304 Neil Livingstone

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth. 

I'm your host Jeffrey Feldberg. 

This podcast is brought to you by Deep Wealth and the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience. 

When it comes to your business deep wealth, your exit or liquidity event is the most important financial decision of your life. 

But unfortunately, up to 90% of liquidity events fail. Think about all that time and your hard earned money wasted. 

Of the quote unquote "successful" liquidity events, most business owners leave 50% to over 100% of the deal value in the buyer's pocket and don't even know it. 

I should know. I said "no" to a seven-figure offer. And "yes" to mastering the art and the science of a liquidity event. [00:01:00] Two years later, I said "yes" to a different buyer with a nine figure deal. 

Are you thinking about an exit or liquidity event? 

Don't become a statistic and make the fatal mistake of believing the skills that built your business are the same ones to sell it. 

After all, how can you master something you've never done before? 

Let the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience and the 9-step roadmap of preparation help you capture the best deal instead of any deal. 

At the end of this episode, take a moment and hear from business owners like you, who went through the Deep Wealth Experience. 

Neil Livingstone is a career CFO and business owner who started his career working at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Australia and Europe, focusing on mergers and acquisitions.

Neil has held numerous senior CFO roles for large corporations and now runs a virtual CFO service for medium sized businesses. From acquisitions and exits to raising capital, Neil puts business owners front and center. 

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. And you [00:02:00] heard it in the official introduction, we have a fellow business owner in the house and not just any business owner, someone who's involved in the numbers, otherwise known as a chief financial officer, a CFO, who can really move the dial to help you with your business today.

Grow it, increase profits, perhaps even raising capital. And when it comes time for that liquidity event, make sure that you not only cross that finish line, but that you cross the finish line with the best possible deal. So Neil, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. And as we kick things off, there's always a story behind this story.

So Neil, what's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Neil Livingstone: Well, first of all, Geoffrey, just thank you for inviting me onto your podcast. There is, you're right, there's always a story behind a story, behind every word. so what's my story? I started my career with PricewaterhouseCoopers straight out of high school. I am based in Sydney, Australia. I think it's 6.

30 in the morning here, so we're in a different time zone. went straight into corporate life. My parents and family are from Scotland and they're all business entrepreneurs. So. After about 15 [00:03:00] years working in the big corporate end of town and including in, in London and Europe, I felt the calling of needing to go out do something.

So I started my own business and that business is called CFO Advisory. And I've been doing that now for over 15 years. The niche that I really specialize in not dissimilar to sort of the space that you operate in Jeffrey as well. So, I work with business owners. They typically successful business owners that have got their business to a certain point.

And that's typically into profit. Then I get them through the the $2 million. Profit per annum barrier that a lot of people get stuck in, they've got a certain skillset they're successful, they're ambitious, they work hard, they're just lacking the finishing touches, if you like, to get them through and scale their business to that, like you said, to a liquidity event or a payday or just to consistent, significant profits that changes their lifestyle.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Tonio, let me ask you this, because it's interesting. You went with one of the top firms [00:04:00] and you were there and you could have easily have stayed there and you've earned your stripes and you're there for a while, but you decided to leave that scene and really go on an uncertain road. I mean, when you go into business, as we all know on your own.

How are you going to grow it? What that looks like. And in the early days, it's not an easy path. I'm curious. What was it that had you say, thank you, but no, thank you. I'm going to go on a different path.

Neil Livingstone: That's pretty, be a partner at, at PricewaterhouseCoopers. I think they're the biggest accounting firm, in the globe. You need to be a certain type of person and, I just quite a creative person. Very social person entrepreneurial. like I said before, my family are all entrepreneurial.

My mom and dad used to own toy shops. I used to grow up and work in the toy shops which are, some very fond memories of even today. Learned a lot working with my mum and dad in toy shops, actually learned the art of selling and in PwC, love my time there. I've still got many friends from my time in PwC and PwC helped me taught me one very [00:05:00] big skill that I'm going to use for the rest of my career and that's discipline.

 consistent action and discipline, the results that can bring. They also surprisingly taught me how to sell with a brand behind you. I've learned the importance of the brand. But in the end I got to the point I never seriously wanted to be a partner there. I kind of knew that I wasn't that person and I had kids in my early thirties, had a bit of a I wake up and what am I doing with my life?

And I decided to, to move out and, chase my dream of building my own business. And helping others to do that. And that really, you know, it's the best thing that I've ever done. I love operating in the space that I operate with. I work with very like minded people, which I think is important.

I think you, in life, get results when you're passionate about what you do. It doesn't feel like a job to me, but I do. I'm up at 6. 30 talking to you, but I love you know, so... 

Jeffrey Feldberg: it's so okay. So you went out there, you hung a shingle out the door, CFO advisory, you started that. And now what's interesting, and again, in the show notes for our listeners, we'll [00:06:00] have all the links there. Why don't you get Neil's book, his free ebook, The 27 Common Financial and Marketing Mistakes.

Neil, let's not talk about all 27, I mean, each one of those could probably be an episode on its own, but let's go with the 80 20 principle, or Pareto's Law. When you first start working with an entrepreneur, business owner, corporation, whatever the case may be, I'm wondering, are 80 percent of the issues or the problems being caused from the same 20 percent of the mistakes that are happening?

And if that's the case, what would be the top few mistakes that are giving us as business owners, so many headaches?

Neil Livingstone: I love the Pareto principle, it's so true. It's amazing how many times you kind of do the back of the envelope math and work out, hey, it's 80 20 all day about. So, yes, the short answer is yes to that, good people. I work across many sectors. It's amazing how many times I speak to someone in a sector and go, ah, our sector's special, it's different, it's got this, it's got that.

But when you really boil it down to what is fundamentally [00:07:00] holding their business back, it is the same things. It's sector agnostic, if you like. And that is they don't have a clear vision, they don't really know what they're about, their plan is, and they're lacking the discipline in the execution and related to that, I think many business owners 

Aren't naturally good leadership or communicational people. They're all very close to related things. And they've sort of been beaten down through the experiences of trying to build a team that they, and they've concluded they are, it's too hard. Or they're just not good with people and they never will be.

that's a very common ingredient in what I find and it's what's got them to keeping them really scale and get to that level where it's all the hard work and it is worth it. And building a business, as you know, is, nearly always hard work.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. So Neil, let me ask you this, because you've used the word discipline now a couple of times and also vision, which is interesting. Those are the top two that you're naming. I wouldn't [00:08:00] expect that to come from a CFO. And here we are, we're talking, you are a CFO and then some. And so what's going on with that?

So when you begin to work with a business owner on the vision side, on the discipline side, what are you helping them through or helping them get to that on their own, they just haven't been able to do?

Neil Livingstone: Yeah. Vision is closely aligned to what CFOs do. I mean, CFOs look after the financial aspects of a business another word for revision is a plan. Well, or a strategy, or a budget, these are all things that help someone, assess the risks and benefits of a strategy or a plan.

A skillful C F O absolutely helps an owner with that. when put a vision or a plan together you really are assessing risks and returns. Because, when you look at a roadmap, there are many ways to travel. And, some roads are going to get you there quicker, some roads are going to lead you to a destination that's better, and it's about working out what your priorities are and being really super clear on that.

It's no [00:09:00] surprise that when you study businesses that are successful. In fact, one of the things I did this year. Well, as I interviewed 40 successful business owners most of them I've known for many years. And I got them to tell about their journey. I always finish with the same four or five questions and it's uncanny how often they answered pretty much the same thing about what when it comes to success.

So, and one of them is being super clear in what you're trying to achieve. And then in terms of discipline, again, that's very closely aligned to the world of a CFO. The synonymism for discipline, is control

And action. so if you're good at, Your core service and product, when you do it over and over again in a systematic way you'll get very good at it you'll make money.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love what I'm hearing. And I'm wondering, so as you're working with these businesses, because I know on the buy side, on the sell side, on raising capital, you've really done that all. And when you've been on the other side, so when you've been, okay, let's look [00:10:00] to buy this company. And maybe it was with a owner who was at one point going to sell the company and they want to buy other companies just to get some organic growth going, whatever the case may be.

Let's sit now on the other side of the table. So for our listeners and they're thinking of a liquidity event and they're okay, Neil, what are you seeing from the buyer's side? What should I know that I probably don't, that could either lose the deal or hurt me when it comes to the value of the business?

Again, were there some common mistakes that you're seeing that if known upfront could easily have been avoided? 

Neil Livingstone: When you're sitting, in a room with people that are thinking about giving you money or investing money there's a very, very typical thought that, that, that occurs. when they look at three key things, when they look at the management team, it's pretty much the number one thing they look at. When you look at their track record, not just in the business that they're looking at investing in or buying, but in previous businesses, potentially, if you meet a business owner that's already successfully built another business, that is a very good sign.

Looking for not just the [00:11:00] strengths of the business owner, depending on how big the business is. They're looking at the team and whether or not they understand the principles of success that we just talked about while they are disciplined, while they are clear on what they're trying to do, and what's their track record and actually executing on that.

So that's the number one thing that a sophisticated investor will look at, and they will look at the product or service, and they will. Make an assessment whether or not that's a scalable, they're in a good market. They've got good customers that want their products or services, it's a large addressable market that.

And then the third thing they look at is the profitability of that. So typically if we're talking about an e-commerce company for example. They'll want to know uh, the gross profit margins are, north of 65% for example there's no point scaling if you're not scaling a profitable business.

that's what they look at. People forget the first one in my experience. They go straight to two and three. And 

Jeffrey Feldberg: There's no shortcuts and you know, it's interesting. And for the Deep Wealth listeners who've heard me say these [00:12:00] things time and time again, I promise you, Neil and I, this is the first time that we're speaking. We have not spoken before because Neil, what you're sharing, one of our favorite questions at Deep Wealth when we go through our 90 day Deep Wealth mastery.

Does your business run without you? Yes, no, nothing in between, no excuses. And lo and behold, here you are saying, Hey, Jeffrey, most businesses, they don't run without the owners. And so for our listeners, when you've been in deal mode and companies are looking to be purchased. Why is it that buyers are either walking away from the table or they're saying, yeah, you know, I know your deal has a value of a basis of 100 and 100.

Could be a million, a hundred million. It doesn't really matter what the number is, but instead of paying you a basis of a hundred, I'm going to pay a hundred less some kind of penalty because a business doesn't run without you. What's going through the buyer's mind that you can share with our listeners?

Neil Livingstone: Yeah, I think one of the things that is really important for business people to spend time developing is understanding the psychology of humans, and particularly in a business setting. So [00:13:00] people investing in, I'm going to say obvious things here. It's all about confidence. you've got to address all of those three things in a very far away.

It's a competitive market out there. you won't even get to talking about valuation or dollars or terms if they don't feel really good about those three things that I just talked about. Um, uh.

Jeffrey Feldberg: you know, Neil, I'm wondering, so when someone is coming to you and they haven't worked with you before, I mean, what's your secret sauce? What are you doing? What are you walking through with your system? If I were to come to you and say, okay, Neil, why don't we have you as our fractional CFO or virtual CFO?

Let's start today. What does your system look like and what are you going to be walking me through in the early days? Okay.

Neil Livingstone: I start with clarity first. which is, you know, vision, plan, whatever. There's no point moving off in a direction if you're not clear about your plan. So I typically will move outside the business a little bit and ask them about some of the life goals that they're trying to achieve and what part their business [00:14:00] plays in that process.

You'd be amazed at how often people really struggle with that. that's where I start. And then once we say we get clear on, you know, maybe someone their business, want an exit of 10 million

in five years. So it's gotta be very specific like that. it's gotta be honest with themselves.

And I'll stop someone if I feel We haven't got to that point, so we'll just keep going and drilling down until we've really got to what's driving them. And then we build a plant, usually goes three to five years, it's not a, Massively involved process I call, usually do it over a few whiteboard sessions

We do it virtually, like we're doing this if needed and we're just throwing it all up there on the whiteboard and then we start to talk about the pros and cons of each, like I said before, each of the opportunities and options they have in their business.

We look at the profitability of the business. If that's a problem, we drill down on that straight away. And then we just keep going until we've got a plan and we sort of sit back from the table[00:15:00] and we go, as we see it today, the best risk return plan that's going to get me million payday in, three or five years. And then we focus straight away into the disciplined execution of that. So I will keep someone on track. So once. The process, upfront process is so important because that's something you can now be held to account against and that's what I, very frequently work with business owners for five, ten years plus. We're doing this and if you consistently stick to a plan and plans can change, if I've been with someone for 10 years, the plan we have now is very different to the one they started with. But you get massive results over time. People underestimate how much progress you can make over the longer term and they overestimate how much progress you can make in a short period of time.

So it's all about consistent. Execution.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. I'm wondering, as you're going through with the owners, you're helping them, you're preparing with them. Most business owners, when I mentioned CFO, the first thing I hear is, well, Jeffrey, you know what? I'm [00:16:00] not big enough for that, or that's going to be something that dollar wise doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

And I know now with the virtual side, with a fractional CFO or virtual CFO, it's really a game changer in terms of what that means. So for the listener out there who's saying, yes, I do see the benefits of a CFO. I'm not sure if my company is big enough to appreciate that. What would you say to that listener of why they should rethink?

Neil Livingstone: Yeah. If you get someone that has been a CFO for 10 or more years, and they've been across a number of industries, they really are, know what they can, someone like me, you can drop someone like me into a business. I can give that business, working with team,

clarity very quickly.

And then focus on the execution and make sure that everyone is singing from the same song sheet. They're communicating well, communicating effectively and they're getting results. And it's not expensive. You can get a good CFO in your business. A good CFO, by the way, should also effectively be a business coach.

All right. So enough experience to be able to help [00:17:00] you with any aspect of your business. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so talk to us about that because, Neil, a lot of CFOs, when you think of a CFO, what they're doing, what they're not doing, and again, it's a stereotype and stereotypes are just stereotypes. But from a CFO perspective, we think of, okay, numbers, reports, statements, now you're mentioning the word. And for many, it's really, I didn't know a CFO does coaching.

So tell me about this. Is this something that's always been unique to you? Is there something that I'm missing out there that this is happening more times than not? What's going on with that?

Neil Livingstone: yeah, a lot of CFOs that don't have a lot of experience are very numbers focused and don't get me wrong. Numbers is a very important financial control. It's very important. But when you've worked in enough businesses you understand that the number one thing in a business that's most important is you got sales coming in and you're keeping your customers happy.

And, you have a good team of people so, when I worked with PWC, they taught me, I was with them for over 10 years, they very much taught [00:18:00] me these sorts of things communication, leadership, ability to get a team to move in the same direction and selling, are massively important.

And then when you put financial control over the top of them, you absolutely get great results.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And when you're in position and you're helping a company, you're coaching them through, you're helping them grow, I'm wondering, Neil, are there certain KPIs or specific reports that you're relying on? And the reason I ask that so many business owners, these KPIs, these reports oftentimes it's, well, I'll get to it when I get to it, or I don't have time right now, I'm not sure quite how to do it.

So what are you putting in place that goes back to the vision that goes back to the discipline? What would really be your North Star with reports and KPIs that really... Drive the needle forward for our business.

Neil Livingstone: Yeah, so I try and keep them to really one page of, you know, so the KPIs are going to be really indicators that are the true success measures of your business. Okay, let me take an e commerce company as an example. Gross [00:19:00] margin is absolutely crucial for an e commerce, if you're selling a product online.

 And there's a lot of things that go into the gross margin, so you've got your shipping costs. Now, if you've got a large product, that's a factor. If you've got a smaller it's less of a factor. The average order value for an e commerce company is also massively important.

You know, If you've got a 30 average order value, and your shipping costs are 10, it's going to be very difficult for you to make money. So, KPIs different for every business, but you need to dumb them down to probably no more than five or so. You can hit those KPIs, your business is absolutely being successful. You need them real time. So you need to be just... Looking at those five KPIs

all day, every day, and the whole team needs to have visibility around them, and everything you're doing is focusing on optimizing those five KPIs.

It might not be five, it could be three, it could be seven, but there's not that many. I believe in the KISS [00:20:00] principle, which is keep it simple, stupid. Obviously a couple of those KPIs are going to be revenue focused. A couple of them are going to be maybe margin focused. And then there'll be other things that are not sort of financial numbers or KPIs per se that are also crucial.

It might be traffic. It is a little bit courses for each business and each sector.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Interesting. And so when you're putting this together and you're getting the KPIs, you're getting the reports, you're understanding the business, Neil, how long would it take? So when a business starts working with you until you're, okay, here we go, Jeffrey, here's the KPIs, here's the reports, here's what we're going to start doing on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly basis, timing wise, what do you typically expect when you begin to work with a business owner?

Neil Livingstone: If I know the sector well myself we'll come up with the KPIs in the first session. I need to get up the learning curve of that business and that sector a little bit it might take a couple of sessions. But the short answer is very quickly. And we start, as soon [00:21:00] as we know what they are, we start tracking them, even if it's a manual process to start with, we haven't remated, that information we do whatever it takes to get absolute visibility to those key APIs and we start tracking them straight away.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Neil, as we're going through this and you've been out there, nothing really stays the same. As the saying goes, the only thing constant in both business and life is change itself. And so I'm wondering with the advent of artificial intelligence, which is now on the scene and new headlines being made every day, and we continue to look thankfully in our rear view mirror with the pandemic, those two alone have been massive in terms of how they've changed societies.

So, when it comes to business and what you've been doing with your clients and in the marketplace, what are you seeing? What's changed today that perhaps 12 months ago, 24 months ago, simply wasn't around? It wasn't here and it wasn't happening.

Neil Livingstone: Yeah, I don't think the principles have changed that much. I think what's important is you need to spend time on [00:22:00] self development and market research. That's more important, or as important today than it ever has been. It, are lots more things happening, like you mentioned AI, and this is where having a good network of people really helps so, over the years I've built an amazing network of...

Subject matter experts, if you like well, I don't believe in reinventing the wheel. believe in working with people that have track records of success in their, world.

I'm never going to be the smartest guy at almost anything. Anything, I'm a bit of a generalist guess I'm pretty good with numbers more than most people.

know people that are absolutely fantastic at, whatever it is. It might be AI, it might be marketing. you've got to be Finding people that really are at the cutting edge of the space,

Not, you don't necessarily have to do that yourself.

So it's about finding the experts that can make sure that your business is not being left behind. is a great example. It affects some businesses, much, much more content driven businesses that it [00:23:00] massively affects.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And so whether it's AI, whether it's the latest and greatest technology that's coming onto the scene, Neil, what I'm hearing you say is you can't do it all and you shouldn't expect to do it all. It's okay to be a generalist in some areas. Bring in the specialists where it's not your strength or you don't have the time to get into that, to really move things forward quickly.

Neil Livingstone: That's right. Yeah. You can't, you just can't do it any other way nowadays, in my view.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And so when you're working with business owners, I'm curious, Neil, what are you seeing? So a business owner shows up and says, okay, Neil, I've been in business for however many years. It's time to move on to the next chapter. I'd like to have some kind of successful liquidity event. We can talk about timing, but they put that on there and give you some general parameters.

What are you beginning to do with your clients to help them prepare for that future liquidity event? What's really first up to begin going through and doing that they probably on their own wouldn't be doing?

Neil Livingstone: I first, you know, almost do an audit of their business[00:24:00] financial audit. I look at their team. I almost put the cap on I'm a buyer, I get them to present to me and I focus on the same three things that I said before the team the financial metrics of the business the market that they operate in.

And then I say to them, well, this is where I think you're at. I think this needs work, that needs work and typically almost, I can't think of the last situation that I've gone into where they're invested, they're ready. People underestimate what work is required in getting a business ready that needs to be your eyes dotted and your T's crossed, particularly in the financial side.

So if you cannot get through a due diligence people use due diligence to beat down price. Sophisticated buyers are very good at doing that, so

You really need to have a set of financials and a story that absolutely stacks up and I wouldn't say bulletproof. You're addressing all of the areas robustly that, buyers are inclined to look at.

You mentioned a great one before, which is, how reliant is the business on the business owner? if the answer to that is. Yeah, medium or [00:25:00] high, and the valuation multiple for that business comes down very significantly.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And Neil, as you're talking about that, you bring up a terrific point and actually it's an entire step in our Deep Wealth nine step roadmap. It's step six advisory team. And I would love for you to give some color to our listeners because a myth, I'm going to call it a myth. It's a fatal mistake.

A lot of business owners make. They're thinking about going into a liquidity event. They haven't really done the preparation and they're saying, you know what I've had, and I'm going to really over exaggerate on this one. Yes, my uncle's friend's brother is my accountant, has known the business for many years.

I get a terrific deal on the rate. I'm going to have my accountant. Help me with a liquidity event, maybe even lead the charge on the liquidity event, but certainly deal with all the due diligence and all the financials. And you and I, our listeners can't see, we're both nodding our heads. We know where this road is heading and it's not to a good destination.

It's called disaster and either a lost deal or significantly less in terms of enterprise [00:26:00] value. So for our listeners out there, from your world, from your experience, Neil, Why does someone need someone like yourself, a CFO, and specifically, I'm going to say an M& A CFO to help them as they're either in the liquidity event or heading into the liquidity event.

What are we going to get with someone like yourself that a regular accountant, all due respect to the accountants, but we're not going to get from an accountant?

Neil Livingstone: Well, my first question to the business owner in the example you gave me would be, how many successful liquidity events has that accountant done?

And tell me about the last three. What were the valuation multiples? What were the, tell me the details. And the conversation ends pretty much very, pretty quickly after that.

I'll just go back to what I said before. to Be successful in life, you've got to work with people that actually have done, can give you advice because the area they're giving you the advice on is something they have a very successful track record on. So for myself, for example, I worked with PwC for 10 years, including five years in London in transaction services, where I just focused [00:27:00] on nothing but M& A.

So I have a very deep understanding of the psychology of the situation of a buyer and a seller. With a good understanding of what due diligence and so I can see in front. Buyer, when we can negotiate, I can communicate very effectively about the business in a way that conveys very quickly and builds confidence in that buyer.

We know what we're doing and we've thought about all the risks and they don't try on all the usual tricks and whatnot because they know they're dealing with a sophisticated

A sophisticated buyer can walk into a room and work out straight away whether they're dealing with people that knowing what they're doing from two perspectives, one, negotiating good outcome. And also whether that business is a well run business, can sniff both of those things out 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Neil, you bring up a few very interesting points. One is mindset, which I'm going to get to in just a minute, but the other is also who your advisors are. Reflect how the buyer is going to treat you. So if a buyer walks in and again, I'm going to use my crazy oversimplified [00:28:00] example, he sees your uncle's best friend's brother, who's your accountant, has no idea what's going on in M& A.

That buyer knows, okay, it's amateur night. I'm going to have my way with this. I'm going to get a super deal. Or they walk in, Oh, look at this. There's an investment banker. Oh, we have an M& A CFO. Okay. Jeffrey means business. He's serious about this. He's brought all the right advisors to the table. I better be on my best behavior.

Otherwise I'm not going to get this deal. What a world of difference. And then you said something else that's interesting. A lot of people overlook this. Actually, you and I are such in sync because it's another one of our steps in the nine step roadmap. And it's all about mindset. Step number five, mindset.

So when you understand the buyer's mindset, when you can tune into the world's favorite radio station for your buyer, WII. FM, the What's In It For Me radio station, And when you're across the table and saying, okay, I understand what this buyer's looking for.

They want to minimize their risk. They want to maximize their profit. Let me talk in the buyer's world, in the buyer's language to have them at ease, have them [00:29:00] warm up to what's going on here and who knows, maybe even get them excited and increase enterprise value. So having the mindset down, having the right advisors at the table is paramount.

Neil Livingstone: Yeah, totally agree. The other thing I'd add to that, Geoffrey, is, you know, I said before, it's all about building confidence. It's about building confidence and trust, so if you're a sophisticated buyer, you've typically run and built businesses as well, and what I say to people all the Being authentic, can be imperfect you can have flaws, but if you're authentic, that builds confidence and trust very quickly.

And I'm not just talking in the world of business. It's in all spheres nowadays. Because there's such a prevalence of unauthentic. Behavior and mindsets in the world. So you're authentic who you are, you know who you are, you have the clarity of who you are, what your business is, and you can communicate it well, and you're meaning what you're saying, and you have conviction behind that, it's a key, what makes you stand out very [00:30:00] quickly in today's world.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And to the trust word, I would also add vulnerability. When you're open. Yeah. You know what? We really dropped the ball on that. We failed. Here's why. But Mr. or Ms. Buyer, Hey, I've done my diligence on you. I know you're really strong in these areas where we failed. That would actually be your success.

And what's interesting in our Deep Wealth Experience, when we're going through that, what we're finding, Neil, all these psychological studies, they've shown that when we're speaking to people, when we show we're not perfect, when we admit that we failed or we've made mistakes, it does build the trust. Oh, okay.

You know what? Jeffrey's a straight shooter. He's not messing around here. He's calling it as it is. When we do make a mistake, and we all know we are going to make mistakes in a liquidity event, nobody's perfect. That's where we have a better opportunity for the other party to say, okay, you know what, I'm going to give Jeffrey the benefit of the doubt.

Everything that he said has actually come to fruition and hey, this was an honest mistake. No one's perfect.

Neil Livingstone: Yeah, people's biggest fear or one of their biggest fears is they don't know, you don't know what you don't know. if [00:31:00] you meet someone that you have confidence they're going to tell you what you need to know up front, very succinctly, and the bonus is that they have thought about what they're going to do about that.

That's a rare situation. So buyers are used to people coming into a situation and people telling them Well, they're avoiding talking about what they should really be telling them about. So that's why sometimes Jeffrey, or a lot of times when I go into a business and they think they're quite ready for a sale when you sort of, peel layers of paint off or, start to peel the onion need a little bit more work than they think.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. Usually it's a lot more work than what they 

Neil Livingstone: yeah. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: but listen, is what it is. And I'm wondering in terms of questions or topics that I haven't asked or we haven't covered before we go into wrap up, is there a question I haven't asked you, Neil, or is there a topic that we haven't covered that you'd like to share with the Deep Wealth community?

Neil Livingstone: We were chatting very briefly before this and,[00:32:00] only for probably less than five minutes, but you're custom based in the way that we think, I think it's very, very similar. So I think you've answered or asked a lot of the, questions that probably are relevant for your audience already.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. Well, let me ask you this, and I'm going to put you on the spot for just a moment before we go into wrap up. It's going to be hard to choose. If you had to choose one action item, because after every episode, we like our listeners to have one strategy before they answer that next call or email or they're heading into a meeting.

If they can do one thing, even if it's low effort, high return. What would that be? Anything that comes to mind of one action that from your world makes all the difference that our listeners can go out there and actually do?

Neil Livingstone: I'm going to say two things, 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Hey, double the value. Love it. Please. 

Neil Livingstone: Little bit repetitive as well, but the two things that I'd ask someone to go away and do? Is to write down an exercise that I think is very underutilized and very powerful, and that is, on one piece of paper, [00:33:00] write down your thoughts about something, and then reflect on that, come back to it the next day.

And what I would do is... Put on one side of the page what you're good at, or what you think you're good at, and put on the other side of the page what you think you need to develop. And you need to have people around you to help you with that side of the page. And then the other thing I would ask people to do is get clear what their life goal actually is.

Again, on one page, you know, you might write five or six or ten things down on the page, sleep on it, come back to that page, encircle one thing. That's the most important, or maybe two things that's most important a clarity exercise. So going back to the example that I said here before, that person that I was using example was, I want my business million payday in five years.

 If you do those two things and you do them seriously. You're ahead of 95 percent of everybody else.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Isn't that incredible? And in the first exercise, what I like about that, Neil, [00:34:00] is I'm putting down my strengths and putting down my weaknesses. And then I'm really effectively, I'm outsourcing all the areas that I'm weak in, not even going to think about it. I'm going to focus on my strengths, build on those where I should be, and then writing down all my goals, picking one and focusing on that.

Really, that's where I can see your vision coming from and the discipline to do that on a day over day basis. Terrific advice. That is absolutely golden. Thank you for that. And with that, it's a great segue into our wrap up. I have the honor, the privilege to ask this one question to all of the guests on the Deep Wealth Podcast.

It's a fun one. Let me set this up for you, Neil. 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 the fun begins is tomorrow morning, you look outside your window, Not only is the DeLorean car there, the door is open. It's waiting for you to hop on in, which you do.

And now Neil, you're going to go to any point in your life. Neil, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, what are you telling your younger self in terms of life lessons or life [00:35:00] wisdom? Or, Hey Neil, do this, but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Neil Livingstone: Well, I go back to 1988 when I was 18 uh, which is really very similar year, I think, to Back to the Future, maybe if you sort of went back for it, if memory serves, and I'd give myself a note in much the same way that uh, who was the guy that gave himself an almanac?

My note would just have a few things on it, and it would be super disciplined.

When you buy a property, never sell it, always hold on to it.

We've got the first part of that equation, okay, but I didn't do so well in the second bit of that. And back yourself, spend the time knowing who you are, almost doing that exercise I just said to you before, what are you good at?

What are you weak at? And with a very clear understanding of that.

Jeffrey Feldberg: I love that. Be super disciplined, buy properties, don't sell them, and really know who you are. Some solid advice. And let me ask you this, Neil, it's all in the show notes for our listeners. It doesn't get any easier. It's point and click. If someone has some questions, they want to speak to you, maybe even talk to you about [00:36:00] becoming your newest client.

Where can someone find you online? Where's the best place?

Neil Livingstone: LinkedIn is the best in the socials. You can just DM me there or I don't know if you've put my email in the show notes, but, obviously if you send me an email answer you as well.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. Wow. What a brave soul putting the email out there, but your wish is our command and we'll absolutely do that, Neil. So for our listeners, we'll have Neil's website and all of his social and his email address. Take him up on his offer. Reach out to him. Hey, Neil, here's where I'm at. What can you do?

How can you help us? And have that conversation. It'll take everyone to a better place. And on that note, Neil, it's a wrap. Congratulations. 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.

Neil Livingstone: You're welcome, Geoffrey, and thanks for having me on.

Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me. 

Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who [00:37:00] doesn't go through it will lose millions. 

Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity 

Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.

Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix. 

Kam H.: I 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately. 

Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the [00:38:00] energy that was expended. 

Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.

Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even. 

Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.

It's five-star, A-plus.

Kam H.: [00:39:00] I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.

Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever. 

Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table? 

Please visit www.deepwealth.com/success to learn more.

 If you're not on my email list, you'll want to be. Sign up at www.deepwealth.com/podcast. And if you enjoyed this episode, if it added value, if you walked away with some new insights and strategies, please leave a review on your favorite podcast channel. Reviews help us reach new listeners, grow the show. And continue to create content that you'll enjoy and as we wrap up this episode as always please stay healthy and safe.