Category: Authentic Deal-Making

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Authentic Business Relationships Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Access to Awareness

Awareness

Sophie McLean is a woman of many specialties. In her latest endeavor, she is speaking, consulting, writing and teaching courses and online seminars within the framework of Access to Awareness.

Sophie is using philosophical and spiritual concepts to help leaders effectively make a difference in the world. She does this by helping them develop a clear understanding of what it means to be human. In the latest episode of the Fueling Deals podcast, Sophie joins us to talk about the work she is doing now. She also explains how the concepts of awareness and self-discovery tie into everything in our lives—including deals.

A New Culture for Human Kind: Access to Awareness

For the last eight years, Sophie has withdrawn herself from the world and embarked on a spiritual quest. It reignited her passion for teaching and drove her to pursue the ultimate goal of developing a new culture for humankind. That notion is the driving force behind her company, Access to Awareness. Sophie works to educate people on what is possible with awareness and what it means to shift from surviving, to being alive. So many people are going through the motions in their lives. But with the right guidance, we can begin to see the extent of the possibilities and do something about it. And it all starts with awareness.

The Purpose of Money

In dealmaking, survival is a scarcity mindset. You operate from a place of fear because survival is about reacting to danger. But when you go into a negotiation with that mentality, you can’t work within the fundamental framework of dealmaking. This means you end up negotiating from a position of weakness.

Being alive is synonymous with an abundance mindset, and awareness is the key to getting there. We need to understand our relationship to money, because if we can align the purpose of money with the purpose of our lives, we will access a state of abundance naturally.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Business Relationships Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Deal-Driven Growth

Deal-Driven-Growth-1

Stephen Woessner is the founder and CEO of Predictive ROI, host of the Onward Nation podcast, a digital marketing authority, speaker, educator, and bestselling author of two books. He comes from a long lineage of business owners, and the early exposure to entrepreneurship primed him to follow a similar path. After serving in the Air Force for four years, Stephen landed a job with an advertising agency in La Crosse, WI where he became a partner in just three years. There, he honed his craft in digital marketing and devoted his energy to understanding how business owners think, act, and achieve.

Predictive ROI

Predictive ROI has always operated as a digital marketing agency, but over the last ten years, it has transformed into something entirely unique. Predictive’s core services were built to help business owners identify financial opportunities and hemorrhages in the digital space. But recently, Stephen and his team have added podcasting to their service line. Now, Predictive ROI helps business owners build their thought leadership through podcasting and supplementary content, so they can monetize that content with courses, workshops, events, sponsorships, and a variety of other opportunities.

Inorganic Growth in the Agency World

While Predictive ROI’s client base continues to grow organically, the agency is finally at a point where the world of strategic partnerships and acquisitions is finally opening up to them. It means Stephen and the leadership team at Predictive can look into different plays such as acquiring a software company that will increase their analytics capabilities; possibly even absorbing smaller agencies in different verticals with client rosters that are strategically advantageous. But if you are considering inorganic growth as an option, there are a lot of indicators you should be watching to determine if it is the right move.

Will it help you hit your revenue goals within your current timeline?

Are you making the right acquisition or is there a better alternative?

Stephen shares advice for navigating this process in the latest episode of Fueling Deals.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Business Relationships Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Authentic Negotiating

How to Handle Inauthentic Negotiating Techniques

Inauthentic-Negotiating

In the last few solocast episodes of Fueling Deals, we have taken a look at some of the major talking points from my book, Authentic Negotiating. So far, we have covered the Clarity, Detachment, and Equilibrium framework, the top six reasons negotiations fail, and the five steps to becoming a great negotiator. So, if you didn’t get a chance to read the book or listen to those episodes, I highly encourage you to go back and cue them up; there are a lot of great negotiating tips that you don’t want to miss.

In the latest episode of Fueling Deals, we dive into another topic from my book that covers inauthentic negotiating techniques and how to handle them.

The Empty Promise: Somebody makes a promise that they know they’re not going to fulfill in the end. You may choose to challenge their promise upfront to test its validity, then use CDE to keep a level head while you decide how to move forward.

The Big Fish: There may be a difference in scope or size with one negotiating party vs. the other. This can be approached with the notion that even a small fish has leverage because there are alternative plays, otherwise, the negotiation wouldn’t be taking place.

Nibbling: There is always another ask as you get closer to finalizing a deal. Sometimes a candid response is the best approach and it is okay to call them out for adding new terms. Figure out what needs to happen for the deal to move forward, and clarify whether or not there will be additional terms down the line.

Quivering Quill: Similar to Nibbling but it is carried out at the closing table to apply more pressure on the other negotiating party. Don’t get triggered or thrown off your game; instead, step back and evaluate whether the last minute concession works for you and whether this is someone with whom you want to do business.

Limited Authority: The other negotiating party abdicates the decision-making responsibility because of their position in the company hierarchy. While this may be authentic in theory, it is often used as an excuse. Stay calm, don’t let it affect you and decide whether or not they are the right partner for this deal in the first place.

Even ‘good’ negotiating tactics are supplementary to our core dealmaking framework, and no tactics or techniques can be substituted for fundamental skills. But you will frequently encounter authentic and inauthentic negotiating techniques regardless. The bad techniques reek of shady business practices and low credibility. And while you might never use them yourself, you need to know how to spot and deal with inauthentic negotiators on the other side of the table.

You can listen to the full episode here.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Business Relationships Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating

Deals in a New Industry

Deals-In-A-New-Industry

Although Neil Rosen started his career as a teacher, he would later be driven to serial entrepreneurship by fate. Neil’s passions culminated in his first business, a children’s furniture store, which grew into five locations that were immensely successful.

The chain of stores provided Neil with the financial means to pursue his next great endeavor, which he ultimately achieved by selling the store to his employees. That was the first major deal Neil did, and it laid the foundation for his next businesses, while also teaching him the fundamentals of dealmaking.

Neil was able to keep the skilled management team on staff while receiving payouts over time, and it was a great deal for every party involved. But nothing would prepare him for doing deals as a pioneer of internet companies.

The School Report

Neil’s next business, The School Report, designed a program to gather 3rd party data about public school districts. That information was then sold to real estate brokerages and shared with potential homebuyers for a win-win-win. Although Neil started the business with his wife in their basement, it grew rapidly and brought a lot of new deals to the table.

He had technical experts providing services for equity. He used a participation interest vehicle to raise more capital without losing equity. He then raised venture capital. There were many different types of deals that Neil had to navigate throughout the lifespan of the business. But the difficulty of doing deals as an early-stage internet company prepared him for every challenge he would face moving forward.

Raising Capital

From the early days of commercial internet, through the boom and bust of the late 90’s and early 2000’s the landscape was changing and the learning curve was getting much steeper. When you are working with venture capitalists, there is an expectation of rapid growth. However, it is much more difficult to sell your ability to deliver in an industry that is just getting on its feet.

VCs were hesitant to work with internet companies at the time and it posed a lot of problems for Neil and his team. They had to pivot numerous times and even renegotiated with their VC to reduce its stake in the company before selling it a short time later. But a lot of valuable lessons came out of the experience, which Neil brought forth into his future endeavors with eWayDirect and Certain Source.

If you want to learn more about Neil’s journey, listen to his episode here: https://www.coreykupfer.com/podcasts/neil-rosen/. You can also connect with him on LinkedIn.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Deal-Making

Authentic Leadership & the Hero’s Journey

The-Hero-Journey-1

Acting From Your Inner Truth
Dov Baron works with the world’s top business leaders and high-level entrepreneurs to help them answer the question, “What’s next?” It may sound like a simple question, but when you’re already operating at the highest level, there is rarely an obvious choice to make. Dov takes his clients on a heroic journey to chip away everything that isn’t real. The journey enables leaders to unbind their success from their identity so they can leave old parts of themselves behind and move into their soul’s purpose.

It is an intense process that only rewards the committed, but the people who push through see incomparable results.

(Interested in growing your own ability to lead authentically? You can get a FREE copy of Dov’s ebook, Authentic Leadership!)

Discover Your Soul’s Purpose

When Dov’s clients grow their businesses and achieve new successes, it is not because they are focusing on business and strategy. Rather, it is because they are focusing on building a stronger connection with their soul’s purpose. Really doing that work has measurable results; one of Dov’s recent clients even grew his business by 5000%. But in our own world where we may already be highly successful, it is extremely difficult to be willing to go deep and chip away everything that is not truly who we are.

We are always doing, but we are rarely being.

Learning how to enter that state of being will put you in a position to handle anything life throws at you. Doing this work will also transform you, your personal life, your business and the deals you do.

Win-Win-Win

We have talked about the fundamental principles of negotiating and dealmaking many times on Fueling Deals. With Dov’s philosophy, we can build on those ideas.

In a deal, we always want to serve the souls on both sides of the negotiating table. One way to do that is by figuring out what drives the other person so we can reshape the context of the negotiation. Shift away from the win-lose mentality and approach the deal intent on enriching the lives of every party involved (beyond just the money). By creating a deeper connection with our soul’s purpose, this is all possible. But only you can make that happen.

You can always make the deal a win-win-win.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Business Relationships Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating

Publishing Deals and Finding Your Calling

Publishing-Deals

Navigating a Publishing Deal

Move the Crowd is an entrepreneurial training company that focuses on helping people stay true, get paid, and do good. As the CEO, Rha Goddess works with purpose-driven entrepreneurs who are very clear about their intentions to make a difference in the world. More specifically, they are entrepreneurs who are interested in shifting culture. This can be related to young girls in STEM, female parity in the corporate C-suite, or even racial justice and inequity in our society—everyone Move the Crowd serves is interested in moving the needle to make the world a better place. Rha’s latest book release elaborates on the principle of shifting culture, and have it impact the most people, she chose to do a deal with a major publisher.

Doing Deals with a Publisher

Despite the drastic increase in platforms for people to consume content, the print industry is still highly competitive and difficult to break into. So, if you are not familiar with this industry, you might be surprised by the barriers to entry. For instance, to do a deal with a major publisher, generally, you can’t just go directly to the publisher; you have to work through an agent. However, in Rha’s case, she was able to garner the attention of multiple publishers, who approached her, giving her leverage. Since she already had a deal in motion, Rha had her choice of top agent representation to represent her on her book deal.

Leveraging Thought Leadership to Move Books

One of the main reasons Rha was able to approach the deal this way is because of a shift within the publishing industry itself. The new generation of publishers is seeking powerful voices; and what better way to establish yourself as a powerful voice than to become a known expert in your field? Over decades of work behind the scenes and the huge impact she had, Rha became a thought leader known to highly successful entrepreneurs, change-makers and best-selling authors by getting in the trenches and helping them do the same. She built a reputation and a following simultaneously that caused publishers to seek her out. Rha’s work has yielded countless relationships that are extremely valuable in the publishers’ eyes. And just like any other deal, the publisher must assess the potential for return before they make an investment. If you want to learn more details about what Rha did to prepare herself for a book deal and take it across the finish line, listen to her episode, “Publishing Deals and Your Calling, with Rha Goddess.”

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Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating

How to Be a Great Negotiator

Great-Negotiator

If you listened to my last solocast, you already know the primary reasons why negotiations fail. In this episode, we are going to take it a step further and discuss the top five ways to be a great negotiator.

Create and stay connected to a powerful context: Who are you when you walk into that deal? What is your energy? People can read your tone, body language, and micro-expressions, so focus less on ‘doing’ and more on ‘being.’

Be willing to do whatever it takes to get to your truth: It is a lot easier to put on a fake sense of bravado than to acknowledge you’re coming from a place of fear or scarcity. Do everything in your power to get the most out of your internal preparation so you can achieve a state of connection to truth and authenticity.

Identify and fully own your value: When you discuss pricing in a negotiation, you will have much greater success if you truly believe you are worth the number you are asking for.

Always be in integrity: Always make sure you are aligned with your inner truth. Great negotiators listen to their instincts and can tune into them on demand.

Have high expectations: If you go into a negotiation with high expectations, it may or may not work out, but your chances are a lot better. Holding high expectations directly affects your energy and context and is scientifically proven to improve results, so make sure to set the bar high.

Mastering the fundamental principles of dealmaking will turn you into a stellar negotiator; learning tactics and counter-tactics will not. Pragmatic methods and technical skills will help, but they are only supplementary. You need to become a deal maker at your core and negotiate from a place of clarity, detachment, and equilibrium. Following these five steps will help you get there.

If you are interested in learning more about why negotiations fail and want to hear examples, listen to my podcast episode, The Top 5 Practices of a Great Negotiator.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Deal-Making

Current Trends in the Financial Services Industry

Current-Trends

Custodian BNY Mellon | Pershing, headed by Mark Tibergien, is primarily responsible for ensuring the safety of clients’ financial assets. But his firm also supports financial advisors in their growth. Since custody is highly commoditized in the financial services industry, Mark’s focus is value enrichment. He looks at the business of financial advice as the core proposition, which encompasses strategy and structure, people and processes, and managing the profitability.

In that context, Mark weighs the costs and benefits of a merger or acquisition, identifies the challenges of integration, and determines if there are any insights that will help buyers and sellers make informed decisions about the transaction. Mark and his associates at BNY Mellon | Pershing deliver higher value to their clients by serving as a resource and a trusted partner.

What to Look for When You’re Doing Deals

The reality is, some deals should be avoided entirely and you have to keep an eye out for key indicators. The market is booming right now because sellers are looking for liquidity and buyers want growth. Mark recognizes the extremely opportunistic scenario, but a lot of details are being overlooked due to the volume of deals. Buyers are drawn to a shiny lure and they fail to address important factors that drastically impact the health of the final product. Are you able to digest everything that is happening in order to create synergy and build a brand? Are the employees going to stay with the organization or move to a new firm? At the end of the day, the client comes first in a service-based industry, so you need to determine whether or not they will be better off post-transaction.

Beyond the Core Proposition

BNY Mellon | Pershing’s business model has value beyond the management of financial assets and they practice what they preach. The financial services industry is comprised primarily of small, closely-held businesses that underestimate the process. Many firms have not built businesses to last so they are seeking liquidity instead of investing in an enduring business. Succession is a growth strategy, not an exit strategy, and Mark is helping people open their eyes to that notion. Evaluating deals, the reasons for doing them and the impact of private equity, market cycle and other factors in this maturing industry are crucial as is expanding the diversity (including age, gender and race) is hugely important to the future of financial services.

Click here to listen to the episode of Fueling Deals where you will learn key indicators for determining whether or not you should do a deal and what Mark has brought from other industries into the financial services space.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Deal-Making

The Origins of Barefoot Wine

Barefoot-Wine

Today, Barefoot Wine is an iconic household name, but founders Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan had no lineage in the wine industry when they started the company. At the time, one of Bonnie’s clients was owed $300,000 for grapes provided on a handshake deal. Michael went to track down the payment and discovered the debtor’s winery had folded. So, instead of escalating the dispute, Bonnie and Michael took payment in the form of wine. The deal was contingent on their ability to brand and market the wine themselves—something they knew nothing about. However, Bonnie and Michael designed a brand with the input of the common man and produced a product that kept people coming back.

Listen to the Market

When Bonnie and Michael started pushing cases, they overcame significant hurdles by listening to the market. Their initial strategy did not go according to plan, but Bonnie and Michael detached themselves from the brand to achieve a sense of clarity and equilibrium in their deal negotiations. Instead of sending pallets to supermarkets, they started hand-delivering cases to mom and pop shops in the area. Instead of spending millions on commercial advertising, they built a brand through community outreach and pioneered ‘worthy cause marketing.’ Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of falling in love with their products; Bonnie and Michael took feedback with a sense of objectivity and delivered much more than the market had asked for.

Leverage Strategic Partnerships

Who are your strategic allies? Who gets rich when you get rich? Those are the questions you should think about when you wake up in the morning. Barefoot entered a massive distribution deal with Trader Joe’s, they incentivized their employees to align their goals and grow the company organically, and they joined forces with E&J Gallo to take the company to an entirely new level. Bonnie and Michael even found a trusted partner to give them industry financing without a need for venture capital or investors. Strategic partnerships are the lifeblood of Barefoot, and they continue to propel the brand forward.

Learn about their new audiobook, The Barefoot Spirit and if you are interested in hearing more from Bonnie and Michael, listen to my podcast episode, The Deals That Made Barefoot Wine a Household Name, with Bonnie Harvey and Michael Houlihan.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!

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Authentic Deal-Making

Wipe the Slate Clean and Meet Your Goals

Meet-Your-Goals

With the holidays upon us, we are looking forward to unwinding with our family and friends. But since we are also rounding out the year, the holidays are an opportunity to do a few deals with yourself before closing things out. Many of us fail to live out our New Years’ resolutions and goals because we fail to identify, address and complete the failures, unresolved challenges and limiting beliefs from the previous year. Those things roll over—and each time, the baggage gets heavier, making it harder to carry across the finish line if and when you re-up.

Take Stock of Everything

I have a completion exercise that I perform every year at the end of the year where I reflect on everything that’s happened. We need to take stock of all of our success, all of our failures, and get complete with ourselves about areas where we fell short. Before you re-up, I strongly recommend you do this so you can start with a clean slate. This includes the circumstances and relationships surrounding the unattained goals as well. Shed your limiting beliefs and get complete with yourself because you don’t want to bring any unnecessary baggage into 2020.

Celebrate No Matter What

Everything that happened—good or bad—served you in some way. Celebrate all of it because you deserve to honor yourself for everything you’ve accomplished and learned. By celebrating these events, you subconsciously shift your energy, focus on the wins and lessons, acknowledge yourself and clear the way to start planning and visioning for the next year. Then, it becomes more and more effortless to do visioning exercises from a clear and clean place. By creating an experiential mental image of your ideal future, your mind will start to work backward and figure out the steps you need to take to get there.

Click here to listen to my solocast where I explain more about the year-end deals I encourage you to make with yourself.

Corey Kupfer is an expert strategist, negotiator and dealmaker. He has more than 35 years of professional deal-making and negotiating experience. Corey is a successful entrepreneur, attorney, consultant, author and professional speaker who is passionate about deal-driven growth. He is also the creator and host of the DealQuest Podcast.

If you want to find out how deal-ready you are, take the Deal- Ready Assessment today!