Michael Arrieta thank you for joining me today on acquiring minds looking forward to it will Michael you're the founder and CEO of Garden City a holding company that started only in 2020 but it has been pretty active since let's set the stage with a brief description of Garden City in your own words Michael and then we'll get to your background and work forward so please tell us more about what Garden City is and does yeah sure guarded City companies or Garden City Equity we should probably figure out which one we want to go with button City companies is a people first uh holding company that acquires grows and forever holds a blue collar and white collar service companies and we typically buy these companies from retiring owners that are seeking liquidity plan or succession plan so that's what we do so we look for blue and white collar service companies and we buy them from retiring owners and we hold them forever great and starting in 2020 give us a couple bullet points on where you're at here early February 2023. yeah so we raised the fund out of the gates in early February 2020 uh the month before covet hit so perfect timing truly perfect timing and we raised uh capital from about 50 what we call Mission aligned and value ad investors so these are the CEOs of companies like um you know DocuSign Uber Equifax Chick-fil-A athletes such as Drew Brees Tim Tebow like that entire plethora those are our 50 families that we Steward their Capital so those are the that's the capital that we use so we raise that money from those 50 families and since then we've made five investments in service companies so three of those Investments are majority 100 control companies that Garden City companies owns that's part of our holding company and we provide shared services and we help them grow and then the other two companies are minority Stakes that hopefully someday when the owners are ready to give up a majority stake uh we've been a good faithful partner to them and they would entrust us with a majority Stakes so Garden City companies right now has those 50 plus families those five companies our team is comprised of a little less than 10 full-time people at the holding company to focus on growing these great businesses and finding these great businesses daily um and we're headquartered across Atlanta and Charlotte so our team's dual headquartered across both and you're buying Nationwide or is there a regional focus at all we're trying to focus on the Southeast because just the proximity is a lot easier you know we have really board meetings or we like to go and visit and see them or spend time with the company and so just for us in our families just so we're not on the road and having to travel across country we try to stay focused on the Southeast but we really have a big focus on other areas right now like Texas is not a long plane ride it's really well about the plane ride like can it be less than a two-hour airplane ride that's kind of our secret thing that we say internally there's something in Oregon we'll look at it you know but we're kind of hoping it doesn't work out great well Michael I know your background of course you you and you had this very successful um track record in in Tech and um so it's really interesting that you've made this decision to go from that to Garden City in in buying blue and white collar businesses and so we kind of want to hear how all of that transpired uh take us back even further to before your Tech Career as far as you think is relevant and let's hear the you know the quick story of how you arrived at this concept yeah I'll try to do it um pretty quickly it's this thing um born in Florida um both of my parents have always had service-like jobs and so I was raised around that I wasn't raised ever around White Collar jobs um and so I kind of saw firsthand what that was like even for my grandfather um and just all around and so that was always kind of ingrained in me I didn't really realize it right but I was always ingrained in me um and so um you know I had a stutter problem which was incredible because that got me a scholarship to get uh proper private education which helped me overcome that stutter problem and actually this is pretty cool well two out of three kids that are in poverty they come out of poverty two out of three kids they come out directly correlated to having positive influence and positive exposure in their lives so how how do two out of three kids that come out of poverty uh do it they say it's just having positive exposure so by me this private school that we could have otherwise afforded I just saw a whole new life of people that were white collar like jobs you know and how important education was and all that so um I started going down the White Collar way I went to University and all that good stuff and then I went into Silicon Valley and did that for a decade um and after my last company DocuSign that I was a part of after we went public it was kind of this thing that like if money were no object and you could do anything in the world I wasn't a billionaire or anything you know but if money were No Object you'd do anything in this world what would you do and for me I was like I've always really liked service companies I don't know every time we go to a dry cleaner I'm like I'm fascinated by the fact that people need dry cleaning or like every time I go to a car wash I'm like I'm Fascinating People need car wash or or like what my investors that have been with me now for three years always call me like hey we need to buy an HVAC company I'm like yeah dude I get it like I get it you need AIDS everywhere like the thing you care about almost more than water and food is uh heat and and air and so I've always just been fascinated by those companies and the thing that really got me to follow it was my mother and father like they work these companies and the struggles of making ends meet and the fact that they were never viewed as purposeful or they never lived on Mission or they were not valued they were more a cog in the wheel I was like you know what I love these businesses I probably could grow them pretty well and I have a deep yearning for like impacting the people in these companies you know so that was it I just followed my dream and you didn't really know what you know search was or search funds or ETA this was all kind of um your own kind of your own notion that you you of course you now know all about that stuff but it was really this concept was was indigenous to your own your own your own mind completely I had zero clue about this world zero I mean I thought the whole world traded on 10 to 20 times ARR you know because that was my right um and and I and I was so far away from the tangible products because everything was software um intellectual property and so I had no clue um but but I knew some people that were in my ecosystem like this baller that owns 23 barber shops I was like that's awesome like you want 23 barber shops like girl baller you know that's so cool like people need haircuts or this other guy like you know flying around private that owns these car washes I'm like genius you know but like so I just saw these business owners at scale that had these boring cash flow businesses and I'm like yeah yeah DocuSign we're trying to force people to see the value that this gets to save money through efficiencies these companies they just are like good at hiring the right people and customer service and pricing they're going to crush it you know yeah what was my only thing and then people started telling me like hey there's this thing called search fun I was like maybe that's it and I read all the Stanford and Chicago Booth School business and HBS and everything and I'm like well that's not really it because I don't want to operate it you know I don't want to buy a business and operate it and then more and more research someone started sharing more business models with me a guy named brimpy sure that you and I both know and starting to learn his model and I was like that's it it's actually buying those same sort of businesses growing them through what what we're talking about and then stewarding them long term and holding them long term great well let's return to that but I want to dig in a little bit on your appreciation for just meeting a a very simple market demand people need their cars washed um and contrasting that with I mean you had a really illustrious career in Tech you you kind of um Breeze through it but I wanna I want people to know that uh kind of what you experience in Tech give us a couple bullet points there I mean DocuSign you wrote from a very small business all the way through IPO and and then there were and then any other any other details that would be relevant to get more context of like where you're coming from yeah I mean it was totally stupid for me to leave Tech right like in Tech in Silicon Valley it's all about leveling up right so when I got into Silicon Valley I joined as a channel sales manager of a startup called WISE Technology and then you know by getting the favor of the CEO by pure luck and coincidence he allowed me to be his chief of staff right so now I'm in now I'm with the CEO which like every day I was like oh one day he'll say hi to me one day I'll get and now I'm with him 24 7. and then we get Acquired and Michael delbiser company and then I become Chief of Staff to that CEO now I'm like wow now this is now I'm on a Fortune 50 company being Chief of Staff to the right hand got the right hand guide to one of the biggest leaders now I'm flying all across the world I'm like man now this is the top of the world and then it's like actually I had this yearning about like I kind of liked creating more the document opportunity came up so I joined that right and that was less than I don't know probably 50 75 people and and I joined as the chief of staff and VP to the chairman and CEO so I was his right hand man his jack of all trades the extension of him to grow the business and go International We Grew From you know 100 people to 200 to 500 a thousand two thousand four five thousand you know and we just wrote this massive wave and now the company goes public and we're like can it go public for 2 billion can I go public group for two billions Like Whoa We just finish the day at six billion and then it's like 10 20 30 40 50 60 billion dollars you know at the height of covet and it was stupid to leave because the opportunities I had one of our uh our CFO left and joined um it doesn't matter what the company is but a company a food delivery company that everyone knows of um he offered me the co-co and I'm like this is genius like when I was at WISE I got this much Equity then when I was a DocuSign I got this much equity and then I stayed a little bit longer at this much and then now the whole point of the game is you go to another company you get this much and you get a bigger side you get this much and you just keep doing it based on your based on your background experience expertise Network and for me to jump out of that completely and be like operating task flow to million of profit it's like wait I'm pitching the CEO of Intel that was a CEO of VMware that we're gonna buy janitorial companies and I'm leaving this to go do that and so it was stupid if you look at it just completely logically at the same time I didn't care I was like hey if money were no issue what would I do with the short days we have left on this Earth what happened another have another at win another at batch is for more safety and more security you know so it took now I will say it took me a year and a half to take the plunge because those golden handcuffs have seen over 90 more days of vesting oh if 90 more days investing and as the Stock's going up it's hard but luckily I'm married to a good woman that uh that was um very encouraging to follow my dreams well the other thing I would just wonder about is like you'd seen these incredible rides up I mean this kind of explosion you've been at the front lines of an explosive success startup success I just also imagine that it's um does that not kind of become addicting or it's like you know once you've experienced that everything else feels um anticlimactic so you just kind of be chasing that feeling again the rocket you know being on a rocket ship again so so even money aside just the the thrill of being on a rocket ship um and small businesses are not that they're really fun and interesting and dynamic in their own way but rocket ships they are not so was there is there no um you know rocket ship Envy in you um so two things that come to mind one is is it was a calling that I could not stop or resist um and number two is that it was a it was a thrill of starting something new and so what I mean is there was plenty of things that buddies or myself have even when I was at wise or Dell or DocuSign be like oh I want to start this concept right like I remember working on this idea with a company called parkaround it was my company I started I was like there's all these parking places they're all manual and there's parking spots everywhere what do we created an App they get rep share right it was genius now it's Park Mobile and everything else but it was like going against the wind I just couldn't do it it was just so hard it was so hard um with Garden City companies with Garden City it was just it felt like there was a wind behind my back it felt so natural it felt so easy to be honest with you I don't want to say that word but that is what it felt it felt so easy that I feel like such a calling you know and so I just resisted I was like this is a walk in the park and then the other thing is that there was a thrill there was a thrill of like how does this work how do you buy companies where do you find them what how do you structure a fund like how do you make a return how do you pay yourself right like who do you hire um like all these things was a thrill and it still is a thrill as I you and I were talking before this call and I was showing you things around my house here and it's a thrill every day of creating something new yeah yeah great you realize as you were kind of exploring this path I don't want to operate a company I don't want to buy and operate a company and then you arrive to kind of the Brent be sure approach it which is where Garden City now plays um but why not why didn't you want to operate why what what about operations did you not like in kind of being more of an investor you did um I don't know if I'm either uh an Esther nor operator um I think the more and more I grow up and have self-examination and reflection on who it is that God made me to be I think I've realized that um what I really am is I'm highly relational like I freaking love people like I could just chat it up with the valet guy here at the slopes for two three hours um and I just love people I love hearing their stories I'm authentically curious of who they are how they got here what they're doing what their dreams are and and if my next meeting's two hours late be like I caught up in authentically being curious I don't know it's who I am so I love being relational people I love Gathering people so like at Garden City we we bring our 50 plus investors and their spouses together once every 12 to 18 months and it's just it's incredible it's incredible how we bring them together what we do the artists we bring in to play music it's just it's really special to me and then I love creativity like I'm writing a book right now with a big author about how to sell your small business and then we're doing these other ideas I'm just I just love ideas now a lot of them are bad ideas but I just love idea uh brainstorming so so that that is my thriving um so I'm you know in the entrepreneur operating system the EOS Playbook they call that a Visionary I think that's a bit generous for me but just I'm just a Founder I'm I'm entrepreneurial but I love people I love Gathering people I love coming up with ideas and so if I could operate there that is where I'm best that's where I am so enthusiastic and it's not depleting to me granted when you start a company from scratch you do have to be the investor and think through what is this company worth and what's the market and what's the multiple and how much leverage if any at all and what's a management team and the underwriting of it you have no one else uh thankfully I brought in a partner a couple years ago that that is his gifting and then after bringing him on I was like well now that we have some companies I have to be the operator I had to be the operator and holding the management teams accountable if they can get through the budget of thinking through hiring to thinking through technology culture and that was the pleading to me too I I was getting through right and that's what I I've always known how to do is just do my best even if I had to kill myself but it was depleting and so then I brought in another partner that that's his God gifting Talent right it's to be like an amazing operator that he's done it at scale right and so now it's allowed me to be truly in the Eos Playbook of just doing this speaking to my investors speaking at the business owners speaking to our CEOs and loving on them right and just coming up with stupid ideas and hopefully one or two good ones well let's talk about um some particulars here let's let's hear the story of one of your Acquisitions let's say you you said you have you've had three majority Acquisitions so three kind of pure Acquisitions and then two minority Investments let's hear the story of one of those of those acquisitions yeah sure so um I'll just go with the most probably the most recent one that we made um about 10 months ago or nine months ago so the company is called connects c-o-n-n-e-x-t um the way this deal came to us is one of our investors uh he called us and he was in this industry of kind of I.T construction I.T services so his background came from when you build the Atlanta Braves stadium you have to wire it for Wi-Fi and access control and all that stuff and he sold his business to try best he's one of our LPS one of our shareholders and he was at some event and he saw a guy that he's known for decades in the industry that also had a similar company that company's name was called trextel and Trexel had two departments in their business they had an MSP part of the business they're reoccurring you know MSP very scalable crazy high profit margins then they had this I.T deployment side of the business that does IT services for companies like McDonald's and Jimmy John's in Publix and all that sort of stuff right all these and what they do is they go and they help install and deploy new hardware right he wanted to get rid of this old school business you know that makes 10 15 net margins and he wanted to scale the MSP side and so we told one of our investors hey I'm actually going to go talk to an investment bank because I'm going to sell that part of the business I'm going to sell off at that department and so my investor said hey I'm an investor in Garden City I think you love these guys they buy with no intention to sell they use little to zero debt they keep their process super simple like 60 days they could probably speak and buy the entire business from you um they'll they'll allow you to roll over Equity you know if you want to roll over it you could still be involved or go but they're just really good guys they'll add value around installing technology they'll add value with culture they'll add value with sales introductions to help grow the business and he was like man like that sounds like a lot of one plus one equals five accredited value I'd probably if they'd be willing to I'd probably want to roll over and get them out if they're going to grow it like that so we had a conference station with him that Friday and we just sold him hey tell us a little bit of your financials like what's your revenue for that department what's your net income for that department what's your plans for that department who runs that department how would the new name of this department work out right all these sort of things so he told us you know does a little over 3 million of ebitda for that department there's some hair with controller because that would be shared obviously there's some hair with the head of HR because that's shared but there's actually GM and that's all he does and he has his team and that's all he does and so we looked at the business we asked for the financials we had a couple phone calls you know what's the dream situation of everyone kind of what's their pipeline for the next year what makes them different than the competition we gave them an offer um then we and the way we typically give offers is we're like hey we think the business is valued like this we may be missing a couple things is this me kind of what you were thinking or is there something totally off and it might be that maybe maybe it's that you want to roll over more maybe it's the earn out it's not good maybe it's that you don't want to earn out maybe it's that you uh maybe the multiple is way too low and we're valuing something much lower than what you're batting it at you know maybe you didn't know the market so so we may miss um but if not we just want to have that conversation and he wanted to know three things one do you actually have the capital to close or is this something you got to go raise the capital two can you close in 60 days and three is can I still say involved you know so he said yes we have all the capital already raised we don't have to go raise it it's in the bank account two is we actually will guarantee we can close in 60 days because we don't use debt we keep legal stupid simple like very very straightforward and number three is however you want to stay involved however much you want to roll over or you want to be chairman you want to stay on the board sure and that's what happened so we bought the company um 58 days in 58 days we bought the company um and the day before closing we met with every single manager in the entire company we told them what this means for them that their department is now staying on its own we called it connects connecting what's next right um and since then we brought on a president to the company we've brought on a cro we've brought on the head of Finance we promoted the GM to coo and we put a board around him an amazing board around him and we have used our 50 plus investors as sales introductions and ebitda has basically almost doubled almost doubled not quite double but almost doubled in less than a year so it's been it's been awesome and the owner's still involved he's on the board he rolled over equity and now he's actually even an investor in Garden City companies so he goes to our shareholder Summits and he's she's part of our family Michael you make the the acquisition transaction process seem really kind of straightforward and easy but compare that acquisition and transaction process to your first one because it does seem like you have I mean you've that's your third your third at bat um you've gotten some some reps was the first time that you bought uh made an acquisition a little rockier or I mean this is your first time doing this I mean you came into this space uh an experience in buying small businesses and now you're making it look easy so kind of compare how things have developed for you personally in the last two or three years yeah so our first company that we bought um we're having some difficulties now with it um and it doesn't matter what the name is but we're having some difficulties now with it and I believe the reason is is I heard in the search fund World many times that you at that 18 month itch right is like make or break and we were like 18 months since launching and I was like I gotta make like it's got to be a make not break you know I have to show that all the money that we raised we could put to work so I sold myself that we had to buy this company and then in diligence what happened was I allowed myself to focus on all the little tiny nuances of diligence a thousand things that don't Google any diligent checklist and there's like 800 things uh for steal we have to make sure every one of those are dotted every one of those are so forth is there a is there a risk of lead pain or I.T breach or all this stuff that had nothing to do with the business and instead I didn't just stick to why I even got into the fresh place like is this a good industry do they have a good brand reputation is there a good team like is this team going to be good like on day two how important is this owner to the transaction right do we actually even trust this owner and he'll be there for us after the transaction I got out of the three or four things that really matter but you or anyone coming out of any Industries like I don't know a lot about M A but if I had to guess the Market's got to be good the team's got to be good so forth right like you got to get along with the management and we got into the minutia um so that is the difference between how we look at deals now like I had a call with the large company this morning that we're hoping to make an offer in and I'm like look diligence is going to be diligence I know the big things to look for and they all pass a sift us you know that's how we approach connects that's how we approach other companies interesting so so the minutia actually distracted you from the big questions and you and you didn't really answer the big questions well and now it's kind of starting to come back and bite you and you would also kind of imply that at 18 months you hadn't yet actually acquired something so maybe you lowered your standards a little bit because you were just eager to deploy some Capital yeah I was scared fearful scared worry that was gonna be a failure and then of course we make like three Acquisitions like that's it back to back um but yes it's it's it's the um the worst I mean um I've heard a lot of people say this but the worst deal you could do is a bad one like it's not not making a deal it's having a bad deal you know yeah yeah yeah um and how had you been doing your um your deal flow your finding deals for those first 18 months and how do you do it now yeah there's kind of a couple strategies one strategy is we do have a pretty unique story in terms of being like a holding company in terms of buying and growing and holding forever ever in terms of not using debt in terms of having this Collective of 50 kind of world-class investors right um and kind of my story coming from Tech to this messy lower Middle Market and so just sharing the story with speaking or podcasts or stuff like that really trying to get the narrative out has been helpful you know the people oh I'm kind of for this whole people first we want service workers to thrive prosper and flourish like I'm For You Garden City and how you want these workers to thrive and provide the best shops you've ever had so that's been a big kind of momentum behind us like the win behind our sales has been kind of it's just Network effect um number two it's just been the intermediaries so we have some on our team that focuses on calling on Bankers but what we tell Bankers which almost every this is kind of funny all the deals we get from Bankers are deals that the investment bankers didn't win or they're not taken to Market but they're for us personally and they're like hey we bidded on this company like right now there's a roofing company that this investment banker bidded on they're not going to go with investment banker the guy calls us he's like hey I'm just so for you guys I know you love service workers I know you want them to thrive Prosper I know you can help grow through technology I can introduce you or here's a number like you guys should go after it that happens so much so it's this whole thing that people want to support you know so that's kind of our quiet thing like we we don't participate in auctions right we're just like if you find something that fits us here it is and we give you a hundred thousand dollars so anyone ever sends us a deal ever we give them a hundred thousand dollar finders fee plus twenty five thousand dollars to the charity of your choice and so if you're an investment banker and you send us a deal that even your firm's not representing you get 100 000 or your firm could have it and they could pay you or whatever um so that's number two but by far the it's the biggest one is proprietary so um people are like why do you have investors like why do you do it with your own Capital there's no benefit like our investors are incredible they provide zero problems oh there's one that does but it came about almost zero problems and um and it's they're constantly thinking of us they're constantly opening their Roland Express they're constantly introducing us to people they're constantly asking how can I help how can I help I mean so without them I mean all of our five deals we've done four of them have come from our investors one of them has come from intermediary that just brought us a deal that's phenomenal well I I even people individual acquisition entrepreneurs most of my audience who who buy a business and they may have searched for a year for two years to find it even their experience often is once they buy that business the deals will start kind of coming to them maybe other people in the industry maybe other people locally now that they are they've demonstrated themselves to actually be able to do a deal and they're they're active and they're real um it's it's really remarkable how like what a step up in Deal flow occurs and you know and you're operating at a different level um you mentioned Brent be sure earlier I'm sure something like a permanent Equity just gets tons and tons of inbound like they probably aren't doing well I don't I have no idea but they probably don't need to be doing much Outreach themselves at this point it's probably all inbound yes and no I mean yes a lot is inbound but at the end of the day there's just a lot of competition out there I mean there are just there's so much Capital you know there's so many independent sponsors there's you know hundreds of search funders right there's there's hot there's hundreds or thousands of strategics right and so at the end of the day it's like yes you will get deal flow but you always have to Circ like circulate and activate um the channels you know like again as you know Brent's one of my best friends right and he and I talk about it and it's like we our teams constantly got to be pounding the pavement right and going to it yeah telling people um but at the end of the day you did hit something really good uh so we have a health care service platform we have a sales kind of a sales service platform um janitorial pool and I.T service and now that we're in those five we naturally see deals in all those five because we're in it right yeah that is awesome that that is significantly helpful that I never realized that would happen you know and Michael what are is kind of your target range your target parameter um the smallest company that we would consider making investment in has to have it net free cash flow ebitdo whatever you want to call it of 2 million um and the highest kind of biggest company that we desire to go out to do in our farm is about 8 million of ebitda so two to eight million of ebitda Top Line minimum you know ideally 10 to 100 million um if it's something bigger like right now we're talking to a much bigger company it does about 15 million of ebitda that'd be a bigger check for us right um we would just lean on our investors and be like hey our fund would feel comfortable putting X millions of dollars into this would you guys want to co-invest and put in the rest so we have the ability to very easily but we focus on two to eight million of e but I tend to call it 100 million of top line revenue great it so you've now given us two mentioned two of your Acquisitions what's the the third the one in between so the one at 18 months which was a little bit challenged now the the the one that was the carve out from the MSP business and what's the the middle one yeah so we bought a janitorial business called Duncan and Sons um that was around since 1970 something amazing story at this uh gentleman named Gary Duncan that he was uh cutting grass one day trying to provide for his I think 12 children you heard me right and and um one of the businesses he was cutting grass for the janitor didn't come and he needed it clean he said Gary you wouldn't be interested in cleaning my building right and Gary's like I'll try and so and we still have the account until this day 40 something years later um oh 50 years later now um and so uh we got introduced to him through an intermediary that was a friend of his and he was just really looking for some someone that could Steward and take care of his people for decades to come you know he that was he did not care about the break he wanted a fair prize who doesn't but more importantly his two sons were still in the business right he loved the people deeply he just wanted to be sure that whoever uh student next was going to Steward the business and treat people well the way that he did easy conversation out of the gates diligence was super easy there was an earn out a clause in there that that uh that was um that was missed by a little bit and that was the Genesis of hey um what do we do here and to see his character and to see how we responded with our character just showed exactly how the partnership was going to be and so now it's amazing we grew wonderfully last year we added some more management to this team and again with our introductions we opened up a lot of new big accounts we just expanded here to where I'm at today in Utah so cleaning some big facilities now in Utah so we went from Knoxville Tennessee to Utah expanding some accounts here we're going to Nashville next it's an amazing company that employs 500 people um and and um and it's amazing we're really trying to focus on how do we radically love these service workers these cleaners in a way they've never been loved how do we give them dignity and respect in a way that blows their socks off you know well let's get into that some Michael because that you've touched on it again and again and um and I know from our pre-call as well that like that was one of the core things that you kind of what the value that you could you could bring to the space which was kind of improved culture um improved Maybe I don't know if dignity is too strong a word for people who are working in service jobs so um just can you like address that directly now what what is the value proposition and can you give us some examples of how you've how you've changed or improved the culture at some of these Acquisitions yeah sure absolutely um so one of our shareholders and advisors and board members is a gentleman named hortz schultzy hortz was the founder of the Ritz Carlton um and he wrote an excellent book any business leader or operator especially should read called Excellence wins so good it's just about being excellent um and his theme at Ritz Carlton was we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen so he would stand up in front of a whole crowd at a new hotel opening you know 500 new workers there at the Ritz Carlton in Jamaica or whatever and he would say hello everybody my name is horch schultzy I'm the founder and CEO of the Ritz Carlton Hotel company and I'm a very very important person I have a dead straight face and he knew what everyone was thinking yeah you are you rich man that's arrogant that's whatever right and of course and we're just this lousy whatever and then he would look at them for about a minute and not say a word and then he would lean over the podium and go but so are each and every one of you each and every one of you are very very important people we have the opportunity to be ladies and gentlemen of Excellence serving our clients of ladies and gentlemen or you could be a servant that you could take this sentence and just be a servant that serves ladies and gentlemen which one do you want to be and so that's why we base everything off of right is that we give the opportunity up we could be ladies and gentlemen that have dignity and respect and what we do and do it with Excellence right to serve our customers or we can look at your job as a peasant that serves other people right it's the decision is ultimately up to you Hort schultzy hired JP power and of course what's the number one thing that you think people want that makes them happier money right right that's what you think well JP Powers showed that that's actually number six to number eight on the list year after year number six number eight is actually money the first thing workers want and this is specific to the service world of horses research is they want a place of belonging they want a place of belonging they want to know that they belong they want to know that they that they matter that they're not just a serial number right so what's something you could do around that I don't know how about um a monthly company Town Hall an all hands where you talk about the company where you let them know that they belong we let them know the new customers that we want they let them know the new markets are going into they let them know the new people that we desire that you let them know the new services that we're offering that you let them know the new systems that we're doing what about that alone communication is kindness communication is kindness Clarity is kindness right so that hits number one a place of belonging number two is a place that their voice are being heard they just want to know that their voice is being heard they want to know that their voice actually matters so a May that cleans a Ritz Carlton she's ridiculous every day that when she that her card only has enough for eight rooms that's just to go down load her car come back up to do it again go down load her car she wants to know that she could actually say like hey if we get a bigger Carter if we put the storage on this floor it's a lot better but if she has no place for her voice being heard and she knows it's never heard that suppresses her there's no addiction no respect there right at number three is that they see a path that lets them know that there is upward Mobility that there's a clear advancement track right that they want to know what is it that I could do or what is it's available for me on how I can get there right what's the latter to the latter to success Chick-fil-A does a brilliant job in this right that you start in there then you become a manager then you could be an operator then you could go into corporate if you want right it's they have it everywhere right that is a brilliant model those three things how much do we focus on that we actually give amount a massive amount of clarity and massive amount of communication for them to feel as though there's a place of belonging that we actually ask them like can I hear your voice can I get feedback can I know what you think on how we get better and number three actually letting them know like here is the platter that if you do X Y and Z sky's the limit but instead what we do is we just do what just give them more money and here's your performance review at the end of the year it's so transactional when as humans we're relational right and so I love that stuff that that stuff doesn't cost us money like some of my investors are like oh like we're all about purpose and we're all about like blessing and helping others I'm like oh it's just really good business like even if I was like the worst person on planet Earth and you told me to run the best business and I was completely logical about it I'd be like oh okay I'm gonna give a lot of communication I'm gonna let the voices being heard I'm gonna show them up Mobility because it's just good business it's not just like a Kumbaya like nice to have it's genius you know and so I imagine that you've been seeing some benefits from this as you've as you've layered it in massive I mean in all of our companies you know I mean again in one of the companies that we own it's difficult because of the market because of the economy we're in the interest rates the inflation the supply chain it's difficult and it's really really hard to hold those people with us when they see that there's such headwinds right that's really really really hard so there is the reality of being in a difficult situation but status quo of all the other businesses right it's beautiful they feel seen they feel heard they feel acknowledged they know that we care so we have stand-ups in every month and every one of our companies we Institute and management I managerial one-on-ones with all the people so they could be heard when we buy companies we hear all the voices right we give clear leadership we promote we show internal promotions basic things that cost us nothing right yeah it takes a whole lot of high intention bringing this down to to kind of a more micro smaller Acquisitions a lot of the the guests that I've had will demonstrate in their first couple of days their first week month that they hear their new employees by making really slight changes so if you know they the the team had wanted a water cooler you know in that room as well as in the main room or whatever they'll they'll Implement that or if um you know just small tweaks like that that demonstrate that even these trivial changes that you the the my new employees want and have been Desiring I am here to service and those little things can really go a long way and they can and especially early on they can really set a precedent for kind of what the new culture will be under the acquisition entrepreneur's ownership as somebody who listens now you're talking about it again a kind of a grander scale but I think it's it's conceptually very similar and what I'll say about that just really quick will is um I'm actually against what you just said um in terms of the small continuous ongoing forever changes um because what we've seen is like they're well the two things I want to say the small little tweaks really massively change the operations of a business right um such as we come in with this Hardware business school case study about we need to redo blah blah blah blah right and it's like or we put a contact us form on the website for a b2c business on the front page and our lead just doubled and that changes everything it's like that's a little tweak that changes everything and I'm all for those and that's such the case with small business rather than the complex b-school plan right so I'm all for that but um on something that you said uh which we had to learn the hard way is like oh this week we at a gym next week we paint the walls the next week at the website and the next week we um the issue with that is that you're very responsive instead of proactive and so what we tend to do now is we tend to take probably the first six months and we just listen you listen it's really hard not to change stuff and we listen and we listen and after we listen we create the plan that we're like okay here's the things that we're going to change like we're going to change your work chart we're going to change the water cooler we're going to actually add a warehouse you know and that's what we're gonna do we're gonna all do that we're gonna Marsh for that plan and that's gonna be it so I know you guys mentioned adding snacks I know you guys mentioned fuel card and all that stuff and that's recorded but we're not doing that right now like after hearing everything you said we intentionally and proactively are doing this plan you know because what we started to do is we started to just listen and be it it just became a rat race with no clear sensitive Direction you know um there's many clear examples I'm thinking of that now we do what I'm saying and it's it's harder it takes more discipline but it's so much more fruitful so even even sort of symbolic small changes in the beginning you would you would suggest people not do rather just spend the first months just listening just listening just listen then digest all of that from the small to the large and then kind of come out with a plan communicate it say we've heard you some of it were taking some of it were not this is what we're doing we've really put a lot of thought and time listening into this and here's our go forward yeah and it depends on what we're talking about right like one of the businesses we bought we were talking to the controller and she's like yeah you know we're still paying out fifteen thousand dollars a year for a CRM we don't use and blah blah and so we're not going to sit there and wait six months or something so little like that you know we're like yeah like can we just cancel that like like this week or if you need our team's up we get help but can we cancel that that we're gonna do right but when it's actual other things like oh yeah it's like I'm like a lot of it is those things that the employee like they're like hey there's this room that we don't really use in the back you know we should uh convert it so I call my sister in South Florida I call my friends I'm like Hey we're gonna get the paint we're gonna go to Home Goods we're gonna by Furniture we're gonna transform it you know then it's like oh hey this and then now I'm like running around like just like being so reactive rather than taking a step back and being like that break room oh the website oh this this the cars the new logo the new because it keeps dumming right so you have to take a step back plan prepare and then execute I'm a big fan I'm a big believer of um unless it is like Hey we're spending 15 000 and we don't turn that thing on it's like yeah yeah if there's something where this just like actively hemorrhaging money perhaps you can it's just flipping a switch then maybe you go ahead and do that yeah something that's bleeding in a really bad way it could be cultural it could be something that just makes no sense there was something else that when we bought a company the first day like here's a big regret when we probably come in the first day the guys like this guy in purchasing is like hey I have to fill out this paperwork every time about all the products we have to order it's so silly I just know what to order and I was like so you believe that we don't need that he's like yes and then purchasing we don't need that so I of course want to make small tweaks go for it empowerment right which feels good people first well eight months later we're like why is our margin in inventory so bad it's like oh he didn't realize that that one the downward implications of that I didn't realize that were implications of that and then we got in big trouble so if I would have done what we said and been like hey here's one of the things we're going to do I've seen how it works you know and involve people around that we would have been in a much better spot well and I think um to that point like part of the reason that you resist change as tempting as it can be in the early days even if something just seems like it's not going to have any repercussions is that often things are the way they are for a good reason and it takes you as a new owner being in the business long enough for a cycle or two of sales to occur or what from one season to pass to the next for you to really understand oh that's why that's the way it is it seems broken but it's actually not completely the thing I love that I continually realize is these business owners are not stupid like they're not like you know going in from DocuSign I'm like oh well we have Google and Microsoft Salesforce is our investors and Kleiner Perkins and blah blah blah we skill globally and we hit and it's like these small business owners just are clearly not as wise as we are and it's like or they know what the heck they're doing because they're multi-millionaires and you're about to give them a check for 10 20 30 40 million dollars and you're calling them not idiots like yeah and so I'm sure there could be little tweaks but don't think you're so much better than them because time and time again shows that we're not Michael another thing that uh you have touched on and I know from our pre-call that is is more value that you want to bring into the organizations is is kind of sales sales sales centricity maybe um talk to me about that yeah I mean so it's just so top of mind right now so so of our 50-something investors oh no see eight of them I think I think it's called our private Equity guys big big big big big big big companies and some small ones right so some small fonts some 100 million dollar fund is some of the biggest private Equity Funds in the world um the the CEOs of those are some of our investors and the thing I've learned time and time again is I'm like wait why the heck are they investing in me out of the gate like why do they actually believe in this thesis of like buy and grow through culture Tech and sales and then hold forever like they're either smoking dope or they or there's something here that that like that clicks with them and now over the last three years talking to them more and more and more I've realized that it's like traditional private Equity is financial engineering that's what it is financial engineering uh no one want to get in knowing how to get out um and it's like passing the taunt to other private Equity companies and they all make money at the end um and it works and it works and everyone makes money and the businesses are growing so I guess it works but the thing that I've realized that they've told me is they're like the number one lever that you could do to grow any business is sales the number one thing you do to Growing business is sales and I believe that and so when I look at a B2B company like the IT service company connects that we bought or the janitorial business or the sales as a service business those three in particular are B2B businesses what is it worth to them if we could open the doors to XYZ Enterprise company and knock down massive contracts that's I mean what is that word that's a mess that's so accreted that's one plus one equals five that's such value add right so today I was talking to a very large Accounting Service Company and so many that they got 15 bids on a business on their business to sell and uh someone connected me to him there yesterday and I was talking to him and he's like what we're looking for like is someone that's like a power forward that could put 25 points on the board and put up 12 rebounds and it's awesome in the locker room they're like if it's just a backup point guard we don't need it you know and he's like all these firms I'm Blown Away they all have such big AUM and this and that but when we break down to it as gritty entrepreneurs we don't need more financial help we don't need like and I'm like well what happens if we knock down these accounts called Costco and and you know Equifax or whatever McDonald's Chick-fil-A Dairy Queen Ashley Furniture Publix right blah blah he's like I mean we would double we would triple we will call Drupal I mean could we actually get in and it's like all those CEOs or owners or executives is the money we'd be giving you so of course they'd want to grow their investment and help you out if if the service is on par or Superior you know so that's the hack that's the benefit that we talk about and so we can get these B2B companies to knock down massive contracts with Telco telecommunication companies or cpg or what any industry we could get into because of our investors it's all about relationships and that has that is borne out because that sound that feels like one of those things that it's like a great concept but when rubber meets the road does it actually play out that way yeah exactly massively massively massively I mean that it's it's one plus one equals two it really really it's like a DocuSign will when we raised any fund any new fundraise any new round is what we call it inventure right if we're raising our series C for 80 million we would not go to Kleiner Perkins Sequoia Excel and driesen first we would go to all the strategics first we would go to Mark benioff at salesforce.com big Mark we're raising a series C here's evaluation would you invest then we go to Satya Nadella and Microsoft then we go to Bill McDermott at sap then we go to uh Don Thompson CEO McDonald's then we go to Rick Smith CEO of Equifax and we go to Pac elsiker's CEO of VMware and we and and I could keep saying the names and they'd be like I'm in for a million I'm in for I'm in for 10. I'm in for half a million I'm in so now we got all these people and then after we got to 20 million or whatever it is now we went to Sequoia and Jason and we're like Hey we're raising around everyone's going to bid on it you're going to give us your term sheet but we got all the strategics in right that we needed and now after the round's complete guess what we did hey uh Mark benioff um can you introduce us to your CIO at Salesforce because you guys are using Echo sign and we really want you to use DocuSign in addition to that can you introduce it to your head of partner sales so that your sales reps could actually resell Us in addition to that can you actually introduce your Chief product officers so they can actually integrate DocuSign to salesforce.com hey Bill McDermott so people support what they help create people support if their money's going into helping create something they're going to support it right it's and there's nothing more complex than that you know it's just that simple so I connect I connect or having a big problem and it's a really positive problem we inundated our chief Revenue officer and we cannot follow up on all the introductions it was a big it was a big lesson learned we got too excited being like here's here's this grocery store and this convenience store and this gas station and this uh department store and this I mean so many and he's like I cannot follow up on all the introductions but we're closing them left and right because the money that the ownership of the company is the same people what a what an incredible hack that's exactly yeah yeah phenomenal Michael um let's get to another one of the values yeah yeah which by the way is the reason why like so we'll probably raise our next fine our next fundraise our next Fund in the next six months you know and let's say we raise 100 to 150 million not one ounce of that's going to be institutional capital I just don't see how they would help unless it's like institutional capital of like we manage the money for all the um all the churches and and we actually are not just these financiers in manager for the churches as an endowment but we could actually put you in touch with all the church Mega pastors that could help introduce you to all the real estate right like so so many times like Drew Brees amazing investor dear friend his family office got introduced to us and I was like no offense but this is not going to happen like um we're not just going to be something on the on your balance sheet that shows that we're a lower Middle Market private Equity Fund is going to produce 20 30 returns and it's going to be passive like if Drew wants to be involved with us we could set up a call with Drew and when we need Drew's help Drew could open doors because he owns a bunch of Dunkin Donuts and Jimmy John's and Walk-Ons and surge entertainment and there's a lot of value out there huh and so that's how we roll we're just like if there's not value add we're not looking for dumb money you know that like that is a model mm-hmm sure yeah well you hear that often in in VC land like don't you know it's it's much it's it's about the the value that the money is bringing not just the cash itself um and I don't believe it and you and you hear that in SNB land as well but I haven't heard quite the kind of like Open Door value at the opening door of doors value add kind of hack that we're talking about makes perfect sense and I guess I've heard versions of it but I don't think I've heard it you know employed as much as you're doing it kind of like systematically in the SMB acquisition space so it started happening in venture probably about three years ago were vertical Venture funds started to enter the marketplace so what I mean by that is um let's just say that I started a new startup called Lyft right um and and um and Lyft I'm like I need money and so what's the option for money out there I guess I'm gonna go to Kleiner Sequoia Andresen blah blah and then I'm like what value out are they going to add to me and they're like we have uh operating partners that are going to help you with your finances and know how to balance your stuff and go to the next either way we have operating partners that are going to help you with your finances and it's like we have upgrade right like they're not going to open their LP book to you right because by the way at that size their LPS are also endowments and Pension funds that's the only way you can raise a billions of dollars but now what starts to happen is there's a dude that he's like hey um we are whatever autonomous vehicle fund we're 80 million dollars um and all of our LPS are people from Ford and from GN and from uh this autonomous driving vehicle and from this Bridgestone and from what Hancock right and we're fun that all we do all we do is we focus on value-add within your industry so if you're Lyft and you're looking for term sheets and you have Sequoia putting X valuation and you have XYZ vehicle fund who are you going to go with clearly you're gonna go with the value add one you know and so that's kind of where I'm hoping that what we're doing is like who are you going to go with the other SMB private Equity Fund that's going to financial engineer the heck out of this or a value added out of the gates we can help Michael putting technology into small businesses uh is kind of one of the classic playbooks and it is one that I've heard you touch on um but that has can sometimes be over sold like as if these businesses you know putting in some Cloud CRM is gonna transform everything I mean I just heard you give an example I don't know if it was hypothetical no a real example of like there was a CRM and it wasn't being used so obvious obviously in that business adding a CRM wouldn't have done anything so um and you also just finished saying that like really the the the needle mover in all of these businesses is sales so how do you feel like now that you're inside some of these businesses that you've acquired how are you feeling about that stereotype that these businesses you know just layer in some some cloud-based SAS and you're Off to the Races the lesson learned now five businesses in is it better be a dire need like you every time he speaks the business they better be pressing on this technology on this need that technology could fix don't go look for nice to haves go look for True dire problems that again are bleeding to fix so what did we do we were like oh this is a nice to have your payroll clearly looks too complex for us and there's clearly too many people hours that is uh going into that so we are going to roll out an automated payroll system that every single high-tech company uses I can't believe you haven't heard of it and it's not a failure it's a disaster they're like it was not even a problem to begin with like sure we had someone Focus half our time on it and sure I guess you could now take 20 percent of her time so we're getting 20 percent of someone's time but it wasn't a problem the change management and by the way you guys know you changed a lot of other stuff so now you're gonna change this and we're like what the heck did we do like and they're like Mike it was you that said that it would be really no-brainer to deploy automated payroll because it made me feel good and so lesson learned right unfortunately fortunately we're it's fine um but then there's other examples of another company that we're like hey like we have to get our DSO and our AR and our AP in place like we have to and we have to get our leads in place and we like this is chaotic and we're gonna get one single all-in-one Erp CRM system to bring it all together that everyone's like begging in for it it's like every conversation that we have is like we need to get this we need to get this we need to get this you know so that's where we've landed is say it like for me before it was like culture technology and sales all three matter and now it's like culture is just what we do there's nothing that like makes it better or worse it's just like it's how we love on people it's Our intention technology has fallen way lower and unless it's a dire need and sales has skyrocketed to the top as a lever of growth wow that is that's so powerful for people listening to this to hear sales culture and then technology uh toward the bottom and I want to say like again culture like like cultures Paramount it's kind of like the cake you know it's like it's the it's the pudding in the cake it's everything you know yeah but yeah in terms of like an intentionality of like effort being put in it's not as much yeah yeah fair enough and but I will I will say that I'm not sure that people listening to this will have put as much nearly as much thought into culture as as you have or it won't come as naturally so for people listening they they should probably carve out some of you know the the change that they're going to implement um high performance teams ever I went to Alabama and I got a front row seat at Nick Saban and how he ran things right or you look at um I'm I'm deeply involved with a lot of military things of Navy Seals and whatnot you look at any single high performance team there is a deep level of trust there's a deep level of conflict of them not being able of them not being scared of direct Candor right radical Candor um and they achieve amazing things it's all culture like you want achieve greatness without culture I want to Pivot a little bit um you I saw a LinkedIn post of yours where you are trying to build your pipeline of operators and CEOs for maybe I don't know if current Acquisitions maybe subsequent ones and you were looking for people Searchers or people from the search community and for a guy who is so connected up and down Silicon Valley and and you probably know dozens and hundreds of people throughout Silicon Valley there are really Adept um business people but in fact you're you're looking at this pool over here in searchland for your operators and CEOs why why is that talk to me about that yeah so um basically when you look at when you look at exactly what it is that we're looking for in terms of these small to mid-sized companies time and time again the people that are in technology right making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year really operating within one single box of their role and responsibility um typical that is typically that is not a fit of someone that you're like hey you're actually jack of all trades um you will get some equity but your cash component is probably way down it's just typically not the place to go fishing um so the question is where do you go fishing if you're looking at a small to mid-sized company that is messy people have to wear multiple hats cash comp's not going to be like it is at hundreds of millions of dollars or billions of dollars a company right um and then they have a deep you know natural calling passion for kind of getting nitty-gritties doing things that don't scale and so there are places but to me the most logical place was what about people that actually with the action they're showing is that they want to get into small business and they want to take a cash fake not to actually get Equity so they could blow companies up and do great things and that's and those are Searchers and the fact that almost half of Searchers don't find a business is perfect because those Searchers that don't find a business do you know what they go do exactly what they were doing before you know so it's like if we could you know rescue one or two that didn't find a business and we're like yeah like so we hired a Searcher right he's incredible um and what he told us is he's like what I didn't realize is my my yearning as a Searcher and many of our other searches were operators he goes do you know what the search process is every day of your life it's sales why don't we just stop there right that says everything like it never hit me but I'm like you're right this guy who's not a sales guy is having to figure out how to get to people figure out pipeline figure out what to say how to close them how to get to the next stage make an offer win them over while doing diligence none of that has to do with I'll be being an operator right so the so the the role you have to do in between actually operating and buying is a sales you know um so if we could take those operators be like hey we think you wanted to operate what if we lie to skip over the sales thing and we just put you in a business to operate they're like that that yeah that's helpful that's good well of course one of the other things that attracts people to search is the upside are they are these operators that you're bringing in or is there any upside Equity participation sure absolutely yeah there's not going to be as much clearly as if they found the business on their own raise the money on their own due diligence close it on their own and ran it all on their own but we found the business we diligence it we raise the capital so they're still going to get paid extremely generously as a CEO as the operator no questions asked while having a partner this should also be compensated properly Michael we want to I want to wrap us up here but two more uh kind of big questions for you first about just kind of the the structure of Garden City to the extent that you can share investors and how that works um and then second uh just on your kind of past and and personality and how how that all ended up here uh can you tell us a little bit about how the structure of the of this holding company works because there's so many ways to to do this um so please very simple again I didn't you know when I went to an attorney I was like hey I want to use my Capital buy businesses and that's it and I have a couple friends who are telling me they want to give me Capital two so I could buy businesses so instead of me buying a half a million dollar one million dollar even a business on my own I guess now I could buy two or three million dollar and use their Capital how do I do this and the attorney's like well then you would get paid on their money it's called a carry or carried interest or promote I'm like that's cool so I get money on their money you know and he was like yeah dude it's called private Equity I'm like I know I had no clue you know um I thought I was just doing them a favor and they're doing me a favor you know um and so the way the model works is we created an LLC so it's a holding company it's not a limited partnership they're actual manager hence and members the investors they own the actual units just like you own units in a publicly traded company Berkshire Hathaway they own units in this company called Garden City the operations that this company does is that they just so happen to buy other companies that's the operation some companies manufacture products our company buys companies um and the way it works is uh there's a fund and we call the capital down on deal by deal as we buy the companies we call call the percentage of the capital down they pay us a normal management fee every year that provides for our team's salary and office and travel and systems and all that good stuff so that's how we survive and then once we call their Capital down we'd have to return every single dollar of capital on a deal by deal basis right so that's the American model um and so we have to give them back on this company called connects and we call down X dollars we need to give the investors X dollars back until we make a penny off that company so obviously that depends on what multiple we buy the company at how much leverage do we put on the company and what's the growth of that company right so if you buy a company for five times and it stays flat there's no debt you should assume it's gonna take five years to pay back your investors on that that's a 20 cash on cash return they're pretty happy for us we need to wait five years until we make our carry or promote on that business and that's a simple way it works and so they give us a management fee that's how we eat they get all their money back on the company we call the capital uh down they then get a little bit of a preferred interest on that very nominal and then we get our nominal fee of our promote after their paid back and undeal by deal basis does that make sense yeah that's great thank you for that explanation last question for you Michael I just want to Circle all the way back to the top in your history you talked about how as a as a kid you had a stutter that got you out of the from out of the public school system into the private school system that opened your eyes um but I also know from our pre-call that you found yourself in an environment where you know you were socioeconomically below a lot of the a lot of the other folks at your private school so that could screw with a kid's head and here I am looking at you know seeing you in front of me today a very successful very driven person um doing you know buying service then the other aspect of your childhood of course is that your parents were in kind of service industry jobs um and maybe struggled at times and now you've you're acquiring businesses where maybe a lot of the employees are kind of you see your parents in them so seems like a you know that you can connect those dots um on the other hand you know some people who with that background might have a chip on their shoulder and and might you know have gotten developed some resentment being around a bunch of rich kids um you know being a stuttering kid around a lot of rich kids it's it's just kind of interesting to me respond to all that yeah um there's a lot a lot a lot a lot a lot there obviously um but you are you're very very right in the fact of I mean I think there's a true self in each and every one of us um a true true self not yourself is the person that you know we we were born into this world being um as you go through life something called Shame comes in and what my shame was was um stutter not fitting in overweight I was different my parents you know had some dysfunction we were not there financially kids looked down upon my family and where we lived and what we drove and so the true self of me inside with all that shame never wanted me to operate yourself it made me start wanting to operate into a way to fight off all that shame so what did I do I started being a control holic I had to control everything I started being I felt like I had to do it do it do it I felt like I had to get crap done I felt like I had to be Uber intentional I felt like um I just I did not want to face that true person so I tried to numb it out by just by just proving to the world that I mattered right I had to try to prove to the world that I matter I'm not this overweight poor stutter Puerto Rican kid look finally I'm good at CoCo finally I'm making money finally I do blah blah oh I'm so connected right and it's like the question to ask is like is that person your true self or is that person actually the person that you've created over so such a long period of time and so through some therapy through some mentors through just a lot of stuff um I've come to realize like you know what through healing of the past and healing of trauma and a bunch of other things I don't I don't have to prove to the world anymore I don't have to run around frantically doing doing doing accomplish and accomplishing accomplishing first of all no one gives a crap truly you're just against yourselves you know like that's so truly what it is and so hence like I've spent a lot of time saying man God show me who who is that Michael Arrieta if he's not a connector get crap done you know just so responsible so strategic who is it and it's like wait a minute is he a gentle relational creative guy that maybe shouldn't be working 60 hours a week maybe you should just you know focus on relationships focus on some ideas focus on doing some events and then what the what the condemnation comes on myself saying is like well then you clearly are not a CEO then you're clearly you know are not going to be the best and it's like well what the hell does the best even mean right and so it's this deep deep thing will where my the thing I've been telling my friends just lately is I'm like Hey brother I love you for who you are not what you do so how about we stop trying to do do do and start trying to be and that's really hard because when you just be you're kind of naked and exposed and you're like but this is not enough is it it's not enough I have to do and it's like no actually it is enough so it's a it's a discipline and a belief in having faith um and maybe everything I'm saying is very confusing um but the net net of it is um I spent way too long will trying to prove to the world and prove to myself that I matter based on my accomplishments my progress who I know and now I'm trying to actually more die to all that stuff and surrender to that stuff and that's why recently I went on LinkedIn and I deleted all my experience you can't find DocuSign on there you can't find whys you can't find my family office you can't find my education you can't you can't find any of that crap I just I deleted it you know I actually deleted it and gave the password and log into my team because I don't even want to go on it you know that's why I'm getting out of the daily operating role where everything has to go through me and putting integrator in place and I'm going up it's deathly afraid I'm afraid I'm scared I feel as though I'm not important but the thing I keep reminding myself is like that's not who I truly am I'm beloved I matter I'm my family loves me I'm a good father I'm a good husband right I have to keep reminding myself of that truth otherwise I'll keep performance of the world and that's freaking depleting and exhausting wow Michael what a that was just um really beautiful words I don't want to really add anything to that so let's just call it right there what a lovely note to end on thank you very much for coming on and we sure got into a lot there that was it's really really cool what you're doing at Garden City um and and maybe not just the um the actions that you're taking but the philosophy with which you're doing it so I think there's a lot to learn from you Michael and really thank you for your time thank you brother blessings I hope you enjoyed that interview make sure you subscribe to the acquiring minds Channel below we are now publishing twice a week so tons of new interviews and stories to come stories that will help you along your own path to acquiring a business