Episode 412: Lessons from Winning the Ernst Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Welcome to this episode of the Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm Larry Weddell. And before we get started, if you want to know exactly how to win again and again, go to Wydell on winning.com webinar now to watch something I've put together for you. Now let's get going into this episode of Million Dollar Mastermind. I'm here talking with Gracie Murphy. And Gracie has an advanced care partner. She's been running it since 2010. Over 1300 employees, over 34,000 in revenue. We're giving the low figure, but entrepreneur of the year in 2020, the Inc. 5000 hall of Fame for six years in a row. And came to America in 2003 to work as a currency trader for Global Money Transfer and moved on up the ladder until she started her own company. So, Gracie, thanks so much for talking and talk about how do you get to be entrepreneur of the Year for.

The inc. Magazine actually is. EY is the Ernest Young Entrepreneur of.

The Year or Ernest Young. It might be better than inc. Anyway, the big accounting firm. So how do you. How did you get that?

Well, you need a nomination. Then you go through, I believe, six different types of interviews from leadership to development to finance. They go through everything, Anything. And I did not even know how big this award was until I got it. Because the EY is not just the most prestigious award that you can have as an entrepreneur. It's a global award as well. I was one of the winners for the Southeast. You have the national as well as the global level. And after that, you become part of the alumni group of entrepreneurs winners. And. And every year. I just came from Palm Springs in California where we spent about four days in conferences with the biggest speakers that you can imagine and the introductions to the other leaderships and other leaders and VCs and PE groups that you will never have access to if you were not one of the winners. So I was. I never took a lot of time to smell the roses and really to tap myself in the back for a job well done. This was probably one of the only times that I can say I'm very proud that I got that award because I know how much it means.

From that. It's got to be an educational process. You talk about personal development and all. It's got to be an educational process for you to see and hear the kinds of questions that are on their mind because it allows, like, oh, they're going to evaluate me this way. Maybe I need to pay more attention to this. You know, if it's not an area of strength. Talk about that.

Yeah, absolutely. As self awareness is always being built. Right. And you always identifying the gaps and you know, my goal was never to be better at the things that are not my strengths. My goal is to really be specific on my strengths are and get really good at them. But the judges are no kidding. They are like renowned entrepreneurs and business leaders that have done what you're trying to do and they have won this prize in the past. So they know exactly the struggles and challenges that you go through every day. What you're looking for is innovation, motivation, and how are you doing things differently and why are you a special leader or why are you, you know, a leading that people want, a leader that people want to follow. So it was, it was great. I create great relationships. My network has grown so much since that award. And in talking about lessons learned in life, even going through a sale of the company is being the first time you do that. That is one of the pivots that as an entrepreneur, get yourself ready because if you don't have an exit plan, it's, it's. You get to do it as early as you can so you can take the max of value for the business.

Yeah. And talk about that, having an exit plan. When did you learn that?

Well, I, I think we were about 20 million in revenue when I found myself crying in the bathroom because I really did not know what else I was going to do to solve my problems. And it was a really, really scary time where growing a company as a CEO is very lonely. People look at you as, oh, this is something, you know, prestigious. But there is a lot of room at the top. There is overcrowded in the bottom. So be on the top is not easy. And you have to surround yourself with people that have done that. But you know, if you get yourself, if you think you want to exit before you even have right now, you know, companies are receiving offers even not even when they're not on the market. So when you receive the one offer by a phone call, that's the time normally people start thinking about selling, but that is too late because you still have a lot of ways to prepare. Prior to that, I had no idea I never sold a business. Neither my husband had. So I, I took really like that as a very good challenge and I led the entire transaction. And I wish I had not done that. I wish I had had time to prepare.

But what would you have done in that time to prepare?

Oh, totally different. I would have hired a, a expert. I would have hired banker, a Accountant a a legal firm to really looking to inside out of my books and see how I could have maximized better EBITDA and performance. I would have corrected anything that was wrong at least six months before I put myself on the market to be sold. So there's many, many, many ways to prepare. But you know, the statistics shows that if you get that done before you go to market, the returns are up to 30% higher just because the experts can lead you to really maximize the value of your enterprise.

Yes. Supposedly there's an unlimited number of private equity firms out there ready and especially ready once you get to the $20 million level with your business and up, you become very attractive. You know, that's a nice, that's a nice snack for them. You know, they can gobble those up all day long. And how different is it for you now? When you sold what kind of role are you maintaining?

The CEO. I remained the CEO until June of this year, then I stepped down and I am on the board as well as helping to lead the the M and A strategy of the business because the majority of our growth are coming through acquisitions. So I team up with the M and A team as well as the private equity team to find new deals, talk to other founders and help them to go through the transaction and develop the strategic integration process after the deal is closed.

Do board members, now that you're on the board, do board members have many times where they're crying in the bathroom trying to figure out problems like CEOs?

Well, I still, you know, second largest majority shareholder. So it's still, you know, a really big part of not just my heart, but this is my baby. And I just love to help the leadership team to come up with solutions to different problems. So I, you know, help them to think through it. Remember, bite your tongue, don't tell them the answer, but helping them to develop that muscle that's needed to be a problem solving in the industry. And as you know, after Covid, we're employing nurses. So nurses are burned out. There is a huge shortage and the resignation is like, what do you call it? Rise of resignation or Resignation. Yeah, it's hard to even maintain employees happy. And how can you even do that when you don't touch them every day because they are not in your office. So it's a complex issue to be solved.

Do you recommend now that you've gone through it, do you think that was a smart thing for you to do or do you wish that you were still in charge? How different is it for you.

In.

Workload, in pressure, and in satisfaction. The thing is, it's one thing to be the race car driver, but probably the worst thing would be to be the passenger in a race car. If you were like, you take the top race car driver and stick him over the passenger seat and he's got to let the new guy drive, the race car driver probably going to go out of his mind. And so seeing all the things and the timing, it's like seeing your kids play sports. Soccer, basketball, football. You get all tense when they get the ball and is it more stress, less stress? How's it different? Hey, listen, there's a lot of information online, but there aren't a lot of people who have actually done something. In my case, I've actually built a successful business, has accrued over $5 billion in assets under management, and has done well even during trying times. Now, if you want to know exactly how I've done this, go to Whiteellumwinning.com webinar Now, I've compressed a decade of learning into five short weeks. Just for those of you who want to give yourself an incredible advantage and are tired of waiting and watching others move.

I love it, love it, love it, love it. I think I, I never thought I was going to feel the way I felt after I stepped down because, you know, I thought I was going to lose a sense of purpose because, and I told my mom the other day, it said the happiest day of your life and business is not when you cash the money, because as an entrepreneur is not really about, you know, the, the, the destination is, the journey is, is the relation is, is what you're accomplishing every day. It is not the money. I don't do that for. I didn't do it. And, and I don't do that for money. It is really when you step down as an operator and you can then have the clarity of this strategy and you have a better leadership way to contribute towards. So as a board member now, we're not crying in the bathroom, but we have a really good way to inform and empower the leadership team that's in place to do what is needed to be done to achieve the vision. And I am investing in other companies and co founding other companies as well, just to be out of the seat of being an operating, to be an operator role. Right? So much clarity of other things that I never saw around me because I was so focused, right? One, one mission, one goal. And that was to, you know, to achieve what we said we want to do, not just in revenue, but quality of care, employee retention, all the things that we said is important. But when you're no longer driving the car, you look around and you see beauty on everything that you didn't before. So now you can bring that beauty into the company because you're almost like an outsider.

Right?

It's beautiful. And sometimes entrepreneurs that sold their business or are afraid to sell or even to exit because they're not going to feel needed, forget about that. Forget about, you're not going to do anything. I called my girlfriends and said, why are you complaining about being a stay home mom? This thing is great. I can't even pick up my kids from school. I was working 120 hours per week. Why are you complaining? And it is beautiful. I am so blessed. That had gone through all the phases from start to sell, to sell to stayed and now helping to buy other companies and also investing in other startups. I cannot be in a better place in life than I.

And when you started, it wasn't that long ago that you started. You probably selling was the last thing in your mind. You just wanted to get your business going. Right. And until someone called and said you want to sell, that's probably the first time you thought at the time that call came in, were you ahead of schedule or behind schedule on what you had wanted to do when you got up to the 20 minute? So you were way ahead of schedule.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, we were. We were growing at 67% year over year.

Yeah. It's always fun to be ahead of the game, isn't it?

It is.

It's worth the price. I mean, you say work 100 hours, but you know, when the week is over, it's done. You know, you're exhausted, you know, you get a night's sleep and you're ready to go again. It doesn't matter how many hours you worked yesterday. But the thing is, what did you get done yesterday? And when you get the important things done, the feeling of satisfaction and the benefits of that's just mind blowing, you know. So don't hold back if it takes extra time, if it's very frustrating, if you're crying in the bathroom, so what, you know, pretty soon the tears will end and you will, you know, dry your eyes and get back at it. And you're probably going to learn something, you know, probably it was a lesson you needed to learn anyway. You know what I'm saying?

There's a muscle that you needed to be built. Needed to be built. So you can now build something bigger.

Yeah. That's exactly, exactly what it is. But you don't want to hear that while you're going through that.

Well, trust me, I have heard every single excuse that people were telling me. At the end of the day you get a lot what you're doing. If you don't, if you lose that passion and drive for the mission, the business is gone. Like and I always say for a business to be successful, someone has to be paying attention. 150% 247 doesn't need to be the owner or the founder in this case was me. But I had to sacrifice a lot for my family, for my kids. I missed so many milestones with my kids that I was not able to be there because I didn't surrounded myself with the strongest team in the beginning which looking back, if you ask what are one of the best mistakes I ever done was don't wait to hire until you need that position over hire so you can be prepared for the growth. Otherwise you're going to end up having to work and do the job.

Yeah, that's some great wisdom. You have one more thing you want to leave with the people who are listening here. From your experience, you think that can be a benefit to them. You've already given us a ton of them. But I'm going to give you a chance if there's one still left in there that you want to pass on.

Yeah, I think the acceptance that there is not a complete leader. There is not a leader that can fit in every single position or every single skills and really understand what you're really good at in your strengths and surround yourself with the people around. Surround yourself with people that complement to you. Don't try to do it all and be good at everything. Otherwise it's going to be a very frustrating life. And take the time to smell the roses. A lot of people work hard and is always measuring success by the future or what still needs to be achieved. Measure success by how greater, how better you are from yesterday and how much you have grown in the smaller side versus towards the end line. So tap yourself in the back. Take the time to be happy for what you have accomplished. Because being an entrepreneur is hardcore. You put a lot of stress and a lot of pressure in yourself so you know nobody's perfect. You're doing a great job and thank you for anybody that's leading a bigger and better company so we can have a better world.

Absolutely. Congratulations to you all for the leadership you are providing, the hope, the encouragement and the jobs you know that are being created and you know, the foundation, you know, the foundation of the future is being laid by the leaders who are out there accomplishing positive things and running these kind of companies, setting that example. And so thank you for being that kind of leader and doing that kind of job and providing that example. Great to meet you. Thanks for spending the time. Gracie, if you enjoyed what you've heard and are dead serious about finding out for yourself exactly how this works, if in the real world, I've taken the most valuable business lessons I've learned over 40 years and put them into something for you to watch, go to whiteellawinning.com webinar now in order to move up as fast as possible. I'm Larry Wydell, and I run the Million Dollar Mastermind. Go, go, go.