Noob School - Buying Smarter: Tools, Strategy, and Stories with Marty Osborn

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

Marty Osborn is back on the show, and we’re digging into some serious business strategy in this episode. If you’ve ever thought about buying a business—or selling one—this conversation is packed with value. We talk through what makes a company an attractive acquisition, how to evaluate opportunities, and what the process really looks like when you’re trying to find the right fit. Whether you’re a first-time buyer or just curious about what goes on behind the scenes, Marty brings tons of clarity and real-world perspective to the table. We also get into how to prepare your own business for a potential sale—what buyers are looking for, how to streamline your operations, and the importance of having clean, well-documented systems. There’s some great discussion on the tools out there (including some powerful AI options) that can help you make smarter, more strategic decisions—without needing a huge team behind you. Later in the episode, we shift the conversation toward hiring—specifically when it comes to building a top-tier sales team. Marty shares some of the key traits he looks for, the patterns he’s seen over the years, and why hiring right the first time is so crucial if you want to grow. We wrap it all up by talking about his new book, how the release has gone, what the response has been like, and what he’s learned through the process of writing and launching it. It’s a laid-back, insight-filled conversation that’s perfect for anyone looking to level up in business—whether you're buying, building, or just thinking ahead. Get your sales in rhythm with The Sterling Method: https://SterlingSales.co I'm going to be sharing my secrets on all my social channels, but if you want them all at your fingertips, start with my book, Sales for Noobs: https://amzn.to/3tiaxsL Subscribe to our newsletter today: https://bit.ly/3Ned5kL #SalesTraining #B2BSales #SalesExcellence #SalesStrategy #BusinessGrowth #SalesLeadership #SalesSuccess #SalesCoaching #SalesSkills #SalesInnovation #SalesTips #SalesPerformance #SalesTransformation #SalesTeamDevelopment #SalesMotivation #SalesEnablement #SalesGoals #SalesExpertise #SalesInsights #SalesTrends#salestrends

So next week, you're going to go right past Charleston and go to the beach. Are you in Charleston? I want to go to Charleston next week, yeah. I'm going to be there all week. And Gardner's coming down for the run, Greg Gardner. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, God, I always talk about doing that, and I keep forgetting. Now that we've got a place there.

Anyway, I'm there. I'll be with my brother-in-law. Staying at the house? At the radio station? Yeah, at the radio station. W-T-O-L-L. W-T-O-M. Well, anyway.

So today, we've talked about many things here on the podcast, Marty, you and I over the years. But today I want to talk about buying and selling businesses. Particularly only tech businesses, but it could be any business. You and I have been mostly in tech. Yeah. Service businesses. Service business. Service.

It's a tech service. Tech service. Yeah. I think there's just so many opportunities. One of them is for someone who has, lucky enough to have a tech business, who eventually wants to sell it. You know, you've started a business to help them prepare to sell it. Correct.

Maybe five years from now, whenever the right time is. Whatever the right time is. Because the problem is most people, when they get ready to sell, it's almost that knee-jerk reaction and they haven't done the things yet to sell. Right. To sell. It's almost like selling your house where you just one day say, I'm selling my house. You didn't cut the grass. Ever cut the grass? Haven't painted. House is a mess, right? You know values are going to be less.

You're unprepared for that. So, I mean, I think one of the things we can talk about, too, is part of this process is some of the challenges with that. Because I think in the selling side, what we also find is the number one reason why a business never sells. It's a good. because the owner's not ready to sell. And that's what happens is they think they are. And then when they get to that point, they either, A, don't understand the deal dynamics and finances, you know. And that happened to me.

We got ready to sell the first time. And I ran the math. I mean, it's just the math number. And I realized, well, let me get this straight. So we make this. I split it with my partners. Oh, wait. Uncle Sam's a partner.

So they get their cut. And I'm like, I can't retire on that. Mm-hmm. Wasn't enough. Wasn't enough because when you realize you get the money, there's sort of a thing called the 4% rule that says, you know, based on the money you have at 4%, that's what you need to live on.

Right. So if you're trying to retire, you need 4%. And if you don't have it, then you back out. I think that's an important number to talk about for a second is to figure out, if you're an owner, to figure out what is your number. Like, you know, and the 4% rule, this will blow people's minds but they hadn't heard it before

but if you have a hey I got a million dollars I'm a millionaire. I'm a millionaire. Right? That means you got $40,000 free tax that you have to live on. That you have to live on. So maybe that's $32,000 or something. Right. So that means you got $32,000 a year which is generally not enough. So you're going to need

more than $1 million you know. I don't know how many million people would need but it's probably more like four or five or six to get to that, you know, a reasonable yearly number. I don't know. Whatever the number is, maybe live in the woods, maybe one's enough. I don't know.

But I think you have to understand that. I think as part of that selling process is one is you have to understand personally, hey, what are you going to do? Yeah. You know, most people wake up every day and you're like, so John, what are you going to do when you sell your business? And they're like, we're going to build a house in Colorado, and we're going to go live in the mountains.

And you're like, have you ever? done that before. They're like, no, but it'll be great. And then they get out there three months in, they realize this sucks. People ought to have a trial run on whatever they think their retirement is. Yes. I want to fish every day. We'll try that for a couple of weeks. I tried. I suck it. I think we've had this conversation. I tried to be a fisherman. It didn't work. Yeah, yeah. I tried to retire once. Of course, when we sold a business together,

they kicked me out. But you stayed for a while. So I was I was they retired me. Yes. I wasn't retired on purpose, but I didn't know what to do. I'd wake up, you know, whenever I woke up and just kind of drink some coffee and then like, well, I'm going to go hit some balls. Yeah. By myself. You know, it's like, ugh.

I didn't have a good plan. No. And that's the hardest part is what do we want to do personally. And then it's back to the finance side is financially can you do it? Even at $5 million, right? people get really excited to sell the business. And I sell my business for $5 million at 4%. That's $200,000 a year.

So, but yet if you look at their lifestyle, they're like, I can't live on that. And it's funny, there is that battle. And so to me, selling the business, what we're trying to do is, one, get them personally prepared. And then two is get the business prepared. Because, again, if you think about the math, this is the other part I like to talk about is valuations is quite simple. I mean, it's simple math. It's, it's EBIT, right? So what is a company making times some multiple? And different industries are going to get different multiples, quality of the business, quality of the

customers, you know, dries the multiples. So if you're making, let's again, say a million dollars a year, EBIT, a multiplier might be 4x. So that's right. It's $4 million. But if you do some things, like, for instance, if the owner's too involved in the business and they're there every day, they're all excited like I'm the hero, but nobody's going to buy that. So your multiplier is going to be less. If you can step back, you have a sales team, you have a good customer base, you might get

six. So that $1 million isn't $4, it's $6 million. So to me, that's where helping people understand value and then getting that business prep for it. Now, my guess is you probably don't like to see me on the other side of the table. Well, it depends. You know, I like dealing with people that I know and I trust. I mean, I would feel like we could at least be honest with each other if we were negotiating.

But I would think you would have fixed the business, you know? And so I wouldn't be buying something that was all messed up. You would have gotten the numbers right and the owner's ready to move away and all those things. And so it's probably worth more money. Right. And I'm glad you said that because that's where I was going to go. Because people think it's like businesses aren't like real estate where you want to buy that dilapidate and fix it up. People who buy businesses don't want to fix them. Right, right.

What they want is a good ongoing operation. And so, yeah, we talk to a lot of acquires. And we always said, don't give us your yeses, give us your nose. Because we like working on the nose because there's a reason the deal didn't go through. grew that I think we can fix. So what's the name of your new business? So the new business is called by design advisors. And as you know, my favorite word is intentionality.

Intentionality. And I believe everything we need to do is intentional. And so when I was thinking about the new name, it just thinks is everything needs to be done by design. Yeah. Is it B-U-Y? It is not. It's B-Y.

We thought that get a little too confusing. Yeah, so if you're a business owner, you would hire Marty's company. Probably they're going to pay you a monthly retainer to help them just every month make the business a little more valuable, a little more sellable over time, whether you want to sell it in six months or three years or don't even know when you want to sell it. You know, Builder Marts of America, which is a company that sold years ago, but it was in Greenville. They were a national distributor of lumber yard kind of products, lumber and stuff like that.

And they got up to, I think, close to a billion dollars in revenue over a 20-year run. And one of the things their CEO did, he was a very smart man, is he would bring somebody like you in every year. and they would do a full audit of the business. What's it worth now? And then tell us what to do to make it worth more. Right. And then so the management team, it was almost like preparing to sell every year. And then they would have all year to make it better.

And they ended up selling it for $500 million. So it worked pretty well. I think it's a great process. And, you know, one of the things is we started getting in working with companies. the number one, it's funny, the reason we think companies struggle is they struggle in execution. And that's one of the biggest things that we work with organizations. And for instance, I will say this, and I think we've talked about this, is we'll sit down in that first 90 days that we work in our initial engagement. And we'll sit down and find out strategically what are three objectives that in the next 90 days, if you could accomplish, would move the business.

forward. And so we look at what's working, what's broken, what's missing. We've talked about this as to ultimately three things of what's broken and missing. We can pick three. And if you could just focus on those three, you're going to move the business. But we'll be a week out, a day out, and they'll already add three more things, four more things. And what happens is everybody tries to get too much done and end up getting nothing done. And so what separates, I think, good businesses from great businesses is that relentless execution, that key to executing. And so what we try to do is help with that culture of getting involved in every 90 days

moving that ball. I like that. On the other side of the table, I've started a company, as you know, called Sterling Ventures group. And we're buying technology companies. And we've got two now, two software companies. And we're trying to find people that own the tech companies that typically have had them for a long time, lots of good customers, but they're ready to move on. They're ready to retire.

And I have found this could be a lead for either one of us. But when I find one of these people, you know, they generally would like to sell it. but maybe they're not big enough to sell to a traditional buyer, like a private equity company or a strategic buyer. And so I try to say I've got, you know, a lot of experience in software. I've got people kind of on the bench I can put in to help run software companies. And I'll structure a deal. You know, it'll be good for both of us.

So I help them get out a different way than you do. so maybe we could do one two points sometime. Well, I love what you're doing because we're in this era now where there's so many baby boomers that have had businesses and that they're kind of at the end of their line and it's almost like every day they dread going to work. Yeah. Because the model's changing, people are changing.

Right. You know, return to work, not return to work. Like all these issues that are not. no longer fun for them. And so there's a ton of businesses that are looking owners to get out. And so for you to come in and say, I can bring new life to the business. So you might buy a business that has half a million and just in the EBITDA, and just through renewed marketing, through selling, which you know so well, building a sales team, doing a few

things, you can turn around and take this product and make it easily a million. And again, if you have five times for that 500,000 times five, that's 2.5 million in value you've created really quite simply just through process. And so I think it's, it really is great for both parties. I do too. I do too. And we, you know, we structure it in a way where the owner and I have to really trust each other because it's going to be a couple of your agreement where they're going to stick around and help us and get there. So anyway, that thing for me, it kind of stemmed from I tried to sell a business and my business was too small to really get any serious attention.

And I said, I bet there's a lot of other people like that. Yeah, yeah. There's a ton of them. I mean, it's a ton. And it's actually funny. It's on our podcast, we have a podcast by Design Advisor. And we actually had a former employee of mine on, and he ended up with the company that acquired us.

He stayed on for a year, and then they decided they didn't need HR. So he gets, I don't know what you would call it, displaced or what's the cool word now. Like he was set free. Set free. He was set free. And so he was working on a business model,

and somebody came to him and said, you know a lot about business and people. I like know about investment. He goes, we should buy a car wash. And he went, oh, okay. And so they looked and they found somebody who was trying to sell a car wash. And by cleaning it up, fixing it up, started making money. And they bought another one.

And he was like, it's pretty easy. This is kind of simple. So he's like, I want to buy another business. So he started looking around and he found a printing company. Yeah. And the printing company that basically the owner, he just wanted out. He was tired. Right.

And the price he was selling, probably the land was worth that. And again, you've talked about this is he wants out. owner financing, paid him off over three years. And now he stepped in. They had a really good leadership team, but the owner never let them shine because he was that, you know, He was the guy. He was the hero, the story.

And so he bought this business, saw a good team, took over. He doesn't spend time in it. It's generating. It's doubled its volume now and already a year. Yeah. And it's just been phenomenal for them. So their businesses like that all over the place. Right, right.

You're right. I was going to ask you where these, your leads and my leads are about the same. We want to kind of want to talk to the same people. Yeah. Where are you finding your leads? How are they finding you? Well, a couple of different ways. One of the places we're finding them in our case is with private wealth managers.

Okay. So if you think about some statistics and these are a little scary, but 90% of most people's net worth is tied up in their company. And that 80% of these companies never transact. So we have all these assets tied up, yet they don't transact. And so what's happening now is people with businesses working with their wealth advisors, like saying, if you sold this and did the right thing, then you would now have money and I can help you retire.

So they go hand in hand. And so a lot of them are coming who have clients that have so much tied up in the business. They want to maximize that value so that they can retire properly. So that's probably the number one place that we're getting leads for these businesses. The second one, as I said, it's a lot within the private equity world. If you think about it, we have a former colleague who's in that world. and he says they look at about 120 deals a year to buy three. Well, I want the 117 other, right?

Because they've said no to the people. So these people are looking to sell, but they got said no to. So to me, that's an opportunity is how can we turn those noes into yeses? Okay, that's good. Well, quit pro quo. I'm getting my leads from, you know, my network of people that I know, that are in the business. Todd Lorbach's one of them.

You know, he's a broker up in Northwest. He brought me a deal that I bought, which is kind of cool. And then I spend time on all the internet bizby sell thing, Bizby sell, Flippa, you know, Corum. There's a whole bunch of them. And so those are really fun. I mean, there's so much fun.

There's so many businesses. I just, with my entrepreneurial self, I just, every one of them, I'm like, oh, that's a good one. Marty and I could do wonders with this one. Oh, my gosh. And then I've got this guy who helps me that it's like a part-timer who's got a lot of experience doing deals. And he's just like, I met with him this morning. He's just like, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

I mean, just. Which is what you really need. I needed. I was so thankful, but I had like seven times like, they got 17 good ones. And he was just like, you narrowed it down to two that we were going to go out. after. But, you know, one of them was a SaaS product for people who do like, like almost the gypsies at the circus, you know, have the food markets and stuff like that. I'm like, that's a good niche.

And he's like, how are you going to reach them, John? I mean, there's no list of these people. So I'm getting them from the network and from the websites. And I talk to all these different brokers, which is, you know, part of that's an education. as you see more deals. But I'm starting to look for some of the AI tools. I had a demo recently where, you know, they figure out exactly what you want and they start to pulse. It's not a call.

It's like an AI-based outreach on LinkedIn navigator. Just seeing, would you, you know, blah, blah, blah. We see you do this. Would you like to have a call? Yeah. Just trying to schedule discovery calls. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to try it.

Yeah, I mean, that's all you can do right we it was funny i with dale my my partner we our analogy is fishing you can buy the best boat get all the right gear yeah but if you don't know where the fish are you could sit out there all day long with poles in the water and so one of the hardest things and this is i think ties back to sales is it's understanding where the sweet spots are where are the honeyholes and where are the people that own businesses hang out? And so, you know, that's something we're learning and spending time with trying to figure that out. But, you know, the business brokers have them.

Like I said, the private equity guys, the wealth managers. And then you just like, again, LinkedIn, you just kind of cast your net. You put a bunch of lines in the water. and, you know, somebody, you know, nibbles and you're there. And my question, it's kind of interesting, is how many do you think you have to look at before you actually find one? That's the... I mean, to review their P&Ls, review their numbers, have a couple of calls. I think my numbers are probably 40 to 1, something like that.

But I am getting better about knowing what I'm looking for before. I mean, again, car washes would be great, but I don't want to go into that business because I don't know anything. Yeah. I'd be starting as a noob. You know, what should it be per this and how old are the brushes and all those things that we know about software? You know, we know how to value a software business. But I think you're, you know business. You know money and you know cash flow.

What's actually interesting, I saw a LinkedIn post, and I had to bring this up, and they wrote about AI. And they said the A stands for access. You know, everybody's like, oh, AI is going to take our job. AI is going to do this. What really AI is done for us is give us access, access to information. We've taken company financials. We've taken a business. We knew nothing about a flooring business.

And we took the numbers and dropped it in, Chad, CBT, and said, tell me what you think. And we're like, comes back with all this stuff. And as a business person, it's really the sales, it's marketing, it's, you know, cost. I think listening to your son Jack talk earlier, like about business people. The hardest thing that people have, I think in business, there are two places they fall down are sales and marketing. And who knows that better than you? Or you know people who can help you because people think they open up a shingle. I buy a business and everybody just comes in the door.

Right now. Yeah. And, you know, that leads me right into what I want to talk about. No, I'm just kidding. But, you know, I have another business that we started years ago where that is exactly what we do. Sterling sales is we help people. You know, I kind of changed a little bit what I say it is. Now I tell owners, I'm helping you build a scalable sales team.

Okay, a scalable sales team. And what I find, you know, the reason I do it is I like doing it for one thing. I like talking to an owner about building sales and training salespeople. I enjoy all of that. I learn from doing it. Sometimes I run across opportunities from doing it. So there's multiple reasons. But most of the companies that hire me.

me, the biggest thing I can help them with is understanding a hiring model for what kind of salespeople they need. Most people, it's not funny, Marty, most people hire the same kind of people I hired when I started. I didn't know what I was doing. And it was the person that seemed like a nice person, we'll give them a chance. She had a good job at reception, we'll give her a chance. You know, whatever the give her a chance, give him a chance that was.

and you end up with people that aren't typically that aren't well suited to do this job function. Right. And then we complain about it. Marty won't make enough calls every day. Shocking. Yeah. So Marty's a bad guy. You know, we got to, John, you've got to make Marty make more calls.

Right. And so that goes on company after company after company. And so to help them create a perfect avatar of what does the right salesperson look like. and then go find them. And then after that, you know, comp plans and territory planning and all that stuff, it's like having the good boat. Yeah, yeah. We can help them with a good boat later.

But let's find that where the fish are. Right. So I talk about this in my book, and I start out, it's the second key. So I say there's five keys to become the leader people are happy to see, is number one is it's your team, don't leave it the chance. And I start out with saying, first and foremost, most of us as entrepreneurs or business leaders, suck at hiring. We suck at it. And the reason we suck at it is because we think it's our gut. It's intuition. I just feel it. The problem is it's not intuition. It's because we don't want

to spend the time. We just want somebody in that seat going. It's work. It's work. And so we hire that person too fast, too quick. Oh yeah, you've had a sales job. If we really looked at, he's had seven jobs. He's never really sold. And when his, when his quota money runs out or his his draw runs out he moves on and so the one thing that I think what you've done it baked back to intentionality is you sit them back and you define that avatar you test them like you're just like me is I believe that we should never hire a person without testing them ever and it's amazing because we'll explain it we'll lay it out and they'll be like it makes sense and then they'll hire somebody and I'll be just test them and I'll be like no no and I'd

like so how'd that work out didn't work out too well because we I don't I still am struggling with why we keep going back to the herd like we keep not trying to stick out we don't try to stand out and to me it's hiring it's hard it's work I'm helping one of my companies or my consulting companies hire some a couple new sales people and the last three people I I interviewed, it had already been vetted by the sales manager. Liked them. I really liked them. I liked them.

They were on time. They wore suits. Okay? And then we tested them. I'm looking, no, I don't like them. And they're like, yeah, but no. Like, we are who we are. And, you know, when was it, Jim Collins said,

we need to get the right person and the right seat on the bus. Yeah. He never tells you what right is. Right. And to me, right is starting to test people. And I actually got asked at our church to be on a call committee for a job. And I really felt like my role was to slow the team down because I know what's going to happen. They get excited.

They really like somebody. And they start using phrases like, well, you know what's in trouble. It's really a good person. And well, and they start, basically they take somebody who's not a fit for the job and they try to talk themselves in. why. And then they hire that person and then three months later they're like, we shouldn't have done that. And so to me, one of my roles is, A, slow down. Take your time. B is understand their personality. And so I laid out like the disc. I'm a big disc person. And so it's easy. It's D is decisiveness. I is interactive. You know, the higher is a formal. S is the higher you are on S. And

you really like rules and stability, lower as independent, and C is cautious, rule followers, that kind of stuff. And so I looked at him, I said, in this role, what's the most important thing? And they said, they need to be able to just talk to people, meet people. So high eye is like a rule. So if you're not a high eye, so we sit down and the first interview goes and I'd say, how would you explain yourself as a person? And he'd say, I'm kind of an introvert.

I don't really like talking to people. And everybody, it was like everybody in the committee just went, like they knew it because I set it up. Like now in their mind, at the end, they really liked the guy and he was a really good guy and super skilled. Yeah. But he's an introvert. Not for that job. Not for that job. Yeah.

So I think those are important. And I also think that in these personality tests, they also go back to buying and selling businesses because to me, I think even before you buy a business, If somebody's going to be in charge or there's a leadership team, I would test them. Absolutely. Because you don't have enough time to figure out who they are. Right. And so through these assessments, you start to find out who your detailed people are, your checklist people, your galvanizers are, your inventors. Troublemakers.

Your troublemakers. Exactly. Well, I agree. And so the test I like is Colby. K-O-L-B-E.com. And we typically give that test to somebody kind of as the last step. If we really think we like them, we'll give them a test. Because the test costs money.

It costs like, you know, less than $100, but we don't want to give it out to 50 people, you know. And yours is the disc you use a lot. I'm familiar with the disc, but it's kind of whatever you get used to. I've seen so many Colby scores, and I've related to certain people. Yep. And, you know, the other thing is people sometimes push you back and go, well, that's not fair. You know, you tested someone and gave them a test and you didn't hire them. But, you know, it's not fair is to hire someone and put them in the wrong job.

Yeah. And make them, have them fail. And then having coaching calls and then turn them loose. And again, most of the time when people we let go, they're not bad people. They're not bad people. They're just in the wrong job. And unfortunately, when people are looking for a job, we, we tend to, we tend to, you know, want it, right?

There's something I can't have, so I want it. And when we sit down with the test and we sit down with the assessment and we talk through it, we've had people go, you know what, this isn't the job for me. Because they realize about themselves is they're not a galvanizer like me, or they're not a person who I are a high quick starter in the Colby. And that's what's required. And they realize every day they've got to make 50 phone calls. to be like, oh, that's just...

Well, on the other hand, when I was getting out of school, I got, through my dad, I got an interview with the head of sales for Michelin. Yeah, Michelin. And I thought, well, this is going to be good, you know. This is big, big time. So I go up there to the headquarters and meet with him. And I'm like, of course, I was all crazy. I'm like, whoa, you know, what kind of training program do we have?

He goes, well, it's like two years of training. I'm like, what? Yeah, two years. We'll train you up real good over two years. Just training? Yes, sir. All right. Then what?

Then where would I go? And he goes, probably starts you in a small market, maybe like Dubuque, Iowa. Be out there for a while. So, okay, that's fine, that's fine. How much commission would I make, sell them these tires? He goes, we don't do it that way, Michigan. It's a salary job. I want you to.

I just kept slinking lower and lower in my chair. He's like, John, I don't get the feeling you want this job. And I'm like, you got it. This is not a good match for me. This is not a good match. By the way, that's actually the perfect interview. Because you both came to the right conclusion. An honest discussion, yeah.

And fair. And so, yeah, I think that that sort of coaching to the entrepreneur, to the owner, to the sales manager, they just, because they want to get that off their play. They want that person in selling. And in their mind, they see this person bringing them money, just bringing them revenue. And then they realize month one, month two, month three, month four, there's no revenue. And now they're starting to get mad. And then they lash out. They, you know, like, you're not, you know, you suck. You're not a good person. You know, all these things. You're not. And instead, of owning it saying, you know what, we made a mistake.

And so I think that's so valuable. It's so valuable. So you've written a book and the book did very well. It's doing okay. It's hanging in there. Tell us about the book and how it's doing and tell us about your speaking. One of the things, I think we laughed in one of the earlier sessions we talked when I told you I was writing a book and you got all fired up and you're like.

like, I'm going to beat this guy and you actually beat me to the punch, getting your book out. And I remember one of the things that you said was once you put the book out into the universe, the universe starts to speak back. People are calling you and doing it. And so to me, one of the exciting things is getting the book out. Is that people read it. And now they're starting to call. They're starting to interact.

And so one of the things that I've always loved to do, and I've done it for a long time, is do speaking, engagements, working with leadership teams, trying to teach something new. And so, yeah, I've gotten in the last, I guess, two months, I've got four speaking gigs. And, you know, each one comes with a stack of books. So they want all their attendees to get a book. And I had one conference. It was 300 books. Wow. And I got a picture. Books stacked up. Signed away. Did you sign them at the event? No, because the problem is you can't sign 300 books. It takes too long.

Takes too long. So I pre-sign them all. And so, yeah, I write my message and sign it, stack it, stack it. It's just I have signing days. But it's fun. It really is hearing parts of the book that get people excited that stand out to them. And, you know, different things speak to different people. So that's been super exciting.

And like I said, I love, love, love just being in front of people and sharing. You're a great at it. You're a great speaker. You're a great speaker. But I had a, I met with a business owner like two years ago, went by his house, just met him for the second time. And we talked about his business and stuff. And we really never got around to a pitch.

I never felt it was appropriate to really pitch it. He was just talking and talking. But I did leave a book. I didn't even tell him I left it. I left it, and I put a little note there to him. About six months later, he called me, hadn't talked to him since that day. And he goes, I was watching your book for a while. I wonder what you left it for.

He says, you know, after about four months, I figured I'd read it, and he read the book, and then he called me, and he hired me. Yeah. But now he's like, he knows the book far better than I know it. Yeah. Because we'll be talking about what we're doing with the comp, I don't know what your book says, you know. You're like, oh.

Where's that book? Let me check that out. I got to go put that in AI and ask that question. But you leverage your book more for speaking, and I leverage mine more for, like, team coaching stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they have different roles and different things, but it's fun to get something out. I tell you, you know, the fun thing I'm starting to do is like when I go ski in or I go stay in.

an Airbnb because I will assign a book to the owner. And, you know, they have a shelf of books. They start sticking my book into their shelf. I leave it on their coffee table. I even started leaving books like in the crown room at Delta when I'm traveling and just say, you know, enjoy. That's a great idea. And just, you know, you never know where you're going to get a lead. Somebody picks it up.

Somebody reads it. Somebody pass it along. But one thing I want to bring up and it was actually interesting. and we were talking kind of earlier about buying businesses and stuff. And I've worked a lot with entrepreneurs and startup businesses. And I've always said the hardest thing is in starting a business from scratch with an idea of tech. I say it's like pushing a train up a hill, right? Because you're just pushing that train.

And at any moment you run out of money, you don't have a sale, something, that train's going to run you over. And I almost think it's crazy. because people are always trying to raise money and like all that stuff. And I was telling you this story and we were sitting one day on a walk, resting and you made a comment. You said, you know who's got it right? Who was it? The hobo.

The hobo, that's right. You remember? Yeah. So you're like, the hobo got it right because the train's moving. Just gets on the train. And then you jump on the train and it takes off. And we said, and I started thinking about it, like, that's like the greatest analogy is the hobo is a high, opportunity, no.

Business. It's a hobo. High opportunity. High opportunity business ownership. Business ownership, okay. And so to me, one of the things that was cool about buying businesses, too, is if you're a young entrepreneur or you really want to own your own business or run it, you know, working with you where you might find a business that you share something and then you would

drop them in to own it. Because to me, sometimes finding, like my buddy, who bought that printing company. Yeah. That's a hobo. Yeah.

The hobo is he found a train. It was moving, but it was slow. He jumped on and now he's doubling and tripling sales and creating better customer service. And so I've always loved that model. And I think about that all the time about the hobo is that sometimes we think entrepreneur is starting from scratch,

getting an idea, writing code, writing checks when an actuality, you could probably get into a business. Well, I'll give you some examples from my life so far as the Voltrack business that we bought last year is software for hospital volunteer management. Yeah. Very specific niche. And they have 144 customers, so hospitals across the country that use this for all their volunteers. And I bought it, and the owner, you know, it didn't have to pay very much up front. It was a couple years to pay it off, three years. And I was able because I already have people doing, you know, customer service and billing and technology stuff already on the payroll.

I was able to cut the expenses. And then I turned around and raised the prices. Yep. And so immediately, you know, we created value in that business. I didn't have to write a business plan. I'd have to go raise money. I didn't have to go find the first customer. Talk someone in to come and join me in this crazy venture.

And so that's an example of finding the hobo situation. Another one, believe it or not, is Datastream. Most people think that was a startup. It wasn't a startup. You know, Larry bought that business from some big company that was ready to get rid of it. Yeah. And as tiny as it was, when I joined them, there was 30,000 a month in revenue. There was, you know, 18 customers.

There was leads coming in. Yeah. It was four people working there. So it was like we just needed to work it from there, you know, forward. I think it's, I think that hobo model and that thought about it is, it really has merit to what's going on and what people can do. because you bring that new set of energy to basically that train that's not moving that fast, and then you give it that energy and it just takes off. Right, right.

So we're going to start a hobo business. I don't know. Well, it's the hobo fund. So, yeah, the thought was, you know, the new idea, and we're launching it here, a noob school. First time only is the hobo fund. You can be a hobo. You can be a hobo. And if you want to run a business, come find one with you.

We'll help you finance it. Yeah, so Marty and I, just for the record, we're both looking for the same person. We want a tech company, not too small, not too big. Probably around here would be better. It could be anywhere. Could be anywhere. So the owner should contact both of us. They can start with you, John, and then I'll help you.

But either one. Either way. Either way. Anyway, maybe we'll just put them right in the Hobo Fund. Yeah. But anyway, Marty, is there anything else you want to talk about today? No, that was it. It's always exciting being here.

I love having you here, and I love talking about buying and selling businesses. I think people are getting more and more questions from new school on that subject. So hopefully you can come back and we can talk some more soon. If anybody wants a damn good speaker for your user groups or national sales meetings, Marty would be the man. Yeah, you can give me at Marty at Martyosborne.com. It's simple. All right, brother. Thank you, man.

Thanks, John. Appreciate it. You the man. Good to see you.