Business Acquisition From A Billion Dollar Advisor

So, Dana, we are. We're here at your event. You and Kyle Mallion.

That's right.

Why are we doing an event like this? What's the whole point? Why would someone show up here?

That's a great question. You know, I. So I think it's interesting and you'll hear me talk this week about really my transition. I've added my case study into this. I left corporate world. I left a very high paying corporate job to get away from what most people here are trying to either get away from or move towards. Right. And that's financial freedom. That's the ability to do what you want to do when you want to do it with who you want to do it with. Look, you know, the way I look at this stuff is everybody's looking for results. People gravitate towards Kyle because he produces results. On my side, the personal financial planning, the difference of where I'm at now versus the world I came from, we give actual, tangible, above average results. And that's what people are looking for. And you couple that with the safety.

Right.

People may not act safe themselves, but they want safety, they want protection. They want someone to make sure someone's there to put guardrails around them so when they go off track, they can get pulled right back on the track and they're on the right path.

Yeah.

If I had to really break down what we're doing here, that's what it is.

When we see it, we're in the first half of day one.

Yeah.

And we could have spent three days on just people who had success, who are in the room.

Yeah.

I mean, that's got to feel good to be, to have them be able to stand up and tell their story.

It's amazing. Hundreds of million dollars of deals bought. Hundreds of million dollars of income created for families. I mean, it's. Lives changed. It's different. That's why Kyle and I are doing this. We don't need to be here. We want to be here.

And those people who shared their story, and some of these are from a couple years, some of these are from just a couple months.

Yeah.

Into, into, into a system. They all, they, they're changed by the money forever. Right. Their, their families changed that. What they can do with the money's changed. But they also, they seem to be real people. They don't seem to be egotistical. They don't seem to be really strutting their stuff. I mean, they're really, for the most part. And you've probably seen this too.

Absolutely. Yeah. You know I think it's, it's. Kyle says it often. He said it this morning. Your vibe attracts your tribe. Kyle and I resonated because we both grew up in small towns, came from certainly blue collar families at best, and it grinded our way to success. And I think those are the same people that you see in these types of rooms. And there is no one pumping their chest or, you know, probably up their numbers or anything like that that we've all experienced at other events. You know, these are real people here to get real results and build real relationships. And that's another part of this community too, is it is a community. I mean, the bonding these people leave is. That's been impressive to me to see that coming into it.

And where'd you meet Cal? How did that come to be?

It's an interesting story. So I came in as a student. I came into his, I believe it was the second event he had ever done. I was searching for someone like that because when I left Morgan Stanley, back when I was the young guy at Morgan Stanley running around, I had to be different. Everybody had their gray haired stock and bond guy. So I embraced alternative investments. And one of the investments that I really resonated with me and with my clients because of the results was a private equity fund. And their genius was they'd come into a wealth manager and say, hey, who are your two or three top business owners that don't have a succession plan? They'd pluck them out of wealth management. So buy the baby boomer business, buy it off market, roll them up, sell it. Pretty similar story to what we're talking about today. So the reason to circle back to why I even became a student was one, I wanted to hear the thesis. Two, I was looking for who am I going to partner with? Because I wanted to recreate that investment fund and that fast forward three years now, that's what Kyle and I have done together with the Circle Oak private Equity fund.

And it's really a piece that does come full circle because in the beginning it's other people's money.

Yeah.

And then in a way it's still other people's money. And then it just, it becomes easier when you get the momentum going, doesn't it?

Absolutely.

Yeah.

The cycle is officially completed at that point. You know, that's what I love about.

You guys are offering a win win unlike almost anyone else out there. Yeah. There's people teaching similar processes, similar steps, but very few who are doing this because they're looking to expand their portfolio.

And actually potentially Partner, I think that's extremely unique. You know, when we say it's. It completes the circle.

Right.

So what I've noticed is, and kind of I talk about this a lot, a lot of people come in and they need to buy that first deal. They've got it out of necessity, they have to do it. You've heard multiple success stories in there where they spent their last dollar, put the money on a credit card to be here, and now their life has changed. Ninety days later, a year later, there's other people that come in that understand the value of the thesis, but they're already a little bit further in their advancement.

Right.

Personally, financially, those are the people that I end up working closer with because they have resources, they leverage things that we're doing to get above average results for their personal financial situation. And they don't have the pressures of another acquisition or managing employees or anything like that. So the cohesiveness of who's in the room and they play off of each other so well. And then our investment fund kind of sits right in the middle of that because you can invest and get high double digit returns passively. You can partner with the fund and get all the support from Kyle and our entire team of what he calls the deal Team six. But we're partnering with you, right? So you can be on either side or both. We have people that are on both sides of that. It's pretty interesting, pretty unique. I've never seen anyone else do it that way.

And that deal team, I mean, that's like you bringing in the top levels of marketing of what you bring into the financial, the tax strategy, bringing in the experts in the areas that you may not have all the experience with. Because really, in a sense this starts to sound like you got, you're either making new money about to make new money, or you've made new money and you're transitioning to a kind of an old money style.

Exactly. Yeah. You know, I think that's really what sets the group apart. And that's why you're seeing such, such extreme results from people. And it goes back to when we just started chatting. I think people are really looking for that protection and the safety.

Right.

Because it's always a future view. How do I get to the ideal future? But who's going to protect me and make sure I stay on the path? Well, you have all the same people that we have. No one else is doing that. No one else gives you five expert calls a week every week to hit every point to not just acquire the Business, but grow it, protect it, protect yourself, and then move on to your personal finances now that you're making money.

Right.

How do you double, triple that? Leave a legacy, both sides of it.

You know, and we actually heard that today, where the original goal was blown away in like the first acquisition. And then it's like. Well, not just one.

It's like.

What do you say? It's like a potato chip.

Yeah.

You can't have just one. Yeah. So, yeah, now it's almost to a year now.

Yeah.

And the goal has gone. I mean, is it fair to say a hundred X? I mean, that's. It blows people's minds. They're not thinking big enough until they get into this game, aren't they?

Yeah.

And that's the biggest thing. Kyle said it this morning. You'll hear it multiple times. And what throws people off are one, if they don't follow the. The buy box, the rules, the boundaries they've set up. Look, the way I look at it, Kyle and I are the. It's kind of funny to say it, but it's true.

Right.

We're the. We're the old weathered guy that got beat up for 20 plus years but are still trying to innovate. Those are the people I want to bet on when I'm doing something right. Still has the energy to do that, but has made all the mistakes and that's what we're passing through. So. Yeah, I mean, I think it's a challenge. And that's the biggest hurdle for students to get over is to think big enough and trust the process. But then once they do that. That's why you see these people standing up. Oh, yeah. Once I got the first one done, now I'm on deal five. Deal six.

Right.

It's rinse and repeat, and it just keeps growing.

Talk to me a little bit. The grind. You mentioned. You mentioned you were in the grind.

Yeah.

What was that like? And what was it that moved you out of the grind?

So my. My backstory, I mean, I started. We. We didn't grow up with a lot. We were fine. My parents worked hard. My dad's an excavation contractor. My mom was a kindergarten teacher. Pretty blue collar family, small town south of Buffalo, New York. I didn't know anybody that had money. I came out of college and I was either going to law school because I thought the perception of an attorney and they make a lot of money and it's job security and all this. But then I started interviewing attorneys to say. And really what I found was they work a Lot. You break it down by the hours they work. It's not that appealing, and I'm footing the bill for that. Mom and dad are not helping on law school, so my other option was try finance. It was free. I could. I could work hard at that. I knew I could do that. It came from my parents growing up. I mean, I had a shovel in my hand working with my dad since I was 14. So I started knocking on doors and that. Knocking on doors to meet people, to uncover their needs, to grow. A book of business in wealth management grew from 0 to 1.4 billion when I left that. Everybody sees that. And I still to this day have colleagues say, you lost your mind. What were you doing? It's a very profitable business, and that's a large amount of money to manage when you're taking a fee every year regardless of the results of your clients. End of the day wasn't fulfilling to me. I wasn't delivering results. I couldn't protect my clients. That model is built for the institution, not the individual investor. And then two little kids show up in my world. I'm looking at them thinking, what are they going to think about dad? You know, how am I really making an impact? And I knew there was a better way to build wealth. So I left corporate 9 to 5 wealth management, started my own financial advisory firm. But I also acquired businesses along the way. So I gained that financial freedom that everyone in that room is looking for right now. I did it personally.

Right.

I implemented the same strategies that we're teaching. You know, so we're not just educators. We're practitioners on both sides of the coin. So.

And really in that world are. We have to manage expectations of our clients because some of the parameters, and it's usually based on risk or somebody broke the law or all the rules, had something that happened first to make a rule. But talk to me a little about the risk of getting into acquisitions and how maybe this. These three days. And even you mentioned the buy box.

Yeah.

It really reduces that risk where that's not really the main concern. People think, I'm gonna buy this business, gonna go under, it's gonna go to zero. How am I get the money? There's all kinds of reasons to not. Not do something.

Of course. Great point. You know, I think it. That's a great point. I mean, if we can't. I come from the world of wealth management and compliance and risk disclosure. Right. And everything you hear is future performance is no guarantee of results or past performance or whatever. Right.

Could you make a Phone call without saying that.

Yeah.

I think you have to say in the phone call before we talk, yeah.

I have nightmares about that stuff. But it's there for a reason. To protect clients and make sure they know of the risks. So I can't. I can't, Kyle. Can't. Doesn't matter what side of the fence you're on. In this ecosystem we've built, I can't guarantee your results, but I can guarantee the pathway and the procedures and the boundaries and the system to get you to those results.

Right.

Then all we got to do is keep you. Keep you in bounds. And it works. So that's why once people cross over, get their first one under their belt, then it clicks. I get it. It's easy. I just follow the system.

Right.

It's almost like paint by numbers to oversimplify. But it really is dialed in that much because he and I have taken the beating to get there and do it ourselves.

We talked about that this morning. Of. We used to. You guys used to do the event where this might anyone want to try this? This is just what I'm doing now. It's like what Kyle say, drop and give me 100 and stick to the buy box.

You build your confidence as you go. You know, I mean, with the results. With. With the results. If we didn't have. I don't know how many students he has now, he probably said it already. It just glosses over because we talk about it all the time, but I mean, it's. Well over a hundred plus families drastically have changed their lives as a result of this. And the cash flow, the freedom, all the things that we talked about when you and I sat down here just a few minutes ago. You know, that fuels the fire. It's proof of concept. It didn't just work for us. We're not just an anomaly.

Right.

This actually works. And here's all of the results. Right. It's hard to argue with proof.

I'm gonna end by putting you on the spot for a moment.

Yeah.

Is there anything you want to say to Kyle? And if there is, he's that camera.

Yeah.

Anything you want to say to Kyle?

Lots. He and I have some pretty deep talks all the time. But I mean, you know, it's gone from a Kyle. You've gone from a guy that I saw on social media to my best friend that I have. And it's an honor and a privilege to be. To be in this and building this with you. Can't imagine myself anywhere else at this point.

We're not going for cheers. We're going for tears. The emotion that I felt in the room this morning as people were doing exactly what you just did. Thanking Kyle, thanking the process, change their lives. There's a level of emotion here that is different than most events. Most events are bounce off the wall, play loud music. Everyone stand up, wave your hand, sit down.

Yep.

This is a totally different feeling. And people need to be ready for that if they're going to come to this event.

Yeah, I mean, it's. You come here if you're serious, to make a change in your life and to get ahead and get above average results. If we want to just. Just average results, you can take the information and he said it. Some people have, you know, I'll teach all of my thesis on Friday. You're gonna have my whole playbook as well. So you've got the business playbook, the personal playbook, to excel in your financial situation personally, take an implement. But you're gonna get average results, which really doesn't make anybody happy.

Right.

You want exceptional results, and that's what people are getting here. That's why we take it so serious, and that's why the people in the room do as well.