In this Business Blast podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Roland Frasier, co‑owner of Digital Marketer and investor. Frasier opens with a personal story contrasting older friends who retired and lost their drive with those who stay active (e.g., William Shatner, his father), emphasizing the importance of staying engaged in work you love. He then shares his top business insights: (1) documented standard operating procedures (SOPs) dramatically increase a company’s saleability and allow owners to step away without disrupting revenue; (2) converting one‑time sales into recurring subscription models can boost a business’s valuation by 5‑8×. Frasier’s overarching advice is to constantly ask how you can help others, which he says accelerates business growth. He reflects on his younger self, advising softer negotiation that leaves the other party happy to preserve long‑term relationships. His definition of happiness is treating others as you’d like to be treated and doing work you love, to the point he would work for free. He recommends the book The Goal by Eliyahu Goldratt (misnamed as Ilya Goldrake) for its focus on throughput and the Theory of Constraints as a framework for scaling. His favorite personal quote is the classic “whether you believe you can or you can’t, you’re right.” Finally, he directs listeners to his public Facebook page for contact.
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Welcome to the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Roland Fraser with us. He's the co-owner of Digital Marketer and Investor, and he specializes in growing, scaling, and selling companies. So welcome to the show, Roland.
Thank you, sir, I appreciate it.
Of course, thanks for joining us, man. Uh, we'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Roland, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
You know, it's really interesting. I just had a friend of mine, been a friend for about 25 years, who was an older gentleman. He died last week. He was 88 and a half years old. And it's kind of interesting because he was a great guy and he kind of— he retired from the thing, doing the thing that he loved in his life, which was he was a surgeon, about maybe, gosh, 15, 16 years earlier. He retired when he was 71. And it was kind of interesting because he got into, he was doing family stuff and reading and things like that, but kind of lost his fire in life. And I've got 2 other folks who are in the similar age group, actually 3. One is kind of similar to him, sold his company for a ton of money, retired, played golf, and is now kind of bored to tears. And those guys sit on one side. And on the other side, I've got a friend of mine, William Shatner, who's an actor who is in his 80s and like is doing everything. Like he's starting new projects. He's still working. He's passionate. He's got all these cool things that he's doing in his life and is staying very, very active and engaged. And my father, who still works practicing tax law, who's also in his 80s. So, these 4 guys who are all older and I see that there's a thing that happens when you stop doing the thing that was driving you and when you start to "retire from life." And it's interesting because within a couple of years, the people who stop doing that thing that they're so passionate about that lose the passion project seem to kind of become a shell of their former selves, whereas the people who stay engaged and keep doing the things that they're passionate about stay very alive and are very, very much on top of things. So, that lesson to me is always stay engaged doing something that you're passionate about.
Yeah, that's huge. Thanks for sharing that with us.
Absolutely.
The next one I have for you is, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I think probably the most valuable thing, because a lot of what I do is build businesses so that they can sell. And so I'm really concerned about increasing the value of them. And there are two things that are equally important in that right now. One thing is that people who are buying companies want to buy companies and will pay more for companies that have systems and standard operating procedures in place. So if you don't have some documented version of everything valuable that's done in your business, uh, in a very specific documented version, it is going to be critical to ever enabling you to not be working at a job and to also have the possibility of exiting your business, uh, on a shorter term. It will allow you to actually take a vacation and go away for 6 months and come back and have your business making the same or more as it was when you, when you left. The second part of that would be if you want to increase the value of your business instantly by about 5 to 8 times, start thinking about moving your one-time revenue into recurring revenue that comes in every single month. So anything that you could think to put on a subscription, and I've seen them do it with everything from handbags to lawn mower services to cars. So there's no reason that you can't do that in whatever business you have. That kind of income that's recurring on a monthly basis is valued at about 5 to 8 times higher than income that you generate on a one-time basis.
And what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific.
My best overall advice would be, that's not industry specific, would be to always, always, always ask what you can do to help the people that you run into in your business life. Be sure that you don't find yourself just doing whatever it is that you do stuck behind your computer or out and about and not taking the time to reach out to everyone that you interact with and ask them what you can do to help them. That will make you— that will propel you ahead further in your business faster than anything else I've ever encountered.
Yes. And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
It would be don't negotiate so hard. Be sure that you're creating a situation that the other person on the other side is going to be happy with the deal. Because in my time, I've— I'm a decent negotiator, and I've been able to negotiate things where the other side probably shouldn't have given as much as they did. And what I do now is if they— if they're not happy with the deal and I don't feel like the deal is a fair deal on my side, I will adjust it in their favor even though I could have gotten a better deal. I just find that it it helps to make everybody happier and it's so much better for the most valuable long-term thing you have, which is your network and your relationships.
And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
That to me is really easy, is to treat everybody else like you would wanna be treated and you will be happy. And in business, it's do what you love and you don't ever work. You know, you really don't. I would do what I do right now for free and work another job to be able to do what I do for free.
Yeah. And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Oh gosh, there's so many and so many great things. Um, but probably the one of the most valuable would be The Goal, um, which is all about, uh, throughput and the theory of constraints. And how to apply that to grow and scale any business. It's such a great book. The printed version can be a little daunting, but the audiobook of that is fantastic. It's like listening to a play.
And it's called The Goal?
The Goal by, I think it's Ilya Goldrake, I think is the author of that.
All right, that's gonna be my next one. Thanks for sharing that, man.
You're very welcome.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
You know, it's— I really, I have a like a cliché quote that I just don't ever tell anybody, but I believe that it is absolutely true, which is whether you believe— if you believe you can or you believe you can't, you're right. I just think that it's so true. If there's— if you think you can do something, you absolutely will find a way to do it. And if you think you can't, then you'll definitely find a way to not do it.
Yeah, dude, thank you so much for coming on. A ton of value in this episode. The last question I have for you before we let you go is, where is the best place for people to find and/or connect with you online?
Uh, I'm, I'm on all the usual suspects. The probably the easiest would be on Facebook, uh, and I'm at my public page is the best place to reach me there. It's Roland, R-O-L-A-N-D Frazier, F-R-A-S-I-E-R, Page, P-A-G-E.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for joining us. Really appreciate it.
Yeah, man, thank you.
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