Latest / The Turn: Blue Collar to Billions / He Helped Build a Billion-Dollar Company That Could Run Without Him

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He Helped Build a Billion-Dollar Company That Could Run Without Him · The Turn: Blue Collar to Billions

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Turn.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Corey Mitchell with Iconic Founders Group.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here on The Turn, we talk to founders who have gone through building a business, scaling it, and often selling their companies.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: So we get to have these first hand stories from people who have been through it.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're continuing our discussion with Drew Bisco.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: He was CEO of Blue Sky.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: They were a restoration business that went from effectively zero to a billion dollars over many years.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so he has just given us this incredible seminar into what that process from the inside really looked like.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I at least found this conversation to be incredible.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: There were so many lessons that I learned, and I think our viewers are gonna find it really amazing.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get into it.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the Turn.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Corey Mitchell of Iconic Founders.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: The Turn is where blue-collar founders talk about the businesses they've built, the value they've created, and what comes next after they sell.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: There's this image of private equity, of course, out there, and it's it's it's it's terrible, it's good, it's great, it's everything in between.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So now you're you know you're really growing now, but you're starting to do some MA.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: So how does that, you know, so now you've got private equity capital.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Private equity always wants to deploy capital as soon as they buy a deal so they can grow it and sell it down the road.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: How's that?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: We had a great private equity partner.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they had capital to go get some things done.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, from my role, they I was working on a unique project that we'd we'd sold.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: And timing is sometimes funny, right?
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: So uh we sold uh I sold a$120 million project that we produced in six months.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, while I was doing that, an opportunity opportunity came up, and so our PE partners and and Kent, the CEO, really worked through this first deal.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously, they they said we want to do MA, we want to grow, uh, we think this could work.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so they they've they got a deal done with a with a company out of North Carolina that had eight more locations, and it seemed to fit.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: It's restoration, all things, and so it was a good acquisition on many fronts.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then we bring into the idea of okay, how are we gonna integrate these things?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was probably the next big journey in our in our story, which was um great, we bought a business, and they they turned to me and said, Hey, we need you to go integrate this and figure it out.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: Much like we did the greenfields, we didn't know what we were doing, and so we just went and went and figured it out.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: And what what we did uh if you fast forward was we took a holistic approach to integration, and I think that was a defining moment for our journey.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, if I were advising me, you know, at the if I could go back and give myself some advice, I may have done things a little bit different.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: But we just jumped in with both feet and said, look, we've got a green field plan, we've got best practices, we're gonna transition this new business over to that plan as as reasonably and and fairly and but as quickly as possible.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so we did a we did an all-in approach to integration.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: That was rebranding, uh, front office, back office, sales approach, sales compensation is one of the more difficult ones to transition.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but we did.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so that was uh that was a journey for sure.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I always say integration is the hardest part of doing deals.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um it is all of those things and more that you talk about culture.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: These former leaders that now just made a whole bunch of money, and how do you manage a guy that has 20, 30, 40 million dollars in the bank?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: All all the different things that go with it is really, really tough.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Integration is one of the hardest things to do when you buy a company.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the same thing's true if you sell your business, because you know, you build up a lifetime of culture and processes and things, and those things don't change overnight.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: And also, if you're the founder of a business, you're not used to working for somebody else.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: I've always said I'm basically unemployable.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think that some of his points about integration are really fascinating and true.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's really the hardest thing you can do after you buy a business.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: It might be relatively easy to write the check, so much harder to make it look like one company.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, now how many more deals do you do before you guys sell again?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh that one was big enough and we had enough traction, um, a little bit of you know momentum from some sales.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so at that point, they they said, hey, we've we've got to our spot.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: We're ready to we're ready to transact.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so just one with that group.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: So we had a five-year plan that we did in three years, and it was time to transact again.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: So in 2018, we we went back to market.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: You said I sold a$120 million job.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: That that doesn't escape me, right?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's the beginning of the story, we're a$12 million business roughly.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now we got a$120 million job.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: I have two questions about that.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, how the heck do you do a$120 million job when you're that size of a business?
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's hard.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Two, I really want to know how you how a buyer thinks about a job that big when they're buying you, because a huge topic is customer or job concentration.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: I have this in a lot of deals I work on today.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: I I have it in two deals I'm working on right now.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have you maybe tell us a little bit about both those things.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there that was that was a lot.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I guess the how do you do it answer is we just did it.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: We we we had something in front of us, and um, I think it was a team effort of great people that, you know, in restoration, we're constantly responding to something this afternoon that we didn't plan on, you know, sitting there this morning, nothing's happened, a storm comes, a building floods, a building catches on fire, and by the end of the day, our hair, you know, pun intended, we're our hair's on fire and we're we're running crazy to go respond to this job.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: So it's somewhat of the nature and culture of the restoration industry.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: So to be fair, that's that's a little innate in the story.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: But um, we had an opportunity for a there's a a national manufacturer of some building products had an issue that made it into a bunch of homes.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we just started capturing and and running with a hair and fire.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I dedicated a team to it.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, we we had other people that were reassigned to manage the the core business, so that didn't fail.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so it was create a team, build a team, uh, have a lot of conversations about okay, tomorrow your role is X.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_01: I know you I know your job was this, but now we got a new thing.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Just rally a team and go for it, is is the is the short answer.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: And and um I know that sounds like a simple one, but uh that's really what happened.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: So we we had a bunch of great people that worked really hard to go to co-accomplish something that had to happen right now, and so it it we didn't know how big it was when it started, um, and it just sort of evolved, and we just kept playing whack-a-mole and mobilized subcontractors, and we had up to 1,500 you know, folks working nationally that we we ramped up pretty quick.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, again, something that can happen in the restoration industry that's not unheard of, but we went for it on all fronts and were aggressive and and we had great support from our PEP sponsor uh for CapEx, right?
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I had several, hey, I need to I need to spend 20 million on equipment.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, here we go.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so they they were a good partner in that regard, and and we we had enough cash flow uh on the front end from our from our client and just went for it.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now, is that job part of the financials as you're going to market to sell the company?
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I love this question.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yes, of course it is.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's in the numbers, it's in there.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And and you'd asked, you know, how does that impact the next sale, which which occurred the next year?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: And you you totally you totally discount it and set it to the side.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, like in other words, that's lit literally what happened.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like they set it aside and they say, What's your what's your normal revenue and growth rate outside of that job?
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna count it.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, for valuation purposes, for go-to-market, for stated EBITDA, uh, it's a great story, and it was uh certainly a great feather in the cap as we went to presentations to tell you know potential buyers, here's who we are.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: But it's a one-time deal.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: And unless I could I could have a you know story about how that's gonna repeat or it's gonna happen again, then it it's not really representative of the business.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's uh it was in the reports, but did not did not sway the EBITDA number that we went to market with um as the picture of our business.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so out there, um, this is very common that there are things that happen in deals and they can go either direction.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: There's this little magical thing called adjusted EBITDA, and it can be adjusted up and it can be adjusted down.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if you have something that doesn't occur in the normal course of business, so let's say you open a new office in a new state and you have a really horrible job and you close the office the next day because you're like, I'm never going back to that state.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes that can be actually written up to your financials and you have a bigger EPITA because you're not gonna repeat that bad job out and wait in a different state.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: The flip side's what happened to you.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so many people come to me and they say, God, I'm having this huge year.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I I do 20 million in revenue and I just got a$20 million job.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna do$40 million in revenue.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna sell while I've got this$40 million in revenue.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: And it's the hardest thing in the world to say, well, like you might not get paid on that.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's that's really important for our folks out there listening and always happy to, you know, to talk about it with anyone.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's it's it's actually uh it's really interesting to hear.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's how it was treated on a real deal.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so at this point, you know, you've been moving up in the business and now you're running the biggest job that's ever come along.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: You happen to actually sign the the job yourself.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: Are you now like in the C-suite?
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: Are you at the table with senior leadership?
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or where are you at in the in the business?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was a COO at the time.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: I and I I had been at the table since really day one, um, many different titles.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, C-suite.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: And do you go through the the transaction process?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Are you involved in the diligence and management presentations and things like that?
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: I went to some management presentations and was really there to help answer the questions.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but I hadn't I hadn't been involved in getting the the the book ready or anything because that was it was Terry's deal.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and rightfully so as the founder, he did that fairly privately and then brought me in at the right time.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was well done.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: But on the second round, uh I was there to help prepare the book, helped tell the story, helped talk about what what is the story of Blue Sky and why are we uh why should somebody invest in us?
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_01: That of course has to be backed up with real data and and you know the real actual things.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: So worked very hard to help help create the book uh and definitely was was central to the you know storytelling when we get to management presentations and navigating the diligence as we got through those pieces and all, yeah, I was full full into that process for sure.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: All right, so now you sell again.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um this is crazy, you know.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like okay, so we're now we're now two exits in, and you've watched it uh from employee 20 to you know a large business.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Do we have any?
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it's public information or not, but like any idea like what revenue is at this point in the in the journey?
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Sub 200 million.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so we're under 200 million, but like it's a it's a very meaningful size business at this point, and you've got multiple states, lots of locations, both greenfielding and MA.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: New partner comes in.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: How different is the environment with the new one?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know, with every private equity team, you have personalities.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um and what I would say is uh uh we went from one good partner to a second good partner.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the environment just shifted a little bit in reporting cadence, um, sophistication.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they really wanted to push harder on MA.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: So they had um uh a really a lead that that was engaged with you know helping me and fast forward.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_01: I I took I took on a mandate from them to go drive uh MA for the business.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: And so I partnered with them in a much bigger way and a couple of their individuals uh to help go do that.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_01: So they brought resources is is the is another way to say it.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: They brought resources in, certainly financial.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: They they they were operating out of a bigger fund and had had some more room to go do MA, to go deal with cap bigger cap expends.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: They also brought resources and personnel and expertise to to help us with the MAs.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: We've bootstrapped everything before, and our first private equity partner was was essential and very supportive in many ways.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this just was a next step further in in the support, but it also was a next step on a bigger push towards the MA uh concept.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: So you're giving this amazing experience, you're flying around, you're seeing actual founders and talking to them about why join our culture here.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um you're really the face of the business for many of these founders that you're talking to.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was the one picking up the phone call, phone, and having the initial discussions, and I, you know, was the point of contact and carried through the entire transaction as we as we started to add add businesses.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: This, you know, I'm I'm jealous because when I love, I mean, I I love uh I love doing deals.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so when we sold our business, that was my goal.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know, my goal was go be the guy that's running around meeting founders.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I love doing, that's what I'm good at.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I knew how to talk about the culture.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: I never got to do that.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I I bought a lot of businesses, um, and I eventually would spend a lot of time with founders, but I thought that sounds like the most fun job in the world.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it's got its downsides and you're traveling and all the stuff that goes with it, and lots of steak dinners, but um hard to keep your hard to keep your waistline down during those days.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we call it death by steak dinner, right?
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: So um yeah, certainly did a lot of that.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: No, I and I would agree.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: I enjoyed that period of my career the most out of any anything I did.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously I wore many hats over the over the years, but uh being able to sit down with somebody that had built a great thing and then talk about what if.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: What if we were partnered together?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: What could we do?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: What could we could we could we do next?
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: How would we grow?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: And talk about those pieces of how we'd come together.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I again was able to tell the story of how we would integrate, how it looks afterwards.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And so I found myself coaching and talking a lot of founders through what does it mean to be you know partnered with a private equity backed business?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to be acquired?
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: What does it mean to integrate with another business?
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: And and I I tried really hard to take a very candid approach.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_01: It is what it is, and I'd rather start from a very direct answer to to the questions, and then we can talk about how do we adjust that to make it fit for them as the seller.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we started off with a very straightforward approach, and I think that was one of the strengths, and very proud that that's how I went to market with my style.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love how Drew talks about what it really takes to be able to sell your business and walk away.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so he mentioned several things, such as like having a management team in place so that you can properly take a vacation and the business doesn't fall apart without you.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: There's a several other things like that.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And we built a free worksheet where you can literally score your business about how exit ready you are.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: So if you'd like to get a free copy of this exit readiness worksheet, just reach out to us.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: We'll send it over.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think that you'll find that there's a lot of pieces of your business you can work on.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I always tell people, it doesn't mean you need to sell, it just means that you're preparing a better company.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it almost always runs better if you follow this roadmap.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: So listen to some of the points that Drew makes here because I think his advice is dead on.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: We're taking a lot of time on this stuff, but I I just think it's like you're giving us an incredible seminar or like a window into something that 99.9% of people will never ever see.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: At some point, you become CEO of the company.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_01: After the third after the third private equity transaction, yes.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: So you've still got one more to go before the current owners today.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yep.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: So so you I think you became president at a certain point in the journey.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think that was um probably just an indicator to the whole story that you know and most people would have expected me to become CEO at some point, just where I was in the organization.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it was a big surprise.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And so this was this was a way to kind of in advance indicate that that piece of the story.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we get to the final chapter of at least your journey there, and you're the CEO.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like being the CEO of a you know billion-dollar enterprise value business?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: We on our third partnership had a uh I I think a dramatic uh step up in uh sophistication, communication.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um we now had just a massively different environment.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: So um again, I talked about transitioning myself throughout the growth of the business.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so um it was a it was a period of transformation for sure.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: And and I was close enough to the to the fire, at least I was I wasn't the CEO until then, but I had had some good insight on that.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: But but now I've stepped in and you know, I'm I'm the point of contact with the board that that I mean it's it does fall on the CEO in a big way.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: And we created a strategic plan, which everybody should do, and we're following that and trying to execute against that, and then dealing with growth, growth issues as we went.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a lot of growth as I was CEO.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, continued re re reinvention is probably the best way to say it.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm never gonna go back to being a CEO for a private equity business.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not just not gonna ever do that again.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm wondering what there had to be some things about it that were hard.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I was there a moment when sort of the enormity of the job hit you.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, not a could not a you know shining moment in time, but I would say it it did ramp up and the job is enormous, and and I think it um really was the transition.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And and and this isn't a story of anybody doing anything wrong.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: It was we get to be a you know 700 million plus uh dollar organization with complexity and and you know steps, and now now we're operating in a different marketplace.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_01: And so that became an environment where that um the entrepreneurial style that we built the business with needed to shift and it needed to change into you know better governance uh from from communication and interaction with the board, and and it just it got to um got to another level of complication.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: Not bad, nothing bad there, but um more complicated for sure.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it was more of a ramping, but um very different in the in the in the later years.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: Was it less fun?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: In some ways, yes, in some ways no.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_01: We still had fun.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I look the the people I worked with in my story at Blue Sky are absolutely tremendous.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, friendships that will last a lifetime, so that was fun.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um the rigor and and the governance uh pieces were were not as fun, and but you know, not unmanageable.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: I always look back to those early days of being a$20 million business and like I remember it's like you say we had our first million dollar month.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: Those things are so fun.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I I I've actually got something these years.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um my first million dollar check.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: I took it, I I I when our business first got a million dollar check, I had it put in glass because I'm like, I'm never gonna forget getting a million dollar check for the first time in a business.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's crazy, you know.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like we started out as this tiny mama pop, and now now I got a million dollar check.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: You don't forget those moments, and you get to a certain point in your business size where you're like, okay, great, we want a million dollar job.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well uh uh when when we get in the next one, right?
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: We need a lot more of those now to feed the beast, right?
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: It just it does change uh how your connect connectivity to the team, it changes your con I used to walk the jobs myself, I used to go to bid openings myself, and you get to a certain point when your business gets really large.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Uh my business was not as large as as Blue Sky, but similar similar issues, right?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: We had 37 locations, and um you just get really disconnected from things, and it it is, it's just really, really different than the way it was in those early days when I was, you know, I used to sit in our warehouse, smoke cigars with my computer uh back when that was not, you know, banned.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember freezing my butt off in our crappy little warehouse, and it was freaking fun.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: It was just fun in those days.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: You leave the business eventually, and I'm just wondering, you know, after a lifetime, I mean, it effectively was a lifetime for you of all those years being in this business.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: How did it feel to leave?
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was able to step away from some stress, which was I think very Healthy for me in a lot of ways.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: I was able to, and I am able today to spend more time with my family, which was very healthy in a lot of ways.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, you should be you should be proud of it.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: Couple a couple closing a couple closing thoughts.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um, first of all, did you do anything like really fun at any point?
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: Like, did you ever have a deal where you guys closed it and you're like, you know, did something for yourself, or when you quit your job, did you go do something really unique and special that you hadn't been able to do all that time of working your ass off?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_01: I bought I bought a bunch of real estate.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I think uh you know, with with three liquidity events, I was I was very careful.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh first one I to be straight, I I invested in college uh funds and so put tucked away there.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_01: And second and third ones, I I I diversified uh my my own finances.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so no, there wasn't a big um you know a big uh show showful thing that that I did or or big trip.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: We certainly have traveled and done great things and had but nothing nothing related to the the transition.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, uh maybe I'm I maybe I'm I'm a little more conservative than others, but yeah, I tucked away, maybe bought a new building uh that I to lease out.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm thinking about a new building, it'll pay you forever.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Were you ever able to really um fully disconnect?
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like you have a lifetime of friends that work in this company, and were you able to really take the stress off where they you know sort of stopped calling you and things like that, other than to check in on you as a friend?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, uh I had a just an incredibly great transition from that regard.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, you know, I I think that what I had to be very intentional about was when I did see or talk to those folks that you know, I'm not here to talk about blue sky, whatever's going on there now.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: I it it was it became very quickly apparent that it's just not healthy to like I'm I don't need to be in any gossip.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't need to know what you know I don't even know what's going on, right?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: So um I was very intentional about separating that friendship and that relationship from any blue sky discussions, and so um sure we got into you know, different folks would get into a discussion here or there, but most of my time has been just kindling those actual friendships and relationships uh as people, so um was very was very diligent about that or as much as I could, and I think that was very healthy.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I I had a similar experience.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was shocked because I spent a lifetime in my my business.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um literally, I was a teenager when I started working for my dad until we bought the business 20 some years ago, and business goes on, right?
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and you don't think that, and so I want some of our founders out there that are thinking about this the the the weight for our founders of thinking about abandoning their people, guilt, I'm gonna make this money and my people aren't, all these different things that come with it.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality is in many, many, many cases, unless you're a micro business where everything is surrounding the founder, business often goes on because you if you've done your job and put some leadership in place, which you guys obviously did, and you have a great brand and a great business, often that business can continue to survive and thrive.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I signed a consulting agreement for six months after I left, and I thought, you know what, this is gonna suck.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get called every day.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get all these problems, I don't really want to do it.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: They just they didn't call.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: They just, you know, and so there, but you know, there's like there's some weird ego stuff that goes with that because you're like, of course it's not gonna do well without me.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: How could it?
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: My business has doubled since I left.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: I still have ownership in it.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's doubled since I left.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I I just wanted some some people to hear that out there because you can do this and you can walk away in a way that's actually healthy and maintain some healthy friendships and relationships with your company and the family and friends you've developed over all the years that you've worked there.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: But you can also have peace after you leave and actually have a wonderful life, and you can go go to your kids' soccer games and travel with your family uh uh and actually be able to enjoy those things that so many of us gave up for so long.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and uh to to echo that, um, you know, I I had great relationships with you know multitude of add-on, you know, acquisitions that we made.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I got to know all those founders and and help them through their journey, went through my own journey.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: And and today I I do some both formal and informal mentoring of other CEOs.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the first things I talk about with any of that, you know, that group of people is in your role as a founder or your role as a CEO, what you really should be working for is uh no part of the business flows through you.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh no part of it is you know, you're not critical to any piece.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean we don't go work hard, doesn't mean you're you know, take take uh you know all the things you need to do to be a CEO.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: But if some piece of the business uh will fail if you step away, then we're doing it wrong, right?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: And the smaller the business, you know, that's that's less of a viable discussion.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if you start if you're a startup or you're or you're just building, then you've got to you've gotta do stuff.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_01: But as a CEO or founder, you should be constantly working yourself out of work because you've built a team and you've built a function.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then that that makes it easier to focus on growth of the business.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: But then if you do end up with a transition, it makes that transition a heck of a lot easier as well for you personally and and uh for the team.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's something to be very intentional about uh along the journey.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Drew, congratulations on this amazing journey um from small town Minnesota, where you you know put an ad in the paper and started doing some some jobs all the way to CEO of a billion-dollar business.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: I I feel incredibly lucky that we got connected by Andy, of course, the the founder of Blue Sky originally.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So you guys are still, you know, still French today, all these years later.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I feel grateful we were connected.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: I I know this is going to be one of the most interesting episodes we've ever had for many of our viewers because you had just a multitude of lessons.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_00: I I really appreciate it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_00: So thanks for being here.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and on that note, until next time, let's win.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us on this episode of the term.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't watched part one, the first episode of this, you should go back and watch last week's because it was an amazing beginning to the story.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you know someone that would find it interesting, please forward it along.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you haven't yet, please subscribe.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: And until next time, let's win.