Unlocking Your Full Business Potential: Lessons From M&A Advisor Tejal Shah (#398)

398 Tejal Shah

[00:00:00]

[00:00:00] Jeffrey Feldberg: Tejal Shah is founder and managing principal of Congruent Advisory. With a rich background in financial consulting and a diverse portfolio spanning industries from life sciences to manufacturing, Tejal is a seasoned expert in M&A support, interim fractional CFO services, and IPO readiness. Boasting leadership roles at both private and publicly listed companies, she brings a wealth of experience and insights.

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Welcome to Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, Deep Wealth Nation, I am really excited because we have a fellow M&A advisor who is all about the preparation. And you know, me and my preparation, well, you're never a profit in your hometown, as I love to say, here we have Tejal, who's going to be telling us. All about preparation, her experience, where she's been, where she's heading, how she can help you, and what you should be looking at when it comes to your business that you're probably not just [00:03:00] for your liquidity event, your exit, but how can you make the most of your business today in terms of growing the profits, growing the value, so you can show up prepared with an even more valuable company.

So all that said, Tejal, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. It is a delight to have you with us today. And I'm curious because there's always a story behind the story. So what's your story? What got you from where you were Tejal to where you are today? Wonderful.

[00:03:26] Tejal Shah: Thank you, Jeffrey. It's a pleasure being here. I started my career in finance and that's the field that I have been in all throughout my life, finance and accounting. And as I walked the path of finance in various roles, working with various companies, I felt that there was A gap with reference to how advisors worked with business owners.

Advisors spoke the language of finance very eloquently and very well. It is my belief that as advisors, we need to speak the business owner's language so that they understand finance and the implications of their decisions. I felt that was an area. That I could help in, and that is why congruent advisory.

[00:04:19] Jeffrey Feldberg: What a terrific story. Like so many entrepreneurs, you saw a problem. You knew that you could do something about it. And here you are that's with that. So I'm curious. One of my favorite questions for [00:04:30] guests is with what you're seeing, the patterns of what you're seeing, some people call it Pareto's law or the 80 20 law.

And I'm wondering, generally speaking, is it 20 percent of the same issues that are causing 80 percent of the negative side effects that we're seeing as business owners, entrepreneurs, founders?

[00:04:48] Tejal Shah: A plain and a vanilla answer, yes, is what I would say. But I would also say that not only is it the issues, it is also the understanding and the gravity that The business owners place on those issues, they run their business. They've been phenomenal at building it. They've been very good at scaling it.

And there is a sense of, all right, we know what is going on. I know how this business is running. I know the value that is being generated in the business. The importance is. To look at the lens of the buyer or how your business is viewed by an external entity. It is not just about how well you know your business.

It is how well one is able to convey the value of the business, not just financially, but there are all the other intangibles and there are all your processes that are in place which are going to impact the financial value of your business.

[00:05:52] Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. And so from that perspective, why don't we start with that? Because I know for so many business owners [00:06:00] and my e learning company, Embanet, back in the day, I'd be saying the same thing. So I completely understand when I hear, Hey, Jeffrey, I'm really busy. I don't have time to prepare for some future event.

It could be years or decades away, but I'll get to it when I get to it. So when you're coming onto the scene and you're beginning to help a business owner, what would And we call them here at Deep Wealth, the skeletons in the closet. These are the issues that we don't know about. Forget a liquidity event.

These can put you out of business. So you'll never get to your exit because perhaps it's lowering your profits or it's going to put you out of business. Something you just don't see until it's too late. What are you doing to help business owners find those skeletons, remove them? And going back to that plain old vanilla question, I suppose, in your words, are there some of the same issues again and again, that you're seeing that most business owners simply aren't aware of?

[00:06:48] Tejal Shah: One of the things that I would say, a few of the things that I've seen with reference to business owners is they have a lens with which they view their business and Is the lens with which they are viewing the business, are the operations that are being conducted in the business, are they actually translating into their financials, timing wise and value wise?

Are we seeing that? Necessarily, timing does not always align. Because they might have a cash basis system, they might have, it's just a single owner or two brothers or a family that's owning it, and one of the things that I would impress upon them is, Please [00:07:30] ensure that what is happening in your operations is aligning with what your financials are reflecting.

That is key. Also, I'd go ahead and say with reference to your customers, all of your external entities that you deal with, be it customers, be it vendors, do we have a, focus lens on them? Are there any risks? over there that we need to focus on, such as single sourcing risk, or is there over reliance on some of your customers or vendors?

How are we mitigating that risk? These are all basic questions that I would start with. And as I have a conversation with the owner, there are some Issues which are very easily discerned and there are some which one needs to go delving into.

[00:08:16] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so really from that perspective, because from the world of M&A, which you're involved in, from being involved as an interim fractional CFO, so you've seen all of those kinds of issues from being IPO ready and going out and raising all that money. So you've been in a number of different situations.

For Deep Wealth Nation, what can you tell them about why preparation is so important and that whatever time that they're really putting into it, it's not And expense in the sense that it's an investment.

You're investing in yourself, in your future. You'll have a better business today. You'll be in business tomorrow. What would you share with them of why preparation is so important?

[00:08:53] Tejal Shah: My first suggestion to the business owner would be think like a buyer. That is what [00:09:00] I would say. If someone came in and was interested in your business, what is it that he or she is going to look at? Financials, that is something tangible that one can look at, but there are a lot of other areas. For example, your people. they trained? What is the amount of investment that you have made in them? Your policies with reference to hiring. How do you maintain your people? What is your turnover? Have there been any regulatory issues that you have looked at? Because when a buyer is going to take a look at it, for example, they may look at the last three years, you want those last three to be steady.

Or on a steady growth trajectory, and you want even your people or your processes also to be in place and consistently applied. that's going to, what's going to reflect into financials.

[00:09:57] Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. And so if we dig a little deeper into that, where does that time money invested today save us some headaches and problems later on? So from a big picture you've shared with us, okay, here's where you want to look at. Can we now get to more of an operational side of things of where that's going to pay dividends?

Because what you're talking about for the financial people out there, for the logical people out there, they're getting frustrated. What are you talking about, Tejal? These are things that don't show up on the balance sheet. How can it possibly make a difference? But to your point, we've had valuators come onto the podcast and they've shared, [00:10:30] Hey, Jeffrey, I start with the company narrative.

Is it an interesting narrative? That's 80 percent of the value in the financials and all the returns and all the numbers and the complicated formulas in the spreadsheets. Yeah, that's the other 20%, but if the narrative isn't there, if it doesn't get me excited, the value will reflect that. So what would you say to that?

[00:10:49] Tejal Shah: We would go into why the sale, why now, or why the timeline. And what is it that you have to offer? We've not looked at the financials as yet. We don't know anything about the company as yet, what is it that is there about your business which is going to get the buyer excited? That is how we slowly start bringing them around through the lens of the buyer. Let's see what it is that you have. So what going to get the buyer excited? Why your business? What is it that you have, which is going to get the buyer excited, and when we start looking into that, they'll say, well, it's my people, it's my processes it's what we are going to do. The value that is going to be generated in the next five years, the things that we have put in place, here is where we see the market heading. Slowly what happens is a story or a narrative develops. And, as we walk through that path of developing the story, we are able to slowly make suggestions and nudge the seller into having a very succinct and a very compelling narrative.

[00:11:56] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so for Deep Wealth Nation, when it comes to the future buyer, [00:12:00] and could just as easily be a future investor, Tejal, what are you seeing from the buyer side that you would want Deep Wealth Nation to know of? What they should have, what they shouldn't have, and what that should be looking like. So when a buyer comes onto the scene, it's, hey, this looks like a terrific opportunity.

I like what I'm seeing. Maybe I'll even pay a premium because I don't want to lose a deal.

[00:12:20] Tejal Shah: My suggestion to business owners have been, you know, people talk about total adoptable market, total addressable market. If you look at history, the biggest of the companies have really not got their hands on the total addressable market very well. There are X number of people who have had to knock on a lot of doors to get the funding that they needed.

It's not come intuitively, and people who have been phenomenal business owners and who have been able to grow their companies are not the best fundraisers. That's what history says, so the intent would be, the focus would be to go ahead and help them have a very compellive narrative as to why their business is attractive and what is it that their business is going to help solve as far as it goes.

The community is concerned. The world is concerned. Let's talk about AI, for example, AI is so big and there are so many startups that are focusing on AI right now. Well, what is it that you are helping solve? At this time, and why you, you know, so basically go ahead and that is what we [00:13:30] would start.

And then as the business owner wraps his mind and his arms around the business, then we slowly talk, okay, we see this value that you believe is going to be generated. Now, let us take a step back and see. Are your processes and is your financial and operational infrastructure ready to support generation of that value?

Or is it supporting that value? And that's how we basically take a top down approach. Or, if the business owner is the kind, who basically is very involved in the weeds and very involved in day to day operations, and if he's able to speak that language, then we will basically go from, we will take the bottom up approach.

Our approach is tailored to how the business owner wants to go ahead and start. Preparing for the process, again, because as I said, my intent was to fill the gap and speak the language that the business owner was most comfortable and then steer them to achieve the objective that they want. 

[00:14:42] Jeffrey Feldberg: Tejal you bringg up artificial intelligence, which was on my hit list of questions to ask you. And it is a perfect segue into that, because we're really at such an interesting time with AI. It's still the early days. It's like the wild west. Almost anything goes. It reminds me of when the [00:15:00] internet, or back in the day, the World Wide Web first came on board.

And much like we have today with AI, just like you had when the internet started. First came out there. It was, well, it's a fad. It's not going to last. And, oh, it's just for toys. And it's not really going to be happening out there. It's just people playing around. There's nothing really serious, although I suspect AI is likely to go down in the books as probably one of the single most important, I'm going to say, not ideas, but Exactly, technologies that has come up in quite some time.

So now I want you to put yourself in the shoes of Deep Wealth Nation. They're business owners, perhaps some of them have been in the seat for decades, maybe some of them are in the quote unquote, low tech industries, even as a startup mode, they're getting out there. AI isn't necessarily front and center for them, but for a lot of buyers, it is.

It is. It's a novelty. They want to see AI. So for someone who's in that situation, they know they're going to be having some kind of liquidity event relatively soon, let's call it over the next year or two, maybe three years. What should they be doing with AI? How should they be, really positioning themselves if they haven't even begun?

What would that look like? What should they do?

[00:16:07] Tejal Shah: if the intent of the buyer, let's say it's a service oriented industry, let's for example say that. The buyer is a service oriented industry, their focus would be how to implement or adopt AI with reference to their services, say their marketing, their hiring, their training, I [00:16:30] would say, I, have you thought of Implementing, or have you thought of adopting AI in your operational processes?

Why number one, it'll increase the efficiency of your people. That is why. So to that effect. Have you thought about adopting AI? And if they say, well, we're fairly low tech, we've done this for the past 10 years, here's what we're good at, it's been going well my suggestion to them would be, why don't we at least bring in one or two people and at least ask them how to help make our business more effective.

Again, Jeffrey, I will come back to this point again and again. Let's speak the language of the business owner. It is his language that we need to speak, and it is him that we need to partner with to help him be more effective. Simple. it's simple as that. that's what I would do from a AI perspective.

[00:17:25] Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation, I hope you're listening because HGL just gave us some terrific advice. Get out there. Experiment with it. Try something. Try something. I suspect you will be pleasantly surprised what you'll find. Hey, terrific. We can increase the speed at which we're doing things. We can stop doing some of these things, maybe even automate it, get into the world of AI.

It's not going anywhere. It's only going to get bigger and better as the saying goes. So why not put that into the business, see where that goes. And who knows, maybe you'll even stumble upon an area that you can solve a painful problem and create a market disruption, and Because you were [00:18:00] curious, what's this AI all about?

I want to know what other people are talking about. Or when I'm in front of a buyer or an investor, I have a narrative, an exciting narrative that I can share with them. So some terrific advice with that. So let me ask you this Teja, when you've been out there, you've been helping entrepreneurs get ready for some kind of liquidity event, maybe it's going public.

Maybe it's selling all of the company or part of the company. What's worked really well? I mean, we hear all the horror stories of what didn't go well. What's worked well for you and what would be the root cause of, hey, this worked really well because we did A, B, C, and D?

[00:18:32] Tejal Shah: When we have a chance to meet the business owner, one of the first questions that I ask him is, number one, his objective, yep. Yeah, you want to prepare for a divestiture, yeah, you want to prepare for a liquidity event. I hear you. Who is on board with you with reference to, you've got me as a prep person, you're thinking of me as a prep person, great.

You're a tax person, where is your tax person, where is your individual wealth planning person, where is your legal counsel? The point is to see to it that you have the appropriate team in place. So if there are any kinks that need to be ironed out, we're doing that before the transaction and not when we are in the middle of the transaction or we are entertaining buyers.

[00:19:22] Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. As you're going through that, you remind me, step six, advisory team. This is in the Deep Wealth nine step roadmap, [00:19:30] and this is where well in advance, we're bringing on all the right advisors at the right time. So we're not just showing up to an investment banker and say, okay, here I am, let's go to market.

And we've done none of the preparation.

Jeffrey, you're on base, off base, really what I'm hearing you say is find the right advisor, do the work with them, invest the time, I was gonna say spend the time, but invest the time, the effort, to get whatever you need to get done, so that when you do show up, it's one less thing to do.

How am I doing with that?

[00:19:55] Tejal Shah: I mean, you, on point is what I would say, yeah, on point, flexibility that we have with reference to structuring the transaction, and of course the buyer is going to have a lot of say on it, but what happens is when you have this team in place and when you've planned for this. As the buyer is suggesting the structure, you will have input. is how we would like it, this is how we'd like maybe an asset purchase, maybe, we're going to have, buy lock, stock, and barrel, so it could be the structure of the business. Whether an earn out is going to be supported or not supported, whether you just like to sell it lock, stock, and barrel, there could be any number of ways by which the deal could be structured and having suggestions as far as the deal is concerned.

Because you have your feedback from your team as to what would be an optimal path forward and what are the flexibilities that are there in the process.

[00:20:53] Jeffrey Feldberg: that's an interesting insight and what I want to do is really segue from there into something because when I was researching [00:21:00] for our time together today, one of the things that came through loud and clear, you put a lot of emphasis on authenticity and the clarity in leadership, which I would say a lot of that is lacking out there today.

But my own data point of one aside, what would you define or how would you define authentic leadership and why do you think it's so important in today's environment more than ever?

[00:21:23] Tejal Shah: I'm doing what you say and saying what you do. I know it's a very cliche sentence, but when someone is coming to you, they are able to get clear and trusted guidance from you. I, tell you what, when I was a CFO of an organization, I used to go ahead and tell my team and even people I don't know is an answer,

[00:21:45] Jeffrey Feldberg: Sure.

[00:21:45] Tejal Shah: You won't have to second guess me. I guess that's actually, that's what I told people. You won't have to second guess me. tell you, and if I can't tell you, I'll tell you we are working on it. There's no second guessing. would say it's it's building trust in words, in action, in how you move.

Are working with people in, not only in that, it is how you are impressing upon your team with reference to your expectation of how you want them to work with each other. It's not just about you. My job as a leader is to multiply effectiveness in all areas of the organization.

[00:22:19] Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. That's a terrific insight. And so when we talk about being authentic as a leader, really being the change that we want to see out there, it really also goes to one of your other principles that you [00:22:30] really talk a lot about, and that's really accountability, but specifically having a culture of accountability.

And so I'm curious from your vantage point, what would you share with a Deep Wealth nation What can they be doing in their company that they have this kind of what we like to call a rich and thriving culture, where one of the aspects of the culture, it is accountability because on paper, it sounds easy.

Implementing it is a whole other story. So what would you suggest? What are you seeing?

[00:22:58] Tejal Shah: Jeffrey uh, with reference to accountability, one of the things that I have done is I have held myself accountable. Accountability to me starts with me. When I exemplify accountability day in and day out on an ongoing basis, I am able to expect and model the aspect of accountability that I'm hoping for my team or my organization to inculcate.

If I am coming through and if I'm holding myself accountable in action, in thought, and in how I am conducting myself. I'm modeling the expectation from my team and also from the areas that my team supports.

[00:23:42] Jeffrey Feldberg: It's interesting. So we're talking having authenticity in terms of leadership, being accountable, having that accountability in the culture. And so I'm wondering when you've seen organizations where One type of organization is thriving, the other type [00:24:00] is struggling, particularly when it comes to change and transformation.

What would you say are the key differences between the two of them?

[00:24:07] Tejal Shah: In terms of change management, I would say one of the things that I have seen is people actually want to work hard, want to do things right, and want to try to make a difference in the organization. They are unable or they don't receive the answers that they need for them to make an impact for them or the right guidance as to what is the action that needs to be taken. I would say that sometimes it's they don't know where to look for answers. And I've seen as we go ahead and create that culture of, you know what? I don't know, but let me find out and let me come back to you on how we need to go ahead and approach this particular task or this particular action, this particular strategy, once that communication starts building as to, okay, here is where I can go and receive answers. If not immediate, one will know where to find answers, that is where that culture starts changing because they know where to look and they also know how to model it to for their teams and their employees down the line.

Does that make sense? I mean, Jeffrey, did I articulate that well?

[00:25:20] Jeffrey Feldberg: Really what I'm hearing, it's very similar, and don't laugh when I share this with you, Sejal. It's Really what you want parents to be able to do. You don't want a parent to be a [00:25:30] helicopter parent. Hey, give your child the ability to be curious, to ask questions, to admit when they're wrong, to know who to go for help when they need help, not to give up too early, but also know when it's time to move on, that perhaps it's the wrong direction, that we now apply that to the business role.

Because what I'm hearing you really share and advocate is, you It goes back to that culture, but also back to the leadership, we're learning from each other. We're being the example that the team knows, hey, ask the questions, try the experiment. If it doesn't work, that's okay, don't give up, learn from it, but really keep on digging in.

It goes back to the leadership. Culture, again, it doesn't show up on a balance sheet, but it is so vital to a company's success of really being that company that finds that market disruption or the one that doesn't, that never even tried because they didn't have that ability. How am I doing with that in terms of sharing back with what I'm hearing you say?

[00:26:22] Tejal Shah: Yeah, I would say authenticity, you touched upon that transparency, not having to second guess and empowering that I know you can do it. Or, trusting your team, trusting your organization to execute and implement the direction that is coming down from the management or soliciting ideas.

One of the things that, I used to go ahead and talk to my team is, this is what we want to do. What do you guys think?

That used to be that, soliciting ideas. I mean, there are some phenomenal ideas that are generated from people day in and day [00:27:00] out as they work through their processes and they work through their daily work.

Hey, how about this? Here is where we're struggling with, here is where we see this process breaking down. The most effective of the processes are when there is a cross functional uh, interaction, a cross functional liaisoning that is happening between the teams.

Why? Because The internal customer is able to articulate his pain points to the internal supplier. People want to do well. People want to make people's life easy. They want to see to it that people on their team, their organization are being helped. Once that communication link opens up, we see it making a very big impact.

And Jeffrey, I do this. In business, we are prepping for the sale, it's about getting into daily operations and figuring out where processes are breaking down and why. And if processes are breaking down, how to bridge them. Sometimes it's been as simple as the operations manager not knowing. The challenge is that the supply chain manager was going through, he was just not able to understand it.

It's sometimes, it is as simple as getting the two of them in the same room and having a conversation.

[00:28:20] Jeffrey Feldberg: So interesting. And as you're from a very high level sharing that with us, I'm wondering, are there any examples that come to mind where you've gone in, [00:28:30] you spot some of those skeletons in the closet, some of those challenges, and you've helped a company really overcome something that was very challenging for them.

It would have given them an issue in the liquidity event, but forget the liquidity event, even running the business day to day. It was a big issue. Anything that you can share of how these tools that you've been sharing with us, these insights, this wisdom, really made the difference? Okay.

[00:28:51] Tejal Shah: We'll talk about BizDev and we'll talk about operations. Okay here is business development or sales and marketing. They've gone ahead and bid for a tender, and as they've bid for a tender and bidded for a project, they've basically said the project is going to yield.

Say, internally, 21%. Let's just pick up a number over here. Okay. And they've represented to the management. We're going to go ahead and do this. This is going to yield us 21 percent as far as margin is concerned. Okay. and so the project has been approved. Okay. Let's say that. Then comes the operations and the execution management and they go ahead and come up with a a budget.

And that budget is going to go ahead and come up with 18 and a half percent, okay, of gross margin. Right off the bat, we've not started the project as yet. Okay, let's find out where did these get shaven off?

How did this get shaven off? We're talking about the same project, we're talking about the same tools, we're talking about what [00:30:00] happened over here, where from 21, we've got to 18 and a half percent, the two departments were technically not, they were communicating, but they were not communicating at the right level.

And so I said, okay, help me understand why, even before we've started the project, has this margin dropped?

[00:30:17] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so now you're coming in there and you're having the different sides talking with one another. So what ended up being the resolution? How did you get through that?

[00:30:25] Tejal Shah: So what ended up being the resolution was that there were certain Processes are certain costs that were being incurred and they were being considered as far as the bidding process was concerned. That is two people talking to each other, right? Let me give you another example of, say, a bid.

We've bid the project from an operations and an execution management, we've aligned on there, okay, that fine, this is what it's going to lead, and then we've seen from an actual operations perspective, post three or six months, the margin is significantly dropping, all right, and so we go ahead and say, hey, we bid this at 21%, or we bid this at 18.

5%, but I'm seeing only 15 percent coming over here, why? What's happening over here? I think we were all on the same page. Guess what was happening? What was happening was there were change orders that were coming in, and the engineering person, or the project management person, was, from a relationship [00:31:30] perspective, Executing those change orders without incorporating the cost, that's what, there's cost being incurred but without incorporating the impact of the change orders on price and revenue, and then, and he had a relationship to maintain with the customer.

So, It was very difficult. As to how to manage that process, because the relationship angle is, is important, or we solved that issue, I wouldn't say it was a problem, we solved that process by tagging a finance person with the operations person, and basically putting a process in place where every change order that is executed, what is the revenue impact of it, and what is the cost impact of it.

And that the project manager had to go ahead and work with the customer after he had received approval from the finance person.

[00:32:18] Jeffrey Feldberg: That's so interesting, the intricacies within the business, all well intentioned, and it goes back to transparency, accountability, communications, that culture, which is so easy to overlook, particularly you're moving fast, you're growing, you're responding to the marketplace. Every department is doing what they believe they should be doing, but big picture wise, it's actually hurting the company, which doesn't benefit anybody.

So it's so interesting, so fascinating. So Deep Wealth Nation, a lot in there many, many takeaways. And speaking of takeaways, I'm wondering, Tejal, before we go into wrap up mode, and it's a fun one when we get there, but before we go, Through all of that, there's a lot of [00:33:00] strategies, different tool sets, insights that you've shared with us.

And if possible, from every episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast, we like the listener really being able to walk away to do one low hanging fruit action before they hop into the next call or email or meeting once this episode is done. So if someone in the Deep Wealth Nation, if they could do one thing, Coming out of this episode, what would that one thing be that could really make a difference for them?

[00:33:25] Tejal Shah: I'll speak from a PrEP perspective because that is where our bread and butter is as an M&A advisor. I cannot impress upon enough the value of PrEP, have the right team in place and see that your operations. Now, I'm going to talk a little bit about the fundamentals of the operations, which is where true values being generated have a very clear line of sight to the operations, I would say, are the operations and your financials aligned, because financials is the place where your value is going to be captured, and operations is the place where your value's going to be generated. it.

[00:34:03] Jeffrey Feldberg: So interesting, Tejal. Isn't it interesting? We always go back to the people. Again, never shows up on a spreadsheet or on a balance sheet. And I don't like using the term assets for people because there's so much more than that. From a company perspective, though, our people are really the most valuable resources that we have yet.

As business owners, entrepreneurs, founders, it's so easy to overlook them. But all roads lead to nowhere. Lean back to the people. It seems that's one of our themes that you and I have been talking about today in terms of [00:34:30] what's really going to make a difference. So interesting.

[00:34:32] Tejal Shah: Jeffrey, I would also say from a perspective, when people have the lens of looking at liquidity event as an event and not a process, there is this. Ultimately, oh, we're thinking about a liquidity event, we need to have a core team, not many people will be in there, don't involve such a person, don't involve this person, no.

If you're preparing for it as a process, it is going to become a way of life. Yes, you will have your core team, but the rigor, the transparency, and the discipline that you have put into the process is going to lend to the prep.

[00:35:08] Jeffrey Feldberg: couldn't agree more. I mean, that is so spot on, Deep Wealth Nation. I hope you were listening. That wasn't gold. That was platinum, what we're hearing, because it also goes back, step five, we call it winning mindset here at Deep Wealth, where as the owner, the business owner, the founder, the entrepreneur, a liquidity event.

In my mind, that can have a very positive connotation, but for the team members, if it's not managed properly, to your point, it can be really negative. Oh, look at this. Jeffrey is off into the sunset. He is now financially set and these are no longer his worries, but what about me? Why aren't I being in there or why wasn't I told about this?

And it's a whole other really episode that we can cover with that, but it's absolutely there in what you're saying.

[00:35:53] Tejal Shah: And in there, if one's focus, if the business owner's focus has been about [00:36:00] empowering his people and seeing that his people are true strengths of the company, here are the people who are going to go ahead and lend themselves any place, anywhere and make a place for themselves. It is about the business owner's investment, his focus on investing in his people to see that the people's strengths are built up and not to use the word assets, but they're truly strengths of the company.

That is value generation in itself.

[00:36:29] Jeffrey Feldberg: Exactly.

[00:36:30] Tejal Shah: is it going to help you with the company that the people are working in, but you've also empowered the people and given them options. 

[00:36:38] Jeffrey Feldberg: It's often overlooked, Tejal, I'm sure you'll agree with this. There are some liquidity events where the sole purpose of a liquidity event is to welcome those people onto the acquiring company's team. It's the people, it's the team, and really everything else is just an added bonus. And so it goes, always goes back to the people, how important that is.

And so that said, let's go into our wrap up mode. It's a fun question. It's really a tradition here in the Deep Wealth Podcast. I have the privilege, the honor to ask every guest the same question. So here's the question. 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 now, it's tomorrow morning, and Tejal, you look outside your window, this is the exciting part, not only is the DeLorean car there, it's curbside, the door's open, it's waiting for you to hop on in what you do, and you're now gonna go back to any point [00:37:30] in your life. Tejal, as really a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, what would you be telling yourself in terms of life lessons or life wisdom, or, hey, Tejal, do this, but don't do that, what would that sound like?

[00:37:44] Tejal Shah: I would say I focused I'll talk about the do this and don't do this both. I focused on truly becoming a credentialed. person, education, and, I'm South Asian and education is, very, very high up in our community or in our country is what I'd say.

So I focused a lot on education, propping myself up, seeing that I have the right credentials and the right education. I would have maintained the same focus on relationships. I think that's what I'd say. focus that I placed on my education and my work experience. I would have Maintain that same focus on my relationships.

[00:38:30] Jeffrey Feldberg: What would it be to focus on and make relationships your top priority?

[00:38:35] Tejal Shah: Priority. Yeah. I could have articulated that a little bit better, Jeffrey, but okay.

[00:38:39] Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, what's interesting, and it's become a theme here for what we've been talking about today, relationships are all about the people. And if we look at the fabric of each of our lives individually, it's peppered with the people who make all the difference. And even the ones that don't make all the difference, we learn a lot from

[00:38:57] Tejal Shah: I mean, it's, you learn what not to do from some, [00:39:00] and from some you learn what to do. And to my theme of, again, the focus is of multiplying effectiveness.

It's about multiplying effectiveness, that is what we do as leaders and to help people we interact with also become better leaders because I have become a better leader by observing and interacting with people, 

[00:39:20] Jeffrey Feldberg: And I suspect, again, data point to one. We tend to pick up from other people where they're putting their time and their focus. And so if other people see the time and attention that we're putting into them, that we have the ability to make them feel like they're the only person in the world, my best guess, I suspect that they'll reciprocate that even more so and it becomes a positive feedback.

So now we're going out of our way for that person's going out of the way for us and vice versa and on it goes. What a wonderful place to be. What's some terrific advice. For Deep Wealth Nation to really focus on the relationships, make that a priority in all areas of your life and see where that would take you.

And before we wrap up, if someone in the Deep Wealth Nation, they have a question, they want to speak with you, they want to have a conversation, learn more of your brilliance and your wisdom and your strategies, where's the best place online? Someone can do that.

[00:40:10] Tejal Shah: They could find me at congruentadvisory. com. They could find me on LinkedIn. Those are the two primary places that they would be able to go ahead and reach out to me on.

[00:40:21] Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation, all of that will be in the show notes. It's a point and click. It doesn't get any easier. Well, Tejal, congratulations. It's [00:40:30] official. This is a wrap. As we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

[00:40:37] Tejal Shah: Thank you. Thank you very much. 

[00:40:39] 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.

Are you ready for it? 

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God bless.