Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Codie Sanchez on the Secret for How to Gain Financial Freedom EP 541

Starting point is 00:00:00 Coming up next on Passion Strike. We have a real aging demographic shift that we've seen all around the world and is starting to accelerate as this baby boomer generation, the youngest of which are now starting to retire. And this generation is the big predominant owner of small businesses. And there's two things going on with that. That means that you have a ton of supply, right? So always good to buy something at a discount if there's a big supply. The problem though is most of these owners don't know how to sell their business. They don't know how to prep their business for sale. They don't know that their business is even sellable and they certainly don't know how to price it. And so we have to educate the populace and how to train business owners

Starting point is 00:00:39 to think about transferring their businesses so everybody gets a fair price and a fair exchange. Welcome to Passion Struck. Hi, I'm your host, John R. Miles, and on the show, we decipher the secrets, tips, and guidance of the world's most inspiring people and turn their wisdom into practical advice for you and those around you. Our mission is to help you unlock the power of intentionality so that you can become the best version of yourself. If you're new to the show, I offer advice and answer listener questions on Fridays.

Starting point is 00:01:12 We have long form interviews the rest of the week with guests ranging from astronauts to authors, CEOs, creators, innovators, scientists, military leaders, visionaries and athletes. Now let's go out there and become Passion Struck. Hey, Passion Struck fam, welcome to episode 541 of the Passion Struck podcast. I'm your host, John Miles. I want to thank you for joining me on this journey to live a more

Starting point is 00:01:37 intentional purpose-driven life. Whether you're a longtime listener or tuning in for your first time, you're part of an incredible community that's committed to transformation, growth and taking bold steps toward your dreams. Before we dive into today's episode, if you're new to the show, we have over 540 episodes packed with actionable insights and inspiring stories. Not sure where to start? Check out our episode starter packs on passionstruck.com slash Starter Packs or Spotify, where you'll find curated playlists on themes like leadership, mental health, and personal mastery. And if you want to dive even deeper, sign up for my live intentionally newsletter at

Starting point is 00:02:13 passionstruck.com for exclusive insights and tools to help you unlock your full potential. Last week, we had two phenomenal guests who shared incredible insights. First, Heather Moise, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, inductee into the World Rugby Hall of Fame and Canada's most decorated all-around female athlete, joined us to discuss the power of mindset in overcoming obstacles and achieving success. Heather shared her strategies for pushing past limitations, redefining resilience and cultivating a gold medal mindset. Then Dr. Josh Axe, renowned health expert and bestselling author, joined me to discuss his latest book, Think This, Not That, 12 Mindset

Starting point is 00:02:50 Shifts to Break Through Limiting Beliefs and Become Who You Were Born to Be. In this inspiring conversation, Dr. Axe shared practical strategies to overcome self-doubt, shift your mindset, and unlock your true potential. His actionable advice and personal stories make this episode a must-listen for anyone ready to reframe their thinking and live with greater purpose. And finally, in my solo episode, I tackled the concept of psychological wealth. How to build a rich, fulfilling life by focusing on your mental and emotional well-being. We explored strategies using the story of the Grinch who stole Christmas on how to cultivate inner peace, resilience and joy, regardless of your external circumstances. If you're looking to elevate your mindset, these three episodes were packed with

Starting point is 00:03:32 practical takeaways. Now, on to today's episode where I am thrilled to be joined by someone who's redefining how we think about wealth, ownership and financial freedom, Cody Sanchez. Cody is a former Wall Street investor turned small business expert, entrepreneur, and founder of Contrarian Thinking, where she is known for her wildly popular newsletter that teaches unconventional ways to cash flow and build in generational wealth. She's also the author of the game-changing book, Main Street Millionaire, which launches today, How to Make Extraordinary Wealth, Buying Ordinary Businesses. In today's conversation, Cody shares her groundbreaking approach

Starting point is 00:04:09 to achieving financial freedom by investing in what she calls sweaty and boring businesses. Think plumbing, cleaning and construction. These overlooked industries, she argues, are the secret to creating extraordinary wealth without the risky gambles of startups or the grind of climbing the corporate ladder. We'll explore the key trends she sees shaping the future of wealth creation, including why private investing, buying established local businesses is the ultimate pathway to financial

Starting point is 00:04:36 independence, how the unsexy industries of Main Street are experiencing a blue-collar renaissance, making them prime opportunities for smart investors, and the power of buying businesses that are already cash flowing, helping you skip the startup hustle and focus on scaling success. Cody's mission is bold, to create one million financially free humans

Starting point is 00:04:58 through business ownership. In our conversation today, she not only shares her framework for acquiring businesses, but also dives deep in the mindset shifts required to embrace this unconventional approach to wealth. If you've ever felt stuck in the grind or wondered how to make your money work for you while building something meaningful, this conversation is a must-listen. As Cody puts it, your money and your meaning are on Main Street.

Starting point is 00:05:21 As always, you can always watch this episode on our YouTube channels, John R. Miles, and our clips channel at Passion Struck Clips. So get ready for a dynamic, no BS conversation that will challenge your thinking and inspire action. Let's dive in with Cody Sanchez. Thank you for choosing Passion Struck and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey to creating an intentional life.

Starting point is 00:05:42 Now, let that journey begin. I am absolutely honored and thrilled to have Cody Sanchez on Passion Struck, a person my community has wanted on the show for so long. Welcome. Thanks for having me. Cody, I'm going to start in an unusual place. I'm going to start by saying how much I admire your husband's journey as a Navy SEAL. As a Naval Academy graduate myself, and having deployed alongside teams three, eight, and ten, I have an immense appreciation for the SEAL community. My father was also UDT Class 16, so the connection runs really deep. As I was prepping for this interview, I happened to listen to your podcast

Starting point is 00:06:27 where you were interviewing Chris and our mutual friend, Gabrielle Lyon, where you guys were talking about health fitness and incorporating those habits into relationships. And what I wanted to ask is, what's been the most impactful habit or mindset from his SEAL training that you've seen spill over into both of your lives?

Starting point is 00:06:48 Chris doesn't say he's going to do a thing and not do it. His ability to keep his promises to himself, I think is one of the biggest reasons why he's as successful as he is. It starts with a really core understanding that if you lie to yourself, then you are more likely to lie to everybody else and you are more likely to lie to everybody else and you're more likely to not achieve the things that you really want because you're telling the universe and you all the time that you aren't that serious. And so I take that away from Chris often.

Starting point is 00:07:16 He also jokingly in the gym often says to me when I don't want to do more, when I don't want to go, he'll say, are you a good white shark or are you a great white shark? And I find that very annoying, but also really true. He just doesn't sacrifice much at the altar of I'm tired, it's a long day, it's too much, or I don't have enough left in the tank. Well, I love that. And thank you for sharing because I always like to see how these things and relationships intertwine. So I want to start out here, Cody, you have a mission to create 1 million financially free humans, and it's not just about wealth. The core thing that we discussed here on passion struck is really empowering

Starting point is 00:08:01 people to design a life of meaning and impact, which I think is what you're trying to do as well with your mission. What inspired you to pivot from the corporate grind? Like we both started as in our previous lives to championing this movement of intentional ownership. I think if you don't like where you are today, try looking forward to the boss, the person that you work for that's looking forward to the boss, the person that you work for that's 10 years down the line from you.

Starting point is 00:08:27 And I think what you'll pretty quickly realize is that you might not like the person that you see as future you in 10 years. And that was the case for me. I was constantly like this other human that I could grow into if I stayed here. If I did the status quo, if I kept just doing what was expected of me as somebody that I'm not going to like very much. And so I decided to make a change. And it was pretty much at that moment when I started to buy businesses, when I started to invest in outside companies, when I started to invest in other private

Starting point is 00:08:58 equity funds, and because I was, I was throwing little fishing lines out into the water to see what I could catch. And I wasn't sure what the right move was. There were so many options in front of me. I was overwhelmed by the number of optionality in the world. And I was scared to leave because I wasn't sure that I could do it on my own. And so that whole process led me to thinking, well, maybe I actually could take risk and go do something bigger than myself.

Starting point is 00:09:22 But it took a long time to figure out how and why. Thank you for sharing that. And today, I think the core thing that we're gonna be discussing is this whole concept of breaking free and redefining success on your own terms. And we're gonna be discussing your book, which comes out the day this podcast is released, Main Street Millionaire, How to Make Extraordinary Wealth

Starting point is 00:09:44 by Buying Ordinary Businesses. Congratulations on this book. It's been a long time coming. Oh, thanks. So I want to start here. So many people chase the hustle culture. I know I did it for many years, whether it's startups, promotions or side hustles, only to think they're making strides and feeling more and more unfilled with meaning and hope and aspiration. How does your approach of investing in small

Starting point is 00:10:17 local businesses shift the narrative and allow people to create a life they love? Here's what the data tells us. The data tells us that when you work in a small business, 60% of the time you like what you do for a living. The average corporate employee, 85% of the time does not like what they do for a living. So we have a bias, I think, towards groups of humans that have connectivity that feel like we are working

Starting point is 00:10:40 together on something important. When we become a number, a cog in the wheel, it decreases our happiness level. So I would say, first of all, if you don't love your job, maybe try a smaller company, maybe try a company where it is really materially important to them that you show up every single day. And I think that is something that we stopped feeling. I know when I worked at Goldman and Vanguard and State Street and all these big companies, I didn't really matter to the company.

Starting point is 00:11:04 If I disappear, it didn't matter. In fact, at Goldman, they cut about 20% of the workforce every single year. And so I was nothing but a number. And if I grew really highly inside of the company, I still probably wouldn't matter. CEO hypothetically might not matter at a company like State Street or Goldman,

Starting point is 00:11:22 but that would really be like the level of staff that is absolutely necessary. Otherwise the business starts to crumble. And so if you can go from being somewhere where you're not needed to being needed, I think we're happier. Human beings, in my opinion, you need to feel useful. Utility leads to happiness.

Starting point is 00:11:38 And so, in small business, you have that. Now, the second thing that we've seen and why I wrote the book is that we are moving away from small businesses. Small businesses are like the little goldfish that are getting eaten up and eaten up by the bigger and bigger fish. And those bigger and bigger fish are private equity. So right now, if you don't like the job that you have, if you don't make enough money, we've thought that the only real answer that you had two paths. You could, well, get a better job or a different company or a different title, so stay on the corporate grind, or go do a startup. Now, I think people who do startups are incredible,

Starting point is 00:12:10 and I'm really glad they exist in the world. I'm one of them. But I don't think that everybody should go do a startup. In fact, I think you are very rare if you are going to go and start something from nothing and you're going to brave the truth, which is that most startups do not make money. Most startups fail, 90% fail within the first 10 years. Most startups never are profitable ever. And the few startups that are the average entrepreneur that starts a business makes anywhere from 30 to $60,000 a year. And so I think we were told a little bit of a lie that to start up was how we made our millions.

Starting point is 00:12:45 Well, that is not true. Now, if you have an idea that is inside you, that you would die for the want of it not existing in the world, that keeps you up late at night, that you want to grind on for 20 hours a day, or at least 12, then do a startup. Then create that innovation that we need in the world and we'll be better for it and we should thank you for it. But if what you really want is to make a little bit more money, to have more freedom, to not work with people you don't like, to work with people you do, and to be able to still continue to get paid,

Starting point is 00:13:15 even if you're not working hours, then I think the path to ownership of small businesses is the way and it's the way that we've forgotten. Most of us are not the 10% that are gonna go, I mean, not even the 10% though, 0.0001% that is going to go build the next Tesla or Tinder. And that's okay. It doesn't mean that we aren't useful. In fact, our community needs us to own these small businesses.

Starting point is 00:13:38 These small businesses are profitable. They have a higher success rate than startups and they lead to pretty happy lives. It's interesting. They have a higher success rate than startups and they lead to pretty happy lives. It's interesting. I had a book come out earlier this year in February and I did some deep dives into the Kauffman Foundation and was even just looking at census reporting and some of the things that were showing trends of businesses over the past 20, 30 years. And outside of this change that happened with COVID, both ownership in small businesses and entrepreneurship were on a 30 year decline. And when you look at this compared to the rise

Starting point is 00:14:14 of large companies, which they describe as companies over 500 people, it has this inverse climb that creates this incredible gap. And so one of the initiatives I got involved with here in Florida, we have a ton of veterans because of all the military bases here. And a lot of times veterans getting out are always saying, what do I do next? And so I was part of this thing called the Florida Association of Veteran Owned Businesses, which was trying to promote making Florida the mecca for people to do small business. Yet I saw so much resistance

Starting point is 00:14:52 in people wanting to take this path. And where I'm going with this is you described these small businesses as hidden gold mines. Just like those veterans I mentioned, why do you think so many people overall overlook these opportunities? We started as a nation of owners in the 1800 to 80% of Americans owned their own business. By 2020, that number is somewhere between 6 and 10% depending

Starting point is 00:15:21 on how you report it. It is easier to control an employee. It is easier to tax an employee. It is easier to grow a few large institutions, have protections around them, than it is to have a diversified, non-centralized citizen base. And I think that is why. And so we have let a few companies continue to get bigger because that's the natural state of things. We humans, once we get power, we want more of it. And so as companies get big, they have more lobbying power. What do

Starting point is 00:15:49 they do with the lobbying power? Well, they lobby governments for more regulation. Why? Why would they want to be more regulated? Because they can afford the expense of it and the new guy cannot. In tandem, the big corporations have more buying power today. I mean, if you look at how Blackstone, BlackRock, KKR, some of these companies use our money, but particularly, let's say BlackRock or Blackstone, they have very large public funds where they manage our pensions, our 401ks, our mutual funds. They take in our capital,

Starting point is 00:16:19 then they use our money against us to buy our single-family homes, to buy up small businesses inside of their private investment portfolios. And it's worse than that actually, because they have so much capital that we've given them, they get decreased interest rates as well on their capital and increased leverage rates because of how big they are.

Starting point is 00:16:37 And so they can buy our houses for more money and they can buy them with a lower interest rate than we do. And so they outbid us on the very assets that were supposed to be part of an American dream. And I think that is happening right now in home ownership, but also I think it is happening even more materially in small business. Private Equity in 2020, I'm sorry, yes, Private Equity in 2000 owned about 4% of private companies in the US. Flash forward to 2020, that's about 20%. These aren't bad guys. I was friends with a lot of people in Private U.S. Flash forward to 2020, that's about 20 percent. These

Starting point is 00:17:05 aren't bad guys. I was friends with a lot of people in private equity. I still am. They're incredibly intelligent, incredibly skilled individuals, but I don't think that because they have perverse tax incentives, such as not to get really technical, but the way that they do carry in capital gains and how much lower tax basis that gives to them. Plus, they know how to raise capital. They should be able to buy out our businesses from under us. And we've all felt it. You've gone to your favorite neighborhood store after it's been replaced with a CVS or a Walmart. You've felt what it's like when you go to a local coffee shop and that coffee shop has been bought out by private equity, it's really hard to not

Starting point is 00:17:45 suck the soul out of something when you've never stepped foot inside that company and you just see it as numbers on a spreadsheet. And that is what these large private equity firms do. It's just perverse incentives. And so you can't really get mad at the snake for biting you when you know that's what snakes do and what they are created to do. They're not wrong, they are just created that way. And so my pushback on this is, yes, I think there are some regulatory changes that could happen, but also let's take back our businesses ourselves and not wait for the government to do it for us.

Starting point is 00:18:18 Thank you for sharing that. And you probably don't know this about my background, but I've spent about 12, 13 years in and out of private equity when I was a senior executive at Dell, when I lived in Austin and I left because I was recruited by Hellman and Friedman to become the chief operating officer of a tech company. And I saw that side of it from being an operator.

Starting point is 00:18:40 And then I was partnering in a private equity firm, about 10 billion in assets and did a lot on the investment side. So I saw both side of it, but I have to tell you recently, this became really real for me in a personal way. You were just talking about how many homes that these companies are buying up. And I live here in Tampa Bay where Hurricane Helene in one night displaced 12,000 homes that were flooded, including mine. And all of a sudden, when you hit this market that's owned by private equity, who are miles and miles away from what's happening, and you as a person trying to find a rental can't because they're not shifting quickly enough to the urgent needs of the population around. Plus, they're not doing the cleanup, everything else.

Starting point is 00:19:34 It really shows you localization versus this umbrella effect that these companies have. So, that's a great point. And I think that's a really good point too. When a dog takes a shit on your lawn, you clean up your lawn. Why? Because it's yours. Because you don't want that sitting on your front yard. But when you don't own the house, when you don't really visit the house, when that is just an asset and not a home, you treat it real different. And so I think that happens overwhelmingly in these areas. And it's, again, I mean, you were in private equity, so it's not bad people. It's pretty brilliant people. But it is not great that we take away a community feel from a community.

Starting point is 00:20:19 And I think at some point, we should all go and become spectacularly wealthy. And I love that. And I think it's very possible for us, because there's more money than we can ever imagine. But do we have to do it by sucking the life out of local communities and not having localized strategy and incentive alignment? And I think the answer is for the everyday average person, these issues are too big. It's like, all right, well, what am I going to do about Blackstone or KKR? I have no idea. Well, let me tell you what you can do. You can go and actually get ownership in a small business yourself. It is an asset that will be valuable. You can build that up into a

Starting point is 00:20:54 nice little mini empire of yours in Piedmont, North Dakota, in Scottsdale, Arizona. And in that, you can then transition it to the next generation and make just as much money as if you sold it to private equity by doing seller financing or creative financing for the next generation to take it over and keep a percentage of equity ownership in the business overall. I think that's the other thing that private equity guys do

Starting point is 00:21:18 is they catch us at the moment of weakness. Well, you've been in your business for 10 or 15 years, you're fucking, you're tired. But your kid doesn't want to take it over. You got like some issues, some HR employment issue. You don't really know how to exit the business yourself. You need some liquidity and capital because all your money is tied up in your business.

Starting point is 00:21:37 90% of small business owners' net worth is tied up in their business. And somebody comes to you with a really attractive multimillion dollar offer to buy your business. What do you want to do? business, what do you wanna do? Yeah, that sounds nice. I would like to take that offer. But hey, I live down the street from all of these guys and I still gotta go to church with all my clients on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:21:54 And when they run my business into the ground or when they sell it for parts or when they take my name off of it, maybe I'm gonna feel something about that because I spent 30 years of my life building this fucking place. And if there was another option for me to sell my business also for millions, but not to somebody who is going to slice it up for parts, change the name,

Starting point is 00:22:13 etc. I would probably do that. The problem is there's not an educated enough populace that knows how to buy these businesses to compete with those offers. Because as we know with private equity comes with a lot, it comes with a lot of handcuffs that you don't recognize. There are some weights that they put on your feet when they buy your company, because these guys are smart. They know how to minimize risk.

Starting point is 00:22:33 And so they're gonna make sure that you're doing earnouts, you're doing milestones. They're gonna make sure that all of the capital isn't given to you unless X, Y, Z happens. And so I think there's a real opportunity for people who understand how to do deals to come in and even compete with those guys at some level, because the word's out on how they treat a lot of owners that they buy their business from. Well, thank you for sharing that. And I think that really depends on what private equity firm it is.

Starting point is 00:23:03 Some are much more hands-on, some are much more hands off. Some put operators into the companies, some do not, some manage by spreadsheets, some allow for some more subjectivity in how they treat the businesses. But you're right, you pick the wrong partner and it's going to be a messy situation. I want to dive into your rich framework here in a second. But one of the things I learned the most when I was in private equity is to look for shifts that were happening before they happened. We used to call them inflection points in the market. And it's interesting because you mentioned that it only takes one to 5% of the population to change the course of history,

Starting point is 00:23:49 which would be a huge societal shift. How do you see what you're writing about in this book and small business owners contributing to this kind of shift? Well, if we know that only 6% of Americans on average own a small business, then what do we know? We know if we actually got that only 6% of Americans on average own a small business, then what do we know? We know if we actually got 1% to 5% of Americans to additionally own a small business, we've

Starting point is 00:24:11 anywhere from 20% increased to double the amount of owners in this country. Why do I think that's good? Well, if we have a bunch of owners in this country, they're a lot harder to push around. It's harder to require, for instance, that owners, because we have a diversified group of companies as opposed to a few Fortune 500, if we have hundreds of thousands or millions of companies, then they're harder to regulate, for instance.

Starting point is 00:24:37 Well, if you want to say medical mandate here or there to the big Fortune 500, well, they can come after you and sue the shit out of you. But if you have a ton of companies, then that's much harder to do. That's why decentralization is really good for protection. It's the same thing with this idea of Bitcoin or crypto. When we don't have one single point of failure or one single point of friction, then we usually have healthier ecosystems and marketplaces. We want this in everything, really. We want this in food processing, we want this in logistics, we want this in our power sources, and everything

Starting point is 00:25:10 and everywhere. If we can have decentralizations and multi-nodes, it's usually better for society, in this case, better for consumers and citizens. What I think is happening today that's a little bit different is that for the first time ever, we have a real aging demographic shift that we've seen all around the world and is starting to accelerate in the US, which is this baby boomer generation, the youngest of which are now starting to retire. And this generation is the big predominant owner

Starting point is 00:25:38 of small businesses. And there's two things going on with that. That means that you have a ton of supply, right? So always good to buy something at a discount if there's a big supply. The problem though is most of these owners don't know how to sell their business. They don't know how to prep their business for sale. They don't know that their business is even sellable and they certainly don't know how to price it. And so we have to educate the populace and how to train business owners to think about transferring their businesses so everybody gets a fair price and a fair exchange.

Starting point is 00:26:07 And then we've got to change. We've got to train the sellers to realize not to just shut down their business or sell to a big corporation or sell to private equity, but instead maybe think about how to keep the ownership local. And the last thing I'd say there is there's lots of studies that show that if you spend a dollar at a local business, so you go to a local hardware store, 60 cents of that dollar stays in your local community. If you go instead to Amazon and you buy the wrench or that you buy the hammer on Amazon, less than 10% or 10 cents goes to your local community. and sense goes to your local community. And so this idea of like own local, buy local together,

Starting point is 00:26:45 I think is really important if we feel like we want communities that we want to live in because prosperous communities end up being communities that have higher happiness levels, higher safety levels, et cetera. I love that you bring that up because this weekend I'm attending Locotopia, which is this big festival in St. Petersburg that draws probably, I'm guessing a hundred thousand people to

Starting point is 00:27:09 the downtown streets to support the local vendors. So a huge believer of this. I want to go to the topic of limiting beliefs because so many people I found feel stuck in their financial or career paths. And as I was preparing for this interview, I put out to my audience that I was going to interview you. And I happened to get a question for you from one of my listeners in Nigeria, Victor, who wanted me to ask you, would you agree that two different individuals practicing the same

Starting point is 00:27:41 principles could achieve different results based on their environment or circumstances? Another way to say that everything is contextual, which I think is very true. I'm not sure there's too many things that are complete black or white instances, mathematical equations until we prove them wrong, perhaps, scientific equations until we prove them wrong, perhaps, scientific equations until we prove them wrong, perhaps. But I do think by and large, we are all an amoeba put into a Petri dish that is a byproduct of the other things

Starting point is 00:28:11 that go into the Petri dish alongside us. We're contagious and we are easily influenced by our society and by our culture and by the people surrounding us. So one of the reasons why we created Contrarian Thinking at our contrarian academy, which is where we teach people to buy businesses is because you do become the average of the people you surround yourself with both in weight and

Starting point is 00:28:31 bank account and title and marital status. It's wild when you start to realize how contagious we are. And that's why I relentlessly cut out negative naysayers in my life because they are actually making me make less money, be healthy on average, be happier. And life's hard enough as it is when you have people who are cheering you on to win. The last thing that you need is to let those who don't want you to win into your ecosystem. Well, I love that.

Starting point is 00:29:00 I wrote about that in my book. I call it the mosquito principles. Sometimes the people closest to us are the most benign, but threatening people we have in our lives. And so you got to get rid of the bloodsuckers, the invisible suffocators, and the pain in the asses from your life. I think that's true.

Starting point is 00:29:18 So I wanted to just ask you one follow-up on what you just said. So for someone who's faced in that environment that we were just talking about, do you think they should focus on changing their environment or do you believe they should work to adapt within it? I mean the easiest thing to do is pick up your feet and move. I do believe there's a real power of place and it is hard to be something different in a place that is not different. And so if you are surrounded, I mean, just think about it this way, we talk about it, if you want to change your life, get in a room where other people's Tuesday is your dream day. I could pretty much tell you with

Starting point is 00:29:54 increased certainty that in our members of our community who are trying to buy businesses, as soon as they join one of our accountability pods, their likelihood of buying a business goes up by about 50 to 60%. As soon as they come to one of the events in person that is tailored for their sub segment, the likelihood of them doing their first series of LOIs and PPMs is increased by about 100%. So like proximity is power and it does matter. If you want to stop drinking and you went and hung out with a bunch of crossfitters, none of them drink and they all go work out every day, you probably are going to decrease your drinking.

Starting point is 00:30:28 If you wanna stop drinking, but you hang out with friends every night at the bar, you're probably gonna have a hard time decreasing your drinking. And so yes, you could build incredible willpower or you could get into an environment where willpower is not even really necessary because proximity and habit kicks in.

Starting point is 00:30:44 I think that's a great example and I haven't had a drink since August of 2023 and I realized early on in this journey that I was spending too much time doing those types of things and I wanted to break from it because I was not able to focus on the things that truly mattered but to your point, I had to really distance myself from the people and the places I was going to, because if you don't, it just keeps drawing you back in. So I think you make a really good point. So I want to shift the conversation

Starting point is 00:31:18 to intentional wealth creation, because when I was reading the book, I equate the rich framework as a pathway to intentionality really because each step in the framework aligns to deliberate actions that lead you to financial goals and eventually personal success. So I want to start out with the first research. You emphasize that finding the perfect fit business is part of this phase. How can someone intentionally, because I think this is important,

Starting point is 00:31:52 align the business that they choose with their value system and long-term goals? Well, I think tools limit mistakes. So if you want to succeed more consistently, you should try to steal somebody else's 10,000 hours and use the tools that they've used to already get the thing that you want. And so what I do in the book is I give you what I call

Starting point is 00:32:13 the perfect fit and diagram. And so basically this is overlapping three circles that talk to you about your passions or what we call obsessions. I'm more interested in what you're obsessed with and what you're passionate about. Your skillset, what you are uniquely skilled at in the world and like doing.

Starting point is 00:32:30 And then your network, where do you have other people who can help you achieve the things you want with more speed and certainty? We take this, you do this exercise to look at those three things and then put it into your deal box. And a deal box on investing is similar to what we in private equity might call our investment thesis.

Starting point is 00:32:47 So what is the thing that you are going to invest in that will be the blinders that you keep on for all the distractions of potential investments? If you want to close a deal with higher likelihood, it's not that you should actually open your aperture and look at more deals. You should get really clear on what is a good deal for you. and look at more deals, you should get really clear on what is a good deal for you. And so this is an exercise that I think if people follow through with it, will accelerate your deal buying journey much faster. It'll also accelerate your career

Starting point is 00:33:12 and your ability to negotiate because you're gonna have the rarest of things, a knowledge of what you want, which most people do not have. And in that same chapter, you show a pyramid, which I really liked. You titled this, competition is for losers. Why small businesses are easier to buy.

Starting point is 00:33:27 And you're right. Most people who talk about acquisitions refer to businesses to win a hundred million or more in annual revenue. The ones that private equity companies typically buy up that most of us can't afford. And so what you show on this is the fortune 1000, upper middle of market, lower middle market and small businesses. And I think you're right here, all the buyers are trying to compete for the top part of

Starting point is 00:33:52 the pyramid, overlooking the profitable small businesses. This is where there's plenty of opportunities, like you say, but there's surprisingly fewer fishermen. So if you're someone who's listening to this, trying to think about how do I even approach this large fish of small businesses, where do you start on your research? Like how do you even start probing this? Because I know for many people it could feel overwhelming. I mean, I don't think that buying businesses is easy. I think that it's worth it. I think that it's worth it. I think that ownership is actually one of the hardest things that you can do, but it's really

Starting point is 00:34:29 the only thing that I think over the long term leads to financial freedom consistently. And so it's not easy. And if you want quick or easy or immediate or no risk, you shouldn't do this. You shouldn't play this game. And you should probably play a game that has a lot less risk and a lot less potential reward. And that's totally fine. And this may just be something that is a phase of your life too. But well, I mean, I think where you should really start is,

Starting point is 00:34:54 whether it's my book or somebody else's, but you wanna actually understand the full landscape. So it's not actually where do you start? It's what is your knowledge base? So I have an employee that owns some businesses on the side too. And he said something really interesting to me once. So since he started working with me and I taught him how to do acquisitions, that was three years ago, he's bought three businesses.

Starting point is 00:35:15 Maybe he's done four now. And, and before that he had been working in business, very successful salesperson for 11 plus years and had never bought a business before had never done a partial equity deal, had never owned half of anything or a part of anything. And what was interesting is he said to me that he was talking to one of his mentors and his mentor said, do you think that no deals existed prior to you meeting Cody? Prior to you learning acquisitions, were there no deals around? No, of course not.

Starting point is 00:35:43 It's that you couldn't recognize them. And I think your opportunity will always be limited by your ability to recognize it. And so if one day you want ownership, you need to start with understanding what does it even look like to get ownership? What does it look like to buy a business? How do we use this language of money,

Starting point is 00:35:58 which is to talk about deal-making and structuring. And once you have that down, then you can go to the next level. The next level would be like, all right, I've read the book, now how do I go into something deeper? Maybe it is a course, maybe it is a community or an academy of people.

Starting point is 00:36:13 How do I go from the education to starting to begin the implementation? I think where people go wrong in business buying is they start with, this is a cool idea. All right, I learned a few things about buying a business, now let's go buy one. And instead, it should probably be maximize your education is they start with, this is a cool idea. All right, I learned a few things about buying a business. Now let's go buy one. And instead it should probably be,

Starting point is 00:36:27 maximize your education until you can say you're quite versed in how to buy businesses. You could have a conversation with you or I on doing a private equity deal and you would understand everything we're saying. And if we probed you on some questions, you would be able to respond in kind. Then you might be ready to start looking at acquisitions.

Starting point is 00:36:44 But what I found is there's some real hubris that comes along with acquisitions and also that exists a lot in finance. Like one of the things I find most interesting is that people who have been in finance but never done a deal always talk like they know how to do a deal. But if you've never done one, then it's just theory. It's not actual practice. And it's a totally different thing buying a business by yourself than it is doing it in a corporation. That's why I had to start with some smaller ones. And I scaled my way

Starting point is 00:37:12 up continuously, because I wanted to make sure that I was an expert before I started putting my expertise into action. And for someone who's looking at the type of business they should invest in, I know people have come to me constantly saying, why aren't you creating a consulting business? In passion struck. And I worked for Booz & Co.

Starting point is 00:37:36 And I was a senior leader at Arthur Anderson. And running a consulting business is very difficult. It means that you have to get everyone tied to a common methodology if they're remote from you. There's just a ton of oversight making sure that they're following the script and doing it consistently, et cetera. Not that you can't do it, but there's easier businesses. So what would you recommend are some of the green light businesses for people to focus on and maybe some of the red light businesses for people to focus on? And maybe some of the red light ones that are more difficult to do.

Starting point is 00:38:09 First, I'd say this. If you've ever spoken to a business owner in any sector and ask them, is your industry or sector easy? You already know what the response is going to be. They always say no. Business owners are really funny. We're always really negative about the industry we're in. We think it's hard. We think it's risky. We think that other people shouldn't get into it, we think the grass is greener somewhere else. So what I will say first is like every business is hard and are some of them harder than others? Theoretically, yes for that type of entrepreneur and it really depends on who you are. Now there are like a list of businesses that I don't like because they're just more complex or

Starting point is 00:38:44 complicated. For instance, if you've never run a business before and you have no experience, but you go into industrial manufacturing, you go into biotechnology, you go into, I don't know, complex mergers and acquisitions and starting a business in it, that, that requires a lot of historical knowledge. Instead, you might want wanna start with a business that is so simple you could explain it to your grandmother. And this is how I talk about these businesses.

Starting point is 00:39:09 Where is there a business where you fully understand the business model? You're like, that's why I always talk about laundromats, but we could use another example. You're like, all right, this guy paints houses and he charges for the paint and he charges for the service to come to the house and he could put it on a recurring revenue model

Starting point is 00:39:26 and he could have some commercial contracts and he could have some residential contracts and he probably does door to door marketing, maybe a little SEO and social to get it. He needs to know how to price the location but we could probably figure that out. That's a pretty straightforward business. Okay, I could understand that business

Starting point is 00:39:40 and thus I could get into that business. Now, am I gonna be as good as somebody that's already been in it? No, of course, I've got to learn the ropes. But I think you're asking to yourself, do you really understand at a core level how this business makes money? And we have what we call the money pathway in the book,

Starting point is 00:39:56 which basically shows you, for instance, in what would be a good example of a business, Kim Kardashian. So Kim Kardashian creates a new skincare or a new lip gloss. So she creates a new lip gloss. She posts about it on her socials. She gets sales from people clicking on her socials, and that is how the business makes money. So it's create a product, market the product on our social media,

Starting point is 00:40:23 collect the cash for the business. That is her money making deal journey. For a laundromat, it might be put up new signage outside of laundromat, give discounts in the local newspaper, get customers to come in to the laundromat to use the service, sign them up for a monthly program that allows them to get it all at a discounted cost. That's how we make money. So you really want to understand your business, how most businesses don't have more than three to five steps for how you get attention to product, to closing

Starting point is 00:40:54 capital, and that's what you need to understand in each business that you would buy. For someone who's listening to this thinking, I want to buy a business, but I don't have the cash flow. What would be your first recommendation of how they could think about this differently? Because there are many different ways to invest in a business without you having to raise the capital yourself. You said it perfectly. You don't actually have a money problem ever in raising capital for a business. You have a knowledge problem. You don't understand all the different ways that people get money that is not out of their

Starting point is 00:41:28 bank account or out of their own assets. Those can be ways. We teach 21 different ways to buy a business using varying capital structures. In the book, we focus a lot on one called creative financing, which is basically how do you get the seller of the business to align with you on wanting to put up capital for the seller of the business to align with you on wanting to put up capital for you to buy the business? So use the future profits and revenue of the business in order for you to buy the business. That's called seller financing. But there's 62 ways from sideways to do this. You could do a Rob's account. You could do a line of credit. You could do a HELOC. You could raise capital from third party investors as equity.

Starting point is 00:42:04 You could raise capital as debt. You could do equipment factoring. I'm sorry. You could do a HELOC. You could raise capital from third party investors as equity. You could raise capital as debt. You could do equipment financing. You could do invoice factoring. You could use the equity from another business that you have and give it to that current business owner in order to buy their business. You could ask for a percentage of future sales in order for you to do some sort of partial equity deal that you bring in capital for. So there's all these ways to make money. It's never that you don't have money. It's that you don't have knowledge. And that really unlocked something for me in finance, because when I started

Starting point is 00:42:35 buying businesses, I didn't have millions to put on the line, so I had to be really creative in how I did my first series of deals, and now even today, I'm very creative on deal structuring. There's no way I'm going to do a business transaction that's just dollar for dollar acquisition. I'm going to do some sort of earn out. I'm going to do milestones. I'm going to ask for a discount and warrants and options if we do X, Y, Z creative deal making. And I think the next place to turn to is the C or command in your framework. And I think sometimes people go into a business saying, I don't even know

Starting point is 00:43:07 how to do it, not realizing that there's different approaches for how they could build an A team around the business, which may not include them leading it. They may, like many private equity groups do, bring in a caretaker for the business to hit the milestones that they want to achieve. What's your advice here? I mean, we have Lloyd, for example, who's a member of my community, and he bought a laundromat,

Starting point is 00:43:30 still wanted to run his day-to-day business, and so got a general manager to run the laundromat, and then bought another laundromat, so now that GM manages both. So if Lloyd, let's say, wasn't a top-level private equity operator that's gonna be able to attract top-level talent, well, he bought a different type of business that he could attract a

Starting point is 00:43:47 general manager level talent. And I think he pays his GM something like 50, $60,000 a year to run these two laundromats. These aren't a huge, a huge cost. So the better that you are, the better talent that you can attract, but you want to buy a business, not a job. And that means that it has employees inside of it. And then lastly, I wanted to talk about the H in your framework, which is harness.

Starting point is 00:44:10 So how do you tell listeners or viewers what success looks like for the movement for ownership you're advocating? Meaning, when you're trying to harness this for a win, what should they realistically look for as they're investing in a business on the other side of it? Well, it really comes down to what do you want? I mean, when I buy a business, I want that business to make me a certain amount of money each year. I only do deals that cash flow. So that might be, you might only want to do cash flowing deals. And then you might want an exit. You might want to in three to five years say, Hey, I want to build up this business to do X and then I want to sell it to another strategic and I'll probably, your first deal probably won't be your best deal.

Starting point is 00:44:53 And so you might want to have a space in which you're like, I'm either going to exit the business or I want to add on more because I know maybe my first deal was a little bit too small, but at the end of the day, the difference between. Often you and the bank account that you want is just how fast do you move. And it turns out that the faster you move with decisions that can't bankrupt you, but that are like small decisions consistently moved over time is what leads to more money. And so that's what I would impair upon people is no matter what, I've never met somebody who regretted getting educated on deal-making and

Starting point is 00:45:27 learning how to structure deals ever. I think it is the highest level skill one can have in business. So at least go and learn the skill and then decide if you want to be an owner and then decide when you're ready to actually do a business transaction. Okay. And, and as we wrap up, Cody, I'd love to explore the bigger picture behind your message. You described this as a silent war between Main Street and Wall Street. You have it right behind your back.

Starting point is 00:45:52 Why do you feel this battle is so critical and what role do individuals play in turning the tide? Well, listen, we have a perfect vehicle insight into what can happen if we don't buy these businesses. And I think that is Japan. We can see in Japan right now real centralization of ownership, massive shutdowns of business, the government concerned that there'll be 10% unemployment if they don't figure out a way to transfer these businesses. And so one, it's a great opportunity for people to build wealth if they're willing to put in the work. But also it's an opportunity to save our country

Starting point is 00:46:26 from living under neon signs by big corporations that all report into Wall Street eventually. And so I think this movement is one that we will see within our lifetimes and it will either go our way or it won't. And so I hope that people believe what I know to be true, which is that if you get ownership, if you have skin in the game, if you own part of a house, you don't burn it down, you build it.

Starting point is 00:46:48 And I think that's what this mission is all about. I love how you write about this. Our country does not need more dating apps. We need more drop shippers playing middleman with manufacturers. We need more young entrepreneurs to carry the torch. They are the ones who can save the small businesses that power our local economies. Well, Cody, thank you so much for joining us today. I know you're very searchable, but if there was one location you would tell people to go to, where would it be?

Starting point is 00:47:15 Probably be codiesanchez.com. That's where the book is. All of our event information, we're having a big celebration on the 12th. So thank you so much for having me, John. And I hope that all of your people go out and become owners. Well, thank you so much, Cody.

Starting point is 00:47:28 Long time coming and such an honor to have you on the show. Well, same. Thanks for being a good private equity guy. Okay, I'm gonna run, John. Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it. Nice to meet you. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:47:39 Bye. Bye. What an enlightening conversation with Cody Sanchez. Her approach to financial freedom through investing in sweaty and boring businesses is nothing short of revolutionary. Cody's insights on private investing, the opportunities in mainstreet industries, and the mindset shifts required to break free from traditional financial constraints offer a powerful blueprint for anyone looking to build wealth with intention.

Starting point is 00:48:01 As you reflect on today's episode, ask yourself what overlooked opportunities around you could be the key to financial freedom? How can you shift your mindset from conventional career paths to creating meaningful, lasting wealth? Remember, as Cody said, extraordinary wealth doesn't have to come from extraordinary risks. It's about leveraging what's already working

Starting point is 00:48:21 and making it your own. All the links to Cody's work, her book, Main Street Millionaire, and the Contrarian Thinking newsletter are in the show notes at passionstruck.com. Please use the links if you're interested in learning more. It helps to support the show. You can also find this episode and more on our YouTube channels, Jon or Myles and Passion Struck Clips.

Starting point is 00:48:38 To explore more on unlocking your potential, head over to passionstruck.com and check out the Passion Struck Quiz where you can see how you're progressing in living your most intentional, purpose-driven life. And if you're looking for a speaker to inspire your audience with actionable insights and transformative strategies, I'd love to bring my message to your organization or event. Visit johnrmiles.com slash speaking to learn more and book your session today. Let's ignite intentional change together. If Cody's approach to wealth creation resonated with you, please leave us a 5-star rating and review and share this episode with someone who's already ready to rethink their financial future. Every share helps

Starting point is 00:49:13 grow our PassionStruck community and spreads our mission to inspire intentional living. Now, here's a sneak peek at what's coming up next on PassionStruck. In our next episode, I am joined by Kim Scott, the best-selling author of Radical Candor, Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. Kim's groundbreaking framework has redefined what it means to lead with authenticity, honesty, and compassion. In our conversation, we dive deep into the principles of Radical Candor while giving and receiving feedback is essential for personal and professional growth and how you can create a culture of trust and collaboration in your workplace. Kim also shares actionable strategies for handling tough conversations, building stronger relationships and becoming a more impactful leader. Whether you're a team leader,

Starting point is 00:49:52 an entrepreneur or simply looking to strengthen your communication skills, this episode is packed with transformative insights you won't want to miss. The whole point of hiring people is to encourage them to make a contribution. I mean, there's no point at all in hiring great people and then telling them to make a contribution. I mean, there's no point at all in hiring great people and then telling them to sit down and shut up, which is really what bias, prejudice and bullying in different ways do to people. I think it's important for leaders to learn how to teach their teams to disrupt bias in the moment. If we ignore these comments, then we reflect and reinforce them.

Starting point is 00:50:25 Thank you for spending your time with us today. If you found value in this episode, please share it with someone who could benefit. And keep applying what you learn to live what you listen. Until next time, live life passion-struck.

Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Codie Sanchez on the Secret for How to Gain Financial Freedom EP 541

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