Do You Want Deep Wealth? 5 Powerful Strategies To Create An Effective Exit Plan

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] Well, hello, my friend and welcome. Welcome back to the Deep Wealth Podcast. It seems like it's been forever since I've done a solo episode and that's exactly what we're going to do today. And the solo episode is, and get ready for a rhetorical question. 

Do you want Deep Wealth? 

And of course you're saying yes, Jeffrey I want Deep Wealth to show me where I have to start, what I need to do. And that's exactly what we're going to be doing. I will reveal five strategies to create a strategic exit plan, but a quick heads up. Hopefully I have not been out of mind because I have been out of sight. Really excited to share with you that myself and the Deep Wealth team behind the scenes, we've just released our 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery program. 

We came out of closed beta and the feedback and the results have exceeded all expectations. And in the Deep Wealth Mastery program, we've taken everything that we've done to the next level. These are the same strategies that I leverage take Embanet from saying no to that seven figure offer and yes, a nine figure offer from a different buyer, different offer. 

And now you get the benefit of not only those strategies, but all those mistakes [00:01:00] that we made because Hey, who's perfect. Nobody is, we took some of our biggest mistakes. We reverse engineer that we put that all into this incredible 90 day program. And you'll hear more about that. 

But let's get back to you and what you need to do for your Deep Wealth and at Deep Wealth we have another rhetorical question, actually. It's a saying. 

Tell me your strategic exit plan. If you even have one, no judgment there, and I'll tell you your future. 

Now, if you do have a strategic exit plan, let me ask you this. 

Does it focus on growth? 

Does it focus on enterprise value? 

Is it focusing on a post-exit life? 

And for most business owners, particularly with a post-exit life the answer is no. And I put myself in that category as well. I was so focused on growing my business, having that liquidity event, that I did nothing for my post-exit life. You don't really hear about it. We're never taught about that as business owners and entrepreneurs and have to share with you, believe it or not, you better believe it. Some of my biggest mistakes, both in business and in life came after my liquidity [00:02:00] event because I wasn't prepared. 

So an effective strategic exit plan. It focuses on those three areas, growth, enterprise value, and post-exit life. But it does more than that. Let's do a quick thought experiment. In your mind. I want you to picture three circles. 

One circle is for growth. 

The next circle is enterprise value. 

And the next circle is your post-exit life. 

If you took all three circles and you overlap them in your mind, look to the area where all three circles overlap. That one special area pun intended that's your Deep Wealth. When you're leveraging growth, enterprise value, post-exit life, where they all feed off of each other that's where you get your Deep Wealth. That's where you get your joy, your happiness, your fulfillment, and that's where the magic happens. 

Now, you know, these statistics, they're very sad statistics. Up to 90% of liquidity events fail. And of the quote unquote successful liquidity events anywhere from 50% to over 100% of the deal value [00:03:00] is left in the buyer's pocket and insult to injury most business owners never even know that look no for the new years, truly. If I would've said yes to that seven figure offer, I would have been saying no to that future nine figure offer that I created, but I didn't know that it was there is around the corner and over the bend. 

So in this episode, we're going to talk about five very powerful strategies that you can start doing today to set you up for success, to literally extract your Deep Wealth. And this is where you have a thriving profitable growing business, you've secured your financial freedom and you have a life that's filled with joy and happiness. After all another saying here, Deep Wealth, all the success in the world, all the zeros in the bank account. If you don't have fulfillment, if you don't have joy, it's a failure. And that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today of what not to do and what you should be doing.

So you may be asking, okay, Jeffrey, where do I start? 

What do I do? 

Well, let's keep it simple, not to confuse simple with simplicity. Let's take it back to the beginning. Strategy [00:04:00] number one, do you know the one type of business growth that you need for success? 

Now an effective strategic exit plan. 

It takes into account two types of growth factors. One will unleash massive growth and the other, I wouldn't even call it a growth factor because it can either stunt your growth or put you out of business. And in fact, these two strategies are so important that at the heart of the Deep Wealth Mastery program, that Deep Wealth 9-step Roadmap, every one of the steps looks at these two strategies. 

So the first strategy to add massive growth, to create market disruptions that's where we look within the business where you're world-class or where you could be world-class to solve incredibly painful problems and you're profiting from that. You're helping people, you're helping them get what they want and eventually you'll get what you want. 

And then the second strategy, this is where you're finding and removing what we call skeletons in the closet. 

What's a skeleton in the closet? 

A skeleton in the closet left [00:05:00] unchecked. It's an area where it's harming your business. It can put you out of business or you're in your liquidity event and you don't find the skeletons, but your future buyer or your future investor, you'd better believe they are smart, sophisticated, and they are incredibly talented. They will find these skeletons and they will either lower the value of your business or have you lose the deal. 

Neither scenario is a good one. And so we're always looking for strategies that help us remove those skeletons or help the company grow. And when it comes to growth, let me get granular here. There's two types of growth out there in the marketplace and there's no judgment because the first type of growth, this is what at Deep Wealth they call the private equity growth. And this is where companies are going out there. They're raising capital and they are told to grow at any cost, spend money like it's going out of fashion, do it all now. And in fact, spending money is so important in a private equity backed company that there's a term for it. It's called the burn rate. 

And for most companies in this category, the higher your burn [00:06:00] rate the better. So can you imagine you're a founder, you've raised some capital you're out there in the marketplace. You're spending all this money, but you're told from your investors, hey Jeffrey, you've got to spend more money. You've got to grow for the sake of growing. Now at the surface, you may be saying, well, hey, what's wrong with that? 

That sounds pretty good. I have really an unlimited checkbook. I can do whatever it takes to grow. I can get that market share. And later on, I can then figure things out and become profitable. 

What's wrong with that? 

Everything has a short answer because most companies never make it to the later on part. They're growing. They're spending all this money. They run out of money. They go to raise more capital. They're losing more ownership in the company or worse yet they don't raise the capital and they go out of business. So the second area of growth, and this is where we actually favor this at Deep Wealth. 

This is what I did at Embanet. It's called the cockroach startup mindset. And this is where you're doing whatever it takes to live another day. Just because you can write the check doesn't mean that you should, and oftentimes you shouldn't and this is where resilience trumps resources. And so [00:07:00] you're bootstrapping. Now you may be saying, Jeffery, wait a minute, bootstrapping. I'm going to be growing slower. I have constraints. I can't do all that I need to do. And that's exactly the point. 

Looking back, people often ask me Jeffrey. Embanet as successful as it was. If you would have had a private equity from day one, how much bigger with a company have gone? And the answer is, I don't think we would've had our nine figure deal. I don't even know who would have been in business. Some of the biggest innovations at Embanet developed it came from having constraints on our resources. We had to become resilient and that resilience made us a stronger company. It made us more profitable. It had us come up with what we now call the holy grail of business models because your business model, that's another area of growth no offense intended, but your business model probably sucks. I know mine did when I first began Embanet. It was a terrible business model, but eventually we figured it out when we tackle a new problem, we came up with a holy grail of business models. There was three very specific pillars. 

This is where you're finding recurring revenue. You have exclusive long-term contracts and the [00:08:00] holy grill is revenue sharing. We changed the business model. The company grew like crazy. Enterprise value catapulted, and that's where we want to be.

So I know I'm covering a lot here, but for strategy, number one, you want to focus on one type of growth and that's the bootstrapping kind of growth that you get through the cockroach startup mindset. Now in the show notes, there's two links. One link is to an article that we wrote all about the Cockrell sort of mindset. 

And the second link, if you want to see what a strategic roadmap looks like. Click on that link. You can download it, all of this as free. Take it, make it your own. Learn from it. It comes from years of being in the trenches. It is battle proven and, it works. 

So when it comes to growth, you want to focus on sustainable growth. It's not growth for growth sake. You're not writing the check because you can write the check because you evaluated everything else and this is the only way to do it. And what we're also avoiding at all costs we're looking for and finding those skeletons in the closet that can actually hold us back on the growth, or even put us out of business. 

So now that we've [00:09:00] covered strategy one, what strategy number two? 

Well, I'm glad you asked strategy. Number two are three powerful strategies to catapult enterprise value today. So you can prosper tomorrow. 

Now, enterprise value, two fancy words. 

What we're really saying is we're really asking the question, what's your business worth? 

And whether you're going public, whether you're raising capital, whether you're selling some of your company or all of your company. The higher your enterprise value, the more your business is worth. The better off you are. If you're raising capital, when your business is worth more, you keep more of your business. You can raise more capital when you're selling your business obviously the more your business is worth, the more that you'll receive for your business. 

So you may be asking, okay, Jeffrey, what are these three powerful strategies? Tell me what they are. What can I start doing? Well, the three strategies are number one, preparation, number two narratives, and number three, a winning mindset. 

Now as I shared those three things, did you notice something in common with all of them? 

And if you say this on the art side of business, you're exactly right. Most business owners are absolutely [00:10:00] shocked to discover that enterprise value doesn't come from a complicated formula in a spreadsheet. It doesn't come from the deal table. It actually comes from the art side of business.

It starts with the preparation. And it's no coincidence that each of the Deep Wealth nine steps has you do two powerful things. And we spoke about that in the previous strategy. Number one, you're finding and removing those dangerous skeletons in the closet after all, what's the point of a liquidity event if you're no longer in business. 

Preparation, it helps you streamline your operations. It reduces costs, and it helps you create a strong leadership team. And actually speaking of a leadership team that leads into the second area, this is where you're finding and enhancing and displaying these incredibly powerful X-Factors that insanely increased your enterprise value. 

Now you may be asking Jeffrey what's an X factor? 

An X factor is an area in your business where you are. Absolutely. World-class your unique. As an example. You're in a blue ocean. There are no competitors. You're in your own [00:11:00] category. You're writing the rules. You're setting what the business model looks like because you're solving an incredibly painful problem. When you do things right when you have these X-Factors with the blue ocean, as an example, or as an example, you have a incredibly powerful management team. They run the business without you. That's another X factor. This is where you have an opportunity to create those market disruptions. 

So that's the first part preparation. The second part narratives, most business owners, they make the fatal mistake of completely overlooking narratives and not just any narratives, powerful narratives. In fact, right here on this podcast, I've had world-class thought leaders, invest in bankers, business valuators, and they all say the same thing. 

Believe it or not. And again, you better believe this up to 80% of the value of your business comes from the strength of your narrative. 

And it's the same powerful narrative that actually plays into the third factor. The third strategy, a winning mindset. Now are you starting to see a theme, our preparation, where we're [00:12:00] finding and removing those skeletons, where we're finding those X-Factors, we're putting them out for public display. 

How the very act of doing that helps us create powerful narratives and how our powerful and effective narratives help us create a winning mindset. 

And you may be saying, Jeffrey, what does a mindset have to do with business success or profits or a successful liquidity event? 

And once again, the answer is everything. There's no coincidence that a powerful narrative, it's the foundation of what your X-Factors are all about. And you've embedded all of this into your mindset where you're sharing with your investors, with your buyers why you're the place to be why this is the deal of deals. Why you and your team, you have clarity on what your vision is, how you're changing the social fabric of society. And as you know, as an entrepreneur, as a founder, as a business owner, we are masters with a winning mindset of transforming the seemingly impossible into I'm possible because through your mindset and particularly in your liquidity event, it's you, it's your team, but it's also [00:13:00] all the stakeholders in the liquidity event. It's your future buyer. It's your investment banker, it's your M&A lawyer. It's your advisory team that you're infecting them with a very positive mindset. It's not just pixie dust and there's nothing behind it. You have the narrative, but you also have the facts and the data. 

And your winning mindset it extends your future buyer. You remove the us versus them mentality, and it simply becomes us of how you're going to help your buyer achieve his or her goals so you can achieve your goals. And so that said, that's the second strategy. Let's now talk about the third strategy, how a strategic exit plan helps you prepare for your post-exit life so you can welcome happiness. 

When it comes to your post-exit life, you heard it from me at the start of this episode I did not find my happily ever after in my post-exit life. And sadly, and it is sad. I'm not alone. Most business owners experience a massive failure after a successful liquidity event. So the question is why? 

Well, in my case, I didn't prepare for my post-Brexit life. And as with most [00:14:00] business owners, I was the business. The business was me and through rituals I had my momentum for my business. I could tell you by the week, by the month, by the quarter, by the year, exactly what I would be doing. 

But it went beyond that from the rituals in the business. I was surrounded by my friends and many of the friends, those were employees. Those were clients. We're one big happy family. So imagine you have all this momentum, you know exactly what you're doing, everything is going along nicely. And then you have your liquidity event. 

And from your liquidity event, you have something called a non-compete. In my case, it was a five-year non-compete. You can't go into business to compete against your former business. And in some cases you may even be restricted from speaking to clients and employees. So now imagine you've lost all your momentum. 

What are you going to do? 

You're isolated. You're alone. You want to go out and play, but everyone is working as they should be. They're fulfilling their own vision, their own mission, their own goals and objectives. And by the way, no one feels sorry for you when you have all those zeros in the bank, but you're at home in your pajamas bored out of your [00:15:00] mind. 

But it doesn't have to be this way. What I love about the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery program, it has you're prepared for your post-exit life before you even begin. In fact, before we start Step 1 Big Picture we have you create your own post-exit life. 

And this is where most strategic exit plans fail. They don't focus on the post-exit life because you have to start thinking about today. What are you going to do for life outside of the business? 

What are activities perhaps that you're not doing right now, but you could start doing that have you feel energized and excited? 

And so without the pressure and with the time that you have right now, what you'll start to do is look for activities that create fulfillment and yes, you're still running your business. Yes, you have those time pressures, but you'll make the time. And think of it this way. You're making a time to have a dress rehearsal for your post-exit life. 

In the process you find what doesn't work. Geez. I really hated doing that. I was bored out of my mind. Okay. I'm not going to do that anymore, but you know what? I really like doing this and what those [00:16:00] activities are. It's up to you. The only right answer is the one that works for you, but it has you feeling energized and it's not necessarily making more money. And it's not necessarily investing your newfound wealth. It's activities that give you joy and fulfillment, whatever that may be you start to build that into your schedule today. 

And so by the time your liquidity event happens, you already have your momentum in those other areas. You now spend more time in those areas and you don't miss a beat. So there you have it with this strategy of how our strategic exit plan helps you prepare for your post-exit life, where you'll welcome happiness. Take it from me. You want to prepare for that today. 

So before we wrap up strategy, number three, on your post-exit life, I want you to go back to the thought experiment that we had, where we had that one small area where all three circles overlapped your Deep Wealth. Your post-exit life is a large part of that because again, success without fulfillment is failure. And you want to ensure that you have one chance to get it right with your post-exit life that you get it right. That you don't lose precious time, effort, [00:17:00] money, resources, trying to figure it out after the fact. 

So with that said, what are we doing next? 

What's strategy number four?

Strategy number four, our challenges you'll face and how you'll overcome them through your strategic exit plan. 

When it comes to business, when it comes to life, there are no guarantees, but what I can guarantee you, when it comes to your strategic exit plan, you will encounter challenges. And the irony though, is that these so-called challenges are actually the same attributes that you need for massive success. So I want you to go back to the preparation phase that we spoke about in earlier strategy preparation, look to that as your ally. It's your friend. It's your North Star. The challenge with preparation. It's important, but it's not urgent. And I've lost track of the number of business owners that I've spoken to that said Jeffery. yeah, I know I should be preparing right now, but I got this brush over here and that business fire over there. I'll get to it when I get to it. I'll get to it one day. 

Well, here's the thing. Last time I checked my calendar, there is no one day there never [00:18:00] has been. There never will be. And the challenge with preparation the issues of the day will steal away your focus and your time, unless you make a commitment to begin the preparation for your business.

And so what exactly is this preparation? 

Well, the preparation specifically, it's step number four of the Deep Wealth, 9-step Roadmap. This is where you're doing an internal audit. And what's an internal audit you're asking the internal audit. This is where you're looking for those skeletons and you're removing them. You're looking for your X-Factors and you're putting them out for public display.

It can be challenging. It can be grueling. It takes time, it takes money, but it's absolutely important. So, what you need to do is to put that into your calendar. As the saying goes, what gets measured is what gets done ensure that you and your team, you schedule completion dates. You're checking in on the process. You have a daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly preparation rhythm. And the preparation is not just for your liquidity event, the preparation it's for your business to be in business. 

Let's go back to strategy number one, you're [00:19:00] finding and removing those skeletons. Well forget the liquidity event. If a skeleton is putting you in jeopardy that a competitor can put you out of business, or perhaps you're out of compliance that you can be put out of business. 

What's the point of a liquidity event? So your preparation helps to ensure that you're growing the business at the fastest possible rate, the highest possible profit. 

And this is why the time that you book off in your schedule, you must treat it as all your company's existence depends on it because it does. The second challenge that you'll face it's your team's mindset. Most people don't like change. It represents uncertainty and what we'll do in the Deep Wealth Mastery, we do a deep dive into the psychology of change and the strategies to leverage it. But what I want you to know now, when it comes to change the mindset that you can implement, stop thinking of well, this is a bet the farm decision and change that. Let's try a small experiment. What if we tried something for 15 days or 30 days, we're not going to spend a lot of money or time. If it doesn't work, we'll stop and we'll do something else. And if it does work, we'll reevaluate and see where it goes. [00:20:00]

It sounds simple, but again, don't confuse simple with simplicity. This strategy is incredibly effective. The mindset of people, they are incredibly open to an experiment over a bet the farm decision. 

And the other challenge that you'll face it's time. Ensure that you and your team allow enough time to create, execute and refine your preparation. I'll take 30 minutes every day, then all, you know, we'll do five hours every week in one big planning session. That will never happened. Slow and steady wins the day. 

So as wrap-up strategy, number four, it's all about expecting challenges, have a mindset that yes, we'll have some challenges, but we'll figure it out. We'll overcome them. And at the same time, one of the things that you can do is number one, put time in the calendar for the team for yourself to go through that preparation. 

And at the same time, it's an experiment. It's not a bet the farm decision, it's a small experiment. You'll see where that goes. 

So with strategy number four, out of the way, let's go to the final strategy, the ultimate strategic exit plan. 

So what is the [00:21:00] ultimate strategic exit plan? 

Well, it's the one that incorporates and leverages both the art and the science. 

Let's now look at three pillars and each of these three pillars, it has three areas in and of themselves. and what I love about strategy number five, it pulls it all together because we're focusing on the art. We're focusing on the science and we're melding them together. 

So when we're looking at area number one, pillar, number one, it's all about the foundation. And as we like to say, Deep Wealth, when you're building a house, are you building it on sand or on bedrock? 

I know another rhetorical question. I love those questions. But for pillar number one, the foundation we want it on bedrock. the three areas that we're focusing on, and this is actually no coincidence, the first three steps of the Deep Wealth, 9-step Roadmap. Step 1 Big Picture. What are inflection points, what are changes in the marketplace in the industry? That perhaps we're not aware of? And we spent a lot of time in the Deep Wealth Mastery program in the Big Picture, because it is absolutely essential that you find the inflection points before your competition does, because an [00:22:00] inflection point left unchecked that will put you out of business. And some inflection points are also skeletons. 

So we're looking for the Big picture of those inflection points or skeletons that we can change. 

The second thing that we're focusing on our X-Factors and those are areas that we are world-class that helps us grow the business, increase our profits increase enterprise value. 

And the third area when it comes to the ultimate strategic exit plan we're mastering the art and the science of thinking like a buyer. So that's the foundation. It's all about mindset. It's all about growth. It's all about inflection points. 

Pillar number two, this is where the preparation comes in. And the three areas for pillar number two, where mastering the internal audit. This is where we're putting the business under a microscope. We're finding anything and everything that can either put the business in jeopardy or put our future liquidity event in jeopardy. And we're either removing it or if we can't remove it, sometimes that happens we're taking note of that and we build a narrative around why that is. 

The second area is once again, we're relying on the winning mindset. And we're like a [00:23:00] bumblebee we're going from stakeholder to stakeholder, whether it's our clients or our team members or our advisory team. And we're instilling in them a winning mindset. We're tuning into the world's favorite radio station. WII.FM. And it's a what's in it for each of your stakeholders. And then the third area that we're looking at when it comes time for your liquidity event, when you're preparing for that, how do you find and select the ideal advisor team, where the team works, the dream works. 

 With pillar, number two, out of the way, that's all about preparation. Let's focus on pillar number three, pun intended extracting your Deep Wealth. The three areas of focus here, and you're building this into your strategic exit plan. It's what we call at Deep Wealth timing and execution. That's step number seven. 

And this is when you know what to say when to say it and whom to say it to. There's an art and there's a science to doing that. And truth be told that could be an entire episode in of itself. 

The second thing that you're doing, it's finding and removing those skeletons in the closet and then going out and finding and displaying those [00:24:00] X-Factors. And then the last thing that you're doing for pillar, number three, extracting your Deep Wealth, your Deep Wealth comes from your foundation. It comes from your preparation.

And then the third thing that you're doing from your foundation, from your preparation, you've created very specific launch plans. You're executing those launch plans to help you grow the business. And when you combine all nine strategies of what I just shared, that's exactly what I did to capture my nine figure deal. And when you do it, well, you have certainty. You have peace of mind. And you're now in the position to unlock your financial freedom. 

And what I love about this strategic exit plan I've just shared those nine different areas. It's not an either or because most business owners would say Jeffrey, what I don't like about an exit planning is an either or. Either I have to keep the business forever, or I have to sell it tomorrow. But what if I don't want to sell the business for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, whatever the number may be and what I love, what we do at Deep Wealth. 

We're an enabler. When you follow this kind of exit plan, you have certainty, you have peace of mind. You're growing the business. You're growing your [00:25:00] profits. When when, and only when you're ready, then you have your liquidity event and it may not even be a liquidity event, perhaps you're handing it off to the next generation, whatever that looks like. The choice is always yours and they're both great choices. 

So I hope coming out of this episode, you're starting to see that as strategic exit plan it's not only preparing your business for higher growth and value, you're paving the path for success and fulfillment because entrepreneurship let's face it. It's not just about money when done well, you're improving the world. You're finding painful problems. You're helping people solve those problems and the right kind of strategic exit plan, it blends growth value, and a post-exit life. And it's at the intersection of those three areas that's where you have harmony and pun intended your Deep Wealth. 

The ultimate strategic exit plan is not just about your exit instead it's about you creating a legacy that ushers in fulfillment, happiness and financial freedom. 

Whether you're in startup mode, whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur, your takeaway, the right kind of strategic plan what I shared shared [00:26:00] with you in this episode that's what unlocks a prosperous of a filling future one has done well. And so I'll close out this episode with how we started. Tell me your strategic exit plan, and I'll tell you your future. . 

Well, the great news is you have a bright and prosperous future. You now have all the strategies that you need to create a strategic exit plan that focuses on growth, the value of the business and your post-exit life. 

So as we wrap up this episode, I have two questions for you. Question number one. Did you 

have some value from this episode? 

Did you learn some new things? 

Did you enjoy yourself? 

And that the answer is yes. And I really hope it is. Please give us a review on your favorite podcast channel. It's your reviews that gets the word out there. It grows the community and together you'll help us fulfill our mission here at Deep Wealth of changing the social fabric of society one business owner at a time, one liquidity event at a time. 

And from my other question, are you interested in growing your business to increase the enterprise value and to have an optimal post-exit life? 

Send an email to success[at]deepwealth[dot]com and in the [00:27:00] subject, put the words Deep Wealth, and we'll send you all the information. 

So on that note, it's official, this is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to prosper and thrive while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.