1 00:00:00,540 --> 00:00:03,510 - Today we talk to Danny Namerow. 2 00:00:03,510 --> 00:00:04,890 Many of the people we've met 3 00:00:04,890 --> 00:00:07,140 with on this show have sold their businesses 4 00:00:07,140 --> 00:00:08,760 to private equity funds. 5 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:10,980 Many of them have gone incredibly well. 6 00:00:10,980 --> 00:00:14,430 Danny actually regrets his decision, 7 00:00:14,430 --> 00:00:17,160 and even though he got an amazing valuation 8 00:00:17,160 --> 00:00:20,340 for the company at 12 times earnings, 9 00:00:20,340 --> 00:00:22,530 he lost something along the way. 10 00:00:22,530 --> 00:00:26,340 He lost the legacy of the business he built. 11 00:00:26,340 --> 00:00:29,280 He had over 6,000 customers at the peak of his company, 12 00:00:29,280 --> 00:00:33,120 and 90% of them went away after he sold the business. 13 00:00:33,120 --> 00:00:35,370 And so if he had to do it over again, 14 00:00:35,370 --> 00:00:36,810 he actually wouldn't sell 15 00:00:36,810 --> 00:00:38,760 or he would've sold to someone different. 16 00:00:38,760 --> 00:00:39,960 And so I think the lessons 17 00:00:39,960 --> 00:00:41,970 that we learn from Danny in this episode 18 00:00:41,970 --> 00:00:43,923 are really important ones. 19 00:00:46,020 --> 00:00:47,550 Welcome back to The Turn. 20 00:00:47,550 --> 00:00:49,770 I'm Kory Mitchell of Iconic Founders. 21 00:00:49,770 --> 00:00:51,690 The Turn is where blue collar founders 22 00:00:51,690 --> 00:00:54,000 talk about the businesses they've built, 23 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:55,740 the value they've created, 24 00:00:55,740 --> 00:00:58,113 and what comes next after they sell. 25 00:00:59,310 --> 00:01:00,960 Welcome to The Turn, Danny Namerow. 26 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:03,000 Super excited to hear your story. 27 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:05,830 I love the fact that you've kind of moved your life 28 00:01:07,163 --> 00:01:09,180 to a warm tropical climate post exit. 29 00:01:09,180 --> 00:01:11,190 So gonna want to hear all about it. 30 00:01:11,190 --> 00:01:15,450 Maybe as we get going, maybe just tell us, 31 00:01:15,450 --> 00:01:17,790 tell us a little bit about you and your background. 32 00:01:17,790 --> 00:01:20,700 - The easiest way to say it is that I'm guilty 33 00:01:20,700 --> 00:01:24,210 of dropping out of two really good universities 34 00:01:24,210 --> 00:01:27,840 and becoming an electrician, which my father was, 35 00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:31,140 was essentially punishment. 36 00:01:31,140 --> 00:01:34,593 I joke about it now, it's been almost a 30 year punishment. 37 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:37,680 That was my last chance 38 00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:39,483 to continue to live in the house. 39 00:01:40,721 --> 00:01:44,220 And it turned out that, you know, 40 00:01:44,220 --> 00:01:48,930 working with my hands, being able to see things grow 41 00:01:48,930 --> 00:01:52,470 and be constructed on a daily basis, for lack 42 00:01:52,470 --> 00:01:55,170 of a better term, was exactly what I needed. 43 00:01:55,170 --> 00:01:57,993 Sitting at a desk is not necessarily my cup of tea. 44 00:01:59,481 --> 00:02:00,600 - So your dad was an electrician. 45 00:02:00,600 --> 00:02:01,920 Did he own a business? 46 00:02:01,920 --> 00:02:04,350 - He owned a company that was named after my brother 47 00:02:04,350 --> 00:02:06,690 and I, Geordan Electric. 48 00:02:06,690 --> 00:02:10,740 So I named my electrical company after my sister 49 00:02:10,740 --> 00:02:13,320 because she said, how come all of the men in the family 50 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:15,300 get to have-- - I love that. 51 00:02:15,300 --> 00:02:17,070 - You know, the names of the companies be named 52 00:02:17,070 --> 00:02:20,700 after themselves and the sons 53 00:02:20,700 --> 00:02:22,550 and the brothers, so on and so forth. 54 00:02:23,965 --> 00:02:26,460 So Ferran is my sister's first name. 55 00:02:26,460 --> 00:02:27,510 - I love that. 56 00:02:27,510 --> 00:02:30,900 What was your dad like that made him go into business 57 00:02:30,900 --> 00:02:34,170 and how did that inspire you to start your own thing? 58 00:02:34,170 --> 00:02:39,170 - So my father is very traditional and still is to this day. 59 00:02:39,180 --> 00:02:41,610 The first thing I learned from my father was not 60 00:02:41,610 --> 00:02:43,923 to put all of your eggs in one basket. 61 00:02:45,090 --> 00:02:50,090 So in that regard, we worked on three homes 62 00:02:50,340 --> 00:02:54,570 for one family for approximately nine years. 63 00:02:54,570 --> 00:02:57,693 The smallest home was around 16,000 square feet. 64 00:02:59,069 --> 00:03:02,880 And initially when this relationship started 65 00:03:02,880 --> 00:03:03,900 between this gentleman 66 00:03:03,900 --> 00:03:07,563 and my father, everything was very warm, very familial, 67 00:03:08,610 --> 00:03:12,000 but the more the money accrued for this man 68 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:16,800 and his family, the more distant he became. 69 00:03:16,800 --> 00:03:20,310 And eventually my father wasn't dealing with this person. 70 00:03:20,310 --> 00:03:22,500 He was dealing with the accountant, he was dealing 71 00:03:22,500 --> 00:03:25,260 with the secretary of the accountant, so on and so forth. 72 00:03:25,260 --> 00:03:27,840 And it became very impersonal. 73 00:03:27,840 --> 00:03:30,960 I watched my father between decisions that he made 74 00:03:30,960 --> 00:03:34,830 as well as an injury that he got in a car accident, 75 00:03:34,830 --> 00:03:38,220 kind of watch that business dwindle down to nothing. 76 00:03:38,220 --> 00:03:40,830 - Talk about customer concentration risk. 77 00:03:40,830 --> 00:03:41,670 - Major. 78 00:03:41,670 --> 00:03:44,790 I mean, it was unbelievable. 79 00:03:44,790 --> 00:03:48,030 And by the way, the things that I learned 80 00:03:48,030 --> 00:03:51,000 on these jobs were priceless. 81 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:52,110 But there was 82 00:03:52,110 --> 00:03:56,850 that hard lesson wherein you must diversify. 83 00:03:56,850 --> 00:03:59,520 I taught for six years. 84 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:01,830 I taught electrical theory, contracting, 85 00:04:01,830 --> 00:04:04,620 the National Electrical Code, so on and so forth. 86 00:04:04,620 --> 00:04:09,420 And it was during a period wherein I took off 87 00:04:09,420 --> 00:04:13,650 because my second daughter was being born, 88 00:04:13,650 --> 00:04:16,960 that I had planned on spending a lot of time 89 00:04:18,126 --> 00:04:20,520 with my new daughter as well as my wife, 90 00:04:20,520 --> 00:04:22,670 and trying to be as supportive as possible. 91 00:04:23,850 --> 00:04:27,340 I then had another in rush of requests for work 92 00:04:28,288 --> 00:04:30,690 and that's where Farryn Electric was born. 93 00:04:30,690 --> 00:04:34,680 - Tell us about those early years of being in business. 94 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:37,380 Like what worked, what didn't work, 95 00:04:37,380 --> 00:04:39,120 and how did you take some of those lessons 96 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:40,500 to make a successful business 97 00:04:40,500 --> 00:04:42,930 that was eventually become sellable? 98 00:04:42,930 --> 00:04:45,060 - When I started Farryn Electric, 99 00:04:45,060 --> 00:04:49,830 I really thought the epitome of success was working 100 00:04:49,830 --> 00:04:54,450 for builders, was working on large luxury homes. 101 00:04:54,450 --> 00:04:58,170 And so I would say for the first three of the eight years 102 00:04:58,170 --> 00:05:01,590 that I owned Farryn Electric, we were working 103 00:05:01,590 --> 00:05:05,250 for luxury home builders in the main line of Pennsylvania. 104 00:05:05,250 --> 00:05:07,530 And we were losing money. 105 00:05:07,530 --> 00:05:11,130 We were in the red every stinking year. 106 00:05:11,130 --> 00:05:15,090 So I didn't learn the lesson that I should have 107 00:05:15,090 --> 00:05:17,310 at that particular point. 108 00:05:17,310 --> 00:05:20,610 It was when I brought in certain people 109 00:05:20,610 --> 00:05:22,860 and they say, surround yourself with people 110 00:05:22,860 --> 00:05:26,620 that are smarter than you, especially in certain areas 111 00:05:27,510 --> 00:05:29,010 of business. 112 00:05:29,010 --> 00:05:30,630 And this particular gentleman, 113 00:05:30,630 --> 00:05:32,970 I'll gladly mention his name, John Neil, 114 00:05:32,970 --> 00:05:35,670 he's a very good friend to this day. 115 00:05:35,670 --> 00:05:38,400 And he said, you've gotta do two things. 116 00:05:38,400 --> 00:05:40,680 You need to diversify. 117 00:05:40,680 --> 00:05:44,460 And what he meant by that was, stop working for builders. 118 00:05:44,460 --> 00:05:47,010 Get into the service business, 119 00:05:47,010 --> 00:05:51,330 start using flat rate pricing, start offering packages. 120 00:05:51,330 --> 00:05:56,130 And that is when we saw this business just take off. 121 00:05:56,130 --> 00:05:57,990 It was unbelievable. 122 00:05:57,990 --> 00:06:02,010 The difference in the success that we had 123 00:06:02,010 --> 00:06:03,780 with the business was night 124 00:06:03,780 --> 00:06:06,240 and day between working for builders 125 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:09,360 and working directly with the homeowner. 126 00:06:09,360 --> 00:06:14,010 - Diversify, flat rate pricing and packaged pricing. 127 00:06:14,010 --> 00:06:16,563 I understand diversification, of course. 128 00:06:17,670 --> 00:06:20,013 Tell us what you mean by flat rate pricing. 129 00:06:22,380 --> 00:06:25,260 - So we were really killing the business by, 130 00:06:25,260 --> 00:06:28,620 you know, delivering our proposals based upon 131 00:06:28,620 --> 00:06:29,850 time and material. 132 00:06:29,850 --> 00:06:33,810 Now, flat rate pricing is based upon time and material, 133 00:06:33,810 --> 00:06:37,290 however, it just kind of condenses things 134 00:06:37,290 --> 00:06:40,740 and it allows you to work a lot quicker. 135 00:06:40,740 --> 00:06:44,280 So with the flat rate pricing, you're gathering 136 00:06:44,280 --> 00:06:48,190 all of your expenses, you're adding your profit 137 00:06:49,230 --> 00:06:51,123 plus possibly a little bit more. 138 00:06:52,721 --> 00:06:55,500 And you obviously, putting in the net 139 00:06:55,500 --> 00:06:57,360 that you would like to get, the net margin 140 00:06:57,360 --> 00:06:58,650 that you would like to get. 141 00:06:58,650 --> 00:07:02,490 And now all of a sudden, you have the capability of going 142 00:07:02,490 --> 00:07:05,760 to somebody's house and immediately telling them 143 00:07:05,760 --> 00:07:07,620 how much a job is gonna cost. 144 00:07:07,620 --> 00:07:09,000 There's no wait time. 145 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:12,570 It cuts down on decision making time, so on and so forth. 146 00:07:12,570 --> 00:07:15,840 And it really, really expedites the process, 147 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:18,630 which makes you much more successful. 148 00:07:18,630 --> 00:07:20,430 - That puts a lot of risk on you 149 00:07:20,430 --> 00:07:23,190 if your guy prices it wrong, how do you figure out 150 00:07:23,190 --> 00:07:26,580 how to train that team who has the real potential 151 00:07:26,580 --> 00:07:30,270 to put you at risk out there when they're estimating jobs? 152 00:07:30,270 --> 00:07:32,820 - We had our greatest success 153 00:07:32,820 --> 00:07:34,380 with a company called ServiceTitan, 154 00:07:34,380 --> 00:07:36,730 and I'm sure you're familiar with ServiceTitan. 155 00:07:38,441 --> 00:07:39,798 We tried a few others. 156 00:07:39,798 --> 00:07:43,650 So with ServiceTitan, I could in real time 157 00:07:43,650 --> 00:07:45,450 see exactly 158 00:07:45,450 --> 00:07:48,390 what these guys were doing when they were pricing the job. 159 00:07:48,390 --> 00:07:52,140 Another thing that is absolutely important is 160 00:07:52,140 --> 00:07:54,000 that when you do this, 161 00:07:54,000 --> 00:07:56,730 you're essentially asking an electrician 162 00:07:56,730 --> 00:07:58,470 to become a salesperson. 163 00:07:58,470 --> 00:08:03,470 And not everyone is going to connect with that, 164 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:07,320 but I truly believe that everyone is a good salesperson 165 00:08:07,320 --> 00:08:08,790 as long as they do one thing. 166 00:08:08,790 --> 00:08:10,923 And that's just be themselves. 167 00:08:12,403 --> 00:08:17,220 So we had guys that were excellent, excellent salespeople, 168 00:08:17,220 --> 00:08:19,540 and you know, another gentleman 169 00:08:20,523 --> 00:08:23,979 who would ended up being my right hand man in the field, 170 00:08:23,979 --> 00:08:28,020 a gentleman by the name of Robert was in his own words, 171 00:08:28,020 --> 00:08:30,240 a horrible salesperson. 172 00:08:30,240 --> 00:08:34,500 And I said to him, well, grasp that, embrace that. 173 00:08:34,500 --> 00:08:37,260 In other words, just be yourself. 174 00:08:37,260 --> 00:08:39,570 And when you do that, you'll learn. 175 00:08:39,570 --> 00:08:41,640 When Rob settled down 176 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:46,020 and just became himself, essentially stopped trying to sell 177 00:08:46,020 --> 00:08:48,720 and just dispensed information, 178 00:08:48,720 --> 00:08:53,310 he literally sold the largest service job 179 00:08:53,310 --> 00:08:57,600 that Farryn Electric ever was contracted for. 180 00:08:57,600 --> 00:08:59,700 And it was a little over a hundred thousand dollars. 181 00:08:59,700 --> 00:09:03,000 It was about $123,000 worth of work. 182 00:09:03,000 --> 00:09:05,130 - What was your typical size job? 183 00:09:05,130 --> 00:09:06,420 - The smaller the better. 184 00:09:06,420 --> 00:09:10,080 In other words, I truly believe that the quicker we get in, 185 00:09:10,080 --> 00:09:12,600 the quicker we get out, the more money we make. 186 00:09:12,600 --> 00:09:15,840 So we were trying with one man 187 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:19,650 or one team, I should say, to do an average of two 188 00:09:19,650 --> 00:09:23,790 to three jobs in a specific workday. 189 00:09:23,790 --> 00:09:26,010 Essentially, you know, looking in the three 190 00:09:26,010 --> 00:09:31,010 to $4,000 range was a success for us for sure. 191 00:09:31,350 --> 00:09:36,350 - People have this idea that big jobs are better 192 00:09:37,350 --> 00:09:40,740 and my experience is the exact opposite. 193 00:09:40,740 --> 00:09:42,510 The bigger thing, the bigger takeaway 194 00:09:42,510 --> 00:09:47,510 from an exit ability standpoint, buyers hate them 195 00:09:47,700 --> 00:09:50,730 because they say, I have no idea if that big job 196 00:09:50,730 --> 00:09:54,180 that they got that Danny got last year is ever coming back. 197 00:09:54,180 --> 00:09:55,830 But it's a lot easier to understand 198 00:09:55,830 --> 00:09:58,620 how I'm gonna spin up my marketing machine and get two 199 00:09:58,620 --> 00:10:01,470 and $3,000 jobs over and over and over again. 200 00:10:01,470 --> 00:10:02,910 And if I lose one of them, guess what? 201 00:10:02,910 --> 00:10:06,780 It's not gonna kill my month, might suck for the day. 202 00:10:06,780 --> 00:10:09,750 And at the same time, to your point, 203 00:10:09,750 --> 00:10:12,660 you're in and out, you're getting paid much quicker 204 00:10:12,660 --> 00:10:14,140 so your cash flow's better 205 00:10:15,690 --> 00:10:18,660 and the margins tend to be just dramatically better 206 00:10:18,660 --> 00:10:20,280 on those small jobs. 207 00:10:20,280 --> 00:10:21,990 - Indeed, I completely agree. 208 00:10:21,990 --> 00:10:23,880 - I hate to do this, but I wanna dive more 209 00:10:23,880 --> 00:10:25,380 into this sales guy concept. 210 00:10:25,380 --> 00:10:28,140 What you just said is you actually believe every one 211 00:10:28,140 --> 00:10:29,493 of those people can sell. 212 00:10:30,577 --> 00:10:33,030 I wanna like dig into that for a minute 213 00:10:33,030 --> 00:10:36,900 because everybody I know in this contracting arena struggles 214 00:10:36,900 --> 00:10:39,030 with this exact concept. 215 00:10:39,030 --> 00:10:43,350 - The key is to make it as easy as possible 216 00:10:43,350 --> 00:10:46,020 for them to educate the client 217 00:10:46,020 --> 00:10:48,510 as well as really educate them. 218 00:10:48,510 --> 00:10:50,700 In other words, you know, my father used to say, 219 00:10:50,700 --> 00:10:52,260 you've got two ears and one mouth. 220 00:10:52,260 --> 00:10:53,730 Use them proportionately. 221 00:10:53,730 --> 00:10:58,320 So you need to learn how to shut your mouth, 222 00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:02,640 listen to the needs of the client, and then come back 223 00:11:02,640 --> 00:11:05,640 and kind of redirect where they're going 224 00:11:05,640 --> 00:11:08,400 or become the conductor again, if you will. 225 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:12,060 I truly believe that just about anyone 226 00:11:12,060 --> 00:11:14,850 can become a good salesperson. 227 00:11:14,850 --> 00:11:17,550 - I wanna dive into one more concept before we start, 228 00:11:17,550 --> 00:11:20,730 before we start kind of getting to the meat 229 00:11:20,730 --> 00:11:23,550 of the conversation, which is to, you know, 230 00:11:23,550 --> 00:11:25,250 building your business to sell it, 231 00:11:27,228 --> 00:11:29,460 but this package pricing, 232 00:11:29,460 --> 00:11:31,800 can you just tell us a little bit what you mean by that 233 00:11:31,800 --> 00:11:34,020 and why that was critical for you? 234 00:11:34,020 --> 00:11:37,800 - Cannot necessarily be done in every single scenario, 235 00:11:37,800 --> 00:11:40,800 but you'd be surprised or people would be surprised 236 00:11:40,800 --> 00:11:41,970 at how many times 237 00:11:41,970 --> 00:11:45,300 or how many situations you can use packages. 238 00:11:45,300 --> 00:11:46,920 And why do we use packages? 239 00:11:46,920 --> 00:11:48,330 It's very simple. 240 00:11:48,330 --> 00:11:51,900 If I give somebody one price, they have two choices. 241 00:11:51,900 --> 00:11:54,093 I either get a yes or I get a no. 242 00:11:56,154 --> 00:11:59,100 And it's all built into the human psyche. 243 00:11:59,100 --> 00:12:02,040 If you've, you know, you try to aim 244 00:12:02,040 --> 00:12:04,600 at giving a customer three options 245 00:12:05,787 --> 00:12:07,800 and going back to the human psyche, they never want 246 00:12:07,800 --> 00:12:09,480 to be the cheapest, right? 247 00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:12,090 They never wanna do the most expensive thing, 248 00:12:12,090 --> 00:12:15,120 although I love the customers that always did. 249 00:12:15,120 --> 00:12:17,760 They're always gonna fall into that middle package. 250 00:12:17,760 --> 00:12:20,610 I believe the statistics say around 70% 251 00:12:20,610 --> 00:12:23,400 of the time they're gonna fall into that middle package. 252 00:12:23,400 --> 00:12:26,850 So then you can kind of flip it on its head. 253 00:12:26,850 --> 00:12:30,720 And what I mean by that is put your most interesting, 254 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:33,453 your most profitable, 255 00:12:35,525 --> 00:12:39,330 the parts that are most easy to install. 256 00:12:39,330 --> 00:12:41,372 Throw 'em all in the middle package. 257 00:12:41,372 --> 00:12:42,690 (bright music) 258 00:12:42,690 --> 00:12:45,540 - One of the things that's not talked about enough 259 00:12:45,540 --> 00:12:49,200 is if you're selling a service by the hour, 260 00:12:49,200 --> 00:12:51,030 think of law firms, 261 00:12:51,030 --> 00:12:52,890 think of accounting firms. 262 00:12:52,890 --> 00:12:56,580 Well a lot of construction firms also sell by the hour. 263 00:12:56,580 --> 00:13:00,090 And one of the challenges of selling things by the hour is 264 00:13:00,090 --> 00:13:02,010 that you're automatically capped 265 00:13:02,010 --> 00:13:05,280 at how many hours you can sell per person, right? 266 00:13:05,280 --> 00:13:08,610 The average guy works 2080 hours a year. 267 00:13:08,610 --> 00:13:11,100 You're capped at selling that many hours in a year. 268 00:13:11,100 --> 00:13:14,340 Danny talks to us about value selling. 269 00:13:14,340 --> 00:13:19,170 If you can figure out how to actually sell for more value 270 00:13:19,170 --> 00:13:23,160 per revenue hour, you're able to unlock tremendous amount 271 00:13:23,160 --> 00:13:25,080 of profitability in your company. 272 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:28,620 Danny changed his pricing from time 273 00:13:28,620 --> 00:13:32,490 and materials to fixed price contracts. 274 00:13:32,490 --> 00:13:36,210 And what that allows you to do is increase your productivity 275 00:13:36,210 --> 00:13:40,560 and therefore increase your margin per man hour. 276 00:13:40,560 --> 00:13:43,440 And when he unlocked that lesson, 277 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:46,343 the profitability in his company just went through the roof. 278 00:13:47,220 --> 00:13:50,070 And now a little bit about our sponsor. 279 00:13:50,070 --> 00:13:52,740 I live in Colorado, super dry here, 280 00:13:52,740 --> 00:13:55,410 and for years I put an electrolyte in my water. 281 00:13:55,410 --> 00:13:57,630 It just makes me want to drink it more. 282 00:13:57,630 --> 00:14:00,300 I tell all the businesses I work with, 283 00:14:00,300 --> 00:14:01,800 keep your guys hydrated. 284 00:14:01,800 --> 00:14:03,300 We talk about hydration as one 285 00:14:03,300 --> 00:14:05,250 of the number one points of safety. 286 00:14:05,250 --> 00:14:06,810 I've been using Salt of the Earth. 287 00:14:06,810 --> 00:14:09,240 This stuff's great, it's got great flavor. 288 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:10,290 You can just throw 'em in your bag 289 00:14:10,290 --> 00:14:12,480 and wherever you go, just throw it in the water bottle. 290 00:14:12,480 --> 00:14:13,500 It'll keep you hydrated. 291 00:14:13,500 --> 00:14:14,333 And they taste great. 292 00:14:14,333 --> 00:14:16,800 The grapefruit's my favorite flavor. 293 00:14:16,800 --> 00:14:18,810 They also have this four pack that's pretty sweet. 294 00:14:18,810 --> 00:14:20,130 You can try 'em all. 295 00:14:20,130 --> 00:14:22,710 And now they've introduced the creatine, 296 00:14:22,710 --> 00:14:24,480 which is also awesome 297 00:14:24,480 --> 00:14:25,680 because it's one of these things 298 00:14:25,680 --> 00:14:26,850 everyone's talking about now. 299 00:14:26,850 --> 00:14:28,900 You gotta get your creatine in every day. 300 00:14:29,895 --> 00:14:33,300 So try Salt of the Earth for all the listeners of The Turn, 301 00:14:33,300 --> 00:14:35,220 you can get a 15% discount. 302 00:14:35,220 --> 00:14:38,733 Just use code iconic or click the link in the show notes. 303 00:14:39,840 --> 00:14:41,070 This stuff is gold. 304 00:14:41,070 --> 00:14:41,970 I love it. 305 00:14:41,970 --> 00:14:43,170 What's the trajectory 306 00:14:43,170 --> 00:14:46,350 of the business now moving from this point forward? 307 00:14:46,350 --> 00:14:48,663 - It was unbelievable. 308 00:14:49,868 --> 00:14:51,900 We skyrocketed in revenue. 309 00:14:51,900 --> 00:14:55,440 I actually paired down the amount of people working 310 00:14:55,440 --> 00:14:57,160 for me out in the field 311 00:14:58,744 --> 00:15:02,520 and we just, like I said, the success of the business, 312 00:15:02,520 --> 00:15:06,870 the fact that we had six teams on the road, 313 00:15:06,870 --> 00:15:08,820 I believe it was six at the very end, 314 00:15:08,820 --> 00:15:12,540 but had a book of over 4,000 clients 315 00:15:12,540 --> 00:15:16,230 just tells you how successful we became. 316 00:15:16,230 --> 00:15:19,800 So it was literally night and day. 317 00:15:19,800 --> 00:15:22,290 We went from struggling 318 00:15:22,290 --> 00:15:23,970 and having to take lines of credit 319 00:15:23,970 --> 00:15:27,210 to me starting a car collection 320 00:15:27,210 --> 00:15:29,403 because we had so much extra money. 321 00:15:30,407 --> 00:15:33,690 So yeah, the trajectory was quite astonishing 322 00:15:33,690 --> 00:15:34,860 to say the least. 323 00:15:34,860 --> 00:15:37,740 - So were you 100% owner of the company? 324 00:15:37,740 --> 00:15:39,150 - Yes. - Okay. 325 00:15:39,150 --> 00:15:41,550 So this is your baby, you're building it out. 326 00:15:41,550 --> 00:15:44,640 I know that one of the things you did 327 00:15:44,640 --> 00:15:49,640 is you got involved in a program with Goldman Sachs. 328 00:15:50,010 --> 00:15:53,460 Tell us what that was called and what that meant for you. 329 00:15:53,460 --> 00:15:58,460 - Goldman Sachs 10K SB was a pivotal moment for me 330 00:15:58,800 --> 00:16:00,210 and there's two reasons why. 331 00:16:00,210 --> 00:16:01,800 On the very first day, 332 00:16:01,800 --> 00:16:04,860 and the very first thing that was asked of us was, 333 00:16:04,860 --> 00:16:06,390 what's your exit plan? 334 00:16:06,390 --> 00:16:11,100 And as soon as they said that, I remembered exactly a lesson 335 00:16:11,100 --> 00:16:12,360 that my father taught me 336 00:16:12,360 --> 00:16:15,840 and that was when running wire from point A to point B, 337 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:19,230 it is imperative that you put the boxes, 338 00:16:19,230 --> 00:16:24,230 aka, the destination, you fix them to the wall, 339 00:16:24,690 --> 00:16:28,470 you set them because how can you run a wire from point A 340 00:16:28,470 --> 00:16:31,950 to point B if you don't know where point A and point B are? 341 00:16:31,950 --> 00:16:34,227 We can take that analogy 342 00:16:34,227 --> 00:16:38,130 and we can certainly apply it to the business. 343 00:16:38,130 --> 00:16:41,430 In other words, I have to know everyone 344 00:16:41,430 --> 00:16:45,870 who is in business has to know what their exit plan is. 345 00:16:45,870 --> 00:16:49,230 The other thing that was absolutely pivotal, 346 00:16:49,230 --> 00:16:51,360 and I immediately went home 347 00:16:51,360 --> 00:16:55,560 and started creating this, create a document about 348 00:16:55,560 --> 00:16:59,040 what would Danny want in this situation, 349 00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:03,085 what would Dan do in this particular situation? 350 00:17:03,085 --> 00:17:04,990 So creating SOPs for the business 351 00:17:06,360 --> 00:17:11,360 was pivotal with regard to what I learned in 10K SB 352 00:17:12,843 --> 00:17:16,173 and having a structured exit plan was also pivotal. 353 00:17:17,070 --> 00:17:20,640 - I'm curious, in your version of an exit plan, 354 00:17:20,640 --> 00:17:21,960 what were some of the key things 355 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:24,060 that you remember putting in the document? 356 00:17:25,740 --> 00:17:26,573 - Wow. 357 00:17:26,573 --> 00:17:28,290 Well, it certainly wasn't selling my business. 358 00:17:28,290 --> 00:17:32,190 It was really leaving a legacy for my family. 359 00:17:32,190 --> 00:17:35,340 That was my ultimate focus. 360 00:17:35,340 --> 00:17:37,620 If I had to do it over again, 361 00:17:37,620 --> 00:17:40,143 I probably would've followed my initial thought, 362 00:17:41,557 --> 00:17:44,760 which was keeping the business, scaling it, 363 00:17:44,760 --> 00:17:47,820 stacking it, and essentially either leaving it 364 00:17:47,820 --> 00:17:52,500 for my employees to run or giving it to my family. 365 00:17:52,500 --> 00:17:55,920 We had a new revenue target every single year. 366 00:17:55,920 --> 00:18:00,600 Really it came down to what I refer to as stackability. 367 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:04,860 In other words, in any business, if you have expertise, 368 00:18:04,860 --> 00:18:07,860 and I'll go to the electrical side of things, 369 00:18:07,860 --> 00:18:09,870 if you have an expertise in electrical business, 370 00:18:09,870 --> 00:18:13,410 if you have a warehouse with all kinds of parts 371 00:18:13,410 --> 00:18:15,600 and materials and things like this, you know, 372 00:18:15,600 --> 00:18:17,140 we kind of put the blinders on 373 00:18:18,221 --> 00:18:21,300 and have this singular focus 374 00:18:21,300 --> 00:18:24,273 on being a residential electrician. 375 00:18:25,110 --> 00:18:27,060 But I had dreams of expanding 376 00:18:27,060 --> 00:18:29,430 and finding other revenue streams 377 00:18:29,430 --> 00:18:32,760 that could be supported by Farryn Electric. 378 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:36,690 One of them was a landscape lighting, 379 00:18:36,690 --> 00:18:38,970 a low voltage landscape lighting company. 380 00:18:38,970 --> 00:18:40,260 And what people don't understand, 381 00:18:40,260 --> 00:18:43,410 what homeowners don't understand is they're paying, 382 00:18:43,410 --> 00:18:46,230 you know, thousands of dollars in labor 383 00:18:46,230 --> 00:18:48,750 for low voltage landscape lighting. 384 00:18:48,750 --> 00:18:50,760 When low voltage landscape lighting is something 385 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,070 that literally anyone can do. 386 00:18:53,070 --> 00:18:56,430 The human body cannot be hurt by 12 or 24 volts. 387 00:18:56,430 --> 00:18:59,880 So in that regard, one of the things 388 00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:02,100 that I was thinking about was stacking, 389 00:19:02,100 --> 00:19:06,330 how can we create other revenue streams 390 00:19:06,330 --> 00:19:10,530 using the expertise that my team 391 00:19:10,530 --> 00:19:12,003 and myself already have. 392 00:19:13,680 --> 00:19:18,000 - One of the things you see in private equity investment 393 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,400 as an example, is they take a business 394 00:19:20,400 --> 00:19:22,440 that's got one service line 395 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,260 and as soon as they close the deal, they figure out 396 00:19:25,260 --> 00:19:27,120 how to immediately add organic growth 397 00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:28,980 by adding a new service line. 398 00:19:28,980 --> 00:19:31,110 Danny calls it stackability. 399 00:19:31,110 --> 00:19:33,450 Think about it this way, if you've got 400 00:19:33,450 --> 00:19:36,180 a tree services business, you remove trees 401 00:19:36,180 --> 00:19:38,370 because the tree falls down. 402 00:19:38,370 --> 00:19:41,760 Same customer needs things like plant healthcare in his yard 403 00:19:41,760 --> 00:19:44,460 to preserve the health of his trees 404 00:19:44,460 --> 00:19:46,680 or, you know, prune the trees 405 00:19:46,680 --> 00:19:49,590 so that they don't fall on your house, so on and so forth. 406 00:19:49,590 --> 00:19:52,440 Those kind of service line add-ons can take 407 00:19:52,440 --> 00:19:54,990 the same customers, the same sales team, 408 00:19:54,990 --> 00:19:56,310 the same people doing the work 409 00:19:56,310 --> 00:19:58,500 and adds immediate new revenue opportunity. 410 00:19:58,500 --> 00:19:59,910 And usually the margin's higher. 411 00:19:59,910 --> 00:20:02,070 'cause you're already on site. 412 00:20:02,070 --> 00:20:04,977 So you said that you got the business, you know, up to, 413 00:20:04,977 --> 00:20:08,130 did you say six crews by the time you sold? 414 00:20:08,130 --> 00:20:11,040 - Actually we scaled back to six crews. 415 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:16,040 I was much more successful having a smaller company. 416 00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:20,010 We created maybe less revenue, 417 00:20:20,010 --> 00:20:22,500 but our margins were much greater 418 00:20:22,500 --> 00:20:25,803 because there was communication, 419 00:20:26,709 --> 00:20:28,710 which is an absolute killer in business, 420 00:20:28,710 --> 00:20:30,120 especially large businesses. 421 00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:31,290 It became a lot easier 422 00:20:31,290 --> 00:20:33,630 because we had a smaller number of crews. 423 00:20:33,630 --> 00:20:36,280 I mean, I was running at one point when I was working 424 00:20:37,502 --> 00:20:39,060 with contractors and home builders. 425 00:20:39,060 --> 00:20:41,403 We had 23 electricians working for us. 426 00:20:42,270 --> 00:20:46,440 To scale down to a little bit less than half of that, 427 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:48,190 we actually became more successful. 428 00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:52,200 - One of the things that Danny found 429 00:20:52,200 --> 00:20:54,330 as he got a little bit bigger, 430 00:20:54,330 --> 00:20:55,710 I think he felt like he started 431 00:20:55,710 --> 00:20:57,030 losing control of the business. 432 00:20:57,030 --> 00:21:00,000 So he actually scaled down to a smaller team. 433 00:21:00,000 --> 00:21:02,790 And interestingly, he found that the margin 434 00:21:02,790 --> 00:21:04,290 of his business went up 435 00:21:04,290 --> 00:21:06,140 and the quality of his life improved. 436 00:21:07,140 --> 00:21:09,930 - I had a team that could run this business 437 00:21:09,930 --> 00:21:11,283 with their eyes closed. 438 00:21:13,016 --> 00:21:14,550 But the fact of the matter is, is I cared. 439 00:21:14,550 --> 00:21:18,150 I absolutely 100% trusted my whole entire team 440 00:21:18,150 --> 00:21:19,680 to run this company. 441 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:22,680 And once again, if I had to do it over again, 442 00:21:22,680 --> 00:21:24,600 I'd be living in Costa Rica, 443 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:27,090 continuing to have Farryn Electric 444 00:21:27,090 --> 00:21:28,740 but have other people run it. 445 00:21:28,740 --> 00:21:32,807 - Let's now walk towards selling the company. 446 00:21:32,807 --> 00:21:33,990 How did this even come about? 447 00:21:33,990 --> 00:21:36,150 So, you know, you'd built this business, 448 00:21:36,150 --> 00:21:38,850 you felt really good, the margins are great. 449 00:21:38,850 --> 00:21:42,240 Why did you decide to go through the process 450 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:43,560 and how did it even come about? 451 00:21:43,560 --> 00:21:44,710 How did they reach you? 452 00:21:46,420 --> 00:21:50,170 - So I thought these were people prank calling me. 453 00:21:50,170 --> 00:21:54,210 I think this gentleman who was head of acquisitions 454 00:21:54,210 --> 00:21:56,193 probably called me three times. 455 00:21:57,101 --> 00:22:01,740 It was on the third occasion that I didn't hang up on him, 456 00:22:01,740 --> 00:22:03,330 that I did start to listen to him. 457 00:22:03,330 --> 00:22:07,050 That I had verified that they had bought other businesses, 458 00:22:07,050 --> 00:22:10,890 specifically the HVAC business that kind of 459 00:22:10,890 --> 00:22:13,890 took my business in and that this guy was real. 460 00:22:13,890 --> 00:22:15,690 And I don't know 461 00:22:15,690 --> 00:22:19,862 what the economic environment is like now, 462 00:22:19,862 --> 00:22:23,156 but they offered me almost 12 times my EBITDA. 463 00:22:23,156 --> 00:22:27,180 And that was, that's unheard of, that's like 464 00:22:27,180 --> 00:22:29,552 crazy, crazy money. 465 00:22:29,552 --> 00:22:30,990 So, you know, we were doing really well 466 00:22:30,990 --> 00:22:33,663 and I was living a really, really nice life. 467 00:22:34,620 --> 00:22:36,573 But at that time, 468 00:22:37,410 --> 00:22:40,530 what I was offered was game changing money. 469 00:22:40,530 --> 00:22:43,230 I literally overnight became 470 00:22:43,230 --> 00:22:45,363 a newly minted multimillionaire. 471 00:22:46,894 --> 00:22:51,480 And that to me seemed really, really attractive. 472 00:22:51,480 --> 00:22:53,160 I was offered above 473 00:22:53,160 --> 00:22:57,690 and beyond that initial buyout, what's referred 474 00:22:57,690 --> 00:22:59,480 to in the business as an earnout. 475 00:23:00,589 --> 00:23:03,570 So for two years, I was to work 476 00:23:03,570 --> 00:23:06,450 for the company that bought mine 477 00:23:06,450 --> 00:23:09,000 and that's where I really learned 478 00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:11,610 my true business life lessons. 479 00:23:11,610 --> 00:23:15,670 And that is that no amount of money can replace 480 00:23:17,250 --> 00:23:22,250 the calm, the security, the confidence 481 00:23:22,620 --> 00:23:25,860 that a business owner gets 482 00:23:25,860 --> 00:23:29,820 from being in control of that business 483 00:23:29,820 --> 00:23:33,000 and just about every single thing that they said 484 00:23:33,000 --> 00:23:35,190 that they were gonna do was not followed. 485 00:23:35,190 --> 00:23:37,590 It became, with all due respect to them, 486 00:23:37,590 --> 00:23:39,300 an absolute nightmare. 487 00:23:39,300 --> 00:23:41,340 And I remember my brother saying, Dan, 488 00:23:41,340 --> 00:23:45,210 I don't care if they ask you to pick up wire 489 00:23:45,210 --> 00:23:49,260 off the bathroom floor, suck it up for your earnout. 490 00:23:49,260 --> 00:23:51,420 And there are some people that can do that. 491 00:23:51,420 --> 00:23:53,820 There are some people that are so corporate 492 00:23:53,820 --> 00:23:58,820 that they can just follow along like a robot 493 00:23:58,830 --> 00:24:01,053 and I am just not that person. 494 00:24:02,463 --> 00:24:04,820 So actually structured a deal with them 495 00:24:04,820 --> 00:24:06,781 where I received my first year's earnout 496 00:24:06,781 --> 00:24:08,940 and a portion of the second year's earnout for me 497 00:24:08,940 --> 00:24:11,250 to leave a year early. 498 00:24:11,250 --> 00:24:14,760 And really in that one year that I worked there 499 00:24:14,760 --> 00:24:18,630 and essentially watched them for all intents 500 00:24:18,630 --> 00:24:21,300 and purposes, kill everything that I worked 501 00:24:21,300 --> 00:24:25,590 so hard to build, we lost all but 10% of my book. 502 00:24:25,590 --> 00:24:29,940 I spent that year looking from Portugal to Mexico 503 00:24:29,940 --> 00:24:32,310 for a place to take my family 504 00:24:32,310 --> 00:24:35,394 and have a bit of a different experience 505 00:24:35,394 --> 00:24:38,823 because I lived in the same town for, geez, 37 years. 506 00:24:40,471 --> 00:24:43,020 So that's how I ended up in Costa Rica. 507 00:24:43,020 --> 00:24:44,250 - I hear you loud and clear. 508 00:24:44,250 --> 00:24:48,630 It sounds like looking back, 509 00:24:48,630 --> 00:24:50,070 you wouldn't have done the deal. 510 00:24:50,070 --> 00:24:52,320 You have regrets that maybe you could have just 511 00:24:52,320 --> 00:24:55,380 put a management team in place, lived out some 512 00:24:55,380 --> 00:24:59,310 of your family's dreams in Costa Rica and continued to own 513 00:24:59,310 --> 00:25:01,170 and cash flow the business. 514 00:25:01,170 --> 00:25:03,630 What can our listeners glean from that 515 00:25:03,630 --> 00:25:07,050 and how should they be thinking about protecting themselves 516 00:25:07,050 --> 00:25:11,010 as they're potentially moving towards selling their company? 517 00:25:11,010 --> 00:25:12,600 What would you have done differently? 518 00:25:12,600 --> 00:25:15,300 Let's just say you decided to go through with it anyway. 519 00:25:15,300 --> 00:25:18,210 How would you have negotiated that differently 520 00:25:18,210 --> 00:25:20,130 or how would you have thought differently about 521 00:25:20,130 --> 00:25:22,140 who bought your company? 522 00:25:22,140 --> 00:25:24,029 - That's a great question. 523 00:25:24,029 --> 00:25:25,920 I think, and by the way, I had a great attorney. 524 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:28,096 I really, truly did. 525 00:25:28,096 --> 00:25:31,533 But we're dealing with a multi-billion dollar, 526 00:25:32,730 --> 00:25:37,110 you know, company that really stuck to their guns 527 00:25:37,110 --> 00:25:39,780 and had a team of attorneys, so on and so forth. 528 00:25:39,780 --> 00:25:42,540 So I guess my first piece of advice would be something that, 529 00:25:42,540 --> 00:25:44,160 once again, my father taught me. 530 00:25:44,160 --> 00:25:48,000 And that is defer liability, especially when it's something, 531 00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:53,000 when it concerns something that you are not an expert in. 532 00:25:54,276 --> 00:25:57,360 So if you don't know how 533 00:25:57,360 --> 00:26:00,720 to structure that purchase agreement, if you don't know how 534 00:26:00,720 --> 00:26:04,290 to structure a shareholder's agreement, things like this, 535 00:26:04,290 --> 00:26:08,190 you better have a good attorney that kind of, you know, 536 00:26:08,190 --> 00:26:10,740 for lack of a better term, holds you back 537 00:26:10,740 --> 00:26:12,390 and says, wait a second, Dan. 538 00:26:12,390 --> 00:26:15,480 And by the way, my attorney did, my attorney did. 539 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:17,130 There was this internal 540 00:26:17,130 --> 00:26:21,240 and external struggle with should I sell, you know, 541 00:26:21,240 --> 00:26:24,225 and it always came down to that 12 times EBITDA, 542 00:26:24,225 --> 00:26:26,583 12 times EBITDA, 12 times EBITDA. 543 00:26:27,420 --> 00:26:31,690 And it probably, it didn't probably, it blinded me 544 00:26:33,644 --> 00:26:37,080 to these little asks, if you will, 545 00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:38,850 in the asset purchase agreement 546 00:26:38,850 --> 00:26:42,120 and these little, you know, 547 00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:45,250 promises in the asset purchase agreement 548 00:26:46,178 --> 00:26:51,178 that I ignored because the money was so good. 549 00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:55,800 So if I had any advice to give, stick to your guns. 550 00:26:55,800 --> 00:26:57,210 If there's one company 551 00:26:57,210 --> 00:27:00,360 that is interested in buying your company, 552 00:27:00,360 --> 00:27:02,730 I promise you there's another one as well. 553 00:27:02,730 --> 00:27:04,230 And the reason why I'm saying that is 554 00:27:04,230 --> 00:27:08,130 because at the same exact time I sold my company, 555 00:27:08,130 --> 00:27:10,290 the gentleman, Seth, who I had mentioned before, 556 00:27:10,290 --> 00:27:11,760 literally a week 557 00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:15,240 before I sold my company, sold his HVAC company 558 00:27:15,240 --> 00:27:18,240 to another venture capitalist firm. 559 00:27:18,240 --> 00:27:23,240 And they are the absolute antithesis of whom I sold to. 560 00:27:23,670 --> 00:27:25,380 You know, I try not to be jealous. 561 00:27:25,380 --> 00:27:29,130 I try not to look too deeply into the past, 562 00:27:29,130 --> 00:27:31,380 but he's still working for them and he loves them. 563 00:27:31,380 --> 00:27:35,580 And this company followed through with everything 564 00:27:35,580 --> 00:27:38,643 that was written into the asset purchase agreement. 565 00:27:39,690 --> 00:27:41,890 It was, like I said, the absolute antithesis 566 00:27:42,810 --> 00:27:44,736 of my situation. 567 00:27:44,736 --> 00:27:47,160 - I think this is a really great point, really understanding 568 00:27:47,160 --> 00:27:49,740 who you're getting in bed with is so critical, right? 569 00:27:49,740 --> 00:27:51,840 And doing your diligence there, 570 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,210 interviewing people they've already bought before, 571 00:27:54,210 --> 00:27:56,820 finding out how they think about partnership 572 00:27:56,820 --> 00:27:59,070 and people and contracts. 573 00:27:59,070 --> 00:28:01,470 You know, just a must have, 574 00:28:01,470 --> 00:28:03,820 but I think the most important thing you said 575 00:28:04,824 --> 00:28:07,650 is know your value, right? 576 00:28:07,650 --> 00:28:10,920 If you have a valuable business to them, to your point, 577 00:28:10,920 --> 00:28:13,554 it's valuable to many people. 578 00:28:13,554 --> 00:28:15,870 And it's a reason why I usually say, hey, look, 579 00:28:15,870 --> 00:28:17,820 don't, you know, don't necessarily take the first offer 580 00:28:17,820 --> 00:28:21,976 you get, even if you end up with the buyer 581 00:28:21,976 --> 00:28:23,190 that approaches you first. 582 00:28:23,190 --> 00:28:25,920 It's worth kind of looking around 583 00:28:25,920 --> 00:28:28,020 and having some representation and going out there 584 00:28:28,020 --> 00:28:29,700 and seeing who else is out there. 585 00:28:29,700 --> 00:28:31,200 If you're gonna sell anyway, you might 586 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:32,700 as well make sure you end up 587 00:28:32,700 --> 00:28:34,740 with the right deal and the right partner. 588 00:28:34,740 --> 00:28:36,960 And even if it's the same multiple 589 00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:40,350 or valuation, you could have wildly different terms 590 00:28:40,350 --> 00:28:41,940 with a wildly different partner. 591 00:28:41,940 --> 00:28:45,330 Silver lining, you got 12 times EBITDA, 592 00:28:45,330 --> 00:28:47,200 you got one year of your earnout. 593 00:28:48,420 --> 00:28:50,490 I'm looking at a beautiful house in the background 594 00:28:50,490 --> 00:28:51,330 in Costa Rica. 595 00:28:51,330 --> 00:28:55,170 It seems like the flip side of the regret is 596 00:28:55,170 --> 00:28:57,870 you were able to live out this lifelong, 597 00:28:57,870 --> 00:29:00,840 I don't know if it was lifelong, your family's dream 598 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:05,040 of moving out of the country, in your case to Costa Rica. 599 00:29:05,040 --> 00:29:07,410 You know, tell us about the experience post exit. 600 00:29:07,410 --> 00:29:08,613 How's life been? 601 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:11,970 - You know, life has been really, really good. 602 00:29:11,970 --> 00:29:14,370 A couple of lessons that I've learned. 603 00:29:14,370 --> 00:29:16,320 Number one is that, you know, 604 00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:18,363 everyone should find their Costa Rica. 605 00:29:20,820 --> 00:29:23,610 When I had my business, I was putting my family second 606 00:29:23,610 --> 00:29:25,593 and now I put my family first. 607 00:29:26,627 --> 00:29:29,580 And for anyone to be successful, I truly believe that 608 00:29:29,580 --> 00:29:33,420 that is a necessity that you've gotta put your family 609 00:29:33,420 --> 00:29:35,400 and your faith first 610 00:29:35,400 --> 00:29:38,820 and that will allow you to be more successful in business. 611 00:29:38,820 --> 00:29:41,160 I've opened up two businesses 612 00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:43,320 and I'm thinking to myself, well, I've got millions 613 00:29:43,320 --> 00:29:46,110 of dollars and I need to diversify. 614 00:29:46,110 --> 00:29:49,890 Money not spent is scared money, all of these things. 615 00:29:49,890 --> 00:29:52,110 But the biggest lesson I learned in that 616 00:29:52,110 --> 00:29:55,050 is that I was inspired 617 00:29:55,050 --> 00:29:57,150 because in the electrical business, 618 00:29:57,150 --> 00:30:00,630 you can see something being created daily. 619 00:30:00,630 --> 00:30:01,560 Daily. 620 00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:04,500 For my own sanity, for my wife's sanity, 621 00:30:04,500 --> 00:30:07,380 I started an electrical company here 622 00:30:07,380 --> 00:30:09,570 called Costa Lunas Electrical. 623 00:30:09,570 --> 00:30:12,090 And I'm back in the field doing work 624 00:30:12,090 --> 00:30:13,620 and I've never been happier 625 00:30:13,620 --> 00:30:17,073 because I'm working with my hands, I'm doing physical work. 626 00:30:18,201 --> 00:30:20,190 And last but not least, I get to see things 627 00:30:20,190 --> 00:30:22,350 being created on a daily basis. 628 00:30:22,350 --> 00:30:25,470 - On that note, I'm leaving the conversation super pumped. 629 00:30:25,470 --> 00:30:27,300 I wanna find my Costa Rica someday. 630 00:30:27,300 --> 00:30:30,570 I'm sure everyone else is gonna be looking up ways 631 00:30:30,570 --> 00:30:33,240 to find theirs coming out of this interview. 632 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:35,220 Super appreciative of the wisdom 633 00:30:35,220 --> 00:30:37,650 and the story that you've shared 634 00:30:37,650 --> 00:30:40,920 and just grateful to get the lessons learned from you. 635 00:30:40,920 --> 00:30:43,200 Danny Namerow, thanks for being on The Turn. 636 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:44,310 - It's my absolute pleasure. 637 00:30:44,310 --> 00:30:45,143 Thank you Kory. 638 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:49,257 - I think one of the things we can learn from Danny is, 639 00:30:49,257 --> 00:30:52,980 you know, finding your Costa Rica might take many shapes, 640 00:30:52,980 --> 00:30:56,100 but he's able to do something that is often really hard 641 00:30:56,100 --> 00:30:57,960 for founders to find. 642 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:02,700 He was able to find a way to really put his family first 643 00:31:02,700 --> 00:31:06,540 and live the life that he'd always sought after. 644 00:31:06,540 --> 00:31:09,570 Danny's found his Costa Rica in a way he probably 645 00:31:09,570 --> 00:31:12,420 wouldn't have if he didn't sell. 646 00:31:12,420 --> 00:31:15,030 And while there may be some regret, 647 00:31:15,030 --> 00:31:17,080 it's a pretty incredible life he's built. 648 00:31:17,970 --> 00:31:19,680 Thanks for watching The Turn. 649 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,740 I'm absolutely loving these stories 650 00:31:22,740 --> 00:31:25,590 and I hope you'll consider liking and subscribing 651 00:31:25,590 --> 00:31:28,920 and forwarding this on to a friend that might enjoy it. 652 00:31:28,920 --> 00:31:30,130 Let's win. 653 00:31:30,130 --> 00:31:32,713 (upbeat music)