{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Market Makers","title":"Diner Deals, Smart Mergers, and Building Ivystone with Doug Cofiell","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2129,"description":"What if your biggest advantage wasn't knowing what you wanted to do, but knowing what you definitely didn't want to do?\n\nDoug Cofiell had that moment sitting in a college marketing class. He looked around at all the corporate politics in the case studies and thought: this is not me. That clarity led him to take over his dad's rep agency, Ivy Stone, and turn it into one of the most respected firms in the gift and home industry through 18 acquisitions over two decades.\nDoug talks about starting out with no GPS and no cell phone, building presence in Ohio from scratch with just a map, and how hiring someone better at selling than he was became his template for growth. The turning point came through diner meetings with Ted Goldberg from Drummers Inc.—what started as a potential acquisition became a merger of equals when they realized their businesses were perfectly complementary.\nDoug explains why most mergers in this industry fail and why his didn't, and how the infrastructure they built specifically for acquisitions became their competitive advantage. He wraps with his philosophy on technology: partner with the best, integrate everything, but never forget that the best orders still happen in person.\nFollow The Market Makers wherever you get your podcasts for more stories of transformation from the people shaping how we live, work, and gather","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/oGXCeUoGBgZSSu7hTIaN87LoVZ7N2avIGAJhQMVS8F0/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9iODM0/ZGE0NmUxZmJjMDBl/MTFjZTZmMTI5ZTYx/YWJhMC5qcGc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}