478 Karl Maier

Jeffrey Feldberg: [00:00:00] What if the real bottleneck in your business isn't market conditions, but your leadership structure? Meet Karl Maier, a seasoned CFO and business advisor with over three decades of experience in transforming companies.

As the founder of Abunden, Karl has developed a $10 Million Growth Map, a strategic framework designed to help businesses scale from 1 million to over $10 million in revenue.

Karl's journey includes leading management teams that achieve 5X growth in three years, and guiding companies through acquisitions, restructurings, and significant profit improvements. His expertise lies in identifying efficiencies and profit drivers that make businesses run more effectively.

Beyond his Advisor roles, Karl is the author of Surfing Economic Chaos, a book that offers insights into navigating economic volatility and capitalizing on market opportunities through Abunden, he offers CEO Roundtable groups fostering connections [00:01:00] among like-minded leaders to break free from isolation and gain insights to thrive.

Karl's approach is not about quick fixes, but about building scalable management teams, systemizing processes, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. His mission is to empower business owners to transform their companies into high performing organizations that can adapt and grow in any economic climate.

And before we start this episode, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Here's Jane, a graduate who says, and I quote, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program prevented me from making what would have been one of the biggest mistakes of my career. I almost signed on the dotted line with an unsolicited offer that I now realized would have shortchanged my hard work and my future had I accepted that offer. Deep Wealth Mastery has tilted the playing field to my advantage.

Or how about Lyn? Wow, he gets right to the point, and I quote, Deep Wealth Mastery is one of the best investments ever [00:02:00] made because you'll get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anyone who doesn't go through this will lose millions. 

And as you're listening to these testimonials, are you wondering if you have the time? Are you even thinking that you've got this covered, you have the advisors or people in your network? Well, I got to tell you, these myths, they're often behind the 90 percent failure rate for liquidity events. Think about it. You have one chance to get it right for your financial freedom. You really want to make it count.

And when it comes to time, let's hear what William has to say. We just got in this testimonial, William says, and I quote, I didn't have the time for Deep Wealth Mastery. But I made the time and I'm glad I did. What I learned goes far beyond any other executive program or coach I've experienced. 

So what do you think?

As I hear that, that's exactly what gets me out of bed every day. That's my mission. That's the team's mission here at Deep Wealth to literally change the social fabric of society. One business owner at a time, one liquidity event at a time, and my Deep Wealth Nation, what I want you to know, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it isn't [00:03:00] theory.

It's from the trenches. It's the only one based on a nine figure deal. And that deal, that was my deal. You know my story. I said no to a seven figure offer. I created the system that later on, myself and my business partners, we said yes to a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure deal. That's what we now call the Deep Wealth Mastery Program or the Scale For Ultimate Sales system.

It's built by business owners, for business owners, so if you're interested in growing your profits for preparing for a future liquidity event, and that may be two years away, it could be 22 years away, whatever the time may be, you want to do this now, and you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you.

To get started, email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success. S U C C E S S at DeepWealth. com. You'll receive all the information about the Deep Wealth Mastery Program or better yet, why not hop on a complimentary strategy call.

We'll go through exactly where your business is [00:04:00] today and what's standing between you and your financial independence and your dreams. So that's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders, just like you they're looking to grow their businesses, create markets.

Market disruptions and unlock their financial freedom to get what they deserve. And whether you've been in business for three years, 40 years, you're a startup, you're manufacturing you're in high tech, low tech, whatever the case may be, coming in and network with other business owners, it's a safe space.

It's a confidential space with business owners, with businesses just like you, because they all wanna lock in their financial freedom and enjoy both success and fulfillment. So again, the 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program, it has your name on it. All you need to do is take the next step. Please send an email to success at deepwealth. com.

Welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. Well, Deep Wealth Nation, I've got a question for you as you look to the future, as you look from where you are to where you want to be financially. Are you happy? You're probably saying no. There's [00:05:00] more to go and I've been there. Absolutely agree. Do you know why?

What if you looked in the mirror and that was the answer, staring right back at you of what's stopping you from here to there? And you're saying, well, Jeffrey, what are you talking about? How can that be? Well, stay tuned because you're in the right place. We have a terrific guest in the House of Deep Wealth.

You're the official introduction. We have a fellow entrepreneur. We have a fellow author who's just doing some incredible things out there with a very powerful message. So I'm gonna put a plug in it right there. Karl, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. An absolute pleasure to have you with us. Karl, there's always a story behind the story.

What's your story? What got you from where you were to where you are today?

Karl Maier: There you go. I remember one time I was in a networking group and a friend of mine was his name's Clay, he said, man, I'm reinventing myself. I'm Clay 3.0. And I started kind of thinking about my journey and I was started counting up and I got to double digits and I just kind of stopped counting.

So. Um, But I, I thought that was a really creative way for him to kind [00:06:00] of, brand his change in his, direction there. So that was kind of fun. But yeah, I did economics undergrad. I've went directly, got my MBA, went into corporate worked for a accounting firm in their consulting group, got hired away by a client bank.

Did that for a number of years. And then my parents came and twisted my arm until I joined the family business, an industrial distribution company. So I became the CFO of the company and we grew very rapidly and things went well for a few years. And then my dad said, well, that's great.

We're at a great size and that's plenty. And I was kinda like, whoa. Hey. Oh, hang on. And so we had some discussions and we had some differences. And so I went, kind of went my own way and did some entrepreneurial things. Got involved with a dot com. Boom there back in the day and started a B2B marketplace for industrial products.

[00:07:00] And that went great right up until about the month, I guess. I was scheduled to close a second round of funding the month after the.com crashed, which didn't work out too well. And so that that led to six months, a year later I was doing some consulting for a gentleman in the healthcare industry and he was, he had all these spreadsheets and he was trying to keep track of the spreadsheets. I was helping him with that and at some point said, wow, this would be a lot easier if we just collected all this, from the hospitals over the internet. And he's like. we can do that. And the next thing you know, I was coding uh, webpages and tying it to a database.

And we ended up with the major hospitals in 14 states that used that system. And it stayed online for 15 years. But I sold out my piece and moved on after a few years I. And that [00:08:00] point some more consulting, investment banking for a little while. And then back to a CFO role.

Took a company. We grew at seven x in four years and good run. Very good run. And. Then after that moved on and started doing fractional CFO work through a, a larger firm kind of mid-size, I guess, a regional firm. And then seven, seven and a half years ago I went out on my own and have been doing fractional CFO work since then.

Jeffrey Feldberg: For someone who's new to the Deep Wealth Nation, who isn't quite familiar with, okay, fractional CFO. I've heard of A CFO, but a fractional CFO. What in your world does that mean to be a CFO? Because even when I speak to fractional CFOs seems there's different versions, different narratives, depending on who you're speaking with.

So from your world. As a CFO, what are you doing for an entrepreneur, for a business that they [00:09:00] likely wouldn't be able to do on their own?

Karl Maier: Right now. Yeah, that's definitely a good question because yeah, there's a lot of flavors of CFO that can mean a lot of things to different people. For myself, I tend to get involved when it's a project. We're trying to raise capital. We're trying to buy a company, we're trying to sell a company.

We're trying to scale very rapidly and we need to manage that process from, particularly from a financial perspective. Rapid growth can be it's exciting, but it can also be dangerous. It's easy to. Can I get what is it out ahead of your skis as they say, you know, financially.

And in fact I remember one banker told me that uh, over half the companies that he worked with that went into bankruptcy, it was within a year of record sales. So that was one of the things. So those are kind of the scenarios where I tend to play is. We're raising [00:10:00] capital debt or equity.

We're trying to buy a company. We're trying to sell our company, or we're just growing really quickly and we need to help, managing that process.

Jeffrey Feldberg: You can share if I'm on base or off base with this. My take with someone like yourself, Karl, is Hey, entrepreneur, founder, business owner. You couldn't afford me full-time in your company because of my track record, because of where I've been and what I've done. That said though, if you took a part of my time, you can invest in that and I can add terrific insights to help you grow your profits, grow your business, help you not go outta business, and eventually, when it's time for an Exit, I can help steer you in the right direction to not just do okay, but to get the absolute best deal that you can.

How would that be as a quick synopsis of what someone like yourself does, girl.

Karl Maier: That's a good synopsis. And there are situations where maybe you might even be able to, technically afford me, but, it's, it may [00:11:00] just not be the best use of your money to, why, you know why buy the cow when you can just buy the milk, type of thing.

if it's a particular project, let's figure out how to get you to that result. We're trying to acquire a company, maybe that's gonna take six months or a year. Well, let's work together for that time. But after that. Then, I'm overkill. For you're moving to steady state after you integrate that company into your operations and you're like I don't need the high powered CFO, I just need, regular accounting stuff.

And it's like, great. Well, that's good. So it may be, sometimes it's a more of a project. Sometimes it's more of just buy it by the glass instead of, buy the bar.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And let me ask you this, it's a bit of a stretch for you when you go back to when you were in the family business and your father said, okay, we've grown enough, we're just gonna stop growing, and then fast forward to the dot bomb era, the.com, [00:12:00] I call it dot bomb. Having, I. Gone through that and experienced that myself with my e-learning company and seeing what was going on around me.

That's a whole other episode, probably a series of episodes. But that said, Karl, now where you are as not just a CFO, you're very accomplished, and we're gonna talk about some of your insights of how to grow a business and what you're doing with that as you look back to family businesses, to the whole.com excitement, and then that all blowing up and we can fast forward today.

We're seeing a lot of similarities in different industries with that. Any takeaways that as you look back today, perhaps you didn't see at the time, that are terrific lessons that you can share with the Deep Wealth Nation?

Karl Maier: One thing is, what's your goal? And I think that's really important. So for my dad, he wanted to get to a certain point and that. made him happy. He was earning a certain amount of money, he had a scope of operations that he was comfortable managing, and so that was success for [00:13:00] him.

He wasn't looking for the, 10X. Growth and the big exit. I don't think he would've complained about that, but that wasn't a fit with his expectations. The type of business he founded. It wasn't a technology business, he was a fantastic salesperson, but he really didn't want to manage a big group of people.

He didn't want to manage a big company. So knowing what your goal is. What Stephen Covey, start with the end in mind. So I think it's a simple lesson, but it's a really important one to keep in mind.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And as you are sharing that, you're actually bringing me to some of the accomplishments that you have, and there are many accolades heading your way. Let's start with this one. You've been involved with multiple companies, Karl, where it hasn't just been any kind of growth. It's been a 5X growth.

Which is absolutely terrific, and you've done that in as little as three years, even less. And I suppose my [00:14:00] question, it could be done in one of two ways. Let's take the glass half full to get 5X or even higher growth in a short period of time. What do we need to have that most entrepreneurs simply aren't aware of or were just not doing to be able to get those kind of results?

What would be the magic formula that you found that really works?

Karl Maier: One of the most important things is repeatable business processes. If you go to Subway or McDonald's, everywhere you look is a repeatable business process. This is how we do it. This is how we make a hamburger, this is how we make a sandwich. This is how we order the supplies. And you need to be able to do that to delegate to as you grow, there was a entrepreneur, very successful entrepreneur. I know. And his plan, it was a service business. His plan was, every year I want to double the business. That means every person has to train someone else in their [00:15:00] job so that we can double every year. And you really need to, write down what you're doing. Have processes know how this all works, so that you can manage that. And as you scale, as you grow quickly. The other thing that really stuck with me, that same entrepreneur, he sold his business for several hundred million dollars. He said, every time you double, everything breaks. And to me that comes back to processes and you need those processes to look at your cash flow, what's my cash needs over the next 10, 12 weeks? That's a process. And that process can help you from getting upside down with your vendors, getting upside down with the bank and avoiding a major crisis.

to me, that's one of the really key things about managing rapid growth is that repeatable business process.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And I would say yes to repeatable business and being able to manage that. I'd even [00:16:00] take what you're saying and would love your insights on this. To me, one of the root problems or root causes, I'll call the root opportunity, every problem really is an opportunity in disguise. One of the first questions we will ask an entrepreneur or business owner, founder.

When they join the Deep Wealth community, they become part of the Deep Wealth Nation. Does your business run without you and Karl? It's a simple enough question. We're just looking for a yes or no, which we rarely get. We have all kinds of stories and there's a lot of yes, but. The long and short of it is no, most businesses don't run without the owners, and I'll put myself out there under the microscope.

I was like that the very early days of my e-learning company, Embanet. I was the company. The company was me, and I was the bottleneck and learning to let go and having the comfort level or discomfort of firing oneself and bringing other people who aren't perhaps as good, but good is good enough to get things moving forward is one of the keys.

So in your experience, Karl. To [00:17:00] get that 5X, or dare I say 10X of growth or even more, where a business owner is looking to hire other people to fire him or herself. We often hear, well, they're not as good as me. I'm a hundred out of a hundred. They might be 70, they might be 80. What would you share?

Because you're not just a CFO. You're really a growth master as I look at it. In terms of what you're doing. What would you share to that entrepreneur in Deep Wealth Nation who's saying, I don't know. I'm not so sure I can hire someone because they're not gonna be as good. They're gonna make mistakes.

They're not gonna be as quick. What would you share to that person?

Karl Maier: That's great observation, and I might flip it and kind of say it the other way is your growth is limited by your ability to let go. So the more things you can fire yourself from doing, the more you can grow. So you can fully fire yourself, your growth, is, you're thinking about what's the industry and, what's the [00:18:00] market size, that's your limit of growth.

But if for everything you can't fire yourself from, you're limiting your growth. And it's not, the problem isn't that you're not a hundred out of a hundred. Yeah, great. You've done this forever. You know how it's done, but you're just one person. You can't scale. You're one person.

 there's only so many hours in the day that you can work, and that's your limitation. Yes. This kind of ties into that in my mind, in that repeatable business process, and that ties to delegation. If you've got a process, it's just easier to delegate. you're not solely relying on this wonderful human being.

You're also relying on a process. That hopefully has some internal controls, some checks and balances on it. So that is an another way to help you think about why it's safe to let go of this particular task. [00:19:00] And that even goes to kind of a business operating system, which again, is another way to bring support so multiple people can.

Work together, and you can have that team. Each person in the team maybe is a 70, like you say, 70 out of a hundred, but together, that team can become a 200 out of a hundred. So those are some of the things that I think about.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And Deep Wealth Nation as you're thinking about this, the rhetorical question that. Karl, myself. We're going to ask you, if you were to be abducted by aliens today and you came back 90 days from now, or perhaps nine months from now, would you still have a business? Hopefully you're saying yes. Not only would I have a business, it's actually better than when I was abducted.

I've come back. It's a bigger business. It's more profitable. Things are going along nicely. And Karl, that goes to what you're talking about of, Hey, let's have processes that are repeatable, sales that are repeatable. [00:20:00] Everything in the company doesn't depend on any one person. Anyone can step in and do it.

Sure. If a person leaves. Perhaps we will slow down, but we've documented all of our KPIs, our centered operating procedures or SOPs. We've got all that, and we will just bring other people on who can help get us from where we are to where we want to be. And so that said, it's a great segue into you have the $10 million growth map.

And by the way, Deep Wealth Nation, if your company has surpassed $10 million and you're at a hundred million dollars, you're approaching a billion dollars. Terrific. Please listen in because. Put in the number of zeros that you want. Or if you're just starting out and you're saying, Hey, forget $10 million, I'd be happy to get to a hundred thousand dollars or a million dollars.

Best practices are best practices, and you can put however ever many zeros that you want after the fact. So Karl, what do you want us to know about your growth map? What's the secret sauce behind the growth map of how you've been able to make it work?

Karl Maier: I hesitate to point to one thing I. A system [00:21:00] where you're keeping track of your operations, you're keeping track of your sales, you're keeping track of your financial administration. You've got all those things, and you've got a management system so that your. Managing that process. You're not just working in the business as they say.

You're working on the business. If you're able to, like you say, have the KPIs and the systems and processes for each of the different areas of the company, and you've got a management system that helps improve that, to me, management is about helping people get better. It's giving feedback, it's motivating people.

So if you've got the management system to do that, then it's dynamic. Then when you get to abducted by aliens and come back six months later, the management system is pulling the, and it's adapting. It's adjusting. It's evolving [00:22:00] by itself. Because you've brought in good team members, they're gonna help bring in even more good team members.

So that, that's kind of the perspective that I bring to it.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And from that side of things, and Karl, what you're saying is absolutely correct, Jeffrey. No company is exactly like another company. Each company has their own journey. They're gonna have their own unique opportunities of what's there. That said though, Karl, if we. Again, 50,000 foot in the air overview.

Perhaps there's some patterns or what some people call PTOs law, the 80 20 principle. Yes, Jeffrey. The same 80% of the challenges. Otherwise, one of those opportunities are coming from these 20% of actions or inaction. So from that perspective, what should we either start doing or stop doing that you're seeing companies consistently do?

That's getting really in the way of achieving some fantastic growth.

Karl Maier: Well, there are several things that I, think about, you know, managing cash, you know, in any rapidly changing situation. Watching your cash, [00:23:00] projecting cash. Several, weeks out is really important. Managing people, having one-on-one discussions on a regular basis, and developing the kind of coaching mindset, the active listening.

As opposed to listening to tell, being the expert, being the coach that listens, that advises, that nudges people along. I think that's really powerful as well. To me, that can help you grow. Like you say, it doesn't matter if you're trying to grow from a hundred thousand to a million or a million to 10 million or 10 million to a hundred million, any.

Of those phases, the more you can be a coach and develop a coach that is gonna enable you to make the adjustments that allow you to manage your cash flow, manage the systems, grow the company, bring in the right [00:24:00] people those things that, that mindset is a really powerful one in my mind.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So talk to us about that, because as you're saying, mindset, Karl, you're act. Actually taking me to step five of our Deep Wealth nine-step roadmap. This is the same roadmap that I turned down a seven-figure offer, and using this roadmap I created, I was able to welcome a nine-figure Exit deal. Step five is winning mindset, and what I'm surprised somewhat to hear from you, Karl, most financial people, and I know this is a stereotype, most financial people, hey, if it doesn't show up in a complicated spreadsheet or some formula or a profit and loss then, hey, it doesn't exist. Mindset definitely is not in a balance sheet or a profit and loss. So what's going on with mindset that you want us to know?

Karl Maier: So I, let's say 20 years ago, I was looking at the financial statements of companies that I'm working with and trying to understand, what's going to drive them forward. How do we move this ahead and. By a process of [00:25:00] elimination more and more, I came down to, yeah, I can compute all the debt to equity ratios or, whatever financial growth rate.

And I've got spreadsheets outta spreadsheets, and I do spreadsheets pretty much on a daily basis, projecting financial statements into the future. So that's really important. I see the power in that, but what really drives. The results that those spreadsheets are showing that are, they're projecting is the behaviors of people, and human behavior comes from your mindset.

What if you believe that you can do something? Well, of course, you're much more likely to be able to actually do that thing if you listen to other people. They're gonna be more motivated. they're gonna feel like they're part of what you're doing. And so that's what my observation over the years has told me is that the way to grow the business and as important as the [00:26:00] financial information is what drives that financial information.

Financial results is mindset.

Jeffrey Feldberg: So with that said, Karl, if there's only so many hours in a day, there's only so many companies that you can be helping. If you weren't able to help me, my team, my company, and I'm looking at bringing on board either A CFO or a fractional CFO, as with what you do, what would be some telltale signs of, yes, this is a person I should seriously consider, or, oh my goodness, I'm seeing these things.

I'm gonna run in the opposite direction as fast as I can. What should we be looking for with a fractional CFO?

Karl Maier: Well, you do want a technical expertise. You do want somebody who understands the fundamentals of accounting, of spreadsheets, of finance, working with banks, these types of things. Of course, those are basic checklists and some experiences, of course, fantastic. Gives some perspective on, what [00:27:00] works in real life and not just in a textbook. So those are, of course very powerful things. The kind of, the differentiator, really is the attitude and the communication skills of that individual. If a CFO. Can, listen to the different parts of the organization if they're working, putting together, say a budget. I was recently working, with a company and pretty early stage business. we are working on the budget and it's, complicated because, not everything is known.

It's an early stage company, we're projecting. The finances on something that hasn't been really fully created yet. So it's a communication about drawing them out, getting comfort and confidence from them that I'm listening to 'em, that I'm not going to just take whatever they give me and then beat them up with it.

It's. That type of [00:28:00] interpersonal skill is really a huge part of what you're looking for. And of course a positive attitude. Financial people as a rule, are paid to find problems, be analytical, and so that's important. You need some of that, but can they also shift gears and. Kind of think more in the future growth minded and help you brainstorm those things.

those are the types of things that I would look for.

Jeffrey Feldberg: We've put the microscope on you now let's put the microscope on the entrepreneur or the founder or the business owner. So you shared what we should be looking for and couldn't agree more with what you're sharing with us. Karl. That said, though, when it comes to leadership bottlenecks, and perhaps it's not just the entrepreneur, it's gonna be the leadership team, what would you see as some of the more common, the bigger leadership bottlenecks that are holding up business growth?

Karl Maier: Well, the framework that I tend to. Look at those types of [00:29:00] leadership groups and the entrepreneur. The leader as well, really comes back to, I think what I mentioned earlier is kind of a coaching mentality. I. Versus an expert mentality. A lot of people that start companies are engineers and that's fantastic background to start a company and you bring that product knowledge, the industry knowledge, the experience in there, that's fantastic.

But the most successful entrepreneurs that I've known have been able to move beyond. Being an expert and saying, Hey, I know I have the answer to a mindset of saying I've got a lot of experience, but I also know I don't know everything and I wanna listen and hear what you're saying and use what I'm hearing, plus my experience to see if I can't.

Kind of guide you, nudge you, help you find a slightly [00:30:00] better way to move forward and keep you motivated so that I don't have to do all that work myself. I don't have to find all the solutions. I don't have to have all the answers. That differentiation, not just in the entrepreneur, but like you say, that whole leadership team, if you get that team all working in that collaborative coaching. Looking for answers, not giving answers. If you've got that, I would bet on that team every day.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Some great insights there and as we love to say here at Deep Wealth for the founder and the business owner. You're in the startup mode. Sure. You're doing everything. You're everything from the janitor to the board of directors, everything else in between. But as the enterprise begins to grow, it's no longer our responsibility to figure out the how.

Another way perhaps of saying what you just shared is figure out the who's the right person that I can bring into my company that can figure out the how to do this better, [00:31:00] quicker than I ever could. And I absolutely love that advice that you're sharing with us. And I'm a little bit all over the map, but there is a method to the madness, by the way, DePaul Nation.

Go to the show notes. In the show notes. There'll be a link. Because Karl has written a terrific book, surfing, economic Chaos, and How American Businesses Can Prosper despite Globalizations Collapse. Now as we record this podcast, all kinds of things are going on that many people would call chaos, and perhaps that'll settle down.

That said, there'll be other kinds of issues that will come up on the scene. Now. There's always chaos that's out there. So with what we've been speaking about, we've speaking about growth, leadership, what to do, what not to do when we're looking at economic chaos. Especially with the global economy now, and we have artificial intelligence on the scene and we have trade wars going on.

The list is endless in terms of what's there. What would be a top strategy that comes to mind that someone coming out of this episode, if they were to do this one thing [00:32:00] or stop doing this other thing, it could really move the dial for their business growth.

Karl Maier: We are seeing some amazing changes in the world. it's like nothing I've ever seen in, my lifetime and, I've been around a couple years now, so I think we're gonna, I. Be seeing these big changes play out over the next few years. Don't know exactly how long, but we are going to, continue to see changes whether, it's tariff driven or it's, shipping prices or inflation or labor shortages, whatever it might be. And I think that's a real opportunity for entrepreneurs. if you're Apple and there's big changes, that's probably more of a problem and a little bit more difficult to adapt to because you've just got this huge organization.

On the other hand, if you're a smaller organization, if you've got 10 or 20 or 50 people, you are much more maneuverable. [00:33:00] You're able to adapt. You're able to read the, you know the situation and make changes that will allow you to take advantage of those opportunities. You know, If it's. While we can't find these type of workers, maybe AI can help us, or we've been importing these parts from China while we need to figure out a way to make it with the 3D printer or a robot here.

Those are those, there's a ton of those opportunities in the world right now, especially in the United States in my perspective.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's human nature, Karl. Because the first reaction is to panic. Not only panic, Hey, maybe we should just stop what we're doing, this innovation, this investment, we're gonna stop all of it because there's uncertainty. What's gonna happen to our finances. So with that in mind, how should we be approaching that and dealing with it?

Karl Maier: So there is uncertainty and to just completely ignore it. [00:34:00] That's probably not the best bet. If you can make small bets, as a business owner, you wanna stay in business. If you stay in business, you can keep making new bets. There's a book I enjoy called Thinking in Bets, and so if we make bets on, okay, I see the shortage in labor and I'm going to make this adjustment, you don't need to bet the farm on it.

In most cases, make a bet that proves that it works and then double down on it. So that would be my advice. It's tempting. I've done it once or twice. It's tempting to say, oh, that's the answer, that's the future. And I'm gonna just, I'm pushing all my chips in, as they say, and betting everything on that one.

Decision, I would try and, you know, say I'm, only gonna bet whatever it is, 10% of my chips on this particular bet, and learn a bit, see how it comes out. in the energy space. The oil companies in particular [00:35:00] over the years have gotten very good at saying, we're just going to.

Invest in our technology till we get to this next step. Let's, it's a milestone, step by step type of investment process. Let's see what we learned. Does it work? Does it not work? Then we make an adjustment and make our next patent, and if we figure out it doesn't work well, we haven't pushed all our chips in the middle.

So that's my perspective.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It is a terrific perspective, something that we should really all be taking to heart as we look to the future and at Deep Wealth. Some people call it chaos. We call them inflection points. Other people call them blind spots. If we can pick up on an inflection point and you add they're scary, sometimes they start off really small and then it becomes like a tidal wave, and by the time we notice it, at that point it's too late.

If we can jump on that early enough though, it's an opportunity that we can get ahead of it, perhaps even create a market disruption. We're gonna be the ones who put ourselves out of business to go into a bigger business. And that's always [00:36:00] where we want to be. And so let me ask you this. We're talking about the growth and the scaling and keeping along that framework, and before we start going into wrap up mode, what would you be saying of the mindset, the strategies, the best practices when it comes to building scalable teams?

Scalable leadership teams specifically, how should we be looking at that?

Especially with, we wanna grow quickly, 5X, 10X or more. And we want the business to also follow along with that in every facet along the way. So what should we be doing with that?

Karl Maier: That's a good big question. Nice one to wrap up with the mindset is where, I see that's the big thing. Work on your mindset. Work on how you can motivate and guide your team. Pick the right people, give 'em the tasks that fit, help 'em work together. And if you're able to do that and also work with the, adapting to the, whatever's going on in your [00:37:00] market.

So if you've got the right team with the right mindset and you're able to adapt to what's coming down the road. They're gonna figure out what those KPIs are supposed to be and what the processes are supposed to be, and you know how we, which computer systems we need to make it all work together, they'll figure that out for you.

But as the entrepreneur, as the visionary, think. As far out as you're comfortable is that if that's months or years or decades, whatever it is, think forward and use that to find your opportunities. I.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Again, it's interesting how we're talking on the one hand, hey, growth and scale and profit and loss. I'm also hearing you say it's really mindset. If you have the right mindset, that's going to affect and affect the culture and that's really gonna make all the difference. And Karl, before we go into wrap up mode, I know there's so many questions I haven't yet asked.

Is there one question that comes to mind or even a message or a topic that we haven't yet [00:38:00] covered that you'd like to share with a Deep Wealth Nation before wrap up?

Karl Maier: Well, I guess there's one thing that we have covered, but maybe just to reinforce is. Cash flow. There's a gentleman, very successful entrepreneur, I in Houston. He worked in Houston his whole life. He's now passed away. But he would always say cash flow is more important than your mother. And always kinda struck me as kind of funny when he said it, but it resonated with me.

And, as a business owner and working with so many businesses over the years. If you keep in mind your cash flow, it's not always the profits, but if you've got cash coming in on a regular basis, you can pay your bills and you'll be there to fight the battle the next day, the next week, the next year.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Cashflow is so important and so easy for us to overlook, and it's some great advice there. So that said, Karl, let's go into wrap up mode where it's a tradition here on the [00:39:00] Depa podcast. It's both my privilege and my honor, where every guest I ask the same question. It's a really fun question. Let me set this up for you.

When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So the fun part, Karl, is tomorrow morning you look outside your window. Not only is the DeLorean car curbside. The door is open and it's waiting for you to hop on in what you do.

You're now gonna go to any point in time, Karl, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be. What would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom or, Hey Karl, do this but don't do that. What would that sound like?

Karl Maier: I like that question, and. I've kind of considered that thought once or twice over the years. And so the answer is kind of in two parts for me. One is what I should tell myself, and the second part is what I think I would have listened to at that point. Sometimes I've probably. What is, what's the saying?

When the student is ready, the [00:40:00] master appears. So I probably heard the answer a couple times before it sunk into my somewhat thick skull there. And when I was, in corporate, I think I was learning some great lessons there. I think when I moved to the more entrepreneurial world working with my parents, I learned a whole lot there, but I think at that point I probably could have used a few pointers in particular at that stage to help me understand, what it's like to be that entrepreneur and have a little more empathy, and that would've helped me communicate better.

With my father as the entrepreneur and maybe would've avoided a couple arguments along the way.

Jeffrey Feldberg: And so if you were to distill that into a sentence or two for the younger Karl, what would that sound like?

Karl Maier: There you go. everybody has got their challenges and their history and perspective learn to [00:41:00] understand. What the other person's perspective is and see if you can't metaphorically walk in their shoes to improve yourself.

Jeffrey Feldberg: It's so interesting and it's really golden advice because today, especially with social media, it's incredibly easy to feel polarized. Well, I'm here and you're over there, and it's black and white, and the algorithms don't help that. What I'm hearing you say, Karl, is, Hey, walk in the other person's shoes first before you come to a decision or even a judgment, or perhaps send a message that maybe you shouldn't be sending because you're not in the right place to be understanding the full picture there.

So always walk in someone's shoes. It's some terrific advice. And Karl, let me ask you this. A member of Deep Wealth Nation, they have a question for you. They wanna speak to you. Perhaps they want to bring you on board to help 'em 5X or 10X or more their business and work your magic as a fractional CFO.

Where would be the best place online to find you?

Karl Maier: LinkedIn would be the easiest place to track me down. Karl [00:42:00] Meyer, Karl K. Meyer on. LinkedIn Karl Meyer, CFO, you should be able to find me there and yeah, message me. Follow me if you want to hear more of my content.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Duplication. It doesn't get any easier. It's a point and click. Go to the show notes. All that is there for Karl, that you can reach out to him. You can pick up his latest books, hear what he has to. Say, check out the website. And that said, Karl, congratulations. It's official. This is a wrap. And as we love to sit here at deep Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe.

Thank you so much. 

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. [00:43:00] 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 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 [00:44:00] 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, 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.