A brief, but necessary tribute to a dear friend and co-conspirator, James Burwood. Love you James.

What does it mean to truly live in contribution and service of others? It appears to manifest first as a mindset that permeates every action you take. Eventually and counterintuitively, this focus on others will shape you into something great. This episode's guest is a prime example of someone that humbles me in a way that is hard to describe. I would feel less than in his presence if it weren't for his near infinite kindness. Join me in sitting with an absolute juggernaut of a human being, Avnish Mehta.

After successful runs in both corporate and non-profit focused endeavours, Avnish finds himself the founder of strategic communication and leadership coaching consultancy, Stand and Command.

As much as I adore what they are doing there, what I really admire Avnish for is his ability to walk the world in a way that is clearly heart first, and as he does so he shapes that world into something more beautiful. The most recent accomplishment that speaks to this is the opening of Calgary's New Central Library in the rapidly revitalizing East Village, where Avnish serves as the chair of the New Central Library committee. It cannot be emphasized enough what a blessing this place is for our city, or how lucky we are to have people like Avnish here making things like this happen.

This is admittedly a bit of a time capsule, as we originally recorded almost a year before the date of publishing. Somehow though, it feels appropriate as we spent a great portion of the interview discussing how modern libraries are transforming and why we need them more than ever. Listening back, it would have been a cruel tease to talk about this place without it being open to go experience it for yourself to truly understand. 

It was a joy to rediscover this conversation as it is full of a surprising richness and depth where the .topics we cover felt more relevant than ever.

In addition to our conversation about how you can be leveraging your city's library network into a decisive advantage for your business, we get into such topics as:

• Avnish's history and how he came to be so clear on who he is
• How to properly serve the non-profit sector for free
• Courageously determining true values in oneself and in organizations
• Moving out of Judgement and into Observation
• Heavy vs light goal setting heuristic 
• Beating competition your admire
• The diminishing advantage of expertise
• On what Calgary is becoming
• Universal Basic Income / Social Tenure
• On fear and meditating in Kenya
• Seeking Alpha (not from a traditional investment standpoint)
• The role of emotion in suboptimal performance
• Av's 3 things every entrepreneur needs for a successful career 

And more...

Enjoy!
 

We've recently started a coaching group that takes interested parties, mostly fans of the show at this stage, and brings them together under the protection of mutual non-disclosure agreement to work on going through a full acquisition cycle. 

This is a mini-episode geared towards elevating one of the great questions coming out of the group because we have been getting a lot of feedback from listeners that you'd like more detail and tactical content when it comes to buying your first small business. 

In this episode we address when is the correct time to incorporate and formalize a business partnership, and delve into how to address the possible assumption of risks with your spouse/significant other, and applying the 6 D's towards having a productive conversation about how your partnership will work. This is a simple exercise you can run through with your potential future partners as a way to value map, and get on the same page informally before you get too far down the path. 

Choosing the right partners makes a big difference in this game, and if you cannot have these difficult conversations with them, you're not likely going to be able to handle truly stressful situations when operating together. 

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Interested in joining a buyer's group yourself? Email me at [email protected]

What happens when you put the right mind, the right values, the right work ethic in front of the right apprenticeship and a world of opportunity? 

Ian MacGregor has had a 50+ year career as an engineer, entrepreneur, business builder, inventor, investor... it has led to a crescendo of a world-shaping master craftsman of an entrepreneur.

If you think I am exaggerating, check out the museum of antique tools and machinery that he has conceived, constructed and curated in a fantastic subterranean concrete structure in Alberta's mystic foothills. The collection includes pieces like a full sized, two story tall steam engine from the industrial revolution - buried underground; or the EXACT prototype machine that the very first helical drill bit was made on. These are things that MASSIVELY transformed our world whether you appreciate it or not. 

Or just look at the 9.5 Billion dollar, First-of-a-Kind, Bitumen to Diesel plus carbon capture refining complex that he and his partners at NorthWest Capital recently completed. If you don't know this story, you haven't been paying attention, and really missed out. NW Cap solved one of the most complex set of hurdles to get this thing done, but made it LOOK tremendously elegant and well timed. They got A LOT of haters from the both the ill-informed and overly-informed crowds the whole way, but when you look at the REAL numbers, it is a clear slam dunk economically as well as a truly forward thinking piece of design. I love seeing great examples of projects that advance us meaningfully on the sustainability continuum, trust me, it is going to lead to tremendous things for this place.

If you're an engineering nerd like I pretend to be sometimes, this is like witnessing a real life version of Iron Man or Batman at work. The guy still boxes on the weekends!

We cover topics such as:

• Ian's thoughts on acquiring existing businesses as an entrepreneurial strategy with special points to the current owners contemplating selling
• Ian's personal entrepreneurial journey which includes inspiration from Barber's Gamble, a $2500 loan, and an astute ability to pay attention to the right chance opportunities along the way 
• Capturing additional risk premium as an entrepreneur through engineering knowledge
• Managing risk, partnerships and identifying true expertise
• Getting clear on personal values
• Improving prioritization and decision making
• Validating opinions for correctness
• Deep dive on the myth of refineries being a poor economic investment
• A little O&G Tech-Talk 
• Future looking thoughts on what Alberta can do to remain prosperous, our place as Canadians, and leveraging idle sensors to create an open source data library for future generations of entrepreneurs 
• Plus probably the best rapid fire sessions I've recorded including a surprising take down of discount cashflow analysis of all things
  
  This is what forward motion as an entrepreneur looks like. Build it deliberately and quietly, stay committed, focus on the things you're good at and enjoy, apply what you learned on previous work, but most of all, don't stop!
  
  Ian shared that someone once described him as "not the easiest guy in the world to work for", but I think he's probably one of a very small handful of people on this earth that I actually would relish working for. 
  
  I loved doing this episode, and truly hope you enjoy and get as much out of it as I did.
  
  Other People Mentioned
  Peter Drucker
  Abraham Lincoln
  Ulysses S. Grant 
  Ryan Holiday recounting General Sherman's March to the Sea
  Ryan Holiday - Daily Stoic
  Brian Fry - i4C.tech 
  Enhance Energy / Alberta Carbon Trunk Line
  Metal Tech Alley (Trail, BC)
  Carraig Ridge

Rachel Pritzker (@forachelp) is the co-founder and president of the Priztker Innovation Fund, and co-author of the Ecomodernist Manifesto (watch the TED talk here). She is one of the most balanced, data driven, level headed and quietly influential advocates in clean energy policy today. And she does so without having a personal stake in the game, she does it for the billions of faceless strangers that she know will benefit from clearing the spaces that she does. Rachel is therefore one of the most interesting philanthropists I have ever had the pleasure of knowing, so I invited her to be on the show to provide some insight into the whys and hows she manages to do the purpose driven work that she does.

Enjoy!

It's a funny thing to think you're doing something totally clever and unique, and then run into someone who has been doing the exact same thing for almost 20 years except much, much better. You'd think that you'd feel threatened or maybe get this sense that you're not doing enough, that you're totally behind... but that's not what happened to me when I met Brad Nathan. Instead, I found an example of someone I really want to be like when I grow up.

Brad is the founder and CEO of Lynx Equity. They acquire established small businesses from retiring owners who make an EBITDA in the range of $750,000 - $2,000,000, using a vendor take back model. They started in the Toronto area with three small deals on the back of a capital raise, and have since grown it to a family of operations with over 40 entities earning $25 million EBITDA annually on consolidated revenue in excess of $325 million, funded by $125 million in capital sourced everywhere from high net worth families, institutional investors and pension funds. Oh yeah, there was that little bump in the road along way where Brad was so broke he couldn't even afford to pay his hot water bill. But the numbers aren't everything, they're a result. He got here by focusing on PEOPLE. 

Listen in as we discuss details on what it really means to humanize the business of mergers and acquisitions,  the qualities one needs to possess to have a long run in this industry, what to look for in a seller, how to be patient, to follow your heart and make yourself invisible to the competition. Oh and I think there was a story about a Mexican Fisherman in there somewhere too. 

I had a blast with this episode, we even threw a little shade at consolidation players and the hyped up public markets backing barely profitable ventures like Freshii. 

The best news is that if you ever want to get advice from Brad himself on your deal, you just have to make a donation to the Toronto Wildlife Centre and ask.

Enjoy!  

“Our users are not looking to start the next snapchat or Instagram. They’re looking for something that makes them happy, something they’re passionate about and provides them with that purpose to get up everyday and provide for their family.”

Nunzio Presta went from an abrupt end to a promising professional hockey career when the team that signed him in Europe suddenly went bankrupt to a life of entrepreneurship. He attended the Ted Rogers School of Business at Ryerson Universityas a mature student where he got through in record time and also launched a successful eCommerce start-up. Wanting something more, he went to sell his business and found that the options to do so were abysmal. Then he noticed three other important trends:

1. The amount of baby boomers looking to retire
2.The millennial mindset shift shedding the comfort of the 9 to 5 and embracing independence
3. The increase in franchising overall - roughly 1 in 4 Canadians are franchised owners

These people needed a professional platform to find one another... so myBizOn.com was born.

MyBizOn is an online marketplace focused on creating an independent experience for it's users, but does so in a seamless, resourceful and supportive fashion. It has since carved out an impressive niche with an average transaction value of $350-400k per deal.

It is an ideal source of deal flow for high volume brokers, franchisors seeking quality franchisees, people looking to use a business acquisition as a means to emigrate to Can/US/Aus, underfunded founders seeing capital and partners, and those with acquisition budgets under $1 million.

So listen in as we discuss our business philosophies, entrepreneurial mindsets, success principles, how to finance your purchase, and why one would want to buy a business instead of starting one from stratch.

Oh... and you might get to find out what he'd cook if Richard Branson ever showed up for dinner.

“The nature of your relationship with those closest to you is a significant opportunity to see yourself more plainly than the masks we tend to wear in a professional environment”

M. Sean Young (@mseanyoung on Insta and Twitter). 7 Start-up and exit cycles, youngest bankruptcy in Canadian history. Founder of Joy Boss Media, creator of Dragon Theory a transformational change methodology. Hear Sean’s story, his thoughts on the gaps of the human potential industry, the coercive nature of the false achievement narrative and goal setting models. Sean outlines the common fears that serve as the source of human self limitation, and the surprising link this has to the perpetual dilemma of value creation and value capture that every entrepreneur wrestles to master. We also dive into the journey towards fulfilled interdependence, why even people like W. Brett Wilson work with coaches, and how to identify and solve for the fears that lead to your own self governance. We touch on some interesting tools and techniques like taking inventories of activity, resentment or shame and time travelling to dull the effect of toxic memories.

Sean is my coach, and I am learning how to better work through others by working with him. I won’t be able to take my capabilities to a 20x level from where I am today without figuring this out.

If you’d like to work with Sean, check out his website and perform a self assessment. If you’d like to come out and meet us and learn more about the StepONE Founders Forum on the evening of Oct 26, 2017 as a mentee, mentor or patron, RSVP HERE.

Special thanks to my boss Audio Engineer Gregg Lewis for remastering the raw recording into this buttery smooth experience. He’s excellent at what he does, if you’re looking for freelance audio support like this, I suggest you contact him.

References

Noah Kagan Interprets Steven Covey’s 7 Habits (Plus 4 Minute Summary of Original)

Tony Robbns Unleash the Power Within

All 188 Cognitive Biases – (5 Worst Cognitive Biases for Investors)

Steven Pressfield War of Art (as summarized by Derek Sivers)

Gary Vaynerchuk and Larry King Interview

Travis Kalanick collapse story

Founder Syndrome

Understand Myself  - Jordan B. Peterson's Free Self Assessment tool (Watch out, you can only perform it ONCE)

Tim Ferriss Fear Setting

On the journey of life and especially entrepreneurship, you will encounter set backs. You'll feel disappointment and the threat of self doubt will position itself to consume you entirely. I am in one of those mindsets today after choosing to withdraw a letter on intent on an acquisition prospect I invested over 2.5 years into. So I am going to share with you one of the ways that I "weed my fertile mental garden" by reading Miyamoto Musashi's Dokkodo. The Dokkodo is The Way of Walking Alone, and is 21 Simple precepts that encapsulated the famous 16th century undefeated Ronin Samurai's life philosophy. Indeed it was his final gift given to his top student just a week before he passed away. Other than the Book of Five RIngs, it is likely Musashi's most enduring and influential written work. 
 

Enjoy

Bonus Story: Musashi's Famous Final Duel against Kojiro - the final time he killed an opponent.

"Conventional economics is not a science" - Dr. Charles A. S. Hall

In this expansive 90+ minute episode, we dive deep into the life and ideas of Dr. Charles A. S. Hall. He is a systems ecologist known for the concept of Energy Return on Investment (EROI), a work resulting from a lifetime spent examining the energy flows of natural ecosystems.

It turns out these concepts are an outcome of the laws of thermodynamics. Indeed the research done by Hall's mentors and predecesors Lotka and Odum strongly suggest evidence for a FOURTH law of thermodynamics - the Maximum Power Principle - which looks as though it logically explains very much in this world. Because these are natural physical laws, they can be equally applied to human constructs like our bodies, technologies, cities and whole societies. I believe that if one thinks of energy flows as the currency of natural systems, one could very easily translate these ideas to the world of business as well. As he says himself "How does nature work? There is no tree hugging element to it". We are part of nature, thus our businesses are as well, thinking in this context is a powerful mental model through which to position oneself in a correct contrarian position which provides great advantage over those who choose to argue with reality.

Charles now seeks to unify biology, economics and sustainability by championing the establishment of Biophysical Economics. I support this endeavour as it honours what is true. Reading his work in this area quickly reveals just how much human emotions and personal biases dictate our individual and collective decision making.

Charles and I do not agree on everything. He is a staunch defender that human populaitons should NOT be growing, that Canadians should think about conserving its fossil resources for future generations and not exporting them, and that indeed growth for the sake of growth is a vice rather than a virtue. But this is the beauty of the human experience - the values we hold inform our interpretation of what we observe as being true. Charles has found much happiness in his life, and we do agree on the necessity to honour biophysical reality in our decision making and applying systems thinking to that very process. I hope this episode shows how two people can have very different values and ideas and yet still have fun and get along.

I want to thank Charles very much for the generosity with his time. We were interrupted about 30 minutes in, but we pick up where we left off to explore many more interesting and possibly controversial subjects. I hope you have as much fun with this as I did, and I hope that a few of the ideas presented change your mind.

Charles A. S. Hall Collective Works

Energy Return on Investment

Energy and the Wealth of Nations, Hall/Klitgaard 

C.P. Snow - Two Cultures | Update to Two Cultures

Howard T. Odum

Cutler Cleveland

John Lawrence Angel

Persistence Hunting: The Origin of Humans

King: Comparing World Energy Metrics

White: Evolution of Culture

Cottrell: Energy and Society

Collapse of Complex Societies (Tainter)

A Forest Journey (Perlin)

End of Cheap Oil

Failing States, Collapsing Systems (Ahmed)

America's Most Sustainable Cities and Regions

Alex Epstein - Human Flourishing Project