The Exchanges

Q And so what was the end result? Did you sell that company? Did you get out of bankruptcy? Did you just fold? What happened with it? Because you said you moved into consulting. So it seems like you moved away from that business. Yeah.

A So what happened actually is that, um, we were an asset based lending, you know, funded business, had a partnership with a very large bank. I'll leave them nameless. And they Got nervous as we came in at 2008, 2009 with sort of the condition of our finances complicated story, but long story short is that they called our note. Um, at that time we had an eleven million dollar revolving line of credit. We had about 6.5 million outstanding. And when they called it, we couldn't meet it because of the timing of the year. And we went into this whole thing basically, which is forbearance. Um, during that forbearance period, I went out and found a private equity group who ultimately bought the debt from Wells Fargo and then leveraged the full value of that debt through the bankruptcy process. So I actually took the, Business through the bankruptcy process on behalf of what they refer to as a stocking horse, you know, partner. So that's who the private equity showed up being. What, what that's to do is basically cleans up the balance sheet, you know, all those things, uh, resolves the debts and encumbrances. And I stayed on for about 12 months, roughly helping this new ownership group operate a business. Um, they had been in our industry. They had owned a couple companies that were ancillary to what we did. And so, um, but they didn't know exactly what we did and how we were doing it. So…

AI assessment note: “My family lost the ownership. All the employees were made whole and complete.”

Q So that you can then open them up to a discovery of how do we solve this problem? Yeah.

A I mean, usually the use of stories comes after I've had a chance to be in a conversation. I'm listening to what's going on, asking some, you know, obviously probing questions. And then I, you know, might say, well, you know, go on a little bit more about that thing. And then they'll share whatever they share. And I'd say, you know, I'm going to share a story with you. And, and, you know, just all I want you to do at the end of the story is, you know, share back with me why you think I told you that story. And, and, and what if any relevance does the story I just told you have to do with your business? I don't want to give them any answer. I want them to listen to the story and then kind of process and, and, and, you know, and I, and I will never, you know, say that's not right. I just say, okay, say, tell me more about that. You know, what about that story triggered that for you? Because usually when you go down that path, The crumbs are, you know, obvious enough to know that you're getting to the point of something that's real. You know, it's no different than if I gave you a book and 10 other people that I know a book and said, I'd like you to read this book. All 11 of you are going to have a different interpretation of the book, right? There's nobody who's going to have the same. And if I said to you, Hey Sean, tell me about what you drew from that book. You'd, you'd tell me…

AI assessment note: “I don't want to give them any answer. I want them to listen to the story”

Q I can help you and I would like to work with you, but it's up to you to decide if you want to do it. Otherwise I can't be bothered to like chase you, but let's give it a few days. So do you actually book a call with them in the calendar that you both agree upon? Or are you just like, I'm going to send you an email?

A Yeah. I, what I aspire to do is always book a call, a follow up call. And if they're unwilling to do that, or they don't have access to it, then I'll put it on myself saying, I'll call you, I'll reach out to you. And I always prefer, this is something I learned years ago, um, at Gallo. You, you don't really ever want to give any kind of proposal, you know, like in an email. You always want to do a proposal over the phone if you can't do it in person. And there's lots of psychology behind why that's the case. But, you know, I, I cringe when I see people who, you know, send proposals via email and then don't have a conversation like we're having, right? There's a lot of reasons to have a personal conversation with somebody and, or if even possible, you know, getting in front of somebody personally is the most effective. And then it just kind of goes down from there. And, and, and, and there's reasons behind that. And so I, I always say, well, if I don't get them, I won't send an email. I'll reschedule. I don't get them. I won't send an email. I'll reschedule until I get them on the phone. And I say, Hey, I want to walk through this proposal with you. Let me kind of share with me what's going on.

AI assessment note: “what I aspire to do is always book a call, a follow up call.”

Q your advice and take action. On the strategy because they're paying for it. And when they pay, it's enough to hurt them if they don't. So what exactly was it that you wanted to focus on with consulting when you were approaching these companies? You know, so for me, I'm looking at the cost optimization as an example. What was the thing that you wanted to focus on with them?

A Well, I think the thing that I wanted to do and that I have You know, been able to sustainably do for approaching, you know, 15 years now is They come into an organization that felt like it was stuck. We were as a business stuck. And what I mean by that is having something that we knew was getting in the way of our business living into its full potential and really not having the ability to see it because when that, that whole forest in the trees analogy, right? We were so much in the business that we couldn't get out of the business to look at and say, oh, that's it. So What I've enjoyed is coming into organizations, um, and helping them, you know, go up to a different elevation, look at it through a different lens and perspective to help them identify what that thing or those things are, and then really work at removing those barriers, whatever it might be. And sometimes I partner with other consulting groups when it falls into a range or an area that is outside my expertise. I'd love to collaborate. Um, but mine is really with, Creating the conversation that has them getting out of what is mostly the condition, which is pretense, right? There's a lot of leaders and business owners who they, you know, I'll just use it. They lie and they pretend, you know, and, and they're trying to avoid the thing that's right in the way because they don't want to name it. So I can come in an…

AI assessment note: “helping them, you know, go up to a different elevation... mine is really with, Creating the conversation”