Joe Valley is an entrepreneur, advisor, and guest speaker. He mentors entrepreneurs to achieve their eventual exit from the business world and has mentored over 8,000 entrepreneurs over the last decade. He is also the author of “The Exitpreneur’s Playbook”.
Not everyone can boast successful stories as an entrepreneur. Joe, however, has had great success since he caught the entrepreneurial bug in college and even as he went on into the e-commerce world.
“When I was younger, all I wanted to do was make money. Now, I’m older, all I want to do is help as many people as possible.”
Join Joe as he talks about his entrepreneurial journey, growth strategy in business, business development tips, and how to exit a business successfully.
Find more about Joe here:
Website: https://quietlight.com/
https://exitpreneur.io/joe-valley/
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/QuietLightAdvisors
https://web.facebook.com/joe.valley.10?_rdc=1&_rdr
Linkedin:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-valley-833ba48
Twitter:https://twitter.com/TheJoeValley
John: Thank you for listening to The Business Sphere. Don’t forget to subscribe and share this episode. My guest today is Joe Valley, Joe helps mentor entrepreneurs to achieve their eventual exit of their business, he is also a guest speaker, author, and advisor. Thanks for joining me today, Joe.
Joe: Good to be here, thanks for having me.
John: And I know I haven’t read your book yet but I’m willing, I’m waiting to actually receive it to then absorb that content because this is something of interest to me, m and a. So, I’m gonna ask a ton of questions but first off, can you share with the listeners how you became who you are today?
Joe: Sure, absolutely! As you ask that question the name comes to mind and it’s actually Stanley Mccarty so, Stanley if you happen to listen to this podcast thank you. Stan and Sandra were good friends of my parents they used play Chinese checkers and I could hear Sandra laughing at night just I’m trying to sleep and she’s making so much noise. When I was a kid I went to work for Stan and one night when they were over playing chinese checkers with my parents, I was complaining as a kid I was maybe 14 years old I didn’t have money, didn’t have enough money and Stan just straightened me right out. He was noble kinda guy and he’s like work more, there’s plenty of work to do just just ask Kenny for more work. I was working for somebody under him named Kenny and it just, it was simple as that. I had always been of the hardworking entrepreneur mindset but at that point something had shifted the wrong way and Stan put me back on track you know when I was younger my first sort of muddy grasp and this is apply onwards on demand, supply and demand was I had a I grew up in Maine and every night I would go out with a flashlight and catch nightcrawlers. I lived in on Central Street in Gardiner Maine which was obviously in the center of town and water is everywhere, fishermen everywhere and my dad who is not an entrepreneur allowed me to put a big sign out from said nightcrawlers for sale. So, I’d catch them at night, would put them in the worm farm in the basement and sell nightcrawlers.
So, I always had that entrepreneurial spirit Stan made sure that I understood that hard work was necessary all along the way. Fast forward to college, I started a company called The Wrong Number which was a really kind of a long story but I won’t tell too much of it but was a restaurant delivery service specifically for college students. I was approached while working part-time at a restaurant by a guy named Michael Hackle who ran a company called Dining In. He walked in jeans, t-shirt, very casual and wanted to deliver for the restaurant that I was working for and when he left, I walked back to the owner of the restaurant his name was Dick “Dick, this is the story. I wanna do this.” he said “ Fine, I’ll give you the money.” So, we started a business together called The Wrong Number, dining in was geared towards high-end restaurants, dining in The Wrong Number and I got high by the way when I named it The Wrong Number. All right I was in college and I didn’t have an exit in mind, it was really funny and it actually worked strangely enough the college students loved it within a week I had five restaurants signed up and I used to deliver for them, they back in the day they would fax in the orders and my driver would go pick it up or I would take the calls from the students and then would and then would fax it to the restaurants my drivers would go pick it up.
I did that for about eight months while I was in college John, putting in 50 60 hours a week while being a fulltime student and when Christmas rolled around I shut it down and got back to the life of being a student, I actually went back to work for Michael in Dining In, I made more money as a driver than I did as an entrepreneur at that point Michael by the way eventually sold to, he expanded to Chicago, New York and other large cities, I was in Boston at the time eventually sold to Grubhub. So, I like to tell my kids I was an original door dasher even though that’s not the phrase for grubhhubbers but a long story there.
I, in college got that entrepreneurial bug eventually kicked around, tried a lot of different things in my 20’s but launched my own business when I was 29 years old, my goal at time was to make a little bit more money than I did the last job that I had and turned out you know my goal was fifty thousand dollars, I’ll tell you that first year as an entrepreneur I made a half of a million dollars and I thought to myself “this is a pretty good gig” I like this, I used to write it down on my hand how much money I made that week, I’d show it to my dad he must thought I was a drug dealer or something like that because he was a state employee, he made fifty thousand dollars a year and I made ten times what he did, some times I made that much in a week it was crazy. That was the direct response world, I got into the e-commerce world back in 2006 fulltime, John and built up an e-commerce brand and sold it in 2010 through a little company called Quiet Light brokerage, I took a year off and then I went to work for Quiet Light brokerage, I was the second full time advisor for the company, it was Mark Davis the founder, Jason Yelowitz who was my broker advisor to sell my e-commerce business in a part-time admin assistance. I work my way into ownership of that company I made myself invaluable for several years in a row, I generated 50% of the total transactions, a few years it was 70% of total transactions, became partners with Mark first 20%, 30%, 40%, now we’ve got a team of 15 advisors that are all entrepreneurs first, they’re all people that have built, bought or sold their own online business because that’s all we deal with is the online world SAS content, E-commerce, agencies, things of that nature.
By the end of Q1 2022 we’ll have 17 advisors we’re going to do about 250 million in total transactions in 2021 and you know it’s a good space to be in it was a little rough back in 2012 and 13 as you might know but it’s a good space to be and we’re at the sort of the tip of a rocket ship and I like to think that we’re holding on and our cape is flying behind us, sometimes it feels like we’re just holding on for dear life because it’s an incredible industry to be in and you know we’re just happy to be helping as many entrepreneurs as we can and that’s the approach help first, when I was younger all I wanted to do was make money, now that I’m older all I want to do is help as many people as possible and oddly enough I make more money that I did when I was younger, because I’m helping more people, it’s a bit of a shift in mindset, okay I’m rambling interrupt me because I could talk for another 10 minutes.
John: Oh! That’s amazing and I love that journey of yours because over the course of many decades you’ve matured, you’ve became more of a leader and you’ve been able to grow and scale your own business and you mentioned that you exited on several occasions. Do you mind sharing with the listeners what kind of businesses you had and how did you go about selling and what did you learned throughout all those experiences of your own before you started doing it for others?
Joe: Yeah so, you know I ran a, I ran a, the business that I first launched was a media buying agency specializing in radio direct response media and I always thought I couldn’t sell it you know I was the leader of the company at one point I had seven or eight staff made an awful lot of money buying time for radio direct response clients but it never occurred to me that ! could sell it even all the way up to 2010’11, I was running it alongside E-commerce business at the same time doing too many things. I just shut it down, it didn’t occurred to me that I could sell it, I was wrong it’s very sellable I was the head of the business but there were lots of people working for me that did a really good job and so, in hindsight I wish I could have reached out to somebody and gotten some good advice about the business instead of just thinking, yeah no! This is not transferable it’s me, I know so much about this, no I’m so smart none of this could transfer into somebody else’s head I need to shut it down and that’s what I did which is just idiotic.
The next business was you know, I launched that in 97 in 98 I launched a product marketing company and I marketed products on radio and my mindset there was you know products had life cycles, you launched them they go through campaigns on radio, maybe get to television I did a couple of television infomercials and then you find the next product. Not really the right approach these days right? These are things that could have moved, one of them did move online but, and could still do incredibly well online all the products that I did so I had many there. The first actual physical product that I ended up selling is not one that I built, I partnered with somebody I bought into it, it was a little company called Cord Hog, an organizational product company and we built that after I sold my last brand through Quiet Light. It wasn’t a big sale but it was an interesting one, first time I really played in the Amazon space and got that sold in 2013 I think, but the one that really introduced me to Quiet Light in the process there was the supplement company I started on radio in 2001 with that business as a single type of supplement for detoxification and then in 2006 took it a 100% online I doubled online a little bit with it but I took it 100% online after doing radio and then a television infomercial and I expanded it into a digestive wellness center or product line so there are multiple products. I hired a very good web developer a guy named David that owns Dirigo Designer Development up in Portland Maine and he said to me when we first met “look Joe you just have to write a good quality content and overtime google will reward you” I didn’t know anything about gray or black head SEO not until after I sold the company and I bought a business that was built on that but that’s what I did.
I wrote a good quality content over a period of 4 and half almost 5 years and google did reward me, I also spent a lot of money on PPC at the time but that’s the business that I exited through Quiet Light and unfortunately, unfortunately for Quiet Light I woke up and I decided to sell the business, that was my mindset, I woke up in early 2010, I lived in North Carolina at this point, my wife and some of her friends were out by the pool with our kids who were toddlers back then, having a marvelous time and I’m sitting in my office looking out and thinking I’m miserable, I’m not enjoying this business anymore and I started just googling, could I sell this business? And I reached out to three brokerage firms, two of them were just trying to get their hooks into me for a commission, the third was Mark at Quiet Light and he, we had a good conversation and he needed to follow up with me and get my p nails and actually look at them and digest them and give me a you know, a real value opinion. By the end of that second call that I had with him John he said “ look you’ve got a sellable business today but based upon the trends, if you wait another six months you’re gonna make an awful lot more money, let me explain how” and he showed me how you know older months fall off, the p&l newer ones come on and boost the discretionary earnings. So I waited, I waited until November of 2010, actually it was October that we listed the business, we had a quick transaction it was under LOI and closed within about 6 weeks and sold in November of 2010.
John: That’s amazing and ever since you’ve been at this existing business that you’re a part of today?
Joe: Yeah, well I joined the company in 2012 and I think that first full calendar year of 2013 for me the first full calendar year, I joined in April of 2012. I closed personally 23 transactions and they were only you know maybe a 125-130 thousand dollars as an average deal size and it was myself and Jason and Amanda joined shortly after I did, today it’s you know average transaction size for 2021 will be 2 million dollars, again 15 advisors I personally closed about a hundred million in total transactions since joining the company in 2012, I no longer broker my last deal closed in January of 2021 and now I’m focused on you know podcasting, marketing, selling the experience playbook, networking and just helping build our brand and reputation a little further than it is today.
John: Oh that’s amazing, and I love that whole process right? Because you have to be in it, understand the process, learning how to go boats, selling a business before you inform others right? So, in terms of like the last couple years I know there’s been this huge shift right? From bricks and mortars to this new digital landscape and e-com and you know the Amazon effect right? Have you noticed like a lot of product play are doing FDA like the Amazon kind of businesses or how is Shopify performing? Because this is your space, you basically see new products, new brands being created and people want to exit and is there a shelf life before they tend to want to exit? Or is this more the they feel like this is your baby they wanna keep and hold it for as long as they can.
Joe: Yeah everyone’s a little different of course, the world that we live in has changed dramatically you know from just five years ago. In 2016 I wrote a little, I want to call it a booklet right? You know this is a book right? It’s 300 pages, the entrepreneur’s playbook. All those books behind you are real books. I wrote a booklet in 2016 called “Ten steps to selling your amazon business” . Nobody cared about it, right? It was ahead of its time but it showed that you could actually, I was trying to you know educate people that you could actually transfer a FBA account fulfilled by amazon seller account you could actually transfer the ownership of that, even though amazon in their terms of services that you couldn’t, I had documentation that showed that they did it, I’ve done it many times and I had them tell me how to do it. So I wrote that book pamphlet and even back then you know the multiples John and multiples are how businesses are sold in this space, even in the brick and mortar space it’s still multiples.
So, for us it’s a multiple of seller’s discretionary earnings or the simple term is owner benefit, that includes your salary, your net income plus your salary, some one time expenses, cash back money things of that nature’s, total of three different levels of what goes below the net income they’re called ad backs, I’ve got three different levels of ad backs in chapter 11 and there’s a total of 18 different ad backs, if you sell your business without doing an ad back schedule you are giving your buyer instant equity or what I call an ignorance discount, they’ll be thanking you for many years because they’re going to be able to resell that business for a huge profit because you didn’t price your business properly. But the pamphlet back then the booklet didn’t do really well and amazon businesses are really hard to sell, in fact online businesses are really hard to sell, you know we used to list businesses at 2.74, by 2.74 multiple so they would round down to 2.7 right? Because buyers didn’t, they didn’t want to go over 2.7 they just, a lot of pushback. Today it’s a completely different world, there’s a belief and trust that these online businesses are real legitimate businesses, covid push that a little bit further because a lot of people, my father who’s 85 shops online now, there are aggregators of FBA businesses like thrasio, razor perch, boosted, profound commerce. There’s a lot of them have raised hundreds of millions in some cases, couple of with razor and thrasio to buy these FBA businesses.
So, that has educated you know everyone that they can actually sell these and push the multiples up because they’re competing against each other now we used to say to our clients that came on board that you know the goal in listening the business timing wise because they always wanna say how long is it gonna take between listing the business and getting it sold, and I’d say the goal is to get you on three to five conference calls with qualified buyers within the first 30 to 45 days of your listing going live, and then if it’s a cash deal we’re going to close in 30 to 45 days if it’s going to take another 60 to 75. Today? Very different, we’ve got an average of four and a half offers on every listing year to date in 2021 and the multiples had jumped, a business that might have been worth a 2.7 multiple back in 2016 is probably worth three and a half to four or five times today. The multiples are being pushed up across the board for businesses that are smaller doing a hundred thousand in discretionary earnings and naturally those much bigger doing a million in discretionary earnings as the business get larger John, the multiple goes up as well because the larger they are the lower the risk, the lower the risk the higher the multiple.
John: Amazing and I am sure you see a lot of different types of businesses, products mainly I would say, are you finding that a lot of people are trying to exit intentionally or is it more, because bricks and mortar and I know you used to do a lot of radio ads and selling direct response, they were in the mindset of passing it on to generation or fulfilling it for 20 30 years. Today with E-com people don’t know what’s gonna happen and the type of persona, the type of people who are purchasing, selling, buying, going through these transactions. Are they giving it 5 years, 10 years because it’s in this infancy?
Joe: Yeah, for the most part no, for the most part no and one of the reasons is not because they’re immature the business, the industry’s immature it’s because if you bootstrapped an e-commerce business meaning physical products and it’s you know got hokey pokey growth. You’re actually not making a whole lot of money, you’re not putting a lot of money in your pocket, why? Because you know every time that cash comes into the business you’ve got to go out and buy more inventory just to keep up with growth and so you know the starvation mode for 2, 3, 4, 5 years gets really tough when you’re doing 5 million in annual revenue but you’re not actually putting a whole lot of money in your pocket because you’re growing like crazy. It’s hard even if you have slow growth it’s still hard right? Because you’re, there’s so many working capital needs and the reality is that for a physical product e-commerce business and often content and SAS as well and certainly agency. The most money at least 50 percent of all the money you ever make from that business happens on the day that you say that you sell it and so entrepreneurs look, we have a shiny object syndrome that you know I can do that syndrome whatever you wanna call it and we actually kill a little bored. We can only do something for so long before you go, here’s a new idea I’ve learned a lot here I’m ready to move on to this next project that’s what happened to me in 2010. I had a great life at a great business but I was bored, emotionally tired, worn out of it right?
It was a dream for me you know decade a decade before that’s the life I wanted to live and I was like yeah I’m bored I need to do something else. So that happens too so, number one they sell because they haven’t taken any money off the table yet. They sold the business for a million dollar for a guy named Jeremy who the business was only 24 months old, the only money he got out of that was a camera that he bought 600 dollars to pay you know to take photos. He made a million dollars after 24 months but he didn’t take any money out of the business in the 24-month period because it was grown so rapidly. So, most of the money’s you know at closing and that’s what they sell or they’re just emotionally tired, worn out ready to move on. I just talked to a couple of guys yesterday that are listening their business for 8 figures in January and they’ve been building a brand for about 5 years, two friends from childhood decided to launch a business together, they’ve got an amazing brand, a great product but they’re just in the grind everyday and that’s not the dream that they had, they were looking for freedom and flexibility and opportunity and they’re having you know, they left the corporate world to be entrepreneurs and have that life and now they’ve got a business that they have to grind it out everyday because it needs them right? They’re feeding the beast and they have to keep shoveling coal into that beast.
So, their reason is you know take a lot of money off the table, number one it’s gonna be an 8 figure exit because they’ve been grinding it out for 5 years, they’re ready for their next adventure. It’s not retirement, they’re young, they’re in their late 30’s they’re gonna do another business, they’re gonna learn what they’ve learned, become what I call exitpreneurs right? They understand the greatest value in their business, comes the day that they sell and now they’ll have a whole bunch of money in the bank, they’ll be out of debt, they won’t have to bootstrap their next business because they’ve got some capital to do it right. And the learning curve? From 0 to 10 million in revenue is gonna be a whole lot shorter because of the knowledge and experience that they have and their next exit will probably be multiple 8 figures instead of just 8.
John: That’s amazing, I have so many questions for you, the first one I was gonna ask is, do you find that a lot of these people who do build a business, sell, come back and buy more businesses or start more businesses?
Joe: Yeah! Yeah!
John: Because of that mindset right? That skillset, the experience and that thrill that they have.
Joe: Yeah so, there’s a two pass right? When you sell you’ve got money in the bank, you can take that knowledge and do it all over again but at the same time you’re impatient, you know that the exit is where you gonna make the most money, so you can grind it out for another four years in building a big business to get from zero to you know 10 million in revenue or, and the odds of failure there on what 96%? 96% of all new ventures fail or you can be an, what’s called an acquisition entrepreneur you should read the book Buy Then Build by Walker Deibel, acquisition entrepreneurship and buy a business. It’s already established the odds of failing are minuscule if you do it right and you can take that knowledge and experience you and that’s what these folks do you know and they’ve got capital right? It’s not bootstrapped anymore, they’ve got capital and they can hire a team because they can afford to know and they can take that to the next level whereas that bootstrapped entrepreneur is exhausted, tired, worn out, just needs some cash off the table.
So yeah, a lot of them will come back and purchase their next business and grow it to the next level they they they set goals right? It’s part of what I talk about in the experience playbook and anybody that I, I’ve mentored 8,000 entrepreneurs over the last decade, one-on-one conversations that’s why I wrote the book John because I kept repeating the same thing over and over again. Let me put this in writing, I can reach more people that way but the number one thing that they’re learning to do. Look you’ve got a lot of really amazing books behind you, many of them talk about goal setting and the success that you can gain by setting proper goals and revisiting them often and so as an exitpreneur somebody that has sold an online business already, they know that if they buy one their goal is to exit it, they understand values, what brings, what plummets values, valuation ranges. So they immediately set a goal and figure out how to reverse engineer to that by pulling and pushing certain levers in the business to make it valuable enough to sell for that exit goal.
John: That’s amazing! So, all these people that now you’re surrounded with, what drives them? Do you find, like what are some of the personality traits of these business owners and entrepreneurs that you deal with?
Joe: Yeah, are you familiar with the book Surrounded by Idiots?
John: Surrounded by Idiots
Joe: Yeah! You got to get that one in the back on the shelf back there. It’s a typical you know personality test book, there’s red, blue, green, yellow, and the reds are generally people that have an idea and just drive forward with it, it’s not necessarily that they should drive forward with it, it’s that they can drive forward with that right? That’ll phrase just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. That’s the entrepreneurial mindset, it’s wanting to push forward on that idea because they think it can work. It may not be all planned out and detailed but they push forward on it and they drive forward on it, they wake up at three o’clock in the morning thinking about it. It’s a shame I did that all the time but I’ve been up since 4:30 this morning. I wish somebody would come up with a sleep solution for me, I actually bought a sleeping book this morning at about 5’oclock in the morning.
So, you probably have some of those kicking around somewhere, I think your way to sleep is just to work your tail off with, you know exercise and all this proper eating and all the things that you do so well. But these you know the entrepreneurial mindset is just somebody that’s driven to succeed no matter what they do, they focus on a goal and of course family is incredibly important, that’s the number one goal and why we become entrepreneurs many of the time so we can spend more time with our families and then they sell because they’re grinding out in the business and not spending as much time with their families and sometimes you can find that balance. I’ve got that with Quiet Light now and the experience playbook it’s very balance, I worked from home had since, I would say 2006 and drive my kids back and forth to school they’re actually 18 and 20 now they drive themselves but it’s that driven mentality where they think I can do that, I’m gonna go ahead and do that, I’m gonna push forward with that and living a lifestyle where they don’t want to have a boss or an answer to anyone and they enjoy you know, talking with colleagues and joining mastermind group and sharing ideas and helping each other not necessarily to benefit themselves but to benefit everybody and when they do that those masterminds lift each other up the people in it and their businesses grow and eventually you know they either exit through an exit or they exit without exiting by putting in a c-suite level of executives and moving themselves to the board and that’s another way of exiting as well.
John: That’s amazing! So, I know you mentioned in our earlier conversation about changing the mindset of being a giver, I’m a huge advocate of grinding it out but also understanding what where the true value is and when you start helping more people, amplifying your message and giving more, things will happen and it’s a multiple of what you were used to. So, can you share with the audience members like, when did that time come for you and how has that been for your business?
Joe: Well, for Quiet Light I remember very specifically it was early 2013 I was in New Orleans having dinner I think it was a traffic and conversion show or something I forget what event it was, and I was sitting around having dinner with a bunch of folks and it was my first full calendar year as an advisor and someone said “Well, what do you like about it? What’s going on? How are you enjoying, you know, your new role as an advisor for Quiet light?” And I said “Honestly, I just love it, I love working with you know other entrepreneurs and helping them understand the value of what they have and march towards their eventual exit goals and I’m just having a good time helping people.” And somebody sitting next to me said “You know they called bull” and said “That’s not true you’re just like making money” I wasn’t making any money then, John.
So, it was completely wrong, I’d made plenty of money in my life and in this role it was really evident when I had those first three phone calls with three different brokerage firms, two just wanted to get their hooks into me for a commission, they were being very selfish which actually caused them to make no money because I didn’t hire them and if I had hired them they would have made less money because I would have sold then, If they helped me first and shifted their mindset to helping me as much as possible, they would have won my business number one and they would have made more money because they would have advised me to wait and then I would have listed my business for a lot more and they earned a commission then they would have made more as well, would have worked out very well for everybody. So that, that was a real lesson for me and it’s always you know again back when I was first launching it was just about making money and how much I made, the business was not great right? It was, it was me for the most part I had a team but it wasn’t you know a business that no one ever wanted to leave right?
Now with Quiet Light we have a team of 15 advisors that are first and foremost entrepreneurs, they’ve all built, bought and sold. They joined the team because they wanna help others now as well. In a, since I joined the team in 2012, we’ve had one advisor leave just one, and that person just had an offer he absolutely could not refuse and so, everybody has that helping mindset because they’re old enough and mature enough and done well enough financially they realize that that’s A number 1, being a good human. B or A number 1, number 1 being a good human, 2 you do actually make much more money in the long run and you’re doing it the right way you’re helping others and whether you’re selling, grilling aprons or you know fidgets, fidget tools or whatever if you just have that mentality and shift your mindset from I’m gonna make this much money as possible and I’m gonna sell my business to I’m gonna help as many people as possible. I’m gonna build an amazing business and eventually I’m gonna exit at a great price to a great buyer for a great value, great terms and all that. There’s a lot of greats in there and you just have to shift your mindset a little bit from it’s not just about you, it’s about your customer, it’s about your clients, it’s about your friends, it’s about your mastermind members lifting everybody up and ultimately you know rising tide raises all ships right?
John: You know this makes total sense like perspective of not just where you’re at right? In your business journey but in life in general because to be a better human that means you if you’re a parent you got to be present, you got to want spend more time and do things with your children or your significant other or your family and friends right? But if you’re so busy you know in this rat race or building a business and you’re splitting 60, 80, 100 hour weeks and you’re not you know taking care of your health, taking care of your you know whatever it is like friends, relationships, contacts, whatever it is and you’re kinda going in this rat hole right? It’s very toxic, so I always talk about like lifestyle and balance and really understanding like this is what you mentioned before like goal setting right? Like, what are you doing what you do, are you really enjoying this business? And ultimately where do you wanna be? And I always do this goal setting with all my team members like 3 months, 6 months, 5 years, at 10 years like how do you picture your life? And let’s work backwards so that we can slowly achieve and accomplish and yes there’s gonna be challenges, there’s gonna be a lot of you know skills to go over right? But if we do this together we gonna actually have fun with progress.
Joe: Yeah, now it’s reverse engineering path to the goal you know you got to set that goal first and then you get to figure out where you are today you know if the goal is to work 20 hours a week and live in xyz house or neighborhood you know you get to figure out what’s it gonna cost to do that, that’s the goal, how much are you making today, where do you live, what are the rents, what all of those different things you know when I was I think I was 29 at the time 28 or 29 I went through one of the Tony Robbins programs back then it was you ordered it from tv infomercial, you bought the tapes, the books and all the kinda stuff. I think 150 bucks or something and it was a goal setting exercise and I went through that very very explicitly and it was you know there was something about the boat on the water in the Portland Harbor. I ended up with the boat on the water in lake Norman in North Carolina instead, it’s fine it’s good but described the woman that I wanted to marry, in detail you know the height, which type of personality, athletic, these types of things driven that kind of stuff. I, she showed up, she showed up in my life at the company I worked for you know she was in the training class that I was training and you know a couple years later we were married after I set those goals I revisited that years later I was like, “Holy! Oh my God! Christiana take a look at this, this is incredible this is you look at this.”
So, I think if you set those goals and you put it in your mind and you envision it and revisit it. I thinks these days you really, you really can’t achieve them, you just have to understand what’s what’s, how important it is to revisit them and that you know I’m of the mindset John, I don’t know if you are some people you know say set a goal and just you know go after that specifically and don’t change it. As we grow and mature our wants and needs, and desires change as well, so you know I do, I’m an advocate of revising those goals along the way right? Even just a year ago, I set a personal financial goal and a goal within my company. I’ve already revised it because some things have happened and we’ve changed a little bit I’m like “Okay yeah, this is cool I’m liking this now. I’m gonna shift that goal over here and tweak it a little bit.” you know I might be exiting without exiting if you will right? Maybe I don’t have to exit to achieve my own personal goals, maybe I’m gonna exit without exiting. I love the strategic advisory part of my role here at Quiet Light and we get big enough I don’t have to exit to take money off the table. I can be an advisor, we’ve got a board of c-suite level of and have them be on a daily grind instead of me you know.
John: And I know you’re at a mindset which is a little bit different than a lot of entrepreneurs, they wanna get that stage where peace of mind, clarity you know and then making sure that you have everything in place, to get there takes a lot of great determination, you know a lot of grind itself right?
Joe: Yeah
John: But did you find that having mentors, mastermind, going to events, doing a lot of you know, I know you mentioned about your next or neighbors, having that hard work in you put you in that different space? Like because a lot of people think they do it themselves right?
Joe: Hell yes, no no no no, the harder you work the luckier you get right? You grind it out, you ask questions you know my son looking for an internship now and I said “Look, you reach out to so-and-so and they may not be the person that’s gonna give you that internship but their body may have the perfect opportunity for you so you network, you make connections and you build relationships. So I think you know for me when I launched that when I took that radio direct response product 100 percent online, I connected with the right web developer through somebody else that wasn’t the right fit for me. So, it was reaching out to others having communications, learning from them, talking about my goals and them saying “Yeah, this isn’t actually the best fit Joe but you need to talk to David.” and that happens everyday, today you know a lot of what I do is just referring people out to the right person that they should be talking to, that’s probably 50% of the phone calls, somebody will call me and say they want to do something they thought I might be able to help and I’m like actually, I’m no! You go to talk to someone so they’re gonna really help you with that and that person may not be that perfect fit either but they’ve made that connection and that connection would lead to the end goal that they’re looking for.
I don’t think there’s any way to do this alone, I’ve had mentors along the way, first it was Stanley, now it’s uncle Walter, been for uncle Walter for a while off and on over the years, he’s mentioned in the book I believe. It’s just advice from those that have gone before me and you know people around you, they don’t have to be older than you by the way, there’s, you know in this E-commerce, in this online world, whatever you’re doing there are people of all ages that are incredibly successful. I was at an event for 8 figure sellers a couple of months ago and you know a 27 years old, gets up and is talking about how he did 75 million dollars in revenue in the last 12 months and I’m just, he gave a presentation and it was a small group maybe 25 people and my question was “How? Aren’t you exhausted? That’s incredible everything that you’ve done.” he’s like “No! No! It energizes me, I’m jazzed up”. That’s a true entrepreneur, he’s driven to succeed through that process, he’s young, he’s got lots of energy, he’s willing to try all sorts of different things and he’s part of a mastermind where he can bounce those ideas off of and all those people there were part of the same mastermind and they’re sharing ideas and experiences, whether it’s the right SAS product to use or the right copywriter or whatever it might be, they’re helping each other and that helps their businesses grow.
John: And I love the fact that you’re telling everyone that it’s all about putting yourself out there, a lot of people are afraid of what other people are gonna think, because you believe you’re probably not to their standard or they’re so far ahead of you. But without knowing that, I always say “Just go out and make relationships, connections, and talk because people that are a couple steps ahead of you are more willing to give you advice because they understand what you’re going through. They are the most generous, honest kinda people that are givers as well.”
Joe: Well, you’re hearing me on this podcast I’m running off at the mouth but I’m an introvert so if these types of things that you’re talking about are struggles for me, I was an event a few years ago actually more than 7 years ago and I didn’t really know anyone at the event I was you know new to going to masterminds and stuff and there was a party the evening at night of right? That everybody gets there and I felt walking around didn’t recognize anybody. There’s a lot of people all talking like they’re old friends and one was by the pool and I kind of, I’m on the outskirts of it and start you know I work my way in and it turns out that they didn’t know each other at all and they we’re all just getting to know each other. So, it took so much courage for me to walk up and say “Hey guys! I’m kinda new to all this, this is amazing, great place, I’m Joe this is my story.”? They we’re all so open to it and having conversations some of us some of them are our friends to this day but it was incredibly hard to walk up and do it.
There was another time when there was an amazing speaker, God, did the presentation at an event that I was at and then I saw him at the next event that I was at, I’m like I have to say hi to this guy and I figure out where he is and I see him he’s sitting on a couch by himself. I walk up shake his hand, say hello to this day I sold his business, I sold his business partner’s business, he’s referred 21 clients to me I looked it up yesterday, 21 clients to Quiet Light over the years because I had the courage to walk up and say hello and I help him you know with his eventual exit of his business. We, which he’s one of these entrepreneurs that has shiny object syndrome but he was over leveraged and needed to sell and I was there for him when the time was right for him, I feel the need and if I hadn’t had the courage to walk up to a total stranger and say “Hey! Man I saw your presentation it was fantastic, I’m Joe this what I do and love to help you any way that I can.” If I hadn’t had the courage to do that, I’m not sure where Quiet Light would be today to be honest with you because you know he’s an important person in our network of friends and relationships. So, you gotta you gotta get yourself out there just the courage to say hello, simple as that.
John: And these are skill sets that a lot of people in the business world, there’s invaluable skill sets that they need to harvest and one of them is not just sales and marketing but just being, like going out and doing things that are relationship building in nature, brand awareness like getting out there even though it might be uncomfortable, letting people know what you do right? Like a lot of people are afraid because you know they’re they’ve been at is for so long that they think what they’re doing is the right way to do it but yeah, I like the fact that you’re mentioning like just go and step out and outside your comfort zone right? Go and meet new people.
Joe: Yeah, you know there’s a gentlemen that I’ve worked with over the years he was a client first, his name is Ramon Van Meer and he does it better than anyone that I’ve met. We were both at a an event blue ribbon mastermind and somebody got up and spoke and she just the speaker just did an incredible job and she was the vice president of a very well-known company and yeah it was a little intimidating even you know for people that are very successful, a little intimidating. Well, Ramon is an immigrant came to this country you know as a single dad, it’s real challenges like literally like sleeping in an airport just like Will Smith in the movie there. I ended up selling his business as maybe fourth or fifth business for just under 9 million dollars, incredible success he just figures stuff out, he’s not invited not to finish high school in Denmark where you are required to finish high school, he was invited no to, he does not have a college degree, he just figures stuff out and walked right up talked to her talked about his business, asked her some questions and she didn’t blow him off she didn’t go, oh man you’re so stupid that’s a stupid question that doesn’t happen at these events. You walk up, you say hello and people that they’re there to meet you, they’re there to engage with you and they’re there John to help you and they’re not, as Ramon said to me a couple of weeks ago, he’s like “Look you know you have to actually ask your friends for the help, if they don’t know what you need or what you want , they don’t they can’t help you, they wanna help you so you need to ask them.” And when you go to an event like that, that woman who’s up there speaking and doing a presentation is there to help, so walking up to her and saying hello and engaging with her is something that everybody should do, I didn’t do it because she intimidated me and I was uncomfortable with it, I didn’t know what I was going to talk with her about, I should just gone out and complimented her and said amazing job that was fantastic, we’re a sponsor here and yeah I’ve known Ezra for a long time yadda yadda yadda.
No matter how successful you are, sometimes you’re still going to have that, what is it called when you’ve got that complex with you? Oh, impostor syndrome right? It happens to all of us no matter what and so you know, I had it with her I’m like, I don’t I don’t deserve to be here, somebody else would be like they don’t deserve to be on the Quiet Light podcast or on your podcast, they do! They all have their story, they all have their journeys, they all have their successes and failures and sharing those will help others succeed after you or help you succeed even more.
John: This is a amazing discussion we’re having. I was gonna just you know end this off, Joe with a couple of personal questions like, where do you see yourself in next couple years. I know you having a lot of fun, you’re growing and scaling this business of yours like some personal goals, some corporate business goals. Where do you see yourself?
Joe: On the business side it’s it’s exit without exiting and enabling our team to have ownership in the company, as well. You know they’re all brilliant, they’re all smart than I am, they’re more successful than I am. I was doing a podcast with one of them yesterday, Pat Yates, he was on Shark Tank. I forget what season he told me yesterday, he’s gotta deal with Robert, bright guy but he you know he and I were joking that is on the team is so much smarter and successful than us. So, you know securing them as investors in the company having shares of the company is one of my personal goals, Mark my business partner and I are going with the whole exit without exiting because the company is big enough, large enough and can support a c-suite level of executives so we’re gonna move ourselves to the board and have you know a CEO, CTO, CMO, COO that kind of stuff and that will leave more room for us to do the projects that we are passionate about or enjoy both on the personal and professional side.
Personally, I gotta figure it out John, you need to share some of your fitness books with me so that I can get the kinda shape that you are, sleep better that kind of stuff. Those are actually personal goals for me, I’m 56 as we talked about I actually I’m in relatively good shape for a 56 old, I weigh the same that I did when I get married 24 years ago and that’s through hard work and exercise and eating right but I can do better and I want to do better. My youngest son just got the acceptance letter to Davidson College yesterday so, he’ll be off to college in August of 2022, my wife and I will be empty nesters trying to figure out how to spend our time and a lot of that’s gonna be doing what you’re doing. Eating so so well and exercising, doing fun active things, it’s not just going to the gym but what you’re doing, hiking you know competing in tough mudders and things of that nature. I wanna, I wanna get down with a lot of that stuff myself, personally.
John: Yeah, well definitely stay in touch because I would love to share with you some of the mental preparation as well as some of the content that I’ve been reading up on but this has been amazing, Joe. I’m gonna definitely stay in touch with you. What’s the best way, some of the audience members can reach out to you, connect with you if they do have any questions?
Joe: The best way would probably to visit quietlight.com and reach out to me through the site or just hit me up with an email at [email protected]. On LinkedIn Joey Valley Quiet Light you can find me there if you do search for EXITpreneur if you can spell it properly it’s entrepreneur but with an EXIT in front. You can find the book, you can learn anything about me on the website on the exitpreneur.io or find the book on Amazon, as well.
John: Amazing! I’m gonna embed that on the show notes, it’s been a pleasure speaking with you, Joe and thank you so much.
Joe: Thank you John, appreciate it.
