328 Greg Martin

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Greg Martin is a founding team member at Origin Merchant Partners, which specializes in mergers and acquisitions. Prior to his current role, Greg successfully ventured into the hospitality industry, where he founded a multi faceted business encompassing a restaurant, catering services, and a food e commerce platform, eventually leading to a strategic exit.

In addition to his professional accomplishments, Greg is the host of the Lifetime at Work Podcast. Greg delves into people's dynamic career journeys through this platform by shedding light on their challenges, triumphs, and the intrinsic fulfillment derived from their professional paths. His podcast offers invaluable insights into the diverse experiences and lessons learned in the realm of work and career development.

And before we start the episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Sanjay, a graduate of Deep Wealth Mastery, and he says, the investment I made in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it's a rounding error compared to the value created today and the future value I'll receive.

Or how about William, who says, and I [00:01:00] love this, A company that's attractive to sell is also a great one to own. The Deep Wealth Mastery Program gives me the best of both worlds. 

Now speaking of growth and adding value, check out what Leon says. He says that the Deep Wealth Mastery Program changed how and who we hire. We've now begun to hire talent today that we never would have hired if it weren't for the program. The talent we're hiring today is helping both increase our growth and profits and our future enterprise value. 

Man, I love that kind of feedback because it's that kind of feedback that's what gets me out of bed every day.

Deep Wealth Mastery System, it's the only system based on a nine figure deal. That was my deal. And as you know, I said, no to a seven figure offer, created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery, and that's what helped myself and my business partners all welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure deal.

So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, whether that's two years away or 22 years away, and if you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for [00:02:00] you. Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C C E S S at deepwealth. com. We'll send you all the information about Deep Wealth Mastery, otherwise known as the Scale for Ultimate Sales System. 

That's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders, just like you, who are looking to create market disruptions. Whether you're a startup, whether you've been in business for three or four decades, whether you're manufacturing, whether you're high tech, SaaS, low tech, whatever the case may Come in and network with other business owners, with other businesses, just like you, because they all want to lock in their financial freedom and enjoy both success and fulfillment.

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Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. You heard it in the official introduction. We have a fellow entrepreneur, a post exit entrepreneur, a mythical creature from the M&A world, a thought leader, a [00:03:00] fellow podcaster. My goodness, Greg, what aren't you doing? Well, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast, an absolute pleasure to have you with us.

And Greg, there's always a story behind the story. What's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today? 

Greg Martin: Yeah, well, thanks for having me on. pleasure to have, again, a fellow business person and M&A person as well to talk with, but yeah, no, I mean, my quick backstory is I'm a Canadian born and raised in the Toronto area. And you know, coming out of university and coming out of school, I didn't really know what I wanted to do.

I think that's very common. I just sort of knew what I was kind of good at, which was a little bit of numbers. And I got into the world of investment banking and, and Advising a lot of companies on M&A. I mean, that's just what I didn't really deliberately get in there. I just kind of, got offered a job and became, I guess, good at it.

 and so I, sort of told myself though, knowing the hours and just at the big, Commitment of life, I would say, to get into investment banking out of school. I sort of told myself two or three years and I'd go find something else to do. and I hit the 10 year mark and I was like, what the hell am I doing still here?

Like, is this going to be the rest of my [00:04:00] life, whatever? And so in and amongst all that, I had actually, started a business. I was still also doing investment banking at the same time and it kind of started this business and I realized, okay, I can't do this. I need to go. And so I quit and focused full time on my own business.

And Today, I am actually back into the world of investment banking and M&A advisor and we can get into the story. But through all that, also started a podcast because it's kind of hard sometimes to know what you want to do and what career and the. Art of careers has its door for you.

And I think that's what I like to talk about as well on the side,

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sounds like they both intertwined your journey, the podcast, what you're doing now in M&A. But let me ask you, from the M&A side, you're now sitting on the So you're on the opposite side of the table and you're buying, you're selling, you're really in the mix of it. Knowing what you know today, and we'll get to this at the end of the podcast with going back in time.

But knowing what you know today, going back to the Greg who knew nothing about investment banking and M&A and you're out there doing your business side of things, I mean, what are you seeing that's, wow, you know what? I wish I would've known that back in the day.

[00:05:00] As a founder on the M&A front, I mean, yeah, I would say it's weird to think that way because I know, who I am sort of now. And I just feel like it's so, anyways, that was how I was. So, I incredible, I think, is, you as a business owner feel like you are creating value in certain ways or that your business has, has, I think that's probably the big thing I don't know you recognize that as someone who's sort of call it untrained or you know, less in the know other than just sort of starting to ask people and you don't need to ask a banker. You can just start to ask people and try to figure out what other businesses and other companies are doing.

Greg Martin: you spend so much time on your business, trying to do all these things, and you probably usually aren't always thinking about, well, what am I doing to actually, like, call it, create value that someone else is willing to pay for, or, and is that the best use of my time? A lot of times, you're just trying to You know, get more sales.

You're trying to get the name out there. You're trying to have [00:06:00] things operate a little bit easier or whatever you're doing and you don't really have that frame and I would say that would be kind of the advice or whatever that I would try to give to that M&A version.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Fair enough. And, you know, as we say, deep wealth, how can you master something you've never done before? And so the skills that build a business are definitely not the same. And sadly, most business owners, if they make that film, it's like, well, you know what? I've built this business. I got it down pat, no problem for M&A.

It's a transference of skills. They're really different skills, but let me ask you this, and it's going back to the good old Pareto's law or the 80 20 principle and something along the lines, it's not exactly, but 80 percent of the issues are generally caused by 20 percent of the same root problems or root causes of what's going on.

And so when you're out there, when you're looking at companies and you're acting now for a buyer. So a buyer's coming in. They brought you on board, you're going to look for some acquisitions for them, and either you're walking away from a deal or you're saying, yeah, I know they're asking for, let's [00:07:00] call it an index of a hundred.

A hundred could be a hundred million dollars, it could be a million dollars, it could be anything in between. It's just an index of a hundred. I know they're asking for an index of a hundred, and yeah, fair market value is that index of a hundred. That said, though, They've made this mistake, or they're not doing this, or diligence has turned up bad.

It's going to be a hundred minus a penalty. What's going on with that? Are there some common traits that you're seeing that we're just not getting as entrepreneurs, founders, business owners?

Greg Martin: I mean, maybe I'd say that as putting the hat on of the buyer, a lot of times, if they're strategic, right, so let's think about if, if they're a strategic buyer in your business or in your industry, they're going to think about buy versus build. And, is it worth the trouble?

I'm going and negotiating with this guy to figure out their business, how they're going to integrate. It's a lot of work and you have to, make the case that it's going to be better or a lot, a lot more worth it to do that versus, versus not. Now, there are a lot of other buyers out there, a lot more financial in nature.

Private equity is usually the halo, but, there's lots of other kind of related [00:08:00] groups. And when they're looking, it's a little bit different. I they want to know. that I can come into this business and operate it and actually find a bunch of things that I can do better than what was being done before.

 and what they typically do, especially in a market like we're seeing now, where it's probably not as frothy, where you're less worried about losing out and you want to you really want to make good decisions and really worry about, really focus on it is building in buffer.

you don't have as much debt to be able to put on interest rates are higher. So you can't just borrow money to buy businesses quite the same way as you could before. And so, a lot of cases you are being that much more, you're just building a buffer and you're paying a little bit less than you are scrutinizing a little bit more.

And we're really fine. certainly in my business or seeing that a lot more where. You don't have quite the call it, easy money and the eagerness that was probably there not too long ago. And so I, you know, I think as a seller, as someone who owns a business and is thinking about that in the future, it's really hard if you find yourself at.

If you're in a rush, if for whatever reason you really want to sell, and I know you're big on this [00:09:00] too, as well, like you need to have time. You're not always going to have success when you run a sale process. You're not always going to, you know, everything's going to align and you can't find yourself in a bind.

You can't find yourself, someone twisting your arm saying, I got to do it because I need the money for this and whatever it might be, that's probably the worst situation you can be in. You kind of need to give it in some cases the time to be able to do it properly.

I think as well, take the emotion out of it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure. And you are preaching and off the same playbook that we have a deep wealth. You need time. I know most business owners, okay, Jeffrey, Greg, okay, I'm ready. Let's go. Let's get it going. And so from a time perspective, Greg, from your perspective, what are we looking at in terms of owner comes to you and says, you know what, Greg.

Take me to market. I want you to find a buyer for me, but you know what, I'm not in a rush. It doesn't have to be tomorrow. It doesn't even have to be next year. So you have that kind of latitude. What are you recommending in terms of, from what you're seeing, the ideal preparation time for a business owner to get the business ready and not sacrifice their health or time and really their wealth or [00:10:00] money in rushing into a liquidity event in which they're not prepared.

Greg Martin: Yeah, a little bit depends on your objectives. And the vast majority of people, when it comes down to it, I find really just care about the value of how do I maximize value. So let's cut to the chase here and say to do that. And I would say that in, most of the cases, you've got investor or a buyer or someone who is trying to just figure out what the hell to pay, like, what can I justify, what's reasonable and.

the key then for, I think most processes is then looking at how repeatable, sustainable, what is the risk of whatever earnings you have from different segments of different business lines, whatever, how sustainable is that, and do I know that that is, solid. The less solid it is, it's the less someone's going to be willing to pay you for it.

And the more that you can do to give confidence, whether that be with contracts, whether that be with just trends that are really attractive, whatever that might be, I think will help to underpin an offer that you're going to get and then also kind of enforce or encourage that, whoever you're getting the offer from to keep it and [00:11:00] not go back on it once you're sort of knee deep in diligent.

So I'd say that's the biggest thing now. That's a little bit hard to do and a little bit abstract but I think, you know, it comes back to what I was talking about before. It's just that how sure are you, what defense do you have around it? how can you really convince someone that earnings that you've brought today, the business, what it is today is going to be a great platform.

It's not going to lose anything. It's going to actually Just grow. And that's what you know, in many cases a business needs. And a lot of the orientation around the prep is first doing that, is making sure that is all sort of in a way figured out. And then there's absolutely, I think, a certain amount of prep going around.

Aligning the KPIs and figuring out how might I compare to competitors? And every buyer out there today has so many options. They are getting flooded with, sims and offerings and ideas. And they're just, a lot of the professionals in this world are are trying to make decisions on whether, should I buy this, should I spend my time doing that?

It's kind of the 80 20 you were saying. wHere do I spend my time? And so you kind of have to have, you as a seller, a good awareness for what those KPIs [00:12:00] are. What, like, what are people tracking? How are they going to benchmark me against the last offer and the last business opportunity they had?

And, I'm like, can I outperform? Can I, kind of just stand out versus, maybe the last one. So some things I could keep going

Jeffrey Feldberg: no, I absolutely. Well, let me ask you this because I'm wondering about your secret sauce. Let me position it this way. So in our 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery Program, one of the things that we're sharing, and we're exclusively on the sales side, exclusively for entrepreneurs, Founders, business owners who at one point, they want to grow their profits.

And at one point they want to have a liquidity event, whenever that is. It could be two years from now. It could be 20 years from now, something in between. And what we say is that wonderful quote, wish I'd said it myself. I didn't though credit goes to Maxwell Maltz, when the team works, the dream works, and what we share with the people going through our program is you've got to become the absolute world's best client for all of your advisors.

Because when you're the world's best client, you're going to have the chemistry going on. Calls are going to be returned quickly. You're going to just, things are going to happen. That's where the magic is going to [00:13:00] happen. So Greg, I'm sure you've seen the good, the bad, the ugly, as the saying goes, when it comes to working with clients for you, what's the world's best client?

What advice would you give of the kinds of attributes or how we're showing up to work with someone like yourself?

Greg Martin: There's one main piece of advice and it's take and consider the advice that you're being given and fine. You can extrapolate this, I think, towards even dating. So incredible. We get so emotional about our businesses as we do about, the men and women in our lives who we are romantically involved with.

And sometimes it is incredibly obvious to your best friend that this is, the perfect dream match for you or not, but in our heads, we can't see it. And do think that happens a lot. In many cases your banker, your advisor, whatever, they can take the emotion out of it.

Or they're going to give you a straight answer. And sometimes the answer is awful. Like sometimes you just, as a founder, you're just like, I hate that he gave me that advice or said that, and you need that though, you need to go take it. To digest it. And you need to sort of think about it. You don't have to take it every time it is meant as advice.

It is not [00:14:00] meant as like do this or else, it is absolutely, you know, consider this because there's lots of good advice and it's not just from your advisor, it could be from anyone. It could be from your. significant other. It could be from people within your organization. Like there's a lot of smart people out there who may have different perspectives and that's honestly like the big advice I have is, so often we find, or we encounter people, clients who just think they know everything and they do, like they're very knowledgeable about their business and they have a lot of sense for what they want.

And they're smart people

Pretty much all the time. It's just that. You do need to rely on the expertise at some point of others and just, listen to it and try to figure out how you can listen to it to take advantage of sort of what they're saying and that expertise experience.

it's pretty simple.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You So maybe it's a trust, but verify of, okay, I'm hearing you, I don't understand it, or I don't agree. Walk me through that, explain that to me, but ultimately don't come in hard headed. Hey, it's my way or the highway. You don't know what you don't know. And I know everything that I know, and just really losing the ego, being very open.

I mean, after all, Greg, you and the team, you're doing this all day, every day. And so speaking of that, [00:15:00] for our listeners, if we were to go to you and say, okay, Greg, yeah, we're ready at one point to go to market, take us to market. What's your process like? What could we expect for that?

Greg Martin: So, the timing of each step kind of depends on a lot of things. So, you kind of, usually we, break it down into four steps and those can be. A month, they can be two months, sometimes longer, but you know, call it one to two months for each, where your step one is sort of the preparation, getting everything ready, figuring out what the story is, making sure the numbers match the strategy, the business angle, the growth opportunities, and all that.

So that's sort of step one. Step two is the outreach. So you go out and you try to basically canvas, kind of leave the client alone, actually, for a while, and you're out there trying to, Basically tell the story, see who's interested and ultimately you're trying to get some offers from them.

Step three would be whittling down that offer and having more detailed diligence it's usually a few groups who you think. Can get there and maybe good partners and good buyers for the business. And then the fourth step is where you've chosen who it is and you're doing sort of [00:16:00] the final diligence and working towards actually, a deal that is, having with lawyers involved agreements and all that.

And so, that's the very quick of, kind of the four steps, but the key to all that, I think. is really in the prep. Like, we spend a ton of time on the prep and just making sure the story hangs together and gets there, that the forecast that you are putting forward real, especially in the next six months, because it's materially off, and you haven't closed something in six or eight months, and they look back and say, this is totally different, then you've lost your credibility, so there's a bunch of things that are really helpful to do in there, and As a business holder, you can't stop running your business, right?

So you've got to make sure that you're performing. If you can actually Overachieved during that time period from the intro down to the like closing you have all the cards and if you, the opposite happens, which unfortunately does where, something happens and the business sort of takes a bit of a dip.

It makes things really hard and it makes the, negotiations later on in the process really challenging.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely, Greg. Yeah, no, for sure. And you can see me, [00:17:00] I am grinning ear to ear because sometimes you're never a Often in your hometown, as the saying goes, and for the Deep Wealth community here at Deep Wealth, what you're sharing, we're all about, hey, before you speak to Greg and team, take the time, do the preparation, however long that takes.

Better yet nudge, nudge, wink, wink, go through the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery program where you're coming in prepared. You even have a data room. Okay, Greg, here you go. Here's your data room. Do with whatever you want with it. Put it into your data room. Let's see what you're going to come back with. But yeah, you're so right that most business owners don't realize while the liquidity event is happening.

Go They've made projections. They have to run the business. And if either of those two pillars fall down, it's big problems for them. And you definitely don't want to be there. You want to avoid that at all costs. And so I'm wondering, as you're going through this, Greg, I mean, looking at your accomplishments, you've worked with what I like to call the royalty of business with some of the transactions that you're doing.

You're helping companies achieve their goals. I'm always curious with the advisors, particularly with what you're doing on the buy side, on the sell side, what's in it for you? I'm tuning into Greg's [00:18:00] WII. FM. I mean, why do you do what you do? Where's the fulfillment that you're getting from your side of things?

Greg Martin: Yeah I'm an entrepreneur junkie, I would say. I really love learning about businesses and I think seeing the people, it's one thing to read the press releases, but I just find those very unfulfilling to actually know and understand and be a part of, A business in some way or another. I think it's really, is really cool.

And I think that's what attracted me very early. My grandfather started a business who my, dad and brother today, own and run. And I have multiple uncles that have started their own business. And it's just, think there's something about the entrepreneur that is just really fascinating.

I just like working with and sort of helping. And I think the other thing that in terms of fulfillment is, Being good at something, I didn't know, or embarking on this, I didn't know that I would be probably good at it, but when you can do something and you can have a good result, like, it does really, it does make the difference.

You do really enjoy it. You can imagine a Thanks. Whatever, someone trying to become a professional [00:19:00] basketball player and just, never getting picked or not getting drafted or not whatever, it's very defeating when you can find success and when you can, do good things, I think it really is, it is motivating.

I think that's where the fulfillment sort of comes from is, successful instances. Sometimes the result isn't as what you even thought it was, but where, you did kind of everything that you possibly could and that you know, it wasn't your abilities or it was. It was really factors beyond your control, whatever it might be.

And, you were as intelligent as you possibly could be around this. I think, you know, got satisfaction in that. And so I think just as you spend more time in this business and industry you kind of just, you just build on it. And so, that's kind of how you keep it going and keep the fulfillment happening. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about artificial intelligence, ai, and I'm curious, not so much AI as a sector, but AI. AI as a technology that's now becoming really widely available for everyone in your world, Greg, in terms of doing the deals of how you and the team are analyzing deals, how buyers and sellers are possibly using AI and just AI in general, in terms of deal flow.

How is that coming along? What do you [00:20:00] see? How's it been and where do you see it going?

Greg Martin: So I'd say to date, it's mostly been helpful for data related stuff. You just, sometimes you end up with a lot of data. You've got to either sift through, you've got to organize, and summarize in a way that people can understand. And so that's probably the big advancement that has sort of happened and the biggest benefit.

There's other benefits I would say, but they're not as large. I would say it's more of the, been the, you know, organizing of information. Sifting through sometimes, you know, and automating emails and that there's been a little bit there, but I don't know that it's so large or has been so large yet that it has had, material impact on the industry per se, or at least are some of the bigger investment banks out there who are really trying to put a lot of effort into it and spend a lot of money to develop.

And I think, I still think that's where we are. In the fairly like, early stages of that development and trying to figure it out. There was a guy who I remember reading about and I feel like it was in Asia somewhere who had sold a business and started a business that would effectively sell your business mostly using ai.

I don't know how it was sort of business broker of some sort who [00:21:00] was selling using AI and in a lot of ways to identify the right buyer and do a lot of that kind of, that work. I'm probably a skeptic on that and in terms of what you could do, there's certainly elements of it and maybe identifying or, canvassing a group or whatever it might be and you could get a little bit smarter, but there's still lots of pieces within that require people and and AI can't quite sort of take over all that needs to be done quite yet.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, that sounds fascinating. I'm sure this chapter is still going to unfold and change by the day. It's just moving so quickly, but let me ask you this. I want to transition to your podcast. Podcast. But before we do that, I know here at Deep Wealth, we often get the question, okay, Jeffrey, Deep Wealth team, when I'm picking an advisor, particularly in the investment bank side of things, how do I know that this is the right advisor?

So Greg, from your side of things, what advice would you give to our listeners? When they're ready for a liquidity event, they're now going to be speaking to folks like yourself and they now have to decide, okay, am I going to go in Greg's direction, a different direction? What are some of the, I'll call them the check boxes that we need to be putting the checks in of, yeah, okay, yeah, Greg and team, they [00:22:00] meet this.

I mean, how do we know we have a really good investment bank behind us to make this happen?

Greg Martin: Yeah, there's a bunch of ways. I certainly tell people, like, to do research and people and to find a few, right? I mean, when you're ready to hire someone, as you would if it was anything that was super important, and this is pretty damn important. If you were trying to buy a house, you would look at a few different houses, so you can do the same thing with bankers and try to find someone.

 the key thing is aligning and finding someone that is like, just because it's Goldman Sachs doesn't mean they're gonna do the best job, because your business may not be. Fit into their mold. It may not be the right thing for them. I think finding an individual and a person you really click with is important because really do have to trust them in a lot of instances along the way.

And, you don't want to have sort of that regret around, that type of person. you can start early. You can start to get to know them early. You can, kind of interview well before you're even thinking about it. But I think, just.

Building up that trust, I think important. And so, sometimes one meeting is not enough. You gotta, you know, meeting them in person is super helpful. I think asking for referrals also super helpful, especially if it may [00:23:00] not be someone that has, successfully sold a business, but just someone that you already trust that may be, that you have in common with it in your network or something is also really valuable in just trying to understand, who that person is.

And if, again, you can do and trust them. I mean, I think. We pride ourselves at Origin. We're we're pretty picky. We don't sort of take on any clients. We actually do a lot of research in advance because we really want a good outcome and we don't, and we want to sort of, be honest with our clients in advance and not just take anything on.

And if someone else is a better fit then so be it. That, may totally be the case. Because again, we want to, good result the part of the reason for that is because we kind of don't stop. We just kind of keep going. even if we can't find the right.

Buyer and here, and it's not, we just kind of keep going and don't stop. And so, doing that research upfront is important, but don't take my word for it. I mean, you really have to sort of do the research and find out if, you feel like someone can kind of do it.

So. It's

Jeffrey Feldberg: key things in there. And absolutely what most entrepreneurs don't realize in the world of M&A, the currency is trust. Without trust, nothing's going to happen. Both from the advisor side, also, whether [00:24:00] it's on the buy side, the sell side, trust is everything. But let me ask you, Greg, you mentioned at Origin, you look for the best fit because you want to make sure it's going to be successful and what works for Origin isn't going to work at another investment bank house, but what is that at Origin?

What's that recipe that you're looking for? So if you're choosing. Okay. You know, We're very fortunate. We have a number of opportunities. They're all happening at the same time. We can't do them all. We're going to pick this one over that one. Why are you picking this one over what you didn't see or what you did see in the other opportunity that you're saying no to?

Greg Martin: so specific to each company and it really comes down to like, are you in an industry and do you have the dynamics that are going to be attractive to a buyer right now? And you come to us and so that's the research that we'll typically do is try to understand the key things we need to know that a, you know, a buyer would ask.

 If you come to us, we're not going to not tell you, we're not going to say yes or no. I think we're going to have that discussion and we're going to say, here are the pros, here's the cons, here's what a buyer will like. Here's what they will dislike.

Greg Martin: And kind of give you that opportunity to say, Hey, if you really want to go and do a process now, then go for it. [00:25:00] And here are some other groups that may actually be sort of maybe more helpful. And on the flip side, if you kind of figure out a couple of these issues, it's going to make it really more attractive to some of the groups that we know.

And so it is, does become quite relationshipy. And I think there may be a situation too, where a business comes to us and we just don't know that industry very well. There's a group of buyers and, maybe they're. All in Europe, and we don't know them super well, or maybe they are super tiny and niche, and we're just, not excited about it, and we'll tell you that, like, we'll, we'll say, sort of, here's where it is, and we don't have that expertise, but we can do this instead and really trying to, I think, find that fit together is sort of how I think it needs to be approached, because I don't want to be in a situation as a banker, being like, We start, and we go, and we launch, and all of a sudden, I don't know who to call and I'm just, you know, I don't even know how to sell the business, because I don't know it well.

So, you know, I think that honesty up front's, you know, important.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely, and the takeaway that I'm getting from this and for our listeners, Really, you want a banker who doesn't say yes to everyone. They're not trying to be everything to everybody. They know what they do. They know what they do well, and they also know what they don't do well. That's really where you want to be.

You want to have that [00:26:00] honesty and, hey, you know what? You're a terrific company. You're just not a fit for us. And hey. Speak to these other people. Perhaps that's where it's at. So from this crazy and wacky world of m and a Greg, to, you're doing this Lifetime at Work podcast, so it's not like you're busy enough on the m and a side.

You decided to, go into these crazy world of, of podcasting, and your tagline is a podcast sharing career advice from leaders in the business world. So Greg, what's the story behind the story on the podcast? Because it's really a big part of what you do. How'd you get into that?

Greg Martin: Yeah, it was sort of me in my, call it mid 30s, trying to figure out if invested banking was the right thing. And I think just not, I wouldn't say struggling, but having a lot of questions myself and having a lot of these types of discussions with people of my age around, you know, these kinds of things, like, What am I getting out of my job?

am I enjoying it? Should I go do this? Should I go do that? I think a lot of us at a certain point, and it can, you know, sometimes in your 20s, sometimes in your 40s, you start to have these questions around, am I doing the right thing? Do I need a change? so I think that's [00:27:00] really why I started it.

I found that as I've gotten older, been asking and answering a lot of questions to younger people. I get so many more people asking for, you know, career advice and help. And so it's a bit of a way of giving back, but also I think, trying to be that advice, that resource that I wish sort of I probably had.

And what's unique, I think about the world of work right now, there's so many jobs out there. Like there are a lot of different jobs is what I mean. You can do so many different things in so many different ways. And, a hundred years ago, It felt like so simple you'd kind of go work at the local factory or you there was only so many and we just have a plethora.

You can work anywhere you can do. So I think, exploring that and also trying to figure out, hey, what am I trying to achieve? What am I trying to get out of my job is kind of key. And get frustrated when people on a Monday are really upset and down on having to start the work week.

I'm like, I'm pretty excited, like honestly, and on Fridays I'm not sad, but I'm, you know, it's not like This is the best day ever because I don't have to work for two days. It's very much a, I think you can get a lot of fulfillment out of work and your job and love for it.

And I want to have others find the same. So

Jeffrey Feldberg: You took the words right out of [00:28:00] what I was thinking, fulfillment, because as I often say, all the success, all the accolades, all these heroes in the bank, if you don't have fulfillment, all that success really means nothing, success without fulfillment. It's failure. So when you're speaking to these different leaders and you're hearing what's going on, what's working, what's not working, again, are there some general trends that you're able to share with us?

How can someone get fulfillment? Whether they're going to be an employee in a company, whether they're looking to start their own company, what would you share based on what you've spoken about or what you've seen or heard? Mm

Greg Martin: Yeah, a lot of my experience comes, I mean, a little bit from myself, but also then sort of seeing that in others and interviewing them. I would say that a lot of it is in our head, unfortunately, which is not a great response sometimes, or you don't know what to do with that, but sometimes it's our approach to it.

Right. And whether, how we're thinking about it, if we're just overly negative, then yes, we want. We will not like it. And we'll sort of be that way. And I think you have to have a bit of an optimistic spin around things and find sort of your place and what you want out of things.

I'd say there's probably two though, kind of avenues in terms of that fulfillment. I think one is, as people were always trying to, I feel [00:29:00] anyways. We're trying to go somewhere. We're trying to improve something. We're trying to advance and, get better and get, move up and get promoted.

And there's a lot of things that we can do within an organization and we need those things, right? So we need to be moving forward. And it's not everyday forward, but it's just a general forward. And think we need that. And so, sometimes you reach a point, a lot of times it's kind of two years into a job or so, where you then realize, oh, you know what, I was learning so much and now I'm not.

And so, you kind of need to reevaluate and say, okay, do I need a different position? Do I need to get promoted? Do I need to set some different goals? Do I need to work at, or do I need to get a new job? \ and I think, doing that and having that. Very deliberate thinking is, is pretty important.

So that's the one I think just kind of moving forward is really important. And I said the other one is people. So often, I think, I don't think we value the people around us and in our job and our coworkers and our, even our bosses and our subordinates and whoever. A lot of like what we as humans need is that connection.

It's, you know, creating a, building a relationship with [00:30:00] people and It is that that makes our work and our day good. And so finding people you like to work with, that you like, you enjoy going to be a part of an organization with them every day is really important. And I feel like, a lot of times we don't necessarily consider that when we're making decisions about our job, but it is, just think it's incredibly valuable and super important.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific insights there and couldn't agree more. And again, you can tell me if I'm on base, off base. I mean, what I'm hearing you say is, okay, for starters, Jeffrey, it's mindset. And it's that old expression is the glass half full or half empty? Well, it's all perspective. And so if I'm hearing you right, Hey, you know what?

Change your mindset. Maybe what seems like a terrible, absolute worst possible thing today. A little bit of mindset change down the road is actually the best thing that happened. You just don't know that yet. So be easy on yourself, have a little bit of a better mindset. And to the people that are around us, if the pandemic showed us anything, we had people quitting their jobs because of a lousy commute and a terrible boss, enough of it.

[00:31:00] Don't want that. Life's too short for that. And so Greg, you're so right with that. Whether we're starting a company and we're hiring people, whether we're going to work for a company. Who are the people that we're going to be surrounding ourselves with, Greg, is spot on with that. Do you get along with them?

Are they energy vampires? Are they sucking your drive, all your energy, making you miserable? Or are they inspiring you and taking you to the next level? Makes all the difference. Because when you think about it, oftentimes if we're not doing remote work, if we're in the office. We're spending more time with our colleagues, with our peers, than we are with our family.

So it gives us a lot to really think about and some great advice from you on that side. Anything else further that you'd want to add to what we just shared on really getting the most out of that fulfillment on the professional side?

Greg Martin: Maybe one thing I did forget is advice I've been getting more and more is you probably can't change your boss and a lot of people think they can or try to or spend a lot of time being really mad or mean or whatever at their boss and I think that for you to enjoy a job you have to just accept that they are who they [00:32:00] are for a bunch of reasons and that you probably aren't going to change them.

It's pretty hard to do and You're probably going to be unsuccessful anyways, and that you have to figure out a way to work with them and to exist with them being there. They can be, super helpful, but also not everyone's a good boss. and they they come with the benefits and drawbacks, but, be mindful of that.

A lot of people they like their job or they don't because they're up something their boss said or did or treats them or whatever. And you have to realize they're human and you're probably not going to. Change. So if you can't enjoy your job around whoever they are, then it's probably not going to work out.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Fair enough. And the old saying is zebra doesn't change its stripes, but I want to ask you, Greg, for the leaders that are listening to this podcast. What could they do to make themselves better leaders? Because you're really hearing it on both sides. So from the podcast, you're hearing perhaps from employees or team members.

Yeah, you know what, this attribute, this characteristic of my boss is driving me crazy. I have so much to give, but I'm not going to do it at this company. I'm going to go elsewhere. Or when you're speaking with people, I mean, what would you share with the leaders out there of, hey, take your game to the next [00:33:00] level, become better.

What would that be for them?

Greg Martin: So I just finished reading, I put it off for so long, the Navy Seals book, Extreme Ownership, but I'm like, I think you got to read that as a leader. It's, It's, actually probably gets right to the point and tells you about it. And, I think it's probably the, it's just an entertaining book that also kind of.

Get to the point of this, but it's really, I think, respect for your employees and, appreciating what they can do and that you have to be a team and that you as a leader are just as palpable, capable and are the results of, both the good and the bad that may happen in an organization.

And trusting. Along the whole hierarchy of whatever it is. I mean, having that trust throughout the organization, tough to build, but also, critically important, I think, to, really having everyone there enjoy and be successful in what they're doing. So, I'd recommend that book and a lot of the ideas from it, I think really resonate with me, for sure.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So teamwork, transparency, accountability, really all putting that into the fold. And Greg, before we go into wrap up mode, I'm wondering whether it's the Lifetime at Work podcast, what you and the team are doing at Origin. Is [00:34:00] there any question I haven't asked, any message or topic that we didn't talk about that you'd like to get out there?

Greg Martin: I would say that maybe the one thing for me has been of on my journey of doing some entrepreneurial things, working with entrepreneurs, not whatever, you don't have to be an entrepreneur I would say, I sort of realized it that probably what we're trying to get out of life and work and all that is something that is, we're trying to make an impact.

We're trying to go somewhere. We're trying to advance. We're trying to figure out what the life is that we want and, where we want to spend our time. And in some cases, yes, that will be starting something yourself and you're being an entrepreneur and having your own business and whatever it might be.

It doesn't have to be though. There are lots of things that you can do with people that you can do as, part of a team that you can join, other organizations and flex some of those muscles and figure out sort of who you are. And really, that's probably. What I, advice I'd give to people is that, whether it's within your business, whether you've already sold your business, whether you're thinking of starting a new one, it's also really cool to be part of an organization and part of a team to learn [00:35:00] different things.

And so, I think, life and. Work is a journey, and to be able to do as much of it as possible is, really, you know, a great opportunity, and so if you do have that opportunity, take it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, so true and particularly today with social media, we get all these images, Oh, you gotta be this. You gotta be that. It was Oscar Wilde. I hope I get this right. It's a beautiful quote. But it goes something along the lines of be yourself. Everyone else has already taken

being yourself, maybe it's a team member.

Maybe it's being an entrepreneur, whatever that is. Just be yourself because that's where you're going to give your best to the world. That's where you're going to find your superpowers and really make a difference and couldn't agree with you more. That's some great advice for everyone out there. Well, Greg, it's wrap up time and I always say this on every episode, but it's so true.

It's really an honor. It's a privilege. It's a ritual here on the Deep Wealth Podcast where I get to ask the same question to all the guests. It's a fun question. So, here we go, let me set this up for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that can take you to any point in time.

So Greg, the fun part is, it's [00:36:00] tomorrow morning, you look outside your window, not only is the DeLorean car curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do, and you're now going to go to any point in your life. Greg, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time that would be, what would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons, or life wisdom, or hey Greg, do this, but don't do that.

What would that sound like?

Greg Martin: Great question. I mean, I think the defining moments, or defining a lot of moments for me were in kind of university, were in college, I would say, where I don't know, for whatever reason I knew what I was doing in high school, I felt like, but did not necessarily in university, and I think, You know, if I went back in saying it I, probably tell myself that, you're never going to figure out what you want to do.

You just have to sort of start somewhere. And so I, I'd say that that's the advice that I would give. And I think it was well, that would hopefully translate into later as well, but you know, I think those years, like when you're in your 20s you call it or, late teens, I mean, those are, you just have, you have so much energy, you can do so much you're still so creative, you're so, like, don't waste.

Those years and I [00:37:00] think, you have such an opportunity to learn so much. So, I probably wished I had done sort of traveled more. I had joined more clubs. I kind of gone out there and met more people. I think I wasn't as probably open as needed to be.

And I sort of discovered that I needed to do that later in life. So.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So be open, be adventurous. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just go out there and do it. That really be the takeaway. Yeah. Very powerful. Well, terrific. Well, Greg, it's official. Congratulations. This is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

And there's one last question before I send you off. For our listeners, they have a question, they want to reach out, they even want to work with you. Where would be the best place online that someone can find you?

Greg Martin: Yeah, LinkedIn would best place. Greg Martin, but my name is fairly common, so type in Origin or something like that. Greg Martin, Origin, and you should find me easily. And then the podcast is lifetimeatwork. com.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And for our listeners, again, everything's in the show notes. It doesn't get any easier. It's a point and click. So once again, Greg, thank you so much. Really appreciate your [00:38:00] insights, your wisdom. And said it before, I'll say it again. May you continue to thrive and prosper, stay healthy and safe. And congratulations.

It's a wrap. Well done. Thank you so much.

Greg Martin: Thank you very much. It's been great being here.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. Did you find this episode helpful? Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

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