Creating Competitive Tension, with Adam Coffey

Company Website: https://chairmangroup.us/
Personal Website: https://adamecoffey.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adamecoffey/
Email Address: Adam@ChairmanGroup.us
Email Address: adam@ceoadvisoryguru.com
Books: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B07NLL55ZC/allbooks

Jason [00:00:00]:
All right, three, two, one. Hey, everybody. Jason here. Business Broker Growth Show. Very excited for my guest today. He and I have had many conversations in the past. I’m super excited. I got Adam Coffey.

Jason [00:00:14]:
He is the founder of the Chairman Group. Anyone in and around the private equity space. M A Exit Strategies. Here’s one of his books, the Exit Strategy Playbook. He also has the private equity Playbook which came before for that one, he has led many companies. He has built billions in enterprise values. He has done a lot of acquisitions. If you’ve read any of his books, followed any of his, his content online, if you’ve ever interacted with him, you know that he knows his stuff in and around it.

Jason [00:00:45]:
I won’t take up much of our time today. All of his links will be in the show notes. Adam, it’s an honor. I’m so glad that you’re here. I’m so glad you’re joining here us on the Business Broker Growth Show.

Adam Coffey [00:00:56]:
Well, I’m glad we’re finally doing this. It’s like, I think we, we have some common friends. We’ve talked before, but it’s the first time we actually had cameras rolling, you know, while we were, while we were doing it. So hello to all your listeners out there.

Jason [00:01:10]:
Yeah, it’s one of those things. Everything happens for a reason. We got connected by George Gracher years ago and then things didn’t materialize. I think it’s, you know, it was a scheduling thing with the, the podcast and then here we are now. So I’m very excited for this. And, you know, this show is focused on business brokers and as a side benefit is any business owners who find this, who want to learn what’s the best strategies for exiting their business, what’s the best strategies for finding a good and effective professional broker. You know, so many questions for you in our time. But let’s start with this is, you know, in, in everything that you’ve done leading up to this and all of the businesses that you’ve worked with, like, what do you see as that balance and that intersection between business owners who are looking to exit and business brokers?

Adam Coffey [00:02:04]:
So, yeah, it’s just you were talking about that and giving kind of a little introduction. I mean, just millions of things are going through my head. If you read any of my books, you’ll know when I’m talking about exits that I strongly believe that, that entrepreneurs and business owners need to have professional representation. And there’s a number of reasons why, you know, why I actually believe that. So when we’re talking about brokers. Let’s just first define what’s the difference between a broker and an investment bank. And generally, you know, just simplifying life. I’ll say size, you know, if I am below $10 million in EBITDA than the world’s, you know, common investment banks, middle market investment banks, people like Houlihan Loki or William Blair or, or you know, Lincoln International.

Adam Coffey [00:02:56]:
It’s like, you know, Baird, you know, pick, pick any number of companies. They won’t even talk to me if I’m a business owner and my company has below 10 million in earnings. You know, it’s like that’s just, I’m below their level, their playing field and their customers, you know, that they’re, that they’re selling companies too. They’re above that ecosystem. So how do I fill in the gap below 10 million in earnings? Well, that’s where the world of business brokers really comes in. And that’s not to say that there aren’t business brokers out there who sell assets above 10 million in earnings, because they do. But that’s kind of a line of demarcation. If I’m below 10 million, probably a higher probability that I will be looking for help from a business broker to help me sell my business.

Adam Coffey [00:03:44]:
Or if I’m looking to buy companies, you know, I may be using a business broker as a buy side advisor. And, and so it’s, it’s a size separation thing. But I still believe that fundamentally, you know, when we’re a founder, when we’ve built an empire, when we’ve spent 20 years building a business, just because our phone rings doesn’t mean that’s the right buyer. Matter of fact, there’s a high probability it’s not the right buyer. And there’s a high probability that even if I let them take me down a six month rabbit hole of giving them information, I’m probably not going to like the number they come back with. And so I recommend to all business builders, you know, before we become sellers, we need to understand what the fair market value of our business actually is. You know, I don’t put a car out for sale and put a sign on it that says for sale and no number, you know, and, and, and, or if I have a number in mind and they knock on my door, how much is it for the car? Well, I don’t know. What do you give me? You know, it’s like that’s not how it works.

Adam Coffey [00:04:42]:
It’s like I need to know what my asset is worth. I Want to know what other companies like mine are selling for. And I’m going to want someone to represent me. And for the people out there who, who are a little bit unclear about what a business broker does, I use the analogy, some brokers don’t like it, but I use it anyway of like I’m selling my house. The broker is the realtor. They’re the ones who puts the sign up. They create the marketing material. They help me present my business in its best light to the, to the community of potential buyers that are out there.

Adam Coffey [00:05:17]:
And so a business broker, for a fee, nothing in life is free. This is how they earn a living. But generally speaking, what my goal and objective is, I want to find the right buyer, especially if I’m going to potentially roll over and keep going and working with the new majority shareholder. But I, I not only want the right buyer, I want the right fair market value. But I need someone to create competitive tension because without competitive tension, I can’t drive maximum value. You know, if there’s only one company, you know, one person looking at my company, chances are the, the offer that they’re going to put out is not necessarily their best or is it necessarily a good representation of fair market value. But if a broker can get involved, create a competitive tension, market the business and be active. And so we haven’t got yet to good brokers versus bad brokers, you know, I want to get there too.

Adam Coffey [00:06:17]:
But you know, if I have a broker that’s doing their job, that is creating the material, that’s creating the competitive tension that’s presenting my company in its best light, that’s already educated me about what value should be given the comp set of companies like mine in an industry that are selling, you know, that broker is going to bring enough value to the table to where I, I’m going to more than pay for, call it any fees that I’m paying, they’re going to make sure that I maximize the potential of the business and for that I’m going to pay some commission.

Jason [00:06:49]:
So for the business owners, let’s start with that part, right, because that’s where a lot of your, a lot of the books are focused on in that part. And then, you know, leading into them, making sure they have a, a broker, a professional who’s guiding them through this process, like you said, and helping them maximize that value. And I love the competitive tension side and making sure it’s, you know, you know, you’re getting fair market value and the max possible is from the business owner side. The Seller who’s looking to exit what, what’s their responsibility like, if there’s any of them tuning into this, what’s their responsibility of what they should be doing from their side before they raise their hand to potentially sell.

Adam Coffey [00:07:31]:
So in my perfect world, although owners violate this every day, I would prefer that an owner was building to sell from scratch from day one, or at least is is thinking about this two to three years in advance. Three years would be my perfect window. Three years from now. I want money in the bank. So I have to be very thoughtful about my journey over the next three years in order to maximize the potential of the company. And I’m going to reverse engineer that. So if I want money in the bank three years from now, then six months, because a typical deal takes four to six months. Six months before that, I want to hire a broker or an investment bank, someone to represent me, which means a couple months before that I’m going to want to do some type of a broker or banker bake off.

Adam Coffey [00:08:23]:
You know, where I’m going to want to interview multiple, you know, business brokers or if I’m big enough, multiple investment banks. And the reason I want to do that is because I’m going to have three basic questions for them. You know, first question is, what am I worth? Second question is, who’s my likely buyer? And my third question is, what is your fee structure? And in the business brokerage world, investment banking world, a lot of times firms have, I’ll call it an over, under. Hey, Adam, I think your company is worth 100 million. So on the first hundred million, I want x percent is my fee or commission. But if I can get you more than that, then I have a higher fee that I’m going to take on the overage. You know, so I’ve got the under, I’ve got the over. And so I’ll talk to three or four people, maybe five.

Adam Coffey [00:09:10]:
I did one recently where I had seven. I did seven different, you know, banks invited them to a client’s company and you know, we take the highest over underbar with the lowest commission structure. And the bankers and brokers need to be competitive amongst each other. And so to win our business, I’m looking for best market rates, you know, on how much I’m going to pay to, to get that representation in the marketplace. I’m also going to get multiple thoughts and ideas about what my company is probably worth. And I can kind of average those out and say this is what I should probably build my expectation around. Here’s what my Fee structure, you know, ideal fee structure would be. And then I picked the one I like the best.

Adam Coffey [00:09:53]:
I picked the one who I believe is going to do the best job marketing my business, getting me in front of the right buyer, helping me get a deal closed. And I’m going to make sure that they match the economics, you know, call it my favorable economics that I, that I’ve achieved from the, the Bake off, you know, that I call it. But I’m going to do that two months before I hire the banker, which is six months before I’m money in the bank. And then a year before that, you know, I’m probably starting to pay attention to different M and A conferences that are often sponsored by broker dealers or by investment banks where I might have an opportunity to come present my company as a company that’s likely going to be in the market the next year. And I can talk to a room full of investors, get used to practicing my pitch, maybe do some one on one meetings where I’m going to hear what kind of questions and areas of inquiry that these buyers are going to have for me and I can start kind of getting my feet wet. But the reason I need three years is because any buyer, whether I’m selling with a broker or an investment bank, doesn’t matter. But any buyer is going to focus on three years worth of financial statements, three years worth of balance sheet, three years worth of statements of cash flows. And so I need to be mindful that all of the things I’m doing in the three years leading up to the sale are going to be heavily scrutinized.

Adam Coffey [00:11:11]:
They may look at my trends over five or 10 years. You know, they might want to know how I did during COVID they might want to know how I did during the Great Recession, you know, depending on how long I’ve been in business. But generally they’re going to put heavy scrutiny on, on the last three years because they want to understand am I a growth company, am I flat, am I in decline or am I all over the map? And so if I’m a person who’s going to be selling a business, I need to be very intentional around what’s going to, you know, what three years am I going to be presenting to a buyer? And if I just wake up today and say, hey, I’m going to sell my company, you know, tomorrow, let’s go find a broker, or my phone rang, that’s my buyer, I’m not going to hire a broker, I’m going to save money because I’m a cheap ass, you know, then I’m going to, you know, whatever I did, the sins of my last three years, that’s what I inherit, you know, that’s what I have to sell. And I believe that all companies, if they’re thoughtful around exit timing, can actually focus very heavily on bending their own growth curve, on making sure that selling a growth story, make sure that they’re selling the company with a track record that says, I’m not flat, I’m not in decline, I’m not all over the map. I’m a growth company, you know, and I’m an asset that somebody wants to pay up for. People who buy companies aren’t buying a thing. They’re buying a business that was built by a person. They’re buying customer relationships.

Adam Coffey [00:12:43]:
They’re buying a trajectory. And we need to have an intentional growth story. This is what that business can do, you know, over the next three to five years under your ownership period. You know, here’s my growth plans. Here’s, you know, the execution that I’ve been performing. You know, it’s like I’m growing my revenue, you know, I’m growing my earnings. My, my revenue’s growing faster than my cost structure is. I’m creating operating leverage as I’m getting bigger, you know, and what’s the story? Why are we selling? I’m selling because I’m 70.

Adam Coffey [00:13:17]:
I need liquidity, I need to diversify my assets. I’m 40, you know, I still got a lot of game left, but I need capital, I need access to capital. And I’m looking for, you know, an invest who can help me manage the capital stack so that I can focus on operations, you know, and, and acquisitions and, and other things that I’m doing. So it’s like we have to have the growth story. We have to have, you know, a good track record of financial performance. And you know, it’s like if, if we’re intentional about planning for this stuff over an extended time period, we’ll have a much better outcome than just somebody called me today and said they want to buy me and I’m sign an NDA and give them everything on the planet they, they ask for for six months, you know, and then wait and see what the number is that they come back with. That’s not how we sell a company properly. But people do it every day.

Jason [00:14:12]:
They do that or what I hear a lot as well from the brokers I speak with is that somebody running their business is just tired. They’re done. They haven’t been planning ahead they’re 70 and they stopped trying hard.

Adam Coffey [00:14:29]:
You can expect a mediocre outcome. That’s what you can expect.

Jason [00:14:34]:
Yeah. And, and what then happens, let’s say for the brokers out there that come across companies like that, I mean, what’s the, what’s, is there much you can do? It’s really just set good expectations, proper expectations of the mediocre.

Adam Coffey [00:14:48]:
So, so the universe of brokers is diverse. You know, there are many of them out there. There are people out there who will agree to represent any company at any time. There are other people who think, you know, methodically about if I’m going to invest a bunch of time representing this company and this person has put no forethought into this whatsoever, is this really an asset that I’m going to be able to represent in the marketplace and get a good outcome? So I would say some higher end or better brokers wouldn’t entertain representing that particular client, but there would be plenty of people out there who would. And they’re just, yeah, I’ll list it on biz, Buy, sell. And I’ll just kind of wait, you know, wait for a buyer, you know, and see, see what comes along and then I’ll help them get through it and I’ll be able to make, you know, make a fee. So not all brokers are created equal. You know, there are, there are good, there are great, there are God awful.

Adam Coffey [00:15:44]:
And you know, and so we, we have to be thoughtful around, you know, who’s the best asset. But if I’m a broker, you know, I have a finite amount of time, where do I want to spend my time, you know, and I would rather be spending my time with entrepreneurs who kind of have their act together. They’re with me for a reason. They’re too small for a bigger investment bank. They need good representation. I want to earn my fees. And this is a team that’s going places, has a good story, has a growth, you know, trajectory to it. You know, they’ve been thoughtful about putting information together and it’s like, yes, I can maximize this company’s potential and make a better fee than just having a mediocre asset, you know, that, that no one’s put any thought into.

Adam Coffey [00:16:24]:
So I, I would say there’s decisions to be made on both sides of the table. Not every investment bank or broker should take every company that, that contacts them and says, I want to sell. Brokers.

Jason [00:16:43]:
So with your experience, a lot on the buying and or selling side, right, because you’ve, you’ve done a Lot of both is what do you think keeps those brokers, let’s say, more in the good side of the line than the bad side of the line. So from turning down those listings so.

Adam Coffey [00:17:00]:
To the brokers out there, we can’t mail it in. You can’t just accept an engagement from a seller, put it on biz, buy, sell and wait. You know, we need to create marketing material. We need to think and be thoughtful around. Based on the size of this company, who are the strategic buyers that might be interested, which business development people work in those companies that I can reach out to. Let’s get some competitive tension going. Let’s make sure I’ve got some strategic representation. Maybe I’ll look at the universe of PE buyers or family offices and say who else might be interested in a company like this, of this size for this given industry? You know, we need to, to, to be, you know, I’m probably going to bring in at that point, you know, potentially if it hasn’t been done, I might recommend we do a sell side Q of E.

Adam Coffey [00:17:53]:
I might say let’s kind of get our financial house in order. Let’s make sure we’ve got, you know, the, the makings for a good data room, you know, and, and let’s put some research and effort in, into figuring out what, who might be excited about this asset coming to market both from a strategic standpoint and from a financial backing standpoint. And then for certain I’m going to need to understand what the expectations and what the goals and objectives are of my client, of the seller. What are they trying to accomplish? How old are they? Are they looking at this exit as a one and done event or are they willing to stay to be a rollover investor? Are they willing to continue to participate in the growth of the company? Company. And so I as a, a broker need to be gearing up to create competitive tension in the marketplace, not just hang a for sale sign out in front of the house and let the MLS do the work for me. You know, the bizby sell.com it’s like if I’m a seller, I’m going to talk to that broker about how they’re going to create competitive tension for me. What is your process? You know, and it’s not just about yes, I’ve sold, you know, X billion in companies or so many hundred million, you know, in my 10 year career, 30 year career. It’s I want to know what your marketing plan is.

Adam Coffey [00:19:13]:
I want to know how you’re going to present this asset to you Know, to the broader universe of potential buyers. You know, and I want to see that plan. And when someone says, oh, I’m going to put it on bizbuysell.com and I’m going to send out a thousand teaser emails, well, you know, okay, but in today’s world, we don’t really do a thousand teasers anymore. It’s like, we need to be a much more targeted approach. We need to do some research. You know, gosh, the AI tools that are out there today, where I can do that kind of research is amazing. You know, I, I can, I can really assemble a target list of potential buyers very quickly. And so I, as a seller want to know how I’m, you know, they’re going to represent my asset, how they’re going to create competitive tension.

Jason [00:19:59]:
What. So what I wanted to ask about was about all that and adding the value, which you just answered. What are the, what are the, what are the best brokers doing, like, with that seller? Like, is there advising? Is there coaching they’re doing? They’re setting it up. Not just like, yes, I will take this listing or not. And then here’s the marketing I’m going to do. But like, what else do you see? Separates?

Adam Coffey [00:20:26]:
Well, so, so for me it’s, you know, if I’m going to sell this asset, you know, a realtor might stage a house, I’m going to stage a company. You know, I might look at timing and based on recent performance, I’m going to do some analysis of their financials. And based on what I’m seeing, I might say, you know, I might want to hold off on going to market right now until we get, you know, this year finished and get a better comp. You know, I want this comp to fall off. It’s like, you know, I think there’s going to be some advisory help around, you know, trying to, to help that, you know, what does a broker do? A broker is trying to help a client accomplish a mission. You know, if the client says, you know, I want to sell, I want to be in the market in 30 days, I don’t give a damn about any of this stuff, then I just have to decide, am I going to take this, know, asset to market? Can I sell it? Because I don’t want something I can’t sell, you know, but at the same time, you know, if, if I can be of service as an advisor to a client, I might look at this business through the lens of a buyer, you know, in, in the buyer universe and I might start to Recommend certain activities take place. I might recommend that they, you know, hey, you got real estate here. Going to be hard pressed to find a buyer who wants both your real estate and your, your company.

Adam Coffey [00:21:49]:
Let’s break this out to a separate entity. Let’s put a fair market value lease in place. I mean, there’s, you know, sometimes before we say, you know, when does your house look the best? For me, it’s right before I put it on the market to sell it. Because I get around all that maintenance and crap that I should have done when I was living there, but I didn’t, you know, but before staging, it’s like I want it to show in its best light. I get the paint touched up. I, you know, I, I changed those floorboards that look like, look like crap, you know, and so it’s like we, we fix all these things and it’s like your house never looks better. At least it should never look better than the, than the day you list it, you know, and, and so same thing with a company. There’s an advisory element to this.

Adam Coffey [00:22:29]:
Do we have a good team of professionals around? Are there books ready for scrutiny? Their books may be crap. And I, I need to get some people in to help them. So there may be some pre work that’s required. But again, the client ultimately, you know, is the customer. So if the client says, all of that aside, I want to be in the market in 60 days, you know, then, okay, with the time I’m allotted, I have to pick and choose. What can I accomplish, you know, in that time allotted? And I’ll do my best to put lipstick on that pig and make, make it look as attractive as I can with the time that I’m allotted. So people come to me all the time and say, adam, I want to be in the market now, you know, now, okay, you know, it’s like, here’s the things that I would do, you know, let’s take a look under the hood and see what, what, what you’ve got. But there are other people who are more thoughtful and say, hey, you know what? I.

Adam Coffey [00:23:24]:
My window’s getting shorter. Yeah, I’m probably thinking I have a lot of people who come to me and say, I’m looking at, you know, 20, 27, 2028, you know, two or three years down the road. And I’m like, perfect. This is the perfect time to begin planning for an exit. Best exits happen when they’re planned and we’re methodical.

Jason [00:23:45]:
I love it. So one of the things you mentioned early on was you as A seller, going to M and A conferences or meetings, being able to present and then doing the shopping and then finding brokers and going that route. For the business owners who may be not aware of that or not playing in that game, you know, the investment banker game.

Adam Coffey [00:24:08]:
Right.

Jason [00:24:08]:
They’re more in the broker game. What do you see as the way that business owners are finding brokers or can find brokers? Like, what do you see in this era right now at the end of 2025, like how they’re trying to find and identify that correct broker for them.

Adam Coffey [00:24:26]:
So there are a lot of opportunities to speak and present and talk and position yourself as an expert in an industry. And so if I’m too small to where I can’t get an invite to be on stage at a broker’s conference or a banker’s conference, there’s trade shows, you know, there are different places where potential buyers are lurking. And I could potentially in an industry, I’ll give you a great example. Yeah, I could present at an industry trade show on a topic that’s germane to the industry today, walking around that trade show floor booth, you know, just like scouts attending a high school football game, you know, for looking, you know, college scouts, you know, or pro scouts in a college game. There’s PE people walking around those trade shows, you know, and looking for, for, you know, potential companies that, that they might track or follow or, or reach out to. So there, there’s, there’s other activities, you know, like trade shows where potentially there’s some, you know, conference information. Trade shows usually have a floor where people walk, they’re open certain hours of the day, but then they also have kind of educational type seminar activities going on. And in this room, someone’s talking about this.

Adam Coffey [00:25:42]:
And so I might position myself to go present, you know, talk about an issue, talk about, you know, an overt sales pitch on my company. But, you know, educating, trying to be helpful to other people within an industry, you know, and, and that, you know, that presentation could be recorded, it could be broken up into social media bites and you know, and put on, on different social media platforms, you know, and I, I talked to people about creating a visible trail. So I sign a big deal, you know, I put it on the newswire, you know, I do a paid news, you know, newswire release, you know, release on like PRN Newswire, you know, you know, and we start seeking opportunities, you know, to, to demonstrate our leadership in an industry. I’ll do podcasts, you know, and I’ll, you know, I’ll do You know, I’ll, I’ll write papers and just put them on social media platforms and it’s like I’m trying to build a broader awareness of our company because eventually when the world of buyers starts to dig in, they’re going to start looking for, you know, evidence that, that supports, you know, whether or not this is a good company run by good people. And, and they’re a leader in their space and they’re well regarded and, and so I’m going to go ahead and start laying the breadcrumbs that someone can easily find. Here’s me talking about this company and growth and the industry and opportunities and how AI is changing the face of what I do. And you know, and I’m on 10 podcasts and I wrote 15 articles that are on Forbes or they’re, you know, they’re posted on LinkedIn and I’m doing TikTok videos every day. You know, it’s like whatever that is that I can use to kind of create a set of paper crumbs and trail so that eventually when people are doing, you know, doing their analyst work and researching, I want them to have lots of stuff to find, you know, and so I mean that.

Adam Coffey [00:27:42]:
Plus two conferences. If I can snake an invite to a conference, you know, and I might also do trade show shows, I do it all. You know, this is about being intentional. I’m creating a paper trail.

Jason [00:27:54]:
Yeah. So speaking of breadcrumbs, one of the terms that I use with my community and my clients is a digital breadcrumbs, which I know that you’re the master at. We talked about that before we hit record with the books. Your, your goal of doing, you know, at least a podcast a week and just putting that out there. Larger, small shows. I appreciate you being here in the infancy of this show, but we talked before on a previous show that I had that was the long running show is, you know, for brokers out there. What do you see as the, the, the most valuable digital breadcrumbs that they should be doing to, you know, when those buyers are thinking about hopefully, you.

Adam Coffey [00:28:32]:
Know, what if I’m a buyer or I’m sorry, if, if I’m a broker, I’m going to do the same thing that I just said, you know, only I’m going to do it so that sellers can research and find me. And when they’re using AI tools or they’re, you know, doing, doing Google searches, you know, I want, I want to be seen as an expert in the field. So let me give you an interesting you know, kind of parallel. I told you, 100 of my clients heard me on a podcast, read my books. So if I’m a broker, I could go to listen notes.com l I s t e n O-T-E-S.com listen notes. And there is Google for podcasts. That’s what that. That’s what that is.

Adam Coffey [00:29:19]:
And I can type in, you know, like, as an example, people could type in my name, Adam coffee, and they’ll find 200 plus podcasts that I’ve been on. And they could type in exit selling your company, you know, keywords, and bring up a list of podcasts who, whose focus is helping entrepreneurs sell companies. I can click on every one of those podcasts links. And what does a podcast host do? First 30 seconds, last 30 seconds, tell me who they are, tell me how to reach them, and so I can build a list. I don’t have to do this. I could have an admin do this. I want you to create A list of 100 podcasts whose focus is helping people exit. I want you to reach out to 10 a week, and I want you to offer my bio.

Adam Coffey [00:30:08]:
And I’m wanting to talk about, you know, and so, because what does a podcast host need? They need guests. They need guests who are germane to their audience. And so if I’m a broker, I want to start building my own breadcrumbs so that people who are seeking to exit a company can find me easily. So I used to, you know, when I pivoted out of the CEO seat and started my consulting business, I used to do introductory calls with people. I don’t need to do introductory calls anymore because people have read my books, they’ve heard me on so many podcasts. They, they built a relationship with me. May not be a. An interactive one, but they know who I am, they know my background, they know that the value that I potentially can bring.

Adam Coffey [00:30:56]:
And so when they reach out to me, I send them a PDF of my offerings. And the first time I speak to them is after a contract is signed. They’ve made their first payments and they’re now a client. And so we, you know, why is that possible? Well, other than the people in my companies or the PE firms that own my companies, you know, that I was building and selling. The rest of the world didn’t really know who I was until I started writing books, writing articles, appearing on podcasts, now the world has a relationship with me. So if I’m a broker, I’m going to want to follow that same kind of a path to position myself as someone a person exiting might want to talk to. And so when I’m thinking of an exit, before I’ve ever hired a broker, if I’m a business owner, I might be doing, using Google searches, AI searches, give me a bunch of podcasts that I can listen to that have to deal with exits and selling my company. And if now I’m running across this broker who seems to be offering advice on multiple podcasts, I’m liable to reach out to them.

Adam Coffey [00:32:06]:
And so we need to establish credibility both as the seller of a business and as the person who wishes to be, you know, the broker that represents them in an exit. Same. Same activity.

Jason [00:32:20]:
Yeah. And one of the things that resonates with that and I think is valuable and it’s a key takeaway. And I think you’re the, the perfect example. This is. I heard a definition once about famous. What is famous? And famous in this definition, which I really appreciate is famous is entering a room and not having to introduce yourself, which means people know who you are, right? Not just movie famous, but in any circle, in any realm. And I love the fact that with all of that, the, the digital content, all of the, the written materials, the breadcrumbs that you’ve left is by the time they talk to you, it’s not a matter of if you can help them, it’s I’m helping you now, right? Like, we’re already past all of that.

Adam Coffey [00:33:00]:
Like, now we just need to dating vehicle. And so it was curious, but when that moment happened for me is I realized I’m wasting time that could be utilized with clients by doing introductory meetings to try to discuss with them how I can help them, you know, so that is all out there. It’s kind of a base level of understanding. And I don’t need to focus any of my time and effort on, you know, in my business. I do no paid advertising. None at all. You know, I appear on a podcast every week. You know, I write books every two years.

Adam Coffey [00:33:37]:
I write articles for Forbes.com every month, you know, and I post fairly regularly on, on, you know, LinkedIn is my, my social media platform of choice. I’m awful on everything else, you know, and, you know, I just said, freely admit, don’t care. It’s like my client tends to be on LinkedIn, you know, and so I, I, you know, I don’t have to do any paid advertising, but I’m very judicious about allocating time to these efforts. So as we said, you know, I do one podcast A week, you know, that’s what I do. I’m booked several months out, you know, and when I wrote a, you know, when, when you write a book, the. There is no book tours anymore. There aren’t enough bookstores left anymore. So it’s.

Adam Coffey [00:34:21]:
Podcasts are the new book tour. That’s how, that’s how authors, you know, get their, their message out. So my first book, you know, I had a publicist. Well, I’ve had a publicist on every book, only they don’t have to work as hard now to book me on, you know, podcasts because I have a track record. And, and so people can, you know, people say, yeah, I’d love to have Mon. He’s got a new book, let’s do it. You know, so I can, I can do, you know, I don’t have to work as hard now. Now it takes time to do this, but time we all have in our careers.

Adam Coffey [00:34:51]:
If I’m the broker, I’m going to be doing this for a long time to come. I need to establish this credibility in this digital world and in this AI world, you know, I have to be mindful that how I’m going to reach people is by answering the questions that those people are asking. Chat GPT, you know, and other platforms, you know, and, and so it’s like, who should I use to sell my broker? You know, how do I select a broker? Well, then I want to have somewhere in my digital footprint. How do owners choose a broker? And I’ll write about that and what I’ve noticed about AI, at least so far. You don’t actually have to be an expert in a field to be something that they recommend. And I find it curious. So I have, you know, one observation I’ll make. You know, I go on, you know, I, I go on places like Chat GPT and I ask them about different people.

Adam Coffey [00:35:47]:
And these are some people who are. These are all great people, by the way. You know, I’m not, not picking out anyone, so I won’t use any names. But, you know, I, there’s people out there who I know have sold a company and they made some money. And maybe they made 10 million, maybe they made 40, maybe they made 150. I’ve sold companies for a billion dollars, you know, with a B, you know, and nine zeros, a one and nine zeros after it. But I can see how AI says, well, because they’re on many platforms, because they do many podcasts, because they’re seen by people as an expert, I’m going to recommend them as an expert. One of the interesting things about AI is that it can’t truly discern the difference between a good broker and a bad broker.

Adam Coffey [00:36:38]:
All it can discern is an active broker who is active on multiple platforms doing multiple things, answering questions. Because my web scraper is going out because someone typed in a question and I’m trying to find answers to that question. And I keep finding this person who is using the right format. And so I assume now AI, that they’re an expert and I can start now recommending them. So it’s, it’s interesting and curious to me how good AI is, but how AI can also be gamed.

Jason [00:37:19]:
Yeah. And then again goes back to the, the digital breadcrumbs. And when it’s overwhelmingly obvious that your, the content out there is pointing to you as a broker or you, Adam, then hopefully that will lead.

Adam Coffey [00:37:37]:
Interesting. You know, I think we’re living in the caveman days of AI and we’re all playing with it and no one is an expert at it quite yet. And so we’re all playing and figuring it out. At some point there will be experts and masters of the game and those will be the new people that we hire to help us position our companies better and to find clients better. I wrote a series of articles that are coming out, you know, really on the death of the click, you know, and how AI has completely changed. You know, the SEO and pay per click models are just dead. And I have so many clients globally, you know, who are like, hey Adam, you know, my lead gen is drying up, my quality of leads is declining and my ad spend is, you know, isn’t changing, but it’s not bringing me any value. It’s like something’s wrong, you know, and I’m seeing this in multiple industries, multiple countries, multiple continents, kind of with different paces.

Adam Coffey [00:38:46]:
You know, some examples. In the U.S. 55% of people use AI today in Australia, it’s only 12. And so, you know, slowly permeating around the globe. And then certain generations, certain age groups rely on things like chat, GPT and Gemini for answers and recommendations. And, and, and they don’t even do Google searches or you know, they look at the paragraph on top of a Google search and if the answer isn’t there, they never get down to the scroll below to the pay per clicks or even down below that to people who aren’t paying for clicks. And so it’s like the whole world is kind of changing right now and so we’re all adapting and not to get off on An AI tangent. But I, I think for all of us, we have to be mindful that the world’s in a state of shift.

Adam Coffey [00:39:34]:
And so we, you said, you know, people who are exiting, people who are representing them as brokers, all sides need to have a focus on creating this digital footprint and positioning ourselves in a marketplace.

Jason [00:39:50]:
And you know, one of the questions I was going to ask you right in the middle of what you were talking about was thinking about what does it take for brokers to succeed in the year 20, 30, so in five years from now and then also where does tech play in? And I think all of that’s the case. Right? That’s all wrapped up.

Adam Coffey [00:40:07]:
As far as we know, brokers don’t be lazy, learn how to truly market companies, learn how to do, you know, to do thoughtful research using the tools that are afforded to us. You know, there’s a lot of brokers who are kind of, I’ll call it small shops, you know, or solopreneurs, you know, people who are, or you know, call it a little bit of a lifestyle business. There are others who work for firms or they’re banded together. It’s like brokers need to not be lazy, to not rely on BizBuySell.com or LoopNet or some other online forum. They need to do research. They need to get better at demonstrating their value to clients. They need to do better about positioning themselves in the digital marketplace so that people can find them readily and easily and see them as somebody that has credibility. And, and if, if we can, we can focus on that over the next four or five years, then I think we’re set up well for the future, what the future brings.

Adam Coffey [00:41:07]:
But you know, people who don’t, you know, who are just kind of riding the wave, you know, because they’re going to retire in the next five years, you know, there’s going to be this, you know, who survives and who doesn’t. And so I think if I’m a broker, I want, I want to start demonstrating my expertise to the marketplace over the next 10 years, 15 years, millions and millions, you know, tens of millions of boomer owned businesses are going to be for sale and all of these people need to be serviced by somebody. You want to be the somebody that they find, you know, and, and you can’t do that with a website, you know, and you can’t do that by just, you know, paying for advertising. It’s like you’ve got to be more active and aggressive in building your presence in the marketplace over the next five years. And I think then, you know, demonstrating your value once you do have that client’s attention, you know, what are my success stories? You know, I was able to create competitive tension. The average company in this industry was selling for X. This one at this size sold for Y. And that value is why you want to work with me.

Adam Coffey [00:42:15]:
You know, that, that increase in average value, it’s like, you know, we got to be able to demonstrate our expertise to the community of people who are selling. And same thing with the sellers. We need to create the digital footprint that buyers can find and do research on us to get excited about buying our companies and investing in us.

Jason [00:42:35]:
I love it. I think that’s so good. Especially when we think about the fact that most everyone has gotten used to, like you said, tuning out the pay per clicks in the searches, you know, what’s an ad, you know, what’s not organic, and just like skipping past that to find the truth, the real stuff. So as we wrap this up, one last question I have for you is I want to know what you’re excited about heading into next year, the next 12 months, heading into 2026. When we’re recording this, it’s November 2025. Like, what are you looking for for Adam and for your. Yeah, you know, your web of businesses.

Adam Coffey [00:43:11]:
And thanks for asking. You know, it’s. I continue to be on an evolutionary journey myself, you know, so when I rotated out of the CEO seat, you know, it’s been. It was back in 2021, it’s been four years now, you know, almost four years to the day. And I told the world, I don’t want to be a CEO anymore. I’m bored. You know, I want to help people succeed. That’s my.

Adam Coffey [00:43:32]:
That’s my next mission. For the next 10 years, I’ve been playing with different mediums, you know, and different, different, different types of, Of. Of ways that I can engage and help people. You know, podcasts. But podcasts are limited. 45 minutes to an hour, call it max. You know, I write articles. Well, Forbes articles are a thousand words, you know, and they’re.

Adam Coffey [00:43:52]:
Then I have books. Well, books are 40 to 50,000 words. But again, it’s kind of like, it’s flat. It’s two dimensional. It’s like, do they receive the message? Am I choosing the right words to convey, you know, something that’s complex? And then I started doing live seminars. You know, it’s like, okay, now I can get a few hundred people in the room at a time, you know, and. But it takes a lot of time out of my world, you know, to go to Australia or go someplace and get on a stage. How can I make myself available to anyone, anywhere, anytime on demand? And so I just got back from the studio and I’m taking my seminar world and I’m now expanding that and you know, heading off into, I’ll call it an online immersive world where there’s videotaped instruction, there’s live check ins with me, there’s coaching, you know, there’s materials.

Adam Coffey [00:44:44]:
And so I’m excited for, for 2026 for myself to kind of explore this next realm. You know, these things have just kind of been building on, on top of each other and I’m like, okay, seminars was good, liked it. I have two days as my typical seminar. You know, it’s like I can now convey a really good message and I’m in person so I can deliver it with some passion. But now my problem is I have to physically be somewhere and the people in the crowd have to travel to get there, you know, and I can’t afford to go to 70 cities in a year and, you know, hit a number of people. How do I get through to that next level? And so that’s what this, this new, you know, call it, I’m calling it Empire Builder Academy. That’s what’s coming next for me. It’s a way to reach more people with in depth learning, you know, and, and best leverage my time so that when I’m engaged with clients, I’m doing more productive work rather than repetitive work.

Jason [00:45:43]:
Got it. I love it. And I think that’s a great way to scale and to your point and, and you know, some interesting lessons there that people can take. It’s, it’s productizing the stuff that you would say and do on repeat to help people with the fundamentals like the precursor of Adam coffee and what you do to then, you know, help them with the more impactful stuff at scale that you can do.

Adam Coffey [00:46:07]:
Exactly. The more one on one, tailored specifically to them stuff. But, but the learning’s important. You know, the base foundation is important. We have to have that in order to make, you know, call it the, the, the one on one more impactful. So, you know, I’m, I’m constantly evolving and learning. I’m learning from my, my clients, you know, and when I see best practices, I’m quickly spreading them around the world. I work in dozens of different industries, you know, and, and dozens of countries.

Adam Coffey [00:46:35]:
And so it lets me very quickly see what’s working and see how business is being impacted globally, but at a small business call it level or medium, you know, medium sized business level. And, and so it’s, it’s, it’s been an interesting journey. I’m having fun, which was my goal and objective. Do something new, add value and kind of spend the next 10 years of my career, you know, doing, doing this, trying to make an impact on as many, many people as I can.

Jason [00:47:03]:
I love it. So for people tuning in, if they don’t, didn’t figure it out by now, if they don’t know you in, in advance, if they’re just learning about you, obviously there’s the books, right, like the exit strategy playbook, the one you wrote on, on private equity. There’s all the podcasts that you’re on. Obviously they can Google you, they can find you anywhere on podcast. Where else would you send people to if they want to, you know, get.

Adam Coffey [00:47:25]:
If they really want to talk to me personally? Yeah, I’ll send them to LinkedIn. I get up at 4 o’ clock every morning, I grab a cup of coffee, you know, I’m sitting behind, behind a computer, you know, and, and that’s when I engage, you know, call it with the public. And hundreds of people reach out to me, you know, every, every week. And, and I engage. They get me. I don’t have a team of people who are, are, are scrutinizing, you know, everything that goes on. It’s like you, you come to me on LinkedIn, you know, you send me a message, you get me, you know, and so I’d say that’s the most impactful way to blow through my schedule, you know, to get around Carolyn and get on, you know, have my brain thinking about you is to jump on, you know, jump on LinkedIn, that’s, that’s probably the best place, you know, they can go to any number of my websites. They’re, they’re all being redone but the, the links will all, all be around.

Adam Coffey [00:48:17]:
So it’s like atomycoffee.com CEO advisoryguru.com chairmangroup us. There’s a number of different places, but I love hearing from people that are out there. It’s like, you know, I exist to help you succeed, so I look forward to it.

Jason [00:48:34]:
Yeah. Which, which I do truly appreciate about you. One thing in our, in our, our short relationship and time chatting back and forth. One thing is when I reached back out to you got to you on LinkedIn, you set me up with Caroline so she could gatekeep the rest of it. But it was, it was great chatting with you on LinkedIn to kind of revive things. So I appreciate that accessibility side of you and and your goal to just help people. So thank you, Adam for being on the show. I appreciate you sharing all this.

Jason [00:48:59]:
For anyone tuning in, please check out anything and everything that Adam’s put out there. Adam, thank you for bringing all of this, sharing this wisdom, and helping this audience get better here on the podcast.

Adam Coffey [00:49:11]:
Happy to do that. Good luck to everybody out there. And remember, next time you wake up and look in the mirror, why not you? You can be successful, focus, believe in yourself and make it happen.

Jason [00:49:24]:
I love it. Why not you? And for the audience out there, appreciate you tuning in. And until next time, stop hoping for deals and start growing your pipeline.