Bonus Episode with Curt Maier

LinkedIn: Curt Maier – https://www.linkedin.com/in/curtmmaier/
Company Website: www.curtmmaier.com
Email: curt@ibainc.com

Jason Cutter [00:00:00]:
Hey everybody, Jason here. Welcome to the after show of the Business Broker Growth Show. I’ve got with me Kurt Mayer from IBA Pacific Northwest Business Brokerage. We just finished the main part. This is the after show. Kurt, how was that, how was the first segment from your end?

Curt Maier [00:00:20]:
I thought it was great, Jason. I think we covered, you know, all of the points and pretty good detail and you know, hopefully left the brokers with some, you know, some good direction.

Jason Cutter [00:00:34]:
Yeah, I know for me, and I say this to the guests that come on the show and I talk about this kind of behind the scenes, but I love having people like you on the show and I love all the stuff that you share because then I take a lot of notes. If anyone watches, I’m writing nuggets down, I’m writing things down that, you know, just that come to mind. And there was so much stuff that you put, put into that first episode that you, you gave to brokers and you know, potential business owners, people looking to, to buy a business. You were talking about franchises, so lots of stuff. And then in this after show, in this, this kind of post segment, I want to go through the questions I ask every guest and, and get your kind of tips and, or opinions and thoughts on where this is and we’ll start with the first one, you know, because you’ve been in the space again you went from anyone who wants to tune into part one, you can hear the background, obviously it’ll be in the show notes as well. Well, but you went from the Navy and submarines to corporate to entrepreneurship and these, these three chapters of your life, like you said, these three big segments is question number one would be what will brokers need to survive in the year 2030?

Curt Maier [00:01:45]:
Well, I, I think that when they’re selling in 2030, they’re still going, going to be selling to.

Curt Maier [00:01:53]:
Folks that are, you know, the tail end of the baby boom generation and such that are relatively old school. So I think what they’re going to need to be successful is to remain being part of that old school.

Curt Maier [00:02:14]:
Community and approach and not think that AI or some tool is going to be, you know, your, your ticket to success. It’s going to be developing relationships where people know like and trust you and where you are the authority in, in the business brokerage community and such. And so I think what they’re going to need then is to remind themselves that a lot of face to face, belly to belly time is needed to be able to get that done.

Jason Cutter [00:02:50]:
Yeah, makes sense. So then leading into the second question, which would be what is the number one tech shift, technology shift, you see coming to M A?

Curt Maier [00:03:01]:
Yeah, I do. I do see the.

Curt Maier [00:03:05]:
The use of AI and chat GBT and, and, and tools like that. I, I see that as helping in terms of speed and efficiency, in terms of, you know, business evaluation becoming quicker, putting your confidential business memorandum together, you know, being able to.

Curt Maier [00:03:30]:
Craft it and customize it in a way.

Curt Maier [00:03:34]:
You know, that’s just quicker and crisper and more impressive, you know, but at the end of the day, even with all these tools, the way that you’re going to differentiate yourself is going to be through you, your own personality and what somebody, you know, feels about you and how much confidence they have in you. Because, you know, the differentiation in a profession like this is the knowledge, experience and skill you have and being able to communicate that to your clients who are the owners.

Jason Cutter [00:04:10]:
Got it. That makes sense. It’s, you know, I, I think short and long term, it’s always going to be a relationship business. Tech can help. Technology can help speed up some of the repetitive things and the things that could be automated, leaving someone with their most important part as a broker M and a intermediary, which is the relationships and the skills and the experience to, to help that transactions, you know, exit successfully. Because, you know, technology is not going to be able to do all of that. This isn’t a simple transaction like, let’s say, a mortgage. So it’s, it’s.

Jason Cutter [00:04:49]:
And you know, what I know is that every business is unique, which means that you can’t just apply one thing to every, you know, one size fits all. Doesn’t work. When you look at this year, we’re recording this late 2025, so, so far this year, what’s the, the biggest lesson you’.

Curt Maier [00:05:08]:
Well, I would say that.

Curt Maier [00:05:11]:
The biggest lesson is, is that there, there will always be transactional activity regardless of the economy, regardless of the interest rate movements and such. There was concern that with interest rates being so high, that would limit the, the buyer interest in, in acquiring businesses. And that has. I would say that as I mentioned in the preliminary or our initial conversation, that the activity level is very, very high, that the demand of buyers is very, very high. Because again, I think buyers who are in corporate environments see that layoffs will continue, you know, indefinitely and taking control of your life by owning a business is really the, the way to go. So, you know, I, I think the transactional activity remaining very high has.

Curt Maier [00:06:22]:
Is very pleasing to us in the business brokerage world. And I don’t, I don’t see that Dissipating anytime soon?

Jason Cutter [00:06:30]:
No, for sure not. What are you most excited about, you know, for next year in, in your business, especially with your role with IBA on the, you know, more on the biz dev side for growing the business?

Curt Maier [00:06:47]:
Yeah, I, I think it’s, I think it’s the.

Curt Maier [00:06:53]:
The, the, the frequency of presenting franchise, new franchise opportun in addition to existing businesses. I think that franchising is.

Curt Maier [00:07:09]:
On the rise across the country and certainly here in the Pacific Northwest. And again, it gets back to the fact that there’s limited inventory of profitable businesses for sale and that many individuals want to take control of that process and we’re very fortunate here at iba. It requires a license to be able to sell franchises and you know, our team is licensed to do this and has the knowledge of who the best franchisors are. You know, there’s probably 4,000 franchises out there and we represent maybe a tenth of them. So again, blue chippers that can validate and are going to be successful. And so with our knowledge of what territories are available and with the ability to profile the buyer and determine, you know, what are their strengths, weaknesses, what do they want to do in the business, do they want to focus more on sales and marketing or on operations finance and then put opportunities in front of them that they may never have considered. That’s fun. And so I see that, you know, continuing in that activity level increasing next year.

Jason Cutter [00:08:26]:
All right, last question. If you could wave a magic wand, what would be the one marketing strategy or process that you would want implemented automatically for you?

Curt Maier [00:08:40]:
Oh, automatically. Well, gets it gets back down to, you know, my mantra of your, your net worth is equal to your network. So I would want the magic wand to present me with the highest value referral sources for us would be the best financial advisors, CPAs, transactional attorneys, other business professionals and insurance and such that I know have great relationships with owners. So if I could have a magic wand to present those to me without having to spend a great deal of time finding them, that would be the, that would be the, the best for me.

Jason Cutter [00:09:30]:
I love it. Then, then you could do what you do best, which is to take that and then run with it and give value and build relationships and, and, and play the long day long game. I love it. I think that’s great. Thank you for sharing all of these. I think it’s interesting to think about where the business has been, what, where it is now, where it’s going next as an overall industry and then you know, on your side specifically with your experience with, with IBA and everything that’s involved there and, and also regionally like what’s going on. So I appreciate you on this part. And for people tuning in again, make sure you check out part one.

Jason Cutter [00:10:05]:
There was so much that Kurt shared, so many great things that he talked about both for brokers, business owners, anyone tuning in, you know, make sure to check that out. Also all the links will be in the show notes. But real quickly, if anyone wants to reach out to you and connect with you, obviously they can do that via LinkedIn. So it’s Kurt M. Mayer. M A I E r go to KurtMMayer.com also email Kurt Bainc.com check out the show notes. We’ll have the the book that he has available that’s on Amazon in there, some blog articles about his, you know, the network being your net worth. So all of that would be in there.

Jason Cutter [00:10:42]:
Again Kurt, thank you for being on the show, sharing even more stuff in this, in this after show.

Curt Maier [00:10:49]:
No thanks again Jason. I appreciate it.

Jason Cutter [00:10:52]:
And for everyone tuning in once again, thank you for being here. Thank you for taking this information and hopefully putting it into action, using it to elevate your game, the industry as a whole. And so we can help the really good people who are focused on being professionals do even more and more and just help those business owners exit successfully. And remember, until next time, stop hoping for deals and start growing your pipeline.