EP 94: Exit Planning for Professional Practices with Dawn Bloomer

Ed Mysogland  0:01  
Welcome back to a another episode of defenders business value I had, I had one of the best visits I had in a long time. And I visited with Don bloomer, and she is an exit planner of, and she works predominantly in professional practices. And, you know, one of the things that I really enjoyed talking to her about that not many people address is the mental health aspects of this whole Exit Planning process. And as a professional practice, you know, as an owner of a professional practice, you find out how that business is you are so much of it is you, and how do you how do you limit yourself in in not being the entire business and the end? The funny thing is, when talking with Dawn i and her practice is called productive pressure. And she has an interesting analogy, because she comes from a horse racing background, she's a veterinarian, and she had sold her practice. And she's taking a lot of the landmines that she stomped on. And she's helping other professional practices, understand the same, how to avoid the mistakes that she she did. And, and so one of the things that, that I so appreciated, our conversation was not only how transparent she was, I mean, because she, she, she made mistakes, and, and it's hard to admit those, but what more so I really respected the fact that she was talking about how, how it affected her personally. And so I I'm, I'm certain that you will enjoy my conversation. But Don bloomer of productive pressure. Well, welcome to the show, Don, great to have you.

Dawn Bloomer  2:25  
Great to be here, Edie. Thanks so much for having me.

Ed Mysogland  2:28  
So before you came on, I gave kind of a high level view of you and your practice, but I'd likely did not do it justice. So if you would just talk a little bit about your practice and how you got to where you are.

Dawn Bloomer  2:45  
Sure. So for for over 20 years, I was actually a veterinarian for resources. So my background is in the professional services industry. And like a lot of professional services books, I learned an awful lot about being a veterinarian when I was in school, not so much about being a business owner. And so I sort of became an accidental entrepreneur, when I bought into our practice, it was fortunate to be part of a really well established practice that was already very profitable. And it was profitable, mostly because it was a bunch of people working really, really hard. And we were in an industry at the time that was doing really well. As time went on, I sort of came to realize that I probably needed to know a little bit more about business because when 2008 hit, you know, the economy wasn't quite as strong, you know, like, we started to hit a few little road bumps, and I thought, I think I should learn something about how we should really be doing this. And that's when I went back and got my MBA. And after I did that, you know, I started to realize all the things that we'd sort of been getting lucky on and, and I realized that, that we were making up for a lot of our I hate to say it, but really inadequacies in the business, you know, business management department by just working harder and longer and more and billing more and doing more procedures. And we really just focused on the top line. Now we we tried to manage our expenses and all those things, but we weren't doing any of it in a very deliberate way. And so that gave us a huge opportunity to start refining the way we were doing things and and ultimately, yeah, it was a long and circuitous route. But eventually we were able to merge our practice with a group of 30 something other practices across the US. We grew that for a while and I was fortunate enough to be invited to be part of the deal team where we went out and looked for other practices to buy and add to our group. We did a lot of that during COVID, which was exciting. And then we sort of as COVID was settling in, we were approached by a much larger aggregator owned by a private equity group. And the powers that be decided that that was a good move. And so, at that point, I spent a lot of time doing, you know, bizdev. And, and talking to a lot of practice owners across the world, like all over the world, because we, when we were growing our group, we were looking everywhere. And I started to see a lot of the same problems that we had had in our practice, and had a lot of really difficult conversations with practice owners, and realize that a lot of them had no plan for the future. And so when they came to us, they were looking for an exit, but they hadn't planned it. And so they were coming to us, and they thought, well, I got a lot of revenue, I'm making a lot of money. You know, we're profitable. Why don't you want to buy us and so those conversations were really hard, because these people I had poured their blood, sweat and tears into their business, it was their baby. And it was sort of like us telling them it was ugly. Yeah. Worry, has no value. So anyway, long, that was the long way. That's how I ended up getting into. Basically, my whole goal is to help other professional services providers remove themselves from the center of their business, so that not only can they have a business that has more value when they finally decide to exit, but in the meantime, they can have a better quality of life. And you know, their business can kind of give them what they always thought it would.

Ed Mysogland  6:40  
Yeah. And and enter productive pressure. Right? Yeah. So that's, that's where that came from. Okay, so. So I'll just segue right into it. So the the power of productive pressure striking the balance between drive and well being that's kind of your tagline, I'm just curious to know, you know, I'm assuming throughout your travels, that that this has been kind of percolating and marinating and then and then after the your own exit, this became kind of the mantra for your practice. It's the writer. That's,

Dawn Bloomer  7:16  
yeah, absolutely, I'd love to. So as a veterinarian, you know, my for resources, obviously, like kind of a special niche, my role was to help the trainer, make sure that the horse could get fit enough to run fast, you know, on its legs around around an oval, at high speeds without getting injured. And, obviously, you have to apply enough pressure to them so that they get fitter, their bones get stronger their muscles develop, and they're able to take more and more stress, if you will, without giving them so much applying so much pressure that they get injured. And I feel like that was sort of the the sense I wanted to bring into this. Because I think during COVID, especially, we became very aware of how many professional service providers were burning out, and were leaving their chosen profession, because they just decided they couldn't take it anymore. And so I thought that that was sort of a good way to bring the fact that stress in is in and of itself isn't bad. It's actually necessary. Yeah. But but it's what we do with it, and how we, how we help ourselves adapt to it. And so I like to talk a lot about mental fitness and, and how we can be proactive instead of just becoming more resilient and being reactive, we can actually become more proactive about how we approach that.

Ed Mysogland  8:43  
I see. So when you and again, in our practice, I mean, I I tend to hire CPAs accountants, and the other is, is former exited business hours, that, that they bring an entirely different level of empathy. And, you know, I've walked in your shoes, and I think, I think from from where I sit. I think that's, that's really interesting about how, how your practice developed, not only just because of the exit, but also because, you know, you were a veterinarian, right. Yeah, yeah. So, so. So it's funny you said because I have a veterinarian, an exited veterinarian on our on our staff, and we don't, we tend not to get in into that. But But my point, is it the transferable empathy to to these business owners are? Yeah, I think and I assume you agree with me that yeah, it just resume somebody to talk to that. You know what I know I know what you're feeling And I know, the things that I'm going to ask you may be difficult. But we, but I'm telling you that you can, you can see the other side.

Dawn Bloomer  10:09  
Right. And and I think you're right in. And I think the other thing is that as a professional, and someone who's highly trained, it's often hard to ask for help, or to admit what you don't know, we think we should be able to figure it out. We're smart people look what we went through to get where we are. And so I think the fact that I can, I can stand up and say, hey, you know, I did this stuff, and I did it wrong. I, you know, I did it wrong, I did it backwards, you know, I didn't know what I was doing for most of the time. And it's nothing to be ashamed of, or to feel bad about. But if you're willing to, you know, take the time to learn how you can do it differently, and you can do it better.

Ed Mysogland  10:53  
Well, and that leads us to the next question about value growth and Exit Planning. And one of one of the things I really appreciated you doing was, is helping me with some of my questions, because I have, you know, I have kind of my set way of looking at it, but you brought up something that was really interesting. And that was the growth and an exit plan, can they coexist, because that is a real, that's, those are two different animals. And as it relates to productive pressure, the two different animals, I'm saying animals use that effect. Go Go figure. So you've got you've got two different, two different manners of which you're addressing the business. And I guess I want to, I want to talk a little bit about that, can you how do they coexist? And how do you balance that?

Dawn Bloomer  11:49  
So I think that one of the misconceptions is you are either trying to grow or you're trying to get out. And I think that it's used if you start far enough in advance thinking about what your eventual exit might be. And I think where people get hung up is they don't even want to think about exiting, because it sounds very final, and then what I'm gonna do and so, the beauty is that all of the things that you do to build value in your business will actually make it more, you know, easier to sell at the end of the road. Yeah, so. So if you can get people thinking less about the exit, sometimes it helps them to be willing to work on the, you know, the value of the business, we tend to focus a lot on profitability, right? Like, well, how much money am I making? How much am I going to put in my pocket. And that's terrific. But that, that's it, I think what really hit me was all these people had very profitable businesses. And none of them have valuable businesses, they were only valuable to them, and so much as they could support their lifestyle, but when they wanted to leave, they were going to be walking away, and basically liquidating for the value of the assets they had on hand. And to me, I felt like that was just, it's just a terrible waste. Like I think it's an it's an economic and, and an emotional waste. I mean, all that effort you put in. So to me, it's this idea that you've got to have an exit plan you do. Because otherwise, even if you don't make one, you're going to have one because at the end of the day, if you don't plan, your plan will be liquidate,

Ed Mysogland  13:26  
well, one way or the other, you will be

Dawn Bloomer  13:30  
will be axing I think the other thing, as you well know, is that a lot of people don't realize that more than 80% of businesses do not get sold. And so I think people assume that when the time comes, they're just going to be able to sell and, and get something out.

Ed Mysogland  13:49  
Yeah, I think and I think that a lot of business owners look at their peers, and they know, if he or she fumbled through it, certainly I can do it. And, and, and the and the problem is that you don't, you don't, those aren't necessarily the same circumstances that they somehow managed to get through. And these business owners, you know, as, as you're, as you're coaching him and talk to talking to him about, about value and value growth. You know, they don't understand and this is a statistic that that that we keep, you know, if if you do any value or any value work, and I'm talking whether it's evaluation, or talking about Exit Planning, or just meeting with someone that talks to you about the about the sale process, whether you choose to sell or you're going third party or you're selling it to your kid or whoever. It's an ad, it changes from a 20% Fail 20% success rate to an 80% Wow, it flips on its head, that just that having that conversation and put you in such a superior position to to take those next steps. Because you now know, you now know that how somebody is going to look at your business and and as you've identified where are the chinks in the armor? And how are we going to offset that? And that's and, and to me, I think that's, that's the such the value that that you bring in. And when we're talking professional practices, you know, there's not a whole lot of tangible assets. So that's what so that's how we're gonna go next is, is when you're looking at these at these businesses, where, you know, and, and like I said, I'm dressed in in, in a tie, because I was an expert witness earlier today. You know, we start talking a lot about Goodwill, and how do you transfer that value to the next person. So that's where I'd like to go next is talking about, you know, some of the some of the coaching examples that you have, that that gets you out of being that person, because the first thing that any buyer or anybody that is addressing risk is going to do is say you are the business. So how do we how do we work around that? Well, and

Dawn Bloomer  16:17  
I think for professional services providers, it's a big challenge, because they're used to being the most responsible, arguably the most important, they have all the answers, right? Like we're used to being the person, we want our clients to believe that we are the one, right. I mean, that's why we went to school for all those years, so that we would be the one. The challenge with that is, I feel like oftentimes, that role becomes a part of our identity. And so we're very reticent about giving any of it up. And I think that it creates this really is it really the sort of catch 22 situation because as long as you are the most important person, that's great, you may be the Rainmaker, but you're not building value, and there's no succession plan in that. And so this is why sometimes working with solopreneurs is tough, because they struggle with the bringing in a younger person or another person and giving some of that up, and, and over time, you know, transferring that goodwill, as you talked about to that next person. Now, even that is not the whole solution, though, right? Because that's fine, you transfer it to a successor. So you kind of just kick the thing down the road, which sometimes is the best you can do given your timeline. But if you have more roadway, then not only can you look at, you know, passing it on to your successor, but actually having many people that are involved and sometimes bringing in another group and creating more. I like to talk about the fall down factor, like the concern that a buyer has, which should be your concern, as well as mitigating risk. And, and so I talked about, well, what if you fall down? Who's stepping into your shoes? And how long is that sustainable? If it's not actually you. And this is why this whole idea of Exit Planning versus value building to me, I mean, they really dovetail nicely, because this removing yourself from the center of your business is the number one after it's part of this whole process of mitigating risk, which is what a buyer wants to see is they want they want profits. Sure. They want, you know, they want a strong EBIT, but they want to know that the their miss their risk is mitigated as much as they can. And so that whole idea is great, yeah, transfer it to the successor. So that involves things like, you know, having really promoting them to your customers, really helping them learn how to do things the way you do. And that falls into that whole idea of creating systems and processes that support what you're doing so that anybody could really walk in and do things, sure you're gonna have different personalities. But if you start working on what does your brand look like, and we don't think a lot about branding, as social service providers a lot. But when you look at some of the new brands that are coming in to some of these areas, their brand is everything, right? Their product isn't even, it's nowhere close to a lot of what the mom and pop shops are doing. But their brand is spectacular. You know, it's pretty and people can go on the app and there's no friction, it's easy to make an appointment, they can get in to see someone when they want to for whatever it is

Ed Mysogland  19:36  
it right. Well, and, and what I was taking a note while you're talking, you know, one of the telltale signs for a business owner is that question how do you introduce yourself? And this is a this is a thing from John Warrillow from built. Yes. Yeah. How do you identify and that will? That answers a lot of the question on how you view your business. And how, how you're going to, I suppose, how you're going to accept Exit Planning. One of the Give me one second here. I was looking at Mary Mills, she was on episode, I think she was on episode 84. And Mary mills. Yeah. Because you were talking about processes. Yeah, the things that Mary Mills does, and, and she's over in your neck of the woods, too. So she, she helps document processes that. I mean, it, that's her, that's her whole business is coming in, and, and sitting and documenting, because all these business owners that just fight that, you know, it's just a matter of here, come follow me around, I'll tell you all the processes and, and my point, and, and this is moving into the next question that that I had had, which had to do with technology, and I bring her up only because, you know, she's she's leveraging technology to help you document your, your processes, so the next person or persons can follow along. So. So what technology are you seeing in the Exit Planning space that aids in, in? I guess, amplifying the strategy for whatever that might be? Whether it's a eventual exit? Or, you know, succession?

Dawn Bloomer  21:39  
So you mean, as far as the type of technology I'm using with my clients or that using within those businesses to help? Yes.

Ed Mysogland  21:47  
So how can technology be utilized to aid in effective business strategy.

Dawn Bloomer  21:53  
So there are so many ways, and I love technology, I was an early adopter, just about everything I've slowed down a little bit, I got I got a little more careful about it. But I think what happens to a lot of professional service providers is that they, they may have embraced some technology, some of them have not, some of them might be I blows me away, sometimes I'll go in, and they'll still have paper chips for things and, and you know, a clipboard, and I'm going, Wow, we're just writing because we've got opportunities here. I would say that there are so many places where you can make technology work for you. The key is to pick the right technology, which is always a challenge. And not to overdo it, I, you don't want technology to be a solution looking for a problem. You want to use technology in places where it really is going to add value to you and to your customers. And there's all sorts of simple stuff. When it comes to SOPs, you can there are very elaborate ways of documenting your processes now. But I what I like to do is I like to try and tap people like I'm going to look up Mary, because I like to tap people who are very good at a specific thing, and have them help clients do that. Because the reality is that you want to do it well. And you want to do it efficiently and kind of muddling your way through it is not always helpful. There are lots of different practice management software's depending on the type of business that you have, that can be very helpful. It can also be overwhelming, because there are so many, there are so many types of software and everybody's you know, branding and marketing, there's to be the best for all of the things and the reality is, is most of the things that say they do everything, don't do anything very well. So, so I think that it's really important to be mindful when you're making those investments. The other thing I see a lot of is people have become very entrenched in whatever software they're using. They're afraid of the switching costs there. And rightfully so. I mean, sometimes it's expensive. It's always painful in the beginning, but but there are times in places where just changing something like you know, your operating system can be a game changer and surely things a lot more efficient. And those are the kinds of things that by Yeah, I mean a business that you want to work in and it's easy to run is a business that someone's going to want to buy.

Ed Mysogland  24:27  
Amen. Well I'll tell you and along those same lines that that that you referenced what one of the things is like custom software, that is either a really good thing or for whoever is looking at it because you know you've customized it so much to your liking. That it makes it next to impossible to to pivot if you so choose without a lot of pain. One other things, you have some of the antiquated businesses that you that you see. And and we see too. You know, I talked to, you know, a number of buyers that as soon as they start seeing paper and paper processes, that's a value penalty. It does not mean it does. It may not. It may not be, it may not

Dawn Bloomer  25:22  
be a deal killer, but it's definitely it's definitely value detractor. Yeah, that's who wants to take on that, that job of changing all of that over?

Ed Mysogland  25:34  
And and the problem. The problem is that, or one of the problems is that it it's, it's, it brings on a whole level, a whole new level of scrutiny, you know, that people make mistake software tends not to if it's programmed,

Dawn Bloomer  25:53  
guys, usually you can, you can find it. Yes, great. And you're right, I think that's a great point at is this whole idea that all the things you want to do in preparing to sell a business is, is just what you talked about, you want to decrease the amount of scrutiny. So you want to make sure that you've covered all of your risk mitigation. So you know, you've transferred your goodwill, you've, you have all your insurance, things lined out, you have all of your regulatory, that's a big thing in professional services practices is every state, every jurisdiction has different regulatory rules are not even talking about OSHA. But yeah, not just HR stuff in the actual regulatory things for your particular industry. And that's a big deal to a buyer. Anything around accounting and your processes, they're, again, a process thing. And so to me, all of that is wrapped up in that whole idea of making sure that your systems and processes are well thought out, and well documented.

Ed Mysogland  26:56  
Yeah. And in fact, we, we have, yeah, and we say it and we tell the people we work with, we want you to, to, to start thinking about a deal room, you know, I don't care if you're a decade away from selling, just start compiling it, just have a habit in one spot. And, you know, time kills all deals. And if you are locked and loaded, and you have your regulatory all all your regulatory matters in one folder, that you don't have to fumble around trying to find. Whereas when that time comes, you're oh my gosh, there's so many.

Dawn Bloomer  27:42  
Yes, yes. Because not because most people are not going to have done that. And you're so right, because it's the little things that when it comes to the deal, make all the difference. And I learned all that the heartbreak, we did it first time, I had no clue. And boy, was it painful? Was it painful. And I thought we had pretty neat and tidy stuff, I was pretty, I was pretty pleased with myself, you know, however, I had no idea what we were getting into. And we had never undertaken anything like that and had no experience. And it was we did a lot of stuff. Wrong. We we there were a lot of places where we could have done much better for ourselves. And I'll tell you, I learned a lot from doing things the hard way. Well, it's a

Ed Mysogland  28:31  
good, now you're sharing it, but

Dawn Bloomer  28:34  
But that's why I'm so passionate about it. And that's also why to your point, I have a lot of empathy about it. It's also why like the handling the culture of even talking about an exploit even if you're talking about an exit plan 10 years in the future people sometimes it makes them uncomfortable talking to their team about it. And those are things that I've spent, as I'm sure you do I spend a lot more time around mindset and and dealing with those kinds of issues than I ever thought I would going into it. You know, I had I was sort of going oh, we're in the management part of it. The nuts and bolts of it are the hard part. It's not the hardest. For me, the hardest thing for people to wrap their heads around is really a lot of the stuff around the mindset of changing the way you think about your business change about changing the way you think about how you want to do business and why you want to do it that way and then how you communicate that to your team. And it

Ed Mysogland  29:31  
is it's Yeah, that's a good that's a good place to segue because like I was telling you, so my wife's a therapist and and that's cool depending on which side of the interview you're on. So the I do think that that the sale of a business or the exit or anytime you're you're You're starting to address the your identity, whatever that might be. Yeah, yeah, you bump into some challenges that perhaps, yeah, in my case, I was I was talking about the, this expert witness testimony, I mean, this, this guy sitting here going, you know, what I, you know, I gave everything this business, I gave my marriage for this business, came up going to my kids, my kids events, and here we are. And you're telling me, it's worth this, or somebody's telling me, it's worth this, or this buyer is telling me, it's worth this. So I guess that's where I want to go with this next question is, is to talk a little bit about, you know, just mental health surrounding this, this this event or the planning of it? And, you know, how are you coaching? The people you're working with, about that?

Dawn Bloomer  30:59  
So, this is a great, this is like, one of my favorite topics, because I lived the dream, right? I was when I was six, I knew I wanted to be a veterinarian. I spent, you know, the next 20 something years getting there. I bought into a practice. And then right as I was buying into the practice, I got pregnant. By that point, I was already on my second marriage. And then as my kids, you know, as I, I had my son, and three weeks later went back to work took him with me. Because, you know, I thought that that was the only way that I could prove that I was still committed to the thing. And you know, I just been asked to buy in. And did anybody tell me how to do that? No, absolutely not. But that's how I felt. And so that's what I did. Then, two years later, I had my daughter and I scheduled to be induced, I had someone to cover for me for three weeks, I went back this time, I was like, you know, having her in the barn and in the truck all the time with the two of them with the nanny was probably going to be a lot. So I bought an RV, and I parked at the racetrack, because that's what you do. Right? So you're committed? Yeah, you just make it happen. But But to your point, I missed out on all sorts of things I missed out on soccer games, I missed out on school plays, I missed out on, you know, cooking breakfast for my kids in the morning, which, you know, a lot of people probably think that's not such a bad thing. But I missed out on a lot of stuff. And, and at some point, you think I missed out on vacations, like I worked all holidays, because of the way our business was, until much later in my career. And I am now on marriage number three. And in between there, I had all sorts of highs and lows with my own journey with mental health and dealing with the stress of all of it, you know, I I got to a point where I used to hide out in the bathroom at the, at the track in the bar and in the bathroom. Because I just needed peace for like five minutes. And if I was in my truck, people would come and I'd sit there and like journal sitting on the toilet, like, you know, so this whole idea of mental health and how much we how ingrained we get in ourselves having to be that person who is the center of the thing. So I spend a lot of time working with people on will like, why did you start the business in the first place? Right? Because a lot of times by the time they come to me, they're kind of at the point where it's like, well, I've been doing all this and for what like I got money now I don't have time to spend it was like the it's almost like an existential crisis, you know? And so it's that it's getting back to that why so why did you start it in the first place? Why was it important to you to be a business owner? And and why did that drive you to do all these things. What I find happens a lot is that our values, when we started the business, were different. What was really important to us when we started are often different, because we go through major life changes along the way. And so by the time we get here where we're looking like we've really accomplished everything, and we're very successful, it doesn't feel good. Yeah, it should you think like you did the thing that you wanted to do, but it doesn't feel good anymore, because your life has changed along the course of this. And now what you what was important to hear it is not the same as what's important to you now. So I spend a lot of time having people do stuff that doesn't sound very exit planning, business oriented, but really around identifying what your values are, what is really important to you, and like What's your why now. And then using that, because we spend a lot of time talking about the business, but at the end of the day for the owner of the business to be comfortable selling. They need to know what's next for them. Whether that's, you know, in a year or 10 years, they need to know what's next, like, have some sense of it might change, but have some sense of it. We spent a lot of time on the why, like why and then creating a vision around that and then backtracking from that to figure out what we need to do to make that happen.

Ed Mysogland  34:58  
And I think I think the Business Owner. Now as they I think that they they begin to if they can get over the fact that the business is part of them, not necessarily all of them. Yes, I think that they, they kind of come to the realization that, yeah, there will be something after this. Yes. And, and so it, but I don't think I don't think that business owners get the credit that they deserve of the mental challenges that that they go through no one, no one, unless you're in it, no one understands, you know, payroll, keep payroll keeps coming. No one understands the personal guarantees that have been given, no one understands that when someone you know, when a lawsuit comes or is pissed at you, who's going to address it? And that takes that takes a toll. And especially in professional practices, you know, where your names on perhaps your names on the marquee? Yes, not not only, you know, that's reputational harm. Yes. And you don't want to jeopardize that. And so,

Dawn Bloomer  36:22  
honestly, right. And it is a an, it is real, the struggle is real. And the and this, to your point, that stress, it never leaves. And so that's one of the reasons why this whole idea of work life balance, to me feels like BS, right? Like, it's not about work versus life, work is part of your life. Yeah, there are lots of parts of your life, or at least hopefully there should be. And so if you're trying to balance work, and life works gonna win every time because of that, because you can't set off the worry about all the things that could and do happen in the business, you can't just shut it off, because you have a lot of people relying on you. And also to your point, it is your reputation. And, and that and that matters. I mean, you spend a lot of time building that. Well, you know,

Ed Mysogland  37:10  
I've interviewed a lot of people, and you might be the first that has has addressed this and and I and my wife will be tickled to death to know that there is there is someone in the exit space that's addressing that. And I so I applaud you, because I do believe that, especially in the in the service industry, that's a that is a real challenge, I would, I would put that up against even business value. That I agree.

Dawn Bloomer  37:43  
I agree. And that's why really what I what I really focus on is this idea of removing, you know, the owner from the center of the business, because I feel like that's where it all starts. If we can get that part done. It's the hardest part. If we can get that part, right, then the rest of it flows from there. And I always start with that, that you need to have a sense of what your business business value is at the outset. Because often, that's something that people have a number in their head, and they've even put it on their their personal net worth statement. And they're making all of their other decisions based on this little pie in the sky number. And that makes me nervous to me, I'm a mom, I worry about stuff. I want people to know, I want people to be okay. Yeah.

Ed Mysogland  38:27  
Well, you know, the, the thing is that, that that they will and the the idea of insulation you know, I should be appealing but the path of of releasing control. That's, that's the road to hoe, you know, that's hard to do. But, you know, what, if, and I wish you'd been in the exit space, and I wish there was more of an exit plan. Well, yeah, it's been around. I think it's still infancy. But yeah, but I wish there was more data. I wish there there was more empirical evidence to say, you know, what, you know, I know I'm doing it in my shop, but wouldn't it be great to know that, you know, if you if you if you move this lever here is here is the change of value, and I think John will worrilow is on his way with with value builder on the eight value drivers, but it from an exit planning standpoint, holistically. I would just be curious to see how how some of these things really affect affect everything posted, but

Dawn Bloomer  39:46  
yes, I agree. I agree. I agree. 100% Because I do think that we talk a lot about leading up to exit but the the post exit and you know the the post transaction integration And depending on what you're doing is another hole not in and of itself. And there is a lot of emotion and a lot of there's a lot of there's a lot of your change is hard, right. And that's why you always want to make sure that in an in a transition, that you're trying to run towards something you want not run away from something you don't want. Because it changes the whole flavor of it, if you are running away, because you're tired of it, you don't want to do it anymore, versus you're running towards something you're excited about. It really it really changes, you know, the flavor of the transition.

Ed Mysogland  40:37  
Yeah, it changes the dynamic also. And it also changes you as a seller that, that that I am I am leaving. I'm leaving one chapter, but I'm I'm opening another rather than the out of here. I can't wait. Right. And, and as you know, I mean, 75% of business owners regret selling, then because just what now what? Yeah, there's only so much tennis and golf and such to do.

Dawn Bloomer  41:12  
Yeah, and you go meet some new people, you go to a dinner party where you haven't seen people in a while. They're like, Oh, well, what are you doing? I mean, I was there. I've been there. I've been through that. It's not nothing, you know, you just kind of want to hide out for a while until you figure it

Ed Mysogland  41:26  
out. Again, and and the funny thing is, I don't think that retirement has the same bring to it. No, no, I think I think those that that want to remain relevant. If they can kick the retirement can down the down down the aisle. Perfect. In fact, I'm, I I'm more excited for those people that say, Oh, they if they want to, you know, if they want to be carried out of their business. That's great. Just do yourself a favor. Let somebody know that that's what you want to do. And what you're going to do?

Dawn Bloomer  42:04  
Yes, well, I think you're right. Well, I've

Ed Mysogland  42:08  
been I've been keeping you a long time. And so I want to be sensitive to it. So the last, chatty, I get just the opposite. No, you've been great. The the one question I asked everybody, and I've done this since day. One, is, if you had one piece of advice that you would give, you know, give the business owner that would have the most impact on their business, what would it be

Dawn Bloomer  42:37  
most impact on their business? When the most impact on their business? Yep. Sounds really odd, but I'm gonna say it anyway, I think the one piece of advice for the thing that will have the most impact on their business is to set aside one hour a week of thinking time. And I say that because that one hour a week of you giving space for just thinking about, you know, what do you want to do? Or why is this? Why are you doing this, but but think about what you want personally, one out, we spend a lot of time working on our business one hour for you to think about the possibilities, because for me, I had a mentor that had me do that. And then he would actually hold me accountable because I'm like, I don't have time for an hour. What are you talking about? You're nuts. And he made me put on my calendar, and then we'd have a call right after for 15 minutes to make sure I did it changed my life. Because it moved me into a mindset of possibilities. Sure. I wouldn't spend any time trying to figure out how I could make the things happen. I would just think about what all the possibilities were. And it was amazing. All the things that opened up from that. It opened up my thinking. And I think that that we don't hold space for ourselves as business owners. We're too busy doing the thing, putting out fires. So just holding space for yourself.

Ed Mysogland  43:57  
What a great answer. No, again, no one has

Dawn Bloomer  44:02  
ever in business see, but that works. Its impact for me that had the that was the thing that really like for me, it was a game changer.

Ed Mysogland  44:11  
Well, how can we find you? Where where? What's the best way to connect with you?

Dawn Bloomer  44:16  
So I spend quite a bit of time on LinkedIn now because I've learned that one must. But you can also find me on my website at productive pressure.com and all of my contact information is there. So productive. Calm is easy.

Ed Mysogland  44:34  
Yeah. And we will have every every place that you can that we can find you in the show notes. You know, I I I've had a great time visiting with you I

Dawn Bloomer  44:45  
need to

Ed Mysogland  44:48  
Well, thank you and and I look forward to you know, I look forward to to having you back because I'm I'm I would be curious here in the next Couple of years because I do think that, you know, professional practices they're going to be. There's, it seems as though out of all the sub segments of, of entrepreneurship, it seems as though professional practices are really starting to pick up speed. And so I'm really interested to get more data points on what you're what you're seeing. So

Dawn Bloomer  45:21  
I would love that I'm actually really excited for all the all the opportunities that are coming in the pipeline, because I think that there is a lot of opportunity and now is the time now is the time when, you know, it seems like everything is a struggle. It's not this is when the smart people are buckling down and getting prepared for what's coming next.

Ed Mysogland  45:41  
Nice. Well done. We'll see you next time. 

Dawn Bloomer  45:44  
Sounds great. Thanks, Ed. 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai