87: Does Work Life Balance Exist for Entrepreneurs?

Behind Their Success: Episode 87

Adam: [00:00:00] somebody once said that, you know, there's no trophy for working harder than

everybody else. Like, nobody cares, you know? So, and it should, you shouldn't be proud of

that.

You know, you shouldn't be proud that you put in 70 hours a week. Last week I put in 70 hours a

week. It's like, so what, man?

paden: Hello everybody. Welcome to Behind Their Success Podcast. I'm Payden Squires, the

host, and this morning we have on Adam Kush. He is the president of Libertas Wealth

Management Group. Adam's journey began just a few days in the industry before September

11th, and he is his career spanned four major market crashes with top industry credentials and

national recognition.

He's built a reputation for ethical client. Focused financial planning. Adam, good morning.

Welcome on. Behind Their Success.

Adam: Good morning. Thanks Peyton. This is gonna be fun.

paden: Yeah, absolutely Adam. So tell us just like high level, who's Adam?

Adam: Oh, wow. Who is Adam? I, I'm trying to think of what would my, what [00:01:00] would

my kids say or what would my wife say? Um, um, I would say I am, uh, oh, wow. That's a good

question. Gonna come right outta the gate with a tough one. Um,

paden: Well, you,

Speaker 7: yeah.

Adam: Yeah. I, I mean, I'm gonna, when you think, well, honestly, I was at a, um. Speaking at a

conference last, last week or two weeks ago.

And when I was there, I, I sat in on some sessions and one of the things that somebody was

talking about was not being the business owner. Like when somebody says who you are to, to

not respond, saying, well, I am, you know, I own a financial advisory firm. I do, you know, I'm an

exit planner. You know, I help companies grow and sell.

It's like, who you are shouldn't be your business. So I guess as soon as you asked that

question, I immediately was like, man. I should probably answer about really who I am. You

know, you know, I'm a, I'm a proud husband of married 22 years next month. I've got two boys

that are 15 and 12 that, um, I love to death and they're awesome kids and very well behaved,

and I'm proud that they're grown up to be so responsible.

Um, I'm somebody who doesn't require a lot of sleep. We were [00:02:00] talking about that

offline. I mean, I love, I haven't worked in 20, 24 years. I think I got very, very fortunate and.

Found a career that I love. Um, and every morning I wake up and I attack the day excited about

saving people from bad advice and bad advisors.

Um, so I think, I think that's probably who I am. I, I, I am, uh, you mentioned ethics. I have a,

passion for a moral compass and, um, it, it's gotten me in trouble, believe it or not, a couple

times, you know?

paden: Yeah.

Speaker 7: Yeah.

Adam: And then, uh, but yeah, I mean my, my, I started my company when I was 25 years old.

my, uh, career started at a national brokerage firm, like you said, 10 days before the World

Trade Center went down.

And when I started my company at 25, just to get out of the rigmarole of, you know,

commissions and lacks of lack of fiduciary responsibility. my dad told me, just, I said, you know

what? Do, what, what should I do? If you were me, what would you do to build a business as

successful as yours? 'cause he was an optometrist, has his own, had his own practice, and he

just said, uh, pretend like everything you do is tomorrow's front page and the rest will take care

of itself.

So that's kind of how I've built everything over the years. So, [00:03:00] I mean, yeah, I own a.

Wealth management firm. Yes, we help people get and stay retired. Yes, we do exit planning

and business transition planning and help people grow and sell their company so they can make

work optional. Um, have more work life balance, more profitability.

you know, I help other advisors grow what I grew. but at the end of the day it's, it's really, I think

really it's about who we are that that makes us different, um, as a person and, and what we build

in our culture inside our companies. Honestly.

paden: Oh yeah, for sure. And you know, I love that, you know, I was joking around with you

were like, oh, who am I? That's a hard question. And yeah, that's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's

totally true, right? Like, you know, you, you certainly don't want your identity wrapped up around

and. And really anything, you know, externally, right?

Adam: It's hard though. I mean, it's hard. It's kinda like when you come home and, you know,

my wife and I went out, you know, impromptu, Hey, let's, you know, what do you, will you, do you

eat dinner yet? It's like, you know, 8 30, 9 o'clock. No, I haven't had dinner yet. It's like, let's go,

uh, let's go grab something to eat.

What do you want? I'm like, I don't care. I, I, I, I want wings every day. Like I could eat wings

[00:04:00] twice a day,

paden: Mine's pizza.

Adam: pizza. Oh my God. See, I wish I could eat pizza, but I just gained weight.

paden: Yeah.

Adam: But, um, so we like, let's go get, go get wings and we sit down and we're get a drink and

we wait for our food. And, All she has to talk about is the kids and PTO and all I have to talk

about is work, right?

paden: right. I, I've been at that dinner before.

Adam: I feel like you

Speaker 7: have.

paden: yeah, yeah, yeah. That's interesting. You know, and it's. You know, can you, can you

speak to that a little bit? kind of speak to that, the importance of, you know, you talked about

helping entrepreneurs with work life balance and just talk to about, you know, talk about that,

how, what, you know, what intentions you set around that, especially with your kids and your,

you know, your wife.

And, um, just speak to that a little bit.

Adam: Sure. That's tough. I mean, that's, honestly, there's so much we could talk about today.

We, we could do like a part two and three, uh, we start getting into this stuff. But, um, I grew up

with a dad who, like I said, owned his own optometry practice and, you know, he, he didn't make

it to most of my.

tennis matches and, you know, football games.

He would show up in his, in his [00:05:00] work gear, you know, and I'd see him up in the stands

when I was at football games. But, um, but he worked, he worked Saturday mornings too. He

was in the Exchange Club, rotary Club. He was president of the stool board. You know, you

know, he was doing all the things that we do to network and build a business and meet people.

And, um, I remember growing up thinking, you know, uh, he did a great job as a daddy. He's my

idol to this day. He's the person I wanna be like. Um, and he's, you know, 73, I think in a few,

well, a couple weeks, But I had apparently that entrepreneurial bug that he did, and, and I just

have a hard time turning it off.

I have an obsession for, um, building things and growing things. I have an obsession for

finishing things. I can't, I can't, like last night I was telling you that I was up work until two. It's not

like, it's not like I need to work. I just can't stop. I just, I. Early in my career when I realized I was

gonna have the same problem. and I, I think I'm actually worse than him. and in fact, if he was

sitting right here, he would say, really, that there's even a question. Yes, you're worse. Um, so

[00:06:00] I, I started doing things with my calendar. So like, for instance, on Mondays, um, I

don't, I don't have any client meetings at all.

I do, it's all staff meetings, prep time, get ready for the week. Um, today, as you can see. Um, we

don't have any client meetings today. I've got a bunch of podcasts to do. I've got some, you

know, strategy work to do on, on the businesses. So we show up everybody here when there's

no clients. We show up in hoodie and sweatpants and we live in Ohio, so it could be 90 and it

could be 50.

You just don't know. So, and then Fridays. Years ago, I started taking Fridays off in the summer.

And when I say Fridays off with quotes, air quotes, it's because, you know, um, if my wife's still

sleeping, then I get the kids on the bus and I, just get some work done while I, while I wait. And

if it's summertime and the kids are up, you know, I try to just hang out with them until, uh, until

she's up.

But, you know, sometimes there's nothing to do and I might get some work done. Other times

it's, you know, we're hanging out, we're going to play around of golf. She likes golf more than I

do. Um, I have, I'm a little antsy, but, um.

paden: you [00:07:00] can't sit still that long, can you?

Adam: Yeah. But I like it. I like, I like long drives in golf because it makes me turn off, you know,

and it, it kind of forces me to turn off.

paden: Yeah.

Adam: but I think that, I think that the way I've done it over the years to create, force myself into

some semblance of balance, which I don't believe actually exists, uh, is to block that time off on

the calendar and treat it like an appointment. Like treat it. You should, I think you, we should

treat.

Our appointments with our family and, and the things we do for ourselves just as important as a

client meeting or a patient meeting if you're a doctor, let's just say. So. Um, so yeah. So it's been

a few year, well, yeah, it's been a few years now, but I, I take every Friday off now, so I do put a

ton of hours in, but it's usually a lot of hours between Monday and Thursday.

Some late evenings, sometimes early in the mornings, on the weekends if I need to catch up.

Yeah, I mean, it's just trying to be intentional about it and trying to just remind myself, I've got

this, uh, picture on the wall over here, and when my kids were little, and it's a poem my, wife

bought for me and their footprints are on it, like, you know, when [00:08:00] they're really little

kids.

And every time I have it right by my door when I leave, because when I leave the office

throughout the day, it's just a reminder that, you know, this is way more important than this

obsession that I have with getting things done.

paden: yeah, yeah, and I assume, you know, I, and I'm making an assumption here, maybe I

should just ask, is like. It wasn't like that in the beginning of your career. Right. Um, did it take

you a while to learn those lessons?

Adam: Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, well, first of all, I was broke. I had no appointments and no

clients early, early in my career. So I had most, I had no shortage of time in, uh, I just, I spent a

lot of time grinding it out, you know, starting things up. I mean, I was 21. I was, I, I've said this so

many times, I can say it quickly.

Um, I, you know, I mentioned, you know, starting 10 days before the World Trade Center, but

what I didn't mention was I was right outta college. I was 21 years old. I was working, I was,

well, I was going door to door, business to business to find clients, into the winter time in Ohio.

trying to get people three times my age to trust me with their life savings while the market

seriously falling.

paden: [00:09:00] Yeah. While, while the world was going to war and.

Adam: yeah, well, no big deal. You know? No big deal. I mean, who's gonna trust this young

green ginger, right? Uh, going door to door. But anyway, so I think, I think early on I didn't know

what I was doing, honestly. I just, I was just working as hard as I could. and back then, it's funny,

I put more hours in now than I did back then.

but it was, it's like you go through the rollercoaster, you start. You start getting successful and

then you get so excited about the, the success, that's where you lose yourself and you lose that

time and you, you have those conversations with your, with your spouse and you realize you're

losing time with the kids.

You realize, you promised yourself and your family that you know, Hey, I'm not gonna, when I'm,

by the time my kids can are five and I can coach their sports, I'm gonna coach all their sports.

Then you realize they're 10 and you're like, wait a minute, I haven't done that yet. And it's crazy.

It just, it just goes by fast.

paden: Yeah. And you know, you're, obviously making me think about my life. Um, I got, you

know, three young kids. They're nine, seven, and five right now. And, um.

Speaker 7: we go.

paden: that [00:10:00] is, uh, very on the forefront for me. And, you know, swinging back to like

the, the work-life balance thing. Yeah. I'm, I don't really like that term.

I don't use that term. Um, you know, I really, me it's about setting intentionalities in all area of

your lives, right? It's like, what do I want my dates to look like? What do I want? You know, let's

set these priorities and then just design the schedule, right. That, that aligns with whatever you

say your priorities are.

Um, and, and that way you can be intentional about everything. And it's not this like. Tug and

pull of like, well, if I'm at work, I'm letting my family down. Or if I'm at with my family, I'm letting

my business down. if you really design that intentionally, I think that also lets you out of some of

that guilt I think that some people may have.

Right.

Adam: I think what you just said is exactly how people feel though. I know. That's how I feel. I

feel like when I'm at work, I'm letting my family down when I'm at. You know, with my family, I'm

not doing work when I feel like my staff needs me. I feel like my clients need me. So you feel like

you're pulled in five different directions.

Um, but yeah, IJI just, I mean, another thing I've heard over the [00:11:00] years that I thought

was really impactful was, you know, somebody once said that, you know, there's no trophy for

working harder than everybody else. Like, nobody cares, you know? So, and it should, you

shouldn't be proud of that.

You know, you shouldn't be proud that you put in 70 hours a week. Last week I put in 70 hours a

week. It's like, so what, man? It's like you worked harder than everybody else. You know? I think

that where I'm trying to get, I'm, because I'm doing way too many things right now, too many

companies, all, all that stuff.

I'm trying to, I'm trying to get to a point where, I don't know if you didn't know Dan Sullivan's,

who not how.

paden: Well, I, have read, uh, just, just side note before you go into that, um, I have committed

this year to just study him and Ben Hardy's work. So I've read that book probably three times

already this year.

Adam: Awesome. Yeah. Well, who, not how 10 x is doing two x gap in

paden: Yeah. Gap in the game. Yep.

Adam: four Cs. Um,

paden: Amazing entrepreneurial content. I mean, just amazing stuff.

Adam: Yeah, he's ama he is incredible. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so I, I, that's what I'm trying to do.

So I, it was, I was talking to a business consultant that I have on [00:12:00] retainer the other

day, and she's like, what's your goal? And I'm like, I honestly, if I could work 40 to 50 hours a

week, that'd be awesome.

I think most people would hear that and they'd think That's what, what are you only 40? What's

wrong with you? Right. But honestly, that's, I mean, that's the life of an entrepreneur. I mean, I'm

not, I'm not, I mean, is it challenging? Yeah. Because if it wasn't challenging, it'd be boring.

Right. And that's.

That's another problem. That's another discussion for another day. But it's like It's fun. I mean, I

do. I do enjoy it.

paden: once again, it's just the intentionality. You talk about like taking Fridays off or like people,

you know, people are like, oh man, I'd love to take Friday off. Well, you know what? Take it off

your calendar,

Speaker 7: Do it.

paden: right. And fit everything else in the other, you know, the other days if that's so much of a

priority too, like you have control of that and you talk about like, oh, I don't take meetings on

Mondays.

I don't either. Right? All my stuff on Mondays is internal. It's maybe podcast stuff. It's team stuff.

It's. Making sure I'm ready for the next three days because they usually stack the middle of the

week where it's just like Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, I just kind of get my butt kicked. And

then Friday I kind of, you know, [00:13:00] that's kind of recovery and, you know, and, and that's

my, my, my cycle that I've kind of designed that, that works for me, right.

And works for my business. And course it can get better, but like, um, it's just being a little

intentional around that. Right.

Adam: Yeah, I mean, two things before we close up this topic. The first is, Two years ago, I was

planning my next year, like I do every year in December. And I, it just kind of hit me that for, at

that point, what, 22 years? I'm like, for 22 years I've been doing evening appointments one day

a week. And usually it's on Tuesdays or Thursdays and I'll whoever picks the first late

appointment, that becomes the late evening and we just, you know,

paden: Then

you could fill it, fill that

one up and block the other one.

Adam: Just block it off. Right. Eight o'clock, 8 30, 9 o'clock, get home, whatever. And I just, it

was just spur of the moment. I just decided, you know what, I've been doing this too long. my

family would love to have me home more. It, I'm busy enough. It is it as it is. So I just on a whim

just decided to stop doing it.

And I called one of my friends in Philadelphia who also owns, you know, a, a financial advisory

firm. And I'm like, like, Hey, I'm doing this. You think I'm crazy? And he says, no. He's like if

anybody has a problem with it, [00:14:00] it's an inconvenience to them once a year, but it's an

inconvenience to you 52 times a year.

And I thought that was a really good quote. and then to your point about packing up Tuesdays,

Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I wouldn't say packing that up, just so, and I know you weren't

saying this either, but I would say to the audience, the people listening and watching them, I.

That's what you wanna do.

Um, we call 'em RPMs here. Um, rapid Power Meetings. We do all of our annual review

meetings with clients between January and March. Then we do semi-annual between March

and May and September and October. And that leaves, uh, time in the summer to relax a little bit

more. Things are a little slower and it leaves time in the, uh, wintertime to actually spend time

with the family for the holidays.

You're not slammed during the holidays. And of course, you know, new clients are coming on

board all the time, so it's not like you're not doing anything.

Speaker 7: But,

paden: yeah, for

Adam: but yeah, but I think that works really well for us.

paden: Yeah. And it's just, you know, every, obviously every industry's different, whatnot. You

have different work flows and, and, and it's just finding a, rhythm you know, you kind of talked

about, turning off right?

Earlier. You made a, the statement about turning off or it helps you to longer. I help you turn

[00:15:00] off, I'm just guessing I've only known you for 35 minutes, but I'm guessing that's a real

struggle for you and, and it is for, you know, most of us. It definitely is for me. You know, speak

to that a little bit.

You know, maybe some of the things you found, you know, for me it's like, uh, the sauna helps

me do that a lot.

Speaker 7: Hmm.

paden: Um, weirdly enough to where I can shut my brain off, and that's something I've been

very intentional about doing quiet time and things and, and, and, uh, recently of just thinking

time and quiet time in myself.

speak to that a little bit. what has your struggle been in that and, what are some of the tactics

maybe, you know, that you've used or could use?

Adam: I do struggle with that. you know, the day-to-day turning off is extremely difficult for me.

Um, especially when I'm really behind. I have a hard time. my wife can tell when I'm, you know,

not all there. And I'm, and it, and it's not even that I'm consciously thinking about something else

I need to do.

I'm just. I don't know. I can't, I mean, it's almost like I'm, I'm still in fifth gear. Like I just can't, I

can't downshift. so I [00:16:00] think that, and, and I don't have a long enough commute. My

commute is 15 minutes, you know, so that's not really a lot of time to decompress. And

oftentimes it, it's that last call that I need, didn't have time to make during the day.

So I jump on the phone on the way home, and the, and the 15 minute drive isn't long enough to

finish the call. So you're sitting in the driveway trying to wrap it up.

paden: been there.

Adam: one of the things I I, somebody taught me probably in the late two thousands was, the

seven second rule, I think is what he called it.

it might've been something, it might've been something longer than that. I don't know. It doesn't

matter. It's some, it's, it's a certain amount of seconds and make it and choose your seconds.

Um, when you come in the door at home to put everything down and the first thing you do is

you, you give your spouse a kiss, a hug.

You give your kids a hug And you hang out and talk to them for before you do anything, before

you go up and change before you, before anything else. I know a lot of people work from home

these days, but to to draw a line and have that division between work and home life, that's

helped for me to kind of have that in my head.

That that's, that's kind of like the switch, so to speak. but. I have another problem, which is once

I do turn off, so let's [00:17:00] just say for vacations, you know, when we go on trips, um, once I

turn off, I have a really hard time turning back on.

paden: really

Adam: I think it's, I think it's the extremist personality. It's

paden: yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Adam: you know, I, I can't, I mean, I'm, my wife bought me these cufflings.

Not that I do, I wear suits anymore, but one says on and one says off, and it's like, that's kind of

me in a nutshell. So, um, yeah.

paden: you know, something I've been trying to be un intentional about for sure, especially, you

know, young family, right? And very impressionable ages is like, just, you know, when when I

show up at home, my kids ex, you know, they're excited to see me, so they expect me to be

there, right?

Like, I walk through the door, but if I'm not, you know, I'm there, but I'm not really there. I mean,

it's obvious to everybody in the house, and to

Adam: Oh yeah, for sure.

paden: you just don't wanna string too many days in a.

Adam: Yeah, I think you gotta try and wrap up. You know, try, try to do your best to have some

cushion time at the end of the day to make sure you don't go home like you're always behind.

Um, I think we're always, always behind, right? But

paden: well, at least we, we think we are, you know, us, us super, uh, uh, anxious [00:18:00]

achieving entrepreneurs. Yes,

Adam: Yeah. Well, and, and that, that's what I was gonna say. It's like you have to, I feel like

you have to distinguish between what are you behind on that's important and what are you

behind on That's crucial. And it's the crucial things you need to do. Like what needs to be done

by today before you leave, and what needs to be done by the end of the week and you know, by

the end of the month, and then you just go from there.

paden: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's, it's prioritizing and, and trying to organize to, to, you know, just

release some of that

Adam: Yeah.

paden: Adam, obviously you're a very, very accomplished guy. You got, um, a whole lot of

letters behind your ations.

Adam: That's just because of my, uh, uh, insecurity with my intelligence. How's that?

paden: Yeah. Maybe that's me too, I guess. Um, when just talking, you know, entrepreneurs in

general, right? You're, you're very much in the wealth and, and you know, tax base, you know,

similar to me. You know what, what's just some general advice for entrepreneurs, people trying

to build a business, maybe exit a business, like, you know, finance.

Right? Obviously a huge part of a business. You know, one of the major pillars of a business is,

you know, finance. [00:19:00] Speak to like the importance of that, or just maybe some general

advice for entrepreneurs, or you see problems in that area.

Adam: I mean, I think the first thing is probably to figure out what you want and who you are.

You know, um, some, some businesses wanna build a lifestyle business. Um, so I think there's

two kinds. There's, there's people who wanna build a lifestyle business that's gonna give you the

money that you need to do the things you want at home with your family.

You know, save enough money to quit one day and make work optional. and you may or may

not sell your company. Um, it either resolve it. If you do sell it, it's probably not gonna be for

some huge nest egg. Um,

paden: Yeah.

Adam: the other type of owner is the owner that wants to turn their business into an investment.

That wants to, actually sell it someday for, for something substantial.

And obviously the word substantial means something different to everyone. but it doesn't matter

if you're selling it for 2 million or 20 million. I, I think that's all substantial. Um, so it's all relative,

right? So I think that, you know, if you're the lifestyle business, I, I'm, I'm gonna kind of, Spend

less time, I guess talking about the lifestyle business and more time talking about the companies

that are [00:20:00] in that, you know, half million to a million in range that're trying to get up to

that one to $2 million range. And then the companies that, one to two that are trying to break,

break that ceiling of one and a half to two, that just, you know, it's tough.

That's the scaling point. Um, and get up to that three, four, or five, uh, million dollar range. And, I

think you have to spend time working on the business. And I don't, and I'm gonna stop real quick

'cause. I don't wanna sound like a cliche 'cause that's exactly what that

paden: Yeah. Oh yeah. Everybody's heard that, right?

Adam: You have, in my opinion, you have to hire a good CPA that understands business.

And then I think you need to hire a good fractional CFO. Um, businesses between one and 10

million don't typically have one in 20 million. Don't typically have the space or the revenue to pay

a full-time CFO, nor do they have the work for a full-time CFO.

paden: But they need it. Like they need that expertise for sure.

Adam: You've gotta start treating the business like an investment and stop treating it like you

wanna spend everything you have and get your profit to zero. Um, I [00:21:00] think that to a

certain point, it's okay to do that early in your career as you grow the business. There's nothing

wrong with paying more taxes. Um.

Of course we wanna pay as little tax as possible. I always say there's nothing wrong with

avoiding taxes, we just can't evade them.

paden: Yeah. Don't use.

Adam: but I think that, um, at some point when you feel like you've gotten stuck, that's when it's

time to reach out and hire somebody who's, uh, an expert in business transition planning.

And I, I purposely don't use the phrase exit planning because when you tell a successful

business owner who's growing a great company in their thirties. Um, Hey, you know, we do exit

plan. They're like, well, that's not for me because I'm not selling anytime soon. So. I call it

business transition planning or business transition and exit planning.

Because what we wanna do is we wanna transition you from wherever you are today to where

you wanna be. And what most owners want, whether they know it or not, is they want to spend

less time in the business. They don't wanna be, so dependent upon them, we wanna get their

risk down.

So like, for instance, [00:22:00] customer concentration, uh, the amount of the business,

whether it's staff, customers, clients that rely on the owner. We wanna get continuity in place.

Um, so if something were to happen to the owner that there's a, there's something in place to

keep the business alive. there's sales training, there's profitability measures.

Uh, from an absolute basis there are intangibles, um, from a risk standpoint we can do to

increase the multiple on the coming, having nothing to do with profit and, and absolute, uh,

value. And what ends up happening when you're a 35 or 40-year-old or 45-year-old, doesn't

really matter if, if you're not even close to selling.

What ends up happening is you end up. Finding yourself spending less time. In the business,

more time with your family, with that work-life balance thing, we were just talking about staff that

are happier. 'cause you've let go of a lot of things. You've given them more responsibility, you're

trusting them.

Let's go back to who not how again. Right. they're more excited. They see your vision. I always

say that, in our office, I don't like to say that there's, that I'm the shark and we've got all these

minnows working with me. I say we're all piranhas. Nobody works well with sharks.

So, you know, we all, you want [00:23:00] to turn your company into a bunch of piranhas

swimming in the same direction, you know, killing the meat and taking it home. And I think that,

uh, you know, so, so the advice I would give owners is. Not to work on the business from a

cliche standpoint, but specifically to make sure you're working with a good CPA, make sure you

are.

Um, if you're in that 1 million and up range, you should be looking at hiring a fractional CFO. and

then I would get your hands on somebody who understands value acceleration. you know,

somebody, like a certified exit planning advisor. You know, something like that.

paden: I talk to a lot of different entrepreneurs and, and you know, we talk about their building,

you know, building their business, building it to um, you know, sell someday. and, it's amazing

enough. It's like when people are going through that process of like, okay, I got this crappy

business.

I'm gonna fix all these things to sell it. Okay. You put in those years and years of hard work to, to

get it to that point. And then you realize, wait.

I got actually

a really good asset here. Maybe I don't wanna sell it. Right? Because, and, I don't think

entrepreneurs and [00:24:00] people think about that.

It's like, okay, you know, if your, your big goal is to sell this business someday, well you're gonna

have to take that capital and guess what? You're gonna have to buy some other type of asset.

So you're really just exchanging one asset for another. And, and maybe that's what you wanna

do. Maybe you don't.

But like, either way, if you can get the business fixed and, and you can truly become an owner,

like a shareholder, right? Like a public company shareholder and not the operator, or really not

taking any time there, well, maybe you'll never actually wanna sell.

Adam: Yeah, no, for sure. I think that, um, I. The statistics are that 80% of business owners net

worth is in their company. and then the other 80% status that 80% of businesses don't sell, they

dissolve. So only 20% of businesses sell and 75% of the 20% sell for less than market value.

So. Yes, once, once the owner finally realizes like, not, this isn't, I think most owners know they

have an asset.

I don't think that they know if they can sell it or not, and then they definitely don't know what it's

worth. And, you [00:25:00] know, oftentimes they overvalue it. and then what that does is it kind

of gives them a bad, I. Or at least a misled, trajectory on when they can retire. Um, so you end

up getting against lack of planning, right?

Um, because of lack of planning, getting the right things in place, de-risking, you know, all the

things that you need to do to make it attractive to a buyer. You know, all those things need to

happen first, and it takes, I, in my opinion, three years. So I think that you need to have a three

year one way if you're looking to sell.

To get this thing ready to sell. So it's worth something. So that, let's just say when you're doing

your retirement plan with you and your spouse, if you're an owner, the business needs to be part

of the retirement plan and it, and we need to know what's the, what's the business need to sell

for in order for us to ride off into the sunset.

And then we gotta figure out how do we make the business work that much, whatever that

needs to be. Right.

paden: yeah, yeah. And I, you know, I kind of think of it as the analogy of like, right, when

you're, you're selling your house, you kind of don't do any of the home improvement projects.

And then finally when you're decide you're gonna sell it, you fix it all up and then you realize, oh,

this is a really nice house.

Why are we moving?

Adam: Yeah,

paden: Like, I mean, [00:26:00] that's, that's just so typical, right?

Adam: used that same exact analogy. Yeah. And that's why, I guess to to that point, that's why

people shouldn't wait till they're ready

paden: Yeah. It's just start working on it. Just like give yourself just into excellence and start

working on,

Adam: Yeah, do it now. Do the planning now. And what's gonna happen is you're gonna be,

you're, there's gonna be less risk in your business, more continuity. You're gonna make more

money, you're gonna have more free time. And by the way, you're exponentially gonna be worth

more when the time comes to sell later because you did the planning now and you didn't wait

until three years before retirement.

And, um, you probably heard that of all the, the ds, right? Divorce, disability, disease, uh,

disagreements with partners, you know, these are the things that happen that cause businesses

to dissolve. how many times you, we talk, do you and I talk to business owners and they say,

you say, Hey, you know, when you, when you thinking about selling, uh, I don't know, maybe

three years, you talk to 'em in two years, Hey, what do you think about selling?

Uh, oh, maybe three years. I mean, it's like we're just, they're just waiting for the inevitable.

Something like dementia or Parkinson's or worse, right? I mean, who knows?

paden: Yeah. And it's just, it's not, um, you [00:27:00] know, it's, it's either fear or just not

knowing how to, you know, to begin to executing on, whatever they got. Or they're just in a habit

and a routine and like, there's just no one ever addressing whatever problems are going on in

the business to, um, but then again, like how much money are you costing yourself, right?

Because, you know, the outsider comes in and sees all these problems and is like. Well, why the

heck would I wanna buy that tank?

Adam: Yeah. And I'm so glad you said that because that's the other big stat is that, owners who

sell that are surveyed a year later more than 75% of them surveyed. Uh, say that they strongly

regret selling.

paden: Yep.

Adam: so now everybody listening and watching is going, well, why in the world would I wanna

sell that?

Whatcha you guys talking about? Right? Well, it's not that you shouldn't sell, it's that the people

that are upset about it didn't have a plan for what they're gonna do afterward, which is, to your

point, Peyton, like that's, that's why these people are afraid and they keep kicking the can down

the road is 'cause it like, well, what the hell am I gonna do?

I've been spending all my time doing this. This is back to the beginning of our, of the show. This

is who I am. Right. This is who I am. It needs to be about more than that. You need to know, like,

[00:28:00] what are you gonna do when you quit working? It's like football. I always say it's like

life after football.

Average time in the NFL is 3.3 0.8 years, which means that by the time the average person's

done playing football in the NFL professionally, they're uh, 20, like 25 years old, 26 may at best.

So you got a lot of life left and owners. I mean, contrary to popular belief, when your business is

sold, you're not gonna die.

There's a lot more life left. So you have to have a plan for what you're going to do in that, you

know, first five years, second five years, the fir the second 10 years.

paden: yeah, a lot of, like you said, a lot of business owners are dissatisfied. They're, they're,

they're certainly like measurably, um, I don't wanna say more depressed or or whatever you

wanna call it, after, after selling the business. 'cause they've lost their identity. Um, they thought

you could go sit on a beach, but once you do that, specialize in entrepreneur for like 10 days,

you're like, well, this sucks.

I can only drink so many or whatever. Right. Like, you think you can set there the rest of your

life? You can't, I promise you can't. Uh, so it's, it is so important to have like, okay, what am I

gonna do? Like, what [00:29:00] is, what's the next chapter of my life? Um, and what do I wanna

dive into? Because hopefully you've built this business, you've sold this asset, you know, may

now hopefully you've got the money freedom and the time freedom to really just dive into

whatever lights you up.

Right? Um, and that could be anything because you, you have all those freedoms, right?

Adam: that's right, a hundred percent.

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paden: So, Adam, What do you credit is your number one skill that has led to all of that?

Adam: Can I give you two?

The first one's easy. The first one's easy. The number one is just hard work. Just, just relentless

paden: getting done. Mm-hmm.

Adam: Um, I

paden: You bring the energy. I can tell. Right. I'm I, I can tell you're pretty revved up. You do this

I'm sure every day.

Adam: I get excited. I mean, I, I, this, this stuff, all this stuff excites me. Like success excites

me. success, change, growth, all those [00:31:00] things really pump me up.

finding something you love and then once you love it, you're gonna be good at it. You're, you're

destined to be good at it because you like it, right?

paden: and once you're good at it, you'll love it even more.

Adam: Right. You are right. It's like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Yeah. So I think the first one's hard

work, but I think equally important is, uh, resilience.

there have been times in my career, I, I was like seven years into my career and I remember

going home and. You know, dropping off my, laptop bag, giving my wife a kiss, and then going

into my office, kind of sneaking in my office and looking for things to sell on eBay to pay the

mortgage.

I can't count the number of times that, you know, we thought we were good and then something

happened. Market crashes, recession, bad hire. Um, we had a, we had a hire once. That cost

me. $340,000 of revenue, um, in 18 months. And while the bleeding occurred, I, we all thought it

wasn't. This person, we thought it [00:32:00] was something else, and, and he and this person

was saying it was something else.

And at the end of the day, once we had to part ways, of course, you know, we found out that,

you know, the clients that were, you know, the few clients that were leaving still, um, canceled

their transfers came back and they told us what was really happening and the person wasn't

doing their job. to make a very, very long story short.

So Yeah, I think that, uh, I think that hard work, and then you're gonna get knocked down

repeatedly if you're an entrepreneur. You just, and you just have to get used to failing and then

just fail fast and move on.

paden: Yeah, and it's just, it's being able to lean into it, right? Like and it's everything in life. It's,

it's such a small difference between, you know, somebody that's reactive and proactive. Or like,

you know, standing up straight or slightly leaning in. Right? But, when you do that, like the

difference is massive over the long time when you, you really compound that out, right?

just willing to, to step into things. Right? And then you also talk about hard work, right? And hard

work is the ability to just show up, put your butt in the seat and do the thing you said you

[00:33:00] were going to do, right? And a lot of people, and it's a muscle and a lot of people

haven't really developed that.

And, and, um, that is something you do need to develop. and even just to circle back from what

you said, even in the beginning of like, you know, the people that really pride themselves, you

know, really, you know, take on that identity of the hard work and the hustler and the grinder and

whatnot. And I, I used to be that so much more than I am today.

I've gotten a lot of wiser in the right, where it's like I work 70 hours a week, and you're like, well,

congrats. Is that. Like, I thought the plan was to work less or whatever. Right? Like, um, it

sounds like you need to find better things to work on, right? Like, because of your, you know, it

sounds like you're kind of spinning your wheels, but like it's so true.

It's like quality over quantity. That's a big, you know, Dan Hardy stuff we're talking about Dan

Hardy earlier quality over quantity and, and like, once again, you can have success. And it feel

good at the same time. Like it doesn't have to be this, I gotta take on the whole world and punch

everybody out, [00:34:00] fight through all this stuff.

it can feel good while you do it too. And that's something that I wish I would have done better

over the last say, call it decade.

Adam: For sure. Yeah.

paden: So, Adam, another thing for you, so going back, so it's uh, September 1st, 2001, right?

You're starting your career.

I would've been Adam, so you're a little bit, I would've been in eighth grade, uh, because I, yeah,

I was eighth grade on September 11th.

Adam: Making me feel really old now.

paden: So if you can go back to that young kid Right. Doesn't know anything, and you could

whisper, you know, something in his ear right now, what

Adam: Mm-hmm.

paden: would it be?

Adam: I would say as soon as humanly possible, whatever it is you do each and every day,

write it down, turn it into a process and a system. And if you can delegate it or automate it. Then

build a systems manual and automate and system create systems and processes out of

everything so that you can spend you all your time doing the thing that you are not only the best

at, but you love doing and not, you know, just don't, don't [00:35:00] spin your wheels doing stuff

you shouldn't be doing.

paden: can you go back to like 2014 and tell me the same thing that that'd be?

Adam: Yeah, I mean, we started installing systems and processes in 2007, oh, I'm sorry, six 20

2006. And my eyes were open to it from a company called Pareto Systems outta Canada that I

hired. and I was like, whoa, this is, this is the answer right here.

You know, just all the things that we go to bed at night. That we, you know, we can't sleep.

'cause we're like, oh my God, did we forget about that? And we roll over and we grab our phone

and we email ourselves to, you know, the, the, when you systematize everything, when you

have processes in place, like for instance, our client onboarding process for new clients has 67

steps and it's all automated.

So everybody gets emails with each step with what they're supposed to do. Nothing gets

forgotten. Everybody gets the same experience. I hate to achievement it down this much and

say it's like the McDonald handbook, but you

paden: where you wanna be.

Adam: I mean, you want it to, you want it to be, uh, you want the fun not to be in the excitement

around forgetting something if that's excitement.

[00:36:00] Um, you want the, you want the, the energy you get to be from the interactions you

have with people, whether that's with your staff, with your clients, customers, um, and with, you

know, new people. Uh, that's where you want the excitement to be. You don't want it to be with,

uh, trying to keep the machine running while, You know, there's a reason we went from horses

and carriages to cars, right? And we, you don't want to, you don't want to keep driving a horse

and carriage if everybody around you is, it's successful anyway. That's, uh, scaling. and I guess

maybe that's what I should say. In the beginning, I felt like I was a workaholic and I was just

work harder, right?

paden: Yeah. Yeah. Same

Adam: Where I really started growing. And this was a, this was the first aha moment for me

when I really started growing was an, I realized, and this, I don't like saying it, but it's true. Um,

any successful business would tell you this is true. It's when I realized I wasn't a financial

planning and wealth management firm that happened to do marketing.

I'm a, I'm a marketing firm that just happens to do financial planning and wealth management. It

sucks to say that because it sounds so, [00:37:00] it sounds like it cheapens the whole

experience, but. If you wanna grow and you, I mean, I, what I tell the advisors that I coach is

that if you're a good ethical advisor, above average, you know, and you give great advice, then

you need to be telling people, because there's plenty of people out here that aren't good

advisors, that don't give good advice, that care more about their own pocket than yours, than

your clients.

And they're doing great marketing, aren't they?

paden: Yeah. And they're, they're getting all your clients.

Adam: There we go. I say they're stealing your clients. And then, and then they're not doing

good work for 'em. So you I don't think it's as good, honest morally sound professionals. It's not

a privilege for us to get good at marketing, growing our business.

it's a responsibility.

paden: And it's a require in the business. You know, we were, earlier we were talking about like

the pillar of finance. Well, the pillar of marketing is massive in a business and I, I a hundred

percent agree with you. I'm a gold guy. Write, write down my stuff, read it every morning.

That, that kind of stuff. And, and yes, [00:38:00] in my visualization I read every morning it says,

we are a sales and marketing company. And, and that's what we are, right in every company, uh,

is really a sales and marketing company. It doesn't really matter.

Adam: If they're around for much long, right? They won't be around very long if

paden: Yeah, and, and what I would tell you, if you're a business under a million dollars a year,

your number one problem is no one knows who you are. Like that's your number one problem.

yes, you probably got operational problems and whatever, but your really, your biggest problem

is no one knows who you are.

And, getting professional in marketing and sales and stuff took me way too long to do that.

Finally, really getting all those pieces together,

Adam: everybody.

paden: it's Gamechanging game change.

Adam: And I think that's where mentorship comes in. So maybe that's another thing is just when

you said what I've done to start over and do it better, it's like I said, hard work. Then I said

resilience. If there was a third, it would be, I've always been really, really good about seeking out

mentors that whether they wanted to mentor me or not, I would keep bothering them until they

listen or, or gave me their ear, you know?

And I think that, um, most owners want to help other owners. Most owners will give you the

[00:39:00] shirts off their back to help. And I think the more mentors you can get and the more

mistakes you can learn from before making them, I think the better off you can be.

paden: Yeah, and I think that was, that was probably my biggest mistake there was that I was

trying to do all this in isolation and figure it out myself, and like, man, I could've skipped seven

years and all kinds of frustration if I would've just asked somebody.

Adam: Well, it's like, um, you know, it's like you're on an island and then you feel like if you ask

somebody that you're letting someone else know that you're not doing well.

paden: Yeah. I see. And that's just my insecurities, right? I mean, that's what

Adam: That's everybody. Everybody. There is no business owner that just had a linear line from

zero to, you know, 10 x without any, without any bumps in the road.

I mean, that's non-existent. It's non-existent.

paden: yeah. 'cause you know, we'll, we'll get some breakthrough, we'll grow a little bit, then

we'll plateau and be like, what the

heck's the problem here?

And it's, like the theory of constraints, right? It's like you, your business will grow until it runs into

a constraint, you know, a small business, a lot of times the owner and something wrong with

them

Adam: Newton's law, [00:40:00] right.

paden: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And as soon as you fix a constraint, well, it's gonna grow and then hit

the next constraint. Right. And you're

Adam: sounds like you're a,

paden: just fixing these constraints.

Adam: it sounds like you're a reader like me, even though I listen to all my books,

paden: Yeah, me too. I haven't really read a book in year. Right. I

Adam: I haven't read a book in years. Um, but the, it's the whole Jim Collins thing, right? What,

what, what gets you to that first plateau? What's gonna take you to the next level is not

gonna gotta break it. Yeah, you gotta break it. Right. And, and, and most of the times, and that's

things that I'm doing right now, it's like you gotta break things. Take two or three steps back so

you can take, you know, 20 steps forward, right? Because like what you built to get you here,

like just can't go forward, right?

paden: The systems don't work or whatever doesn't work. Um, you gotta break it and build

something new.

Adam: that's when you get to that last aha moment, which is you go from being a workaholic to

realizing you're not a company, you know, that sells widgets. You're a a marketing company that,

you know, you're a marketing company that sells whatever your service is. You're not the service

provider doing [00:41:00] marketing.

The third step is the whole scaling part. it's doing that who, not how it's trusting other people. It's

delegation. It's um, it's turning your company into an investment as opposed to working harder

on your company.

paden: you know, I loved, earlier we talked about like, you don't wanna over systematize, right?

Like, well, I mean, yes, we wanna systematize the

heck out, everything. Yeah, you want everything so clean and systematized where stuff doesn't

fall through the cracks. And then because of that, that allows you and your employees to be fully

present and then to personalize the experience, right?

Or to even maybe go over and above because there's some unique thing. But you can do that

because you're fully present, because you have like, you got this rock solid system. And then we

can be unique on top of it to give people even a better experience.

Adam: Yeah, I think you're doing it right when people are like, how are you getting all this stuff

done that you're getting done? It's like, wow, okay. There we go.

paden: Yeah, systems. Maybe

Adam, man, I, I love it. listeners wanna get to know more about you and whatnot. What's the

best way they can connect with you or follow you or [00:42:00] just get to know more about you?

Adam: Sure. LinkedIn's probably best just, uh, look for Adam. Last name is KOOS, as in Sam

on LinkedIn. our website's libertas wealth.com. And then the exit planning business transition

planning site is Elevate and exit.com.

paden: Heck yeah, man. Anything, uh, you wanna leave listeners before we go?

Adam: I would just say to the people who are stuck, keep your head up, keep plowing away.

Don't get discouraged. And, With every one of those stumbles that, you know, where you get

knocked down and you stand up and that resilience takes hold again, you'll look back and, and

you'll just tell stories about it and you'll be teaching somebody else and that, you know, needs

the same help.

You need help right now.

paden: Yeah, that's great stuff. You're building a muscle, right? Every time you get up, you have

evidence in your past. Now that I am strong enough, I can do that. Um, yeah. Just keep moving

forward, man.

Adam: Well, there's a hundred percent chance you won't succeed if you don't do anything.

Right.

paden: That is correct, and you'll always have that regret.

Adam: That's right. True story.

paden: Adam. Appreciate you man. Listeners, we'll catch you next time.

Speaker 2: Thank you so much for listening to the podcast. [00:43:00] If you found it valuable,

please rate, review, and share it. That is the best way to help us build this and reach more

people as we're trying to accomplish our goal of help creating more healthy, wealthy, and wise

entrepreneurs. You can follow us on social media by searching for me Peyton Squires.

Or going to payton squires.com on the website and social media. We're always sharing tips of

personal growth and there we can actually interact. I'm looking forward to it. Thanks guys.