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The biggest shifts in a business often come from decisions no one else sees.
Future Proof is a show for business owners facing the pressure to grow and the weight of legacy, often at the same time.
Hosted by Scott Eckart, each episode features honest conversations with leaders who’ve made bold moves, stepped into succession, or redefined success altogether. You’ll hear what they were up against, what they chose, and what they’d do differently now.
If you're thinking about what's next and want to build a business that lasts, this is the show for you.
Scott Eckart (00:01):
I am Scott Eckart, and this is Future Proof, a show for building something that lasts. Let's get into it. In this episode, we flip the script on networking. We will talk with the regional president of Accelerent, Marcus Manges, who discusses the most unique business development group in Indiana and what makes them tick.
Marcus Manges (00:21):
Seven years ago, when I was looking at Accelerent, I was thinking, I can't believe I'm getting this opportunity. I get to help business owners do the thing that they really love doing, which is helping other people and making the connections and stuff. I get to help make a lot of the introductions and be somebody that somebody can call. There's just nothing better than that.
Scott Eckart (00:41):
We're going to share why and how givers win and takers lose, the process they use to make it work. I don't know everything, but I do want people to know I can find the answer. So even if I don't get the business, what happens in that workshop is other connections are happening.
Marcus Manges (00:58):
I mean, especially if you're filling the room with a bunch of givers, a bunch of abundance-minded people, it's almost impossible for great connections to not...
Scott Eckart (01:05):
That's right. I know something good is going to happen. I just don't know what it is. Welcome to Future Proof on today's episode. I'm very, very pleased to have my good friend Marcus Manges.
Marcus Manges (01:19):
Excited to be here.
Scott Eckart (01:20):
So Marcus, we met, I think, has it been...
Marcus Manges (01:23):
Seven years.
Scott Eckart (01:24):
Seven years ago? Yes.
Marcus Manges (01:25):
Almost exactly. Yes.
Scott Eckart (01:26):
Okay, very good. Marcus is the Regional President of Accelerent Indianapolis, and I'm just going to have Marcus explain his role and a little bit about Accelerent of which I am a very proud member. So welcome, Marcus.
Marcus Manges (01:42):
Thanks.
Scott Eckart (01:42):
I'm very pleased to have you here today.
Marcus Manges (01:44):
Yeah, I'm the Regional President for Indianapolis, but also for Columbus. Accelerent is in six markets around the US and what we do is we just bring together business owners. What I say is we help busy executives maximize the time that they spend on business development by helping them get warm C-level introductions to their top prospects. And so my role is to bring in top leaders from around the city in all different categories of business who really exhibit an abundance, give-first mindset so that they can help make introductions to each other's top prospects.
Scott Eckart (02:21):
I consider you a true business partner of mine. So I've often told people that, they're like, why are you a member? Why do you do that? And I said, well, nobody thinks of me when they first get up in the morning. Nobody thinks of Scott, nobody thinks of my business. However, there is somebody who does, and his name is Marcus. And part of the joy for me is to be a part of what I call the most unselfish group of people that I know. Do you mind talking a little bit about the culture I think that you have helped establish in our organization?
Marcus Manges (02:50):
Yeah, I can. I joined almost exactly seven years ago to the day of this recording. What I heard a lot when I came in was "give to get", and that's a really giver's gain, that kind of mentality, and I like that, but it always struck me as odd. And so what I really landed on a couple of years later, just as I was really thinking about who do we want to bring in here is really just four main characteristics. Number one, are you a mission fit? Are you selling B2B and are you selling within the state? So it's not like a national go-to-market. I have a lot of conversations with business owners that would love to be in Accelerent, and I say, Hey, just come to some of our events. You don't need to pay. So we want people from the C-suite that are actually out building relationships and are actually trying to bring in new business.
(03:39):
And then growth has to be a priority. So if it's a lifestyle business for them, it's never going to be a fit. If you're not wanting to grow this thing or you're scared to grow, then you're not going to be a good culture fit because you're not going to show up. And our main product is people getting in the room together.
(03:55):
And the last and most important, the culture piece that you're talking about is I just described as a culture of abundance. People that have been building relationships up for 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 years, and they love making introductions from one person to the other just to see good people win. And when I describe that, someone always comes to someone's mind. I want the people who know everybody because what I've realized in seven years of doing this is nobody knows everybody. And so what we're able to do is just help those great individuals that already are bent towards abundance and helping other people come together and expand their spheres of influence in their circles by really just breaking it open. Who would've ever thought that the managing principle from the accounting firm and the leader for the state from enterprise mobility would be great partners? Nobody. They would never talk other than something like Accelerent. But they both, between the two of them probably know more CFOs than anyone in the state.
Scott Eckart (04:59):
And the crazy thing to me about the last point is it is so contagious and you see it happening. You hear it happening, and you want to be a part of it.
Marcus Manges (05:09):
Yeah, you want to be somebody that says, oh, I helped someone.
Scott Eckart (05:11):
That's right. That's right. So I have a question for you. So can we go back in time to maybe some of your other experiences, some of your other jobs you've had where maybe it didn't work so well or maybe some of the pitfalls of...
Marcus Manges (05:23):
Just the giving mentality?
Scott Eckart (05:26):
Yeah.
Marcus Manges (05:26):
There's really just been three stages to my career up to this point. The first, I was essentially a small business owner, independent contractor with Vector Marketing or Cutco Knives and did really well when I was in and then after college. But I'll tell you that my bent was towards taking the people that really wanted it and helping them to grow and be really successful within Accelerent, not Accelerent Cutco, but I was also very willing to help them to move outside of Cutco versus trying to keep them, which ultimately would've made me more money if I was launching them out and they were running their own offices or becoming a Cutco sales professional. But that just wasn't always the right fit for everybody. But it hurt me a little bit in terms of my growth within the company and then my overall income because I just wanted to help so much, almost to my detriment at times. There's times when I probably should have held people back so that I could be a better leader, and I didn't have to do as much in the weeds.
(06:30):
But 22-year-old Marcus is allowed to make mistakes, I guess. And then when I first got into B2B sales, I remember I was at Comcast Business and I was just running a territory, so it was the first time in a long time I didn't have anybody that was reporting to me or anything else, and I couldn't sell all the products. There was a great phone system product that they had that I couldn't sell, but everywhere that I would go in, I would think, man, they really need that. And so I would refer that business to the senior account executive that could sell it, which got me a little bit towards my quota, but not very much compared to the entire deal. And we went through probably three months of that where I was basically punting because I felt like it was better for the customer, better for the organization and everything else, but I was only sitting at 80% of quota even though I was helping close a lot more deals.
Scott Eckart (07:24):
And you got no credit for it.
Marcus Manges (07:26):
And yeah, no real credit for it. And so the senior looked at me and he's like, Hey, we can do this another way. And it was for me to kind of sell the products that I could sell and then have them upgrade. That way we both got our piece of it and that senior didn't get the whole thing. And that kind of opened my eyes to like, Hey, you can give and you can do these things. You can still do what's right by the customer, but you have to keep yourself in mind too, because I was making less than I should have been making. I wasn't really getting recognition in terms of anything because it was all just to quota. You can give and you can help people as much as you want to, but you do need to make sure at some level that you don't give so much that you can't take care of what your specific roles, responsibilities, jobs are like, I'm a husband, we're a one-income family. I've got to make money for my six children.
Scott Eckart (08:23):
Yes, your beautiful family.
Marcus Manges (08:24):
That was a lesson that I definitely had to learn. Does that make sense?
Scott Eckart (08:27):
It does. And in Accelerent, we've really flipped the script on the whole idea of, Hey Marcus, I need three referrals and we're not going to leave here until we get it. But the idea of setting one's needs aside for the needs of others. If you're in a room where you can trust the people across from you who are doing that, there is, I use the word intimacy because you go into that room thinking, if the person across me is doing that for me and I'm doing that for them, I don't necessarily need to worry about it. So I've always said, you can build a rapport quickly, but trust takes time. And we are putting ourselves out there with our reputation saying, if I recommend Marcus and I'm saying you should meet with them, then I'm putting my name on there too. Which brings me to my next point, which is what you have done for me in terms of how this has all worked. So in my world, it's not about volume, it's about quality and those introductions. And so my question I guess is why don't we use the word networking? Why is that kind of a dirty word for us?
Marcus Manges (09:35):
What's interesting is that I understand why people when they look at me or they look at Accelerent, what they always want to say is, oh, that's like a high-end networking group. They don't have any other way to describe it. There's not really anything that I've experienced. And tell me if you've ever experienced, I've never experienced anything like Accelerent even opening up a new market now in Columbus, Ohio. As they start to experience some of the things that we're doing, I'm hearing from the partners like, oh man, this is significantly more organized, more accountability, bigger and better than I even realized. And so I get why people call it networking. They have no other way to describe it. But I think that's also why I move away from that term because what we are is probably what networking should be, but if you think about networking, you think about showing up at some sort of chamber event or an association meeting or some sort of conference and hoping that the right people are in the room.
Scott Eckart (10:36):
Or that they'll remember you, and it's like speed dating and there's business cards flying everywhere, phones and this, that and the other.
Marcus Manges (10:43):
You get the business cards, you might set up the meeting, you go to do that meeting and the meeting doesn't really have a purpose.
Scott Eckart (10:49):
That's right. There's no context.
Marcus Manges (10:51):
And so what do you end up doing? You end up just having a very fluffy conversation that rarely leads anywhere unless one person is just super intentional about that meeting and what they want to accomplish. But rarely do people want to make that step. They don't want to seem pushy or weird or whatever. We have these structured environments. We've got accountability. We've got people that are signed up to go to these so that they're building relationships with the people that are the most likely to refer them because they all have partner A has clients and prospects that partner B also wants to get in front of, and so does partner C and so does partner D. We're putting people in the room intentionally who already have an abundance mindset and we're saying, Hey, who are your top three to five prospects right now? We are the ones facilitating and asking that question so that somebody doesn't have to say, yeah, here's some people I'd love to get in front of if anybody can help me. So they're saying, oh, I know that person. Oh, I wouldn't go after that one because they're going through this right now.
(11:57):
Yeah, we can help you get there. So that doesn't feel like networking. It's highly structured, it's facilitated. And then even the one-to-one meetings that people have later, they're done so that they can work on introductions to and for each other versus getting to know each other. They've already done that.
Scott Eckart (12:13):
And maybe one or two degrees of separation at most. So if I don't know Marcus Manges and I would really like to get to know him. There's somebody who does, and it's so different than a referral because then you're going to give me somebody's cell phone number. I'm going to call them while they're on the ninth hole. If they take my call, they're not going to be very happy.
Marcus Manges (12:35):
And listen, I did a lot of that selling knives, a lot of it. So I'm not against the referral. The referral's fine, but the strategic introduction from one executive to the other or one person who's a highly trusted resource to the other, that meeting's going to happen. And it could literally just be like, Hey, Scott, you should meet Jason. Half of my introductions now are just that because people have learned to trust to take the meeting. So it's like, Hey, you two should connect. And I might give them a little bit more context via text or something, but the two of you should connect. I think you guys could work on some things or be a resource for one another.
Scott Eckart (13:12):
And what I've learned is how to be a better listener. When we're in our environments and we do a lot of work in small groups, we say to each other, what do I need to be listening for? So if we're working with our group health benefit or one of our groups does high-end office furniture, but it's not about that. It's about how do you design space, which is very different than how do I sell your services? And it's a much more authentic way to actually connect and to give.
Marcus Manges (13:43):
Well, and I've never thought of it this way, but what that does too for you when you're in the room with a prospect or a client is you are listening in a different way and you're trying to really holistically help bring things to the table versus just solve the problem that specifically can solve or get paid for. We have a large company moving from, I think it's Westfield over to Noblesville, and they called their AV technology partner, just the account executive. They called her and said, Hey, you've made a lot of good referrals for us. Do you have anybody that can do trees on this property because we don't like the quote that we got. And of course, she reaches out to me and I'm like, yeah, here you go. Because at the time, we didn't have a partner that did that, and she was able then to make that. I mean, think about how valuable and sticky that relationship is that they go to her to ask her if she's got landscaping contacts.
Scott Eckart (14:40):
One of the things that I have learned that I can't solve every problem, but if I can make a connection and I can collapse time and I can sort through all of the noise out there and bring a new provider in a faster time, that's vetted, what is that goodwill worth? To me a ton. Part of my ROI is the goodwill factor because the holistic is the approach. And to be able to authentically say, it's not time for me. It will be six, eight months from now, how else can I help? How else can I help? And they look at me very, very differently and say, you mean you're willing to bring somebody else in here ahead of yourself?
Marcus Manges (15:25):
Somebody we both know really well. Marsha Barnes, Valve and Meter. There's been many times where she'll be meeting with a company and she'll say, Hey, you might be a good fit for us at some point in time, but I think that you should spend money first with Accelerent because that's going to give you a higher ROI more quickly than what I'm going to be able to do over here. And it just blows my mind that somebody that's paying to be an Accelerent so that they can grow their business.
Scott Eckart (15:53):
Make money.
Marcus Manges (15:54):
Gives away money because she feels like it's the best thing for that person, for everybody. I think about this too. If you are in that room and they don't have a need or a perceived need at that moment, now you get one of the other partners in front of 'em that will help with some real problem they have in that moment. Well, now they see you as being the person that did that and that partner that you referred in, they're going to say glowing things about you. I think your chances of really being able to launch with that top prospect that you have are much higher. And that's an incredible testament to the kind of culture that you were talking about that we've built.
Scott Eckart (16:33):
And it's also a way to lead by influence.
Marcus Manges (16:35):
The money will come, everything else will be there. That's right. You want to do what's right for people. Well, Scott, I am really excited about this opportunity because I get to kind of flip the script and interview you as well. When I came into Accelerent, we didn't know each other at all. And when you're going to be referring somebody in to help them future proof their business, to help them to effectively manage all of their different assets, whether that's the business, personal, everything else, that's a deeply personal introduction. And I've just seen the way that you take care of people over the last seven years. And I wanted to get a chance on your podcast to ask you some of these questions. So when did you decide that, hey, the closely held business owner, the entrepreneur, that's the person that's the market that I want to serve?
Scott Eckart (17:27):
So years ago, I realized that they have very unique challenges and opportunities. It's the road less traveled for sure. It's a very underserved market because they are, by and large, illiquid. Most of what they have is tied up in the business. And I noticed that a lot of, if you want to call 'em competitors, were passing them by. They were not easy to work with. My biggest challenge is getting their time, getting their attention, truly because they are so busy, the tyranny of the urgent, there's always some fire they need to go put out. And I read a book a while back, a Blue Ocean strategy, and it said basically, it's okay to compete, but it's better to be different. So I really took that to heart. I really thought about that and I realized that the business owner is worried about everybody else, but nobody's really worried about them. And what would that look like if I designed a practice to come alongside them in two very specific ways? One would be to care about them and their personal financial picture, but also their business. And so I didn't really know what I was doing, Marcus, but I knew that I could build a relationship with them and find ways to connect with them, not just on, Hey, can I manage your 401k? Hey, can I do this? But really building a relationship that was a bridge of understanding to what they were dealing with.
Marcus Manges (18:55):
Yeah. What I love about where you've landed with this future-proof concept is the way that it makes the business owners step out and really think about what does the end look like? Because often I find many of the people that I meet with and I work with, whether they're two years in to buying this company and taking it over or 20 years in, it doesn't really matter. They're in it and it blows my mind how often they're not really thinking about what does the end look like. I'd love it if you could share some stats on what percentage of businesses just end up closing their doors.
Scott Eckart (19:31):
Yeah, it's higher than you might think, and I'm happy to send anybody that wants it. It's called the Readiness and Ownership Readiness Study, and we just published a new one. I'm a member of the Exit Enterprise Institute, which sounds very fancy, but they do a study...
Marcus Manges (19:45):
Super fancy.
Scott Eckart (19:46):
And it's got the actual statistics and every business owner leaves by force or by choice. And sometimes when I come in, people don't want to talk about it, and that's when they decide, I'm not going to take that meeting with him because he makes me think about things I don't want to. But other people can't wait to talk about it because nobody else has asked them the question. And so by force or by choice, you're going to be done with this. And future-proof is really about why not have a plan. So you get to do what you want to do when you want to do it the way you want to do it.
Marcus Manges (20:22):
One of my favorite questions you ask in there is how much does it cost to be you? Like, oh yeah, you're going to sell this business someday or sell it to your kids, or whatever. A, what's your plan? B, once you do that, how much does it cost to be you? That's right. And I just watch those light bulbs go off in their heads.
Scott Eckart (20:38):
They're like, oh, man, I don't know. And sometimes they say, well, whatever it is, it's not enough. I'm like, okay, that's a kind of a nice little answer, but that's not helpful. And sometimes they think they're going to get what I call Google money when they're going to come in and give you a big old check and you're going to ride off into the sunset. And that almost never happens. And so if statistically, if it does fantastic, but let's have also maybe a backup plan in case that doesn't happen.
Marcus Manges (21:05):
It's always been a good time to have these kinds of conversations if you own a business. It's not just about me, Marcus.
Scott Eckart (21:11):
It's about being able to come in with other high quality folks because a business owner does need more than just me.
Marcus Manges (21:19):
Well, I've even heard you say, Hey, if you've got a personal financial advisor, great. Bring them.
Scott Eckart (21:24):
Absolutely. Because chances are that person has helped you on the personal side, that's incredibly important. We have to work together. And I've learned the hard way in Indianapolis, if you don't play well in a sandbox, you don't get to play. And so collaboration is the key.
Marcus Manges (21:39):
Yeah, I love that. One thing that I always appreciate in a coach is somebody who's been there, done that, and you've been running your own small business for...
Scott Eckart (21:48):
20 plus years.
Marcus Manges (21:49):
Yeah, a while. Can you just talk about some of the lessons that you've learned? I hear you say all the time, I learned more from my failures than our successes. Our last speaker hit on that at our last breakfast event. Can you talk through some of that and how that informs the way that you coach these business owners and leaders?
Scott Eckart (22:07):
Sure. One of my biggest failures was when I first started working with business owners, I only talked about exit planning, and I scared them because what I failed to realize was that they thought they had to leave. They thought they had to sell. And if all I talked about was exit planning, they said, Scott, that's great, and when I'm going to exit, I'll come see you. So I went off to the Exit Planning Institute and became an exit planning advisor. And then I started talking about succession. I got a little bit closer, and people were like, okay, that's nice too, Scott, but I'm not really ready to do that either. So that was a little bit better, but again, a bit of a false start. Then moving into continuity was where things really started to happen. The other big mistake that I made was early on, I didn't understand in Indianapolis that if you're not part of the business community, you don't exist.
(23:01):
And I use this word picture of tiny Tim looking through the window at the Christmas dinner, and I'm on the outside and I'm like, more porch, please. That was me starting up. I hung my little shingle and I thought, who wouldn't want to work with me? Well, apparently a lot of people didn't because they didn't know. They didn't know me. I didn't fit anywhere in any category until I joined Accelerent. That was my entree. That was the door that opened. And I had spent a lot of time and money sponsoring other organizations, networking things that were flashes in the pan. And I didn't understand the idea of business development. I didn't understand the idea of the long view of developing true collaborative partners who were in business to help me and I could help them. So it really wasn't until I discovered Accelerent 13 years ago, that was the door that opened that I could then go into that table. I wasn't looking from the outside, and then I became part of that. Now, it didn't happen overnight. People didn't just fall down and say, oh, he's here.
Marcus Manges (24:11):
Especially in your world, especially in your world. This is long sales cycle.
Scott Eckart (24:15):
That's right. And build rapport quickly. Earned trust is earned. But it was the difference. It was the sea change. It was really the paradigm shift, but you have to be willing to spend the time and...
Marcus Manges (24:27):
And the money. I mean, it's not a significant investment that you've made.
Scott Eckart (24:31):
And do the work. And so with that, then every year it just gets better and better. So the mistake I made was to underestimate our market here in Indianapolis. And I horribly underestimated the power of who. Yeah, I didn't grow up here. I'm a Missouri kid, grew up in St. Louis, University of Missouri, rah rah. And then my wife is from northwest Ohio, and we picked Indianapolis. I got a job finished grad school, came here. That's how I got involved in financial services originally, but I didn't mean we started from scratch. And so you start from scratch and you don't know a thing, you don't know anybody. And it just took longer than I thought.
Marcus Manges (25:16):
Yeah, it's interesting. I run into a lot of small business owners that I know would be really good fits for Accelerent, but they have trouble essentially ponying up and always, they're always like, oh, well, could we get it a little bit less money or this or that? I'm like, no, it's worth it. And if you don't want to do it, then that's okay, but your story's really helpful for me because you're a small business owner. You probably look at that check and you're like, man, that sucks.
Scott Eckart (25:41):
And I'm proud of it. Right. I'm proud to be a small business owner.
Marcus Manges (25:46):
Yeah, but one thing that I've seen Accelerent do really well for certain companies that are on the rise, that are good fits culturally and have a great product or service or whatever that they offer is, it kind of gives 'em a seat at the table.
Scott Eckart (26:01):
That's right.
Marcus Manges (26:02):
And even with all the technology and everything else, I think it's going to become even more about who and what relationships you have as everything else becomes commoditized.
Scott Eckart (26:11):
That's right. That's exactly right.
Marcus Manges (26:14):
You've really landed at this Future Proof concept. I've come to the workshop many times. I saw a couple of different iterations of it, and this workshop is fantastic. I've brought business owners to the workshop as well. One of the things that I just really appreciate about it is that you're not selling anything. You're basically just, Hey, come in here. Here's what we've got. You just seek to educate first. Can you talk a little bit about why that's been the strategy and how that's worked or how people can take advantage of it?
Scott Eckart (26:48):
I'm a terrible salesperson. First of all, I used to think that I needed to be very slick and very persuasive and very, I had to capture you so that you would have no choice but to agree with me. And that just isn't the way it works. Abraham Lincoln said, you can't convince a man against his will. And I also learned that where I intersect with someone on any given day that I meet them, who knows what's happened even that day. And there's a drama behind every face. And so I need to know what that story is. So for example, you brought a gentleman to a workshop. He could not get his business card into my hand fast enough. When can we meet? And the first thing that we talked about was the story. And what I have learned is that everyone has a story, and I need to know what that story is. They need a place to tell their story. No one is asking. And so first of all, what I want to create is a place for someone to tell the story. Because when I can get them to unpack that story, I learn almost 80% of what I need to know. And it's in that story time that I can determine whether or not I can best serve them. Then I can say to them, I don't think it's time, or, here's how I can best serve you.
Marcus Manges (28:13):
Well, and you've got lots of tools.
Scott Eckart (28:15):
Correct.
Marcus Manges (28:16):
But every situation is highly customized.
Scott Eckart (28:18):
And no one cares about the tools. They just need to know, can you help me? And that's the most exciting part about it. And so people think I'm going to sell him something, and when I don't, then their guard goes down and then they say, oh, he actually does want to know my story. And then people begin to share. And one gentleman said, my dad was a roofer. He owned the roofing company, and he fell. He didn't die, but he was paralyzed, and we had no plan for that. And then his son, the guy in the workshop had to go and leave college and run the business. He goes, that was not plan A. I never intended to do that, but I love my dad, and I was going to do that. And so he's sharing this.
Marcus Manges (29:03):
And it's like 90 minutes. This isn't very long.
Scott Eckart (29:06):
No right?
Marcus Manges (29:07):
Workshop.
Scott Eckart (29:08):
And so if I'm trying to sell a product, we never get there, and I don't even know what they need. How would I even know what to sell them?
Marcus Manges (29:14):
The other thing I noticed about the workshop is, and I appreciate this because a lot of these are Accelerent partners, and it's the one way that you give back. But I love that you put different experts in the room in different areas and try to highlight that. What's the purpose behind that?
Scott Eckart (29:29):
I want to, it's so much easier to show than tell, right? So I'll have try to have two to three of my trusted partners in the room, and I want to position them as a thought leader. So our banking partner, for example, great bank partner within Accelerent. So much of what people need is money.
(29:49):
I don't have the money, but I know where I can get it either through private equity, straight banking. And I'll say to them, to my bank partner, I'll introduce them and I'll say, we have a thought leader in this area. And I'll say, John, could you comment on what a great financial looks like in terms of valuation? So it's not me, it's the actual banker making a comment to the business owner about why that's important, so much more powerful. Our other, John, our lawyer, John is there, who does m and a, and I'll say, John, he's a thought leader, and I can talk about my relationship with him. Could you comment on, and it shows two things. One is, I'm a collaborator, but two, I don't know everything, but I do want people to know I can find the answer. And in fact, it might be in the room. So here's what happens. There's two meetings. One is the one I run, and then there's the second meeting, which is when people don't leave and they cross the room and they go to that other partner. And I watch what's happening, and I get a lot of satisfaction out of the fact that I may have made a connection for someone else.
(30:59):
So even if I don't get the business, what happens in that workshop is other connections are happening. So if you brought somebody.
Marcus Manges (31:06):
Yeah, I mean, especially if you're filling the room with a bunch of givers, a bunch of abundance minded people, it's almost impossible for great connections to not.
Scott Eckart (31:13):
That's right. And I never know what's going to happen, but I know something will happen. I know something good is going to happen, I just don't know what it is. That's why I do it.
Marcus Manges (31:21):
Yeah, I mean, you got to surround yourself with the right people and build that culture.
Scott Eckart (31:26):
Plus it's just a lot of fun.
Marcus Manges (31:28):
It is.
Scott Eckart (31:28):
So fun doing it. Yeah.
Marcus Manges (31:31):
Seven years ago when I was being offered and going through that, and I was looking at Accelerent, I think just very selfishly was like, oh, wow, I'm 31.
Scott Eckart (31:39):
And we were all like, oh, man, he's young.
Marcus Manges (31:41):
Oh boy. Oh yeah, everybody said that.
Scott Eckart (31:44):
Here we go.
Marcus Manges (31:44):
But I was thinking, I can't believe I'm getting this opportunity. I'm a very faith-driven guy. So I was like, God is really giving me this opportunity.
(31:53):
And I was looking at it like, man, look who I'm going to get to collaborate with all these different executives all over town. And I remember saying to Jessica just a couple weeks in, I was like, man, I need you to keep me grounded because it's going to be hard for me to be humble and not get a big head about this. But now, seven years later, it's so much more about just, Hey, I get to help business owners do the thing that they really love doing, which is helping other people and making the connections and stuff. And I get to help them do that in a way that's structured. I get to help make a lot of the introductions and be somebody that somebody can call. And I don't need any kind of recognition. It's literally just like, Hey, I've got all of these awesome friends and relationships, and I'm able to help people very quickly get to wherever they need to go. And there's just nothing better than that. And we've got a bunch of partners who feel the same way. And it's been really fun. It's so much like a, well, you're priming that pump. Nothing is coming out, and then all of a sudden it starts coming out of that pump, the water does, and it doesn't stop, and you don't have to work at it at all. Now you got to keep showing up.
Scott Eckart (33:10):
You got to show up.
Marcus Manges (33:11):
To show up and to send an email. That's not a lot of work. That's right. Every meeting I come to, I always challenge people with this too. If you want to learn to be a great giver, you want to see what that takes. All you have to do at the end of your meeting, any meeting, every meeting is just say, are there any other ways that I can help you right now? And then here's somebody that I thought might be a really good person for you to meet. Here's why would you be interested in having that conversation? They're not going to say, no, no, no, I'm not interested Marcus. And then I walk away from that meeting and within 12 hours send that email, and then I've done that. And you do that enough times and people will start talking about you behind your back and not in a bad way. That repetition adds up and people talking about you behind your back can be a really, really good thing.
Scott Eckart (34:02):
Incredibly powerful.
Marcus Manges (34:04):
Scott, I've seen over the years, I've watched your practice evolve and it feels like you've had several different kind of pivot points or pivot moments. Can you talk about the evolution and what those pivots were, how you changed and why?
Scott Eckart (34:19):
One of the biggest pivots that I have learned for the younger to the older, the older to the younger is what do you do with the next generation? One of the biggest gaps I see today is there isn't anybody out there training the next gen of leaders. I talk to senior execs, current owners. A lot of 'em are dads and moms, and they say, I love my son Marcus, but he's an idiot. Sending him off to Wharton is not an option. They're not going to teach him what I need him to know. It's almost too late. If I die tomorrow, I don't have anybody to take over. So we're really working feverishly to try to figure out, do we establish an academy within the Velocity network? And so we're working on that, trying to figure out what does that look like to try to train them up. So one of the things that has also become true is those call 'em the 40 year olds who have just recently acquired a business.
(35:18):
I'm working on one of those right now. The concept now is really not just about the exit and the succession. It's really about value acceleration. And that's been a huge pivot point for us in the practice is to understand where we are today. The tradition has been Marcus, that I value my company once every five years, once every three normally, because it's very, very expensive. Well, with technology, as you mentioned, valuation has become a lot better, a lot faster. We can actually compare you to your peer companies. We can do it very quickly, very efficiently.
Marcus Manges (35:52):
With great data, you can almost have a running valuation.
Scott Eckart (35:54):
In real time. So what we've been able to do is create a dashboard so that we can put your KPIs in, and to the extent that you want to check it and it's updated, it's now done in real time. So for these 40 somethings who are the next gen, and they say, I want to grow the company, I'm like, great, let's do it. What does that look like? And now we have the engine. Now we have the ability to say, here's what is working or what's not working. We can also have those collaborators. We can give them their access. So the CPA and the others who matter to look at it. So now we have collaborators looking at it. Are we hitting our goal? Are we meeting it, are we not? And why?
Marcus Manges (36:39):
Yeah, I love that. One of the things I've said for a long time is the things that are measured or things that are improved. So if you're only just doing valuation every five years, it's like, oh, well, what if you don't hit? You just look at it in five years. You're like, wow, I thought I was a lot better than I am.
Scott Eckart (36:58):
That's right.
Marcus Manges (36:59):
Because revenue itself can hide a lot of things.
Scott Eckart (37:02):
That's right. And if you can't prove it, did it really happen?
Marcus Manges (37:05):
Yeah.
Scott Eckart (37:06):
It's like if no one heard the tree fall in the forest, did it make a sound?
Marcus Manges (37:09):
So that's a part of the program.
Scott Eckart (37:12):
It's just important to note that things are moving so very quickly. And what people don't understand is if you want to, it's really not about selling it even. It's really for you because anybody coming in to buy your company is going to do their own valuation. So this isn't so that I can go and sell it. This is really for you to understand. Are the things you're doing, do they make a difference? Does it matter? And if I ever write a book about all this, it's going to be called The Lies We Tell Ourselves. Because sometimes people don't want to know.
Marcus Manges (37:46):
Trademarked, trademarked.
Scott Eckart (37:47):
By the way, is it actually working? And so then they wonder why we can't get financing or other things. So that's another investment I made.
Marcus Manges (37:56):
Do you find that that kind of thing makes it easier too for the bankers or whoever they are going to go for financing?
Scott Eckart (38:01):
Absolutely. And so we talk about things like, well, with risk management, every time we close a gap, the value goes up. And I talk with our friend Jeff Jenny, who's in cybersecurity, and I have talked with him about if we can close the gap on cybersecurity, which is something that we value in valuation, your value of your company goes up. And you've heard me tell this story a hundred times, where one of the very first companies that I worked with, the last time they had done a valuation was 2007, right before the last great recession. They had a partner walk out in the middle of the night in 2009. And because the numbers hadn't been updated, this partner, yes, effectuated...
Marcus Manges (38:47):
I have heard this book.
Scott Eckart (38:49):
A sale on an old valuation that was done previous to the recession, and they ended up in bankruptcy. So I have lots of cautionary tales about why it's important, and now we're doing them quarterly. We're not doing them annually anymore, not just for that reason, but these are the things that, because of technology, and I haven't made another investment in myself to get accredited to do that, because it's not an easy thing.
Marcus Manges (39:18):
Well, and to bring it back, we do have this wave of money, the silver tsunami that's coming in. There are going to be investors looking at every industry, every single industry.
Scott Eckart (39:25):
Absolutely.
Marcus Manges (39:26):
And it could be, right, if you're doing a valuation quarterly, it could be the case that somebody comes to you with an idea, and it might not be owning your whole company, but maybe it's 30% and you take some of the risk off the table and invest that somewhere else.
Scott Eckart (39:43):
And that's called recapitalization, Marcus. There's so many ways for people to bring new life into a company.
Marcus Manges (39:49):
But you can't take advantage of that if you're not ready.
Scott Eckart (39:51):
That's right. If you're not ready, people go from owner operator to owner investor. What if you can go to Florida for six months out of the year and the company doesn't miss a beat? Why would you want to sell?
Marcus Manges (40:03):
Yeah, right. Still have some cashflow.
Scott Eckart (40:06):
Good for you. Yeah. So there's so many ways, and we talk about maximum value versus maximum price. Maximum price can oftentimes result in taxes and other things, but maximum value, maybe not so much. So there's a lot of different ways to do it.
Marcus Manges (40:21):
That's cool.
Scott Eckart (40:22):
Well, Marcus, appreciate you. Appreciate your friendship, appreciate your creative mind and all that you have done for me personally and for my company. And thank you so much.
Marcus Manges (40:31):
Right back at you, man.
Scott Eckart (40:32):
Okay. Our conversation really speaks to what this show is all about, the moments that reshape your business, the action and the mindset it takes to keep moving forward. Here are the three things that stood out to me from my conversation with Marcus as we look at how to future-proof your business. It's not what, it's who you know. You have to collaborate well and givers win. At first, I thought I needed to tell people everything that I knew versus who I knew. So focus on getting to know people first, and then they'll find out what you know. The second thing is, you have to collaborate well in the sandbox. What I mean by that is get to know those allied professionals. My favorite phrase is, I don't know that answer, but I know who does. And the last thing is, givers win. If you can put your needs aside for the needs of others, especially as you play the long game in building relationships, you can never lose. You can connect with Accelerent on LinkedIn or their website. You can find those links in the description of this episode. The future is bright. I'll see you on the next episode.
(41:43):
Thank you for listening today. If you like what you've heard, please join us in the Velocity Network and sign up at www.velocoaches.com, which is a gathering of entrepreneurs, business owners, and people who desire to learn more about running and owning a business. Also, you can subscribe to Future Proof on Spotify, Apple, YouTube, or wherever you listen to podcasts.