Tag: deal-making success

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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 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!

Categories
Authentic Deal-Making Authentic Leadership Deal-Driven Growth

Deal Preparation: 5 Steps Towards Success

Deal Preparation: 5 Steps Towards Success: red carpet square with a pair of fancy white shoes

When I do whiteboard sessions with my deal-making clients, I frequently cover 10 specific steps that help us move towards success. This process is especially key for those who want to be part of ongoing deals. As I’ve seen, the more deals you have going on, the more important it becomes to be strategic and follow a process that works for you. Ready to uplevel your own deal preparation? Listen in to the whole episode, or read on below!

(I’ll cover the first 5 steps today. Stay tuned for my next solocast to get the other 5!)

1. Know Why You’re Making the Deal

Before you get in too deep with any deal, it’s essential that you have a fundamental understanding of why you want to pursue this deal. Is this about growth? Diversification? Furthering your purpose? Positioning yourself for further acquisitions?

The reality is, some of us are motivated to enter into deals for all the wrong reasons. I’ve watched people make deals that increase revenue while actually reducing profit. Some deals are driven by ego rather than anything truly meaningful. As much as I love deals and am a huge proponent of them, I think we have to understand that they aren’t always the best idea.

Finally, when you understand your why, you can communicate that with your partners and other stakeholders. That includes lawyers or negotiators, like me, that are involved in the deal.

2. Who Are You Targeting?

If you’re doing multiple deals, you need to have a target in mind. A haphazard search or method for connecting just won’t cut it, especially if you’re serious about making deals a sustainable part of your future.

Who are you looking for? What are your criteria for your potential targets? What are you trying to add to your business?

Whether you’re looking for acquisitions or affiliates (or something else altogether), it’s key that you take the initiative to understand who they are. In addition, you should understand how that pertains to your why.

3. Build Your Value Proposition

We’re all used to differentiating ourselves from the competition in order to generate sales or gain traction. However, we don’t always think about creating a value proposition for our deals. Doing so makes sense, though!

If you know your why, and you know who you’re targeting, you should be able to communicate why doing the deal holds value for them. What makes it worth their time? Why is this going to be in their best interest?

Just being “nice” people, or having a great company, doesn’t cut it here! Also, the deal structure or model is not the value proposition. (Those things are what you create to deliver on the value prop itself.)

So, what’s the value? Why is this deal, be it an acquisition, affiliation, joint venture, or something else, worth bringing these particular parties to the table? When you’re clear about this, you’re able to both qualify amazing partnerships and disqualify those who won’t be a great fit.

4. Get the Right Resources in Place

Before you create your deal model and choose a structure, you need to identify and get in place the correct resources. This can include internal resources, human talent or skills, capital, systems or processes, information needed, and relationships with 3rd parties. I encourage clients to do a resource map to tangible write down what is already in place as well as what is needed.

In order to be fully prepared for a deal, you need to know what you have and what you need.

5. Choose a Deal Model

First off, deal models and deal structure are not the same. (I’ll kick off the next solocast with more on the distinctions between the two!) 

Your deal model is how you’re going to do these deals. For example, in a licensing deal, you may have an exclusive or a non-exclusive model. Within those categories, there are more you can break the deal down into. From expectations around the number of deals sold, to clarifications on geographical boundaries, these factors are part of the deal’s model. 

The goal here is not to create a “menu” with a bunch of listings. Rather, the goal is to develop a model that keeps things consistent, scalable, and usable as you grow. The more deals you do, the more important it becomes to have clarity around your own deal models.

As you build your model, you can take into account your why, who you’re targeting, and what your value proposition is. In addition, it will be based on what resources you have in place. The model ties all of these elements together and sets you up for deal-making success!

If you just do 1-5, you’re on your way towards becoming an excellent deal-maker! Stay tuned for 6-10, where I’ll deliver more on structure.

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!