Assistant Director of Ops & Outreach- Mississippi State University Admissions| MSU Athletics Emcee In a world full of walls, build bridges. #changingtheculture
Starkville, MS
Joined September 2012
- Tweets11.3K
- Following1.6K
- Followers1.3K
- Likes132K
That was the game of the year. What a big shot to end it.
It's incredible that UNC & Duke are able to maintain the intensity of this rivalry in the age of the transfer portal.
🔥🔥That'll preach
“It is the will of God to have the Spirit of God use the Word of God to make the children of God look like the Son of God.”
—@HBCharlesJr
Full message: linktr.ee/rivercityrichmond
It's a sad day in this country. We cannot stop until the antiquated notion of the death penalty is abolished.
I wrote on this a few years ago and will not stop.
"Should the Capitol hand out capital punishment?"
This is probably one of my most heartfelt pieces. Check out my thoughts on abolishing the death penalty.
djournal.com/opinion/columni…
Very proud of my friend/mentor/brother. It's been cool to watch him navigate this SMB acquisition world for some time now. Has opened my eyes and expanded my horizons. Cheers to you, my friend @RoryTyer
I have been quietly searching for a local business to buy for over two years while working full time. Today I am the new owner of South Pleasantburg Nursery (the biz & 8.5 acres of real estate) here in Greenville, 15 minutes from my house. It is 60 years old & the seller has owned it for 25 years. I'm very happy I get to help him transition to retirement.
I am *extremely excited* to have such a wonderful & knowledgeable team, and to go to work every day surrounded by plants, trees, and fountains. We get to help people find more joy in and outside their home. I get to use what I've learned as a coach & leadership development consultant to help make this one of the happiest places to work in Greenville.
If you told me two years ago that I'd own a brick and mortal retail biz I would've laughed at you. However--not all brick and mortar is created the same. Some have great gross & net margins through careful buying and thoughtful pricing, knowledgeable & hardworking team members, & a unique position of being the largest in the city limits of an amazing place with strong demographic tailwinds. Above all this is a biz I am proud to own & will be proud to involve my kids in as they grow.
The seller is an amazingly hard worker with lots of integrity & extremely reasonable expectations on price & terms; between that and updated SBA regs on down payment, I was able to close with only $50k down, and I own 100%.
At some point soon I'll tell a more detailed acquisition story but for now I want to say thank you, in no particular order, to a bunch of people who have been helpful to me at some point along this long road. I swear I'm going to forget someone so if I forgot you, please just reply as angrily as possible 😂:
@MarkMagaro, for being a few steps ahead, showing me around your place, & being always a text or phone call away
@SBA_Matthias, for being a resource to me for almost two years & helping me be the squeaky wheel as things went sideways a few times the past few weeks. If you're going the SBA route there is no good reason not to use a loan broker & Matthias is incredible at what he does
@BoilerPlateCPA, whose team did a fantastic job with my quality of earnings report and who I'm looking forward to working with moving forward
@smbtaxattorney, who is an absolute wizard at what he does (& ditto on working with moving forward)
@michaelfiore, who has been super open & generous with his knowledge & experience running a garden center
@ivan_mathena, who introduced me to some great local folks, showed me around his fledgling operation (& I have no doubt will crush it), and had great conversations
@jd_foote, whose family I got to welcome into our home twice (!!), who is calm & kind, and whose consistent focus on family capital heavily informed my ETA journey
@RandBusiness, who gave me the chance to help facilitate some peer groups and in the process introduced me to an awesome community of small biz owners from whom I've learned a lot already
@Dloontour, one of my few long-time IRL friends (and one of my best / closest friends) who's actually active on here, and whose friendship remains a powerful force for sanity in my life
@elialbrecht and another stellar SMB Law Group attorney named Norina, who I don't think is on 𝕏 but should be--Eli, you're awesome, but Norina gets all the credit here, she's been a joy to work with
@SMB_Attorney, whose first M&A masterclass (back when he was anon!) is what really sparked my interest and led me to reading the HBR Guide; after that I couldn't unsee the opportunity in ETA
@joshuamschultz, for becoming a great friend, acting like an uncle to my kids, & always challenging me with his keen eye for operational excellence
@RegZeller, for just being an absolute blast to hang out with each time I've seen you (and for always wanting to cut through the influencer / pie-in-the-sky BS that often takes over this space)
@MatznerJon, for enduring a call with me way back when I actually thought Organized Garage was something I might be interested in (spoiler: I would not have been a good fit), and for being a really important contrarian voice in ETA conversations here
@erikfike, who trusted me to coach him through a large part of his own acquisition process & who's become a good friend (and who inspired me to use a HELOC for my down payment)
@mwlthe1st, in my backyard here, for being kind, open, willing to make introductions, and overall encouraging me that this was something I could succeed at
@bibelhausen, whose transparency & persistence through hard things is inspirational to me
@SteveWiesnerSMB, who asks good / hard questions and has been a great thought partner
@ThePooreJoe, whose friendship and thoughtful advice have been wonderful
@mitchellcmorris, whose experience and generous open-handed sharing are models for how to give back
@AustinLinney, who had me on his podcast & whose positivity and drive remind me almost every day of what really matters
@GoalsBDunn, for a lot of great commiseration, ideas, and good reminders (from someone with much older kids) about making career choices that prioritize family
@birchard_tom, for getting together back in a very busy season for him, and for reminding me that there are many paths to success, which sometimes includes leaving SMB life for a "big corporate" gig
@rodrepairs, for taking my call to talk about (and help talk me out of!) a home services franchise
@cameronleesmith, who actually moved here & has been a huge encouragement to me
@realrookieceo, whose genuine kindness, humility, and incredibly sharp perspectives on biz & leadership were inspirational and motivating
@jcolesimpson, who, despite the insane soap opera that has been his life the past few months, still regularly took the initiative to text me & ask how the process was going
@patrickdichter, who patiently made time to talk accounting firm acquisitions when I went through a phase of considering that (don't all professional services folks have that phase at some point??)
@n8lenahan, who gave me a consulting call & helped me realize how little I wanted a plumbing or HVAC biz 😅
@robbielaney, whose kindness, encouragement, and good questions made me feel more confident that I could actually be successful through ETA
@guessworkinvest, with whom I had a pretty early conversation that really helped me feel better about not having an MBA (and whose newsletter about search & operations is an absolute must-read for anyone in the space)
@BetterCeo, whose thoughtful approach to leading people & businesses gives me many good ideas I look forward to trying out
@Fundof1, who was very real with me over a couple beers about his post-acquisition experience--and yet also was super encouraging
@thegeneralmills, who was happy to meet for breakfast and who was open & encouraging in conversation
@stephenolmon, for taking a random call with me waaay back when I was first feeling things out
@chrisxmunn, for doing the same. Can't even remember what we talked about but I really appreciated it at the time
@AndyHVandenBerg, who helped tear apart a biz I was looking at & taught me a lot in a short time about how to think more like an investor
@ConnorAbene, who analyzed a CIM with me for free & helped me avoid wasting some time
I hope I've remembered everybody but please ping me if I forgot you.
This 𝕏 community is awesome & I look forward to sharing more fully / transparently as I settle into being an owner-operator!
(Short thread)
Our state auditor is either misinformed or being intellectually dishonest here. I hope it is the former and not the latter.
The enrollment cliff is coming because there is literally a population decrease of high school age students for the next 5 to 10 years.
Our universities are facing a looming crisis. The news outlet Inside Higher Ed recently stated that “the number of traditional college-aged students will peak in 2025 and then decline dramatically for several years.” Students pay tuition, so a declining number of students is bad news for the balance sheets of the universities.
Who can blame these students for not choosing college? Tons of careers, especially in Mississippi, don’t require a degree. Students can learn a trade and often make more than their college-educated peers. For those who do go to college, they often end up choosing nearly useless majors and leaving with a mountain of debt. College debt in America has doubled in the last 20 years.
So maybe declining university enrollment isn’t so bad. But on the other hand, I think there’s more our universities and state can do to make college useful. If students see that universities are spending their money on degree programs that actually lead to a good career, college will seem more appealing to students.
This is a big concern for me as State Auditor because so much of our taxpayer money goes to higher education. We should be spending that money wisely, and we should be spending it on degree programs that are useful for our economy—both for the good of our state and to make college attractive to young people.
Lawmakers need to identify which programs actually create graduates who can help our economy and direct taxpayer money to those degrees. If the state does not step in and change where taxpayer dollars go, the universities will continue to spend money on degree programs that are useless. For example, one of our public universities has a gender studies major that, this semester, is offering a course called “Gender and Zombies.” And you’re paying for it. There is no reason a taxpaying plumber should have to pay taxes so someone can learn about gender and zombies.
If we make this change, our universities will offer more attractive programs, and students will be more likely to attend. In the long run, it helps the universities surmount the college enrollment cliff.
(this is an excerpt of a piece I originally wrote for the @CDispatch)
This population drop will touch nearly every state in the country. The most prominent reason being the great recession of 2008. Couples decided to delay or abstain from having kids. The children that would have been born in '07, when the housing market started to crash, will be – at Starkville, MS
Same thing for this game tonight. Iowa & LSU are putting on a show.
I've been glued to the TV this March. Women's hoops is in a great place
Wild day in SEC tournament. I think looking back about 2 months ago, my assessment was pretty spot on.
Only change I would make now, is that South Car and MSU are pretty interchangeable on any given night
Obviously, this trend is a little over the top lol. But it shows how hard it is to truly be a star today because the Internet is so critical. They let nothing slide. It's interesting to see how MJ would be perceived if he played during social media era
Heavy morning. Cancer/illness is touching a lot of good people in North Mississippi today.
Proverbs 3:5 feels like the fitting verse for today. God is in control – at Starkville, MS
Dalton Knecht is the best player in the SEC man 🤣. Nobody can make me think differently. Nobody, and I repeat nobody's game will transition to the league like his
*I deleted the original because I misspelled a word haha.
But @mwildmon14 same. But that was nothing compared to what he's doing to Auburn right now. They tried everything. Box and 1, straight up double. Doesn't matter, he's cooking everybody