Whether you’re feeling burned out or seeking inspiration for sustainable growth, this conversation delivers hard-earned insights on entrepreneurship, leadership, and legacy.

We sit down with Nick Averia, founder of Agency Acquisitions and a seasoned entrepreneur with a global story. From his multicultural upbringing between Vancouver and Chile, to building a career spanning DJing, corporate roles, and ultimately launching and scaling businesses, Nick shares pivotal lessons on buying back your time, building resilient companies, and the true value of systems and team development.

Tune in as Nick reveals why preparing your business for sale is a game-changing strategy—even if you’re not planning to sell—and how harnessing efficiency, AI, and ongoing learning has transformed his journey and those of his clients.

This episode is brought to you by PureTax, LLC. Tax preparation services without the pressure. When all you need is to get your tax return done, take the stress out of tax season by working with a firm that has simplified the process and the pricing. Find out more about how we started.

Moments

04:58 Traveling to Chile as a kid

07:11 Sports differences in Chile vs Canada

09:40 Learning English in Chile

12:51 Traveling within the US

16:28 Balancing DJ work with college

20:01 Striving for top grades

24:39 Buying back time early on

26:05 The value of compound learning

30:01 Time management and efficiency tips

33:20 Learning through books and mentors

37:50 AI hype and current limitations

40:11 Shifts in online trust

43:49 Client transformation timeline

47:46 Improving margins and training staff

49:45 Achieving financial independence

52:13 Supporting entrepreneurs and giving back

Here are 3 key takeaways for entrepreneurs:

• Buy Back Your Time: Outsourcing tasks—both at home and work—can free you to focus on higher-value opportunities and personal growth (23:15, 24:33).
• Make Your Business Sale-Ready: Preparing your company as if you’re going to sell it (even if you’re not) forces you to systematize, build leadership, and reduce owner-dependence—unlocking freedom and higher value (45:15-47:10).
• Human+AI is the Future: Leverage AI for efficiency where possible, but don’t sacrifice the human touch—trust and relationships remain at the heart of sustainable business growth (35:16-41:22).

Running a business doesn’t have to run your life.

Without a business partner who holds you accountable, it’s easy to be so busy ‘doing’ business that you don’t have the right strategy to grow your business.

Stop letting your business run you. At Harper & Co CPA Plus, we know that you want to be empowered to build the lifestyle you envision. In order to do that you need a clear path to follow for success

Our clients enjoy a proactive partnership with us. Schedule a consultation with us today.

Download our free guide - Entrepreneurial Success Formula: How to Avoid Managing Your Business From Your Bank Account.

Glenn Harper, CPA, is the Owner and Managing Partner of Harper & Company CPAs Plus, a top 10 Managing Partner in the country (Accounting Today's 2022 MP Elite). His firm won the 2021 Luca Award for Firm of the Year. 

An entrepreneur and speaker, Glenn transformed his firm into an advisory-focused practice, doubling revenue and profit in two years. He teaches entrepreneurs to build financial and operational excellence, speaks nationwide to CPA firm owners about running their businesses like entrepreneurs, and consults with firms across the country. Glenn enjoys golfing, fishing, hiking, cooking, and spending time with his family.

Julie Smith, MBA, is a serial entrepreneur in the public accounting space. She is the Founder of EmpowerCPA™, Founder of PureTax, LLC, COO for Harper & Company CPAs Plus, and Co-host of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. 

Named CPA.com's 2021 Innovative Practitioner of Year, Julie led Harper & Company's transition to an advisory-focused firm, doubling revenue and profit in two years. She now empowers other CPA firm owners nationwide through consulting and speaking, teaching them how to run their businesses like entrepreneurs. Julie lives in Columbus, OH with her family and enjoys travel, coaching basketball, sporting events, and the occasional shopping spree.

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Copyright 2026 Glenn Harper

Mentioned in this episode:

Brought to you by Harper & Company CPAs Plus

Running a business takes vision, grit… and the right financial partner. At Harper & Company CPAs Plus, we don’t just crunch numbers—we empower entrepreneurs. From proactive tax strategy and accounting to business advisory services, our team helps you keep more of what you earn and scale with confidence. Whether you’re launching, growing, or preparing for exit, Harper & Company is in your corner with expert guidance built for business owners like you. Visit www.harpercpaplus.com to book a complimentary discovery call today - or call us at 614-456-7222.

Brought to you by Harper & Company CPAs Plus

Hello everyone. Welcome to another edition of the Empowering Entrepreneurs podcast. I'm Glenn Harper.

Julie Smith.

What's going on, Julie?

Well, you know, it's worm out but it's going to be short lived, right?

We're up and down, up and down, up and down. 12th false spring in Ohio, we usually

have all four seasons in one day.

Yes, we did, but it's all good. We're in the middle of tax season, still talking to all of our entrepreneurs around the country, around the world having a good time. So we got a good one for us today. I'd like to introduce a fellow entrepreneur, Nick Avera, founder of Agency Acquisitions. Sounds like he helps people like me with face for radio get noticed by our friends up in Canada. Co founder of Fisher Tribe, principal at Averex, code name for venture capital matchmaking, and CEO of Embolden llc. Nick is the guy you call when you want to scale your company to exit. His expertise is that in that pivotal time of one's business is crucial.

Do it wrong. Or more importantly, not doing it right can cost you millions of. Nick has this weird philosophy that if you make profit more profit, you can invest more in your business, specifically staff and their training to ensure continuity and staff retention. Crazy ideas. I can't wait to delve into these topics. You start off as an entrepreneur, then made the jump back to corporate, then back to being an entrepreneur. I can't wait to how miserable he was going back and forth between the two pillars of business. If you're burnt out or you should have called Nick, if you're not burnt out, but fading fast.

Perhaps this podcast will inspire you to make the call to Nick. Thanks Nick for being on our show.

Thank you so much for having me. Glad to be here.

Wait, what grade did you get him for pronouncing your name?

He gets like a solid like seven and a half to eight. Wasn't too bad.

He's passing. Okay, nice.

That's good, that's good. I try.

He's on the right side of the equation, that's for sure.

All right, well, appreciate you joining us. I think it's dark where you're at still, right? It's your early morning in the far,

far west, 7am the only other people working is the construction crew outside.

Of course they are.

There you go.

Of course they're up early, the construction. Well, we like to get a little bit of searching on the Internet and find out some obscure facts and it, and it says that you grew up on Orcas island just outside of Seattle there and Then snuck into Vancouver, Canada as a young lad. Is there any truth to that?

No.

Okay.

I was actually born in Vancouver, Canada and then I made my way to Chile where my, the mother's. My mother's side of the family is that. And then I came back know when I was like 12ish or so.

How about that? Well, the crazy thing is. So when. So you were in Chile for how. How old were you there when you were there from.

Yeah, from when I was around 4 or 5 years old all the way to, you know, 10, 12, like around that area. Although I traveled back and forth quite a bit even during those times.

Did you have family in Vancouver as well? Is that how you started there or how'd that go?

Yeah, so I mean, funny story, my, my mother met my father while on a trip. Like it was her graduation trip after university. Like she was gifted a trip by her parents and. Yeah, so they got married and stayed here for a while and kind of like move. She moved back and forth at that point.

So usually you gotta go where the, the wife wants to go. So we started off in Vancouver, then we went back to Chile, then back. What was it, a business opportunity or better family situation or what was the impetus to coming back?

Yeah, I mean I think that for her it was more of one of these things around like seeking independence. My mother's like a very independent person. My family is quite established there. So you know, like in the opportunity in Chile in those days wasn't what it was today. It was a very different time. So yeah, like she came over here and the rest is history, as they say.

Gotcha. Well, curious what is. You know, it was like what'd your, what'd your dad do for a living?

He was actually a university professor.

No kidding. And what'd your mom do?

Uh, she was a veterinarian

interest. So a veterinarian down in Chile. So then when you went down there back, she, she was practicing, I assume. And then your dad was probably teaching down there somewhere as well.

He stayed actually in Vancouver like the whole time.

Oh wow.

It was us more so like moving back and forth and whatever else have you. I mean, you know one of these situations where things didn't work out between them. But it is what it is, right?

Yeah, it happens. So you just had to go? Just. That's a. So what about a 2 1/2, 3 hour flight? I'm guessing. I'm totally kidding.

No, it's not.

That's a day trip.

Yeah. I mean like even if you can manage a direct Flight, which actually existed back then, it was probably around, like, 18 hours or so. Wow. So it's a distance for sure.

So at that age, when you were flying back and forth, did you go with your siblings or did you just do yourself or how'd you do that?

Yeah, just with my mother. Like, my mother would generally just, you know, go back and forth and, you know, when I was older, closing in on, like, a 10, 11, like, I could do it by myself. Like, you know, like, stewardesses are great. They walk you through. It's pretty safe. And yeah, like, that. That was kind of how I went back and forth and usually, you know, trying to. I mean, even today, like, I still go back to Chile.

I was in there from, like, middle of December to middle of January, about a month. I avoid a month of winter, which is always, like, a nice thing to do, you know. So one year we usually stay for Christmas and the holidays and New Year's, and then we go for a month, and then sometimes we, you know, cut out early and go mid December.

So how many siblings do you have, if any?

None, actually. So, like, I do have. Well, I should say had. I had four half brothers and sisters. So three half brothers, one half sister. Two of them, unfortunately, have passed away in the not so recent past. They were much older than me. So, like, I am the youngest half sibling by, like, a decent margin.

Like, my oldest half brother is closing in on 60 now.

Wow. So you had a very interesting childhood, to say the least. So, you know, this was your mom had her own vet clinic or did she work for a big company?

She worked for another vet clinic. And during her very early career, she actually did quite a bit of research. So, like, veterinarians actually do, like, a lot of DNA research. And so she was doing that very early career, and then she transitioned into actual practice afterwards.

Was she a large animal or small animal?

She actually got trained on both, believe it or not. But she primarily did small animals. So, like, you know, family pets, things of that nature.

So growing up, obviously, you kind of bounced around. But did you play sports or what did you enjoy?

Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, the funny thing is, is that sports, you know, in Chile and here, like, vastly different. Like, there, I played, like, a lot of rugby and soccer and whatever else have you. When I was in North America, it was basketball. So, like, you know, in Canada, they don't have a lot of football, or at least at that time, they did not have it, but basketball was sort of like, it was either you're playing basketball or you're playing hockey, and I was not a morning kid, so, you know, practice at 4am like, sometimes it's like you get rink time at 4am and you. You gotta be there. And I was like, nope, this is not for me.

What about lacrosse? I thought lacrosse is, like, a big sport in Canada as well.

It actually is a big sport, but I only played that up until maybe, like, grade seven or so. And then once I went into grade eight, kind of like, you know, middle school. Halfway through, I just dropped. Was just one of those things. I played water polo for a while as well, which is an interesting sport. So, I mean, I played a lot of sports when I was a kid. Like, looking back, I was always fascinated

how you ride the. Ride the horses and water polo. That seemed like it was really hard to do. No, it's got to be one of the hardest sports to swim like that the whole time. And that's got to. I mean, you burn thousands and thousands of calories, I would think, in a session.

Yeah, they make you practice just plain swimming, too, right? So they're like, hey, it's like either you're practicing with, like, an actual, like, team and you're in the water, like, you know, throwing the ball around, or they're like, go swim laps for the next, like, two hours. You're like, okay, this is great.

Feel like you made a good Navy SEAL with all that practice in the water.

Ah, maybe we'll never know.

Were you. Do you assume you have dual citizenship then with Chile and Canada?

I do, yeah. So citizenship in Chile is granted. If your mother is Chilean, you automatically get citizenship there as well. It's like, similar to, like, the Italian passport as well, that way.

So if your father is Chilean, you don't automatically get it on your mother.

No, no.

How about that? Something new every day.

There you go.

So you have it. So I just have a few more questions because. What an interesting childhood.

Yes.

What.

What is something our listeners, you know, just out of curiosity, like, a childhood in Chile versus a childhood in Vancouver, what are some of the differences that you experienced and. Or had to, like, pivot hard going back and forth.

My mother did a very good job training my Spanish and English at the same time. So one thing that she did was that she wouldn't tell me if she was speaking in English or Spanish. So if people just looked at me funny, I just knew to switch, Right. It wasn't until I was, like, much older, where she's like, here's the difference between them, right? Because, like, you know, young children you know, they're. It's like I'm going to speak the opposite because, you know, I'm just going to be contrarian. So because of that, the language thing wasn't really tough in Chile. I went to like a private school that was like English, like as a first language, meaning, like the second you walk through the door, you're expected to speaking English the whole time. Like even like at recess, like the monitors were like, why are you speaking Spanish? Like stop speaking Spanish.

So it was kind of like an immersion school. There was like a lot of sons of like diplomats and like, you know, foreign business people that were just there so that everybody just spoke English the whole time. I would say that because my family is quite well off in Chile. The, the people would think like, hey, there's going to be like a, oh, wow, like you know, coming to North America, it's so much better. But the reality was kind of the opposite, right? Because if you're in the like fraction of the 1% in, you know, a country like Chile at that time versus, you know, being average ish in North America at that time, like you were worse off. Right. So it was like a little bit of a shock. Like, you know, we, I was used to like having.

We had like, like a full time chef. We used that in, you know, Chile. We had live in maids. We had like all of these things and resources. And when we came, you know, to North America, it was like we have nothing.

We're just slumming it. Yes.

Like what, what, what do you mean? Like, you know, my clothes aren't laid out for me first thing in the morning, et cetera, et cetera. So there you go.

Were you a rebel then? Because you're like, well, this is BS man. I want, I want the easiest life. Or how did your dad handle that?

I think that when you're that age, you're like pretty adaptable, right? So like you, you kind of, you know, figure it out pretty quick.

I felt like you should have a more of a, you know, Canadian accent. It sounds very English. English. How did you maintain that?

I think that the coast is a bit different in Canada. If you go more so to the center, then that's where you get like that prototypical like Canadian accent, if you will.

Yeah, well, he was really looking afterwards.

You'll catch him.

He was really looking.

We kind of talk.

He was really looking forward to that Canadian accent. In fact, on our walk into the podcast, he's like, I'm excited for his accent. So.

Because, you know, it's always, it's always. I'm fascinated with. In different. It just in the US for people, accents where they're at, and just. It's always fun to hear how people, you know, it's, it's just different. It's not better nor worse. It's just different. It's fun to hear that kind of thing.

Well, I think that like, even like the US right, Like, European people are always so surprised. They're like, oh, you know, like people in America that have never traveled abroad. I'm like, what do you mean? Like, if you travel like America, that's like traveling like everywhere. 10 different countries in one country, right? Like, depending on where you go, like different cultures, different dialects, like all these other things. It's super cool, right? And so, you know, it's like when you compare, it's like, oh, how do you not travel, like out of country? It's like, why would you, like, everything's in one country. What else do you need?

Exactly? Do you feel like one of the things as a kid doing what you were kind of is just the way your life was, Right. Do you feel that the sports created a, like, broke things down a little bit to smaller groups where you could fit in a little bit more and you kind of knew what you had to do and, and obviously you must have been an, you know, above average athlete to be able to play all these sports. Did that make the transition back and forth and fitting in a little bit easier, you think?

That's an interesting question. I mean, I think that my friend group was just always into sports, so I was into sports. So it's one of these things where you're gonna get picked for the team if you and your friends are there practicing, even when you don't have to practice. Right? So, like, it's like you're, you're. If you're playing basketball, you know, before and after practice because you like it that much, it's. You're just gonna kind of stay on the team. That's all that's really going to happen. So I, I probably.

Yeah, I mean, to some degree for sure. And I think that, you know, even, like on the entrepreneurial journey, like, playing sports, I think has been pivotal. Like, you know, like, coaches were a bit different back then, right? Like, they got in your face and they yelled. And I think that built a lot of character, frankly, which, I mean, you know, I actually talked to my high school basketball coach a number of years back and I'm like, how is it now? He's like, you can't raise your voice anymore. He's like, it's very terrible.

I mean, kids need yellow.

You better bring a metal throwing chairs. So like, Coach.

Yeah. The threat of violence always motivates people, I swear. For sure.

I mean, a little bit, yes. So you graduate high school in Vancouver, correct?

Yeah.

Okay, and so then where does life take you? Next.

I.

Hold it. I got this. I want to ask a question about this. All right, so I think you decide. It's Fraser Valley, the University of Fraser Valley in Vancouver. But it just only got founded in 1974 and there's only 16,000 students.

How did you. Yeah, yeah. So I mean, like, this is like an interesting, like, government tidbit. So at some point the Canadian government figured out via like, you know, brilliant economics, that people that went to university made more money. So their response was to create more universities. Right? Which is like, great. Yeah. You make more money because you have a degree, because it's rare.

So they made that a rare thing. Not rare anymore because everybody could get in. So. Because they made that many universities. So it was primarily just because it was close to home. Like, I'm not even gonna like, like university culture in Canada for, for any Americans listening. It's like, like it's not like America, I'm gonna tell you now. Like, people don't really party as hard.

People go to school and they kind of go home. A lot of people live in the, like in close proximity to there, aren't there? Isn't that depending on the university? Most of them do not have that much housing at the university.

Wow.

And so it's very, very different. Whereas, like colleges and universities in the States, like, it could be like a town. It's like, that's not how it works here. They're smaller in scale. So I just drove back and forth from home about 30 minutes to this thing. I was in and out, to be honest, like, for a while because at the time, and I don't know if you found this, this tidbit or not, I was actually a full time DJ at nightclubs and weddings while I put myself through school. And at one point the DJ business got so big and I was earning so much that I looked at what I was going to graduate into into like the workforce. And I realized that I was going to take like a 50% pay cut.

And I was like, why am I doing this come to Jesus moment? Until 2008 rolled around and the financial crisis just like hit everything. So what's the first thing that goes? It's like, well, Expensive weddings go out the door, going to nightclubs goes out the door. All of a sudden the market's really bad. And I'm like, okay, this is when I'm going to finish university now, because I had about a year and a half left. Wow. So.

And what did you decide that you got a. It's a bachelor in Business administration. So did you like a major in something or is just general business?

Yeah, it was. It was business with like a focus on operations. I also had like a minor in psychology because I had just taken it prior. So the first two years of that, and then, yeah, then I kind of got handpicked by one of my professors. He sent out one student that was about to graduate. So our graduating classes in business were reasonably large, like around like 2, 300 people just for like the business school. And actually, it was more than that. At our year, it was one of the bigger years.

It was like maybe four or five. And so he picked me and he sent me to like, his buddy that was like the CEO of an industrial services firm that was like, local to the area. And it was a company that was doing a little bit over 100 million. And I ended up working for the vice president of sales and marketing on basically new product launches. And we were basically acquiring products through mergers and acquisitions. And we were also just like, looking at things that we could produce based off of our capabilities because we produce a whole bunch of things like concrete barriers and big concrete applications. But we were primarily an industrial services company putting up, like, wind farms. Right.

And so, like, lots of cranes, like, industrial moving, things like that.

How so? Out of 400 students, what did you do that stood out so much to your professor that they're like, you're the chosen.

He brought his DJ equipment to class. He was the loudest one there could have been.

I just threw like a really good party, like, inside.

That's all it takes. See, that's the key to success right there. Show. Throw a banger and everybody shows up.

Yeah, I don't know. Like, to be frank, I had very good grades because I had really poor grades in my first couple years. And I remember one, a different professor basically said, like, look, if you want a master's degree, at some point you're going to need, like this grade point average. And I did the math and I was like, great. I got to get around, like 1A for every A plus. I can only get 1Aminus. I have to average an A from here on out. And so from that point on, for my last, like, Year and a half kind of area.

I ended up with around, like two or three A pluses for every A that I got. And so I think that was enough to kind of like, turn some heads among, like, some of the faculty at that point. And so I was, like, pretty dedicated because, I mean, we're kind of in the middle of, you know, 2000, 2009. There. There wasn't much to do. Like, the job market was terrible. And, you know, it was like, I'm in here full time now, right? Like, doing all I can to graduate with, like, a top grade because I knew that the professors all had connections and a lot of people could get jobs through those connections. So making good impression, like, I was showing up, like, I was showing up to work and trying to make a good impression on.

On the teachers.

Well, that. That makes sense. With all their prior history and background, it. It seems like you probably stood ahead of everybody. Plus, your communication skills had to be outrageous at that time, because bilingual, going back and forth, the sports, the dj, you could talk to anybody probably at that point.

Yeah. So, I mean, it was one of these things where, you know, it's like, even if I didn't need the office hours, I was in the office hours. Right. It was just to understand the way that they thought about things or get their opinion on something. And, you know, when. When people kind of take that extra step, it's not normal. And like, it's funny because in the world of entrepreneurship, we talk a lot about, you know, the first step is just show up and how few people actually just show up. It's not that many people.

No. I would say your work ethic in regards to that is unfortunately, unfortunately abnormal. So I have a question. So you're going through university, you've been in Vancouver. Does it ever cross your mind to go back to Chile?

I think that, you know, it's like a really nice emerging economy. And since I've been back, it's like, you can see the opportunity there. Like, the. The income mobility is amazing there. Like, if I think if it wasn't a state where it is today, maybe, you know, 18 years ago, like, I would definitely consider it, but it wasn't. There wasn't as much opportunity as there was back then. Like, there just wasn't that kind of opportunity in those days. I also think that I just kind of grew accustomed to, like, North America in general.

Like, it's just one of these things where you're like, yeah, this is home.

You got accustomed to doing your own laundry and picking out Your own outfits.

Nothing wrong with that.

Although we don't do that anymore either. Businesses. I've reverted back. The chef isn't full time, but it's twice a week. And we have a cleaner, we have a bit of a house manager. And so I've kind of gone back to some of those things. But that's just in an effort to buy back my time because I just want to spend more time with my daughter and whatever else.

There's nothing wrong with that. It's like there's certain tasks you like to do and it relaxes, you might do it. And other ones you're like, well, that doesn't help me at all. So, you know, hire somebody that wants to do that. Maybe they're going through their journey and you're helping people out.

Well, I think you said something key that we kind of just glazed over. It's buy back your time. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs, especially entrepreneurs starting off, we forget about that very scarce resource and we think we can do it all. But it's really hard to be the master of all. We're usually just good at some. But yeah, I think that was. That's a good key to.

Yeah, not even at. At home, but also at the office. The entrepreneur is the curse. Right. We have to do what everything, because nobody can do as good as we can. And so, so one thing, when you were, we're going to make this. Going to figure out what was this defining factor. The two by four across the face where it said you're working for somebody and you're learning it.

It was a great opportunity and you bounce around a couple different places and then you're just like, you know what? I got to hang my own shingle and do my thing. What was that defining moment that you're like, that's it. I can't take it anymore. I got to do my own thing.

Yeah. I mean, I think that it was always in the cards from like the very beginning. I just knew that I had to learn more. Right. It was one of these things where I just was like, you know, if I can watch this in action and you know, a larger business, it's free learning. They're gonna paint, they're gonna pay me to learn. And like, that's the way that I approached it. I will say that this idea of buying back my time, even during like corporate life was a permanent staple.

Like, I would. And back then I wasn't making a lot, like at all. I would literally buy back my time to like, get, you know, People to do like my household chores and like things like this, you know, so they like, like laundry, like I paid a laundry service when I wasn't making a lot. Like, I mean, if you thought about it, it's like, hey, Nick, you get paid less than the time that you save. Like the amount you get paid per hour is less than like what you're paying for this thing. Like you, you would technically make, make money by doing this activity. But I basically started buying back my time that early on in my career because I was either studying and like my thought process out of after graduating university was this. I said like, I saw some stats somewhere that said somewhere between, you know, 50 to 70% of people will not read one more book after they graduate school.

Wow.

And, and I was like, okay, what if I read to the degree that I was reading in university as I moved through my career? And that's actually exactly what I did for about the first, like 15 years or so after graduation. Actually all the way up until now, only the last couple, you know, two, three years, I've slowed down because of my daughter. But before that I was reading anywhere between 40 to 70 books a year.

Wow.

And you know, it's like the age old adage, like leaders are readers. Once you read enough, it kind of compounds, right? Like there's like this idea behind compound learning where, you know, if you read one book, great, but if that same book is the 12th book you read, you're going to get more out of it by pure. Just because you have the baseline of all the other knowledge that you have. Like, you have more connection points to make out of it. Right. And so I just kind of proceeded under that and knowing that I was going to work wherever I was going to work and I was going to do a good job because then I was going to get opportunities to do more and more difficult work. And that was basically what I did. I figured out how to do my entire job, my like 40 hour a week job.

I figured out how to do it in about five to eight hours a day or like five to eight hours per week. Sorry. And so then I had, you know, basically four other days to take on special projects. So I would go to the VP of Sales marketing. I would go to the cfo, I would go to the coo, right? Which by that point had heard of me. And they were like, look, you can just give this kid projects and he'll just like run with them and he'll do them at like 80 to 90% quality than if we paid Like a consultant, you know, 20 times a salary. Right. So I just started getting like projects for everybody and like that was like the learning opportunity really.

So I stuck around for quite a while. It wasn't actually that long, it was about two years. But I basically stuck around doing that about a year and a half of just special projects, like M&As, like negotiating with people. We were like cutting big checks and then yeah, transitioned over and just said hey, like I think it's time to go try this out on my own again.

Your, your fellow employees that you worked with, co workers, not your above you, but your fellow, they probably hated you. You're doing, you're making them look so bad. They're doing a 40 hour work week in one day. They're like, you're making us look terrible.

Yeah, I mean it was, it was rough and like, I mean at some point there was like, you know, some maternity leaves and I was like, I'll just do their entire job like off the side of my desk. And you know, like it was not. Some people were really happy. Some people were not so happy about it. I made a lot of people's lives easier. I'll put it to you that way.

Do you blame it on nicotine and caffeine or just the asset a skill set of how you took everybody's job over?

My. Yeah, my brain is just like, you know, I think that the best people, the best entrepreneurs are a little bit lazy. Like, like, but like lazy intelligently where you're like, look, these 40 hours, like, do I really gotta spend these or is there a shortcut? And so your brain just starts looking for short, like, how can I do this faster? Is this really necessary to accomplishing the task? And so you start kind of rewriting standard operating procedures in real time. And generally if you have a reasonable boss, they're like, well you're not violating any protocols. You're getting to the end point. Yeah. You're doing it differently from standard, but it's more efficient. So like, let's do it your way.

Right.

Well, I think that goes quality over quantity. Right. Which is a hard concept for some non entrepreneurs. Right. So if, if you give an employee 40 hours to do XYZ, it'll take 40 hours. If I give someone like you, you're like, I'm done in two hours.

Yeah. But some entrepreneurs, the same thing though. If I've allocated eight hours for this task, I'm going to probably do it in eight hours unless I can change that mindset to say I don't want to spend eight hours on that. I want to spend one. And then you'll figure it out, right? Which is kind of what you see.

The exact reason I love time boxing my calendar as an entrepreneur, like, I don't need to be beholden to my calendar unless I choose to be. And I do definitely choose to be be. Basically, my.

The.

The whole premise of it is that, can I take something that I think is going to take me, you know, five, six, seven hours and then say, like, look, I'm going to assign myself two to three hours to be able to pull this off, right? And if I can do it, like, if I succeed, good for me. Like, I've now successfully gotten time back. And if I fail, well, how much did I fail by? Did I get 80% of the work done, 70% of the work done in two hours, even if I thought it was going to take me 7 or 8? So that's generally how I manage things even to today. The other thing is that even very early on in my career, I looked at a lot of these things from the standpoint of I only want to do things once, I want to do the hard thing once, and I want to either standardize it, automate it, or be able to hand it off to somebody else. Obviously, in those days, I couldn't hand it off. These days, I definitely do hand things off, but I'm a big fan of figuring things out and then basically teaching people how to do it very, very quickly through some sort of standardized process.

I'm trying to figure out if you're. If you enjoy doing the task more versus doing the task more efficient.

I enjoy doing the task more efficient. I knew it. I knew it for sure. But I don't want to do it more than once. I get really bored with repetition.

Well, that's where that system and process comes in place so that you don't have to do it more than once. Right. So that you can pass it along and give it to somebody else. I want to go back to something you said, I don't know how many minutes ago, because I think it's important you talk about reading and you talk about how that helped put you ahead. I think if I could, like, unbox that to the root of your reading. You have an immense amount of curiosity, and your curiosity, you know, makes you seek out more and more knowledge. I think in today's world, you know, we're doing a podcast now, there's so many ways in which we can take. Take in that information for curiosity.

Can you Talk about. And again, I know, like, your. Your time is different these days in regards to how you're allocating it, but how are you still seeking out some of that knowledge to suffice? Because that curiosity didn't go away. I know that. How are you doing that? But maybe in a little bit more efficient way these days than. Than reading.

I think that, I mean, I still do read. Especially, like, I mean, not re read, but I do audiobooks. So, like, if I'm going for a, you know, I have downtime, like I pop on an audiobook or like on a flight.

Is that like 4, 4x speed listening to it? I know you're kind.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, I do that too.

Yeah, yeah.

And. And by the way, the technique for that is that you. You crank it up to two and a half where you can barely understand, and then you put it down to two, and you're like, oh, this is slower. Train your brain like that. That's the trick behind it. Or if you want to listen to 2.5, you go to like, three, three and a half, and then you tune it down to two and a half, but two. Sort of my sweet spot. And I think that really, like, the methodology behind, like, reading for me was really simple.

I'm like, there was somebody that wrote a book because it was like, their life's work, and they said, this is valuable, and so they put it on a piece of paper, right? And why wouldn't I read this? Like, I can go out and try to accumulate this experience on my own, or I can take on other people's experiences and prevent the challenges that they had in the first place by trying to deeply understand them. And so this is not just how I approach books, but this is how I approach people. So, you know, when I was working with people more senior than myself, people that are better at what I do, all I'm trying to figure out is like, okay, how can I learn from these people's mistakes and from their successes so that I can prevent errors from happening in the future? Because I think that people don't quite understand the. How slow it is to learn through experience.

It's exhausting.

Exactly. It's exhausting. It takes so much time. A setback can set you back in the world of entrepreneurship. A year, two years. Right. Like, small setbacks can set you back two to three months. Well, if you do that, you know, four or five times a year, you've effectively neutral.

Accomplished much? Nope. Neutral.

So how many. How many staff do you have now in your company? Do you have quite a bit of them or is it just you?

Across time? We've had quite a bit, and I'm not gonna mince my words here, we have shrunk our headcount pretty significantly in, I would say, the last three to four years. However, revenues are up. And it is because in my line of business, AI has done a lot within my marketing agencies. For example, we, like, we have some people that one person does the job of what used to be four people, right? So, like, we're seeing 80% efficiency gains with certain individuals in terms of, like, volume of work at the same or better quality. So for us, like, we, we, we didn't go around laying people off, but as people left organically for other opportunities and whatever else have you, we just didn't backfill them. And, you know, we continue to kind of grow at a slower pace. I think. You know, before I was you know, hunting, you know, hundreds of percentages of, of growth.

Now it's more like, hey, can I just grow it? Like, you know, 10 to 20%. Like, that sounds like a really nice number. But I think that in the world that we're moving into, like, this is going to become kind of increasingly an issue that. That happens. Right? And we, you know, it's funny to like, we talk about organizational charts and you're like, it looks kind of like a, a pyramid, right? Like, skinny at the top, wide at the bottom. And our, our org chart is really starting to look more like a diamond. Yep. Right.

Like, it really is, right? And it's sort of like skinny top, skin, bottom, wider in the middle, and you're like, it kind of kind of is what it is.

It's kind of. So it's kind of funny because you were effectively doing that at your old employer way back in the day. You were taking everybody's job and, and you were, you saw it then, and now AI and all the cool stuff and automation, like, you're living it.

I'm, I'm like a healthy skeptic of this stuff. I would say that I believe in it and I believe what I see. I don't believe what other people tell me it can do. Like, if you go online, like, I tell people this all the time that are kind of in this, like, AI rabbit hole of, you know, like, if the algorithm, the social algorithm finds you and you start seeing like, AI content, it's just gonna keep giving it to you because you're watching it. AI is like the perfect balance of, of, you know, fear, hope, and greed all in like one, right. It's like you're fearful of it, you're also hopeful because of it and a little bit greedy too because you're like, how can I use this to make more money?

Give me more. Yep.

And, and like when you got those three things going and you know, one type of content, like it's, it's gonna be engaging in some way, shape or form and like this need to like, feel like I need to consume this in order to understand what's going on. The problem I think with AI right now and where we are today, you know, like 2026 March kind of thing, is that the people that are making the real money with AI, like online at least are the people that aren't doing it. Like they're not mining for the gold, like AKA like using it to actually like do something productive. They're the people selling the shovels. And so what they tell you that it does right now versus what it actually does are two very different things. Right? It's like, oh, we can automate absolutely everything, like blah, blah, whatever. And you're like, yeah you can. It's just not good work output.

Nothing that a client would accept. So this is where our methodology is more like human. Like humans must check all the work. It cannot go out without like human intervention. And so like not just human check at the end of the process, but it's like various steps within the process of delivering something. AI has to basically check in with its like human counterpart. But it's really like the symbiosis now of working together with it. And like we're still figuring it out.

I don't think that anybody's fully figured it out yet, but I'm very curious as to like its applications. And like what I'm primarily working on is not so much how do you develop, like how do you do more writing or creative work or research, which is there. It's very good at all those things. Well, like the thing that we're trying to figure out now is how do we make it work in a management context to help managers make the correct decisions and give people the correct support at the correct time.

Like you said, it's a tool in the toolbox and it's not the universal tool, but it is a tool that's very valuable and it's no matter what, people still want to talk to people and so may gonna help you with all your back office things and all those things. But ultimately when you stand in front of the client, you're exposed bare because it doesn't matter what that report says, you better be able to communicate that and it better be right, right.

That this is exactly it. And I think that this is where I think the market as a whole is going more and more. Like I, I sort of see this transfer of, hey, everything's online and everything is, you know, kind of at arm's length. In a strange way, in that way, everything moving more towards like community based, like being in front of people, like physically, I'm seeing this transition happen and I think it's sort of like inevitable and I think it's due to the erosion of trust. Right? Because all of these systems like AI, AI based content, etc. Like is basically eroding trust. Everybody sounds the same, right? Because they're, you know, they're marketing, they're reading off a script that AI made. Well, AI is going to make scripts, even if you load it off your own stuff, it's going to make it fairly similar to whatever the other prompted the other person said because they said the exact same thing to the AI, like, hey, here's my business.

This is my ideal client. This is their pain points. It's like, well, if me and you have the same ideal client profile, it's the same pain points. So everybody ends up sounding the same because everybody's reading off of a script that I made the same thing. This is leading to like a massive erosion of trust.

So I'm curious, do you think the pendulum is going to swing back the other way?

Yeah, I like, look like I'm not a fortune teller. So like my predictions can be.

No, no, no. I'm just curious because I kind of

feel you seem like you could be a fortune teller, a wise one, I think.

I think the social platforms will be forced into a position where you can either pay money to them like as a, as a, like a business or content creator, where like a real human or like their algorithm knowing them will basically verify the fact that your content that you're putting out is human. Like, meaning it's not an AI person. And it'll almost be like a badge that you can buy where it's like everything gets manual checked for like human authenticity. Like that watermark, like this AI slop, as they call it, is just going to become so such a high volume that people are going to be like, is this real? Isn't it real? And I think we're kind of there because there's so many times where people are like, I saw this video and it was AI and I didn't know it was AI I thought I read

somewhere where they're trying to do something where they put like a watermark, like it has to have before you look at it, hey, this is all made up. Or this is a real person, which again, somebody's always going to skirt that. But it would be nice that the majority of this stuff you could know one way or the other. It's like eating fake meat or real meat, right? I mean, you don't want to eat the fake stuff.

I think the, the meta, like, I mean in meta you can tag your content as AI generated, but in as far as I can tell, it's like when you're posting it says like is this AI? And you click a box and you say yes, this is AI and you upload it. It's not like they're tagging of their own volition. If they are, I could be wrong about that. But I think that as more of this content comes out, there's just gonna be this erosion of trust and people just want to do like. I think fundamentally business is easy in the sense of like business. People want to do business with people, 100 people that they trust. And I think that trust is at an all time low. I think that this is where people's like personal brands matter.

Like I don't care if you're like, like an entrepreneur in manufacturing. Like, I don't care. They want to hear from the CEO. Like people want to know that there's a real human working there that is leading other real humans. That's what they want. Right? To build some form of connection and then being able to see that person in real life afterwards, I think is the most important thing right now.

Yeah, I think the AI translating what you see is kind of like the political writers. What they're really saying is not really what they're telling you in the speech. It's something totally different and it sounds so great, but it means nothing and same with some of the AI stuff. So question here is, as you're doing your thing as a potential customer that wants to use your services, what is the thing that you bring to the table that gets the client again off the dime and becoming the company they're destined to be and they so desperately want, how long does it take your team to go in and help a customer get? I mean, I know it varies on different things, but what's an average, like if I somebody hires you tomorrow, is that like a five year project? Is it a six month project? What's a normal turnaround time?

Yeah, I mean like Generally the, the, my, the best clients that I have, like an agency acquisition specifically, are generally working with me anywhere between like a year to a year and a half. Like I, I do have engagements that are, you know, four to six months as well. But what I've seen time and time again is that there's a process to these things. And like, really what I'm doing is one of two things that like, in my opinion the thing that I've seen is that prepping a company for sale is the correct process, regardless if you're going to sell it or not.

Correct.

Right. Because what do you want to do in the preparing for sale process? You want to standardize everything. Right. You want to make everything nice and efficient and scalable so that people can do it, do it well, learn it easily. Right. And execute with very little defect. You want to reduce owner dependence. Right.

Meaning like giving the owner their time back, getting them out of day to day delivery, helping them work on the business rather than in the business. Right. So if we reduce owner dependency, our multiples are going to be better on sale. We have to build a very robust leadership team. Right. So that they can make the decisions and the majority of the day to day decisions and the, the business can be to some degree sort of self managing. Not all the way, but you know, maybe like 98% of the way there. And these are the pain points that most entrepreneurs have.

Anyway, it's like I'm, I'm killing myself working. I'm working 60 to 80 hours a week. Like I want time back with family. I keep missing my, you know, my, my kids, little league. I, I want to be more present. Like even if I'm present, like I'm still thinking about work. It's like these are all things because the business is so in, inextricably tied to you where you're the superhero of the business. Because if the business gets in trouble, you have to be the one to rescue it at all times.

And the process of making it like saleable at a high rate, like at a high multiple is all about reducing founder dependence, about creating systems that deliver consistently in, even in the absence of that owner. Right. And that's generally what owners want anyway. Once they've built their business to a certain degree, it's like, hey, like I, I make enough money now or maybe you know, there's some margin problems that need to be fixed. But as soon as the margin problems are fixed, like everybody wants a little bit more freedom. It's not that they don't want to work, it's that they want to work on their own terms and they don't want to feel like they're anchored or like, you know, handcuffed to their desk.

So what could you give our listeners here who are like, oh man, that just stabbed me in the back.

But before you answer that, I'm going to ask you this part now because you can have already demonstrated your whole career. You can do a one year project in a month or you can do a one year project in two years. Tell us about the one year project in a month. Give us that version.

Yeah, I think that like my version of this is the fact that generally what happens during these engagements is that we first have to fix people's margin. Because I think you said it best in my intro. My methodology is really simple. Make more profit, reinvest a portion of that back into your people, into training. Once those people are better through the training, that means that they're more valuable, you got to pay them more. And, and all of a sudden top performers want to work for your business because there's a whole bunch of other top performers running around because you're training everyone, right? And this is what enables you to create a business that is not dependent on you as the owner, or maybe not even dependent on the leadership team in order to run well on a day to day basis. And so I think that these things take time. So getting results in terms of like bottom line profit, like that's, you know, two months, maybe three months.

The rest of it is reducing the founder dependence. Because you have to like think about this. Like some people have built their business for 10, 15, 20, 25 years. It's so tied into them that removing all those connection points, in my opinion, and like, you know, people that do what I do tell you this is a two to three year process. I think it's a nine to 12 month process.

That's fantastic.

Well, I think you answered my question in that answer.

There it is. So it's not something that somebody has to go, oh my God, it's going to disintegrate. Deal I got to do. It's like, no, if you commit to it, you could have results in a couple months and you could achieve your goals in probably less than a year and you'll be a totally different company, totally different entrepreneur. I think that's where it's all at.

You have one more, one last question and I hope it stumps you. What is your end goal? Endgame, end game, endgame.

I think that for me it's I've weirdly already achieved it, I think. And it's a weird thing to say. And this is actually something that I've, I think struggled with financially. I've met my goal, right? I'm now in a position where I have zero consumer debt of any kind, including home. I have sufficient investments that my investments can fully pay for my lifestyle on a day to day basis. I'm now working to help others because I the prospect of fully retiring, like going and like you know, just being on a beach, like I think that the beach is attractive because it's rare. Like if it becomes like a daily thing, it would lose its magic to some degree. Right? So to me it's about working with people that are passionate about their business, they're passionate about their people.

Like they want to help their employees lead better lives, right? And it's in a, in a strange way, yes, I do it for profit, Yes, I want to charge what I'm worth. However, the money is not enough anymore. I want to have impact. And how I can have impact and use my God given gifts is by helping people run their businesses better so that the business runs better, it makes more money. Instead of, you know, come bonus time, come, you know, employee performance time, we're able to compensate people properly so that they can lead better lives as well. This is my way of giving back in some odd way.

Well, and I think you answered it perfectly without just saying it, but you don't have an end game. You have figured it out and you are going to keep doing what you're doing in some capacity, in some way, shape or form for probably the rest of your life.

Yeah, I mean, like, look, I'll tell you this right now, this week, like Monday, I think I maybe worked like two and a half hours. Maybe Tuesday was a bit busier. Wednesday, half day, Friday, probably gonna work four hours, right? Today, Tuesday, busier days, maybe nine or 10. It's just kind of how it goes. But I'm definitely not working a full time job at this point.

That's fantastic. Well, again you reach the other side when you are doing it for the love of it and you're helping others and you're not driven by the pressure of money and that you're wanting to give back. It's the full circle and every entrepreneur wants to get there. But it's so fricking hard, right? And if you can get somebody like yourself and your company that come in, can come in and help that entrepreneur achieve that, that's life changing. So I, if you got a little plug of how people get ahold of you. Can you plug something in there?

There's. There's a few ways you can get ahold of me. You can type in Nick Averia. So that's N I C K A V A R I A into LinkedIn. You can find me on LinkedIn. You can find me on Instagram as well under that handle, and even on YouTube. And if you want to get a hold of me and check out my website, it is agencyacquisitions IO.

Nick, you're fantastic. Appreciate you being on the show. Lots of good stuff.

Well, and I can tell our audience that he can pivot quick because our video went out a few times and it's remained out for most of the podcast, and he didn't miss a beat. So thank you.

Well done.

I appreciate it and I appreciate both of you. Thank you so much for having me. I love the work that you're doing.

I appreciate that. Well, another fantastic edition of the Empowering Entourage podcast. I'm Glenn Harper.

Julie Smith.