How Codie Sanchez Built Her $70M Empire with “Boring” Businesses

People say, what's the secret to success? There's a million things.

How people physically represent money.

Welcome to the Own Your Future Podcast. You know, when people hear things in personal development, change your beliefs, change your life, change your story, change your life, you're like, ah, I don't need any of that stuff. Just give me a good business. Today is going to be so special. She is doing an amazing job. She's bought over 26 businesses from a journalist to the finance world, working for some of the top companies and now buying your own businesses, over 26 businesses.

Yep.

Over $50 million a year in revenue.

Now $70.

$70 million. This girl, Codie Sanchez, is on fire. You gotta meet her. And I've had the chance to meet you today. Your number one thing is buying other people's businesses, but not with a lot of capital in some cases.

That's right.

Not buying companies that need so much work.

Nope.

And that's what I wanna get into today. 'Cause when I say you buy companies, I think people think corporate America, hedge fund, lots of money.

Yep.

Angel investing, lots of millions raised when that's not the way you approach it and how you're You're helping people. Not only do you do it for yourself, that's your main business. You're also now helping others do the same. You buy businesses. How the hell did that happen?

Started really corporate. So unlike a lot of entrepreneurs or people that I think come and speak on podcasts, I was a fraidy cat for years. So I worked in corporate America for a long time in finance. And what we do in finance and private equity is we buy businesses, but really big ones, right? So $100 billion transaction, we use other people's money, aka the bank, to do it typically. And then we make Millions, billions of dollars. And at some point I was kind of miserable. I don't know if anybody could relate, but, you know, 60, 70-hour weeks and I didn't see an end to it. You know, I looked at the managing directors that were higher than me and thought, I don't want any of that, but they don't seem happy. I started to figure out where could my golden parachute be? Like, how could I get out of this? And what I realized is, wait, there's nothing that different between a giant transaction and a little transaction. Why couldn't I buy a tiny business and use other people's money in order to do it? And I could maybe buy enough of those where I could just cover my salary. Like, that's it.

We all come from different places. Every entrepreneur comes from a different path. We all have our own. But the only— sorry to digress, but what you just said, I want to do enough to cover my salary. What I've been geeking out on, I just want you to write down or put in the back of your head for talking about later, is There is a career mindset that I think you get not brainwashed, but you get used to compared to the— call it entrepreneur. And unfortunately, entrepreneurship has gotten a bad name in recent years when it's the foundation of this amazing country. I love the word entrepreneurship. It's been my whole life, and I love being an advocate for entrepreneurs. I know you are too. I know it's your goal to create a million of them.

Yep.

Career mindset versus entrepreneurial mindset. I don't think— there's people watching right now that don't realize that they've been programmed To be a little quieter, to just look for the promotion, to see, oh, I could get to the C-suite if I do this and I do this and I do this. And if I quit, can I cover my salary by doing— and it gives you this wrong perspective. Before we go any further on your journey, the woman you are now, what would you say to that person who's a little scared thinking, I shouldn't do this because I'm safe? And are you really safe? It was an illusion.

Always start sooner than you think. Do it before you're ready. You'll never feel ready. Sort of like, you know, that conversation people have with kids, like, you're never ready. I feel like people should say that same thing to people who want to become an entrepreneur. You're like, you're never ready, just do the thing.

Yeah.

But I actually think I'm a little different. Like, we were talking about mutual friends we have. We— I have a couple mutual friends that are like, I slept on a couch, I lived on the floor. And I do not think you have to do that.

No, absolutely not.

I think that you could be a little scared and you could tiptoe your way into it.

You know, when people hear things in personal development— change your beliefs, change your life, change your story, change your life— you're like, ah, I don't need any of that stuff, just give me a good business. But when you really, as you get older especially, you're going to see that those little things are actually the big things. That's when people say, what's the secret to success? There's a million things, but the little things are the big things. And wisdom comes from questioning your beliefs and stepping into the uncomfortable.

Yeah.

And once you step into the uncomfortable, solve bigger problems than you ever had before, when you step back, that knowledge turns to wisdom. And over years, it compounds and compounds and compounds. And then all of a sudden you say, God, that person's got such great intuition. No, if someone says, you know, somebody that's got great gut instincts or good intuition, It simply means they failed more than most. They faced their fears, they questioned their beliefs, and they know the experience on the other side. That's wisdom.

You're so right.

That's gut. That's instinct. And when you do it long enough, it just— it's like a really great— AI is artificial intelligence. We actually had it. We are the founders of AI right here between our ears. It's the cumulative effect of these experiences. You're going to watch this as you go. And it's gonna be a fun journey, right?

Yeah. Well, you said something when we were chatting that I loved, which was that, you know, when we share our experiences online, we turn decades into days.

Yeah.

Which I, you know, a little light bulb. You're like, I'm gonna solve your issue about thinking about sharing information in 30 seconds. And I was like, sure, let's see, you know? And then that line, and I was like, God, that's exactly it. And then what's so funny is in finance, we are taught tactics, tactics, tactics, you know, give me the financials, give me the spreadsheet all day. How people physically represent money. So their body, if they could have a physical representation of money, what would that look like with your body? And it was a group of, small group of women, very successful women, by the way, 6, 7, 8-figure women. And they were like, I want you to think about money, close your eyes, and then make your body a physical representation of money. I think money and I go money, like hands up, right? I'm like, I don't even think about it. I don't say the words out loud. I'm just in the back like, yeah, I like it, you know, whatever. And then I And then she says, open your eyes, and we look around, and everybody else is sort of like curled up, like closed tight, or just like, money, or money. And it was the weirdest thing I ever saw, because then I went on and said, okay, I'm going to give you a bunch of tactics and tools, because that's kind of the way that my brain works. But if you, if your physical body is like this, and this is how you think about money, I could give you a list, I could give you the spreadsheet, I could tell you every single thing to do. But I kind of feel like you need to go and listen to somebody like Dean or somebody like Tony first, because if you don't believe it, then all the numbers won't back it. If you don't believe love, we have Yeah, I mean, it sounds so touchy-feely, which like hurts my little finance soul, except it's true. Uh, and so I think it's really powerful, the stuff that you do, when you open people's aperture larger and then they can see the numbers and they can see the tactics. But before it, they'll just be on the internet saying, well, it won't work, no way, no how, whatever.

So then buying laundromats evolved to this is your business. I mean, you have a company now, 26 companies, or is it more? Is that what it's at right now?

Yeah, 26 businesses. boring businesses, I call them. And then we have essentially our media companies. So now we have 3 of those, uh, and then we have 5 what I call media accelerated companies. So what I realized is there's just levels to every game, right?

Mm-hmm.

So I had that first little laundromat, and then I was like, huh, well, I could just have more laundromats because it's the same thing. And then what about car washes? And then how about, oh, this is a landscaping company with the same dynamic. So I started building up this thing, and then a weird thing happened to me in, um, in private equity, which happens to a lot of employees, which is I made more money in my side stuff than my main stuff. And at that point in my career, I mean, I'm like 8 years into finance. I'm pretty senior. I'm making, you know, a million bucks a year as, as an employee. I'm doing pretty well. And, um, but I was making more on this other thing. At this point, I actually really liked what I did in private equity.

I was—

I could have been an employee for a long time, actually.

Yeah.

Except Some of the other people that I worked with got wind of how much I was making in this other stuff, and I started becoming a little bit public. I wasn't making any money. I wasn't selling anything online. I just— people found out about portfolios. My leadership business grew. And so I got a couple of, you know, CNBC spots and whatever. And I remember one of my partners at the time said, we don't build ourselves, we build the company. We don't talk about you, we talk about we.

Yeah.

And at the time I was pissed. I was like, I have made you hundreds of millions of dollars. Now I kind of get it as a boss. He's right. I was playing with his chips and he did me a huge service, which is he said, you got to pick which one do you want to do? And then I said, hey, we're going to go our separate ways. But actually, I respect you.

A career mindset evolving to I can do this on my own.

Yeah, I needed a bridge. And then I realized quickly, oh man, I'm bringing in all the money. these guys. I'm bringing in all the deals. Why am I doing this with somebody else? I suppose I am now unemployable and I shall work for myself.

We all have the human condition. It's like, knock, knock. You're called to this way. You've just been trained to think this way. Like when people say, I, I take the safe road, is working for someone else safe?

Yeah.

COVID came, we saw everything. 2007 came, the shift of the economy. There's probably another big shift coming in the economy now. AI could disrupt the industry you're in. There's nothing safe. And is it hard work doing your own thing? Hell yes. Well, simultaneously, do you get to create your future, your destiny, control your— I mean, there's a gamble of each one. There's also staying comfortable in a job and getting to the end of your life and go, man, I never went after what all these callings—

I think everybody should be an entrepreneur. Do I think it's super easy? No. What I actually think is that every human should fight for skin in the game they're playing. And so every person that I employ has skin in the game, a.k.a., if we do X, Y, Z, you will make more money. If you bring me a deal, you will get a percentage of the deal. If you bring me an investor, you'll get a percentage of the investor, and I won't ever be able to take away that percentage of the deal, that percentage of the investor. You don't have to show up for work to get that.

Yeah.

I think building businesses in whatever way allows you to become this uplifting mechanism for a bunch of other humans. You can be the elevator they stand on, and that is really powerful for me. So if I think about the impact I can have by buying my next couple hundred million dollars in businesses, which is still crazy, but that's the goal, right? We build hundreds of millions of dollars of businesses and invest in hundreds of millions. I'll never be able to do as much as a collective audience of humans can.

Absolutely.

So I think, and I talk about this until I'm blue in the face sometimes, but I really think that humans in our country right now are a bit of a turning point because I think that you see all around you, you are in real estate, you know, 1 out of 4 single-family homes was bought by large institutions last year. We live in neighborhoods where our neighbors don't own their homes. That's a new phenomenon.

It is.

And that same thing is happening in businesses. 25 to 30% of small businesses are owned by the biggest 10 companies in each sector.

Wow.

And so if we even take the idea that I'm having a great time, I love buying businesses, it's super amazing for me. I think we as a society, if we can all help the next human get a little bit of equity, Get a little bit of ownership.

They got skin in the game.

They got skin in the game.

That's what you said earlier.

And that's the whole game. What I don't have respect for is if you do it begrudgingly. If you're working in a company you hate, if you're doing something you don't like, that's your fault. That's not the company's fault. It's not the job's fault.

Right. It's perspective again.

Yeah.

I mean, that could shift in a moment if you say, hey, this is just the stepping stone to where I'm going. Let me be happier today so when I'm where I want to be tomorrow, I could say, hey, that was a good experience along the way.

Totally. And you get there so much faster. The world is now public record. Like, everything that you think is now out there publicly. I don't profess to be perfect at everything, and the beautiful part about the internet is I'll quickly learn if I'm wrong. And I think some people don't want to get public because, especially in finance, we think, if anybody finds me out, if they realize I don't know this, then, you know, it's over, game over. And what I quickly realized is, no way, this is like free learning for me, actually, for all of these humans who are going to come in and tell me one way or the other.

You don't have to be the master at You find your swimming lane and go deep. And if someone's better at, you know, real estate or investing in bonds or stocks, or like, you find the expert in your lane. And that's what's great about the internet. You find somebody that you believe has the same values as you. They treat their relationship the same as you. They communicate the same. They swear, they don't swear. They drink, they don't drink. They party, they don't party. Like, you get to pick the person who's doing the thing you want Yeah. Who's a chapter ahead, a year ahead, a decade ahead, and you get to let them forge the path, right? There's somebody bloody that has forged the path before you. You can figure it out on your own, or you can learn from the sweat and tears that they, they had. There's so many people thinking, I could never buy a business, and maybe that's not your jam. Maybe you just want to be a coach or, or start a pizza restaurant. I, I don't know. But know that the same philosophy of you buying the big businesses when you were working for, you know, in finance.

Yeah.

Compared to you buying the little ones, compared to somebody thinking they couldn't even buy a laundromat.

Yeah.

But they wanna start a coaching or whatever business. It's all the same philosophy. What I love about doing this podcast, again, I shared this with you earlier, my team's been asking me for 5 years to do it and I've just been putting it off 'cause if I did, I wanted to do it right. I wanted to have great guests, ask good questions. But I hope what people are getting from today is the common threads of all successful businesses.

Yeah.

Right? You're sharing some of the same stuff my last 10 guests have shared in completely different worlds, Completely different industries at all levels of success, but the common thread are some of these things we're talking about. And again, if you never thought you'd wanna buy a business, maybe you will after this podcast.

Wherever you are, I do think good, bad struggle, no struggle, struggle, whether you see it or not. I don't know about many things, but I do know that I haven't met a human yet who can't be an owner. And so whether that means you own something for somebody like you in your business, Or they own a whole business by themselves, get some skin. Because I promise people burn down less houses when they own a part of them. And if we all did that, we'd have a better neighborhood.

What I love about the entrepreneurial journey is I get to appreciate the invisible. If you're just starting your journey, I know what you're going to experience, and some of it's hell, and it's worth every bit of it. The sleepless nights and all, like, all that's part of this amazing journey. So when I see you at 36 Doing what you're doing. I know all the mistakes you had to make. I know all the times you questioned yourself. I know all the times other people questioned you. I know you probably had to look a loved one in the face and say, I understand what you're saying, but this is my life, not yours. I know all of those pieces. And when you could take— I was sharing, and it was Tony's words, decades in days— when you can take that 16 years and give somebody the collapsed version and go, no, no, don't go that way, please don't go that way, go this way. That's this industry. It's why I love it. It's why I'm doing this podcast.