to get up and hit a sales goal and they finally hit that sales goal.

Bam. they’ve been trying to hit a thousand tickets in a week and they finally hit that. Bam. They have had the greatest sales week. They’ve had the greatest week in the bar. They’ve had just crazy amount of wins there. They’re killing it. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to share some of the specific action items in the knowledge bombs from today’s show. Just we can unpack them, but I want to make sure that all the listeners out there know, no matter what industry you have, whether it’s a pizza Ria or a biomedical Tech Company, we can help you grow. Absolutely as demonstrated here, whether it’s a B to B business, right? Be it business to, but some people say, well, it’s my business is business to business and so could you possibly work with me because my business is business to business. I’m not business to customers.

They have little fancy names. Like I’m B to B, I’m not B to C. Okay? So I’m you’re B to B, not B to c. This guy’s business to business. Okay? His clients include UCLA, Stanford, Oregon, health and Science University, the University of Washington. I mean these are clearly large organizations, right? But let’s recap the things that he had to do in order to get prepared to sell that business. What he had to do. What in the Andrew, I don’t know. We’ve talked about this a lot, but he did what I would call the 90% of entrepreneurs game. Ah, he went that route, which is he just saw a problem and solved it. Okay? Yeah. I really do believe that’s what 90% of people should be doing. However, he didn’t go with the Steve Jobs move. This is called genius entrepreneurship. There’s the 90% entrepreneurship. There’s the every man entrepreneurship, right?

And then there’s the genius entrepreneurship. I can’t do genius on r d the Genius Entrepreneurship, the 90% entrepreneurship is where you look for a problem and you solve it, right? You say, you know the world needs snow cones, then I’m going to make those snow cones. That’s not a genius move. A genius move is like Steve Jobs where you say, world, excuse me, world. Ah, ladies and gentlemen, I know that nobody out here is wanting a personal computer. Well, I mean, let me survey. How many of you here want a personal computer? If you asked people when Steve Jobs was first creating apple, if they wanted a personal computer, there would be nobody that would say they wanted one, right? Because they were currently mainframe computers only used by nerds, right? So what he did is he said, I’m going to come up with a way to make a computer.

He in Wazniak that is going to be used by every man, and then we’re going to introduce it to the world. That is a genius. Yeah. Another example, Elon Musk, if he ran around saying world, how many of you, what reusable rockets and a completely electric car, no one would want that. But he’s creating things and then the [inaudible], then the market just realizes, Oh man, I need that. Yeah, he’s creating a market. He’s opening a gap and filling it himself. I got nothing on that. I mean, I can’t, I, I’m not that smart. Thomas Edison, this guy, if he ran around asking people with lanterns, right? So how many of you guys, by the way, in all scenarios, these inventors apparently had megaphones, but how many of you guys would like an incandescent light bulb? It’s an incandescent light bulb. No one would even know what that is. Oh, what? Cause it hadn’t been created yet. Right? What about recorded audio? Right? The magic going back in the day said, how many of you want to be able to hear your voice on a piece of whack? I think a lot of people would say, you’re an idiot or you’re a demon. I don’t think anybody would want that thing. Right? Those are, those are genius entrepreneurs. Yeah, absolutely. And the problem is if you’re going to be a genius, if you’re going to create like a Creator Steve Jobs not so good with the marriages. You know

Elon Musk not so good with the marriages. Thomas Edison, so good with the marriages. So what happens is a lot of these complete genius game changer guys, they have to sacrifice every part of their life to get that win in business. Yeah, I’m more about the every man game. I’m about creating a business that will create time, freedom and financial freedom to you system for you. And so Andrew, you now we’re talking about this, but Thomas is one of our clients with full package media. Yup. And he was a paramedic right about three years ago and we’ve worked with Thomas since the very beginning. The literally the very beginning of full package media. And Thomas I only met because somebody who used to work for me was running around the Dallas area pretending to be my partner and I didn’t and so they, they hired Thomas without my knowledge cause I didn’t know that I was in partnership with this guy.

It’s an incredible story. And he hires Thomas and then unbeknownst to me, he doesn’t pay Thomas for the longest amount of time. He’s using my name to open a business, hire somebody using my name and then using my good name doesn’t pay the guy. So the guy’s a smart guy, Thomas. He drives up from Dallas to Tulsa on announced to get paid. It was at that moment I said, Thomas, I didn’t know who you are. I didn’t know how much money do you think I owe yet. And it was like two or $3,000. Yeah. I think maybe it was a thousand. I don’t remember it. You have to ask Thomas. But it wasn’t, it was, it was less than $5,000. Right. And I was like, well, I don’t know who you are. But I’d love to pay you, you know, for work you do with me.

But since I don’t really know you, I mean, how much do you mean? Cause he could have made up any number. Yeah. And so I paid Thomas what he was owed, cause he’s, you know, he’s a young guy who was a pizza paramedic out there working without pay. And I said, well, hey, why don’t we just business coach you and grow this thing. So we’ve grown full package to the point now where it’s a, think about this in the month of February, which is typically the slowest month of the year, dudes do in north of $25,000 a month of revenue. It’s crazy. Or a week of revenue, 25,000 a week. Think about this. If you are doing $25,000 a week of revenue and you were doing that times 52 weeks a year, that would be one point $3 million. It’s hot and the profit margins on that company, by the way, because it does real estate photography.

By the way, everybody should look this up real quick. It’s called full package media. Full packaged media. Look this up. This is a company that Andrew, what kind of a profit margin do you think you can make on 1.3 million if you had a full package of media? Ooh, I’m off the top of my head. I don’t have 25 25% it’s about a 32% profit margin. Ooh. That means that you as the owner would make $416,000 it’s hot. That’s incredible. Doing real estate photography. Now what’s really cool is we’re, we’re going through the process of franchising that. Now here’s what’s going to be crazy is a, my understanding is that you guys might be in Oklahoma City. Yeah. We’re, we’re looking at in Oklahoma City up speculate. What do you think it’s going to cost? We see Thomas and I going through the line item list of what it’s going to cost.

Because the way we do it is we sell the franchise for a dollar, right? And then if you have one, what happens is, is that every week a team on your behalf. So you don’t have to make these calls if you’re a franchise owner, right? You don’t have to make these calls. The full package team will call the realtors for you in schedule the first shoots. So you, you just wake up with a full calendar every day. How much money do you think it would cost you an initial equipment to get going? Oh Man. With kids, you know, but you know, cameras, I mean, he got cameras, you got drones lenses, you know, 30, 40 grand yet we’re talking about 30 bro. Oh Man. For 30 grand to be able to generate some sick revenue. That’s a move in. And you know how I build businesses. But the whole point is to create what?

To create time freedom and to reach your goals and your why. Time freedom. And financial freedom. That’s the goal, right? Steve jobs though. What was his goal? What do you think Steve Jobs goal was? To make an a, a device that simple and can do very few things well for the masses of people, Steve Jobs I think you’re pretty close there. Steve Jobs. What he wanted to do is he wanted to create simple devices that are usable by the average person that were elegant, that were simple and that had an unbelievable performance. But Steve Jobs, I mean, his goal was to just make the best products ever, insanely great products. So something he talked about a lot. So you can’t ever really achieve time freedom and financial freedom if you want to make insanely great products as your end goal, right? If that’s the, if that is your end goal above your time and family and everything else, there’s a trade off.

And that’s why I would encourage everybody out there. If you’re going to full package media today, just check out that website. I mean, if you’re out there and you’re going, I’m a doctor, I’m a put doctor, I’m an ears note. And throat doctor. I’m a dentist and I don’t make 400,000 a year. I want to make 400,000 a year and I’d love to have time freedom to tell me more. Well you got to go up there to full package media.com and check it out. This is a real guy. Just Google Search, Dallas real estate photography real quick. Dallas real estate photography, do a search for it. And when you search for it, you’re gonna see that right there. A full package media comes up, number one on the search engine results right there. And it’s not because I’m a genius cause we know the systems, we know the processes.

And if you’re out there and you want to earn time freedom and financial freedom, there’s multiple ways to do it. One of which is to do it. Ethan did in my opinion, this is the hard road. It’s where you start a company from scratch and you grow it. And Ethan said on the show, it’s taken them 20 years to do it. 20 years. If you’re somebody who has the tenacity to do it through our business coaching program, we can help you do that. That’s one way. Way Number two is by freaking train shies. Now a lot of times you buy a franchise, they’re gonna charge you up front, like you know, 50 grand up front for the fee, 25 upfront for the fee. If you get a full package, it’s a dollar. That’s crazy. Now set a dollar for everybody. It’s a dollar for the first 20 so if you’re out there and you say, I’m interested, ah, well you’ve got to go, well you got to do right now is you got to go up to full package media, look for the contact form and a just request to learn more information and then we’ll schedule a discovery day where you can learn more about the ins and outs and how it works.

And then Thomas is in the process of finalizing the franchise disclosure document. And so those will be first come first serve really starting in June, but it’s a dollar for the first 20 so if you’re out there and you’re going, I have a dollar check and I could probably run up 30 for equipment check, you might be the right kind of fit. Now here’s the deal, you sound kind of sick and I sound kind of sick, right? So you gotta be willing to work on the sick days and not drop the ball. Because if you’re self employed, you only have one employee. When you start, when you call in sick, what happens? You call in sick, you’re calling yourself and no one’s gonna run the business. If you call your customers and say, oops, I’m sorry I can’t do the real estate photography shoot today cause I’m sick.

What’s gonna Happen? That’s gonna cause you to have a very bad reputation. But if you want to get time freedom and financial freedom, you’re going to push through that. Okay? Yep. So one he went with, Ethan went with 90% of entrepreneurial game that I’d recommend, which is find a real problem. People actually actually have now not a problem with the future and solve it. The next thing is he started from the bottom. He decided that either now or never, so you have to determine your jump point. You could talk about this forever. You could get in there and talk about, you know, some day I want to open a business. Well, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday are all going to come this calendar week, but some day will never come. The next thing is you can understand the only the conspiracist oil, the conspiracy theorists survive. Only the conspiracy theorists survive according to Andy Grove, the former CEO of Intel.

Think about that. So when, when he was telling me Ethan was telling me about somebody willing to buy his company, I advised him to be very skeptical of the entire thing. Stay grounded and objectively weigh the pros and the cons, weigh the pros and the cons, look at them and say, is there more pros? Is there was more things in favor of this deal or more things going against the deal? And then you got to do the due diligence process and your coach can help you through this process, but hit the person who has loose books, never get second looks. You’ve got to stay on top of your numbers. You’ve got to stay on top of the numbers because people try to pump them up in the eye about the numbers when they tried to sell, but these and these and if you are lying about to numbers and you’re not paying taxes on your income, you can’t sell the business because people want to buy the business for what you’re paying yourself.

You can’t say, well, secretly on the side I take a lot of money but I don’t pay taxes on it. You can’t do that. You’ve got to have this in high integrity bookkeeping. Then you’ve got to go through this process of signing a nondisclosure agreement that you’ve got to go through the due diligence document where you’re agreeing to state any conflicts of interests that you have. You’re willing to say, I’m going to not compete if this deal goes through. You’ve got to agree on an employment agreement. If we’re going to keep you around. So in Ethan’s case, they wanted to keep him as part of the company for at least the next two years. Then you’ve got to provide a list of all of your current customers, Yo, yes, and of all your current assets. Then you have to have an attorney review a purchase agreement.

And then after you do a sign where you signed for the representations and warranties you, you agree that what you’re saying is true, then you got to cross your fingers and go through the negotiation process. And then they why are you the money? And then you, you go buy a bunch of Burritos. That’s what happens. So again, if you’re out there and you want to become super successful, I know that you can do it, but you gotta decide today, are you going to buy a franchise? Are you going to grow your own thing? You know, you’re gonna grow that thing. Are you going to buy an existing business? What are you going to do? But don’t just wait for it because the time will never be just right. My name is Clay Clark. This has been another outstanding edition of the thrive time show on your radio and podcast download, encouraging you. No days off when you’re starting a company. No sick days. When you’re starting a business. Just show up. God blesses the hands of the diligent. According to proverbs ten four God blesses the hands of the diligent and punishes the hands of the slacker. People don’t like that part. So look it up. Proverbs ten four like the in each and every show with the boom. And so now without any further ado, three two, one boom.