The 4 Steps That Led 6 of Our Clients to Achieve 9-Figure Exits Steve Sanduski: Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining us today. I'm your host, Steve Sanduski, and our guest today is Mark Moses. Mark is the founding partner and CEO at CEO Coaching International, and he has successfully built and sold two companies. He's been the president of EO and YPO Orange County chapters. He's the author of the great book Make Big Happen. In his spare time, he's completed 12 full- distance IRONMAN triathlons, including the Hawaii IRONMAN World Championship five times. On today's show, we talk about what it takes to build a business and then exit with a nine-figure valuation. We're not talking theory here. CEO Coaching International already has six client firms complete these nine-figure exits, and there are even more in the pipeline. On the conversation, Mark and I pull back the curtain and we talk about what you, as the founder, the CEO, need to think and do to be able to make this big exit happen. We talk about the mindset you need, the blind spots you must avoid, the people you need to surround yourself with, and the courage you're going to need to make the tough decisions and overcome the challenges that you will, no doubt, face. Be sure to listen to the end, as Mark shares the type of exits these companies had and the key attribute the buyers were looking for in the companies they bought. I got to tell you, I was really surprised by this key attribute. If you ever want to have a nine-figure exit, then you're going to need to make sure you focus on having this key attribute in your company. All right. With that, please enjoy my conversation with Mark Moses. Mark, welcome to the show. Mark Moses: Steve, thank you. Steve Sanduski: Mark, it's always great to have you here on the podcast, and we've got a terrific topic lined up here today. There's been some amazing results here with the CEO Coaching International clients of CEO Coaching International. The company has had six clients complete nine-figure exits, and so today we want to talk about how does that happen? Why don't we just start with what does it take for a company to reach a nine- figure valuation? Mark Moses: Yeah, so I think what it takes is, first, thinking that you can, and a real desire to think big, and stretch yourself, and stretch the people in your organization to think big, and really believe that it's something that you can do. Steve Sanduski: This idea of thinking big, do the entrepreneurs that you work with, that you've seen have these big exits, did they start day one with that type, that level of thinking, or is it something that just evolved, as the company started to have some success, they started to realize, "Wow, this could really be something," and so they kept stepping on the gas and stepping on the gas? Mark Moses: Yeah. I would say, of the six, I would say that one of them, Grasshopper, clearly did. Their vision was to have one million entrepreneurs signed up on the Grasshopper system, and they sold it long before that. They hadn't even hit 100,000 clients when they sold it, but they had that vision right from the beginning of a million. In some of the other cases, I don't think so. I think they believed that it was in stages that, "I could get from X to Y," and then when they got to Y, they started thinking, "Well, what could I achieve next, and then what could I achieve next," and they kept doing the right stuff like that whole 20-mile march that Jim Collins talks about in his book Great By Choice. Then, eventually, they can begin to see that $100 million in revenue is possible, and $100 million in valuation is possible, and even meaningfully more. Steve Sanduski: In your experience, if someone listening to this says, "Hey, I want to get to $100 million in revenue or $100 million in a valuation," do you encourage them to set that big goal as early as possible in the business or do you say, "Hey, let's look at some more reasonable goals here in the short to medium term and then we'll worry about the 100 million down the road"? What's been your experience? What kind of recommendation do you give as a coach? Mark Moses: I like thinking in three years. I can see that far. It's hard when you run your business to think five years or 10 years because there's so many things that change in the industry and the market and disruption, and I just can't see, in many businesses, that far. Some businesses I can, like recurring revenue businesses, I can see a little further than that but, generally, I like to think in three-year timeframes because I can see it. If I meet somebody, and they have a $10 million business, and they say, "I want to be at $100 million three years from now," I think they're smoking dope or something stronger because, realistically, that's a lot of wood to chop going from 10 to 100 in three years. Now, if they said, "I want to go from 10 to 30 in three years," it's still a big leap, Page 2 of 12 CEO Coaching International but I can see that. Now I want to dig into the how they're going to make it happen. As we talk about in my book Make Big Happen, the first question is really figuring out what you want, and I'm now trying to corner you into a three-year period. The second question is about how are you going to get what you want? That's where I try to test that thinking as to do I believe that they have the chops to do that, the people to do that, and the money to do that? Because growth costs money, so that's what I try to figure out, if I believe they can really do that and, really, do they have the commitment and the heart to really go after that, and drive? I would say one of the characteristics of the nine-figure guys that I've had the opportunity to work with in nine-figures, guys that have built business they've exited for over $100 million, all of them consistently have incredible drive to achieve, incredible drive to win, and incredible drive not to be beaten by their competitors. Steve Sanduski: Is that drive something that is just innate in these people that you've worked with? Is it something that maybe was shaped and formed in their childhood, perhaps, or is that drive something that can be developed over time in their 20s, let's say, that can be fostered even, let's say, with a coach? Is that something that a coach can help stoke that fire, or does that really just have to be intrinsic to the entrepreneur to begin with? Mark Moses: Well, I don't know if I know the right answer to that question. However, it's my belief, from my own experience in running my own businesses and competing in athletics and watching friends of mine compete in athletics, you got to have the drive. I don't think that's something that you learn over time. I believe that somebody either has drive or does not. Now, can you still build a $100-plus- million business if you don't have that killer drive? I believe you can. You don't even need to be that good, but there are some practices that you can follow that will enable you to be that good. Steve Sanduski: What are some of those practices? Mark Moses: Well, the biggest one is, assuming you know what you want, I believe in ... and you and I have talked about this on the show several times before, and I write about this repeatedly. Figure out what you want and then go hire the absolute best people in the country or in the world to drive you to that outcome. You haven't walked down that road before, in most cases. Go find the people that fit your values, fit your culture, that you want to work with, that have been down that road, and you believe can take your company down that road also. Have the courage to put your ego in your pocket and go get those people, align them with your organization and your values or ensure that they are, and have them do it for you. Page 3 of 12 CEO Coaching International I would say A Wireless, Rich Balot's firm, was a great example. At our annual summit this past year, I put up a photo of the management team that I worked with back a few years earlier. Then I put up a photo after we exited the first time, and then we exited a second time. Then I put up a photo of what the organization looked like today. What was remarkable to me was the only guy in the photo that remained was the founder. Every single other person had been replaced in their journey from ... at least at the leadership team level.