A little about me. I am a 32-year veteran of the M&A space. My only job. I graduated from @butleru and wanted to be an investment banker. I went to the regional firms, and they all told me to return later with much more experience. I never got there.

When my wife and I were building our family, What to Expect When You’re Expecting was the book every mother received. This is that book for a business sale. Share it with the crazy sellers you write about :) There still may be a deal to be had. a.co/d/0aGzE70n

Lets Go! sba.gov/article/2026/05/18/s…

Say what you will, but @AeroPress makes a great cup of coffee.

Geo Wellmer (@tupelosmb) and I are speaking at @butleru ETA conference next week. All you buyers Does a M&A Advisor/Broker/Intermediary help or hurt your buying process? Any comments would be helpful.

Variable debt at 90%+ leverage is typically effective only when there is a clear path to deleverage or a real predictive earnings stream.

...so my "R" stopped working on my keyboard. The "R" is instrumental in many of my missives. @WisprFlow to the rescue 🛟. I dictate a lot already with it, but I was converted into a power user this week.

I attended the @FaegreDrinker M&A conference yesterday in Indy. It is always great, but this year, they provided attendees with @Uber vouchers to get there and back. I've been to many conferences; this was just a classy touch.

I bought a Ford F150 Lariat in December. How did a pickup truck become such a nice ride? I was dismal at parking before, so I'm taking my terrible parking skills to a new level with this massive automobile.

I'm considering email bankruptcy again this year.

This is an excerpt from a newsletter sent to me. It might be true: "Happiness follows a U-shaped curve over the course of our lifetime. We’re happiest in childhood, we bottom out in our 40s, then we skyrocket in mood around 50 and never look back. Stanford's Laura Carstensen's research shows: ✅We hit emotional rock bottom between 45-50 years old ✅Each decade post-50 increases life satisfaction ✅Neural networks shift from future-focused anxiety to present-state awareness ✅Emotional regulation improves with age"

For those who follow squabble about purchase price allocations, Stout just released the study of 5K transactions: Goodwill is on the rise in the Q4 2023 M&A: 📊 47.5% of enterprise value, up across energy, healthcare, industrials, & IT. 🤝 Contingent consideration in 23.3% of deals, averaging 15.7% of EV, reflecting a shift to performance-driven negotiations. For a short 173 page read: stout.com/en/insights/articl…

I find nothing convenient about convenience fees.

⁦The @CIMbuilder⁩ test drive could not have gone better.

CIM presentation:

I agree with those saying everyone should work in food service to understand customer svc and how to handle people. Cold calling comes in a close second for handling rejection. My daughter has an internship with @insightglobal. It makes me happy she is learning this skill.

I posted about how the sellside can make the business more salable. Now, here is how buyers can get one across the finish line: ➡️Don't be a jerk—this should be self-evident, and I fail to understand why we spend time writing about the initial courting connection with the seller. It's simple: If you are a jerk, you will likely never get a deal—the same as in life. You will be single the longer you are a jerk. ➡️ Learn in phases. Do you really need the six pages of ChatGbt generated pre-DD after receiving CIM? At least proofread it. You look silly asking about 10Ks. ➡️ Questioning, which feels like a deposition, should also be avoided. ➡️ The seller has three questions in the back of his head: 1. Do you have the money? 2. Can you operate? 3. Will you take care of the relationships in and out of the company? (protip 😉) Lender will want to know #1 and #2, too ➡️ Stealth-patronizing the seller carries an odor that the sell side can identify from far away. ➡️ The leverage of deal risk tips more to buyers the closer to closing. Everyone knows this; you don't need to remind them. ➡️Befriending brokers for the deal flow in your market/industry is ideal and may get you the inside track (sometimes), but if your search is broad, you should be on websites like @AxialCo or @BizBuySell because that is where I know I will find you in the shortest period. ➡️ Your deal will fall apart a couple of times. That is why there are deal teams...to stitch it back together. It is also where the greatest value is recognized in the commission. ➡️ There is less gamesmanship to this than you realize. There is a finite amount of cash flow to make it pencil regardless of buyer type. Start there. If you can't get the BV to work, the rest of the process isn't going to work either. Nothing wrong with submitting an IOI to test the waters ➡️ You will pay for the sins of your buyer predecessors, who mistreated or wasted their time and money, and business owners in their sphere of influence—it's not you. The deal is the sum of the collective pasts of other deals. ➡️ Sometimes, after exhausting all options, it makes sense to talk with the seller over beer, bourbon, or both instead of walking. Have the advisors trying to help get it the deal done sit this one out.