472 The Silent Deal Killer

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Well, hello Deep Wealth Nation and welcome to another solo episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. I'm Jeffrey Feldberg, and I'm the guy who said no to a 7-figure offer and yes to a 9-figure exit by mastering the art of preparation. And today I'm pulling back the curtain on a topic that can make or break your financial freedom, your profits, and your legacy.

Picture this for just a moment. You're deep in due diligence with a buyer. You've spent years building your business and months preparing for this one shot. Your advisors, they're in place, your documents, they're all lined up and on paper, everything looks incredible. The buyer seems excited and you can almost taste the freedom, the wealth, the legacy, and the next chapter in your journey beginning. And then, boom, silence.

The buyer disappears. No calls, no emails, no second chance your dream exit poof is gone.

What happened?

The numbers look good. The opportunity was solid, but the deal [00:01:00] collapsed because of something most entrepreneurs never see coming. This is the Silent Deal Killer, and it's all about a toxic culture that destroys valuation and not only valuation, but your business itself.

Maybe it was an offhand comment in an employee interview. Perhaps it was a visible lack of alignment in a leadership meeting, or even just the subtle energy of burnout that a savvy buyer picked up on. Whatever the trigger culture killed the Deal.

Now, Deep Wealth Nation, I've been there.

I've seen buyers walk away because they sense the risk, not in the financials, but in the people. And here's the kicker. Most entrepreneurs don't even realize that their culture is a liability, it's a skeleton, until it's too late. But I've got great news. Culture can also be your greatest multiplier. A healthy, thriving culture doesn't just help you run a better business today.

It becomes your [00:02:00] hidden Rembrandt in the attic. An asset so valuable that buyers fight to pay a premium. And that's exactly what happened in my own 9-figure exit. And it's a secret built right into the Deep Wealth 9-step Roadmap.

In this episode, I'll show you exactly how to protect yourself from cultural landmines and transform your team into a profit boosting valuation multiplying machine.

You'll discover three actionable strategies you can use right now to turn culture from a silent killer into a superpower that buyers can't resist. And because I know you're busy, you're juggling clients, operations and growth. I want to make this simple for you. If you email success[at]deepwealth[dot]com, success, you know, success, S-U-C-C-E-S-S at Deep Wealth dot com with the subject line:

Culture Risk Checklist

I'll send you a free tool that reveals the culture, deal killers, hidden in plain sight right [00:03:00] inside your business. Again, that's success[at]deepwealth[dot]com. It's free, it's fast, it's practical, and it could save not only your exit, but your business. So stick with me because what you'll learn today could protect everything you've built and ensure that when your time comes to exit.

Your buyer, your investors doesn't just show up, they line up. So that said, let's dive in. Let's talk about the Silent Deal Killer of why a toxic culture derails even the best financials.

So Deep Wealth Nation, let's get real. You can have the absolute best financials in your industry. Rock solid revenue, healthy margins growth that makes headlines.

But if your culture is toxic, your deal is as good as dead. Toxic culture is a silent deal killer lurking in the shadows until due diligence exposes it. And believe you and me, your future buyer or investor, they will find it. This is all they do all day, every day when they're looking at companies.

And it's rarely the obvious stuff. It's [00:04:00] not shouting matches or mass resignations. It's subtle. A disengaged employee, a misaligned leader, high turnover, you brush off as quote-unquote normal. These are cracks that buyers are trained to spot and when they do, they run. And between you and me, one entrepreneur to another, let's face it, there are times when even in our own business, we are like the Emperor with no clothes.

We're not seeing or hearing what's really going on.

As I'm sharing this with you, I want to tell you a quick story about a Deep Wealth Mastery graduate. I'm going to change the name for privacy reasons, let's call the Graduate Tom. Now, Tom came to us after he lost what he thought was going to be a life changing deal. Tom ran a tech company and he had stellar revenue, and he was positioned for a big exit.

Now, he'd done all the work, months of prep, big checks for advisors, endless late nights, and it was during due diligence when Tom selected the buyer that he thought was best for the deal. The buyer was having an interview with his team, and one manager casually [00:05:00] mentioned unclear goals and constant firefighting. Now, to Tom, this was just startup chaos. This was normal. This was what they did day in, day out.

But to the buyer, it screamed dysfunction immediately. Trust evaporated and overnight the deal collapsed. Tom wasn't just gutted by the money that he lost for his advisors by the dashed hopes that he had for the next chapter in his life.

What actually crushed him was realizing that he never saw it coming, and this is when he came to the Deep Wealth Mastery team and he went through the program to make sure that this would never happen again.

Now, Deep Wealth Nation, I know you're pouring your heart into your business, and I also know you're solving problems. You're beating the odds. You're turning "impossible" into "I'm possible," and you're juggling a million things. You're probably even telling yourself, my culture's fine. We've got the job done. I get it.

Hey, I was there. But here's the truth. You're too close to see those skeletons in the closets, those blind spots, that high turnover [00:06:00] you explain away. Buyers see risk, that disengaged team member that you overlook, buyers don't. In today's market, the currency in mergers and acquisitions, it's not money, it's trust, and a toxic culture, whether it's misalignment, low morale or silent churn that can derail your deal faster than bad financials.

But I've got great news. You can uncover these toxins before your buyers do. And these hidden skeletons in the closet, you can fix them. And when you do, your culture transforms from a silent killer into a profit engine and a deal magnet. And that's exactly where we're headed next. So let's talk about the buyer's lens and culture.

Deep Wealth Nation. I'm going to fast forward to Step 3 of the deep default 9-step Roadmap, and this is where we master the art and science of a buyer or an investor. So we're going to step into the mind of a buyer for just a moment. And by the way, Deep Wealth Nation, when I say buyer, you could just as easily substitute buyer with the word investor.

It's really [00:07:00] one in the same. So when a buyer's looking at your business, what are they considering?

Well, it is not just the financials they're buying, your people, your processes, and your trust.

They're asking themselves, is your team aligned?

Can the business scale without you?

Does the business radiate confidence or chaos?

And I gotta tell you, I'm laughing, although I was crying back in the day when I first began my company Embanet. It was chaos. It was all over the place. We were disorganized, thank goodness we weren't in market because our enterprise value would've been a fraction of what it would later turn out to be with a 9-figure exit deal.

But in the beginning it was chaos.

And you know what?

I couldn't see the trees from the forest. So I've been there. I know exactly what that's like. But in today's market, culture is the lens that buyers use to answer those questions. And it's your culture for better or for worse, that's what determines whether they write you a check or they walk away.

Now, I experienced firsthand in my own [00:08:00] 9-figure exit with Embanet buyers didn't just care about revenue or growth curves, and believe me, we had them all in the right direction. They grilled my team on the vision, the collaboration, and the resilience. They wanted proof, not from the spreadsheets, but from the team members that the business could thrive without me and my co-founders.

Why?

Because a strong culture means low risk and high reward. And after all, isn't that what we all want?

Because the research backs us up. PWC found that by addressing culture upfront, the deal success rate can increase by 20%. McKinsey, they report that companies with aligned cultures are more than 40% more likely to achieve their objectives.

So let's put this into perspective between a 20 to 30% valuation boost from just getting culture, right. If it's say, let me just pick a number, let's pick $20 million.

On a $20 million business, that's an extra 4 million to $6 million in your pocket, not because of revenue growth, but [00:09:00] because your team screams scalability. Your culture is rich, thriving, and vibrant. So let's talk about a hidden risk that culture amplifies. Your customers and your revenue. If 50% or more of your revenue comes from a handful of clients, and you've heard me talk about this in earlier episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast, buyers already see a house of cards.

And when you add a toxic culture, disengage, employees sloppy service, the house collapses. A toxic culture fuels churn. It erodes loyalty, and it makes buyers nervous. Now, on the flip side. Recurring revenue that is not gold, that is platinum to buyers. It screams predictability and stability. But here's the kicker.

Recurring revenue is only as strong as the culture behind it. A toxic culture will cut corners, burn out clients, and turn stable contracts into recurring headaches.

A thriving culture built on accountability and customer care transforms [00:10:00] recurring revenue into recurring confidence. I'm going to share a quick story from my Embanet journey. Early on, our culture wasn't where it needed to be. And believe you and me, I am being polite. We lost a key client because our service delivery didn't match our promises.

This was a painful wake up call. I can still remember it, and as I'm thinking about this, I'm feeling my heart sink. It was that painful all these years later when we rebuilt our culture around trust, alignment, and execution. What would later become Step 2 in the Deep Wealth roadmap, x-Factors, everything changed.

Client loyalty soared, recurring contracts locked in. Buyers stopped seeking risk and started seeing a machine worth paying a premium for.

Deep Wealth Nation. I know what you might be thinking. My clients are happy. My revenue's fine, Jeffrey, everything is great. Hey, I told myself the same thing, but here's the truth. If your culture is shaky, your customer base and your revenue streams are at risk, and buyers will [00:11:00] spot it before you do.

Another quick story from the Embanet exit. In the Embanet exit, one of our key clients insisted that a specific team member stayed on after myself and my co-founders were no longer there. They enjoyed the service from this team member. They couldn't imagine life without this team member. Of course the future buyer happily said yes. But I want you to imagine for just a moment, we didn't have a solid culture.

Now, this team member, they loved the company, they loved the culture they wanted to stay on, and we made sure that we had our deal points and our no-fly zones that protected the entire team. But imagine for just a moment that wasn't the case and this particular team member didn't want to stick around.

Well, there's a good chance that the deal would fall through because one key client couldn't get a team member to stay on after the founders were gone. This is how important your culture is.

So Deep Wealth Nation, fix your culture now. Don't wait another day. Start it right now because you're not just protecting your company today, tomorrow, and the next day, you're [00:12:00] protecting your future deal, your future legacy and financial independence.

You boost your profits today and you multiply your valuation tomorrow. That's the power of looking at your business through the buyer's lens.

So let's now look on to customer and revenue risks and how they're amplified by culture.

Deep Wealth Nation, let's talk about two of the biggest red flags that buyers watch for: customer concentration and recurring revenue. And in fact, both of those are in different steps in the 9-step Deep Wealth roadmap and even talked about each of them separately on earlier episodes on their own.

These can make or break a deal, but here's what most entrepreneurs miss, and I don't want you to miss this. Your culture is the hidden factor that amplifies both the risks and the opportunities. First customer concentration, maybe 40%, 50%, or even 70% of your revenue comes from just one or two clients.

On paper, you might convince yourself that, hey, it's fine, and you're drinking your own [00:13:00] Kool-Aid. You're telling yourself these are great relationships. They'll never leave. But buyers see a very different story. And remember, perception is reality. They see a house of cards. And if your culture is toxic, if your team is disengaged, disorganized, or misaligned, that house of cards, that'll collapse even faster.

Why?

Because toxic cultures don't innovate. They don't nurture relationships. They don't protect the base of your business. And to a buyer, that's absolutely terrifying. Now let's flip the script. Let's look at recurring revenue. They absolutely love predictable cash flow. It screams stability and scalability. But here's the truth. You cannot sustain recurring revenue without a strong culture. A toxic team, they'll cut corners, they'll burn out your customer base, and they'll turn recurring revenue into recurring headaches.

On the other hand, a thriving culture, one that's built on trust, accountability, and customer focus. This is what [00:14:00] creates recurring revenues that buyers will pay a premium for, is not just the numbers, it's the confidence behind the numbers.

I'll share a quick story about another Deep Wealth Mastery graduate. For privacy i'm going to change the name. I'm going to call this graduate David. David ran a service business and he came to us because he had all these buyers and investors that were knocking at the door who want to buy or invest in the business.

And in David's words, he said, I don't know what I don't know, and that's what's keeping me up. At nights when he was going through Deep Wealth Mastery, he realized that yes, on paper his revenue looks strong, but if a buyer were to look at it, they would flag his customer concentration. So what saved him wasn't just having the time through preparation.

That's what I love about preparation. It's the gift that keeps on giving. He now had the time to diversify his client base. It was transforming his culture. The two went hand in hand. David rebuilt his team around shared values, accountability and proactive client care.

The result?

Customer churn dropped. [00:15:00] His recurring contracts grew, and David knew he's now ready to either continue the business as though it's going to go on forever, or he's in a position to sell tomorrow.

Talk about two great choices because profits were up, business was growing, and he was now coming from a position of strength. A buyer or investor who would look at the business, they would see a resilient business with sticky revenue.

Your takeaway is a simple one, not to confuse simple with simplicity.

Culture is the multiplier.

A weak culture amplifies risk.

A strong culture amplifies opportunity.

You can't diversify customers or build recurring revenue without the cultural foundation to support it. And buyers and investors, they know this.

That's why they look at your culture before they trust your numbers. So Deep Wealth Nation, here's my challenge to you. Take a hard look at your customer base and your revenue streams.

Ask yourself, does my culture strengthen these or does it quietly sabotage them?

[00:16:00] The answer could be the difference between a buyer running away or lining up to pay a premium.

So with that said, let's talk about profitability versus growth and the connection to culture. Deep Wealth Nation. Let me talk to you about a trap that snares way too many entrepreneurs chasing growth at the expense of profit.

On the surface, a $50 million revenue company looks like it should crush a $20 million company. But buyers, they don't think that way. They don't write checks for top line revenue. They pay a premium for profit that's both sustainable and predictable.

And here's a secret.

Culture determines whether growth turns into profit or just another vanity metric. Let me say that again.

Your culture determines whether growth turns into profit or another vanity metric.

In a toxic culture, growth becomes reckless. Teams chase flashy revenue without discipline. Corners get cut, costs balloon and margins [00:17:00] shrink to nothing. It looks great in a press release, but when buyers peel back the layers, they see a house built on sand. A healthy culture flips the script. It aligns your team around discipline.

Predictable growth. Every deal is vetted. Every client relationship strengthens the foundation. Costs are controlled, systems are followed, and profit compounds. And to the buyer that screams value and scalability.

At Embanet, I learned this the hard way. Early on we celebrated big contracts thinking we'd struck gold, but some of those deals drained resources and we barely broke even. The revenue looked great, but the profit, especially in the early days, it was an illusion. It wasn't until we built a culture of accountability, what we later become is Step 2 in the Deep Wealth roadmap, X-Factors, that we shifted to disciplined growth. That cultural pivot didn't just flatten margins, it transformed us into a 9-figure deal magnet.

Buyers didn't just see [00:18:00] revenue. They saw a machine designed for lasting value. Now, let's pivot to something. Buyers are trained to look for those hidden skeletons in the closet, otherwise known as red flags. Those are the quiet signals that you might easily overlook, but buyers never do.

Things like silent turnover. If you're losing 15% of your team every year, maybe it's even more than that, you may shrug it off as normal churn. Buyers see instability and cultural rot.

What about disalignment?

The employee who dodges eye contact in an interview or gives rehearsed half-hearted answers to a buyer?

That's a huge flashing warning light.

What about lack of alignment?

Ask three managers about your company's vision, and if you get three different answers, buyers don't see ambition. They see chaos. These aren't loud problems. They're quiet killers. These are the silent deal killers. I missed them in the early days at Embanet until I ran a simple internal audit.

Fixing them didn't just stabilize the business. It would later [00:19:00] save not only the company, but our future 9-figure exit deal. Deepp Nation, I know what you're probably thinking, Jeffrey. My team is fine. We're growing. We're too busy for this. I thought the same thing, but here's the truth. If your culture is off, your growth isn't profit.

And those quiet red flags, those hidden skeletons in the closet, the turnover, the disengagement, the misalignment, those are ticking time bombs, those will be found and the buyers will either walk away from the table or not even come to the table in the first place.

But I got great news.

You can spot these before you ever go into market.

Start simple. Check your turnover rate. Do it today.

Run an anonymous survey and you can ask, how engaged are you?

Or do you feel aligned with the company's mission?

It takes minutes, but it could save millions, and that's exactly what we teach in Step 4 of the default 9-step Roadmap, due diligence where you master an internal audit. The goal is to uncover and fix the issue inside your business before you ever step foot into market, before [00:20:00] you ever speak to an investment banker.

Because once you've mastered all the steps in the 9-step Roadmap, your culture is transformed and it goes from a silent liability into one of your greatest profit and valuation multipliers.

Deep Wealth Nation, do you know the hidden red flags that buyers are always on the lookout for?

Let me pull back the curtain on something most entrepreneurs never hear. Buyers are trained to spot cultural cracks that you don't even notice. And here's the kicker, these red flags, they are not dramatic.

They're incredibly subtle. They're quiet, and they are deadly both to your company and your future deal. Here's just a few of the many red flags that send buyers running.

Silent turnover. You're losing people quietly, one at a time. You explain it away as, oh, they weren't a fit or they wanted something new. But buyers know high turnover is never random. It's a signal of a deeper dysfunction.

Disengagement. Buyers pick up on body language. They see the employee who's avoiding the eye contact in an [00:21:00] interview. They notice when answers feel rehearsed instead of authentic. And it's those subtle cues that tell the buyers, your team isn't engaged and disengagement, well, hey, that equals risk.

And Deep Wealth Nation. Don't think for a moment that your future buyer will only speak to your leadership team that may be fully engaged. Your future buyer will speak to other team members, and this is where you may miss the boat.

Another red flag, lack of alignment. Again, as I mentioned earlier, if you were to ask three managers about your company vision, and if you got three different answers, which you probably will, hey, this is a huge red flag. This is a skeleton in the closet because misalignment screams chaos, and chaos is expensive.

And the last one is toxic influencers. Every company has them. This is the high performer who poisons culture. The manager who undermines leadership. You might tolerate them because they get the results, quote-unquote, but buyers see them as a ticking time bomb.

And again, I know what you're thinking, Jeffrey, yeah, I hear you. This is all on the soft side. [00:22:00] It doesn't exist. I don't have to worry about that. Let me tell you something. You absolutely do. I'll never forget when we're going through our competitive process when Embanet was out in market, I was speaking to a potential buyer and we were just chatting after the meeting was done.

And I'll never forget what the buyer told me. The buyer said, Jeffrey, the numbers get us in the door, but it's the culture. That's what closes the deal. And we love Embanet's culture. That line stuck with me because it's true. Buyers don't want surprises after the ink dries, there's going to be enough of them.

It's the culture. That's what they're looking for. They're looking for the signals, good or bad, that predict the future and nothing predicts the future. A bright and prosperous future. Like culture.

As I'm talking to you about this, I'm actually reminded of another Deep Wealth Mastery graduate for privacy i'm going to change the names and I'm going to call her Mary. Mary had a fast-growing tech company. Revenue was, wow, it was impressive. And the product was solid.

And Mary went into discussions with buyers. She had all [00:23:00] kinds of buyers and investors that were always there.

Hey Mary, can we buy the company?

Love what you're doing. And she actually took the buyers up on one of their offers and she spent all the money on the lawyers, on the diligence, and they were now in the due diligence. She had signed the letter of intent, and that's when the buyer came back to Mary and said, you know, we noticed something interesting, and it was the smallest of details. We were speaking to two department heads, the buyer said, and they contradicted each other when we asked 'em about priorities. And it was that one misaligned answer, want, don't you think about that one misaligned answer, that was all it took.

The buyer walked away from the deal table, the trust was gone. It evaporated and the deal never recovered. And that's when Mary came to us literally crying the blues. Jeffrey, this is what happened. I don't ever want to be in that position again.

All that time, that money, that effort, it was wasted of what could have been. The next time I'm in market, I want to make sure I'm fully prepared.

And I share Mary's story with you as a lesson for all of us because, hey, from one entrepreneur to [00:24:00] another, we've got to learn from each other. Let's always ensure that when we spend the time and the money to go into market, we're really ready to be in the market. You know the stats, up to 90% of deals, of liquidity events, of business sales, they will fail. All that time, effort, and money, all for not. 

And Dept Wealth Nation it shows how fragile deals are because it's not always the financials that kill the deal. It's the quiet, hidden cultural cracks that scream risk louder than any spreadsheet. So here's my challenge for you. Don't wait to be in market with all that time, effort, and money for a buyer to uncover your skeletons in the closet.

You gotta find them for yourself. You have to root them out, because when you do, you're not just protecting your future deal. You're not just multiplying your future valuation, you're protecting your company today, you're growing your company, and you're growing your profits.

Deep Wealth Nation, do you want to know another secret that buyers know that most entrepreneurs miss when it comes to your culture?

You ready for it?

Your [00:25:00] operations are a mirror of your culture. So we're going to be talking about for the next few minutes from chaos to control all about operational culture. A thriving culture creates efficiency, clear processes, empowered leaders, and no bottlenecks.

Things run smoothly because accountability and alignment drive every action. A toxic culture, well, hey, it hits chaos. Fire drills missed deadlines. Finger pointing processes may exist on paper, but no one follows them. And here's the kicker. Buyers don't just see broken systems. They see a broken culture behind those systems and that screams risk. In today's market, chaotic operations can slash your valuation or kill your deal entirely.

As I'm talking about this, I'm reminded of another Deep Wealth Mastery graduate. And again, for privacy reasons, I'm going to call her Erica. Erica ran a manufacturing business, and they had solid margins, but behind the numbers and the operations, it was a mess. Constant fire drills, [00:26:00] unclear processes, and a team that leaned on her for every decision.

To Erica, it was just the way things are, quote-unquote. And it was during due diligence that a buyer asked about her systems, and her answers were vague. The team's answers were vague. That was all that it took. The buyer saw chaos, not scalability, and the valuation well, guess what happened to that?

It evaporated.

So Erica joined our 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery program, and we started with her culture. She aligned her team around shared values, documented her standard operating procedures for key processes, and empowered her team leaders to make their own decisions.

The fire drills vanished, efficiency, soared, and morale while it skyrocketed. Erica leveraged the power of the Deep Wealth 9-step Roadmap and also the pain of what she went through before enrolling in Deep Wealth Mastery, and she ensured that her business was built to scale.

I remember Erica sharing with me after Deep Wealth Mastery. She now had the peace of mind, the [00:27:00] clarity that when it's time for her to go back into market, she has a business that she can depend upon that scales, that gives trust and confidence.

And Deep Wealth Nation, I have to share with you, it's not just Erica at Embanet, I lived this lesson as well. Very early on I was a bottleneck. Most of the decisions had to run either through me or my co-founders. It was not sustainable.

We had to rebuild our culture around trust and accountability with SOPs for everything from onboarding to client delivery. Yes, it took time, it took effort, and even some dollars, but it was well worth the while because the cultural foundation turned chaos into control and it proved later on to our future buyers that we could thrive without the founders.

It became a cornerstone of our 9-figure exit, and this is exactly what we're teaching in both Step 2 X-Factors and Step 4 Due Diligence where you're documenting your systems, you're building your leadership depth, you're showing your buyers a machine not a [00:28:00] mess.

Because Deep Wealth Nation, I get it. You are swamped. You're putting out fires, you're managing teams, you're chasing growth. You might think, hey, my operations work, they're fine. I thought the same thing. But here's the truth. If your processes aren't clear or your team depends on you, your future buyer, they'll see risk, not value.

You can fix it with one small step. Document, a single standard operating procedure, an SOP this week. Maybe it's your onboarding process for new hires. It'll take what, 15 minutes, a half hour, an hour, but it's the gift that keeps on giving because your culture, it'll benefit from it. You'll have better hires and down the road, your future buyer will see a culture that's all about efficiency and organization. When you turn chaos into control, you're not just saving your deal, you're boosting prophe, you're giving yourself a breathing room and building a business that buyers will fight to acquire.

That's the power of an operational culture.

So now let's roll up our sleeves. And I want to give you [00:29:00] three proven cultural multipliers. Straight from the Deep Wealth 9-step Roadmap that you can start using today. These are not theory, these are from the trenches. They're battle tested, and I use them for my own 9-figure exit. And they're designed for busy entrepreneurs like you with small, intentional steps that deliver huge results.

And when you apply them, you put yourself in a position to boost profits, protect your customers, and eventually make buyers chase you. So let's turn your culture into a deal making superpower.

Multiplier number one, audit for toxins. First, uncover the cracks before a buyer ever has a chance to do so. A toxic culture that hides in plain sight. Things like turnover, low morale, or misaligned goals. I miss these very early at Embanet and when we were growing so fast, it was easy to miss and I assumed everything was fine.

I saw firsthand how our team members were not clear on our mission. That lack of clarity. It was draining efficiency, and it was a eroding client. [00:30:00] Loyalty buyers would've spotted that in a heartbeat. So your action step, run a quick culture audit. Do it today. Do it this week.

Send one anonymous survey question on a scale of one to 10 how clear are you on your mission?

Or you can check your turnover rate. Anything over 15% annually, that is a hidden skeleton in the closet. A huge red flag. It takes minutes, but it could save millions.

And let me give you an insight tip in Step 4, Due Diligence, you learn all about how to do these audits internally so that you can fix these issues on your terms not during a buyer interrogation and a use interrogation deliberately.

But if you want a headstart email success@de.com

S-U-C-C-E-S-S at Deep Wealth, D-E-E-P-W-E-A-L-T-H.com.

And when you email success@Deep Wealth.com in the subject put culture risk checklist or even culture for short, and what we'll do is we will send you a free tool that we use to spot these deal killing flaws [00:31:00] and you'll spot them fast.

OK Deep Wealth Nation ready for multiplier Number two?

Multiplier number two is build X-Factor values with a customer and profitability focus. Let me ask you a question, and I know it's a rhetorical question.

Do you want a toxic culture?

Of course not.

You don't even want a good culture. I want your culture to be an X-Factor, and when you do it right, that X-Factor, that can become a Rembrandt, which makes it very difficult for your competition to copy you.

Even with all their tech, all their capital, they cannot copy a Rembrandt. You're so world class in that area. Culture is one of those areas that's very difficult to copy when you get it right.

At Embanet, we built our culture around trust and accountability, this wasn't just feel good HR, it kept clients loyal, reduced churn and boosted margins. Buyer saw a profit engine, not just a product. The cultural X-Factor was one reason that the buyer paid a premium.

So here's how you can start.

Define three core values, and I'm just going to pick, let's say [00:32:00] transparency, innovation, and customer focus.

Then systematize them. Align your incentives with these values. Reward behaviors like proactive client service that lock in recurring revenue. Celebrate the small wins to fuel morale. Try this today in your next team meeting. Model one value. Let's say customer focus. Share a client win and ask for ideas to deepen loyalty.

That small step compounds into reduced churn, stronger profits, and it adds a culture that buyers can't ignore. You become so good that buyers can't ignore.

And all of that said, let's talk about multiplier number three, which is reverse engineer buyer's expectations. I bet you didn't see that one coming.

So in thinking like a buyer in Step 3 where you're mastering the art and science of thinking like a buyer.

Before they ever walk in the door, you want to ensure that your business thrives without you. When a buyer walks through the door, you want them to see alignment, documentation, and scalability. And if they sense dependability or [00:33:00] chaos, they'll either walk away or they'll put a penalty on your enterprise value.

Here's your playbook.

Document your cultural strengths. Create SOPs for onboarding, decision making and client care. And at Embanet, our SOP showed how culture wasn't just words, it was a repeatable system, and that gave the buyers confidence and it sealed our 9-figure deal. In fact, when you do your documentation correctly, it becomes an X-Factor in and of itself.

And by the way, that documentation that can help win deals. I've talked about this in earlier episodes, when you can go to a prospective client, oh, by the way, here are our Standard Operating Procedures. When you become a client, here's exactly what our system is and how you're going to go through it.

Your competition likely isn't doing this. It has you stand out. You're doing this for profits today and higher enterprise value tomorrow. And once you've done that, craft a narrative around it. Don't just show financials. Tell the story of not just any team but your team united by values and the mission that drives consistent [00:34:00] results. That story well, that helps buyers picture themselves succeeding when you're no longer around.

And hey, you can start small. Document one process this week. It could be something like how your team handles client escalations. I know nothing exciting there, but it's step by step every day. That's where we're going to start making a difference. And when you have this done, it signals to buyers that your culture, it's systematic, it's scalable, and it is low risk.

Deep Wealth Nation, again, I know you're busy, clients, operations, growth, a million things pulling at you. You might even be saying, and you probably are, hey, this culture thing, Jeffrey. Yeah, I get it. It's just too big to tackle right now. I'll do it tomorrow. I'll do it later. Hey, I get it. I was there to buried in the daily grind.

But these multipliers, these auditing toxins, building these X-Factor values, reverse engineering buyers, they are not only quick, they're doable and it's high impact. And hey, the fact that you can't even do it, that tells you in and of itself [00:35:00] everything you need to know.

It's exactly for that reason that you do need to do it. The business begins to run without you. Your profits increase today, you protect your customer base, and you make your business irresistible tomorrow.

So if you want to take the first step and you want to take it right now, I'll save you some time. Email success[at]deepwealth[dot]com. And in the subject, you can put Culture Risk Checklist, or even Culture, or Culture Risk, just whatever you want in the subject. And we will send you a free tool that shows you exactly where those hidden skeletons in the closet, where they're hiding and what you could do about it.

Because these multipliers are not just about your preparation for a future exit. They make your business more profitable, more enjoyable to run, and ultimately a legacy that you can be proud of.

Now that we've covered the three multipliers, let's do a quick thought experiment. I want you to imagine something you're going to like this. I want you to imagine your exit. We're going to talk about future pacing.

Deep Wealth Nation, let's talk about what's possible when you turn your culture into a valuation multiplier. And [00:36:00] I've seen this firsthand, not only in my own 9-figure exit, but again and again with entrepreneurs just like you in our 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery program.

Let me share two stories with you, and for privacy reasons, I have changed the names of these Deep Wealth Mastery graduates. The first one is Lauren and Lauren ran a manufacturing company, and on paper, Lauren had terrific revenues doing all the right things, going in all the right directions, but behind the numbers my goodness. That culture was a chaos. When Lauren ran that checklist, whoa, were there surprises that were uncovered and they were not pleasant ones. High turnover, constant fire drills, and a team that was overly dependent on Lauren for every decision. Lauren knew that if she were to go to market, it was a recipe for a disaster.

There wouldn't be a deal, or her enterprise value would be significantly lowered through a high penalty. So when Lauren joined the Deep Wealth Mastery program, she knew she was going to build the company, and particularly the culture from the inside out, focusing on Step 2 X-Factors, She reshaped her culture around [00:37:00] trust and accountability.

She had all the SOPs documented. She empowered her leaders. She had the team aligned on a single shared mission. Within months turnover dropped. Profits were increasing at 20%, and most importantly, better than all those numbers, she now had peace of mind. She knew that when it was time to go to market, whenever that was, in two years from now, or 22 years from now, she would be ready. It'd be done on her terms, and her valuation would be higher than it ever would've been before, and then she would get a premium on her deal, which would later welcome not only financial freedom, but she would have a legacy that would remain intact.

Let's now go from Lauren to Ed, ed is another Deep Wealth Mastery graduate, and Ed came to us who, let's now go from Lauren to Ed. Ed's another Deep Wealth Mastery graduate who was running a growing tech firm. Ed came to us knowing he wanted to sell the company the next two to three years. What kept it up at nights?[00:38:00]

Let's now go from Lauren to Ed.

Ed's another Deep Wealth Mastery graduate, and he was running a growing tech firm. Ed came to Deepp Mastery because he knew he wanted to retire in the next two to three years. Now in Ed's industry, there's a lot of consolidation. He saw what was happening, but he also saw what wasn't happening.

He heard those rumors and those stories of the deals that just went in the wrong direction. And when I speaking with Ed, he said, Jeffrey, I don't want that to be me. I'm a guy who wears two belts and two suspenders. I don't like surprises. When I do go to market, I know it's not going to be perfect, but I want to know that I'm doing everything right and I don't know what I don't know.

So when Ed was going through the program to his shock, to his dismay, he found in plain sight, he had this toxic manager. And this toxic manager was quietly poisoning the morale in Ed's company. Ed was shocked about this. He never saw this coming, and he realized had he done nothing, if he would've gone to market this one, toxic [00:39:00] manager likely would have killed the deal.

Or if the deal went through, it would've been a high penalty on the enterprise value. In other words, he would've got a lower value for the company and he could see how the trust was being evaporated.

Knowing this early on, Ed started to create launch plans in Deep Wealth Mastery of how he's going to deal with this, how to replace this toxic culture with a thriving, a rich, a vibrant culture. And he began to do things that was around collaboration, reengaging his team, removing that toxic influence.

He wanted client loyalty strengthened. He wanted his profits not only to be stabilized, but to be increased because that's the power of culture. It's not just about the money, it's about the meaning. And Ed knew that when it was time for him to go to market, his future financial independence, his future legacy, he'd be doing everything the right way to ensure it was his way.

Not just any deal, but the absolute best deal because Deep Wealth Nation, when we do this thought experiment, when we future pace for a moment, I want you to close your eyes unless you're [00:40:00] driving, of course, and I want you to picture this. And if you're driving, pull off to the side of the road.

Picture this, you're in due diligence with a buyer. Your team is a aligned. They're energized. They're living your mission every day. Buyers interview your leaders. And every answer, it's consistent, confident and values driven. They don't just see a company. The buyer sees a culture that multiplies value. The buyer leans in smiling and says, we don't just want your numbers, we want your team.

Suddenly the offers are piling up each one higher than the last. Buyers are competing, not because they're dazzled by your financials alone, your financials are great, but not just the financials alone, but because your culture, it's a machine that they cannot replicate with all their money, with all their experience, all their technology they cannot replicate.

You close, not just any deal, the absolute best deal, the deal of a lifetime. You walk away with financial freedom and you know, deep down that your business is thriving without you carrying on your legacy forward into the future. [00:41:00] That my friends, that is not a fantasy. That's what the Deep Wealth 9-step Roadmap delivers.

And in my eminent exit, our culture of trust and execution. It wasn't just a feel good story, it was the X-Factor that sealed a 9-figure deal. And you, you can create the same outcome.

Deep Wealth Nation, you're building something extraordinary. Don't let a weak culture rob you of your future. With the right steps, you'll have your buyers competing for your business and your legacy shining brighter than ever. I want you to make that happen, and as you're thinking about that, let's bring this home.

Today we uncovered a truth that can make or break not just your financial future, but also your business for today and tomorrow, and that is toxic cultures are silent business killers and deal killers. While thriving cultures are powerful multipliers, we've seen how misalignment, disengagement, and hidden chaos can quietly derail your deal, costing you not just millions in a future deal, but also your business.

We've also seen the flip side, how a strong, [00:42:00] healthy culture boosts profits today. It protects your customers. It drives sustainable growth and commands a premium when it's time for you to go into market.

So now you have three proven multipliers from the Deep Wealth 9-step Roadmap to make it happen.

Number one, audit your culture for toxins before you ever go to market.

Number two, build X-Factor values that lock in loyalty and drive profitability.

And number three, reverse engineer buyer expectations so your business becomes irresistible.

And by the way, when I'm saying the word buyer, it's not just a future buyer of your company, it could also be a future client. They're really one and the same when you think about it, just different outcomes, because these aren't just exit strategies, they're business strategies. They make your company a joy to run today while preparing you for the best deal, the absolute best deal, not any deal, the best deal tomorrow.

So Deep Wealth Nation, let me ask you this if a buyer walked into your business today, what story would your culture tell?[00:43:00]

Think about that for a moment.

Would it whisper risk?

Or would it shout opportunity?

Don't let that question haunt you. You've worked too hard, you've sacrificed too much to gamble your legacy on a weak culture preparation is the gift that keeps on giving.

And it starts right now, not tomorrow, not when you're less busy. Remember, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is right now today.

And here's your action plan, Deep Wealth Nation.

First, subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast. Hit that subscribe button on your favorite platform. You'll never miss our strategies designed to grow your profits and prepare you for a life-changing exit.

Second email success[at]deeowealth[dot]com.

I know you've heard me say this. success[at]deeowealth[dot]com. I said it again and again. But seriously, email success[at]deeowealth[dot]com.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S at D-E-E-P-W-E-L-T-H.com. success[at]deeowealth[dot]com. In the subject, just put Culture and I will send you a free tool to [00:44:00] uncover the cultural deal killers hiding in plain sight. It's fast, it's powerful, and it could save not just your future deal, it can save your business.

And third, if you're ready, if you're ready to transform your culture into a valuation multiplier, once again, the email success[at]deepwealth[dot]com.

And in the subject line, put Deep Wealth Mastery. My team and I will contact you to see if our 90 day program, it's the only one built on a 9-figure exit, if it's the right fit. And hey, I gotta tell you, it's not for everyone, but if you qualify, it could be the absolute best investment you ever make for your business, your financial freedom, and your legacy.

Deep Wealth Nation. As we wrap things up, I want you to remember this. You are not alone on this journey. You're building something extraordinary and you deserve a deal that reflects your hard work, a deal that secures your financial freedom and leaves a legacy that lasts.

You don't want any deal.

You want the absolute best deal.

And with that in mind, thank you so much for showing up today and for [00:45:00] refusing to settle for anything less than the best outcome.

And 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. God bless.

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? 

The dramatic pause. I'll just wait a moment. Drumroll, please. Subscribe. Please subscribe to the Deep Wealth podcast on your favorite podcast channel. When you subscribe to the Deep Wealth Podcast, you're saving yourself time. Every episode automatically comes to you, and I want you to know that we meticulously craft [00:46:00] Every one of our episodes to have impactful strategies, stories, expert insights that are designed to help you grow your profits, increase the value of your business, and yes, even optimize your post exit life and your life right now, whatever you want that to look like.

And every time you subscribe and a fellow entrepreneur subscribe, it's a testament to how together, Yes, we are. We are changing the social fabric of society. One business owner at a time, one liquidity event at a time. So don't let the momentum stop here. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast channel.

You'll never miss an episode. You'll be the first to hear from the top industry leaders, the innovators, the disruptors that are really changing and shaping the business world, and maybe you're commuting, maybe you're at the gym, maybe you're taking a well deserved break that we spoke all about on this episode.

The Deep Wealth Podcast, it's your reliable source for the next big idea that could literally revolutionize your business. So once again, please hit that subscribe button, stay connected, inspired, and ahead of the curve. And again, your next big breakthrough moment, [00:47:00] it might just be one episode away. Maybe it was even this episode.

So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And 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. 

God bless.