Biz Talk (Aired 06-20-25) Exit Without Regret: Build Wealth and Sell Your Business the Smart Way

[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is where smart business conversations meet real world experience, where strategies are shared, lessons are learned, and ideas come to life. I'm Emily Galindo and you're watching Biz Talk, your destination for real insight from the mind shaping tomorrow's business world only on NOW Media Television. Hello and welcome to Biz Talk. I am your host, Emily Galindo and we are here to discuss all things business business so that we can sharpen our tools and have the most efficient and effective businesses in the country. And we are super excited to have our guest this this afternoon, which is Caleb Christian. He is a certified financial planner with Granite Harbor Wealth Advisors, and we are honored to have him today because he's going to help us understand all things business in planning to either exit or build wealth while doing it. I'd also like to advise that this is not a certified financial advice or official financial advice, but Christian is here to. Caleb is here to give us his expertise and experience in helping us understand money and how it involves our business. So welcome. [00:01:07] Speaker B: Thank you for having me. This is, this is great. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Thank you. This, I think, is a topic that we don't have enough education about, we don't have enough experience on. And I think when we go into business, we do it to build wealth, right? Have a legacy, have all kinds of things to give to our kids to pay for our children, pay for our lifestyle. But I don't think that enough people understand money. So thank you for being here. [00:01:31] Speaker B: Well, thanks. Yeah, absolutely. You were hitting the nail on the head, to say the least. You know, we were talking about that earlier is that unfortunately, a lot of people are not educated on this. You know, you graduate high school, you get a diploma and then you go to college and, you know, you can get a finance degree in college. But that real life, real world application is totally different compared to what, you know, it is in books. Right. And so, yeah, there's a, there's definitely a need out there. I'm grateful. Just to be able to sit at people's tables and help them do good things over and over again. For sure. [00:01:58] Speaker A: So, so what would you, what would you suggest to a business owner, one of our viewers, possibly. About what, what's the first thing that they need to be aware of in terms of just planning for the future? [00:02:11] Speaker B: Right. [00:02:11] Speaker A: I'm in the middle of my business. I don't know what to do. What, what's the first thing that we need to start focusing on? [00:02:15] Speaker B: Right. So a couple of things there. If you're a business owner, which I would say you know, of course, everyone's different, but I would say the majority of my clients are business owners or entrepreneurs. And the reason is because it's open architecture. Right. What's the best situ or what's the best solutions that fit your business, your family, your dynamic? Obviously, you know, there's a million ways to do that, right. So it's very custom, it's very boutique. And ideally there's a lot of a need for, you know, what me and my team can bring to the table. Right. So usually it's getting organized with the whole and kind of defining who those are. Usually we call it your virtual team. So every business owner is going to have their virtual team. Usually that's the financial professional, it's the attorney, and then it's going to be the CPA and then the lender, the bank. Those are probably your four main players, excuse me, at your table, if you will, when you're starting a business. Especially because, like I said, it's boutique, it's open architecture. All of those parties need to work together and have some cohesiveness and have open lines of communication and establishing who's going to be responsible for what and at what points and just being really intentional about it. Because what we've seen is that if everyone is responsible, then no one is. There has to be one party that accepts responsibility for holding everyone accountable for their job, at their time, for their role on the team, if that makes sense. [00:03:36] Speaker A: And that would traditionally be you. Right? The fiduciary responsible party. [00:03:40] Speaker B: Correct. And there's a couple of ways, obviously I'm painting with a broad brush. There's a lot of ways for client to engage with that virtual team that I just mentioned there. But, you know, most people are familiar with, you know, the CPAs and the attorneys, you know, usually they have like a more of like a billable hour type of arrangement. And usually if they work with a professional like myself and our team, we can reduce the billable hours of that because we kind of know what to do, when to do it, and assisting with the attorney team on getting the job done. So instead of having, you know, the individual or the business owner work with four people individually, usually they work with one and then that is B2B on behalf of the client. [00:04:20] Speaker A: How nice. I mean that really, that right there, at least for me, provides a lot more what I would relief, right, like in knowing that I don't have to. Because I would think that in the standard business world, we spend the business owner talks to the CPA on a yearly basis Maybe they're a quarterly. If they're doing accounting type services, the lawyer only when things are in trouble. But then there's nobody to kind of wrangle all of these people in. [00:04:46] Speaker B: Yep. That's literally part of the role. And then beyond that, too, if you have, you know, business owners, and especially if they're in the same family from the attorney side now, you have potential conflict, you know, client conflict, that they can't. They legally can't overlap, or we can with a lot more flexibility and malleability than they can. So it's just a really nice arrangement to ideally, hey, we can be the hub. Even if we're not managing money or assisting within any sort of risk management solution or anything like that, we can have a fiduciary financial planning fee paid to us to literally, like I said, be the hub and coordinate with all the other parties. And the other parties, just to be clear, it can be someone who the client has a good relationship with. Fantastic. Let's meet them, shake hands, connect the dots on who we are and who they are and just what works for them communication wise. Or they may not have a good relationship, you know, professional for that seat. Fantastic. We'll sit on your side of the table and we'll bring, you know, one to three people in who we think might be a good fit because of, you know, the circumstance or things that you've said or just whatever. [00:05:43] Speaker A: Right. [00:05:44] Speaker B: And basically just kind of help pick the virtual team with the client, with our vetted network of professionals. [00:05:50] Speaker A: Oh, okay. I love that. Who do you think. Who do business owners typically utilize right now for you? Instead of like, they think that that's what they're doing? Is it usually the CPA that they think is the fiduciary person that's making all the decisions? [00:06:04] Speaker B: Decisions, yeah, yeah. [00:06:05] Speaker A: But it's not. [00:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's. Right now they're, you know, of course, the industry, a lot of CPAs will go out and get their securities, licensing and stuff like that. But what we have seen is if it can all be, you know, to use a fancy word, bifurcated, meaning the CPAs in their lane, the attorneys in their lane, the wealth professionals in their lane. Not overlapping. Right. You don't want these services to be overlapped if you can help it purely just from a removal of conflict and just accountability and responsibility stance as well. It's just the better, better way to do it, for sure. [00:06:37] Speaker A: And also, you're not paying for the same thing to multiple people. [00:06:40] Speaker B: Exactly. [00:06:40] Speaker A: Right. Exactly. In the marketing world, I See that a lot. A lot of services are overlapping, and they don't need to be because you're paying. So that sounds like that could also happen here. [00:06:47] Speaker B: Right? But yeah, a lot. It's okay. I mean, everyone has to file taxes legally, so it makes sense that they usually think the CPA and the tax savviness, ideally, of how to, you know, be strategic with their business and, you know, their life and their family and just whatever. But a lot of CPAs out there tend to be more of a history teller instead of a. Instead of a, hey, let's kind of, you know, think with the end in mind here. Let's get out in front of the eight ball on topics and, you know, be strategic. They're more of a, well, here's what happened. Here's what it means. Here's what we owe or are owed, as opposed to the more, you know, kind of proactive, you know, version of what I'm talking about. And that's where we really come and, you know, advise on strategies, not just now, but also beginning with the end in mind, because it's so cliche, but it really does matter. Like, when someone starts a business, it's why are you starting this business? And then usually if you just ask why three or four times, you get to the root, root of why this is happening right now, and then that dictates the conversation of, well, is this to sell it? Is this to keep it in the family? Because the way we transfer it matters a lot on how it's owned strategically right now. [00:07:56] Speaker A: Oh, interesting. [00:07:56] Speaker B: Yep. [00:07:57] Speaker A: So that was gonna lead me to my next question, which was, at what point do we get a fiduciary, someone like yourself involved in the business? Do we, in the very front end? Or is it when I'm ready to start talking about exiting the business? [00:08:09] Speaker B: Yeah. Usually I'm trying to think of a business owner who they became clients not too long ago, and we knew that he was starting a business. We had a meeting before they started the business just to define what that would be for them. You know, hey, do you have your cpa? How are you on your entities, et cetera, et ceter. Does it make sense to hire us right now or not? And for them, they got started and then just, you know, they're in startup mode. I get it right. Get through your first quarter, and then we'll sit down and regroup after that. Right. So it just depends on the type of business. How big is it, you know, who else is involved, all those things. But a lot of times you know, clients will hire us, you know, from the get go as well, just to make sure no stone's unturned. We have that relationship while they're building and it's usually done a little more seamlessly that way. Instead of, hey, you know, you wait, you know, we wait a quarter that turns into a year to 5 to 10 and now there's a mess of things and that's just a headache to, you know, kind of fix as opposed to, well, we could have just gotten out in front of the eight ball and started correctly, you know, and not having to repair anything, you know, that the, the hard work is repairing stuff and oh my gosh, we got to unwind entities. And doc, if it's just not done correctly or the goal was not clearly defined, like I said earlier, what's the goal? Why are we doing this? Because that determines how it's owned right now. And if it's struck and if it's set up incorrectly, then there's a lot of work to right size it later. [00:09:29] Speaker A: I was. Yeah. And I really want to dive into the exit strategy of things. Just given the economy and where we are with the silver wave and things like that. We've got a lot of people exiting their business and so would love to spend a little bit more time with you talking about how to, how to correctly or seamlessly do that transition. We're going to take a commercial break first, but we'll be right back. Stick around. And we'll be talking to Kayla a little bit longer on how to exit your business. So stick around. We'll be right back. We are just getting started. Stick around and we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business forward. You're watching Biz Talk only on NOW Media Television. And we're back. I'm Emily Galindo and this is my BizTalk on Now Media Television. Let's dive back into the conversations that move business forward. Loving what you're watching? Don't miss a moment of Biz Talk or any of your favorite NOW Media Television shows live or on demand, anytime, anywhere. Download the new free Now Media TV app on Roku or iOS and enjoy instant access to our full lineup of bilingual programming in both English and Spanish. Prefer to listen on the go catch the podcast version of the show right on Now Media TV website at www.nowmedia.tv. from business and breaking news to lifestyle, culture and everything in between, now media TV is streaming 24. 7 ready whenever you are. Welcome back To Biz Talk, I'm Emily Galindo and we are being joined by our guest Caleb Christian, certified financial planner with Granite Harbor Wealth Advisors. And he has been sharing some amazing intel with us about why it's so important to have a fiduciary as part of your what he calls virtual team to help you run your business. If you have one person responsible for the entire aspect of the wealth and the financial piece of your business, then you have an easier, more relaxing and more controlled way of running the business. Would you agree? [00:11:27] Speaker B: Amen to that. Hey, could have said it better myself. That was fantastic. [00:11:30] Speaker A: Oh, well, I'm just taking it from you, but I'm excited to be talking with you. You more about now that we've got it all set up. That's what we just talked about. [00:11:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:11:37] Speaker A: It's having you as that key role person helping manage the business and then having that set up for the future. Right. That's why we do the business. It's for the future or, you know, for our future, our children's future, whatever. And then what happens when I don't want to do it anymore? [00:11:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:53] Speaker A: And how do I. How do we transition that? And how do you help business owners prepare for that moment? [00:11:58] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. That is a loaded question for sure. Because my goodness, there's so much nuance there that is just, you know, depends on the situation. Right. I joke. It's kind of the attorney answer. It depends. But it really does. It just depends on so many factors. And it kind of goes back to what I was saying before the break about, you know, why are you doing this? And literally nailing down the why first and then defining the who after that, you know, who's involved. The virtual team. Right. And every person knows their role when they are supposed to. Hey, you're up. Right. And here's what we're looking to do and how do we coordinate and, you know, communicate effect efficiently and all that stuff to deliver the solution and proposal and, you know, kind of vet a couple of options for the client to make sure the right one makes sense. Right. So ultimately I say all that to say this. It comes back to when we start. If we start right, we avoid a lot of headaches in the future. And what I mean by that is called strategic ownership, if the business is owned correctly. Because a lot of people just go out there and hey, I'm going to start a business and I'm just dba, Caleb Christian. Right. Or whatever. Well, that might work initially, especially if you're not really serious about it. But if you're serious about something that you know, or you're receiving it as an inheritance or, you know, G2, G3, that's what we call generation two, generation three. Wealth or business owner, you know, how it's owned matters significantly because there's. Most people are familiar at some level with estate taxation. There's also gift taxation as well. You know, if I start a business and I want to gift it to my children, well, depending on the value, a lot of it could be taxed upon transfer. Right. And ideally, if done correctly, we can avoid taxation by just, like I said, being a little more intentional on the front end of that strategic ownership side of things. And then of course, how it actually happens, how the transaction is arranged just depends on a lot of things there. How many owners are there? Is it family, is it not, Is the spouse alive? You know, there's a lot of things that kind of go into that. That just depends on circumstance. But the long and the shortage is just being a little more intentional up front can save a lot of pain on the back end. Not just with the time, but also the financial. How much money could you save from a taxation stance by just having the right ownership structure set up from the get go? And so even though we're not attorneys, we have a good idea of what this should look like and feel like. And that's where I said earlier, on the virtual team, we coordinate with the CPAs, the attorneys. If you own a business and it needs to get appraised, the appraisal team as well to get that done on your behalf. So there's a lot of moving pieces to get the job done, right? [00:14:28] Speaker A: Absolutely. And thankfully they have you. I mean, there's also emotional pain. Right. If it's not. If none of this is set up and you go to. If something horrible happens, you know, then what? Then, then who's running the business? Who owns it? Like, that's a huge piece of that, I think. [00:14:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that's where, you know, we were talking a little bit earlier you had the wealth management side, which most people kind of think of first when they think of a financial professional. Oh, I have money in the market or private investments or just whatever that needs to be managed. And surely that's part of it as. But the risk, the risk management side is, you know, a lot of people call it like the boring side or the, you know, the morbid side, but it is a reality. Like, you know, the good Lord's gonna call everyone home one day. You know, it's just inevitable. Ideally, it's for. It's a long time from now, but, you know, it could happen tomorrow for all we know. We just don't know. And so you have to address the risks that could, you know, it's called risk management because you're managing the risks that could affect the wealth. Right. And so despite what we've done on the wealth side, something unaddressed on risk could literally just kibosh everything on the wealth side and wipe it all out. Yeah. It does not matter. [00:15:30] Speaker A: So, and then there's like the emotional grief part of it. Like that's the last thing that you want is for my, you know, I know a lot of people in the state law place that you don't want your family to deal with and fighting over who owns the business and where does the wealth go and those pieces of the puzzle as well. So let's talk about something a little bit more uplifting. We built this great business. [00:15:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:15:50] Speaker A: Been doing it for 50 years. I want to sell. My kids aren't interested in running the business. It's viable, but I don't. [00:15:56] Speaker B: So. [00:15:57] Speaker A: And I've been seeing this a lot lately. I mean, there's got a lot of baby boomers retiring and maybe some of our viewers are maybe in this situation. [00:16:03] Speaker B: Right. [00:16:04] Speaker A: What would you recommend? When should business owners be considering or planning or talking to a professional about an exit strategy? Is it the year I want to retire? [00:16:14] Speaker B: Absolutely not. So no. So this is where a business broker would come into play, you know, because obviously that's what they do professionally. So that would be just another person at the virtual table, if you will, you know, the business broker. But same thing I know, you know, I'm coming to mind right now. I know five or six business brokers who we've worked with in the past just to, you know, bring to the table for the client to figure this out and whatnot. But ideally we have an established relationship. You know, we don't just engage the year of you're ready to sell your business. We've been building towards this. The strategic ownership is set up, etc, etc. So that we're ready to mobilize with a lot of confidence and we already know who's going to be involved and at what level and whatnot. So the, you know, usually sooner is better than later for most things in life and especially for this as well. But when it comes time to selling. Yeah, you got to get the business appraised. There's a process for that. Of course, I said the strategic ownership side of it. That's you know, just the filing of the documents by the attorney and then navigating the transactions. Where the CPA comes, comes in as well, because the tax ramifications, the ownership now who's filing this year, filing next year, who's involved this year that wasn't last year, and vice versa, right? And so you can see there's a lot of parties involved, but the business broker is going to be the one who's really going to help find a buyer and then structuring the buy and that transaction, that's really kind of where we can, you know, we kind of know what's possible from an instrument and tool stance on how to kind of make it a win, win, win for everyone involved. Just depends on what that is. But yeah. [00:17:45] Speaker A: From the financial planning side, though, should. Would you Recommend at least 5 years? Like, hey, I'm thinking about doing this in about five years. So that I would assume, I mean, you tell me strategies and things that you are doing to create that wealth, whether those investments and like, may shift between now and the five years. Because now the timeline's been moved up or whatever. [00:18:07] Speaker B: So we call it, regardless of business or not, just anytime that you're planning on turning off your actively earned income, sweat of the brow income, if you will. Okay, we call it the critical 10, right? And you just, you know, kind of look historically, right, you look from 2000 to 2010, that decade was the flat decade. So if you try to plan in 2007, right, before 2008, 2009, you might be too late on some things, right? So we just call it the, we just call it the critical 10. You know that, that last decade before you are going to hang up the cleats, per se, right? Move on from your business or your job or whatever. Because now, because a lot of people in the industry focus only on accumulation planning. I'm earning income, I'm saving, I'm investing. Where am I investing? How's it growing? What's my portfolio look like, my global portfolio, et cetera, et cetera. But when you flip from accumulation into distribution, those are not the same things. And that's where planning comes along for sure. Because distribution planning is as different as nice today from accumulation planning from a lot of factors. Because now you have longevity, you have taxation, you have market risk, you have credit risk, you have interest rate risk. You have a lot of things that have to be addressed, which when you have new money coming in the door feels different. But when you have no new money coming in the door now it's just all organic growth and distribution. That is an art and a science in and of itself. That's why we have designations like cfp, CLU in chfc. [00:19:31] Speaker A: Okay, spend some time talking about that because I think not enough. Back to the education piece. Like, let's go back to grade schools like cfp Certified Financial Planner. What are some of those other designations that our viewers should be looking for when wanting to work with somebody like you? [00:19:45] Speaker B: Cool. Yeah, absolutely. So CFP is the gold standard for the industry. You just don't roll out of bed and get that designation the next day. You have to take a very intensive mine took about two years to do. From start to finish, it's seven different courses. You have to pass each exam and then you have one cumulative exam on all seven of those courses as well. It's about an eight hour exam. Pretty lengthy as well. So your three biggest designations are your cfp, your CPA and then your cfa. CFA is your Chartered Financial Analyst. And so the Chartered Financial Analyst is the person usually managing your portfolio behind the scenes at the desk. The majority of CFAs are on wall street managing hedge funds. [00:20:31] Speaker A: That's what we think of Wall street type of yelling at each other and all the things. [00:20:36] Speaker B: Yeah. And I'm just saying from a designation stance, those are probably the most three, I would say gold standard designations for a financial professional to obtain the cfp, the CPA and the cfa. And then fortunately for us at Granite harbor, every advisor, client facing advisor has to have their CFPs. So we have seven CFPs on our team right now. And then we also have a CFA as well, our portfolio manager, Nick Brown, which is fantastic. So there are not many CFAs who work directly with a client's portfolio. Like I said, usually it's a couple levels away. Hedge fund on Wall street type of thing, or managing the pension at Shell or whatever. So they're managing it, but not directly on your behalf like it is with us. Right. And so there's only a few firms that offer that for their clients. So CFP Certified Financial Planner. I'm also a clu, that's a Chartered Life Underwriter. So back to the risk management. There's a lot of pieces of the puzzle there. There's a lot of ways to really sophisticate the risk management side of the conversation. So that's called a Chartered Life Underwriter. And then you have a Chartered Financial Consultant. And Chartered Financial Consultant is really diving in on the more of the unique life scenarios. I know we talked about this a little bit earlier. Hey, I Received a massive inheritance. I'm going through a divorce. Splitting a business, you know, a lot of like the nuanced kind of life events and nailing those down with a lot of detail. That's the Chartered Financial Consultant. So having all three of those, the cfpclu, Chartered Financial Consultant, that's kind of the big three in the industry. There's, there's more designations and great designations out there as well. But usually if you're working with someone who has those, and I'm not just saying that because I have it. I've had this stance even when I got started in the business. I'm like, I'm going to get those three. It's just a matter of time. [00:22:19] Speaker A: Okay, so that's, I mean, but in your experience with your education, your recommendation would be to work at that level if you really want to do the things that you just described. [00:22:29] Speaker B: And the reason is too, because the way that we work with our clients, like we said earlier, when you have the virtual team, like, you know, there are clients who may know of a CFP or the designations I just talked about, but not all of them do. But who really matters too is the attorney, the cpa, the lender, the other third party professionals at the virtual team table. It matters to them. [00:22:49] Speaker A: It matters to them. [00:22:50] Speaker B: And I promise you, things get done a lot more efficiently. And just the quality and the communication and when every person they talk to on our team is a CFP or beyond, it just hits a little bit different, like I said, for the client, because now we're B2B on behalf of the client and they only have to talk with us. And of course, they fold in as much as little as they want. You know, every client's different, Hey, I want, do you want to know what time it is or how the clock's made? Right. And everywhere in between? And so it's just a good dynamic like that. [00:23:17] Speaker A: I'm already. We talked about the education at the top of this segment and you provided us with so much already. And so we've got to stop in here to go to a commercial break. But thank you so much for bestowing so much education. [00:23:27] Speaker B: Thank you. [00:23:28] Speaker A: If you guys want to reach out, to reach out to Caleb, you can absolutely do that. How can people get a hold of you? [00:23:34] Speaker B: Yep, perfect. So just go to our website, grantharbor.com and at our website. Yeah, there we go. Perfect. Right there on the screen in the middle, it says speak with an advisor. And then it'll take you to a link to arrange an initial discovery conversation with myself or one of our other advisors on our team and we'll get that scheduled just fine. Our website's fantastic. I don't just say that because that's our team, but we get compliments literally all the time about who we are, our core values, our team infrastructure, our services. You know, our website's a pretty fantastic resource. We lean on it a lot with our clients. But for anyone wanting to speak, just go to the homepage there and write smack dab in the middle. So speak with an advisor. Click on that. It's pretty self explanatory after that. [00:24:17] Speaker A: You got it. Thank you so much, Caleb. I appreciate it. And I know our viewers do too because it's a topic that we don't talk enough about and we need to do more of. So thank you guys very much. Stick around. We'll be right back with our next expert. We are just getting started. Stick around and we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business forward. You're watching Biz Talk only on NOW Media Television. I'm Emily Galindo and this is Biz Talk on NOW Media Television. Let's dive back into the conversations that move business forward. Welcome back to Biz talk. If you're just now joining us, I'm Emily Galindo and we are here to talk about all things business and very excited about our guests to shed some light on being a powerful woman business owner. So for you viewers, women business owners, this is the one you want to listen to. We have Chantel Moya with us, owner of Roof Republic. Welcome and thank you for joining us. [00:25:12] Speaker C: Hello, Emily. Thank you for having me. [00:25:14] Speaker A: You are so welcome. I love you and what you're doing because you are in a male dominated industry and yet killing it and have a huge, huge successful roofing business. Yes. Tell us a little bit about Roof Republic. [00:25:28] Speaker C: So I started the company about three and a half years ago. We specialize in insurance claims because who wants to pay 20 grand for a roof when I can get it for two grand? You know, we do not just your standard architectural, we also do what is now called a Rosa roof, which is a metal tile. We do tpo. We do also the flat roofing modified bit. So, you know, we're very educated and not just one roofing systems but you know, multiple. [00:25:59] Speaker A: Okay. And how is it that you, a young beautiful woman, got into roofing which is typically, at least here in Houston, known as a male industry guy with a ladder and a truck. But you seem to be able to pull it off with beautiful branding, beautiful roofs, and then wonderful successful business. So how did you get into that? [00:26:18] Speaker C: So I got into it as a single mom. I just needed to make some more money. My friend at the time, she had a boyfriend that had a roofing company, and I just needed to make more income, and they offered me a sales job. So I went ahead and took it. And I saw the flexibility and the time and the money, and I was able to experience the world not being locked up in a cubicle for literally all day. And, yeah, I ended up falling in love with the industry. I ended up falling in love with the freedom. I ended up falling in love with being a mom. And I've been in roofing ever since. So it's going on about year eight, almost nine. [00:27:03] Speaker A: Okay. Congratulations. And what do you think, what is your. What would you say is your key to success in running a business like that? [00:27:11] Speaker C: The key to success is, you know, I would say just honesty and integrity and just doing things the right way because, you know, there's. There's just. So there's. The world is ugly nowadays. People are greedy. They just want to take and, you know, being that company that people can actually come to, to know that you're going to be taken care of, to know that, you know, we're not going to run away. To know that. I mean, I have homeowners who invite us to barbecues, and I was just out on the lake with another one of my homeowners. You know, we become such a close bond and, you know, that relationship goes on through years. Not just that one job that's just done in a day, you know, that one job has turned into a friendship for literally years. [00:28:00] Speaker A: That's a beautiful thing. And I think that, I mean, I. I think that as a consumer, as a homeowner, like, that's something that we've missed from. From business owner, like, from business providers. Right. Service providers for so long, like, we just feel like a number. And I'm sure that there's something, would you say, on the other side of that, like, that you guys feel like you're just at the race at the bottom. It's just about how much does it cost? Right. And providing a good service doesn't matter anymore. But I feel like, at least feel from our viewers and from research, we are as consumers wanting more of a customized, more of a personal interaction. Are you seeing that with your homeowners, that they appreciate that more and are willing to pay for it? [00:28:41] Speaker C: Absolutely. Absolutely. And, you know, communication Is everything nowadays. And there's a lot of people that just can't even send a simple, hey, guys, I'm going to be late. And you know, just communication nowadays is, is everything. And, you know, that's something that we are very strong on, is communication and honesty. You know, we bring, we actually build a roof in the middle of your dining table. So we start. I have a roof and a backpack. [00:29:10] Speaker A: Okay. [00:29:10] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. We sit in your dining table and I bring out the steps. So I bring out the decking first and then I bring out the ice and water that we install. Then I bring out the shingles. And the homeowner is able to touch the product, feel the product and know that it's actually legit. It's a good system. I'm not just going to be, hey, I'm going to be installing this and this and that. Because a lot of the times homeowners don't know what, you know, what shingle is being put on or, you know, the ventilation system that's going on your house. So we're just, we're very transparent and I'm very hands on. That's why we literally build a whole roofing system in your dining room table. [00:29:48] Speaker A: That's so unique. I've never even heard of that. I talked to a lot of roofing companies in my career. That's so fun. [00:29:54] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:29:55] Speaker A: But obviously I think that that helps the homeowner feel more like, create more trust, obviously. And feel more educated along the process. [00:30:05] Speaker C: Yes. [00:30:05] Speaker A: Right. Like, I've never had to replace a roof before, but I wouldn't even know what questions to ask. Like, I would just kind of hope that you were telling me the truth. [00:30:14] Speaker C: And go for it. Exactly. And we just, we, we try to just make it fun. We try to make it fun. I learn by touching. I'm very hands on a person. So just in all our literature, you know, we're very, you know, transparent on what we install. [00:30:32] Speaker A: All right, very good. What are some other things that homeowners should know or even business owners? Right. Because that's typically who our viewers are, that they should know about roofing and questions to ask a quality roofing company. And maybe some things that if you hear you should go, you should run the other way. [00:30:48] Speaker C: So definitely, if they do not have the insurance, so definitely carry a high insurance. We carry up to a million dollar policy and insurance. Because you don't know what could happen. Okay. Roofing is very dangerous. So if they don't have insurance, walk away. That's a huge red flag, especially with insurance companies, you can get flagged. So if you're flagged by insurance companies, know that hey, they're committing fraudulent activities run as well as materials. If you can see that they're installing stuff from Home Depot that you can just pick up yourself, know that that's not an okay material. You know, we're, we're very. I don't even know what I was gonna say. I got mind struck. What were we talking about? [00:31:36] Speaker A: Red flags that are. That people can hear and look for. [00:31:38] Speaker C: Yes, the red flags then especially, especially the. No licensing's here. Okay. Anybody can put a ladder in the back of their trucks and call this silver roofer. So if you don't know actually the steps on the roofing systems or know how to bring things up to code, we also do a thing called supplementation. So supplementation is what the insurance adjuster didn't see. So say we go ahead and rip off a roof and half of the roof is rotted. Who's responsible for that? The insurance. So we go ahead and supplement everything to the insurance so the homeowner is not responsible for those extra funds. Say a lot of the houses right now have a drip edge that's an inch and a quarter. Well, that's not up to code in Texas anymore. So we go ahead and supplement and we bring everything up to code. So there's, there's a lot that goes into play. We don't just do your roof replacement. You know, we calculate your ventilation. You know, we bring everything back up to code. Which in. Nowadays in Texas, they're putting houses up like not even in two days, which is wild. [00:32:39] Speaker A: That is crazy. And then the last one that I think that I've heard a lot of about in your industry is like the no deductible. I can give you a roof for no deductible. If a company says that, that's also insurance fraud. [00:32:51] Speaker C: Absolutely. And if somebody's willing to commit insurance fraud and send fraudulent paperwork to the insurance company, company. I can't even imagine what roofing system they're putting on your house. Somebody who's going to commit fraud just to put a roof on your house. You know, this is how I feed my family. I don't do things like that. We do things by the book. And you know, at the end of the day, we're here to take care of you. Not just for your roof replacement, but for the whole lifespan of the shingle, whether it's 40 year shingle or a 50 year shingle. You know, we're here. [00:33:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Absolutely. And you are actually not just here in Houston, right? You serve all of Texas? [00:33:30] Speaker C: Yep, all of Texas. We were just in Kyle last week. We're gonna be in Dallas this week. So, yeah, all of Texas we can take care of. I have crews all over. [00:33:40] Speaker A: Wonderful. And if. And if people. I mean, it is hurricane season right now, and so while we as a city don't hope for that, but as a company, all the rain doesn't. Isn't. Is helpful to your business. And if there is damage, real damage, and you guys can assess that where. How could people get a hold of you to be able to talk or have your crews come out and educate them on what's going on with their home? [00:34:01] Speaker C: Yeah. So just look up us. Look us up on Facebook or Instagram. We have a TikTok. We're huge on social media, so we can take care of you then. If not, just reach us out by number. Any of us are more than welcome to come and take a look on your roof. And speaking of hurricane season, get your roof inspected before the leak happens, because the amount of leak calls that we have been getting now you're gonna have to do the interior too, instead of just your small repair. So get those taken care of before it could lead to something way worse. [00:34:39] Speaker A: Right. So. And does it cost anything to have you come out and inspect a roof? [00:34:43] Speaker C: No, nothing. Nothing to have us come out. We do free tarp jobs, you know, because we don't want any more water to go into your house. So we have. We have an emergency response team. So we're available 24 7. We have tarps in the rain. So if you want to call us up in the middle of the night, your house is leaking, we can go ahead and take care of you. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Well, amazing stuff. You guys are providing a great service because I know that homeowners in this industry have. I mean, in construction in general. Right. They don't know who to trust. They don't know what they don't know. And a lot of people don't have the time to become experts in their own. In this stuff to ask the right questions. And so having a trusted person and a good business owner who's doing good business for the right reasons is hard to come by. [00:35:26] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. [00:35:27] Speaker A: So thank you so much for your advice and for them and for doing a great job and having an amazing business. [00:35:34] Speaker C: And thank you for having me. [00:35:35] Speaker A: You are so welcome. Thank you so much. Guys, we will have to go to a commercial break and stick with us. We'll be have our next expert here in just a few minutes. Stick around. We are just getting started. Stick around. And we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business forward. You're watching Biz Talk only on NOW Media Television. [00:35:55] Speaker C: So how many more are you guys doing? [00:35:56] Speaker A: Hi and welcome back to Biz Talk. If you're just joining us, my name is Emily Galindo and I'm your host and we are here to talk about all things business. And we are excited to welcome back our last guest, Leslie Everett, who is the CEO and founder of Walking Tall and she's our executive branding professional and she's here to talk to us about how to stand out and is struggling in a crowded space. Welcome, Leslie, back to the show. We love having you. [00:36:20] Speaker D: Thank you, Emily. Glad to be here again. [00:36:22] Speaker A: Good, good. I want to jump right in because I know that this is a really important topic to our viewers, which is struggling to stand out. We all want to stand out in our perspective spaces. Right. And so what is it that you think is the biggest mistake that people make when they're trying to build a personal brand and make that, make that impression? [00:36:43] Speaker D: I think that the first thing is people don't realize just how powerful and how important it is to have a brand that we've worked on proactively and consciously because our brand is out there already, whether we've consciously developed it or not. And it's the, the way we make people feel. So we, we often just leave it to chance and people will give us a little bit of good feedback and we just forget to kind of tweak it every day. So I think the number one mistake is leaving it to chance and not realizing just how powerful it is if we have a strategy and a system to put in place to build our brand. And it does take effort and it's something that needs to be done strategically, not just ad hoc or with a fire hose approach. And when I say that, what I mean is a lot of people think their personal brand is, is being present on social media, several posts a day, right across the board, on several platforms. So that I'm visible and I'm present and I have a profile and people can see me all the time. That's not necessarily the best way to build a personal brand. It's, yeah, you might be visible, but people don't really know perhaps who you are and what your expertise is. And in a professional sense, knowing clearly what our differentiator is and our level of expertise and our area of expertise and what it is the end client gets from us when they work with us is so, so important. And I think one of the biggest mistakes is, is people are not consistent with that brand and not having a strategy. [00:38:11] Speaker A: I think that is a wonderful piece of advice. I mean, it sounds like what you're saying is you got to be intentional about building that brand, right? Absolutely, yes. And. And so how do you. What do you think can be. How can business owners actually do that intentionality, but have it represent who they are and not just what they think? You know, I see like the Tick Tock dancers and they're like, I don't really want to be doing this. So how do we actually build a brand that represents who we are? [00:38:38] Speaker D: Yeah, that's. And it's not easy. Of course it's not easy. And we have to set aside time to really delve into, well, who am I at this point in my career? What is my business about? That also I reinforce authentically with who I am. What are my true motivators and drivers and purpose and talents and strengths and beliefs that really drive me now in this point in my career? And what is my backstory when I work with executives, it's really important to uncover who you are, what you stand for from the backstory that you have. And developing that and really thinking about what are the golden threads that run through me and always have done that I can really build on, because that's me. So it's authenticity is. Is something that we need to discover first of all. And then I think, you know, the feedback we can get from other people is so important. It really is important to get that. But we don't want to start with that. We want to do some really serious deep thinking about who makes what. What is it that makes me who I am? Get some feedback from others in terms of, well, tell me, what is it you think I stand for? Or what do you think it is I'm really good at? Or tell me what you think it is that I actually do. That's an enlightening one. It's. I can guarantee you it's not totally in alignment with what you do do or what you think you do, and then map that feedback over what you see yourself, and then you can get some really clear action areas to keep developing the brand. And the feedback is so important as we move forward. But based on that, then coming up with what your differentiator is, what is it that I do so well that really makes me great at what I do and gives the client end user Whoever it is, what they need and what they think they. They. They're looking for in terms of solving. [00:40:29] Speaker A: Their problem, that is really being authentic has become, I think, a forefront in marketing and executive branding. We're seeing that a lot more. It's becoming very popular. How do you think. But does. Does that really require me to cry on camera? Does that really require me to, like, open up about my personal life? Like, what are some things that can. We can do that aren't quite that vulnerable but still create a lasting impression of authenticity? [00:40:55] Speaker D: Yeah, absolutely. I think vulnerability is really important for a leader, any leader. It's humility, vulnerability, you know, being able to share stories of, you know, I didn't just get here through a lot of luck and hard work, and everything went really well for me. This is where I messed up. This is what I did about it. Or I had this situation 10 years ago that I didn't handle well, and I learned these lessons from it, and this is what I now have in place to do that as only from a leadership perspective. So it's. It's being vulnerable, being humble about things as well, but also being that inspirational leader that says, you know, these things will happen to you, these things do go wrong. We need to admit it, we need to learn from it, and if we're not making mistakes, we're not progressing. So I do think vulnerability and humility is really important. I remember speaking at a conference once for a large bank in Poland, and they had a panel session with their leaders that I wasn't anything to do with, but I was involved in the planning. And they were being asked these questions about their careers and how they got to where they are. And not once did they talk about anything that they'd messed up with or they had to. Would have done differently. And I said, I really strongly suggest you have a question in there of something that you didn't handle well, that didn't go well for you, that you took a wrong decision on looking back and what you did about it, and they really didn't want to do that. And I think it was an opportunity missed for authenticity to come through by being humble and vulnerable. [00:42:23] Speaker A: That. Absolutely. Leaders, I think, lead much stronger from the front by being able to say, so those things that you just. That you just mentioned. And so with that being said, do you feel like there should be a separation between the person and the. And the executive brand, or do you believe that they're kind of one in the same? [00:42:43] Speaker D: They're one and the same. And unfortunately, that's not Always seen that way with the executive. They're scared to sometimes show who they really are. And with my experience over what, 20 odd years now of working with a lot of executives, I've seen the ones that are most effective and take people with them are the ones that are transparent with their values and what they, they stand for. But it's, it's, it's not easy, it's not something we can do on our own. Hence why the coaching's there. Because you can't easily see the label from inside the bottle. As I often say, you know, the true value of that person is visible to other people on the outside rather than you yourself. So it's a matter sometimes of bringing that out. A key part of what I do when I'm coaching people is it might come through in presentations, it might be in just general leadership, but is the backstory of where you've come from and what are the learning points that you've had throughout your life that you can bring into the way that you lead, the way that you present messages, the little stories, the anecdotes, examples that we can reinforce a business point with that tells people a lot about you as a person and it helps you to bring the, to bridge the gap between the business presentation, as it were, and how you show up and the backstory of who you are as a person. So those kind of things are really important. [00:44:05] Speaker A: So, Leslie, who are some of the people, what are they going through? Some of your clients that you work with, what would they be going through right now? Or maybe questions that they would be asking themselves that might lead them in a direction to maybe want to work with you on creating a better or more polished, more aligned executive brand for their company. [00:44:24] Speaker D: Yeah, the most frequent questions I get asked are I'm wanting to move into an executive role, or I'm in a new executive role, or I've been an executive for a while and I need to build up my executive presence. And they don't really know what executive presence means some of the time, but maybe they've been told you need more gravitas, you need more impact, and I need more presence. I don't really know how to do that because I'm so busy. And this is one of the problems. They're so busy with the day job that they really don't think about how they show up, how they present themselves, how they managing a meeting, whatever, managing up and down across. So one of the things is that they don't, they really don't have the time and they're asking me, well, how do I build my executive presence without putting in a ton of time that I don't have? How do I have a strategy to do that? And that's what we work on most. A lot of what I get asked, it links back to presentations, and I call it presentational brand. How do you present a message, whether it's big, formal audience, to the media or to your team? How do you present with impact, with a compelling, succinct message? Often I'll get asked for coaching when there's a critical presentation cropping up next week, and I really don't want to mess this one up and wing it. Obviously, it's a little late then to do your best job, but we can work on that. So presenting being true to who I am, being able to build my executive presence and visibility and not knowing how to do it, and often leading teams that are full of managers and leaders themselves that don't actually have the leadership skills, haven't been given those, but have been elevated to a position where they're not leading effectively. So working with an executive leader, giving them greater presence means working with their team as well, often. [00:46:15] Speaker A: So if their team wanted to be able to contact you to maybe help them with that presentation or to be able to get that promotion that they're hopeful to get, how would. What's the most effective way to get in contact with you and your team? [00:46:27] Speaker D: Yeah, my LinkedIn profile. So Leslie Everett Lesley, spelled L E S L e Y. My website is lesleyeverett.com so that's pretty easy to remember. And my email is Lesley, Lesley Everett. So those are the best ways. [00:46:43] Speaker A: Fantastic. We love your expertise. This is definitely something, I think in a more competitive work market like we have and a more in a very crowded. Right. Landscape of being inundated with social media is that being able to have that gravitas, that pull, that presentation aura about you is critical now more than ever. So with that, I thank you for your expertise today. We would love having you on the show, and we will invite you back next time. [00:47:14] Speaker D: Thanks, Emily. [00:47:15] Speaker A: Thank you. All right, guys, that's it for us today at Biz Talk. We've had a great day, learned a lot of things, and would love for you to come back next week to learn even more about how to be in business while we talk biz. [00:47:30] Speaker B: This has been a NOW Media Network's feature presentation. All rights reserved.