Why Buying the Business Doesn't Make You the Boss

Just because you bought the company doesn't mean anyone's going to follow you. And sometimes you learn that lesson fast. Imagine buying a business and realizing the software running a critical part of the operations was written in 1989 and nobody knows how to fix it. If it goes down, you're basically dead in the water. Today we've got Evan Stewart, owner and CEO of DirectOne, a 70+ commercial print and direct mail business. Evan talks about earning the right to be heard, stepping into a production environment where people have been doing the work longer than he has been in the workforce, and what it actually takes to lead when you're learning in the public eye. Welcome back to Bought the Biz. We're excited to have Evan Stewart on with us today. Bought the Biz is a podcast for ETA entrepreneurs who've gone from searching for a business to actually running one. It tells the real story of what happens after the deal closes, the day-to-day operational, emotional, strategic, and leadership challenges that just don't show up in the highlight reels.

The show is story-driven and practical, sharing real experiences from operators along with clear, actionable takeaways you can use in your own business today.

I'm Garth Fossano.

I'm Christi Loucks. Welcome to Bought the Biz.

Welcome back to another episode of Bought the Biz. We are really excited to have Evan Stewart on with us today, the owner and CEO of Direct DirectOne. So Evan, tell us a little bit more about how you got into this world and what it's been like operating a business.

Yeah, thank you guys very much for having me. You know, great question. I sometimes kind of lay in bed and think about the journey over the last 33 months, I guess, and kind of where I was, you know, before that and where we are today. So DirectOne, it's commercial print and direct mail services. Before that, before I bought, I had worked for about 15 years on the agency side in a variety of roles, would work with a number of commercial print operations around the country. So I was able to travel a lot, meet some of the, you know, top experts, I'd say, in the industry and really get a good feel for what a commercial print operation should and shouldn't look like. So, you know, fast forward in 2019, I was also while working going to school and get my MBA. And, you know, in my heart, I always knew I wanted to be a business owner. But just kind of let events, you know, sort of dictate where my life was going. And just through that MBA process, one of the professors there had brought up the concept of entrepreneurship through acquisition. And that really resonated with me because I just didn't see myself as a startup guy and then definitely didn't see myself as a startup guy at that phase in my life. And so I just, you know, it was like something just clicked and immediately started to dig in, bought the, uh, the, the Harvard book, um, you know, How to Buy a Small Business.

The Harvard book.

Yep, exactly.

Nice. Um, and then came across the Walker-Dibble one, Buy Then Build, and was like, man, I had no idea there's like a whole ecosystem and everything. Um, so, you know, that kind of kicked off the process for me. I, uh, didn't intend to buy a print operation at all. I was looking at like solar panel installation companies, I think a spark plug company at one point, a variety of things. And then one day—

But it sounds like this is like in your area. You said, you know, marketing agency. So it seems like you have some of the experience there. So in some ways it makes a lot of sense.

You know, I, at the time, I thought I was burnt out on that, right? And was like looking for something new. But just a conversation with either a business broker, I believe, may have been a capital partner, but it was just very, you know, to the point like, hey, this is dumb. You should focus on stuff that you have some sort of experience with instead of coming in and learning something totally new because it's most likely going to fail or it's going to cost you a lot more than you realize if you don't. And it kind of was another like aha moment, you know, and it's like, yeah.

You know what's funny is I looked at a lot of different businesses other than my area of expertise and ultimately ended up buying something in my area of expertise.

Me too.

Isn't that interesting?

Maybe it's not that interesting, but—

No, it is. It's just, it's, I think whenever you're thinking like, oh, I'm going to buy a business, you know, you're like, okay, I'm going to reinvent myself. Right. But it turns out that you are reinventing yourself, but, you know, it doesn't mean like completely running away from who you are, who you were. It's like taking a minute, all the positives.

So, let me just keep asking you then, how did you reinvent yourself in this new way? What were some of the biggest transformation moments for you over the past 33 months?

Well, I like to be liked. I feel like that's human, right?

Yeah.

You're not always going to be liked. You kind of think just when you look up at like authority growing up or like whenever you're working in a company, big or small, a lot of people will yield to the person in charge, right? Like, okay, they must know best. So for me, I guess kind of trying to realizing that you actually have to own that, right? You have to like grow into that role. I remember a conversation with a friend who's in private equity. Before I closed, I was like, do you have any advice for me? And he was like, yeah, look, everyone has to earn the right to be heard. So just because you're buying a company doesn't mean like you're going to go in and everyone's going to start like following you. Like you have to earn that. So that was another like huge growth moment for me. I'm still learning, you know.

How did that question or that comment play into your transition plan as you stepped into leadership role?

Um, so I thought I knew, as we discussed, you know, some— something about the industry. I realized probably a weekend that, uh, I didn't know anything.

Like, oh, it just took you a week? I think it took me about 45 days.

Well, it was like, you know, I'm walking around, I'm like, man, every single one of my print partners that I've ever worked with has lied to me. you know, like shock, all these things that are happening. So yeah, I realized pretty early on that like, okay, there's no way I could fool these guys and act like I know what I'm doing. Everyone's going to know I don't right now. Um, and so I accepted that I was the dumbest person in the building. Um, and that was a big moment, I think, because it gave some transparency to the team, um, as well as like, hey guys, I am learning. I'm sorry if I ask you dumb questions. Teach me, teach me everything you can. I promise I will do my best to like absorb it all so we don't have to have this conversation again and again and again. So I think that was, that's just kind of humbling yourself a little bit and understanding.

Yeah.

Hey, yeah, you may have like taken out all this debt and put yourself on the line, but that doesn't mean these people are going to give you any respect at all. Like you have to earn that.

Yeah. I think that it's always been such an awkward spot for me and something that I always felt weird about too is like just because I was willing to take this massive asymmetric bet, I'm in this position and like, what gives me the right to do that versus somebody else? And it always just has felt a little bit weird. And so I think that that's an important way to approach it and know how you're going to approach that too. So sorry, Christi, go ahead.

Well, yeah, and just to tag on to that, I think too, especially like, well, I had a different question, but to that point, I think too, coming out of business school, right? We're like, it's an advanced degree. Like we all, like, we're smart people. We come into the room knowing that we're, you know, moderately intelligent and you have to like set all of that aside no matter where you went to school, whether it was top tier or not. Like you just have to set it aside and like meet everyone where they are and assume that you don't know as much as you think you know.

That's a great point, especially in, I'd say, a production environment. Because there are some people that may like take that as a challenge, right? Like, oh, here is this guy, Mr. MBA, what's— he's going to teach me something about my industry? I've been doing this since I'm 14, you know. And so it's just respecting that dynamic and understanding like you may have an MBA, but this guy's been working a folder for 40 years and he knows way more about direct mail than you ever will, much less what you know right now.

Yeah, I was going to ask, how big was the team that you stepped into?

Oh, I think we're at 72 employees.

Okay.

Okay.

So decent-sized team.

Production team to be managing.

Yeah.

Yeah. How much, and you just sort of hinted at in other questions like this person knows more than I ever will. How much dependence was there in the business and did that ever feel risky? Did your business feel big enough where that didn't exist or? How much was now flowing through you? And just for context, when I stepped in, I was doing billing, I was doing payroll, I was doing account management. Everything sort of funneled through me. My team was about 30 when I acquired it.

Yeah, so the dynamics was very, very interesting. They had done a couple of mergers. So it was a couple mergers of smaller companies in 2019. And then COVID hits in 2020, obviously. So like any integration plan sort of went out the window. And then when I stepped in in 2023, you still had a couple of operations that were, you know, kind of duplicative. And then accounting, there was some room to grow there. And then HR, a lot of room to grow there. So I kind of was like, you know, where can I add the most value at today while I'm learning this industry and started to focus on those areas first and build out the business side and do more integration. So it would come together as one company, one process, as opposed to 2 or 3 different companies doing the same thing under the same roof. So from that standpoint, I was, you know, more nervous about the tribal knowledge and the things that were not written down that, you know, Danny on the folder knows, or Rick, who owned his own business for 30 years, knows that did not show up in a SIM. Will not show up and do diligence. And it's just going back to being the dumbest person in the building. So not just like about the process, but like, hey, what goes on here? Who are we? What do we do?

Okay.

Was there—

what was maybe some crazy piece of tribal knowledge or something that, you know, so unexpected that you learned about, you know, maybe early on or recently too?

Because Well, so, um, okay, I don't know if this necessarily fits, but like we have a software program here that was written in, I think, FoxPro, um, which I don't know anything about code. I just know that that's an older whatever, uh, program.

Yeah.

And no one here knows anything about it or how to fix it. So if it goes down, it's like very integral to our process. Um, if it goes down, we actually have no way to fix it. So this was like kind of what I stepped into, you know, a month, two months in, and I'm like, okay, this is a problem. We should figure this out. Yeah.

So FoxPro was released in 1989.

Oh man.

Yep.

And it comes from FoxBase, which came out in 1984.

So true legacy platform.

Yeah. I think that that's a great example. Like the, okay. The business I acquired was, I think, a little bit more tech modern than sort of the traditional searchers type businesses, but we had a Salesforce instance that had been implemented in 2009, and that's what we ran most of our operations out of. And it had all of the automations and ways that it was built was in a Salesforce feature stack that was no longer supported. It's like, so if something goes wrong there, you can't fix it. You have to migrate it and it integrates with all these other things and it's all going to break. So I think there's so many of these like fragile pieces that are in these businesses like that. And, you know, it just takes somebody who has the will to roll up their sleeves to figure it out.

I would say too, but even on like the flip side, so the business we acquired was actually quite tech forward and even in that world, I found that like things were changing so rapidly for me with AI that what I inherited, which I thought was a relatively modern and like sophisticated tech stack, I still had to go in and be like, is this the right setup for the business or not? And so it's almost like whether it's 1984 or, you know, 2021, it's like, I think that has to just be something you're ready to like evaluate no matter what.

Yeah, totally agree. You know, like, it's, it's also interesting. So this was a couple of smaller companies that came together and kind of overnight they've like doubled or tripled in size, right? And so you have all these like— so it's 3 different tribal knowledges, but then you have like 3 different operating systems. Um, so when I came in, there actually were 2 management information systems that they had some clients in one, some clients in another. And they had never like merged that process, right? And it's— I totally understand why that happens. It's like the classic working in the business versus working on the business. You're just busy day to day and it's like, hey, like this client's happy, they're fine, let's just keep them here and there. But in order to scale, it's impossible, you know? And so it's— you just got to kind of make that, that decision early on, like, hey, we're going to go in, we're going to change this, and then That gets back to the earlier point of you're not always going to be liked, right? Because you're making changes and who are you?

Yeah. So, so what did you do to help the business scale efficiently or create that foundation that you're teeing yourself up for? It sounds like that was one of them. What other kinds of things did you have to do?

Yeah, so focus on accounting early on and then started to look at some— I brought in my own business as much as I could as well so that could help with some of these things that I wanted to do. And then realized pretty quickly that there are a lot smarter people out there that we can pay that can come in here and help us get some of these things stood up. So I started to make pretty good use of consultants, which has— it's a very, very important lesson. You got to do your diligence and you have to make sure like these are a good fit because the first time you bring a consultant into your business that you've bought that, you know, was someone else's, It's like a lot of the employees get nervous. They're like, who is this guy? What kind of consultant are they? Will I have a job tomorrow? Are they going to automate me out? Like, what does this mean? But the bedside manner is key. You know, and you guys know this having gone through the process. It's sometimes you're just kind of picking like, okay, there's a million things I got to get done. What's the one that's going to have the most impact? And like, how much capital am I going to have to expend both like politically and then actual money to make this happen. And so it's that constant juggling act.

Yep. Yep. Talking about capital and managing cash flow and the financial resilience of the business, I think working capital is something people love to talk about. It sounds like you probably have a little bit more of a capital-intensive business than what I stepped into. Any lessons learned or from your first moment stepping in around that area?

Yeah, whatever it is you think you need, double it.

I think that's what most people say, double it or more. And so what I did was when I bought the business, I got the story, you don't need any working capital. There is no working capital in this business. It makes money immediately, right? Yeah. I had a— I used a line of credit. That's what I had set up when I came in so that I knew I had a little bit of extra buffer room. What was your tactic?

So we actually, I mentioned like one of the first things I tackled was accounting. We actually were delayed in closing because the books, the merger of the companies previously in 2019, it just, the books were like extremely hard to read. And it wasn't that there was anything wrong with them. It was just like, how much capital do we realistically need? In this industry, a lot of times you're, you're paying for postage upfront and then you're billing for services later. Some clients, you're going to require them to give you the postage before you go and drop it off at the USPS. Other clients that you've had a relationship with for 10 to 15 years, you'll give them a couple days. You know, like it's, you're not going to hold that mailing for them just because you know that they're going to pay. But, you know, these are pretty big swings. It can be several hundred thousand dollars in a day. And so understanding that and understanding like how much capital you're really going to be on the line for. Let's say it's a 3-day weekend, so Thursday, and then you're not going to get paid till Monday, and then it's not going to clear the bank till Tuesday, Wednesday, you know, like that. It adds up, and that is a huge source of heartburn and just kind of, you know, long stressful nights or weekends. So yeah, I know I didn't answer your question exactly, but long story short, it was part of the deal that we had worked out with the previous owners. We also work out another deal in order to get the deal over the line to where I would take the AR that was coming in for, I think, I want to say 3 to 4 months while we started to build up our book and then I would pay it back. So that ended up working out really well and I'm glad we did that because otherwise it would have gotten really, really, really sketchy there at one point.

That sounds like you figured that out early on in the deal and got that set right. That's a unique deal structure. Like you basically took the AR as a loan for 6 months or something like that. That's kind of cool. I hadn't heard of that before.

Yeah, that was, you know, we were ready to do the deal. We were ready to get it done. And both parties felt pretty comfortable with, with kind of the plan. And that was just one that actually, you know, neither one of us flagged, a lending partner flagged. And so we're like, what are we going to do? So we came to the table and got creative with it. And it worked out.

Awesome. The business I acquired, 'cause, you know, I think these stories really make it interesting, actually had a negative day sales outstanding or like, you know, whatever that is. So, I got paid before my customers got paid, which was pretty wild.

How do you do that? How can we do that?

Yeah, that was my question too. Like, what?

Little bit of a tangent. So, the business I acquired was doing sales for small businesses through a call center. And so, as part of the sale process, we would actually take a deposit on behalf of our customer for their business. And the way it was set up when I acquired it is that deposit would go into our bank account. And so we got paid a deposit for services our customers were going to be providing to their end consumers, like 2, 6 weeks in advance, sometimes a couple days in advance. And then we wouldn't be billing them for the services rendered for probably another 2, 6 weeks after that. And so we were actually getting paid before they were.

That is an amazing business model. Did that do anything to your multiple? Or, you know, was it something that was kind of seen as like, hey, it's a little bit of a premium here?

No, it was not. I actually think that it was probably not the most legitimate way to do that. So I did, you know, more modern payfac payment facilitation methods have come up and I actually got rid of that because Despite how cool it sounds, it is a nightmare managing that from a billing perspective. Your accountant has no idea how to understand that, like, because it's effectively like the Uber money is coming to us and we're passing it out to the driver. Meanwhile, it's sitting in our bank account for like 2 weeks to 6 weeks and a little bit odd.

Gotcha.

Yeah. Whereas it's supposed to go straight to the client bank account. So that's what we have set up now. And technology has made that possible. That was pretty cool. So I, I, I trusted that it was going to work out pretty well and it did, but I had a fallback plan with a line of credit. This first, first business I think I've seen that had it that wild though. Yeah. I think one of the things in my team was I spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, getting the right leadership structure in place. Did you make— I mean, it sounds like there was a lot going on in your business between integrating multiple businesses, some potentially overlapping functions? Did you make any other sort of big management or org structure changes that you had to think through a lot? I mean, this goes back to what we were just saying is, you know, we come from these MBA programs or bigger companies and, you know, you're used to laying out this org chart diagram. I did that and the first person hung up on me. So I'm curious what your experience was.

Yeah, definitely. It's still ongoing, right? Like it's still kind of iterating as we go. I have 5 former business owners on my leadership team. Cool. And with that comes 5 ways of doing things. And, you know, that goes back to the credibility part. It's I need to earn the right to be heard by these guys. And like, once they're comfortable with me to an extent and I know I have their approval, then I know I'm at least like going places, right? And I'm catching on and they respect that. I brought in a couple of people from outside the industry, and I felt like that was really, really important because we've got over 1,000 years of knowledge in this place. So like, let's— this is what they know, you know? So let's, let's bring in some best practices. So brought in someone that had a lot of experience in kind of enterprise tech sales and SaaS, which is helpful on the accounting side. Started out with a fractional CFO. And then made her permanent earlier in 2025. So, you know, no direct mail, no commercial print experience, but obviously the accounting. And I mean, just that's a game changer when you have someone that understands, you know, at a high level what it is you're trying to accomplish financially, but then also how to get from where we are today to that place. It just it, you can focus on other things. And so that's been a huge relief. I've also made a couple of hires that were terrible and it did not work out at all. But, you know, we, we realized pretty early on like, hey, this is not going to be a good fit for one reason or another and just kind of came to that conclusion. And then there are probably others where I maybe held on too long. Either out of fear or out of respect or wanting to be liked. And whenever you do go and you have that conversation, to see the relief on their face, you know, kind of says it all, you know, because they're like, you should have just seen Christi's face.

Christi was just making a wild face too. So I think she knows exactly what you're talking about.

I have questions about that, but keep going, keep going. And then I'll ask them.

No, let's hear it. Yeah.

Well, so I struggle with what I will call the same personality disorder where I have this like, I want everyone to like me. And it's interesting because I also simultaneously, when I'm under stress, I get really direct and like really, dare I say bitchy? Am I allowed to say that? So like, I have this like personality thing where I'm like, no, but like, I just want to be liked and I want people to like love working for me and like think I'm a good leader and And I've had to lean in sometimes into that, like, just more direct mode of managing and leave some of that desire to be liked behind, which is wildly uncomfortable for me, right? But my personal journey has been very— like, I've developed a lot in that to be able to say, like, I have to be okay with just making the right call and being super blunt about that. And it's going to lead to friction. And in the depths of my soul, I hate that, but like, I have to get over it or I'm not going to have a successful business or be a good leader in this particular scenario. So I'm just curious how you've like worked through those emotions of wanting to be liked versus what the business needs.

Well, you, you nailed a number of things there.

Okay.

So Okay, we, yeah, we want to be liked, right? And sometimes we feel like, hey, we're, we're not maybe telling this person the truth because we don't want to hurt their feelings. But then they come at us and they're like very direct and they're like, hey, I think you're doing a terrible job leading. And like, you're like, hey, I was doing you a favor by being nice. Like, how dare you? You know? And so then you get all mad about it and you're like, you suck at your job.

We're all so mature over here.

But then once you say that, you're like, oh, we now trust each other on a different level. And I actually like this person more for being direct with me and giving me real feedback of places I can— ways I can improve. So that was a journey for me of like, hey, just because you think you're being nice and you're trying to be liked, doesn't actually mean you're being nice at all. Um, you're actually like living in pain and they're living in pain because they know they're not doing a good job either and they're not happy. So just tell them, just be direct. Um, and I've struggled early on, I still struggle today, but definitely struggled early on with kind of that imposter syndrome. Um, all right, I'm the dumbest in the building, but I really don't think this person's doing a good job. But like, what do I know? Right? But I knew Like everybody knew they weren't doing a good job. You know, I should have just gone with my gut of like, can you— there's also, I don't know, kind of a saying that I don't really say it out loud, but like my theory is you can be incompetent or you can be an asshole, but you can't be both. And so when someone is incompetent and they start to lash out because they kind of know they're incompetent, then it's like it takes care of itself. So you got to go like, this is not good for anyone.

Yeah.

Um, but maybe it doesn't have to get to that point. Maybe I can just be like, hey, you're not really a good fit for this, but you're a really nice person. So let's figure this out, but it's time for us to transition out of this.

Yeah.

I think that's one thing I really had to like focus on was for me, like there is a difference between being nice and being kind and like, I can be nice to your face, but that doesn't mean I'm actually being kind depending on the situation. Like you said, like. It's actually kinder just to be like, this is the, like, this is the scenario. You need to improve in these ways. I need to improve with these ways, whatever. That, that honesty can actually be kind. Um, does, may not always sound super nice, but like being able to focus and like root myself on, I need to be kind in this situation, and that's different than being nice and like being liked, right? So that was sort of all like, and it still is, right? But as I stepped into that leadership, like, see, CEO role, that was something I had to just constantly remind myself of.

So true. I had a boss, actually, he was like a chairman of the company I worked at, so it wasn't really a boss, but this guy just had an amazing way of delivering like not bad news, but telling you to improve, you know, in these areas. And then you actually like appreciated him saying that and you almost felt Sorry that like you disappointed this person. Um, and I, I've always like, I want to be like that guy. I want to get to that level. How do I do that? Mm-hmm.

This is, yeah, I would say that it's funny because I actually learned this from my husband. Like he is so, he is so direct. He just says what needs to be said, but he always does it from a perspective of like, I want you to be better and I know you can be better. And it took me, cuz sometimes I was like, you know, you're being an asshole, right? But like actually. He's just being super direct. And so I took a page from that and said like, okay, I can, I can, you know, still dish out some like not maybe great, like, I don't know, like words, but it like, I can be kind in my intention of what I'm saying. Like you need to do better more or less, but like I'm doing it because I actually care.

Yes. And like, you're not doing this just to go to war with someone. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, but to your point about like, How do I get to that, like, level of dialogue? Although sometimes I tell my husband, I'm like, "Yeah, stop being a jerk." Can't really say that to my employees.

There are so many moments in the operator journey, especially in transitions like these, where we, you know, you have to step up to the plate in these leadership moments. And time and time again, it's going to keep happening. What are some other moments? You mentioned some sleepless nights earlier, stress. You know, I thought the search was the hard part.

Search was by far the easiest part looking back at it, you know, but it's funny now, like whenever you think about sending those LOIs and you send them on like a Friday or something and you're just waiting for them to get back to you, you think about it all weekend. It's like, this is my life. If this doesn't happen, what am I going to do? It's back to the drawing board. I'm in love with this company. You know, and like, it's fun, don't get me wrong. But then that feeling of you bought the company, you go in, you do your day one big intro, rah-rah rally, and you leave and you're still kind of like, you know, super high, elated. And then maybe that night you're having a beer and you're just thinking like, oh my God, what did we just do? Like, you know, that's like, Tomorrow I got to pay $100,000 in postage. So being on those emails the first time around, so what happens, come in, do the speech, and then I head out because the company was in Orlando and we were living in Jacksonville at the time. So we did it in the day ends and I'm just looking at the emails and it's just like, hey, we need $70,000 here. We need $100,000 here. Yeah, it's the search. Looking back at it was by far the easy part, but it does prepare you in some ways of like you're dealing with business owners, right? And this is their baby and they've built it and they're proud of it. And, you know, how you learn to communicate with them, I think then helps whenever you step in and start to deal with their employees because you get a sense of like their culture and, you know, how they've been sort of treating people. And you know if you can build on that or change that or what, at least I thought.

Did you change anything material from a cultural perspective of the company?

Yes, but it's more, man, this is going to sound like so millennial, but it's about like, I'm not going to retire. I don't ever see myself as retiring, right? I like to find purpose in what I do every day. So you're talking about a company that had been around for about 30 years and they built it literally from a garage into a 70-something person company and did really well. But outside marketing, kind of taking on new clients, it wasn't like an active thing. It would happen word of mouth and referrals, but it's not like they were really in growth mode, right?

Yep.

Well, I come in and I skew a little bit younger than the industry. Average age in general and much younger than the industry average owner age. So I'm just kind of taking a different approach with things of like, hey, I think I have another 20 to 30 years in me. Like, let's grow. Let's— it's okay. Like, let's, let's update our website. Let's get out there on social media. Let's do podcasts. And let's tell the world how awesome we are. And then like, let's get involved in some of these national organizations. And, you know, learn what our competitors are doing. So that is new. And I could have just gone in day one and been like, oh, this is what we're going to do. But I knew I had to slow play that a little bit. Plus I had to learn. I didn't want to go to these conferences and sound like an idiot. But so that part, I think just overall moving from what you guys built was fantastic. I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. It's phenomenal. You did a phenomenal job. But now if we want to be around for another 30 years, we got to get to here. Right. And so just trying to push that message.

That's, that's amazing. And that sort of gets towards like what your plan is. And it sounds like you're the long-term hold mode.

I am. Yeah. World domination. Like we want to be the best.

Amazing. Amazing. I love that.

How are, if I can ask one more question, I know we're getting to the end, but like, how are you thinking about the future of the business? Right. With, you know, Is print dying? Do people use mail? Right? Like I, and I get asked the same questions about like cold email because I do a lot of like lead generation sales outreach. So I'm just curious how you're, how you think about the future and like how you then plan kind of for that trajectory.

I love it. We should ask this question to begin with. I'm going to take up another 30 minutes.

Okay, perfect.

Um, all right. So I'll go to these conferences. Um, I was at one with one of our vendor partners. And it was a customer council and there's like 30 to 40 other print and direct mail operators around the country and these are, we're probably the smallest shop there and they're all going around and they're like, you know, I'm third generation, my grandpa started the company and there's no way I'm going to let my kids into this industry and it's just going, it's like literally every person just around the table and then it gets to me and I'm like, well, I'm a little bit different. I actually bought into the industry, right? You know, like The, the contrast there is huge. And I'm thinking to my head the whole time, like, I would love to get that guy's customers— customer list, because like he doesn't even want to, you know, service it. Like, so bringing that optimism to it I think is important. The industry itself, it's going to consolidate more. It's been consolidating. Um, we're about to go through probably another round of M&A here pretty soon, just industry-wide. So there'll be less competitors. Um, but you know, there's some private equity money that's in, in here, and there's some big just strategic firms. There's R.R. Donnelly, you know, so publicly traded companies. So there's a lot of talent there as well. So for me, it's about understanding what can we be the best in the world at. And I think instead of just focusing on all things print, we can be the best in the world at direct mail. I would put our direct mail expertise up against anyone in the country in this building. So that's where our focus is. We want to be the best at direct mail. Period. You know, it's interesting you're talking about emails and digital. Now, whenever I'm going in and I'm talking to a sales rep at, let's say, a Fortune 500 company or not a sales rep, excuse me, someone in sourcing or marketing at a Fortune 500, Fortune 1000 company, usually they are 28 years old. They've grown up in the digital age. They understand TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, connected TV. They don't know much about direct mail or print, right? They may be set in on a class with it. And so my job is to explain to them, hey, this is how direct mail can play a part in what you're doing in other parts of the marketing mix, right? I'm not coming in trying to steal a dollar, I'm trying to complement it. Um, so capability-wise as a company, we're working on things like a dashboard so you can see where your mail piece is in, in the mail funnel, um, how you can track QR codes, pearls, that sort of thing. And so play a long part, the digital strategy tying into the CRM So you can do things like trigger mail, you know, it's being a part and being a complement and trying to push into the 21st century with it.

That sounds pretty good. And I think a lot of searchers have businesses that, you know, are more local-based and where direct mail can play more of a role. So if they're curious, how should they find you?

Yeah, would love to work with them. You can visit us at directoneinc.com. You can find me on LinkedIn, Evan Stewart. And Direct Loans, the company, reach out anytime. Would love to help. At the very least, just give you a conversation and understand exactly what you're doing today and, you know, make some recommendations on what you could do in the future that might pay off better for you.

Awesome. Any final thoughts or key takeaways you want folks to have from your experience over the last 30-odd months?

Yes, tons. Do it. Buy your business. 100%, go for it. Take a chance on yourself if you believe. If you can get to the point of buying a business, I think you can run a business. I really do, because there are some challenges there. But just be prepared to be humbled. Don't stress too much about things that you honestly just can't control. Be authentic. Do not try to act like you are something that you are not or that you are an expert in something that you are not, because they will smell it out immediately. And you'll lose all credibility. So be humble, be authentic, do it, be relentless, learn as much as you can, and, um, you know, don't be scared, right? Have faith in yourself.

Amazing, amazing. That was perfect. Thank you so much for joining us. Cool.

Thank you guys. Thanks for having me.