293 How I Went From Saying No To A 7-Figure Offer To Welcoming A 9-Figure Deal By Leveraging My Company’s X-Factors And Rembrandts

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. 

Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. I'm so excited for you today because we're going to be doing a deep dive on what so many business owners overlook. And this is what we call here, Deep Wealth, X-Factors. And some of those X-Factors are Rembrandts. And I'll get into what all that means in just a moment, but let me share a quick story for you.

Now, if you've been in the Deep Wealth community for a while, you know my story. I started my e learning company, Embanet, right out of my MBA program. I had no money. I had [00:02:00] no experience. I had no team. I was literally failing forward every day and failure became my new best friend. My grit, my passion kept me in the game long enough that eventually the company became successful and with that success, the company got on the radar of one particular buyer, very large company, and came forward with a seven figure offer.

I said no to the seven figure offer, something felt really off, I knew I could do better. And I said yes to mastering the art and science of both growing a business and also a liquidity event. I put together the system with myself and my business partners, and two years later, we said yes to a nine figure deal.

Now here's something that I want you to think about.

From the seven figures to the nine figures, let me ask a question. What was the difference with the company? And the short answer is, there really wasn't a big difference. It was the same company, the same service, the same people, the same team, the same everything. That begs another question, okay, what made the difference from the seven figures to the nine figures?

And there's a key takeaway here, because most business [00:03:00] owners leave anywhere from 50 percent to over 100 percent of the value of the deal, the value of the company. In the buyer's pocket, and they don't even realize it. And why that happens, the skills that build a business are not the same when it comes to eventually selling that business.

And in fact, the Deep Wealth nine step roadmap, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, our 90 day program, this is what came out of that whole experience of going from a seven figure offer, saying no to that, and eventually to a nine figure deal. One of the key components that made a huge difference that really moved the dial in the Deep Wealth nine step roadmap, it's step two, X-Factors.

So what are X-Factors? An X Factor is something that you and your business and your team, you are incredibly unique in. When I speak to so many business owners and I ask them, what makes your business unique? How do you separate you from the competition? I'll hear very vague answers.

Well, we're really one in the same. Maybe it's our service. Our [00:04:00] service really stands out. That couldn't be the furthest thing from the truth. Perhaps your service does stand out, but that's so generic it doesn't make sense. Doesn't get the message across. I'm going to ask a number of rhetorical questions.

And of course, you're going to be answering yes, but you know me, I love my rhetorical questions. Here are some of the rhetorical questions I want you to think about. Would you be interested in having some strategies that help you get more prospects saying yes, so they become new clients.

You're increasing your revenue and your profits. And while you're at it, you're also increasing your enterprise value. Would you love to, when it's time for your exit, to have a feeding frenzy amongst all the different buyers that are part of the process to get them really excited that they're Increasing the value of the business.

And the next rhetorical question, would you love to know how your existing clients, how you can not only have them as existing clients who renew business with you, but they become raving fans. And of course you answered yes to all of those. Well, that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in this episode.

[00:05:00] So let's understand both your X-Factors and your Rembrandts. So I shared earlier that an X Factor, this is an area that you are very unique in. Now you look at yourself, you look at your competition and you're saying, well, we're all the same. I don't want you to stop there. Go deep. Go within and really look at, well, how are you different?

What does that look like? Some of those differences, some of those X-Factors, you are so world class and you're the only ones that are doing it. Those are what we also call Rembrandts and one of the expressions that we have here at Deep Wealth is that your Rembrandts, they're hidden in the attic and when you go through the mastery program, this is where you're finding those hidden Rembrandts and you're putting them out for public display.

When all of your stakeholders know about them, your X-Factors, your Rembrandts, that's what really moves the dial. The last thing that you want, you don't want your future customers, your existing customers, your future investor or buyer, being able to compare you to your competition. You want to be able to stand up [00:06:00] and say, Hey.

Stop that comparison. There is no comparison. We are in a category of our own. We are incredibly unique and here's why. And we'll get to that in just a moment. So how do you understand your business X-Factors, your business Rembrandts? What are they? Where do you find them? What do you do? Well, what you're going to do, you and your team, you're going to do a SWOT analysis.

Now, if you're not familiar with a SWOT analysis, it stands for your strengths, Your weaknesses, your opportunities, and your threats, and what you're doing when you're going through the SWOT analysis, you and the team, you're checking your ego at the door and you're looking at your business as you would from all of your stakeholders. You're being honest about this and we're not going to put any judgment. We're just putting everything out there. So you're identifying your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities, and your threats.

Now, what that's going to do on the first pass, you're going to find unique skills and resources and processes. But you're not going to stop there because there's more if you do a deep dive that are really hiding. They're just out [00:07:00] of sight. You may be taking these things for granted. You really want to identify all of what's going on.

So as an example, why don't we start with your strengths. And if you think about this, let's do a quick thought experiment right now. I want you to look at your business. 

Why is your business as successful as it is? 

What are you doing that's different? 

You found a painful problem. You're taking that pain away for your clients, for your future clients.

Why? 

What's happening with that? What makes you unique? Yes, you have competition, but what are you doing that the competition isn't doing? Now, this isn't looking in the rear view mirror and always. That's comparing yourself to the competition. We're using this as a starting point. So as an example, at Embanet, one of our strengths, very early on, we were excellent at keeping the students in the seats.

We had very high retention rates. We did this better than anyone else. In fact, that was not only an X Factor, that became a Rembrandt. Now from your strengths, you also want to look at your weaknesses, your opportunities, your threats. You're going to go through each of those. You're going to put this list together.

You're [00:08:00] going to be reviewing that. But what you want to do while you're doing that, you're saying, okay, this is what we know of, but what don't we know about? What have we missed? Sometimes we can't see the trees from the forest. And so when you're going through this process, one of the things that you may want to do, why not go to all of your stakeholders?

Speak to your suppliers, speak to your clients, speak to your prospects, speak to prospects that said no and ask them, okay, what was unique about our business? What did you find interesting? What was new for you that you haven't seen anywhere else? Well, why didn't you come with us when it came to signing up for a new contract?

Why'd you go with the competition? Or why did you renew with us? And when you're going through all of those different things, you're going to start identifying areas that you missed. Let me give you some typical examples of X-Factors and some of these are Rembrandts. One of my favorite questions when I'm speaking with a business owner.

Does your business run without you? And for most business owners, the answer is no, it doesn't run without me. The business running without you is in fact an X Factor because what that means, you have an [00:09:00] incredibly powerful team, a world class leadership team that's running the business. You've unshackled yourself from the golden handcuffs.

The team is doing the day in, day out. You're not working in the business, you're working on the business. 

Why is that important? 

Well, when your team runs the business day in, day out, it allows your business to scale, to get out there. Customers want to see that. They want to see that it's not amateur night, that it's not a one or two person show, that if you get abducted by aliens, there's not going to be a business.

And at the same time, your future investor, your future buyer, they want to know. Hey, once you're off the scene, once you're no longer in this picture, is there going to be a business or is it going to fold? And if you're honest with yourself, one of the questions that you can ask yourself, if you were abducted by aliens today and you came back five years from now, what's happening with your business?

Is it even around? Or is your business bigger, more profitable and better? 

Hopefully, it's the latter. 

Another X Factor in [00:10:00] addition to your leadership team. It's your business culture. And again, let's take an honest assessment. What's your culture like? Is it toxic? Or instead, is it rich and vibrant and thriving? Does it really have a place of its own out there that makes you so unique? I've said it before, I will say it again right now.

Your competition with all of their capital, they can copy just about everything that you're doing. But what money cannot buy, it's your culture. Your culture is like your fingerprint. It's unique. No money in the world can copy it.

Another example of an X Factor and a Deep Wealth in the Mastery Program, we call this the Four Points of Clarity. It's not the scope of this episode to go into all the details of the Four Points of Clarity, But what that means is that you've documented your processes.

Everyone in the company knows what they're doing and why they're doing it. You have an internal resource where if people have questions, they can find the answers to those questions. And at the same time, your team is empowered. If something [00:11:00] isn't being done right. They can make it right without having to ask around or have phone calls or have meetings.

It's instantaneous improvement. So the four points of clarity, your documentation, your KPIs, that is an X Factor. And you know what? When it's done well, that's a Rembrandt. When you can go to a prospect and say, by the way, Take a look at our standard operating procedures. Here it is. It's all documented. You can read about that.

Look at the amount of detail that we go into from onboarding you to now that you're a client, how we're taking you to the next level, how we're proactive, all the things that we're doing. Ideally, your Rembrandts, your X-Factors, Put you into a category of your own, into your own blue ocean. The last thing that we want is when we're trying to get new business, we're looking to grow the business, grow our top line, grow our bottom line, that a prospective customer saying, well, I'm looking at you.

I'm looking at the competition. You're really one in the same. It's all going to be about price. We don't want to do that. Same thing with a future buyer and [00:12:00] investor where they're saying, well, you know what? Your company is very similar to the one that just sold two months ago, eight months ago, a year ago.

They got X. That's why you're going to get X. We want to stand up to both situations and say, Hey, stop for just a moment. You can't compare us. And here's why. Let me tell you about our X-Factors. Let me tell you about a Rembrandt. Let me share with you what we have that you're not going to get anywhere else and you go on to share how your X-Factors and Rembrandts, they are so unique and they are so powerful at removing a very specific pain point in the marketplace that only you can do that.

When you're able to demonstrate that, that's how you win new business. That's how you're going to increase your bottom line. That's how you're going to increase your enterprise value, the value of your business. So now that you understand what an X Factor is, what a Rembrandt is, there's two important distinctions.

Right off the top, you can probably think of three to five X-Factors, and most business owners can do that right away. But what you're not aware of below the surface, if you do a deep [00:13:00] dive, when you check your ego at the door, you and the team, you go through that SWOT analysis, you're going to find other areas that were always there, but you didn't realize that.

One of the tools that helps you identify those hidden X-Factors and Rembrandts is Step One Big Picture. In the 90 Day Deep Wealth Mastery Program, we do a deep dive on Step One Big Picture. This is where you're finding your blind spots or what we call inflection points.

Inflection points, if left unchecked. Can either put you outta business, or when you identify an inflection point early on and you put a launch plan around that, you can leverage that inflection point to put yourself outta business and into a much bigger and more profitable business. And in fact, at Mnet, that's one of the things that we did early on.

We identified an inflection point. And that inflection point was not only keeping the seats filled. But it was filling the seats in the first place. And we did a deep dive on marketing and reaching out to the marketplace for students and bringing them into all these programs that had us put Embanet, which [00:14:00] we'll call Embanet one, the original concept out of business when we launched Embanet two, but we can only do that when we understood what our X-Factors and Rembrandts are.

Now, one quick heads up when you're identifying X-Factors and Rembrandts, you're going to identify some of them that the marketplace needs today, but you don't have them yet. And that's okay, because what you can do is you, the team, you'll begin the process of building out those X-Factors and Rembrandts and taking them out to market.

And this is why it's so important to continually do a SWOT analysis. And this is where, again, you're looking at your unique skills, your resources, your processes, and how you're going to leverage them to continually improve. If we're honest about it, and we always are, the only thing that's constant, both in business and life.

is change. The marketplace is always changing. What we did for our clients yesterday doesn't count for today. Our clients have new problems, they have new issues, and they're looking to us to lead the way to take those issues, to take those problems, and to take that [00:15:00] pain away. 

So, we now understand X-Factors and Rembrandts. I've spoken about how you can begin to identify them. As you identify them, what I want you to think about is both tangible and intangible assets. What do you have in the company? And as an example, I mentioned culture earlier. Culture is definitely an intangible asset.

It does not show up in a complicated formula in a spreadsheet. But it means everything when you're going out to market to communicate your message. And you really need to go within and ask, okay, what makes us unique? What makes us different? If I put my competition or my so called competition next to the company, where are we so much better?

Where is that showing up? And again, if it's a blank page you can't keep it a blank page. If you keep it a blank page, you're not going to be in business. And this is why it's so important that we're continually reviewing this and putting this out there. And when we look to the titans of business that went 

out of business, they went bankrupt, the competition or the marketplace passed them by. They stopped innovating. They [00:16:00] stopped looking within. They got distracted. They became lazy.

What's ironic is that your success today contains the seeds of tomorrow's failure. We never want that to happen. So let's take the position that you've identified what your X-Factors and Rembrandts are. Earlier, I shared a few of them, such as the business running without you.

You have a world class management team. And by the way, if you have a world class management team, I want you to be honest with yourself. Can they make big decisions without you? Or are they continually coming to you to get your blessing for that decision?

And if the answer is yes, to that last question, the business does not run without you. The leadership team must be autonomous. They must be able to make these decisions and tell you about it afterwards. How you can think of your role when it comes to your management team and your leadership team. is that you're taking a board of advisory role.

The business happens without you. They're telling you about it. Yes, of course, your input is important. It's there for the big picture to take the company into the next area to create that market disruption. But day in, day out, the leadership team is running the business, [00:17:00] your employees are running the business, and instead of working in the business, you're actually working on the business.

So when you know your X-Factors, such as the leadership team, such as your culture, such as having the four points of clarity, where everything is documented, people have questions, they're going through the documentation, and they're getting the answers, you're not slowing down. This is how you're going to be beating the competition because you're always on the move.

So, what do we do now that we have our X-Factors and Rembrandts, and even the Rembrandts or the X-Factors that we haven't implemented yet, but we know we're moving towards them? Well, this is the key, this next step of what you must do, and by the way, this is what made the difference from going from that seven figure offer to that nine figure deal.

You must craft narratives around every one of your X-Factors and Rembrandts. And in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, Step Three, Future Buyer. And by the way, when I say Future Buyer, you can just as easily say Future Investor, whether you're looking to raise capital. Take some risk off the table and bring in a [00:18:00] partner or have a complete exit.

It's really one in the same. The same strategies apply. And so when you're looking at that, what can you do? What moves the dial? Well, the short answer is narratives. Now, you may be saying, wait a minute, Jeffrey, are you saying that storytelling, otherwise known as narratives, When I talk about my X-Factors and Rembrandts, that's going to help me get new business, keep my clients, increase the enterprise value of the business, and the short answer is yes.

Welcome to the art side of business, the art side of growing your profits, and the art side of increasing your enterprise value in a liquidity event. And what's interesting, and we talk a lot about this in the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, we look at all kinds of studies that were done in the areas of psychology and human behavior.

And here's what the studies show. When you have a compelling narrative. That's told by an effective storyteller. This is where the magic happens. Let me ask you something. I want you to think back. Do you remember data and statistics on their own?

Or do you remember the data and the stats because they're told in a story? Or [00:19:00] think about your favorite song. I suspect one of your favorite songs, it may be five years old, it could be 15 years old, but you still remember the words. The words in and of themselves mean nothing, but because those words were told in a song, were told in a story, You remember them.

And that's what a narrative does. As humans, we are wired for storytelling. We're wired for narratives. That's what we remember. And when we tell an effective narrative in story, this is what moves the dial with All of our stakeholders, from our suppliers, to our clients, to our prospective clients, to our future investor or buyer, they remember the stories.

An effective narrative, that's what gets people excited. They remember that, that's how you stand out. In fact, on this podcast, I've had different business valuators, and they said the same thing in different words. And what they're effectively saying is, That up to 80 percent of the value of your business does not come from your profit and loss statements.

It doesn't come from your financial statements. Instead, it all starts with the narratives. And these valuators [00:20:00] who have looked at some of the titans of business and they value them, they've said, Jeffrey, the first thing that I do is I look at the narrative. Is it a narrative that gets me excited? That narrative, and of course it has to be backed up with facts and data, but that is the beginning, the middle, and the end.

That's where everything starts. And again, welcome to the art side of the business. So when you have this effective narrative, what's going on for the person that's hearing you tell the story? So we're going to make two important assumptions here. One, the narrative is really interesting. And two, you're a terrific storyteller.

So as an example, and I'm just going to over exaggerate here, when you're telling the story. You're not sounding like this, you're not boring, you're not talking slowly, you're not putting the people to sleep. Instead, you're excited, you have emotion, you're sharing very specific details that people can relate to.

You're being vulnerable, you're being open, you're putting all of this out there that people can relate to. Yeah, I've had that exact same situation and oh wow, listen to this, Jeffrey [00:21:00] was able to do that. Wow, how did he do that? Yeah, because when I was in that situation I couldn't figure that out. I didn't get the best results.

Or, hey, Jeffrey went through the same thing that I went through. Yeah, I can completely relate to that. He's not walking on water. He's actually sunk a few times. Hey, that sounds a lot like me. Let me listen more to what he did to really make that difference and to figure things out.

So how is this possible? 

How can something as simple as a story, at least simple on the surface, don't confuse simple with simplicity. How could a mere narrative really move the dial and have people act in a way that we like them to act without negative manipulation or anything behind the scenes with that we're being upfront with everything, but what the science shows us, what the psychology tells us, and again, these are peer reviewed studies at some of the top institutions in the world, when they do brain scans on people, they see that the areas of the brain that are lighting up in the storyteller, These same areas of the brain are lighting up in the people who are listening to the story.

And, in fact, I want you to think about this for a moment. Whether you've been to [00:22:00] a movie that made you laugh or cry, or you're at a sporting event, and you're watching what's going on, and you get really excited. Again, in the brain, we're wired as humans to do this. We can relate and feel the same things that other people are doing.

And the case in point is the four minute mile, Roger Bannister. Before Roger Bannister, all the doctors, all the authorities, the so called authorities, said that if anyone ran a four minute mile, they would drop dead. It's not possible. The human body can't do it. So in all of human history, Nobody ran a four minute mile.

Thankfully, Roger Bannister didn't listen to that, and he ran the four minute mile. Well, what happened? Two things. Bannister proved that a human can, in fact, run a four minute mile and not drop dead. Within a very short period of time, other people began to not only run a four minute mile, but they beat Bannister's record.

So, we ask the question, how is that possible? How is it that for all of human history, no one ran a four minute mile, and once someone did it, a whole number of [00:23:00] people not only ran the four minute mile, they beat it? It goes back to the story. Because the story that these other runners heard, hey, Bannister ran the four minute mile, if he can do it.

I can do it, and that's exactly what happened. So the areas of the brain, they light up in both the listener and the storyteller, they're the same areas. Let me share a specific study that highlights a point. So there's a scientist named Paul Zak. And Paul Zak isn't just any scientist. Paul Zak is ranked in the top 0. 3 percent of the most cited scientists. He has nearly 200 published papers and over 19, 000 citations.

So you now know that an effective story has oxytocin released in the brain. Oxytocin, it has us feel good, we feel happy, we're now more open to going in different directions, making decisions in the unknown, trying different things. Now, wouldn't that be terrific when we're speaking with a prospect to try different things with our company, to become a client, to take their business to the next level.

So that's what oxytocin does. So what Zach did was he created this experiment, there's two groups of [00:24:00] people, both received a liquid through the nose. One group, it was actually oxytocin. The other group, it was just regular liquid. It was like water. It didn't have oxytocin. And he showed both groups the same commercial from a charity.

At the end of it, he asked people how much they would donate. Now, listen to this. Are you ready? At the end of it, what he found, the people who received the oxytocin donated 50 percent more to that charity than the people who didn't receive the oxytocin. So we've now established that an effective narrative, which releases oxytocin, opens people up, they try different things, and it makes all the difference.

Yes, once again, welcome to the art and now the science of growing your business. and a liquidity event. So when you're creating your narratives around your X-Factors and your Rembrandts, we're doing a few really important things. For starters, we're demonstrating, we're telling a story that's backed with facts and data.

We're both showing and telling why and how our business is different. Why we're [00:25:00] world class, why we're the only ones in the world that can do what we do in the way that we do it. And then with that effective story, people who are hearing that story, they can relate with us.

They're feeling what we're feeling. Oxytocin is released in the brain. And from that, they're now open to making new decisions and trying new things. That's exactly what we want to do. 

And so your narratives are talking about your strengths. You're putting that into your business strategy. You're incorporating that into all of your marketing, all of your branding. By the way, this never stops. You do this all today. You're not stopping tomorrow or next month or next year. You're always doing this because let's go back to Step One Big Picture.

You're identifying new inflection points. You're putting in new X-Factors, new Rembrandts. You're always updating your marketing, your branding, your messaging to all your stakeholders. Where people want to be associated with you. People always want to be on the winning team. 

Your narratives vis a vis your X-Factors and your Rembrandts show why you're that winning team. So for your customers, for your prospective [00:26:00] customers, we can easily see how this helps you grow the business. Now here's where it becomes important in your liquidity event. When you go into your liquidity event, your future investor, your future buyer, they're not going to tell you your X-Factors and Rembrandts.

And let me share a quick thought experiment with you. Imagine that you're going through an open house. You're looking to buy this house. You absolutely love the house. On the way out. As you're passing the owner of the house, are you going to tell the owner that you absolutely love this house? It's the best house that ever is.

It's right off the page of a magazine that all you have to do is move in and put your toothbrush in. Well, you're smart, you're a terrific negotiator, you know, if you share that, that the owner says, okay, Jeffrey wants to buy this house, I'm going to increase my price, he's going to pay it because he loves it.

Or instead, as you're walking out the door, are you going to tell the business owner, okay, yeah, I've seen the house, there's a few issues with this, I have a few other options out there in the marketplace, I really have to think if I want to move forward with this or not. Of course, you're going to be saying that.

Well, it's the same thing with your future buyer or investor. They're not going to tell you your X-Factors and Rembrandts. They don't want to [00:27:00] pay more money for your business. If they can get your business at a lower value, then that's exactly what they're going to do.

But instead, when you turn the tables, when you share what your X-Factors are, you share what your Rembrandts are. Two things are happening. Number one, you're communicating to your future investor or buyer that you know how valuable your business is, that they're not going to be able to get away with that.

The second thing that you're doing, they're not going to know all your X-Factors and Rembrandts. When you tell your X-Factors and your Rembrandts, you're now telling them, hey, you didn't know this, but this is why we're unique. This is why you can't compare us to the competition. We have no competition.

Even though our competition is sold for X, you're not going to buy us for X. It's going to be a factor of 10X or 15X or 7X, whatever that case may be. And here's why. And you're getting them excited about this. They're getting all caught up in that feeding frenzy when you do the process right. We talk all about that in Step 3, Future Buyers.

Step 4, Due Diligence of how you go about doing that. Step 6 The Advisory Team. Again, not the scope for this episode. It's all in the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery program, but you [00:28:00] understand what to do, how to say it, and the effects that it has and again, the Deep Wealth Mastery system, it's the only system by business owners for business owners, these strategies came from my experience of transforming a seven figure offer that I said no to into a nine figure deal from a different buyer using all of these strategies. So we've now established why you absolutely must craft all of your narratives around your X-Factors and Rembrandts.

Let's talk more about how do you broadcast your business X-Factors and Rembrandts. So what you want to do, you need to be uniform across the board with everything. Every single message that you're putting out there to all of your stakeholders must include these narratives of X-Factors and Rembrandts.

From your suppliers, to your customers, to your future customers, eventually to the investment community, to the buyer community, you're doing all of this. So whether it's in social media, whether it's in a newsletter that you have, emails that you're sending, in customer service, Every single communication must incorporate these narratives because [00:29:00] again, as a team, we want to be uniform, whether it's accounting.

Yes. Believe it or not, accounting or customer service or sales, they must absolutely know these narratives. Let me share a story about the accounting Department. When I say Accounting Department who in the world thinks that an Accounting Department can increase the sales of a company.

Because at Embanet everyone knew the narratives knew the narratives. They knew what the vision was and knew what the mission was. And in this one particular instance, some from the accounting department was calling up a client. They wanted to collect on an invoice that we had sent, and they were speaking with a client as we always do. We encourage everyone at Embanet to always speak with all the stakeholders.

This was part of our four points of clarity. And at the end of the conversation, the Embanet accounting person asked the person, the client at the other end of the phone, Hey, by the way, I know you're really benefiting from our services. Do you know anyone else in your circles who could benefit the same way?

And wouldn't you know it, the person said to our accounting person, actually, [00:30:00] a family member works at another school. Let me speak to the family member and share what we've been doing with you to see if there's an interest. And our accounting person followed up, and yes, in fact, there was an interest, we got that information, passed it along to the sales team, and we had a new sale.

Again, all from effective storytelling and narratives, so we're putting this in all of our communications. And again, the narrative, it's showing our strengths, why we're different, how we're taking away problems. Let's go back to what being an entrepreneur is all about. As an entrepreneur, we find a painful problem.

We solve that problem. We take other people's pain away. They're only too happy to pay us money to take their pain away. And eventually after helping enough people get what they want, we can get what we want. While you're doing this, not just in your emails or social media, why not create case studies, white papers that talk about your X-Factors and your Rembrandts and your case study.

When you think about it. What an incredible opportunity to share a compelling narrative that has the data, that has the facts, that has these memorable [00:31:00] aspects of the story that people remember. And along the way, while you're sharing this, you're getting feedback. You're always refining that message.

You're updating them. You're keeping them current. You're making them better. So that's what you're going to do. You've crafted a narrative. You're broadcasting that narrative across all communication channels, across all departments. It doesn't matter if they're in accounting, to sales, to customer service, to everything else in between.

And the next thing that you're doing is you're always measuring. You're doing your KPIs. Now KPIs, that can be, and should be, and it has been an episode all on its own. 

 But you're measuring all the key performance indicators, these KPIs, are you meeting your objectives?

Jeffrey Feldberg: What's it costing you? What's the return on investments?

And at the same time, you're also looking at your objectives and key results, otherwise known as your OKRs, and you're putting all that together. And the entire team is doing this, not just you, it's you, the entire team, or better yet the team, and they're telling you all about this and you're sharing some insights along the way.

So let me go back to the beginning of this episode, where I shared Embanet went from a seven [00:32:00] figure offer to a nine figure offer. Now, was the buyer for the seven figure offer, was that buyer playing the games that most buyers play? Yes, they were. And there's no judgment with that. Buyers do what buyers do, and that's what they're supposed to do.

And at the same time, putting that aside, when I look at that seven figure offer. In many ways, Embanet got that seven figure offer because there was a failure on my part to really communicate to that buyer at that time, why Embanet is different, why we are world class, why we're so unique. The buyer had a sense of that, obviously, that's why they put the offer forward, but they didn't have the full scope of what that was.

Now, when you fast forward to the nine figure deal, this is where myself, the entire team, we had our narratives down. They were powerful narratives. People could relate to it. It got the oxytocin going for new customers, existing customers, for the future buyer. And that's really where the excitement happened.

So from something as simple as a narrative, and again, don't confuse simple with simplicity. That's what can really move the dial on [00:33:00] increasing the success in the business, by the way, if you're saying to yourself, well, Jeffrey, this sounds great, but I don't want to sell the business. I want to run this business for the next 30 years.

I'm not even going to think about having an exit. Well, I have great news and great news. What do you want? Why don't we start with the great news? The great news is that even if you're not thinking of selling the business, these strategies are exactly the same for growing your business. And by the way, yes, I've drunk the Kool Aid.

I'm going to talk about the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. Again, the Deep Wealth Mastery Program, what I love about that, we're doing three things at the same time. We're focusing on how we're growing profits, how we're increasing the value of the business and how we're going to optimize our post exit life.

So even if you're only interested in growing the business, growing your profits, the great news is that these strategies do exactly that. And whether it's going to be a transition to the next generation of family, or you're bringing in an investor, or you're going to be selling the company, whenever that is, you're showing up with a more valuable company.

Yes, your enterprise value has increased along the way. You've unshackled the golden [00:34:00] handcuffs because by the way, as you find these X-Factors, and by the way, some of these X-Factors may not pay such great X-Factors. They're there, but you're not fully utilizing them. That's where you leverage them, where you do utilize them.

You unshackle yourself, you live the lifestyle that you want to live. That's why you got into business in the first place. You're really maximizing what you can do with that. So when it's time for your liquidity event, you're having the full benefit of that. However many years that's been while you've been running the business to grow the profit.

So it really creates a very positive feedback loop where you're getting the results that you want and achieving the goals that you want to achieve. So there you have it. That's why narratives. X-Factors, Rembrandts are so incredibly important. And coming out of this episode, again, out of every episode, we like it to be actionable.

What could be one thing that you do today before you go to your next call or meeting or activity? What I want you to do is for you and then later on your team. What are your X-Factors? Just top of mind. What would be three X-Factors that you have? And if you're only coming [00:35:00] up with one X Factor or no X-Factors, dig deeper.

You have at least three X-Factors, if not more. What are those? And then once you've written those down, take a step back and ask yourself, okay, sure, those are the low hanging fruit. What would be those X-Factors or those Rembrandts that I'm taking for granted? Let me share a quick example for you. Back in the Embanet days, one of our X-Factors, which was also a Rembrandt, and again, you've heard me say this before in other episodes, it's worth mentioning again, we had long term exclusive contracts.

Our contracts were 10 years in length, and for our clients, in this case, the university, we were the only ones that they could work with for that particular program. That was huge. When other prospective universities, other clients heard about this, they said, wow, if Embanet is having a 10 year exclusive agreement with this institution and they're a world class institution, why don't I do the same thing with Embanet?

And when our buyers, our future buyers heard about that, they absolutely love that because they knew we were taking the risk off the table for them and they had an [00:36:00] upside. So think about what your X-Factors and Rembrandts are, but also what they could be. Because maybe you haven't addressed them or you haven't figured it out, or you haven't thought about it, but now you're thinking about that, share that with your team, have them give you some comments back and continually revise and refine that.

Because when you do that, when you unveil your business X-Factors and Rembrandts, that's where you catapult growth and profits and your enterprise value. So there you have it, that wraps up this episode, and let me ask you, did you enjoy this episode? And if the answer is yes, and I really hope it is yes, I have a small favor to ask. 

My small favor is to ask you to leave a review on whatever platform channel that you happen to use and like. When you share a review, you spread the word out there with other business owners, and while you're at it why not subscribe to our podcast? When you subscribe to our podcast, number one, the what's in it for you you receive all of our episodes automatically, and this way you're not having to search for them to just show up for you, and at the same time, when you subscribe, it really helps us get the podcast out [00:37:00] there, bring on world class guests, go into areas that no other. Podcast is going to go into. And so please leave a review, subscribe to the podcast and together we can really pay it forward and make a difference.

 And before we wrap things up, let me ask you one other question. Did you learn some new strategies here? You've heard me talk a number of times about our 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. This is where in a mere 30 minutes to 60 minutes a day, you're really moving the dial on growing your profits, increasing your enterprise value, the value of your business, and optimizing your post exit life.

Jeffrey Feldberg: Would you like some more of that? 

Would you really like to take your business to the next level? 

Perhaps you want to secure your financial freedom. Perhaps you just want to grow the business. Maybe you want to do all three of them. I would love to hear from you. Send us an email, success[at]deepwealth[dot]com we'll share more information with you. 

We've updated our Deep Wealth Mastery Program. It's got all the latest and the greatest. We're getting incredible reviews from everyone. So again, send an email success[at]deepwealth[dot]com. Tell us you want to learn more about the Deep Wealth Mastery Program.

We'll send you all that information. You'll see exactly what this [00:38:00] can do for you, how you're going to do it, and how in the process you'll achieve and exceed your goals. So that said, it's official. This is a wrap. 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. Take care. I'm wishing you a wonderful day and week ahead. 

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 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 [00:39:00] 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 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, [00:40:00] 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.: 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 [00:41:00] 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.