Hey everybody, this is Pete Worrell from Bigelow, and I'd like to welcome you to this episode of the Positive Enterprise Value Podcast. In this podcast we interview seasoned, successful, high-performing Entrepreneur Owner-Managers (EOMs), people who own and lead significant enterprises in a variety of domains and niches across the country.

Have you ever noticed that some private enterprises successfully transitioned through evolutions and revolutions in leadership, management and even ownership? Some ending up with a terrific new majority owner, the EOM moving gracefully into the next interesting and rewarding chapter in their lives, surrounded by friends with their positive legacy intact, and their independence powered or fueled by the fortune they just realized. While others’ outcomes look more like a train wreck. Is it luck or is it more than luck? We think it's more than luck.

In this episode I have the fun of interviewing Michael Kiolbassa. Michael and I have known each other for almost 10 years. He is the CEO of Kiolbassa Provision Company (link: https://kiolbassa.com/) in San Antonio, TX where they're celebrating their 75th year in business. It was Michael's grandfather and then his father, who shepherded the business, which was largely a fresh meat slaughtering house until Michael came along. And now, of course, it is widely known as one of the highest quality sausage and provision companies in the country.

Michael talks us through when he joined the business. Some of the challenges he had both in the business and with his family (Michael’s father and uncle had owned the business until then, so Michale had both his own immediate family as well as cousins in the business.) He shares some of his hopes and dreams to become a national business and some of the adversity he encountered along the way.

Michael is extremely articulate and candid and vulnerable about some of the challenges, failures and learnings; I know you will love this episode because I surely did. Without further ado, join me in listening to Michael Kiolbassa.

Hello everyone, this is Pete Worrell of Bigelow with another episode of the Positive Enterprise Value podcast. On this series we interview seasoned, successful, high-performing Entrepreneur Owner-Managers to discover from them a few of the breadcrumbs they have left along the way in the forest; a little bit like Hansel and Gretel as they traveled through the forest and ultimately, successfully navigated it.

On this latest episode, my guest is Gary Mottershead. Gary is a good friend, coach, and entrepreneur who founded and is the current CEO of GCP Industrial Products in Ontario, where he imports sustainable industrial products for use in North America and all around the world.

You'll hear Gary speak very openly and candidly about his path from being a chemical engineer, to his career at DuPont, to his becoming a nascent entrepreneur and then actually a real entrepreneur with skid marks on the road to show for it. And how? He dives into how he has navigated through the business over the past 35 years (that proverbial Hansel and Gretal forest), he's thought about issues like building the organization, how the personal and the professional journey are simultaneous, which then leads him to think through issues of leadership succession and perhaps even ownership succession. I have been wanting to have Gary as a guest for a long time and had a really fun time together exploring a variety of topics that even I hadn't expected. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

Chad and his wife Kim were the former owners of Marco Rubber & Plastics, a o-ring and seals provider, which they turned into a high-tech supplier of industrial products. With tremendous access to products that they both had in their inventory and that their suppliers had in their inventory, they turned Marco Rubber into a marketplace platform for the industrial products industries they served (think of the way Kayak is to travel).

You will hear Chad describe himself as neurodiverse. I described him with great love, as I describe both of us as…ADD, dyslexic misfits who would have a hard time working for anybody else. Chad dives into his process of building authenticity and earnestness through the awkwardness of being neurodiverse and coming into the business to help Dad and the family after his mom passed and his father became terminally ill. As in many of our client’s journey’s go, after 20 years Marco Rubber became an overnight success and had a capital gain transaction with a private equity firm where he and Kim continue to own a percentage of the company and have board seats while the company continues to grow. I think it's true that the company is now about three times the size that it was when they did a transaction about three years ago.

Chad goes on to share about his world “post exit,” and how for him it was really an opportunity for rebirth and to articulate the beliefs that he developed over the years of building the business. He'll tell you about how he is gathering all of this knowledge and experience and creating opportunities for other neuroatypicals in his new, not-for-profit, what he calls www.atypicalpath.org (website still in development) I really hope you enjoy this incredibly dynamic interview with one of the most insightful EOMs you'll ever want to meet.

On the Positive Enterprise Value Podcast, I get a chance to interview some of the most amazing and interesting Entrepreneur Owner-Managers (EOMs) on the planet and deconstruct some of their entrepreneurial journey…from disrupting their industries to being a game changer in their industries to potentially having a capital gain and using the liquidity from that to fuel the next chapters of their lives. Today you will hear my interview with Bill Perkins. Bill is a well-known energy trader who graduated from the University of Iowa with an electrical engineering degree, who quickly pivoted and joined New York Mercantile Exchange as an energy trader. Over the next 10 to 15 years, he worked and played in that world causing him to have certain experiences that changed his views on the world. His views and learnings from that time are reflected in his book, which is called Die with Zero. A book I love but hate the title of because I find it to be limiting in conveying what the book is all about….so much more than just dying with zero. My friend Ed Wilson humorously suggested that the book be titled “Die with Zero Regrets.”

Bill was the featured speaker at the 2024 Bigelow Forum, where we brought together about 100 EOMs and their spouses from across the country to think about some of the themes in Die with Zero and challenge our current thinking. Some of the themes from Die with Zero, include for example, as you accumulate value in your life, the question of why? Are you over saving? When do you share some of this with your philanthropic causes or with your children? Are you trying to be your own insurance company by saving for your mortality or saving for your longevity? Bill was extremely provocative at the Bigelow Forum. We had a great time both hearing his keynote to us for about an hour as well as the live podcast interview done just after his talk, which is really a series of questions from the audience that I know you're going to love. So, without any further ado I hope you enjoy Bill Perkins as much as I do.

On this latest episode of the Positive Enterprise Value Podcast, I am thrilled to welcome my good friend Jay Lapeyre. Jay is the second-generation Entrepreneur Owner-Manager (“EOM”) of Laitram LLC. Laitram is based in the New Orleans area but operates worldwide with over 4,000 employees. Jay's dad was a consummate entrepreneur who, with more than 200 patents to his name, invented a number of innovations involved in the material handling business, mostly having to do with food, which was the basis for starting Laitram. Following in his Dad’s footsteps, under Jay’s leadership, Laitram grew worldwide, and is now one of the most successful and widely known innovators in the material movement business, responsible for inventing the plastic interlocking conveyor belt.

Jay is a Renaissance man, where in addition to being a husband and a father of three, he holds a BA from the University of Texas as well as an MBA and a JD degree from Tulane University. I'm not sure Jay ever practiced as an attorney, but he certainly has the very ordered thinking and discipline that perhaps some people gain from studying law. My interview with Jay covers a bit of the background of Laitram, some of Jay's interest in developing the whole business, including in particular the human capital aspect: the employees, the management team, the customers, the other constituents around the world, as well as his interest in the community where he is the Chairman of the Board of the Cato Institute, along with The Atlas Society. I loved being with Jay on this interview, as well as spending a half a day on board my boat on the Atlantic Ocean together when it was blowing up pretty hard and we got to see who had a sense of humor after they got a little wet, a little cold, and a little tired. So, without further ado, join me in listening to this fascinating discussion with Jay Lapeyre of Laitram LLC.

Have you noticed, as I have, that some private companies successfully transition through all of the evolutions and revolutions they have over the years in leadership management, separate from leadership, even ownership? Some in changing environments end up with terrific new majority owners, moving gracefully into the next interesting and rewarding chapter of their lives, surrounded by friends with their positive legacy assured, and their independence powered by the fortune they just realized. Others’ outcomes can look more like a train wreck. Is it luck? Or is it more than that? We think it's more than luck, and for over 40 years I've had the fun of meeting with thousands of entrepreneurs and working closely with hundreds of them. So, in this podcast I interview some of the most high-performing, successful Entrepreneur Owners-Managers (EOMs) on the planet from both the for profit and not-for-profit sectors to learn about their experiences.

Today I have the great fun of interviewing my friend Joe Polish. Joe almost needs no introduction, but 'm going to give you a little one anyway. He's the founder of Genius Network, one of the highest level CEO peer-to-peer groups in the world for entrepreneurs. Joe also has an organization called Genius Recovery, where his mission is to change the global conversation of how people view and treat addicts with compassion instead of judgment, and to find the best forms of treatment that have efficacy and share those with the world. Joe has taught me a lot about how the very character, the temperaments of EOMs working within this mass popular culture, can sometimes make us feel isolated, alone, and lonely, even. And how we are susceptible to reaching for self-medication.

I had the fun of interviewing Joe online and talking about our businesses together. You'll hear us talk about some of the work we've already done together and some of the work that we are going to do together. Joe is also the author of a number of terrific books, the most recent of which is called What's In It For Them? (2022), a book that absolutely changed my life in terms of how to think about relationships, both personal and professional. I've been trying to get Joe on the Positive Enterprise Value podcast for over a year, so I'm thrilled that he's here with us today and I hope you enjoy every minute as much as I did.

For over 30 years, I've had the fun of meeting with thousands of seasoned, successful private business owners and working closely with hundreds of them. In this podcast, I interview some of the most high-performing successful EOMs from both the for profit, and the not-for-profit domains. On this episode I interviewed Kyle Reagan who is the Chairman and CEO of DECCO, Inc., a mechanical contractor that specializes in the most complex capital projects for the pharmaceutical industry. Kyle came from a working-class background. He was a great high school baseball player and in fact got drafted. He played for both the Cincinnati Reds and the Atlanta Braves as a catcher. When he transitioned out of the professional baseball world, he realized that he really wanted to work with people in an environment where he could help them unlock their potential, particularly people who didn't have much. Thus, he began work at a company called DECCO as a Project Engineer. The former owner of DECCO had a succession plan and Kyle found himself a part of it.

With Kyle now part of the leadership team, the business grew and transformed from being basically a company that provided complex mechanical piping and electrical solutions for semiconductor manufacturers to one where Kyle began to guide the strategy and pivot towards pharmaceutical manufacturers, all the while staying true to his lifelong focus of unlocking the potential in others. Kyle views part of his role as a facilitator to helping even the most junior workers at DECCO begin to have a life where they could feel appreciated and valued in their work life, which would spill over into their personal life. Kyle's work with DECCO has recently culminated in its acquisition by Comfort Systems, a strategic public investor where DECCO is now a wholly owned subsidiary. I had the fun of interviewing Kyle in his offices in January 2024.  I hope you gain some learning from it and enjoy it just as much I did.

This is Pete Worrell from Bigelow, and I'm happy to bring you another episode of the Positive Enterprise Value Podcast. Today my interview guest is Flora Bowley. Flora is a world-known artist, entrepreneur, teacher, retreat center owner, who makes her principal headquarters on the west coast. She's an example of an entrepreneur as a creative, and if you've listened to Positive Enterprise Value or read our blog posts at Bigelow, we believe that entrepreneurs are creatives and Flora's just a great example of that.

Today she candidly and generously shares with us the evolution of her professional and personal goals over her lifetime, a little bit about some of the chapters she's been through, the overarching journey, what was in her head growing up, and how she extracts the juice of the creative process, which then becomes her original artwork. Over time in her life, and this applies to all of us entrepreneurs, Flora really started out first as a practitioner, as an artist with brush on canvas, if you will, which she still does, but she's evolved her role to also be a teacher and now a retreat center owner as well.

So she tells us a little bit about keeping herself alive as a young entrepreneur by working in grocery stores to earn a living while pursuing her art, and how she's really taken her approach to a whole different medium, including as an author, chatting a little bit about her new book called The Art of Aliveness: A Creative Return to What Matters Most. The parallels of how we create art is actually aligned with how we live. Flora will say how we paint is how we live. So, she shares with us advice regarding one of my questions about giving her 50-year-old self, she's almost 50, advice from her 60-year-old self, which involves filling up the well. It's all about recovery for high-performing creatives.

Flora goes on to share a little bit about her new retreat called Nest. She tells us about some of her online courses, her FREE FLO community on Mighty Networks, and some of what she's got in store for the future. I think Flora is just a massively talented, charismatic artist who has a lot to say and a lot to teach us about being a successful creative as an entrepreneur. You can find more about Flora at florabowley.com. Without further delay, here's my interview with Flora Bowley.

Hi everyone, last week I had the fun of being a guest on the 137th episode of The Atlas Society Asks (TASA) podcast [maybe give a link to the podcast page here].

The Atlas Society Asks is hosted by Jennifer A Grossman, the President & CEO of The Atlas Society. The Atlas Society celebrates the remarkable potential and power of the individual and promotes learning about the capitalist system juxtaposed against the other kinds of systems in the world, so that young people in particular can make informed choices about which is the kind of system they want to live in and whether they're willing to make the decisions that allow them to be successful in a capitalist society.

We cover a board range of topics from my upbringing / formative years and the influence that growing up in the 1960s and 1970s had on my entrepreneurial spirit, to my life’s work of helping Entrepreneur Owner Managers to unlock their individual potential by building and capture Enterprise Value through a capital gain transaction, and so much more in between. I hope you enjoy.

On this episode of the Positive Enterprise Value podcast, I am thrilled to have as my guests, my friends and clients, Dave and Cindy Francis, who have kind of a hero's journey to tell you about.

Dave and Cindy have had many chapters in their journey as entrepreneurs. They started out with Cindy growing up in the family business, Fowler High Precision, which was run by her dad, Fred Fowler, who himself was a second-generation owner. Cindy tells us a little bit of the story about what that was like growing up with her dad as a wild man entrepreneur, getting together and then marrying Dave and their journey thus far.

They go on to share when Dave initially joined the business, but ultimately decided to leave and how he and Cindy moved to the middle part of the country. Having some entrepreneurial experiences, they decided to go out on their own, and then moved back to the East coast and started a different company. And then, finally, when Cindy's father, Fred, was diagnosed with a terminal illness, we hear about Dave coming back into the business in the breach, theoretically temporarily, to solve some problems with the business, and now just having come through a very successful recapitalization, they share with us about their dreams and hopes for the next chapter.

I think Dave and Cindy have a story that is particularly rich with lessons, comedy, humor, things to focus on, things not to do, and I have no doubt that any Entrepreneur Owner-Manager, or aspiring entrepreneur will get a hell of a lot out of it. I sure hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoy bringing it to you.