Episode Summary:

A business can be profitable. It can be busy. It can have loyal customers, pay your team, and support your lifestyle - and still not be as valuable as you think it is. In the second installment of the Women Behind the Cash-Rich Exit series, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits with an idea that came up in her conversation with Krystyn and Matt Harrison of Horizon Advisors: profit pays the bills, value gives you options. She traces that distinction through this curated group of episodes - Krystyn's hard-won lesson about running her own sale process, Matt's buyer-side view of what happens when founders come to market in crisis, Jennifer Stewart's decision to walk away one week before closing, Bobbie Racette's already-built data room, and Julie Cole's warning about where money disappears during due diligence. Along the way, Colleen talks about something she wants women founders in particular to hear: the instinct to hold everything together personally is a genuine strength that can become a risk at exit. And she makes a case for replacing the confidence conversation with a leverage conversation.

Key Takeaways:

The core distinction: profit says the business works today. Value says the business can keep working tomorrow without being entirely dependent on the founder. Those are different standards, and confusing them is where the wealth gap hides in plain sight.

The founders who have options are rarely the ones who wait until the last minute. They are the ones who understand the difference between income and enterprise value, between revenue and readiness, between being needed and being transferable, between owning a job and owning an asset.

Krystyn Harrison built Prosper into a coaching platform with tens of thousands of users and major brand clients, then faced the question many founders eventually face: keep going, raise more, compete against deeper pockets, or find a strategic home. Her lesson was direct - do not run your own process. She ran it herself, lost competitive tension, watched a significant letter of intent fall apart, and exited on weaker terms than she could have had. Her second lesson: the exit was not just a transaction, it was a personal transition, and she had not fully planned for the calendar suddenly emptying.

Matt Harrison brought the buyer-side M&A lens: founders often come to market because of crisis - illness, divorce, death, burnout, sudden pressure, a sudden offer. In those moments the founder is not in a position of power. Books may not be clean, tax planning may be late, the business may still depend too heavily on the owner, the leadership team may not be ready. When buyers see risk, they discount, add conditions, stretch out due diligence, and chip away at the offer. Preparation is not administrative. Preparation is leverage, and leverage is what gives you options.

Jennifer Stewart was not preparing for a sale in a long, intentional way when a legitimate buyer appeared and a broker helped her see her service-based business was worth more than she had assumed. She moved into due diligence and negotiation - then said no, one week before closing. That no made her a better business owner. She now reads her balance sheet, P&L, adjusted EBITDA, margins, and multiples differently, and sees her firm as an asset rather than a company she works inside.

Value gives you options: the option to sell, the option not to sell, the option to grow, restructure, remove yourself from every decision point, or say "not yet, I'm worth more, and I am not done".

A warning for founders facing a first serious buyer: the interest can feel enormously validating - someone wants what you built, someone will write you a cheque. That excitement can pull you out of your own centre. Jennifer's lesson was about taking back control: not being flattered into a transaction, not second-guessing her worth, not jumping at the first offer, and not confusing buyer interest with readiness to sell. That is the difference between reacting and choosing.

The strength that becomes a risk: many women founders are extraordinary at making things work - remembering the details, knowing the client history, noticing the tension on the team, stepping into the gap, smoothing the cracks, carrying the invisible load. Those are real strengths. But if the business only works because you are personally holding it together, that strength becomes a liability at exit. A buyer does not want to buy your exhaustion or your heroic effort. A buyer wants a system, a team, a rhythm, a brand, financials they can trust, a sales engine, a leadership structure, and a future that does not depend on you being the only reason it works.

Bobbie Racette's most important exit detail was not the sale - it was the readiness. She and her team were already preparing a Series B raise when acquisition offers arrived, so the data room was built, financials organized, contracts in place, and the story clear. Diligence moved faster because the discipline already existed. The work that makes you fundable is the same work that makes you sellable.

A clean data room is a power move. A leadership team that can answer questions is a power move. A business that can survive due diligence is a power move.

On confidence vs. leverage: we tell women to pitch, negotiate, ask, and lead with confidence. All true - but confidence without preparation is fragile. Preparation creates earned confidence. You walk into a buyer conversation differently when you know your numbers, evaluate an offer differently when you know your wealth gap, and say no differently when you have options.

Julie Cole's warning: due diligence is where money disappears. The LOI comes in at one number, everyone is excited, the founder starts imagining the finish line - and then the buyer looks under the hood at financials, contracts, customer concentration, legal issues, employment arrangements, systems, margins, inventory. Every messy piece becomes a reason to reduce the price, delay, or create doubt. Keep your housekeeping in order from the start, not when the buyer appears. By the time you are in diligence, it is too late to pretend you were organized all along. The business will tell the truth. It always does.

"Acquisition curious" - a phrase from the archive worth adopting. It does not mean you are selling tomorrow, checking out, or abandoning your mission. It means you are mature enough to ask: if someone came knocking, would I be ready? Would I know what the business is worth and what I need personally? Would my structure support a deal? Could my team step up? Would my business be understandable to someone who is not inside my head? Being acquisition curious is not about leaving - it is about controlling your options.

Impressive is not the same as sufficient. A $5 million, $10 million, or $20 million exit may sound impressive, but what matters is what the number means after tax, debt, deal structure, earnouts, family obligations, lifestyle needs, inflation, philanthropy, and the next business idea. That is the wealth gap question: what does the business need to produce to fund the future you actually want?

The closing questions: Is my business profitable? Good. Now - is it valuable? Could someone else run it, understand it, buy it, fund it, trust the numbers, see the future? And could I step into my next chapter without wondering whether I waited too long to prepare?

If this episode has you wondering whether your business is creating enterprise value or simply generating income, connect with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell on LinkedIn to start a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis - and begin mapping the gap between where you are today and what your future exit needs to fund.

Please leave a five-star rating and review - it helps more CEOs, founders, and business owners find the show.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

The conversation about women and wealth almost always starts in the same place: the great wealth transfer, inheritance, women outliving their spouses, women becoming financial decision-makers later in life. That conversation matters. But host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell argues it is not the whole story - and it is not the story that has been most alive in the guest chair of this podcast.

In this solo episode, she launches a new series called The Women Behind the Cash-Rich Exit, drawing together the threads from a remarkable run of conversations with women who are not receiving wealth but creating it: founding, scaling, buying, selling, raising capital, protecting teams, choosing buyers, walking away from deals, and reinvesting after the exit.

We'll hear from Bobbie Racette, Julie Cole, Elizabeth Kilvert, Jennifer Stewart, Joanna Track, and Liz MacRae, Colleen highlights what each of them teaches about turning a business into a transferable asset - and makes a direct case for founders to get comfortable talking about valuation, liquidity, deal structure, and freedom, not just impact and purpose.

Key Takeaways:

The traditional women and wealth conversation needs to move upstream. Inheritance, divorce, and widowhood are real and important - but they should not be the starting point. The starting point is women building the asset, scaling it, protecting it, selling it, choosing not to sell it yet, and buying the next one.

Wealth follows ownership. The quality of your future wealth is directly connected to the quality of the business you are building today - which is precisely where the wealth gap hides. Revenue can be strong, the brand can be known, the team can be busy, and still none of it may be translating into personal wealth, options, or freedom.

Bobbie Racette teaches that readiness creates optionality. She started with $300 at her kitchen table, bootstrapped to serious revenue before raising, heard more than 170 no's before her first yes, and became the first Indigenous queer woman in Canada to close a Series A - and then to build, scale, and sell a tech startup. The exit was not the end. It was a capital event that became fuel: retiring her parents, angel investing in underserved founders, and launching Tapwe.

Julie Cole teaches that brand and community become transferable value. Four moms built Mabel's Labels out of a Hamilton basement from a simple frustration - kids losing their stuff. Avery Labels came calling, and the business sold in a reported $12 million transaction. Julie stayed on, continuing as the brand voice and community connection - what she calls the Mabel magic. That is brand wealth, community wealth, reputation wealth, and trust that outlives the founder's original role.

Elizabeth Kilvert teaches that purpose and profit belong in the same sentence. She built The Unrefined Olive on quality, sustainability, education, and community - customers came for the experience, not just the olive oil. Her exit question was not "can I sell this?" but "can I let go in a way that protects what made this business matter?" Purpose does not make a business unsellable. Purpose makes a business more valuable - but only if the purpose becomes transferable: values reflected in process, a team that can carry the story, a customer experience that does not depend on the founder being in the room.

Jennifer Stewart teaches that exit ready and ready to exit are not the same thing. She got to one week from closing the sale of the firm she had built over 17 years, and walked away. The process changed how she saw the business: not a company she works inside, but a valuable asset. If she approaches a sale again, she will be more methodical, more intentional, and far less likely to second-guess her own worth. Sometimes the cash-rich move is a clear, confident no.

Joanna Track teaches us to be the owner, not the renter. Having launched and exited multiple digital-first businesses, she emphasizes building assets you actually own - your email list, website, brand voice, intellectual property, customer relationships, and community - rather than rented platforms and visibility that vanishes when algorithms shift. The principle extends well beyond marketing: to your business, your brand, your real estate, your financial life, and your exit.

Liz MacRae reminds us that every exit is someone else's entrance into ownership. Working the buy side through Village Wellth, she helps people acquire established businesses rather than starting from scratch. Women are not only sellers - women can be buyers, funders, advisors, and governors too. If we want women shaping the future of wealth, they need to be on every side of the capital table.

Profit is not a bad word. Wealth is not a bad word. Ambition is not a bad word. Wanting the business to pay you back is a good thing. Many founders - women founders in particular - are comfortable talking about impact, community, service, and legacy, but uncomfortable talking about value, valuation, liquidity, deal structure, tax planning, retirement income, and freedom. Both conversations need to happen.

The numbers matter for a practical reason: if you do not know what you need, you cannot know whether an exit works. If you do not know your wealth gap, you cannot know whether an offer is good enough.

A cash-rich exit is not built in the final year of the business. It is built in the years before - in decisions about systems, people, brand, contracts, financials, real estate, leadership, governance, customer relationships, and personal wealth. The exit does not create wealth out of nowhere. The exit reveals what you have been building all along.

Questions to sit with: What am I building? What is transferable? What is too dependent on me? What does my business need to become? What would a buyer see? What would my family need? What would freedom look like - and what would it cost? What will this wealth make possible?

If this episode has you wondering where your wealth gap may be hiding, connect with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell on LinkedIn and start a free one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis. Let's begin mapping what a cash-rich exit could look like for you.

Leave a five-star rating and review - it helps more founders, educators, mid-market CEOs and business owners find the show.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

This one is for every entrepreneur who has ever sat quietly with the loaded question: is it time? Jennifer Stewart got all the way to one week before closing the sale of the strategic communications and public affairs firm she'd spent 17 years building - and she walked away.

In this candid conversation, Jennifer traces how an unsolicited email from a New York brokerage led to a fast, unintentional trip to market, what the process taught her about the true value of a service-based business, and why saying no unlocked a wave of yeses: a Vancouver office, deeper government work, a restructured team, and a completely reset relationship with her own business. She also opens up about the seasons of entrepreneurship - the 4:30 a.m. couch shifts while raising two young kids, the recovery from micromanagement, getting over being liked, and why she now protects her mornings and treats her energy as expensive.

Host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell's takeaway frames the whole episode: being exit ready and being ready to exit are not the same thing.

Key Takeaways:

Jennifer started her firm at 25 as JS Communications and built it over 17 years into Syntax Strategic, a nationally recognized strategic communications and public affairs firm based in Ottawa. She is also founder of The Honest Talk, co-owner of Ottawa Valley Green Products, and a board director for organizations including Micropic Biosystems and the Ottawa Hospital Foundation.

The sale process began unintentionally. A New York brokerage had scanned the Canadian market for small-to-medium firms with strong retainers and government contracts, and shortlisted her company. She had been naive to the fact that a service-based business could be sold at all - a belief she now laughs at.

Once she agreed to a valuation, things moved fast: within two weeks of going to market she was in discussions with a buyer, had an NDA signed, and had begun due diligence. Several other interested parties surfaced within a week. She reached one week from closing before deciding not to proceed.

The process fundamentally changed how she runs her business. She now monitors her balance sheet, P&L, and adjusted EBITDA through the lens of enterprise value - not just margin. Agency multiples were roughly four to five at the time, and she notes that service-based businesses are becoming more valuable in investors' eyes.

Her biggest lesson: take control back. She had jumped at the first prospective buyer with a mindset of "they want to buy me, this is great". If she approaches a sale again, she will be far more methodical, far more intentional in negotiation, and far more confident in her value.

Saying no unlocked a series of yeses - adjustments to the team, expansion including a Vancouver office, bigger thinking on retainers and government work, and firm boundaries around her own time. She now protects her mornings until roughly 10 a.m., including a workout.

On scaling: you are failing as a business owner if you are in every decision point. Jennifer describes herself as a recovered micromanager. Her advice - hire the right people (hire slow, fire fast), be deliberate about not stepping in, and shift the team's mentality so decisions don't funnel upward.

On self-trust: there will be self-doubt and hard decisions. Getting over the need to be liked was a major unlock. With roughly 200 decisions a day, she doesn't spend energy second-guessing - she'll revisit a decision if it's genuinely wrong, but commitment to the path matters more than agonizing over whether it was perfect.

On persistence: she is convinced one of the main differences between a successful and unsuccessful business is the owner's ability to stick with it. The Honest Talk, founded during the pandemic with her business partner Catherine, was a slog before becoming a viable business with employees, a media site, a women's summit, and a retreat.

On managing three businesses: one dedicated day per week for Ottawa Valley Green Products, a carved-out morning for The Honest Talk, and roughly 75% of her time in Syntax. She's in the numbers and providing strategic advice, not in the weeds.

She has joined Capital Angel Network with a two-to-five-year plan to focus more on investing, and is candid that it isn't her priority right now - growth of Syntax and The Honest Talk comes first.

On seasons: raising two young kids while building the business meant 4:30 a.m. starts, working from the couch, dinner with family, then working again. She reframes it not as sacrificing herself but as a necessary season that got her to where she is now - working smarter, delegating, taking care of herself, and confident in her team.

Her mindset shift: from resenting the stress and burden of ownership to understanding it as the price of financial success, freedom, and growth. From resentful to proud.

Being exit ready and being ready to exit are not the same thing - and knowing the difference might be the most important thing you do for your financial future. Every business owner will exit; the question is whether you'll do it on purpose, on your terms, and with your own roadmap. If today's conversation has you thinking about your own path to a cash-rich exit, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.

Please leave a five-star rating and review - it helps more founders find the show.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with fellow Certified Exit Planning Advisor and Board Member of Employee Ownership Canada. Peter Walker - a proud Prince Edward Islander whose eighth-generation family farm shaped everything he believes about ownership, community, and legacy. Peter shares the story of the first business transition conversation he ever had (at 14, at the kitchen table, with his father) and how the eventual wind-down of the family farm rippled through his small community. The episode also marks a milestone for Canadian succession planning: the federal government has made the EOT capital gains exemption permanent, removing the sunset clause that had left owners and advisors uncertain. Peter and Colleen unpack why so many Canadian business owners - especially in rural and Atlantic Canada - avoid succession planning, the access-to-capital challenges outside major cities, the research behind employee ownership's financial and social benefits, and the single most important piece of internal due diligence a founder can do: knowing their own story before someone else writes it for them.

Key Takeaways:

The EOT capital gains exemption is now permanent - and it's law. After years as a temporary measure set to expire at the end of 2026, the federal government moved in its spring economic update to make the up-to-$10 million capital gains exemption on qualifying sales to an Employee Ownership Trust permanent. That change has since passed into law (Bill C-30, Royal Assent June 18, 2026), removing the previous sunset clause and giving owners and advisors long-term certainty to plan around the structure. Peter, a board member of Employee Ownership Canada, was involved in the advocacy toward this outcome.

Peter's roots run deep in St. George, PEI (population 90), on a potato and cattle farm in his family since the 1790s - he would have been the eighth or ninth generation. His father sat him and his brother down when Peter was 14 to tell them they would not be taking over the farm. His father operated another 10 years, wound it down in a way that kept the land in the family (now approaching 300 years), but the closure cost about 15 neighbours their seasonal work, local businesses a customer, and the community a piece of its tax base.

Peter frames this as his third act - after Parliament Hill and a career at one of the big five banks. His work now has two halves: helping normalize the transition conversation for business owners, and advocating to grow employee ownership in Canada.

Two structural problems he sees, especially outside major cities: first, access to capital is severely limited - in his experience, capital does not flow easily east of Montreal or into rural regions. Second, the emotional, identity-driven avoidance of succession planning. Owners who strongly identify with being an owner resist planning for a day they can no longer be one, pushing it off until a crisis (death, divorce, disability) forces a rushed outcome.

A recurring insight: many owners can build a long-term strategic roadmap for their business in their sleep, but have never been taught to build one for themselves. The internal due diligence - deciding what you actually want your outcome and legacy to be - is the work most people skip.

The research behind employee ownership (five decades in the U.S., over a decade in the U.K.) is compelling: 8-12% productivity increases, more profitable and resilient companies, loans repaid faster, fewer closures in downturns, and employees retiring with roughly twice the retirement wealth of those at comparable non-employee-owned firms.

Employee ownership is a spectrum, not one thing: worker co-ops (fully democratic, one member/one vote), management buyouts, Employee Ownership Trusts (designed specifically as a transition vehicle), and Employee Share Ownership Plans. EllisDon - one of Canada's largest construction companies - is 100% owned by the people who work there.

Peter's framework for owners: stress-test your thinking across two axes - how much you care about the money, and how much you care about legacy. Conventional wisdom says maximize money and ignore legacy, but Canadian Federation of Independent Business research shows most owners feel genuine internal conflict between the two. If you land in the "maximize value, legacy doesn't matter" quadrant, you have earned the right to sell to a third party - go for it. If legacy matters, then employee ownership, ETA, family transition, or a mix deserve real consideration.

Start early - much earlier than most people think. Peter's father was 38 when he had that kitchen-table conversation, wrestling with 200 years of legacy. Most owners wait until they have decided to sell, which Peter considers far too late; the preparation should begin three to five years prior, at minimum.

A cash-rich exit is not only about maximizing the dollar value - it is about being intentional about what happens next for you, your business, your people, and your community. For many Canadian owners, especially in rural communities, the real opportunity is to begin planning early enough to create options that preserve local jobs and legacy - and, now that the exemption is permanent, to give employee ownership a serious look. Book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.

Please leave a five-star rating and review - it helps more founders find the show and build their path to an intentional, cash-rich exit.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Most conversations about exits focus on the seller. This one flips the lens. In this episode, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with Liz MacRae, a serial entrepreneur who has both exited and acquired multiple businesses, and who is now co-founder of Village Wellth - a tech-enabled platform helping aspiring entrepreneurs buy established businesses and helping founders exit well. Liz introduces the growing movement known as Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA): buying a profitable, established business rather than starting from scratch or buying a franchise. She explains how the model works, who it attracts, what buyers actually look for, and why acquisition entrepreneurs - people who intend to roll up their sleeves and run the business themselves - may be exactly the right buyers for owner-dependent small businesses that private equity would walk away from. With a massive wave of business transitions coming over the next decade, this episode offers founders a fresh perspective on who might buy their business, and why starting early is everything.

Key Takeaways:

Liz's path is unconventional - a fine arts degree and training in creative thinking, not accounting or law. After exploring family succession (which did not work out), she and her husband bought a franchise, then she became a business broker, moved into exit planning advisory, took over the firm she worked with, sold it after about four years, and founded Village Wellth on the buy side. She has spent nearly 10 years in business advisory and six years focused exclusively on helping buyers.

Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition (ETA) is the act of buying an established business, usually leveraging senior debt or outside investment, and in most cases acquiring 100% of the business so the previous owner can retire. It lets a buyer skip the startup stage by three to five years and acquire something already profitable - able to service debt and pay a living wage.

ETA attracts people later in their careers - often leaving corporate roles - with management or leadership experience and established personal finances. They typically combine personal savings with bank debt or raised capital (family and friends, angel investors, or funds) to acquire and grow businesses from retiring owners.

Village Wellth was founded six years ago as a two-sided marketplace, then substantially rebuilt about two years ago with deal-management tooling and an AI layer. It has a team of 10, including a former RBC/TD commercial banker and a strong CTO. The platform showcases anonymous buyer profiles so sellers can see there are real buyers - answering the anxious question Liz heard constantly as a broker: "Is there even anyone out there to buy my business?"

The platform equips first-time buyers with tools to analyze opportunities, assess risks, and model deal structures - cash in, cash at closing, bank financing, seller financing, free cash flow, and return on investment - so they can move toward a lender application. The goal is a start-to-finish, self-serve experience on a monthly subscription, with hands-on services available when needed.

The sweet spot: profitable companies showing at least $100,000-$150,000 in profit after paying the operating owner, typically valued between $500,000 and $5 million (under roughly $2 million EBITDA), with five to 30 employees. These fall below the threshold where investment bankers and mid-market M&A firms - and private equity - typically engage. Village Wellth is Canada-wide and expanding into the U.S.

Village Wellth is especially valuable in rural communities, which often lack access to the M&A community. The platform matches buyers and sellers on geography (buyers set travel radii), and connects rural sellers with the right sell-side advisors and a pool of buyers they could not otherwise reach.

A key differentiator: because acquisition entrepreneurs plan to operate the business themselves, owner-dependency is not necessarily a deal-breaker - unlike with private equity or strategic buyers who want a management team that stays. What matters most is a solid transition period, a previous owner willing to transfer knowledge and relationships, and a genuine match between the buyer's background and the business.

Owner-dependency still needs managing. Red flags include an owner working 80 hours a week as the bottleneck for every decision, no chain of command, no contracts, and project-based revenue. Reasonable owner hours, contracts with assignment clauses, and understandable customer pipelines make a business far more transactable. Buyers mitigate remaining risk by bringing in a salesperson, or through deal terms like higher seller financing.

A successful exit is about understanding your options early enough to protect your value, legacy, and choice. Sometimes the best path forward is not the most obvious one, and selling to an acquisition entrepreneur may be exactly the thoughtful transition you are looking for. If today's episode sparked questions about your readiness, your business value, or your personal wealth gap, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell - and tap into a whole ecosystem of professionals she'd be happy to introduce you to. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.

Please leave a five-star rating and review - it helps more business owners discover the show and build their path to a cash-rich exit.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Episode Summary: If you want to understand where employee ownership in Canada is going, it helps to talk to a company that has been living it for the better part of a century. In this episode, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with Chad Friesen, CEO of Friesens Corporation - a $120 million book manufacturer and publishing company based in Altona, Manitoba (population 4,500) - to trace one of the most remarkable ownership stories in the country. Founded in 1907, Friesens has moved through nearly every ownership form imaginable: sole proprietor, family business, ESOP, hybrid, and today a 100% Employee Ownership Trust. Chad shares how the founding family turned down dozens of offers to sell because they believed the business belonged to the people and community who built it, how the company "backed into" broad-based employee ownership during the 2007-2008 crisis, and how the Friesens model went on to influence Canada's actual EOT legislation. He also introduces Tall Grass Employee Owner Equity Fund, a new venture that provides patient capital and a proven playbook to help other founders exit to their employees. It is a story about print, yes - but really about legacy, community wealth, and doing succession on purpose.

Key Takeaways:

Friesens Corporation was founded in 1907 and is a roughly $120 million company based in Altona, Manitoba, a community of 4,500. It operates three book-related businesses: trade books (working with the largest and smallest publishers in the world), school yearbooks (a business defined by constant customer turnover, since students graduate every year), and Friesen Press, a self-publishing services business working with around 1,000 new authors annually. The company's mantra: helping others share their best story with the world.

Fun fact: all five leaders in the company's history have shared the last name Friesen - the first three from the founding family, the last two (including Chad) unrelated to it.

The company has been owned in nearly every form: sole proprietorship, family-owned, ESOP, hybrid ESOP/EOT, and today 100% Employee Ownership Trust. The founding family's roots in the cooperative, credit union, and mutual movements of the 1940s and 50s framed their path toward employee ownership.

The founding family had opportunities to sell dozens of times - Chad keeps a file folder of historic offers from companies and equity funds - but chose employee ownership because they believed the business served a greater purpose than enriching one family, and they wanted to preserve the company and its economic impact in the community.

Employee ownership started organically in the 1970s and 80s, with shares given in lieu of bonuses or raises. Over time, share values rose, and the ratio between new employees able to buy shares and retiring owners needing to sell became unbalanced. The first Friesens Employee Trust was created in the 1980s as a "market of last resort" to buy shares from retiring employees and redistribute them.

By 2007-2008, a "trifecta of challenge" - the U.S. economic downturn, Asian supply/distribution pressure, and the introduction of the Kindle e-reader - left employee-owners nervous, with a drying-up internal share market. The company financed the trust to buy back all employee shares over a five-year period, freezing share values, paying cash, and keeping everyone as a trust beneficiary. Friesens effectively "backed into" being a 100% EOT as a defensive move that became a lasting strength.

The Friesens model influenced Canada's federal EOT legislation. Chad's team worked with four people in the finance department building the legislation, sharing governance structures and practices as a real-world case study - evidence that broad-based employee ownership works at scale.

A major, initially unintended benefit: the EOT became a great equalizer. Over 40% of Friesens employees were not born in Canada, many immigrating with the company's support and without excess cash to buy shares. Under the trust, every employee becomes a beneficiary three months after joining - no capital required. This equal-access principle became a tenet the federal government wanted to emulate.

Distributions use two formulas baked into the legislation's guidance: roughly 70-80% based on compensation (last five years of an individual's pay relative to the pool) and the remainder on years of service. Friesens deliberately uses a dividend model rather than equity, distributing value three times a year - including a physical cheque handed to each employee-owner at a celebration, to make ownership tangible and immediate.

The community impact is profound: Friesens generates an estimated $60-80 million in annual local economic spin-off. Retailers can tell when a distribution has happened because foot traffic spikes the next day. Chad estimates the company would likely have been sold 20-30 years ago without employee ownership - and all that recurring community wealth would have left with it.

Tall Grass Employee Owner Equity Fund: Born from Friesens' search for diversification, Tall Grass is a separate entity that puts Friesens' surplus capital to work helping other founders transition to employee ownership. It targets stable, long-term, proven companies (not startups or turnarounds) whose owners are motivated to preserve legacy. Tall Grass provides patient capital - investing with little expected return in the early years to de-risk seller financing - and a proven structural playbook, taking a minority position. The goal: modest long-term diversified passive income for Friesens' stakeholders, with an enormous return on social impact. When Chad brought the idea to his employee-owner council, he braced for pushback about risking their capital; instead they embraced it, saying they would not be where they are if someone had not paid it forward to them.

Employee ownership can be more than a structure - it is a strategy for community wealth, long-term resilience, and legacy. If today sparked questions about your own exit - what you will need financially, how to protect your people and values, and what a true cash-rich transition could look like - book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.

Please leave a five-star rating and review - it helps more founders find the show and have their best exit.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

A Note of Gratitude:

🎉 This episode marks a milestone - 350 Episodes of 'The Cash Rich Exit Podcast'! And I am genuinely humbled. What began as a microphone, an idea, and a deep belief that business owners deserve better exits has grown into a community of founders, CEOs, and dreamers I get to call the Self Made Nation. Three hundred and fifty conversations. Hundreds of guests who showed up with honesty, hard-earned scars, and the kind of wisdom you cannot find in a textbook. And thousands of you who keep listening, sharing, and building your own paths to a cash-rich exit.

Thank you. Truly. Here is to the next 350.

Colleen

Episode Summary:

For a milestone episode, a milestone story. In episode 350, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with Aaron Schroeder, founder and CEO of Bright Spot Climate, a greenhouse gas consulting and emissions strategy firm that has become one of the first companies in Canada to transition to an Employee Ownership Trust. Aaron grew up on a dairy farm in rural Saskatchewan, studied engineering, and built Bright Spot from a one-person consultancy into a 40-plus-person firm with offices in three cities. From the very beginning, he carried a conviction that the people who built the company alongside him should share in its rewards. This episode traces his "Jerry Maguire moment", the late-night letter to his team, the lightbulb realization when EOT legislation appeared on the horizon, and the real, unvarnished work of building governance, adjusting accounting systems, and letting go of control. It is a candid, refreshing look at what a values-aligned exit can look like in Canada - and why the EOT may be one of the most important succession tools founders have ever been given.

Key Takeaways:

Bright Spot Climate works with large industry, government, municipalities, and universities to quantify, report, and verify greenhouse gas emissions, and to implement technologies that reduce them. Aaron describes his team as the behind-the-scenes engineers helping Canada move toward its net-zero-by-2050 goals.

Aaron's entrepreneurial roots trace back to the family dairy farm in Saskatchewan. He started Bright Spot as a solo consultant just over 10 years ago and grew it organically; his sister Michelle, a professional agrologist, joined early and they had long shared the idea of broad ownership.

In 2022, before any mechanism existed, Aaron wrote a late-night letter to his team - his "Jerry Maguire moment" - sharing his conviction that the concentration of wealth among a few is one of the world's biggest problems, and that in their corner of the world, they could address it through employee ownership. The team received it positively, though with some understandable trepidation given there was no clear pathway yet.

The company already had a project-level profit-sharing program - a kind of de facto employee ownership - but the EOT represented a bigger commitment. The lightbulb moment came when Aaron learned the EOT mechanism would include every employee without anyone having to put money up front.

Bright Spot officially transitioned to the EOT structure on April 1, 2025, once the legislation had passed. Aaron worked with a partner at Blake's who specialized in trusts and had been following the legislation closely, and with accounting firm MNP to update accounting policies and prepare for financing.

Aaron's biggest lesson for other founders: sequence the changes. He had to establish a board, change governance, update accounting systems, and transfer ownership all at once - while still running the business during a turbulent year for the climate sector. Ideally, he would have put the board and accounting changes in place earlier so each could settle before the ownership transition.

An EOT requires governance by a board of directors. Aaron went from being the sole decision-maker (with an advisory senior leadership team) to being governed by a board while simultaneously giving his senior leadership team real decision-making authority. He recruited the board through his network and a public posting, looking for complementary skills and board experience.

The two hardest aspects of letting go were not the loss of final say - Aaron had made peace with that - but the difference in risk appetite between a sole owner and a board, and the slower speed of board decision-making. He now builds buffer time into decisions to bring board members up to speed.

The most surprising upside: a co-benefit of heightened entrepreneurship across the team. Younger employees and new grads have stepped up to help run and innovate the company with enthusiasm beyond what Aaron expected.

A senator at the employee ownership conference framed the EOT as an opportunity to build more wealth in the country - not only by creating more entrepreneurs inside companies, but by freeing founders to exit and go start something new. Succession does not have to mean retirement; it can mean liberation to build again.

If you are thinking about long-term succession, or how to build a legacy that lasts without sacrificing your team or your impact, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.

📩 Help us celebrate 350 episodes - leave a five-star rating and review, and share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur. It is the best gift you could give the show.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Bobbie Racette started with $300 at her kitchen table. Nine years later, she became the first Indigenous woman in Canada to build, scale, and sell a tech startup. In this episode - the first time Bobbie has dug into the details of the sale on a podcast - host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with the founder of Virtual Gurus, an AI-powered inclusive talent marketplace that matched underrepresented talent with businesses including Mastercard, Telus, and BMO. Bobbie shares the full arc: bootstrapping to $1.8 million in revenue before raising a cent, hearing 170 no's before closing a seed round, scaling through three funding rounds during COVID, becoming the first Indigenous woman in Canada to close a Series A, navigating founder fatigue, stepping down as CEO before the exit, and ultimately selling to a U.S. private equity firm that rolled Virtual Gurus into North America's largest virtual assistant platform - with the AI sold separately to a Calgary company. This is a conversation about what it takes to build something from nothing, what it costs personally, and what comes next when the mission is bigger than the transaction.

Key Takeaways:

Bobbie created Virtual Gurus in 2016 after being laid off in oil and gas and unable to find a job. She is Cree Métis, queer, and covered in tattoos - and nobody would hire her. The business started as a way to create a job for herself and evolved into a platform providing remote work to marginalized talent across Canada and the U.S.

She bootstrapped to approximately $1.8 million in annual revenue before seeking external funding. The seed round took over two years and 170 investor rejections before closing at $1.25 million. The Series A, two years later, was significantly easier.

Virtual Gurus scaled past $40 million in revenue and closed three funding rounds during COVID. Total capital raised was $14-20 million.

The exit was not originally planned. For the first four years, Bobbie intended to keep the company as a legacy business. The shift came around 2022 when the scale of the operation began to outpace the original mission. The board recognized that an acquisition was likely the best path forward.

The company was simultaneously pursuing a Series B and fielding acquisition offers - a dual-track process. The data room was already built for the fundraise, which accelerated due diligence to approximately five months. The acquisition by a U.S. private equity firm closed in November 2025.

The AI platform was sold separately to a Calgary-based company - effectively a double sale. The core business was rolled into the acquirer's larger virtual assistant platform.

Bobbie had stepped down from CEO to president in May 2025, with her COO becoming successor CEO. The successor stayed with the company through and after the acquisition. Bobbie's role during due diligence was primarily support - being available for the team mentally, emotionally, and strategically, while the finance team and executive team drove the process.

Founder fatigue and decision fatigue were real and significant. Bobbie emphasizes that founders need to talk about this more openly, and that boards and investors need to be supportive during those low periods rather than adding pressure.

Retention of employees during due diligence was one of the hardest parts. Bobbie's culture at Virtual Gurus was built on honesty and transparency, and not being able to tell her leadership team about the acquisition felt deeply uncomfortable.

Post-exit, Bobbie has retired her parents (her mother was her first angel investor, contributing her last $20,000), bought a new home, and is investing time and capital into the next generation. She is now an angel investor in five businesses - all founded by people from underserved communities, including Indigenous and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.

She has launched Tapwe (Cree for "truth"), a platform to support underserved founders with financial literacy, mentorship, AI-powered matching, and startup scaling resources. A documentary is in production. Her newsletter, The Fire Report, scaled to 4,000 subscribers almost immediately. She is also doing regular paid advisory sessions each week through her website.

Bobbie's story is a reminder that a cash-rich exit can be deeply values-driven, inclusive, and barrier-breaking - and still set you up for whatever comes next. If today's episode has you thinking about your own journey, whether you are at the kitchen table, scaling fast, or quietly eyeing your exit, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell via LinkedIn or email

Please leave a five-star rating and review to help more founders find this show.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Here is a stat that should keep every small business owner up at night: approximately 80% of businesses never change hands. The owners simply close the doors, walk away, and leave decades of effort and equity on the table.

In this episode, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with Markian Pergat, an Ottawa-based entrepreneur who has lived the full arc - from student painter, to burnt-out sole operator sleeping five hours a night, to building a business that runs without him - and who is now on a mission to help service-based, trades, and Main Street business owners do the same. Markian walks through his EXITS Method, a five-part framework covering the emotional, strategic, and structural work required to build a business that is actually sellable. The conversation is a candid look at what happens when technical excellence masks business fragility, and what it takes to shift from self-employed technician to business owner with real options.

Key Takeaways:

Approximately half of Canadian businesses are still owned by baby boomers, and roughly 80% of small businesses never successfully transition to a new owner. They simply close.

Markian started with College Pro Painters at 19 (winning Rookie of the Year for Eastern Ontario), then founded Sand and Stain, a seasonal wood restoration business in Ottawa. He spent years as a one-man operation - doing all sales, production, and emails - before hitting a breaking point and trying to sell. A broker told him the business was essentially unsellable because it was entirely dependent on him.

That wake-up call launched a four-to-five-year transformation. Markian systematically removed himself from every role, built an online quoting calculator that replaced in-person estimates (going from 8-10 quotes per day to over 100), hired for sales and production, and turned the business into something that runs with minimal owner involvement. The irony: once it became sellable, he no longer wanted to sell.

The EXITS Method is a five-part framework:

E (Equanimity) - the emotional and mindset work of letting go of identity, title, and control.

X (X Factor) - differentiation plays including micro M&A, where small businesses merge or acquire to reach a size that attracts larger buyer pools.

I (Independence) - separating the owner from the business, and reducing dependency on any single employee, supplier, or customer.

T (Transferability) - building the value levers that make a business attractive to a buyer: systems, recurring revenue, documented processes, and scalable operations.

S (Strategy) - creating multiple exit pathways rather than a single plan, because life, markets, and technology can change overnight.

The most common problem Markian sees: technically brilliant tradespeople and service providers who are thinking like technicians, not like business owners - and certainly not like buyers. The shift from "How do I do this work better?" to "How do I build an asset that works without me?" is the fundamental unlock.

Markian's sweet spot is businesses in the zero to $5 million revenue range (up to $10 million), typically below the threshold where private equity would show up with a cheque. These businesses have the most room to pull levers and create value - and the most to lose if the owner does nothing.

The best deals often happen off-market. When a business is visibly well-run, systematized, and not dependent on the owner, unsolicited offers start showing up - just like the best real estate deals happen before a listing goes live.

Exit preparation is synonymous with business building. Start before you are ready. Even if you decide not to exit, going through the process of making your business sellable will make it better to own.

Be part of the 20% who exit on purpose and on their own terms. Book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Let us talk about your time frame, your value, and your vision. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.

Please leave a five-star rating and review to help more founders find the show. Thank you!

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

What happens when four moms start making labels in a Hamilton basement and, 14 years later, get a call from a global industry giant? In this episode, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with Julie Cole, one of the four co-founders of Mabel's Labels, to trace the full arc: from masking tape and permanent marker frustrations in the early 2000s, to building a fiercely loved e-commerce brand, to a reported $12 million acquisition by Avery Labels that closed in under six months. What makes Julie's story unique is the fact that she is still at Mabel's Labels a decade later, now as Senior Director of Public Relations, championing the brand she helped build. The conversation covers what buyers actually look for, why keeping your house in order is non-negotiable, how four co-founders (who were also family) navigated decisions without destroying relationships, and why selling your business does not have to mean falling out of love with it.

Key Takeaways:

Mabel's Labels was founded approximately 23 years ago by Julie Cole, her sister, and two university friends who married into the family. It started in a Hamilton basement solving a simple problem - kids were losing their gear, and there was no good labelling solution beyond masking tape and marker.

The four co-founders divided responsibilities by department (production, IT and finance, marketing, PR), which worked well early on but eventually created silos. Each founder became protective of their team's priorities, and the business reached a point where it needed one person overseeing the whole operation rather than four co-CEOs pulling in different directions.

Managing a co-founding team that is also family requires deliberate effort. The founders brought in a coach to navigate difficult growth decisions and to separate business disagreements from personal relationships - a practice Julie compares to Midday Squares' weekly "family therapy" sessions.

The acquisition by Avery Labels (a publicly traded company) happened fast - the initial call came in July, and the deal closed on New Year's Eve of the same year. Julie emphasizes this timeline is not normal and should not be expected.

Due diligence is where you can lose money. A letter of intent might come in at one number, but if the buyer finds problems, the offer shrinks. Julie's advice: keep your housekeeping in order from the start, not just when a deal appears.

The exit process is a full-time job. Having four co-founders meant one could focus on the transaction while the others kept the business running - a luxury solo founders do not have. Julie has seen entrepreneurs take their eye off operations during a sale, get left at the altar, and end up with a year of lost sales and deal fatigue.

Because Avery is publicly traded, the founders could not tell their staff about the potential acquisition. They told the team it was a tax audit - which felt terrible given their culture of transparency - but was necessary for regulatory compliance. Once the deal was announced, the founders led with reassurance: no one was losing their job, the brand was staying, and the team would be supported through the transition.

Two co-founders left immediately after the sale, one stayed as general manager for a couple of years, and Julie has remained for 10 years. She now reports to a former direct report who became GM - and is fully at peace with that dynamic. Her role is to be the brand's voice, its public face, and its connection to the community.

The brand's longevity is built on community. Julie was one of the original "mom bloggers", has attended Mom 2.0 conferences for 18 years, and has continuously followed her audience from blogs to Facebook to Instagram to Reddit. Mabel's Labels looks like a low-tech product but is a high-tech, e-commerce-driven business that has adapted to every platform shift for over two decades.

Julie is also the author of 'Like a Mother: Birthing Businesses, Babies, and a Life Beyond Labels', a bestseller covering her parenting and entrepreneurial journey.

Julie Cole's story is a reminder that a cash-rich exit does not have to be the end - sometimes it is the start of the next chapter in the same business. If her story has you thinking about your own entrepreneurial journey, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Reach out on LinkedIn or email

Could you leave a five-star rating and review please? It helps more founders find the show.

***

The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.

All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.

This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.

Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.