Get ready for a fascinating journey of discovery as we navigate the complex world of the inspection industry with our seasoned expert, John Bolton. John, a 25-year veteran of the industry, shares his experience of adapting to dramatic changes from the era of Polaroid pictures to the COVID-19 pandemic and sheds light on the realities of downsizing and the crucial aspect of exit strategy planning.
We then engage with industry gurus Sean Rossbach and Scott Swayze, who enrich our understanding of mergers and acquisitions. Discover the weight of company culture during the acquisition process, the potential for business growth through acquisitions, and the intriguingly increasing role of private equity in the sector. Hear how entities like Launchpad and RFE can exponentially increase a company's value, and learn to discern the risks tied to selling a business. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or a newbie, this episode offers valuable insights into the dynamics of consolidation in the home inspection industry and the art of navigating substantial business decisions.
Contact IEB -
- web: www.iebcoaching.com
- email: support@iebcoaching
- social: @iebcoaching
Contact Matt -
- email: matt@dciabq.com
- IG: @the.matthew.williams
Get ready for a fascinating journey of discovery as we navigate the complex world of the inspection industry with our seasoned expert, John Bolton. John, a 25-year veteran of the industry, shares his experience of adapting to dramatic changes from the era of Polaroid pictures to the COVID-19 pandemic and sheds light on the realities of downsizing and the crucial aspect of exit strategy planning.
We then engage with industry gurus Sean Rossbach and Scott Swayze, who enrich our understanding of mergers and acquisitions. Discover the weight of company culture during the acquisition process, the potential for business growth through acquisitions, and the intriguingly increasing role of private equity in the sector. Hear how entities like Launchpad and RFE can exponentially increase a company's value, and learn to discern the risks tied to selling a business. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or a newbie, this episode offers valuable insights into the dynamics of consolidation in the home inspection industry and the art of navigating substantial business decisions.
Contact IEB -
- web: www.iebcoaching.com
- email: support@iebcoaching
- social: @iebcoaching
Contact Matt -
- email: matt@dciabq.com
- IG: @the.matthew.williams
We believe the purpose of owning a business is funding your perfect life. Welcome to the next generation of growth and opportunity in the inspection industry. This is the Empire State of Mind. Empire State of Mind Helping build companies with faster growth, higher profits and more time freedom. Finally, a podcast for the home inspection industry and beyond. This is the Empire State of Mind and this is your host, Matt Williams.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the show. I am excited. Today We've got a fantastic episode. I have my friend with me, John Bolton, and we are talking about mergers and acquisitions inside of the inspection industry. Hey, John, welcome to the show. Dude, I am stoked.
Speaker 3:This is so cool. I always thought that was your voice in the intro.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, did you really? No, you did not Welcome to the show. I don't know if I could do that. You know who could, as Gordon Fox here in Ivy? Yeah, he could come in and do that radio voice. We had him. He was on an episode just recently and I had him do a little bit of his radio voice on the episode and he did flip it like a switch and he's there. I don't know if he's ever done it professionally, but I think he could. Absolutely. He's a radio voice guy, what they call a natural. A natural. Here we go, here's what we call a natural. All right, john, let's talk about you for a second here. Some people know who you are, but some people don't. Where are you located? You have had an inspection company, have had had.
Speaker 2:Had an inspection company. So let's talk about that just a little bit, because I think mergers and acquisitions are happening around the company.
Speaker 3:It is the elephant in the room right now.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I don't know how much of that is happening and our industry is shifting big time and you were in the middle of it and I know a lot of people in this space have never sold a business or anything. So let's start off first, like where are you located and how big was your inspection company? Because sometimes we think only the big guys are acquiring the big guys.
Speaker 3:Very good point. Very good point. I'm in central Florida, Orlando. I don't know if you've ever heard of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's like this mouse park there. There's a mouse problem there, so in other words, it's a very large market Huge.
Speaker 3:We have over 16,000 licensed inspectors.
Speaker 2:They estimate in Florida or in Orlando in Florida.
Speaker 3:So they estimate about half of that are active.
Speaker 2:So they're still a thousand active inspectors.
Speaker 3:That's a lot.
Speaker 2:It's a lot of inspectors and Orlando is a big. How many people live in Orlando? The?
Speaker 3:metro between our areas, primarily orange and central county. So you're talking probably five million.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Give or take in there.
Speaker 2:That's a lot of people.
Speaker 3:Big market, a huge market, yeah, exactly so. There's a lot of competition.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Yep, and the good thing is, when you start early, it's a little bit easier. Okay, this is my 25th year.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:When I got into it it wasn't anything like it is now.
Speaker 2:You're like chiseling reports on stone tablets.
Speaker 3:Oh, you've seen one of them. Yeah, those are.
Speaker 2:They were heavy 25 years is a long time, so there wasn't like software like there is today. Then right, they were only a couple softwares that very limited choices. They hit a point and shoot camera right Cause, like iPhones and stuff went out. We started with a Polaroid Sure.
Speaker 1:Oh my.
Speaker 2:God. Shake it like a Polaroid picture. Yeah, wow, okay.
Speaker 3:So photographs were limited.
Speaker 2:So not very many photos cause those are like a couple bucks apiece to shoot those yeah. They were high tech man.
Speaker 3:We were the man.
Speaker 2:You advertise that on your website. No wait, never mind.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't even have those yet. Yeah, that wasn't a thing Okay.
Speaker 2:So yeah, 25 years, you're in the business, been there a long time. That's good.
Speaker 3:Right, we got up to eight inspectors. You know we were chugging along. That's good size organization right there. We were blessed, we call it God blessed, you know, and rolling along, and the COVID thing happened and I don't want to make excuses by any means, I take complete responsibility, but things happened. Well, it changes happened right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a ton of change and it's a huge shakeup in the industry and, yeah, absolutely Every industry got shook up.
Speaker 3:Right, no-transcript. All these things, you know, have to fall into place for other things to happen. So we had whittled down to we had two and a half inspectors when the acquisition thing started happening.
Speaker 2:Right half, left half. How do you have a half of an inspector Part time? Yeah, I get it.
Speaker 3:Well, plus two part times, Sorry, okay, so two and a half full times. One guy was hurt, so he wasn't.
Speaker 2:I'm not taking his man card away or anything like that. He's only half the man he used to be.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you guys and ladies out there, you understand what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:That's hilarious, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:But at our age, we're also thinking of what's our exit strategy. What are we going to do Right Now? We're entrepreneurs. I've been I was self-employed for over 30 years.
Speaker 2:When I graduated.
Speaker 3:I graduated University of Florida Go Gators with a degree in BCN back in 1989. And I worked for a year for a contractor, got laid off. It was a rough time, you know, economically speaking. Couldn't find a job to save my life. So I did some things to stay alive and my dad we don't talk about that Exactly.
Speaker 3:And no longer have my stripper card. But oh my God, my dad was a GC. He's like man, you ought to get into home inspections. And I'm like, no way, this construction stuff sucks. Yeah, I was laid off as a superintendent, right, yeah, and finally talked me into it and this was like, wow, this is really cool. We give people a list of stuff that's wrong and leave. Yeah, I don't have to fix anything, right. And I'm like, wow, I'm in love, fell in love, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so for. Your flashlight and your pointer finger is like all you need. You're like that's broken and that's broken.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you can imagine how archaic you know if you were to look at a report from you know back then, it was just awful, awful.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sure Nothing like it is today.
Speaker 3:But anyway, so there we are, you know, looking for an exit strategy and all these things are happening and acquisitions are starting to happen. Yeah, so this was always interesting, but I swear to you, matt, I have it never dawned on me that we would be considered, so hopefully this is motivational for the rest of you. You know the majority of companies out there were just like us they're small.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, the inspection industry by and large is one to five inspectors, right, yeah, and if you're a multi-inspector, but that's the majority. Everybody talks about these guys who have dozens and dozens of inspectors and massive, because they're like the trophy companies or whatever. Yeah, dude, that's the 1%. Yes, the bulk of us, the bulk I mean I'm in that cat, I've rolled in that cat Most of the bulk of the people listening to this and the bulk of inspectors out. There are one to five people and before that it was almost all single-man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, completely. Or women, Correct, it was a single person man in the van chucking a truck.
Speaker 3:You got it. Yeah, there's been a natural evolution. You went from single-man operations to multi, most of them in that one to five. There were a few that sprinted out front and you got some of your big ones. God bless them, right? Yeah, they started forging the way and then people started looking and going oh my God, it's possible, right, and it became more and more common. Now, all of a sudden, you have million-dollar companies, like again. Back in the day, that was inconceivable.
Speaker 2:Inconceivable you could do a million-dollar set of inspections in one year, yeah, so things keep evolving like this, and this is nothing new to our industry.
Speaker 3:It happens everywhere, yep every industry. The whole acquisition merger thing.
Speaker 2:But again, we had never even thought that we would be a candidate Okay, as a what we would consider kind of a smaller type operation.
Speaker 3:Right, just because we were smaller, right, but that's not the only consideration. Sometimes your geography is strategic in an acquisition or a merger, so there may be a specific skill set. Okay, we've had a. I started a school several years ago. I was an instructor at another school that got sold. I started my own, so it was. That's what we really. That's my superpower.
Speaker 2:I love the stage, yeah, something comes out of me. And teaching and presenting, oh, I get you, I'm the same way, yeah. They say that's like the number one fear of doing public. Presenting right Is standing on a stage and talking to people, but not for me or you Right, yeah, you hear that I could do it naked If I weren't fat and white.
Speaker 3:I love the stage man. Something just comes out and I get excited.
Speaker 2:And it's a stripper. For her A stripper card from earlier.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry. We just lost every listener out there, that's right or they're tuning in tight.
Speaker 2:They're like what the heck? These guys are crazy. That's funny. So, yeah, I love it too. On the same way I get up on stage, I can talk, I can do this. That's why I host this show, this podcast, because it's just a lot of fun for me. But yeah, so you have an inspector school and I know you've been doing advanced stuff like advanced pool stuff and advanced HVAC and advanced stuff. Is the school still up and running and going? Correct, where do you find that? Do you have a website? What is that? It's homeinspectionschoolfloridacom.
Speaker 3:Homeinspectionschoolfloridacom. I was trying to pick keywords and I'm no digital addicts, but that's right. Hence that's how we came up with it. But, yeah, that was definitely our forte is advanced content. Yeah, that's what we love to do and that was honestly, I believe, one of the real reasons that the mothership. If you will, I'll tell you in a sec why they were looking at us. Yeah, they didn't even realize the asset they had in my wife. My wife is amazing. She's so smart, so outgoing. Just, is she here? Yeah, she is. She just got done. Speaking on the IEB stage.
Speaker 2:That's right. I saw her yeah, that's fantastic, we're recording this at the IEB Unite Conference and so I asked is she here? We should have had her. She's the smart one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, she'd blow me away, so you?
Speaker 2:have the school, you have an inspection company and somebody approaches you about potential acquisition. Who is it that approached you guys?
Speaker 3:It's funny because it starts as conversations, so you may be in the running and not even know it.
Speaker 2:So oh, interesting.
Speaker 3:Yeah, be careful of who you talk to. Okay, be careful of what you say. Okay, that's where it all starts. But I've had a personal friendly relationship with Sean Rossbach and Sylvia for many, many years, so he was the one he was the initial impetus in this and searched out and found private equity.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:So the way and I'm no, you know no financial expert by any means I'm learning this new, so I'm with you guys and gals that don't understand any of this either, but what I've learned is there are a, there's a group of people very, very, very smart people that know numbers and finance and business way better than all of us put together, and they are able to put together platforms, and RFE was our private equity firm. They've done eight other platforms we were the ninth so they create these platforms called Launchpad. Launchpad starts making acquisitions. Okay, sean Rossbach got that going initially, so Max was really the first Max home inspection and they were in Florida and Texas at the time.
Speaker 2:Okay, and they and that was a pretty big outfit, yeah, they had grown, they were doing like 9 million.
Speaker 3:I mean that's, that's extremely healthy. That's a huge inspection company. That's bigger than 99% of the country.
Speaker 2:Right Right, 9 million dollars a year in revenue. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:That's a massive big time.
Speaker 2:So I mean really cool.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they named Scott Swayze CEO and Scott was previously with Max and Scott is a focused thoroughbred race horseman. He is on fire, which is really really cool. That is cool. So you're looking at, like, all these smart guys putting the stuff together and you've got somebody so focused in putting together the team of people and so for us to stand back and look at this team going holy cow, these are some smart dudes and do that's right. Yeah, so these men and women are coming to you and talking to you about like acquisition.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was initially conversations, because number one is culture. Are you going to get along? Yeah, you can't get along, doesn't nothing else matters right, yeah, so that's how the whole thing starts as conversations. And then they, you know, they introduced the idea. Hey this is, this is the plan, this is the vision, this is the goal. You interested like. You think for a second and and you know you don't want to leave this life saying, man, I wish I would have right.
Speaker 3:Why didn't I? So, yeah, it didn't take my wife and I very long to look at the team behind this whole thing, to look at what they're doing, and I consider to say right now, this is the beginning that we are the largest home inspection company in the country. This has never, ever, been done before, right, so it kind of made the decision pretty easy, like, yeah, I want to be part of this, let's go absolutely let's go. Now it's it's. I've been self-employed for over 30 years. There's a little bit of adjustment.
Speaker 2:Oh so. So now you're, you're working for kind of a larger corporation now.
Speaker 3:Exactly.
Speaker 2:Whoa yeah, it's hard to imagine to like. I've been self-employed for 20 years and I don't know if I could. If I could do that, I asked myself that a lot.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, but the vision is huge and you know, if I died today I could say I. I will never have to say I, maybe I should have. I wish I would have right, I did it and and we're here along for the ride.
Speaker 2:That's cool.
Speaker 3:You know the next, so it was max. And then in spectigator is our residential company out of Orlando area Made that acquisition in in, oh yeah. So, like I said, starts with the conversation. And then we're interested and so you sign an NDA non disclosure, because you know, you know what we go out and talk about this stuff. Keep it, yep, but hush, and that's. You do your due diligence time period. They check you out, you check them out type of thing. Make sure everything's legit. Then you enter an actual contract and they put a little money aside for what ifs, you know, if we get sued, if somebody comes back for something. So the process is is pretty simple, not that hard and yeah, right. So in here we are and they continue to make acquisitions. The the big one. You know we're, we're real small fish in the big game, but when RIA was Acquired, that was huge.
Speaker 2:That's a they were doing about 12 to 15 million a year somewhere in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, something like that.
Speaker 2:It's huge they were. They were probably One of the biggest, if not the biggest, in the country at the time right, yes, they were in like five states, I believe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but you're multiple states.
Speaker 2:So they, they got in on this. So now you have launchpad that acquired max, which was nine, which is again top, huge company, and they acquire you and then, and along the way, they've acquired other people too, along the way, right, right, and then they've acquired. But then they the big one was RIA, because everybody's like holy cow these guys are now. They picked up two of the biggest companies in country to combined now everybody that's combined. I think they're what, looking at 25 to 30 million dollars a year right now in revenue is. Is that correct?
Speaker 3:That's got to be pretty darn accurate.
Speaker 2:That's what I heard in the hallways. Is is, and I think I heard it from Scott.
Speaker 3:See how fast word travels.
Speaker 2:It travels fast, that they're doing about that much revenue with this, with the acquisitions they have, and they have enough acquisitions in the pipeline that they'll probably potentially double that, yes, very soon.
Speaker 3:Yes, no, there was also a Course home pro out of Jacksonville area.
Speaker 2:Uh-huh, yep, that's Wally Conway's company, right I?
Speaker 3:always yeah, acquired by RIA.
Speaker 2:RIA also picked up discovery Uh-huh, gary Sloan in the Atlanta area, yep, and there are several more on the calendar, yeah, so there's like this expansion acquisition thing that's happening and I'm gonna say like launchpad isn't the only company doing this. There are some other ones that are starting to dial up now launchpad, I think, is the biggest, but there's other talks of other companies starting to do this kind of thing, private equity and acquisitions. It's starting to come into our industry and, and you see, in a ton of industries In fact, you know, I know Bud Light spent in the news lately because of the a little bit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, people have been talking about it and they're like, well, I want to buy Bud Light. But you go around and start looking, anhyzer bush owns like 24 different Beer brands, and so I'm gonna start drinking Michelob ultra, once owned by anhyzer bush, same company that owns and you start looking in this In the in the beer industry, you're like, whoa wait, there's a lot. It didn't start that way, it was mergers and acquisitions. And then, if you look at Coca-Cola, they have a massive brand. Their, their brands are massive and expansive inside of the Coca-Cola franchise. Right, because mergers and acquisitions?
Speaker 3:exactly so you make. You make the point that this is nothing new.
Speaker 2:No, this is how it can economic systems work. This is how industries work is is there's a always a fragmentation of an industry that starts to emerge, and then there's a consolidation that happens, and we're in a consolidation phase in our industry big time, big time, and it's starting to happen everywhere. And so, whether you're a small one-on-one man operator or you're, you know, one to five, or or even you're up in the 1020, 30, 40 plus type guys, this kind of conversations are happening and and and I don't know it is it, is it right for everyone?
Speaker 3:That's yeah, that's something you got to answer yourself. But what I would say is, even if it's not now, learn about this stuff, create relationships, continue to build your company as if you are going to sell it. Yeah, even if you don't, I agree. If you don't, what harm have you caused? Nothing, you've only gotten better, bigger, blessed, more people. Yep, right, yeah. So I mean, and don't let your size scare you either.
Speaker 2:I love the story of how, like you were like a normal size inspection company and you went through this Cause. Yeah, that part is that is really cool. Like you're, like it's, it's approachable for every inspector, Like, well, yeah, I mean I, I was similar in size and this opportunity presented itself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so don't let your size or your geography or any of that stuff scare you. There may be opportunity, who knows?
Speaker 2:You never know. That's very true.
Speaker 3:You start putting all these, these companies together. There's stuff, there's something called synergies, right, yep? So from the day we closed, all of a sudden, our profit margin went up. Ooh, right, because I have some of the bills I used to have.
Speaker 2:Well right, Because HR can be consolidated.
Speaker 3:Damn, there you go. Yeah, we still have the same revenue.
Speaker 2:Operations can be consolidated Absolutely. All that stuff starts to connect and then it's like well, instead of you having to right, you're going to be consolidating some things and then, all of a sudden, your expenses go down. There you go, right.
Speaker 3:So this may not. Some people may be fiercely upset at the moment, but listen, there's nothing you're going to do to say to stop this consolidation movement. It is happening, yep, it is. It's been happening around you your whole life. Look at the Orkens and Terminexes and all that stuff. They come in and they acquire moms and pops. Yeah, okay, it's inevitable, so it's not going to stop. If you don't like it, that's fine, that's your opinion. I'm just. I'm just urging people to be open-minded and position yourself to be an attractive acquisition, because you never know.
Speaker 2:You never know, that's so true, you might get sick or you might get hurt.
Speaker 2:You, you may have something else may come up, right, yeah, something else can come up. But it might even be you. It might be like a family member, a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister that in another part of the country that you're like. Well, I need to go help them. You know, and if your company's not set up for merger and acquisition, then it's not sellable. And then you could. Something might come up in your life where you do need to sell this business and it's, I think, it's smart to to build a business so that it can be sold if it needs to be sold.
Speaker 3:Yeah, amen. What are you going to leave your family Right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what if?
Speaker 3:you're going to leave them with a burden or a blessing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, come on, now we're going to preach Amen. Yeah, there, maybe. And the Lord says be a be a blessing, not a burden.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Good title for this podcast right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, man, so that's, that's true. Like every, every business should be built that way. And if you're in a position where, like like, you're like no, I really don't want to do that, I don't want to be part of anything like that. And I like it. I'm a one man operator and I'm happy where I'm at and like do you guess what? There's still always going to be plenty of work for a one man operator to exist.
Speaker 2:And you know, just like discussors, you know, large chain restaurants doesn't mean there aren't local restaurants, right, exactly, exactly. There's always going to be room in the market for for the local guys that to continue to be the local guys. There's nothing wrong with that at all. You know the I say this all the time on the show but success is is your business doing for you what you want it to do for you? And if you're thinking, well, one day I want to exit out of this thing, then, when this is a great season to maybe be, start prepping your business for that so that if the opportunity pops up, you're prepared. Amen, that's what it's going to take.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right yeah. So what does your life look like now? Self-employed long time. You now sell out, sell out to Launchpad. They come in, they acquire. You're now working for Launchpad. What's your role in the company?
Speaker 3:Right In each each acquisition will be a little bit different. So for us, my wife and I went. We are on the Launchpad level, okay, no longer with Inspector Gator. Some are our okay, the name of the company's, inspector Gator, right? Yeah, so the Accountigator Jackie. She went on to Launchpad level as well. Okay, my wife is now in HR, okay, and I do training. Wow, because training is your thing, because that's my superpower.
Speaker 2:That's my thing, and so now you don't have to do anything except for your superpower. Amen, isn't that cool. So you, like you, probably enjoy your job now, or what you're doing now, more than what you're doing then.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I get to create all kinds of content in YouTube videos and you're just doing the things that you love to do.
Speaker 2:Amen. Could you imagine that, like you're building this whole company because, as a company owner and a business owner or an executive or a leader in a business, you're wearing multiple hats. You have to, and that's just the name of the game, and there's some hats you just don't like wearing. But you got to do it. Right, that's just part of the job To be at a place where you can exit out of your company and just do the one thing that you are, like, really good at. How?
Speaker 3:fantastic would that be, and lose all the junk that you don't want.
Speaker 2:All that stuff you don't like doing and you're not good at and you struggle with, and all because everybody's got it and so you lose all that. All you do is just the part that you really like to do. Yeah, holy cow, ladies and gentlemen, close your eyes and imagine Right, and you get a chunk of cash on the way out the door because they bought your thing. Yeah, and this is something else.
Speaker 3:That's cool. Something else I'm learning I never, ever thought this would happen. But you, the typical life of this type of arrangement is you build it big, okay, and there's about a hundred million dollar level that you want to hit, and then there's a recap, and then there's companies like Launchpad or like RFE that will take it from a hundred million to 500 million, yep, right. So everybody's job is streamline and focus. You do one thing, you do it well, we all do well, we get to this recap and we'll all be blessed again. Wow, wow.
Speaker 3:I read, oh, I read a fantastic book of the private equity playbook I'm apologies to the author I forgot his name, but you will find it if you search for that and it explains these kind of things. And this guy comes. You know his point of view was he built a company, sold it. They built it up, it recapped, he sold it. You know he got another chunk of change. He's done this five times. Wow, can you imagine in your life getting five big checks? That's cool, like holy cow, right. This stuff is possible. That's what all these smart guys and gals that are creating these platforms are creating for us little guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Because, yeah, most very few companies actually business don't actually sell their business at the end, Like, or if they do, they're they have to finance it themselves. And and there's a lot of risk involved in even selling the business because the new owners are paying you a monthly thing because you got financing them, and then they screw up the business that you built and then you're like you don't even get the money that you thought you're going to get. And I got stories of friends that are that way and they're like well, I'm supposed to get $2 million out of this company that I sold. They gave me $300,000 down. They're going to pay me this much money every month for this many months or years, and then there are a year and a half into it and the guy tanks the whole company and they'll get any of their money and the company that they sold is gone.
Speaker 3:That sounds more risky than what we're doing, doesn't it? Oh?
Speaker 2:gosh, yeah, yeah. If you're going to hit an exit strategy at the end of your life, this is the one to say is this the launchpad? Or like the acquisition? Maybe not launchpad specifically, but an acquisition type situation like this.
Speaker 3:You know, up until now I would always joke. It's kind of a morbid joke, but you know my exit strategy. Like I had set the retirement date, that was the day before the funeral. There was nothing else. I'm going to work until I die. My wife's probably going to find me behind the computer. There I am, because you enjoy working. Yeah, exactly, okay, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But you know, one of the greatest days was the day, you know, of closing. We were able to look at the guys and say you know what you guys are going to get? Stuff that we can never provide. Right, you're going to have opportunities that we couldn't provide either. You know, besides all the cool stuff, you get a big bag of benefits. All this cool stuff health, dental, et cetera, et cetera. You know that's cool. And then you get lovely musique and the next supporting confectioner concept, you I was able to look and roll in the eye and go you have equity share. Oh, that's cool.
Speaker 2:That's freaking cool. Equity share and this upward mobility, because as this thing grows, they're gonna be looking for talented leaders constantly looking for guys to step up. Yeah, and now you know, yeah and golly, you know, as myself I, there's a, there's a ceiling of what I can provide in Upward growth and expansion, because yeah. I'm not a 50 million dollar company.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, john Bobby Lynn couldn't do it, no right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I'm right. But the collective oh, my god right. You collect and you get these people all together and now you're building something so big and massive. Now there's so much more opportunity for the people that in your staff that you've hired, you can give them more opportunity that way too. So now you're not even helping you, you're helping your team and you're helping the staff and everybody that's part of your world. Now they get more opportunity. So many more people are blessed, right, it's just Think about that. That's cool. I love that.
Speaker 3:Thank you, lord.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely. I love that because that's something that like now yeah, now it's like man you get to offer more blessing and more opportunity to those people in your life. Amen, that's so good.
Speaker 3:You know. So even if you're not a business owner, you're just sitting here listening to this going on. I'm just an inspector. You could play an integral role in this whole story and be the same guy you know, sitting here talking to you. Absolutely man these days so wow, that's really cool.
Speaker 2:I love that. I love the story of what you're doing. I love what launchpad is doing, and and for guys that are interested in that what's happening, that's a different perspective. Right there. It's not just selling out and walking away, you know. No, no, no, you're. You're providing something better for yourself, your family, but also for those people have already been working for. You've been. You give them better opportunity to.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a win for everybody and you know what, if that's what you want to do, they're making those type of acquisitions to where the owner says, okay, fine, here's the sale and I'm leaving. Yeah, I'm retiring that. That's happened as well. If you want to stay part of the whole thing, you know Robin cat are still part of, they still run everything. Yep, you know, the fire breathing dragon himself is still working, doesn't have to.
Speaker 3:So, you know, I hate to throw the stereotype, I hate to throw everything in a tiny little box. There's so much more that you may be unaware of, so I mad, I really, really appreciate you letting me rant.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, this is so insightful. Yeah, I'm gonna see the side of it. Most, most of us that are in this smaller bracket of Inspector companies don't have an opportunity to look at this from your perspective. We just see the headlines in the news.
Speaker 3:Yeah right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and every trash talking it on Facebook. That's what we do. Everybody sucks. You're the worst inspector ever. Exactly that's what we hear is a negative. It's good to hear that different perspective of understanding, like what that looks like on the other Side of the deal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:Oh man, dude, john, thank you so much for coming on the show and and exploring this. If somebody has questions because I bet this is gonna spark Some questions and they want to get in touch with you and and say John, tell me a little bit more. I have questions how this works and that works and or what are some things you had to do to prep your company for this big sale or anything, how can they get ahold of you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd be happy to talk to people and again, I'm not the financial guru type of guy, I'm just. I'm just like you. Yeah, I am, I am every other you know small business owner.
Speaker 2:So I love that.
Speaker 3:So it's not. It's not so biased, you know. You know saying yeah, so I'd be happy to talk to anybody. The office numbers 407, 678, 4663, 678, home.
Speaker 2:Okay, and they can call in there and they can get to you.
Speaker 3:The, you'll get Amanda, the adminigator and or or Andrea the adminigator. I love it All right, it's fun and so. But yeah, by the way, guess what my name is, my title.
Speaker 2:Oh man, I don't know.
Speaker 3:I'm the educator.
Speaker 2:So give a call in there that you can get a talk, get ahold of John that way and John can help answer any questions in this arena, if you have any from this show. I yeah, man, that's is really cool and thank you so much for being here.
Speaker 3:We could cool man. That's all right, All right there we go.
Speaker 2:We'll see you guys on the next episode.
Speaker 1:You've been listening to Empire State of Mind. For the home inspection industry and beyond, our passion is to elevate the home inspection industry with mindset, strategy and tools. We hope you've enjoyed the show. Make sure to like, rate and review for more. Follow on Instagram at IEB coaching and don't forget to hit the website at wwwiebcoachingcom. Learn about IEB at no cost and have all your questions answered on our open call once a month on the third week of the month. We hope to see you there and we'll see you next time on the Empire State of Mind.