Jeffrey Feldberg 6:43
I called her up, her name was Lila. I said Lila, you know, I haven’t heard from you. And I get the sense that no news is not good news. In this get you said you know, September’s approaching. I suspect I’m probably not on the list. I can’t write all those gee mats. And those kinds of tests, my mind doesn’t think like that. It’s, you know, I’m a great person, smart guy, just not in that area. I’ll be at the bottom of the list for that. But meet me and see what I’m all about. And then make your decision. So thankfully, she was curious and took me up on the offer. And afterwards, she said Jeffrey, I just saw a fire in your belly. And I decided to give you a chance and admit you into the program. It’s amazing. And so I got into the program. And I but you know, again, all my contemporaries there had much more experience or in the corporate world, and I was going through. And in the program itself, the school when I graduated, the very next year, the School of Business moved into a brand new facility, they had someone who donated a tremendous amount of capital to make that happen. But I didn’t have that. And that was the best thing. Because I was in this old dilapidated building, there was no technology. And so I created a system for myself in my study group that literally took us from the worst group to the best group in the program. We went from meeting every day, every evening weekend’s weeknights, arguing not getting along, dropping, you know, thinking about dropping out of the program, to becoming the best group getting straight A’s meeting only when we needed to meet. And I felt guilty, because we’re doing so well. with that. I said, You know what, I need to share this with everyone else on the program. And so I shared it with everyone in the program, and it became this Renegade student run system, in the School of Management. And it worked really, really well. But sometimes you don’t see the trees from the forest. And it’s a week before graduation, I have no idea what I’m going to do. I do know, I’m not a corporate guide not happening. And I’m kind of thinking okay, I you know, I, where am I going to go? What am I going to do? Why do I want to be from my father, from my uncle? I had these values instilled in me: Be your own person, do your own thing, don’t depend on others if you don’t need to, or don’t have to. And so right before graduation, I said, Hey, you know, Jeffrey, if you could help the business school here, why not help other business schools, you already have a working model. And so I created EMBANet, which stood for Electronic MBA Network. And for all you listeners out there, I got to tell you, that was not an easy decision. I mean, you hear about online learning and the internet and everything else today. Back then in 1995. And John, I’m dating myself a little bit here. It was dial up modems and the internet was not popular. If you say I’m going on the web. People say what a spider’s web. What are you talking about? So I mean,
John Corcoran 9:34
really, at this time, I was in college at the time and I you know, fallen 94 was when I got my first email address, I’m on campus have Yeah, dial up Internet access. I remember going to Yahoo and how it’s all tax based, and it was slow as heck. So I can’t imagine creating a website at that point in time.
Jeffrey Feldberg 9:55
It was, you know, people thought I was crazy, and I made a bet on the farm decision at the time with the company because I decided to be internet based only so no dial up modems, no racks of you know, phone lines and modems or anything else was internet only. But the truth is John I looking back, I can honestly say this, I had no business being in business. I mean, I was failing in business in the early years of EMBANet I had no business experience, I had no money, I had no team. Here I was living in my parents’ attic and just struggling. All my friends were signing these very lucrative contracts hitting all these bonuses. Here, I was not really making ends meet living at home with mom and dad, seeing my friends, going on vacations, buying houses, getting new cars, everyone thought I was crazy. But I had this passion. And I had this vision and just loved doing what I was doing. It was figuratively the old thing you know, you love you love so much what you’re doing that you’d write the check to do it? Well, I was writing the check to do it. But my grit and my passion kept me in the game long enough to get through those failures to figure things out. And it took two years or so to really start getting in a small way some traction that would be built one day on top of the other on top of the other to eventually start to become successful.
John Corcoran 11:17
What was the secret that you uncovered when you were in your MBA program that you brought to EMBANet?
Jeffrey Feldberg 11:24
So the secret that I brought to the EMBANet was EMBANet was really by Business School students, for Business School students, by someone in the community. For anyone who’s in the MBA community. It just made everyone’s life easier as a faculty member, as a student, as an administrator, as a school, because it was very, very specific. And it was both a blessing and a curse. So lesson number one that I learned afterwards, the company name originally was e dot MBA space Net for electronic MBA network, because a professor said, Hey, Jeffrey, you’re on this internet. It’s kind of cool. Wouldn’t it be neat if you put a.in it? Or something I could have done? Was it just confused? Everyone? Yeah. But because we were so focused, eventually. And we ended up focusing on the Executive MBA market. But we outgrew that market really quickly. And so what do you do? You have a brand name, everyone knows you and I don’t have money to rebrand. And so you just kind of jumble everything up. So just became a member net, you don’t talk about what it really stood for. And you know, lessons learned and then we went out to a broader market.
John Corcoran 12:33
So what are some of the other subjects that you started teaching people about that are creating lessons.
Jeffrey Feldberg 12:39
Also, EMBANet went through two phases. So I call it EMBANet. One and EMBANet two. Where EMBANet. One was successful. So m&m one was all about hosting and technical support and course conversion. The problem that we solved was for later on continuing education programs, out of every 10 students that they enrolled, maybe three of them, four of them, would complete the course or the program. So can you imagine you bring on 10 customers, all that marketing dollars, all the onboarding that you’re doing, and seven of those customers leave you? Yeah, partway through, we solve that. So of the 10. Students, in this case that were coming on board, would keep eight or nine of them. So we were an instant hit with them because we just knew how to do things that the schools didn’t know how to do. And in terms of the customer service, and the whole back end, and making sure the system is set up and running. But for your listeners, here’s the thing. I’m a geeky technical guy, but I’m not a programmer, I’m a power user, if you will, I don’t do programming, never had an interest in programming. And there’s no Fiverr, there’s no Upwork. At that time, there was none of that. So what I did, and again, this was another blessing in disguise. Instead of spending all my time and money on building out a technology which only becomes obsolete tomorrow when someone else puts a little bit of a zig when you have a zag. I ended up starting with licensing out one learning management system. But when all was said and done, at the end of the day, I was like a Switzerland, I had seven different learning management systems. So it’s very hard for a school to say no to us, because Okay, well, if the business school wants to work with me, EMBANet, but the rest of the school was on a learning system, I had the learning system. So technology to me became a commodity, it’s whatever you want. And the customers like that, because they know technology changes. And they knew that if something goes out of business tomorrow, and the EMBANet is still there, and there’s all these other learning management systems or something new comes onto the scene that we would have that. And so it was taking what would be perceived to be a negative. You don’t own the technology, you don’t own the IP and turning it into a positive. Well, why would I want to own the technology in the IP, when that’s not the value?
John Corcoran 14:58
So we’re Where are you Your customers, the end consumers, or was it you were selling to MBA programs, or both.
Jeffrey Feldberg 15:07
So we were with EMBANet one in there was a we’ll get to in a moment, but for EMBANet one, our messaging and our customer was the Dean of the business school, or the director of the MBA program. That’s who you would work with, and then through them, they would bring on all of the students or the Executive MBA students. So that’s who we were interfacing with. So that was the first part of our formula to help keep the seats filled, the university filled the seats, we would keep the seats filled. And EMBANet two came about, because I was speaking with actually one of my first customers, just on a regular customer service call and his name was also John. And I said, Hey, John, I haven’t spoken to you in a short while. And this is my favorite question. What’s keeping you up at night these days when it comes to your business? Instead, Jeffrey, I gotta tell you, I’m so glad you asked, I have a board meeting coming up about this very topic. I can’t fill the seats. My competition is setting up shop locally, you have this thing called the internet, you have videoconferencing, my class size, the incoming class size has diminished. I said, John, leave it with me, let me see what I can do. We weren’t a marketing company, John, we were a technical support hosting really more of a student support type of company. And what I thought would take a few weeks took two years. But eventually we figured out how to put my EMBANet. One out of business with EMBANet. So if you’re going to go out of business, Isn’t it better to be put out of business by yourself and you can do it bigger and better. So we expanded our solution, okay, we will help you fill the seats, we will keep the seats filled. And so we did all the marketing to students now, in the name of the university, worked with the faculty to take all their content and put that on the system. So really, we were an end to end solution. And we took all the risk away. Here’s the game changer for us. When I looked at what was there. And for all the listeners, this is my favorite radio station. And by the way, this is your customers favorite radio station, it’s called wi fi.fm. What’s in it for me? So when I looked at what’s in it for me, from my customer’s point of view, what I realized was, they didn’t really have the money to do marketing in the right way. They didn’t have the staff or the talent to do marketing in the right way. And I said, Okay, how can I take the nose and turn them into yeses? Well, let me take the risk off the table. So what differentiated them, we did revenue sharing. So if John, if you’re a university say John Tell you what, there’s no costs you all the marketing, all the copy all the advertising, the people at the other end of the phone, who are going to be representing you that you will approve of we’re going to be enrolling the students, all the course development, all the training of the faculty, all the delivery of the courses, it’s not going to cost you a dime, in fact, from the very first student that enrolls you’ll be profitable. And they said, Okay, great, that’s good for me, what’s your ask Jeffrey. And I said, Well, we need an exclusive 10 year agreement, and we need to do revenue sharing, so we can recoup our investments. And they did that. Because the problem that we’re solving, they were better off, it was more painful for them, not to go with us than to go with us, even though it was unheard of, you know, for Vanderbilt University, or George Washington University, Boston University, to have these 10 year exclusive contracts. And so that really is what created a market disruption, created an industry that just took it to the next level. And for me, we weren’t a technology company. We weren’t a student company, you weren’t anything other than our huge This is what got everyone out of bed. We change the social fabric of society, one learner at a time. Because if you have an opportunity from a single mom, to a fortune 10 President, to someone who’s a high ranking government official, and everyone else in between, they were bettering their lives through education, making it better for the people that were in their lives with the people that reported to them. And so that was our anthem. That was our mission of how we were going to change the world.
John Corcoran 19:32
Take me back to when you were first launching the business, who did you turn to for knowledge for mentorship? There weren’t many internet companies at all around that period. But was there anyone who helped you take you under your wing and the first even the first couple years or that you got guidance from?
Jeffrey Feldberg 19:53
I had two very different sets of mentors. So some of my mentors were Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Dale Carnegie. And the list goes on and on. He may say, Well, Jeffrey, how’d you meet those people? What’s going on with that? What was your connection? It’s called books and biographies and autobiographies to take someone’s life 30 years, 50 years that the writing about and distill that in a few hours. I mean, that was huge for me. And then the other thing that I did was early on, I just learned to check my ego at the door. And I would ask people for help. Hey, what do you think about this? Here’s what I’m trying to do. I’m not quite sure how to do it. What do you think? And whether it was even prospective customers, and now they’re problem solving with you? Or just, you know, my heart beating and really nervous calling somebody up? Who successfully read about you? Here’s what I’m doing. Do you have any suggestions? And sometimes the doors close, and a lot of times most people are good people and they want to help. So along the along the way, I had mentors, you know, every step of the way, who want to help this young kid who had these questions, and was open to taking suggestions, and then implementing those,
John Corcoran 21:14
And then I picture you, young kid, 20, whatever, four or five years old, got just graduated from the MBA program and calling up these Dean’s of these MBA programs around North America, to convince them for you to serve them in a client capacity with this new unproven thing called the internet, I’m sure they had a million questions about Well, isn’t that gonna undermine what we’re doing? and all kinds of different things.
Jeffrey Feldberg 21:41
So what was that? Like? How did you get through to them? Well, you know, it’s really a mindset on both sides. So firstly, when I came in, and they saw me as a young kid, I think that disarmed them. I mean, the joke was Jeffrey, once you get to high school, and there’s a you know, we even joked internally, maybe I should get some glasses, just so you don’t have to look a little bit older. Clearly. It was with clear lenses. You don’t need a prescription, but you don’t have something there. But what I learned over time, and this actually, John goes back to my multi-level marketing days, storytelling, though, it can’t be fiction, you need to tell a story that’s based on truth and facts. But once I could get in the door, and get their attention, if I can, you know, get 10 minutes, 30 minutes, I remember my initial phone call would be, John, if you’re the dean. Hey, John, so great to speak with you want to find out what you’re doing with your online programming. And I’ll tell you what, you know how Domino’s has a 30 minute guarantee, has a 10 minute guarantee, if after 10 minutes, you don’t like what I’m saying just hang up the phone. And no, no Eagles here and Enough said, and there’s Okay, they would chuckle a little bit. Go ahead, Jeffrey. And I would just share a story, share their problems, let them know that I knew what their problems were, I would bring up that pain that they have. And through the story, show them that there could be a better way of doing this, that there is a solution that actually works to solve their problem. And I took myself and EMBANet. Out of the story. It wasn’t about us. It was all about them. I mean, after all, what’s everyone’s favorite word? It’s their name. Everyone’s name is their favorite word and is all about other people. Everyone thinks, oh, everyone’s looking at me. No one’s looking at you. No one really cares. Everyone’s thinking about themselves. So how can you help people get what they want? And to find out what it is that they wanted for their program? and to share with them paint that picture? Have them come on that imaginary ride of how it’s going to help them and solve their problem?
John Corcoran 23:58
And did you partner up with your classmates from law school? How did you figure out who would be good business partners? How did that relationship develop?
Jeffrey Feldberg 24:08
You know, it was these were just crazy times back then this internet was such a wild wild west out there and I don’t blame them, you know, my study group and even some of the people in the program I mean, they had such a good offers that for them to go with Jeffrey on this crazy unproven thing as potential fad called the internet. And so God bless them they went on with their careers and they went on to be successful in their own right with what they were doing. And it was just you know, going out and making things happen solo and then at the time, my girlfriend at the time, who would later then become my wife. She came to my very first presentation. And I had no idea about conferences, John at the time. And so my business professor said, Hey, Jeffrey, there’s this conference going on. I know the organizer. All these business school deans, I can get you on. And I said, Oh, great, terrific. And I think it was three or four days after graduation. And he said, Jeffrey, I got you on the very last day, the last presentation. So in my naive mind, back then, you know, glass is always half full, I thought, amazing. You know, you see the very last for the best, not realizing not really haven’t been to conferences before. They were grumpy. They were tired. These guys had it. They didn’t want to hear about this kid with this thing called the internet. They wanted to leave the conference, get on with their weekend, get home, get back to their spouses, you know, who knows what. And so I do my presentation. And in my mind, I built this up that there’s going to be just a whole trampling of the desks and the chairs, everyone’s gonna be lining up. Where do I sign up for this? So I finished, I gave my pitch, put it out there and left nothing on the table. And John, it’s silence. You could hear that proverbial pin drop. And they just walk out? Not a single question. So I’m, I’m leaving, and I’m heartbroken. I am literally in tears. And my girlfriend, future wife at the time and business partner, you know, down the road, she said, you know, Jeffrey, I saw your presentation. And look, I’ve been in sales all my life as well, I think you need some help. I was going to go to law school, let me put that off. And let me help you for six months just to help get you going in and get things happening from there. And that’s really how things started very humble beginnings. It was really no beginning at all. You know, if it was renamed Alaska, if not for Alaska, back then there may not have been an m&m, you know, quite quite openly, it was a challenging time back then.
John Corcoran 26:47
So let’s flash forward to the offer. You get an offer to buy it at a seven figure valuation. I think I read that it was a three multiple or something like that at that point. So you’ve scaled it up? How big is the company at this point when you get this offer? And is it unsolicited? How did it come about?
Jeffrey Feldberg 27:08
So you know, it’s funny, success is a funny thing, because we were failing day by day, and then eventually became successful. And with success come different challenges. And John to your point, I get that proverbial knock at the door, a very, very smart and experienced, sophisticated buyer from a fortune 10 company. And long story short, give that seven figure offer, you know, but by that time, the company was around 120 people, maybe 150 people somewhere around there. And he knew that we didn’t know what we didn’t know, I had no idea. I was just a busy guy building out the business. I have no idea about mergers and acquisitions. I mean, how do you master something, John, that you’ve never done before? It’s a rhetorical question. Of course he can’t. So he knew that we didn’t know what we didn’t know. And I would love to tell you that when I said no. And by the way, when the offer came, and I shared it with close friends and family, they were jumping up and down. And they’re excited. Jeffrey, Yes, you did it all that living in the parents attic and the struggle it paid off your set. And when I said no, they said while you are crazy. And in a different conversation, they’d be right. But this situation is a little bit different. It was a gut feel. It didn’t feel right for so many reasons. couldn’t quite pinpoint it. But it just didn’t feel right. So when I said no to the seven figure offer, I was saying yes to really Mastering the Art of preparation to how do you prepare for a liquidity event. I just knew I wasn’t ready back then didn’t know where or how. So for the next two years, I just dove into this crazy and wacky world called mergers and acquisitions, and investment bankers, m&a, lawyers, strategists, buyers, sellers, I would speak to them I would fly out to meet with them. I want to hear their stories. And on the business owner side, I really looked at two extremes. Business owners who hit it out of the park are hugely successful, or business owners are really failed. success and failure. Both leave clues. So for the people that were successful, I asked them what they did to become successful. I didn’t talk much, I listened and I took a lot of notes. And then I did a lot of what they did. And for the people that failed. ask the questions. Well, why did you fail? But the same strategy I didn’t talk much, listened to a lot, took a lot of notes and I didn’t reverse engineer. I didn’t do what they had done. And so I came up with a playbook and exit playbook with all these different steps. Today, it’s all these fancy terms, you know, we call it a Deep Wealth, the nine step roadmap wasn’t a any step roadmap back then a lot of it was these strategies, these stories is intuition. It wasn’t even nine steps, some of the areas that we failed in, we reverse engineered, and then those became the steps. But once I applied that, once we began implementing that and preparing the company, that’s when things that’s where the magic happened. And very naively, I just thought, Okay, show up at the deal table, then do some negotiations, and that’s where the value of the company comes in. Wrong, it’s a myth, stop believing that the value of the actual deal process, when you look at the deal value is like looking in a rearview mirror. Your deal value is directly proportional to the quality and the depth of the preparation that you did years in, you know, years before years going into the liquidity event. So the better prepared you are, the more likelihood of success, and the higher the enterprise value.
John Corcoran 31:06
But give me some specific examples of some ways in which you weren’t prepared for that first offer. And some changes he made in that two year interim, once you learned what you needed to do.
Jeffrey Feldberg 31:18
Sure, and you don’t let me talk about some failures that were still, you know, big lessons that made a difference. And we really have the default experience, and our nine step roadmap, we really hone in on these things. These things are x factors, we call them x factors to insanely increase the value of your business. So for all you listeners out there, for all you business owners out there, here’s lesson number one is strategy. It’s huge. It’s everything. It’s a very simple question. This is not a rhetorical question like my last one. And the question is, does your business run without you? And I don’t care if you’re two people, or 200 people, it doesn’t matter if you have a management team, or you don’t have a management team. If you were abducted by aliens, what would happen to your business? Would it still be there? And for most business owners? The answer is no. It doesn’t run without me. You know, my management team depends on me, they can’t make the decision. Without me, I have the CEO or president, but I’ve really locked them into doing things my way or I don’t even have a management team. I am the sun, the earth, the stars, the universe, for my business. And that was one of the things that I learned early on. So we began to build out the management team. And you know, most business owners say, Well, why don’t they do that? It takes time, it costs money, you may have to get some recruiters involved for big salaries, it’s a big burden on the company. Well, again, let’s stop thinking about us. And let’s think about it from a future buyer’s point of view. So your future buyer or investor, they’re looking at you and they’re gonna say, okay, John, I’m buying your company, and I write you this big check. You have checked out mentally, I don’t care what you say, you’re not going to have control of the company, you’re going to tell me you’re still gonna be there, but you’re not so or maybe I don’t even want you there. Maybe I have bigger plans than my own reasons why I want to do something different. So the question then becomes, who runs a company? Am I going to have company? Is it going to survive without the founder or the business owner of the business? What’s going on with that? When you have a management team in place, when your company runs without you, do you give your future buyer confidence? Yes, the company is still going to be here, it’s going to be a return on investment, the profits are going to continue, I can give my expertise, my additional capital, and my people to help grow it. And I don’t need to have the founder there. Plus, when your business runs without you, we now get to work on the business and not in the business, solve more problems and create more market disruptions. So we learned that early on, where we failed in that it was a partial success. We put in an amazing management team, we just didn’t have enough seat time with a management team. They were there for about a year. I thought that would be enough. But the buyers looked at us and said, What are you guys nuts? You know, show me two or three years better yet five years, and then we’ll put some confidence in the numbers that you’re showing with what your management team has done. So does your business run without you is a huge key one as a key right that is a key one.
John Corcoran 34:21
All right. I love that we wove in the nine steps that you teach to wealth now but I can’t end this interview without asking you about the offer that ultimately led to the sale. So where did that come from? Did you hire a firm to represent you? And you know, any other tips on why you got such a higher dollar amount to you just two years later?
Jeffrey Feldberg 34:50
For sure. So what really made the difference? It’s, you know, there’s a very meaningful, insightful expression, you are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with. So I’ll modify that a little bit when it comes to your liquidity event, your enterprise value, your business, your success is the average of your advisory team. And all of you business owners out there for the listeners, if you’re thinking about having a liquidity event, but you’re thinking on doing this on your own, you don’t want to get depending on the size of your business, either a broker or for the larger businesses, an investment banker, because you think you’ll save time and money, don’t get out of bed that day, stay in bed, don’t don’t even do it. It’s a rounding error relative to the value that you’ll get when you get the right investment banker, when you bring on board the right advisors, have those two years that I had mentioned of in the whole exploratory stage, about a year and a half was spent putting together the advisory team, finding the investment bankers finding the people who are going to help us take this across the finish line. So in parts, John, to answer your question, we have a stellar advisory team, a terrific investment banker and investment bank behind us that really helped us, they worked their magic, we worked our magic. And together, we made magic together. And that was the beautiful thing about that. And that made a huge difference for us. Because we did what’s called an auction. So I want you to think about it. I’ll just share a very quick example. You own a home, you want to sell the home. So let’s say you make the decision right now you just walk outside you put a for sale by owner on your front yard, you don’t do anything with the house, there’s no painting, there’s no trimming of the yard, you’re not cleaning anything for the house, or anyone who’s walking down the street, Hey, come on into my house and take a look. And the first offer that you get and you accept. It sounds crazy. But for most business owners, that’s exactly what they do. They wait for that unsolicited offer, or they wait for the competition to come along. Or instead, do you clean up the house with all the painting that you held back on or cleaning things up or decluttering. And having a nicely manicured lawn and finding the right real estate agent, you do all those things, you take an assessment of where things are in the marketplace, and then you go out there and do that, you’ll have a much better help come you’ll get a higher dollar for your house. Why would it be any different for your business? And that was part of it. I’ll share two statistics with you. And they’re interested in all the liquidity events that are out there, depending on who you speak to, somewhere between 80% to 90% of most liquidity events fail. So your time, your effort, your money, it’s all for naught, you wasted it. Why? Most times, it’s because the business owner wasn’t prepared. And here’s the shocker of the liquidity events that succeed. depending again on who you speak to anywhere from 50% to 100%, or more of the deal value is left on the deal table. In other words, your hard earned money. Maybe you know what you probably don’t, you’re leaving it in your future buyers pocket. And a very quick story on the podcast. We have different investment bankers. Come on. And they all say the same stories that they share with different companies, different numbers. But here’s one story: an investment banker came on and said, Jeffrey, we have a company, the company’s in the market right now we’re running an auction, the lowest bid is $11 million. The highest bid is 77 $0 million. There’s a $59 million spread. How many business owners would take that $11 million offer? most business owners would not know it’s 59 million of their hard earned money that they’re leaving on the deal table. And that’s Deep Wealth. Because people say Jeffrey, you got this nine figure exit, you could be doing anything. Why are you doing this? Because it almost happened to me, I was a smidgen away from that fork in the road of looking at that seven figure offer. If I can help other business owners really get what they’ve earned, get what they deserve, make that difference and help to pay it forward. And I enjoy doing that, then that’s something that’s really motivating for me and I’ll share a little secret with you, John, if you’re open just between when me though, okay. Yeah. So the secret is, if I can help business owners get that much more during their liquidity event, after they’ve taken care of themselves and the family, their friends or loved ones financially, that they’re all set. And they look at the capital that they have. And they say, you know what, in my lifetime, I can’t use all this capital. Why don’t I set up a foundation where we can pick a social cause and make a difference? Or maybe I can make a donation to an existing social cause. Or maybe I can find an area that’s just being overlooked in a very real way. Deep Wealth can help be an inspiration for people or be an enabler for people with all that extra capital that they earned. Because it is that much better on their liquidity event, that we’re doing something right. And we’re really at that point paying it forward. And like it, the Internet’s changing the social fabric of society. But this time, one liquidity event at a time,
John Corcoran 40:12
That’s great, that’s great. I love that you aren’t just sitting on a beach drinking a Mai Tai somewhere, although you would be entitled to if you did do that, but that you are, you know, pouring your passions into helping others. I want to wrap things up with the three questions that I enjoy asking. So first of all, I’m a passionate advocate of doing what we’re doing right here, which is creating content and building relationships and sharing wisdom and sharing knowledge. And I love that you do that, too. So for those who haven’t started a podcast and see you doing it, see I doing it, see me doing it, what are some lessons you’ve learned?
Jeffrey Feldberg 40:47
You know, for me, it’s been so humbling. Both the podcast, I write articles, I put that out there, the opportunity of meeting people from all different walks of life, and like we’re doing today, we’re sharing this, like a fireside chat, we’re sharing stories, we’re learning from each other, but we’re taking it forward to other people. And John, what you’re doing is amazing with a podcast of all of the success stories that you’ve had with the people that you’re bringing onto the show, for other people to learn from, you know, I from I’ll be I’ll just say it, then I really believe this, the world goes round because of business owners where it you know, as we’re going through these very challenging times right now that the world has never seen before. It’s the business owners, the people listening to this podcast, we’re the ones that are going to make it happen, we’re making the new reality, we’re going to get us out of this into a better tomorrow.
John Corcoran 41:42
But also everyone’s becoming a business owner these days, because that’s kind of how everything’s been moving towards freelancing and micro businesses.
Jeffrey Feldberg 41:50
Absolutely. And who’s the world looking to to help get this? It is not these more large, multinational companies, it’s the smaller businesses, it’s the gig economy, it’s the mid market businesses, we are the ones that are doing this. So when you create that content, and you’re taking some of your secret sauce, but other people’s secret sauce, and you’re sharing that out there, we’re making the law, the marketplace, we’re increasing the marketplace, we’re helping other people, we’re just making it better for everyone. I’m a big believer in two things. It’s really a life of service and paying it forward. And also, when you help enough people get what they want. First, then second, and not the other way around, eventually you’ll get what you want. And so being that content creator, for me has just been so fulfilling, to really get important messages and stories and how tos out there.
John Corcoran 42:42
Great. Alright. Second, last question. I’m a big fan of gratitude. So if you look around at your peers, your contemporaries, however you would define that, who do you respect? Who do you admire?
Jeffrey Feldberg 42:56
Gosh, there are so many people that I admire. I don’t do this everyday, all day. But I try most days to do it. And I you know, gratitude for me, is at the core of so many things. How can you be successful in business? If personally, you don’t get it, right. So, you know, pre pandemic days when I’m out and about and I see someone from the proverbial street cleaner to a waiter or waitress to the CEO or the president, I’m giving my gratitude to them for doing what they’re doing. I think as business owners, as hard as it may be, in many ways, we’re privileged because there’s so many other people that make what we do look like a cakewalk. You know, they’re working 2, 3, 4 jobs around the clock, not having much of a life. And for us to do what we do is a privilege. So I really look to be just grateful, where I am right now for the people that I’m seeing, for the people that are in my life for the good that they’re doing and putting out.
John Corcoran 44:01
That’s great. And then last question, so even looking further back in your your trajectory, maybe even to your childhood, we’re pretending we’re at an awards banquet, like the Oscars, the Emmys, you’re receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award for everything you’ve done up until this point, and in addition to family and friends, but do you think were the the colleagues, the friends, the investors, the business partners, the mentors, the coaches, who would acknowledge in your remarks?
Jeffrey Feldberg 44:26
Again, there would be so many people at you know a large level Firstly, again, standing on the shoulders of just giants for me, my my father and my uncle, that I had mentioned, many of the titans of business that go back 100 years ago that we were talking about, in their books, you know, my team, because success is no one is an island unto him or herself and the team that you have. I’m a person of faith. So you know, some people call it God or the universe, whatever you’d like to call that was huge for me, in my early days it continues to this day. So for me there is Everywhere you look, there’s a potential mentor, and get rid of titles, get rid of appearances, look into the heart of that person, look into the eyes of that person. Everyone has a story to share. Everyone has a purpose on this earth. It is our challenge to find that purpose and bring it to the world. And if you can find that for yourself and find it in other people, that you’re doing something wonderful.
John Corcoran 45:30
That’s great. deepwealth.com is the website. The Sell My Business Podcast is the name of the podcast. Where else can people go to connect with you and learn more about you, Jeffrey?
Jeffrey Feldberg 45:42
Deep Wealth is the best place I’m on LinkedIn as well. I have my own personal blog, which is my little soapbox. We’ll have some of the articles that we’ll have on Deep Wealth, but also there’s jeffreyfeldberg.com, but deepwealth.com that’s where you’ll find everything that’s from the podcasts or the articles. So what you’re doing is contacting us, and that’s what I suggest.
John Corcoran 46:04
Jeffrey, this has been a pleasure. Thanks so much for your time.
Outro 46:09
Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution Podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com. And while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution Podcast.