Tag: deal-driven growth

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Authentic Business Relationships Authentic Conversations About Difference Authentic Deal-Making Deal-Driven Growth

Revolutionary Deals

Rha Goddess is THE entrepreneurial soul coach behind hundreds of breakthrough changemakers, cultural visionaries, and social entrepreneurs. Her mission? To revolutionize the way we live, work, play and do business. Part of fulfilling that mission includes making revolutionary deals!

In 2011 Rha founded Move The Crowd, an entrepreneurial training company dedicated to creative and cultural entrepreneurs working at the intersection of values, profitability and social impact. Since its inception, Move The Crowd has helped launch & scale luminaries like Gabrielle Bernstein, Alisa Vitti, and María Flaqué. From the onset of her more than 30-year career as a cultural innovator, social impact strategist and creative change agent, Rha has drawn on the power of creativity, culture, and community to move hearts, minds and policy. 

You might also have heard Rha’s previous DealQuest interview here, where she discussed her publishing deal for The Calling: Three Fundamental Shifts to Stay True, Do Good, and Get Paid. You can listen to Rha’s latest interview here.

An Early Deal-Making Start

As a little girl, Rha remembers vacillating between wanting to be a doctor, or a rockstar. Although neither of quite happened in the traditional sense, Rha notes that parts of those dreams have lived on in some ways. 

Her idea of doctors were people who made life better for others, using their skills. Rockstars move, inspire, and touch people. Today, there are elements of helping, moving, and inspiring others in every element of Rha’s work.

In terms of early deals, Rha notes that she was the youngest of four siblings! There were constantly deals happening around chores, goodies, and more. Rha remembers her mom having them do chores and errands in return for cookies. She would barter for more cookies, and has fond memories of attempting to raise the stakes.

The Rise if nFormation

Last time Rha appeared on the show, we dug deep on book deals. Since then, Rha has not only expanded Move the Crowd, she’s also started a new business partnership. Together with Deepa Purushothaman, she’s co-founded nFormation. 

This is a safe, brave, and new space created by women of color for women of color. nFormation partnered with the Billie Jean King Foundation to publish a white paper titled PowHer Redefined. A New Way Forward: Women of Color Leading the Future of Work as one of exploring the needs and potential of this demographic. In addition, Rha and Deepa hosted a series of dinners to network and start listening to the needs being voiced.

Feelings of isolation were incredibly common. As Rha and Deepa considered how to meet the need for connection, as well as provide a place where women can be seen and heard while also stepping into leadership positions, the foundation of nFormation was laid. Now, they’re working to help women architect their own notions of success and growth as they move into increasingly visible and authoritative roles throughout the global economy.

One of nFormation’s major goals is to help its members expand their access and reach through their membership opportunities. In addition, they seek to emphasize thought leadership and research that supports a deeper understanding of women of color in leadership positions and high-performance, public roles.

Revolutionary Business Partnerships

Rha shares that herself and her partner, Deepa, come from very different cultural backgrounds. Although there are some things they navigate that are very similar, they also have had very experiences. Rha jokes that she’s always seen herself as a “corporate refugee”, and now Deepa sort of is too, after 20+ in major corporate firms.

They both have insider/outsider perspectives in a variety of ways, which increase their range and understanding. They also share a deep passion for making a difference in the world. This includes a deep desire to make difference in the world.

Having gone from many late night conversations filled with hopes and dreams, to having something that is tangibly here and now has been incredibly powerful. Now, with a community of over 200 women representing many different industries, professions, and backgrounds, nFormation is beginning to meet the needs that Rha and Deepa had identified early on.

As we all know, partnerships are a form of deals. Although Rha hadn’t anticipated starting a second business as a partnership, she’s found that it’s been a positive experience to model what might be possible for organizations with similar desires for impact. With nFormation, there is no one person “at the top”. 

The collaborative mutuality of Rha and Deepa’s partnership is an example of how power can be shared for the good of both the organization and the participants. They’ve both recognized that, as they’ve continued to grow, they’ve had to do a lot of unlearning in terms of staying closely connected to their larger vision and the partnership they desire to form.

Rha notes that this style of transformative partnership and revolutionary deal-making requires the ability to really do a great deal of inner work.

Revolutionary Deals in Research, Collaboration, and More

nFormation has sought to provide opportunities for thought leaders to create research that centers the reality of women of color. More specifically, they seek to address the needs of women of color at work. They noted that much of the (still limited) research on women of color speaks of these women in the 3rd person. There was little being published that was created by women of color, about women of color.

nFormation is seeking to change that.

In addition, global trends are showing that work doesn’t work for women. Although true for all women, women of color are especially impacted.The demands of care taking, child care, health disparities, and more have often overshadowed their opportunities to pursue their careers.

Rha shares that, as we witness the “great resignation”, at nFormation they began calling it the “great renegotiation”. 

What matters at your work? Are required benefits missing? What needs to be reimagined? Can anything be thrown out? What needs to be created?

This is truly a moment in which transformation and renegotiation is at hand. Women of color are uniquely positioned to step into leadership roles and lead the change that we need. We believe the revolutionary deals that will change the landscape of our economy and workforce are coming! Thankfully, nFormation’s work is a powerful part of bringing the change.

You can learn more by listening to Rha share on this episode of DealQuest!

Revolutionary Deals: Rha Goddess

 

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Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Deal-Driven Growth

Best Of: Building Better Deals

Building Better Deals: two business people shaking hands

Ready to listen in to this powerful Best Of: Building Better Deals episode? You’ll learn how Stephanie Scheller can help you find valuable deals that are worth pursuing. You’ll find out what Henry Daas can teach you about dealing with the potential risk of negotiations. Finally, you’ll hear what Marc Gordon has to say about the power of creating synergy for optimal deals.

Deals Worth Pursuing

Stephanie Scheller is the founder of Grow Disrupt, a San Antonio-based training organization for small businesses, and an accomplished speaker who has been behind-the-scenes with more than 2500 companies in the past five years to analyze & address their sales, marketing & systems! Her wealth of knowledge is especially useful when it comes to finding valuable deals that are worth pursuing!

Listen to the full episode.

In this Best Of: Building Better Deals episode, Stephanie and I discussed how her target demographic includes the small business owner who is still wearing multiple hats. This person is often in growth mode, but is also juggling so many aspects of the business. The key? Accelerating growth and cutting down the learning curve. 

Stephanie notes that many people are looking at deals as the way to get sales and marketing going. Many joint ventures are coming from people trying to gather momentum. Now, however, Stephanie realizes that the best deals are built on top of existing, successful sales and marketing strategies. Money should already be coming in the door, and sales should be coming. Listen in to hear Stephanie’s suggestions on creating stability that will power future deals.

Potential Risks of Negotiation

Henry Daas is a serial entrepreneur, business and financial coach, screenwriter, avid traveler, golfer and tennis player. He also actively trades the financial markets and is the author of FQ, which is all about financial intelligence. Despite his current success, he also knows what it’s like to see everything fall apart. He’s learned how to assess deals from a standpoint of both ROI and potential risk as a result.

Listen to the full episode.

In this Best Of: Building Better Deals episode, Henry Daas and I dive deep on how he deluded himself into thinking that he had covered himself in terms of risk. As he found out, he had not. His partner had controlled the books completely, and Henry had never audited them or had any access. 

Although there were many red flags connected to financing, Henry didn’t recognize them. Later, that had a deeply negative impact. Now, he knows what it is to ensure his information is risk adjusted. Listen in to hear more from Henry!

Creating Synergy for Optimal Deals

Marc Gordon’s is a Customer Experience Expert out of Toronto, Canada, and is an internationally recognized thought leader in the field of customer experience. In our interview, we had a chance to discuss what it takes for two companies to create synergy. This is essential for there to be a positive outcome for buyouts or partnership opportunities. We also dig into the importance of integrating the culture of a business post-merger and post-deal. After all, you can have the greatest deal structure, legal agreements, and finances, but if the rest of it doesn’t come together? You’re in trouble.

Listen to the full episode.

In this Best Of: Building Better Deals episode, Marc Gordon and I discussed “corporate staging”. This is common when a company is looking to be bought out, they have a great service, their numbers are good….but they aren’t presenting themselves well. A poorly positioned company can appear outdated, out of touch, and undesirable to potential buyers. Numbers aren’t enough to push a deal through; positioning matters! Join Marc and I to learn more about how you can position yourself for powerful success in the deal-making arena.

 

Listen to the full Best Of: Building Better Deals 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 Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Deal-Driven Growth

What Makes a Deal-Maker?

What makes a deal-maker: Action Changes Things

This week on the solocast, I’m thinking about the difference between people who really get things done, and people who don’t. I’ve noticed that lots of people talk about doing things like writing a book, starting a podcast, doing deals, and more. Yet, many of those people never seem to make progress and actually accomplish those things. Why not? More specifically, what actually makes a deal-maker?

What sets apart the doers from the dreamers?

Where’s the Follow Through?

A few months ago, I appeared as a podcast guest for my nephew, Errol Allen, the founder of EA Consulting. He talked about doing it, he researched it, and he did it. On one hand, it’s not that hard. On the other hand, not that many people actually reach that point.

Case in point: A few years ago, before I had committed to writing my book, I asked David Bach, author of the international bestseller, The Automatic Millionaire and many others, to give me some input. We had dinner, as well as a few calls to talk about the reality of the process. He was incredibly kind, and also offered an endorsement. 

Once I released Authentic Negotiating, I sent him a copy with a thank-you note. Honestly, it seemed like the thing to do, and I thought he’d appreciate it.

Not too long afterwards, he sent me a video message and said, “You can’t even imagine how many people tell me they’re going to write a book.” He went on to share that the percentage of people who actually write the book is extremely small.

People have big dreams….but they just don’t follow through and get it done.

Do It, Or Don’t

My own nature is such that, if I say I’m going to do something, I just do it. I’m not someone who talks about doing something and then doesn’t do it.

I remember belonging to a ski club in my late teens and early twenties. There was a 30 foot cliff up in that area, and you could jump off into a pond when the weather was good for hiking. People would hike up in order to jump off. Many of them, however, would go up and then lose their courage.

I watched people go up, peer over the edge, and then walk back down.

People kept asking me to go, and as I thought about it (and processed my heights phobia!), I knew that, if I climbed that hill, I would 100% jump off. I wasn’t going to climb that hill and then walk back down it. I used my time on the ground to think through my plan, and when I stood up, I was committed. 

Upon reaching the top of the ridge, I jumped off the edge.

I approached my book and my podcast the same way. Before I started them I observed, I made plans, and I processed. But I knew that once I committed and said YES — I would be all in until it was done.

Deal-Making Requires Commitment

Diving into deals requires a similar type of commitment. 

I’ve seen people dream about and talk about becoming deal-makers….and then walk away with nothing having been done. In fact, many top trainers and development professionals will tell you that only 3-5% of people take any action, and only 1% truly apply things.

You can sit through hours of training, days of conferences, and even weeks, months, or years of building your business, and yet, you might simply walk away from taking bold action and following through on what matters.

When it comes to deal-making, I find that strategizing, vision casting, and doing the internal work to understand what drives you are all essential elements of being a deal-maker. Unfortunately, many folks never make it that far.

There is no action occurring, and the first step is simply never taken.

The reality is, simply having knowledge doesn’t do us any good. You need to take action, get feedback, keep growing your knowledge, and then take more action. Only consuming more knowledge will do nothing in terms of moving you towards your ultimate goal.

Doing Deals Makes You a Better Deal-Maker

The only thing that will ultimately make you better as a deal-maker is to take the action of being a deal-maker. You have to be willing to experiment. You have to be willing to try.

Doing the thing — the deal, the podcast, the book, the business — is the only thing that will allow you to become better. 

We all have potential, but it goes to waste if we refuse to tap into it and take action.

Listen in to learn more about my thoughts on how you can take action to truly become a deal-maker. And once you’ve listened, get out there and do something about it!

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. He is deeply 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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Deal-Driven Growth

Franchising, Raising Money, and the Deal-Maker’s Journey

Franchising: Calculator and pencil

Automotive expert Kamran Saleem has over 15 years of experience in the automotive industry. He is skilled at raising money, franchising, and navigating the deal-maker’s journey! Kamran studied Business Management at Aston University. He is the founder Motoserv UK, a sales and service organization.

Early Ambitions

Kamran has always loved cars. He notes that, growing up, his parents were accountants. This led to being surrounded, early on, by entrepreneurs and business owners that his parents worked with. From restaurant owners to commerce and trade businesses, he feels lucky to have had so many early inspirations.

As a result, Kamran feels that becoming an entrepreneur himself wasn’t a question of “if”, but of “when”. While studying Business Management at Aston University, Kamran’s early work was connected to financial management and office-related roles. Upon graduation, he joined the family accounting firm. However, he found that all of his clients and connections had pressing questions beyond the numbers: they needed to know things about their cars!

After giving out a great deal of advice, Kamran ended up becoming a deal packager and set up a brokerage. This allowed him to earn commission from banks and auto sellers. Quite quickly, he was making more money with his automotive connections than he was working for his father’s firm! Although he was still years out from franchising, he was on the way towards his own business.

Early Deal-Making & Growth

Kamran remembers being around 16 and buying a camera and laptop. He went around and took pictures of menus and food at restaurants, and started writing things up online. His clientele quickly grew, and he was charging a few hundred pounds to put up their sites. He completed around 50 in the first year, which set him up for ongoing entrepreneurial success.

Now, Kamran is located in the UK. He works in the automotive trade, with both servicing and sales, with the company he founded, Motoserv UK.

Early on, this required raising funds. He put together his concept, and worked to do so via private funding to get off the ground. He also took on quite a bit of debt to get started. Kamran noted that, in the UK, the automotive trade has a tendency to struggle. With all those industry failures, finding a backers for his idea was quite difficult.

Another hurdle? His age. Kamran was still in his 20’s, and didn’t have a proven track record for taking on something this large. Those factors, coupled with the industry he was trying to enter, would have made it easy to get discouraged. He kept working hard, however, and was able to find an investor who believed in his vision and was willing to take a chance.

Securing Funding

Kamran’s business plan was an essential part of securing that early funding. He was able to demonstrate how his vision for the organization met the lender’s criteria and lending sensibility.

He also attributes his success to personal networking. By leveraging personal recommendations from financial industry professionals that he had met and grown relationships with via networking, he was able to take an extra step in demonstrating his credibility.

Once he had a seat at the table, Kamran also needed to be able to sell his vision. Being able to communicate the passion, drive, and energy he had was a major part of closing the deal.

Because of the uniqueness of his business model, Kamran notes that many potential investors felt that it wasn’t going to be sustainable. In fact, many predicted it would all fall apart with growth! He notes there is some wisdom to their feedback, as the business has required a lot of him to maintain and scale. In fact, he’s been called a “professional juggler” by his accountant because of how many balls he has in the air with the business!

Flexible Growth

Because of the nature of the industry, Kamran has needed to stay flexible over the years. He shares he has refinanced, paired everything down, and restructured a number of times.

However, his willingness to work through the financing process has also allowed him to take his monthly payment from being over 20,000 pounds per month, to being 6,000. Although there were some early payment fees, the business absorbed them in order to make moves that would benefit them in the long run.

Freeing up that extra cash flow has enabled him to grow and expand in ways he couldn’t with the higher payment plan. Kamran shares that he is always looking at options and possible end games. He has a real genius for seeing where profit could be made, and how things could be copy/pasted and regenerated into new businesses or profits.

Expanding Into Franchising

Having opened the original branch in Solihull, he’s since seen the organization grow via franchising. Kamran notes that a major part of growth has been the development of relationships.

MotoServ UK is well aware of the lifetime value of customers. This can mean not emphasizing “money today”, if it means off-putting customers or losing later business. Instead, the focus is on how they can best serve, stay top of mind, and become a part of people’s lifelong automotive journeys.

After all, car repairs, purchases, and sales are an ongoing aspect of many people’s lives. For success, you have to think beyond simple services and consider the big picture.

Kamran has also implemented a subscription model, which helps to stabilize income in an industry that can have wide ranging fluctuations across seasons and time periods. His deal-making journey is inspiring, and he shares great information in this episode. Definitely listen in for his thoughts on retention as well — he is a master of the game!

Listen to the full episode and learn more about deal-making, franchising, and more! Just head 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. He is deeply 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!

 

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Master the Inner Game to Broker More Deals

Mastering the inner game

As a husband, father, friend, and serial entrepreneur, Tony Grebmeier’s current ventures include co-founding ShipOffers with his childhood friends, and being the creator of the Be Fulfilled Brand. Tony notes that the journey to finding fulfillment is often filled with stories of stuff we never thought would happen. You may even feel like giving up entirely; that was his story, until his friend John showed up and saved his life. Now, Tony is passionate about teaching you how to master the inner game so you can experience more success of your own.

One of the companies he created from the lessons he’s discovered over the past 24 years as an owner/operator was the Be Fulfilled Journal. This journal has enabled over 5000+ entrepreneurs to develop a fresh vision for their life and take action right away. Tony is also the host of the popular Be Fulfilled Podcast: The Real Stories Behind Success. He’s been on a quest for the past four seasons to redefine how we determine success. It’s the perfect show for anyone on their journey to personal or professional fulfillment who might be looking for some additional motivation on the climb up success mountain.

Early Ambitions & First Deals

Tony remembers wanting to be a firefighter, a policeman, and eventually an archeologist. Around 13, he got really set on becoming an architect as well. Although those dreams didn’t technically become a reality, Tony shares that he now advocates for each of us to become archaeologists and architects in our own lives. That’s powerful!

His first deal-making experience was a baseball card show he ran out of his garage. He’d make flyers, and hustle to get people to come. Eventually, he sold that concept to others after it had grown. That early wheeling-and-dealing to get 50-6- kids to his house on a Saturday was Tony’s entrepreneurial start!

Looking back, Tony notes that his parents had completely different backgrounds, and even came from different countries. As a sort of hybrid, he feels he combines the engineering and artistic talents that have run through his family for decades. When reflecting, he also shared that his emphasis on mastering the inner game and really digging deep into your own life have been instrumental in his ability to understand the impact his family has had on him. 

Saying Yes (A Lot)

Throughout his life, Tony noted he’s learned to say “yes” a lot. By the time he was in college, he’d had 14 different jobs. One day, walking past a radio booth, he realized he wanted to do radio.

He first got turned down, but he persisted. At his core, he knew that if he believed he could do something, he would absolutely make it happen. That resulted in 4 college radio shows, and an eventual career in radio.

While working at a Silicon Valley radio station in the 90’s, Tony got asked if he wanted to design a website. At the time, they were so new he wasn’t even sure what a site was, much less what would go into making one. However, he said “Yes” again. Before you know it, he and his business partner were selling websites for $50,000.

After a repeat client purchased yet another site, Tony finally asked him what he was doing. The client told him about fulfillment sites, and shortly after Tony launched a supplement fulfillment company.

Although he no longer has that initial organization, Tony has been running ShipOffers for the last 20+ years with one of his childhood friends. (This guy dates back to the baseball card show days in Tony’s garage!)

Deals Gone Wrong

After launching supplements, Tony and a friend realized there was a content gap between the ages of 13 and 16. Along with a group of others who saw the need, they created a web series designed for the 13-16 year old demographic. It quickly acquired 20-60 million hits, and garnered a ton of attention!

Shortly after, they started receiving bids and interest in getting bought out. Large media companies were looking to purchase what they had created.

That’s when the problems occurred. There were 10 “leaders” of what they had built, and egos got in the way of being able to achieve a meaningful deal. That taught him to be very careful about who you go into business with, and how many people should be involved.

These lessons still apply. In 2017, Tony’s company did 12 million in sales. He looked around, and realized that some areas were getting bloated. There were too many decision makers, and a lack of clarity. After making shifts, growth took off, and they’ve surpassed the 60 million mark this year.

Seasonality Data

In the early 2000’s, Tony’s company created virility pills. Now, it’s testosterone. The trends have shifted, and what people consider “problematic” and “normal” changes significantly.

A major benefit to having been in the game for 20+ years is that ShipOffers allows Tony’s team to use the seasonality of data and major trends to make decisions. He’s seen how things shift over time, and he’s not in it for the short game.

Understanding that data can have both short- and long-term purposes. You can use it beyond “just” outreach, which is powerful. Tony notes that ShipOffers has hired data analysts who can study the trends they’ve documented over years. Then, they help them think about what positioning could help them reach the next level. He contributes these high-level reports and big picture thinking with ShipOffers’ continued ability to grow.

Master the Inner Game

To hear more about Tony’s personal struggles, what he’s learned about mastering the inner game, and how he continues to grow, listen in today!

 

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. He is deeply 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!

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Deal-Driven Growth

Unexpected & Innovative Deal-Making

legal books arranged on a shelf: Innovative Deal-Making

Barry Seidel opened his own practice right out of school in 1982. He later wrote a book about his experiences, called Evolutions of a Law Practice – How I Opened My Law Practice Right Out of Law School…and Lived to Tell About It. Now he writes, speaks, teaches, and consults about law practice, with the goal of helping other lawyers improve their practices and their lives. Along the way, he’s also gained wide-ranging, innovative deal-making success.

The areas he supports other lawyers include starting and growing a practice, the transitions of a practice, marketing and business development, law practice management and systems, and personal development as it pertains to entrepreneurship. As a practicing lawyer, Barry focuses on Surrogate’s Court. That includes probate, kinship/cousin cases with the Public Administrator, and ancillary probate. He also runs a per diem court coverage service in Queens County, including virtual appearances.

An Early Start

Barry remembers wanting to be a talk radio host when he was a kid. He’d listen to both sides of hot topics, and enjoyed debating and discussing various points. By the time he was in highschool, he was on the law student path, which he stayed on throughout college and beyond. He didn’t, however, know what he would specialize in. The many places he’s been able to go with his law degree, and the arenas he’s tapped into, have been a source of surprise and enjoyment.

Barry notes that he worked at a small firm while in law school, which he highly recommends. Beyond just being aware of what kinds of cases the partners were taking, he took a strong interest in the management side of the office. From how billing was handled, to what the office employees had done, to how the day-to-day operations were managed, he was able to soak up a lot of practical ideas about how a law practice works.

Early on, he recognized that running a law practice is an entrepreneurial pursuit. Rather than seeing himself as someone who has a “job”, Barry has always seen himself as being someone who runs a business. It makes a difference!

His First Deal

Barry’s first deal as a lawyer involved finding a landlord and making a time for space arrangement. He paid a $100 a month for a desk space in the landlord’s office, and in exchange he provided about 15 hours a week of legal services. Barry strategically chose that office because there were 4-5 other lawyers using the suite. He was able to garner work from not only his own clients, but from picking up cases and clients for the more established lawyers who had high caseloads.

Using his negotiation skills and being willing to take assignments ensured that Barry was busy from day one. This is an excellent example of doing your due diligence, scouting the landscape, and understanding what opportunities are available. 

The reason that early deal benefited Barry so much was that he wasn’t just exchanging time for space in a dead end area with minimal opportunity. It worked because he had put in the leg work to make sure that he would have room to grow, seize new opportunities, and expand beyond his current level.

Developing as a Deal-Maker

Eventually, Barry decided to develop a local neighborhood practice in Queens. As he grew his family, he expanded from real estate based clients to doing personal injury work. Although he was making more money, he realized he didn’t like that work. He learned a lot, but he wasn’t proud of what he was doing.

He was also having trouble working at volume within the highly inefficient New York court system. 

Barry realized that he hated going up to Brooklyn, and the Brooklyn lawyers hated coming down to Queens. It was highly inefficient, and choosing between dealing with the subway or dealing with parking felt like a lose-lose situation. He came up with a plan, where lawyers could pay him to handle preliminary conferences, compliance conferences, motions, depositions, and more. Then, Barry created a cover letter and rolodex card, then built a direct mailing campaign. He sent 1,300 letters over 6 months, which resulted in 275 clients.

Many of these clients started using Barry regularly for their needs. They all thought it was great, and the word began to spread. Barry had a booming business on his hands, which resulted in a series of deals. He was able to leverage that campaign into massive business growth, as a result of being highly strategic, differentiating himself, and targeting law firms that were most likely to need his services.

Listen in to learn more about how he set up his campaign!

When You Do Things, Things Happen

Barry hadn’t anticipated his practice going this direction, but he notes that when you do things, things happen. Taking action puts all sorts of opportunities into motion!

As Barry started reaching a high volume, he was able to bring other attorneys in who were willing to doing this work. He used bartering, and also arranged flat fees and exchanges. In addition, he got discounts when he was willing to pay promptly ; he knew that many lawyers dealt with clients who paid slowly or late. By showing he could pay on time, he found he could offer slightly lower rates.

As technology improved and more tools became available, Barry was able to become even more efficient. He was also innovative. His wife took QuickBooks and modified it to track who was doing the work, where, and when. He also used the estimates feature, which many weren’t using. Running his firm like an actual business was shocking to many people, but thinking outside the box and making business tools work for him enabled Barry to be extremely successful.

Doing Deals With Your Competitors

I love that Barry talks about how he worked with his competitors to make deals that included his competitors. Too often that approach is discounted, because we tend to want to keep direct competitors at an arm’s length.

As Barry’s success illustrates, however, you can grow, scale, and thrive with unexpected and innovative deal-making. That also reminded me of my episode with Damon Gersh. He also shared about how he worked with competitors to create deals that benefited all parties, to great success. In fact, Damon was able to compete against large, national competitors once he was able to help local businesses band together. 

Barry noted that the high volume of cases, as well as the reality that he was sometimes representing both sides of the table, meant that working with other lawyers was absolutely necessary. Refusing to work with competitors would have severely limited his ability to grow, and he likely would have never experienced the success he’s experienced.

(Listen in to hear what title the New York Law Journal gave Barry in 1999.)

Unexpected and Innovative Deal-Making

One thing I loved was that Barry shared ideas he had that he never followed up on. I think when we see someone successful, we can sometimes assume that they had a clear path to the top. As we learn from Barry, however, his path was not only unexpected (and driven by taking action and adjusting as he went), it was also marked by choices he made about what to pursue, and what not to pursue.

As a deal-maker, you should be consistently coming up with ideas. Not because you’re going to pursue all of them, but because being in the habit of creative thinking prepares you to identify what ideas are worth pursuing.

Barry ended up being glad he never pursued his five families idea (listen in to hear more about that)….but he also enjoys looking back and remembering he had that idea in the first place.

Resisting the Deal

At some point, Barry was working long hours, and pushing himself extremely hard. He notes that he knew he could make deals – he could have decreased his work load – but he chose not to. Instead, he pushed forward, taking on more and more and working longer and longer hours.

Eventually, it fell apart: Barry had a heart attack, and wasn’t able to work at all for almost a full year.

Although many people thought the “pressure” had gotten to him, Barry realized that his real problem had come from all his pent up frustration around practice areas that he didn’t enjoy, and that actually caused him a lot of internal stress. He had been so weighed down, he hadn’t been able to enjoy any of his success.

As he recovered, he realized he needed to get rid of the cases that had been burdening him leading up to his heart attack. He let go of the cases that had been creating so much strife, made deals to allow others to take on parts of his practice that he had so deeply disliked, and transitioned into an area of law he truly enjoyed.

Over 15 years into his career, Barry transitioned into probate and estate planning. He was willing to learn a new speciality that felt like a better fit for his interests and lifestyle, and he deeply enjoyed picking it up. He also notes that it’s really not that hard to learn something new when you really want to.

Always Growing

At the end of the day, Barry has grown throughout is entire career. He loves what he does, because he hasn’t allowed himself to be pigeon holed. When he entered his career, he did things differently. He ran his practice differently, and he gave himself space to make deals, pivot when necessary, and work cases he was passionate about.

How can you do the same? What areas of your current business or career do you deeply dislike, and how could you pivot, grow, or change in order to prevent that from becoming your norm? 

Go do that! After all, it’s not that hard to learn something new when you want to.

 

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. He is deeply 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!

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

5 More Steps Towards Deal-Making Success

Deal-Making Success: white shoes on red carpet

As I discussed in Episode #134, there are 10 steps I consistently promote for deal preparation and readiness. Combining these steps will lead you towards deal-making success! Having already shared the first five, in this solocast I’ll focus on the five I had left to cover. Listen in to learn about how you can take advantage of the repeatable, scaleable deal-making opportunities.

The First 5 Steps Towards Success

Our first five steps from the last solocast were:

  1. Know Why You’re Making the Deal
  2. Determine Who You Are Targeting
  3. Build Your Value Proposition
  4. Get the Right Resources in Place
  5. Choose a Deal Model

If you haven’t had a chance to listen to that one yet, please do! Those first five are really the foundation you’ll want to ensure you’ve set before you move forward.

Step #6: Choosing a Deal Structure

A lot of people want to jump to this step first! They’ll have a deal on the table, or be considering a deal, and they’ll already be focused on their structure. It’s always one of the first questions I get!

When asked, however, I always bring clients back to steps 1-5 before I spend time on establishing structure. If you don’t know the basics, like why you’re making the deal, what the value prop is, and what resources you need in place, then you’re not ready to be establishing a deal’s structure yet.

Finally, you’ll want your deal model in place before you choose a structure. The model gives you a template that allows your deals to be scalable and reproducible, which is key to making strong deals.

Once you know your model, then you’re in good shape to start structuring your deal. This includes legal documents that reflect that deal structure. We can take care of all of that before a deal is officially taking place. Even if the deal is already underway, we always encourage clients to use this opportunity to let us draft a series of template agreements that can be used going forward. The advantage to having these template documents is that you put yourself in the position to make powerful deals (and take fast action) in the future.

Although there are many more details regarding deal structures, this is the basic overview that will help you understand why it’s not a first step.

Step #7: Enter the Due Diligence Phase

General due diligence takes place even before you have a deal in place, and includes how you find people and what you need to know about the industry. It might also include locating conferences, finding professionals you’d like to work with, such as lawyers and brokers and bankers, and preparing internally for the deal.

If you’re already in a deal-making discussion, you’ll also want to do the necessary due diligence with your possible partner. You should thoroughly check any person or organization you’re considering making a deal with, whether it’s a joint venture, acquisition, or something else altogether.

Other areas to do your due diligence include legal, financial, cultural, systems/integrations, technological, investment approaches, and more. Be sure to think through what your situation calls for!

Step #8: Start Negotiating

This is an area I’m passionate about, as witnessed by my best-selling book, Authentic Negotiating, and the many podcasts I’ve done on this topic. This includes both actual negotiations and the process of getting the deal officially closed.

If you have a few deal-making templates based on your structure, for instance, this may be where you make some tweaks and customize the deal to the person or company your working with. Although you need to remain open to who you’re working with, you also want to balance your own needs and process against that. 

Ideally, you won’t fundamentally alter your deal-structure during this process, because you want to be able to use those templates to make deals scalable and repeatable.

Once negotiations are done, ideally your lawyers are able to complete it easily using the templates you’ve already put in the work to create.

Step #9: Think About Positioning

Once you’ve closed your deal, you’re not done yet! (Even though it seems like it might be.)

Even before you close the deal, you want to start thinking about positioning. This includes how you’ll announce the deal within your industry or marketplace. You should think through how you’ll want this communicated, and how you want it to be received.

If you’ve completed a merger, for instance, you should be communicating about what major partners may be staying on (or leaving), how you’re going to talk about it, and what you want the market to know from your part of view. You may also need to consider how your deal partner would like this positioned.

In addition, you’ll want to consider internal positioning. Often high-level executives are at the deal-making table, but there are many employees and personnel who are going to be impacted as well. How can you position the changes well and create employee buy-in so that you can retain (or begin creating) a strong shared culture.

Your people may be worried about increased workloads, new technology, changes to the pay scale, or decreased opportunities for promotion. Positioning is a way to address these things and create positive momentum.

Step #10: Start Integrating

Acquisitions, mergers, and many other deals require many parts, pieces, and team members to integrate. From choosing a cohesive CRM to selecting a method for communicating between team members or closing out a sales process, you’ll need to ensure that you have a strong integration plan.

Affiliate deals, joint ventures, and more also require integration because they’re asking people to work together. So many clashes, including technological and financial, can keep an otherwise great deal from succeeding. It’s vital that you’re taking the necessary steps to ensure that you’ve planned for your deal to last long into the future. 

When you follow these deal-making steps, you’ll position yourself for long-lasting, successful deals. That’s the best way to ensure ongoing success.

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. He is deeply 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!

 

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

Preparing for a Strong Exit

Preparing for a Strong Exit

Jay Offerdahl and his father, Brad, founded Viking Mergers & Acquisitions in Charlotte, NC in 1996. Now, Jay is the president, and he specializes in mergers & acquisitions, customized exit strategies, succession planning and seller representation. He’s a master of preparing businesses for a strong exit! In addition, Viking Mergers & Acquisitions also handles divestiture services for the mid-market company. They have dedicated and experienced advisors, and a passion for serving business owners. 

Since 1996, Viking’s team of professional advisors have successfully closed on sales of more than 600 businesses. Their team is uniquely positioned to help you navigate through a successful transaction. The majority of their advisors are former business owners themselves. They have been in your shoes and they know the unique challenges of buying and selling a business.

Listen to the DealQuest Podcast.

Following in His Dad’s Footsteps

Growing up, Jay remembers his dad buying and selling large machinery. Like many kids, he gravitated towards wanting to do what his dad did. Later, when his dad bought his first company and got into entrepreneurship, that appealed to Jay as well. He seemed to always believe that his own career would somehow connect to what his father did.

And, ultimately, it has! Not many people have actually co-founded a thriving business with a parent, but Jay and his dad have had great success with Viking Mergers & Acquisitions

By the time he was preparing to graduate from Appalachian State University, Jay did some job hunting and interviewing. However, he didn’t spend much time as an employee before becoming an entrepreneur. Like many, in hindsight he can see that he was spending way too much time working in his business. 

Having learned so many lessons about building a business from the ground up, Jay is very aware that his own experiences have made him especially successful at working with other entrepreneurs and business owners now.

First Deals

The first deal Jay remembers being a part of was setting up a candy store kiosk in a local mall. He thought he’d hit paydirt at 22 years old, and was thrilled to get started. Now, he laughs a bit about that and has fond memories of his humble beginnings.

One of his major takeaways is that there is no substitute for hands-on time on the job. You have to get in the trenches and learn what works and what doesn’t.

In every business he’s been a part of, Jay has seen things that really work, and things that don’t. He’s had to learn what his own philosophies and processes will be, and also what he doesn’t want to be part of his business.

Intentionality plays a large role in this, and that same intentionality has been a major part of determining who he serves, and what kind of deals he’ll take on today.

I Don’t Live to Work

Jay shares that he doesn’t want to get on a plane unless he’s doing it for leisure. He doesn’t want his advisors to have to do so either.

As a result, Viking has intentionally chosen to craft a business model that allows them to serve well, without pushing them to revert to “working to live”. So far, it seems to be working well!

Because of the nature of their work, Jay also shared that a “repeat” client might be someone they see every 10 years! Their clients are doing transactions, and in some ways the work that Jay’s team is doing is transactional as well. That doesn’t mean they aren’t building relationships, of course! It does mean, however, that they aren’t generating ongoing revenue from subscription-type models that enable you to build profits from repeatedly working with the same people or groups.

Instead, they have to continually pursue new deals with new organizations. After all, how many times does a single entrepreneur or owner have a company to sell that’s valued in the millions, or tens of millions, of dollars?

Why Do You Start a Business?

Having seen hundreds of transactions over the years, Jay notes that many entrepreneurs lose sight of the fact that the successful end to their business is to sell it for a profit. No one will be here forever, and the options available are to either close up shop, or to sell.

Being prepared to sell can ensure that your work will live on, and can also prepare you to enter your retirement years with a solid footing.

It’s essential that you’re thinking about the right time to turn equity into cash in your pocket. Some of this is based on feel, much like the stock market. 

Jay also jokes that nepotism can create problems here. It can be tempting to simply hand over the business you bootstrapped from the garage in its early days, but it’s often not the most helpful way to ensure success. He compares it to buying your teenager a brand new sports car on their 16th birthday. You could do it, but it’s likely not a great investment.

Instead, he recommends that you secure your own retirement first buy selling your business, then taking a percentage of those proceeds and use it as a down payment on a smaller business that you can plan to coach your heirs through building on their own.

The reality is, 2nd and 3rd generation businesses have profoundly poor outcomes. Some of that may be connected to the idea that a business should just be handed over to the incoming generations, without making payments. 

In fact, Jay notes that when his dad was ready to retire, he bought him out. It’s a legally completed deal, and Jay did have to take on debt, and risk, to make it happen. However, he thinks that’s an important part of ensuring that he’ll show up, go the extra mile, and be committed to achieving success in his own right long into the future.

The Deal-Making Table

Jay believes that a buyer is paying for what the seller has accomplished, but is buying because they see the opportunity to realize greater success. If a company seems perfect, that can also mean there is little to no room to actually grow, which is actually a downside.

I’ve seen deals fall apart because the buyer is attracted to a company, but isn’t able to see margin for improvement. There can be a sort of ceiling, or cap, that makes a potential sale seem less attractive, and that’s something to be aware.

Funny enough, even though growth margin is a good thing, sometimes the person selling their company can get offended or upset if weaknesses (which are also the growth areas) are named. The ego can get involved and want to insist that nothing is a problem.

Plus, going to market can feel emotional, even when ego isn’t a problem. Your business is incredibly close to your heart, and is often something you’ve poured years of sweat and tears into. Jay counsels clients to really focus on creating consistent results that are intentionally designed with an exit strategy in place. That way, you can go out on your terms, rather than having the sale dictated to you.

Do Your Due Diligence

Professionals know what buyers are looking for. Jay and I are both very familiar with what sorts of questions are going to come up. We’re also skilled at helping you navigate them.

As Jay notes, due diligence and preparing to sell can literally feel like a second full job. If you’re not prepared for that, you can quickly become overwhelmed. Due diligence is the opportunity for the buyer to really assess their risk. Understandably, most of them want to dig into the minutiae in order to ensure that your business will be a good fit for them.

No one wants a lemon, and failure to do due diligence can result in deals that should have never happened.

Listen in to learn more about Jay and I’s thoughts on due diligence and preparing for a strong exit.

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. He is deeply 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!

 

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Negotiating Deal-Driven Growth

Acquisitions and Exits

brick wall with blue exit side and pictures of white stairs: Acquisitions and Exits

When Jessica Fialkovich sold her first business a decade ago, she had no idea where to start. Fortunately, she was able to exit successfully and then buy her next business. For almost ten years, she has built the fastest growing and most successful business brokerage firm in the U.S. But she also realized that business owners that came to her firm to sell were often not prepared. Although thousands of experts will teach you how to start a business and how to grow one — very few will teach you how to sell. So she decided to pull back the curtain about how the business sales process works and give buyers and sellers the tools to successfully (and profitability) complete transactions, including acquisitions and exits.

Jessica is passionate about small business and the entrepreneur community, and holds board positions for Entrepreneur’s Organization and The Fight Back Foundation. Over the past 7 years, her team has completed $250 million+ in transactions. This includes working directly with over 1,500 business owners, being involved with 350+ deals, and giving over 10,000 entrepreneurs guidance about buying and selling businesses

Early Aspirations

Jessica grew up on a horse farm, and dreamed of being a large animal veterinarian. After experiencing blood, however, she realized she didn’t want to go into a career that involved surgery.

Eventually, she moved on to an early high school job as a telemarketer at a gym. She was able to close a few memberships, and was proud of her success. (She also remembers how scary sales felt to her at the tie!) Those are some of the first deals that Jessica remembers donig. It reminded me of some of my early deals with gyms. When they first moved to a 30-day subscription model, some people thought it was ludicrous. After all, they had previously had people locked into annual contracts!

It was a great move, however, because people were more open to entering into a contract that they felt they could end if needed….and hopeful enough about their habit changes that they would tend to maintain the membership anyhow!

Lessons Learned

Jessica started her first business in 2009, which was mid-recession. Her and her husband had seen friends do well with wine, and they decided to open a wine tasting bar in Naples, Florida.

They quickly got into luxury wine dealing, including bottles that sold for $25,000 each. In addition to being a great business, they got into at the right time. As online wine buying started to take off, they decided to close their physically located business and relocate to Colorado.

When she started asking around about how to sell a business, she was only able to find one person to guide them through it. Although it was a great deal (60 days, all cash, 2 weeks of training), Jessica also felt that she had done a lot of the leg work. The broker wasn’t that involved, and a lot of the process steps, like due diligence, fell to her.

A Whole New Industry

The experience showed Jessica that there was an entire industry that was going largely untapped and unnoticed. 

After all the work to start, launch, and grow businesses (things there was plenty of support for in the market), there was little guidance for how to exit one well. No one seemed to be talking about it, which piqued Jessica’s interest.

Upon moving to Colorado, they launched their business brokerage firm there. In the process, Jessica decided to pull back the curtain about how the business sales process works. Her desire was to give buyers and sellers the tools to successfully (and profitability) complete a transaction. 

I’ve seen this as well; too often, we’re not taught how to create enterprise value and position ourselves for a strong close.

Business Brokerage Market Research

In the process of doing her market research, Jessica found that the acquisitions and exits process always tended to be similar, but the experience could vary widely. She wanted to bring support and assistance to every level. After all, many business owner’s retirement was tied up in the sale of their business.

Jessica set out to deliver investment banking level services for small businesses. One way this was accomplished was by providing their brokers with a whole back office team, including buyer reps and other resources. This team approach was designed to offer the ultimate support and comprehensive services.

One reason that services had tended to lack in this industry is that larger deals are more lucrative for brokerage firms. 

When the deals and organizations involved are smaller, Jessica shares that they have to be much more process oriented so that they can close more deals than a larger firm would. Last year, in fact, they closed over one hundred! One positive thing about this business model is that their risk is much more diversified.

Working at that scale also means that processes are key.The back office and admin team allow the brokerage team to do more deals, while still providing highly personalized services.

Starting as a Franchisee

When they got started with the brokerage, there was a defunct office in Colorado that they acquired. Their growth continued as a result of ongoing acquisitions. Eventually, it led to offices in Dallas and Vegas.

Jessica notes that the franchise’s owner had a very similar outlook in terms of where the industry was going. In addition, he emphasized process and resource pools as well. Being able to work with offices across the country has helped Jessica and her team access necessary resources and continue to position themselves well in the current marketplace. 

Scaling and fast growth have been beneficial outcomes that have resulted from the systems and expertise of the network as well. Jessica notes that, whatever deal comes up, she knows there is something in her network that will be able to offer guidance if she wants extra support.

Once you understand how to operate a business within an industry, deal-flow naturally comes to you. Jessica notices that many opportunities have come to them as a result of their reputations as top-performing franchise owners.

A Tale of Two Markets

After the last year and a half of chaos and pivots, Jessica feels that she’s seeing two markets emerge.

On the one hand, it’s a buyers market in many regards. In terms of picking up second and third markets, or breaking into an industry, well positioned buyers are making gains. Because of low performances over the last 18 months, many industries are more accessible than ever. A deal that would normally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for a buyer could happen today for fifty.

Alternately, industries that remained stable or performed well during the last 18 months are in a seller’s market. There is a lot of money being poured into garnering deals in industries that have proven to work. Lending has also  been more available than it sometimes is, which allows sellers to walk away with much more cash than normal.

In terms of industry, Jessica notes that the winners and losers have been very clearly defined due to the current economy. 

To hear more about her thoughts on acquisitions and exits, as well as on today’s market, listen in today!

 

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. He is deeply 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!

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Deal-Driven Growth

Deal-Making Like a Producer

Deal-Making Like a Producer: Woman holding a clapperboard in front of her face.

From Broadway to broadcasting, Dean McFlicker’s unique trajectory gives him a one-of-a-kind perspective, as he combines his creative prowess with business acumen. Dean has produced for NBC, HBO, CNN, E! NewsDaily, Good Morning America and more. As you might imagine, he’s been involved with a lot of phenomenal shows! Dean helped launch countless hits as Senior Vice President of Promotional Programming at NBC as well.  Those include This Is Us, The Voice, America’s Got Talent, The Biggest Loser, Friday Night Lights, and all of NBC’s live musicals. What a resume! (And this is just a glimpse of the work he has done.) If you want to learn about deal-making like a producer, listen in now.

I always love talking with folks who are coming from creative backgrounds. They often offer a new perspective on deal-making. (Also, shout out to former guest Li Hayes for connecting Dean and I!)

The Curved Path to Success

Dean notes that, like most people, he’s been on a curving path to success. 

As his ambitions and opportunities have ebbed and flowed, he’s gotten to experience many elements of the performing and entertaining world. It all started, however, with Dean being what he described as a “ham”. He was one of those kids who just always loved to put on a good show!

Early on Dean would create a script, produce it, and sell tickets. He’d also round up all the neighbor kids to be performers. Apparently he’s always been a director and producer at heart! In addition, he did his own performing. From his backyard start he moved on to Hollywood, singing, dancing, and acting. (He was an original cast member in the Disney musical Newsies. Apparently it’s actually more popular now than it was when he did it!)

Although his early days were in front of the camera, he was eventually happy to make the move to being behind them. It was a slow transition, moving from choreography to directing and working his way up. Part of his success came from being open to many opportunities. Dean often said “yes” to joining new projects and trying new things, including being an assistant writer, director, and producer for various shows.

Early Deal-Making

Dean considers his early backyard theater productions to be his first deal-making experiences. From wrangling neighbor kids and getting them to do what he wanted them to do, including getting them to take on parts and show up for rehearsals, to getting supplies for sets and costumes, Dean was practicing his deal-making savvy early on.

So much of what Dean was doing in his backyard required him to bring together key people and form relationships. In fact, it required many of the same skills that would eventually make him an excellent creative director. 

Now, Dean notes that what he does is really the art of bringing together all of the different disciplines to make one cohesive entertainment package. That’s just like business, where you bring together many disciplines (budgeting, marketing, sales, HR) to move your business forward. For that reason, Dean thinks a good producer is a lot like a CEO, as both are responsible for bringing together all of the different elements of an organization.

The Art of the Creative Deal

Dean notes that deals are definitely an art, and they can come together in many different ways. For example, last year he produced the world’s first Minion’s Holiday Special. This brought together multiple large entities (Universal Pictures, Illumination Studios, and NBC Television). As you can imagine, with that many players involved, deal-making is automatically involved.

Now, Dean also has his own production company, McFlicker Media, where he also produces for businesses. After all, great story telling isn’t limited to entertainment. At the end of the day, it’s also the heart of marketing. When producing for businesses, marketing related deals might include bringing in the perfect celebrity endorsement, or involving the star salesman for a particular division and making them part of what’s happening.

As an example of another sort of marketing deal, Dean shared that when you’re watching a movie, you’ll often see many different “vanity cards” denoting various film and production companies. In exchange for what they’re offering behind the scenes of a film, they’ve made deals that guarantee they’re getting seen and acknowledged as well. All of those sorts of industry norms are based on deal-making, including alliances and endorsements.

Not Just Features and Benefits

Part of marketing and experiencing organic growth revolves around telling the story. It’s not enough to just list features and benefits and expect to make a sale, or to close on a deal. 

Dean says that he sees the act of storytelling in a business capacity as being another form of producing. In business, as in life, you get to produce the story that you want to see unfold. Much like in the movies, this can be done really well, to great success….or really poorly, for a complete flop.

A natural fit that matches the product and audience while tapping into something true and relatable is the most powerful way to experience organic success. When you do this right, you’re able to build meaningful relationships. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know that I strongly believe in relationships as being an integral part of deal-making!

We are Conscious Creators

Although there are things that happen outside of our control, I very much believe that we are conscious creators in our own lives. We have an exceptional amount of power to consciously create in our own lives.

About 10 years ago I was at a business event and one of the sessions I went to was about living your ideal life now. It was encouragement to stop working so hard now and putting off all these things we are going to enjoy till “later”. Instead, we can find a way to create and live our ideal life now. That was a huge mentality shift for me, and it’s altered my life over the last decade.

Dean’s TED talk, How to Get What you Want: The Producer’s Perspective is very similar! In it, he shares that you can consciously take charge of opportunities and make decisions that allow you to create your best life and business now. One way that Dean does this is by using the narrative perspective, as well as other key film and television points that can be helpful in any situation.

(Listen in for two of his top tips now; you’ll find them around minute 20!)

Integrity is Key

One important note on using narrative and story is that they must be real and authentic. Anyone can create a story….but if that story is used to fool or deceive someone into making a decision or entering into a deal, they won’t want to work with you again.

As he’s moved into working with more corporate clients, Dean has found that assisting them in creating truthful, compelling stories has been a key part of his work with them. In order to have customers return again and again, they need to know that you’re being honest.

If it comes to light that the story you told was really just a story, and that it doesn’t align with the sort of culture or values that you had been presenting, you’re going to have problems! Whether that means losing customers or seeing a deal slip through your fingers, you’ll definitely experience fallout.

Dean has such an amazing background, and his episode is so interesting!

Listen in to the full show to learn more about his work in advertising, and the tips he has for using deals to decrease overhead and uplevel opportunities.

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. He is deeply 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!