Ever wondered why real success takes forever? In this episode, I dig deep into the journey behind every win and setback. How do the challenges you face become the bricks of your foundation? What if building genuine relationships is more vital than chasing quick wins? Join me as I explore how embracing struggle, staying humble, and relentlessly learning can transform your path to an exceptional life. Are you ready to lay your own brick-by-brick foundation?

Tato: Success compounds. But compounding things start so small, right? Whatever the stat is about the compounding pennies for seven years or like whatever that is. But like you have pennies, like literal pennies for so long.

Chris Seegers: If we think it's going to take a year, maybe it's really three years.

And so let's, let's try to do it quicker, but let's not stress ourselves out when it takes longer. And hopefully we get wiser and wiser on understanding how quickly we can compress that.

He's here to guide you through the complex world of business transactions and growth. Each week, we dive deep with actionable insights, expert interviews, and real world strategies to activate and equip you to live exceptionally and build exceptional businesses. Now, let's dive into today's episode.

Here's your host, Chris Segers.

Chris Seegers: Welcome to the Exceptional Companies Podcast. I'm your host, Chris Seegers. This is a podcast where we talk about how to buy, sell, or grow your business. I'm joined by a really incredible friend and somebody that comes back a lot 'cause she's just so wise. Tato, welcome back to the show.

Tato: Thank you.

Like if you wanna buy a business, it's easy, like it's passive. You really don't have to work that hard. The money comes easy. You're never concerned about debt or losing money. So a day.

Chris Seegers: Yeah, work two hours a day. Anyways, the real topic is we've been watching a lot of influencers and seeing some things that we haven't found to be true in our journey.

And the real topic for this discussion is I have found everything takes so much longer and so much harder than I thought it would. And I always give more margin than I think it will take. So I wanted to dig into that. Dan Sullivan has a great quote, which I've referenced a lot. He's like, there's no unreasonable goals.

Chris Seegers: jam it way down like I do. Like really just gotta try to get it down.

Chris Seegers: Mm-hmm

Tato: which is one of the things I love about my business that really keeps us afloat all of the time. And so. Building on that is more or less, you know, like building your profit margin, like if you will. And so in the last two weeks in the dead of January, that should be one of the slowest times, aside from December, I've quoted a hundred thousand dollars in your work.

Like that's insane. That's so insane. And so exciting and makes for an awesome tagline. You should make that the tagline of this podcast, you know, from zero to $100,000 in one day.

And but it's like the most important it's the most important time. And also too, like And I truly believe that it's that time where it sucks so bad and it's so hard and you just hate everything about it. That's what's weeding everybody out.

You know, like they say there's room at the top for a reason and like, I honestly like can't think of a phrase that's truer.

Chris Seegers: Yeah, a hundred percent. And even so on our A&D advisory company, we represent a lot of really successful business owners on the sell side. And so, you know, a new buyer comes in and they're 40 years old and they're just like, wow, like I'm going to buy this thing, this, well, that 65 or 70 year old person, the first 10 years were terrible.

And my kids don't talk to me now. I don't encourage, you know, not having balance in your life, at least seasonally. But I think people come to that. They're like, I can just take this thing and double, triple, et cetera. And so I think for me, in my experience, I am the most impatient person in the human race.

And so my kind of humble beginnings was on the private equity side where everything had to be sold in a three to five year cycle. That's what their funds were set up for. And the reality is most of those funds don't make money and don't do a good job and don't manage. And I don't think they should be buying small businesses.

Cause I don't think that window works. So anyways, I started just talking to my team about saying, man, like, if we think it's going to take a year, maybe it's really three years. And so let's, try to do it quicker, but let's not stress ourselves out when it takes longer. And hopefully we get wiser and wiser on understanding how quickly we can compress that.

But the reality of business is some things just take time. Like that's it. You're doing all the right things. Your team just needs to hear you talk about culture 700 more times to know, Hey, we do business with honesty and integrity. We have grit and they're like, what's the core value again? Grit.

And so folks that come in that have been in a corporate environment that want to jump in. And they should, I mean, if it's the right fit, I, you know, I, I love coaching folks and helping people, but walk us through just kind of how you think about it now. And even with Brandt you, you know, your business and your real estate business, how you're thinking about the future and you just got married, right?

So even in marriage or having kids or raising kids, the timelines are like, I feel like they, they do take longer than you think.

But I actually. I intentionally compress a lot of timelines for myself in an effort to like, I like a goal for mine or a manifestation of results for mine to be like, just a touch unrealistic, because I think that you should constantly be pushing yourself outside of comfort. That being said, what you're saying is so true too, that like, Just because you don't achieve it in a certain time frame does not at all mean that you're not going to achieve it in general or that you're like somehow like lost or not doing the right thing.

And I think being in that gray area is where Grass Is Greener comes about for so many people.

Chris Seegers: Yep.

Tato: I succumb to the same and it feels like maybe he succumbs to it a little bit more than I do and that feels like the only differentiation between. My perceived success and his perceived lack of success. And therefore he is in the process of analyzing how to get out and is talking about all the others, all these other paths that would be easier.

For example, he was like. Renovation company, like that's where I need to go. You know, I need to leave what I'm doing now. I need to go buy a renovation company. Like all my buddies, you know, I have on having all the success, yada, yada. And like, is citing to me the reasons why, you know he should do that.

It's pretty much the same. So like about two and a half years. And I just imagine talking to a 30 plus year, you know, veteran business owner. Who has stayed loyal to whichever business, you know, he or she is in and stuck it out. And now they're worth how many ever gajillions and they want you to sell their business.

And, you know, wishing to be them in, you know, a number of years. And I feel like if they heard, you know, a millennial or whatever, Jen, he is talk about how he needs to make the jump in two and a half years, they would just like, can't you just picture like the sitting back and just the,

Chris Seegers: Yeah. this is hilarious.

Tato: And so, you know, specific to like my own situation I think the best way to say it is like laying a brick foundation. Right. You can tell I, I

Chris Seegers: That's my favorite analogy, by the way,

Tato: Yeah.

Tato: that is exactly what it is. And you have to possess. Just an abnormal amount of certainty in yourself and like insistence to only bet on yourself and not anybody else to keep going. Because otherwise you just, anyone else would look at you and be like, you're so crazy, like, what are you doing it for?

You know, but then you let the years. compound. And next thing, you know, you have, you know, a dozen plus properties. You have a business that's, you know, making you enough cash in a month to buy you, you know, more properties in a year than you bought in the last. You know, six years and and also too, you find ways for like, at least for me, my experience has been, I've found ways for my real estate to compliment the business that I now own to

then compliment the business that my now husband is running.

And so I'm taking that cash and I'm paying a contractor to go, you know, make our other property look good. And then I'm pulling the money out of the bank for that. And it's like this whole thing. And like 17 wins in like one day, you know, and people are like, Holy crap, like, how'd you get there? And it's all goes back to.

Chris Seegers: Yep. And momentum, I mean, it's, Oh man, trying to think what a Jim Collins concept was, but I think it was called the flywheel where he's like, man, like some of these really successful businesses like GE or, you know, name brands, it was like 25 years of just misery. And it's like turning that flywheel where it's like barely even moving.

Tato: it's definitely not easier. I've, I have been introspective about this recently. Cause sometimes I feel like, Oh, that was like such an easy day, but not that it was an easy day. I still did more than the average human does in a month. every day you grow a little more. And as that growth compounds, you don't realize how much more capable you are.

Chris Seegers: hundred percent. And I think it builds and that's why. Grit is maybe our number one core value because it's like, look, as you build more grit in yourself and in your team, things that would have derailed you in life, aren't they're not even a blip. I mean, we just had someone, and this is hilarious. Coming back to timelines, I was super cocky coming out of the end of last year.

And before that would have been like ruin my week, right? Like, Oh my gosh, now I got to hire these people and I got to put this person in a different seat. I got to coach this person. And I'm like, yeah, we did it before. I guess we'll go find some other folks that want to be on a kick butt team and do great things.

And every year, I mean, we've been sued, I've mentioned that three or four times in different businesses we've been partners in. It's terrible. I don't ever want to be party of lawsuits, but now if something comes, I'm like, yeah, okay, whatever. You know, government sends you a letter, Hey, you owe these taxes.

Firstly, my wife, my kids, my siblings, like it just kind of concentric circles. If they're good, if they're healthy, and even if they aren't healthy, because we know we all are going to go through health issues and. It's crazy. We're all going to die. I know it's wild, but as you like build this grit, you re you kind of realize like, Hey, it's going to be all right.

Like I was telling you before we got on, my son got a concussion on Christmas Eve, right? Like six year old boy, all he's thinking about is all the gifts and fun stuff he's going to do that night. He gets a concussion. Old Chris 10 years ago would have lost his stuff and been like, why is this happening to us?

This is ridiculous. Why is the Canadian healthcare system so bad? You know, cause we're up in Canada. And the new Chris was like, Hey, I'm here with my wife and my son in the ER and he's okay. Right? I'm kind of getting almost emotional, like he's okay, we're going to be all right. We can do the presence in the morning.

Chris Seegers: Anyways. Okay. So let's transition. Things are way longer and way tougher than we appear. My personal experience. What are some tools, mindsets, things that will help and I'll lead off with the tool that we have that I'll, we'll provide free to anybody. We built something called the blueprint for an exceptional life.

And also the blueprint for an exceptional business. We took all of our learnings and tools from Tony Robbins, other people that were like, Hey, this works here, but not here. And this is not, you know, worded the right way. And so what it does is it takes what you did, Tato. It's like, what, what's a vision for my greatest life?

And then there's a bunch of complimentary tools within that. Framework that helped people walk through that. And then when you do that, so the timeline thing is incredible. I journal a lot and then I read my journals, my old journals. Usually I don't read one like from last year. I read like two, three, four years back.

And like, anyways, okay, so what are some of the things that have been helpful to you to overcome and stay consistent in this longer journey?

Tato: I want to like, be like, oh my god, wow, like you did that? That's crazy. Good for you. But like, I'm so unsurprised, you know? Like,

Chris Seegers: You did the same things.

Tato: that you are, and like, yeah, but you're right, like,

Chris Seegers: Okay, wait, let me pause right there. I am a less than average human being in intellect, everything. Okay. The, I am not exceptional in any way. All I will say is we just had a plan and we kept going through all the crumminess. So any listener don't feel like either of us are different than you by any means, like, let's just normalize this thing.

We're average human beings.

And so you're going to make better decisions and, and you know, all of that is going to lead you to realizing those goals more quickly.

Chris Seegers: Yep. I mean, I'm going to reiterate cause this is my podcast. So I get to say whatever I want to, there's a guy out there. He created the universe with the energy field. He's got a great plan for you. He wants to engage you. He wants to be for you. And oftentimes we think we're screaming into the void and we're not.

And God created the garden of Eden. That was the experience he wanted us to have, which was to be with him in the most beautiful, incredible place we possibly could have and to do good work. He created us to do good work. And so there is somebody out there, even in times when it's like, man, this is such a tough time.

It's like, and maybe we should tie that back. The timelines, people always talk about God's timelines. I do think there's just something written into the architecture of life that it's like, Hey, if you would have gotten this success in two years. It would have damaged you for the next 20 years. So it needed to be four years or five years for you to build the capabilities and the maturity to actually be able to utilize that well in oil and gas.

And it's like, I think it it's God's protection. And I am in communication with God all the time, every day. And he's like, Hey man, you need another skill. you're not mature enough in this area. You need to up your leadership skills or your communication skills. And I'm going to put you through some things to get there.

Tato: I want to, that's fascinating. I want to give another piece of tactic. This is like an actionable takeaway. Not that the manifestation things are not actionable because they are, but lots of people will throw at you like, Oh, be the dumbest person in every room. Right. Very common piece of advice. I feel like it's advice that's really overlooked.

Chris Seegers: you got to get those people around you.

Tato: and sometimes for people, you're the room, right? So people brand new to search, they reach out to me. They want some of my time in that Google meet room, right? Like they're the dumb person.

I'm the smart person. I'm so excited to be that room for them right in the rooms. That I still pursue, I am such a dummy, and it, like, among the many amazing things that, you know, it does for you, like, you just have no idea what you don't know, and you don't know what questions to ask, and couldn't possibly know about every opportunity, and Hearing people who are more successful than you are more evolved than you are more experienced than you is just like no amount of education can replace that.

Because like what I don't want to do is like come into that room and be a value suck, right? Like, even though I'm the dumbest person in the room, like I have to add value somehow. And so I told the facilitators, I was like, I am dedicated to figuring out, you know, with a little observation, like how and where I'm adding value to this group.

Cause that's super important. But that, that group has, I can tell you for, for a fact, it's put me. Forward a year or two, just in a couple of different areas of my life, just being surrounded by those people.

Right. And it's like, you gotta, you gotta be relentless. Like you said, to say, Hey, I just want to take some time. I'm happy to go on a walk with you. Let's go on a jog together. Like where, how can I make this convenient and easy for you? And I know I may not know anything that can help you, but I'm committed to finding ways to create value.

And it could be something totally different. Like, Hey, I'm doing this health hacking thing. And that could be interesting for you. It's not anything about business or, Hey, we just created this new trust structure with an attorney that could be interesting. Or, Hey, we're giving money to this group that I think is amazing.

And they're doing great things in our community. Like and,

Chris Seegers: someone you check out.

Tato: and this is also hopefully like really actionable for people, even if you, it can be stressful to think like, oh, like I barely know this person. So what value can I add to them? Right. So maybe don't get so hung up on that. Maybe the value you're bringing to them is extreme intentionality in the conversation.

It's like, okay, well, I just kind of want to chat, you know, with Blake Lively about how she keeps her hair so perfect, but like. You know, that's annoying.

Like if I'm so happy to talk to anybody truly, but like, show me your intention, you know, like come to the call with like, I listened to this podcast of yours. I loved how you said X, Y, Z thing. It really resonated. My three followup questions are X, Y, Z.

Chris Seegers: Mm hmm.

Tato: Love it makes for such an impactful conversation.

So even if you're not like, you know, coaching me then on the flip side on how to lose 10 pounds, like the fact that you've. You know, framed the conversation up and in such a meaningful way. That's the value, right.

And I think that anybody can do that.

So this old cowboy that we knew who's a really good friend of one of my buddies, he was like, he's an evangelist, right? So he's always telling people about Jesus. And he's like, for a while, I used to get pissed off. Cause I'd be like working with this young man for 10 years. And he would just be like, you suck.

I'm not, I don't care about Jesus. And then I'd find out he got saved by somebody else, you know, like 12 years later. And. And he's like, I just understood, like, I'm here to create and love on human beings. And there might be that seed that you planted years and years ago that all of a sudden blooms and creates some amazing thing for somebody that you don't even know about.

Be a good listener, be kind, be empathetic. Okay. What else? Any more tactical? We've gone way over, which is awesome. We

Tato: I know.

Tato: Can I do one that's super random, but I feel like also related

Tato: I heard this quote not too long ago, and I loved it, and I'm trying to embrace it now in my interactions with people. You don't always have to be nice, but you have to be nice first. I love that. And the reason why it came to mind as related to these topics is pretty much no matter what business you buy or real estate or whatever, we're all in the business of people, right?

A cause nobody wants, you know, to be sworn out over something as insignificant as a countertop, but B. You know, you're like, that's like, I wish they knew who I was, you know,

And they don't, they don't know anything about me and as stressful things don't quit happening as you move on in your business journey, but you do equip yourself with the tools to handle them better, which is kind of a theme I feel like of, of what we've been talking about the last hour and I've tried to approach every situation, even if that person is so clearly wrong with just total, not only professionalism, but just like complete kindness, you know?

Chris Seegers: Yep.

Tato: No worries, and I'm not saying to be a doormat I'm not so you have to find where that boundary lies for you, but There's so much of what happens in a day is so insignificant and you're so it's so easy to get caught up and focusing on the things that don't matter and neglecting the things that are still important. So meaningful, you know, it's like the classic step over dollars to pick up pennies, like that can be extrapolated to a lot of different things and it's a trap. I've just, you know, found myself really stuck in and just kind of trying to practice that in the last few weeks I have found has made a huge impact on my business.

It really has.

Chris Seegers: Yeah. So reiterating, you said you don't have to be nice all the time, but start with nice and the way that I've

Tato: yeah, you don't always have to be kind, but you have to be kind first.

So if it's like, they're going to go hard and I know, Hey, we've got to get our attorneys and I need to be harder, you know, a little harder charging. I'll let them set the table. If they come in and they say, Hey. We're here to do a win win and this is it. And they're legitimately, you know, they're genuine.

I'm like, perfect. That's what we're here to do too. So I always say like, Hey, I let them set the table and then we decide however they negotiate. Like we're gonna go tit for tat. That doesn't mean ever being rude or, not being a pro. But there's people that are going to take advantage of you.

Thank you so much for joining us. Come back in a month or less, if you can find time for a little old me, and we'll dig into more of the small business acquisition and divestiture issues.

Tato: I love it.

Chris Seegers: Take care.

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