E08: Is Your Business Built to Sell?
Estate planning might seem like a boring topic, but if you’re a business owner, it could be one of the most important things to think about.
In this episode, we break down the complexities of estate planning, probate, and legal structures, and how these decisions impact your business’s success and your family’s future.
📒 Show Notes and Resources 📒
🎥 Watch The Video Podcast On YouTube!
===========================
Want to discover what's holding your business back?
And get a customized action plan to fix it?
Take our FREE Business Assessment:
https://www.stagcoaching.com/assessment
===========================
Subscribe and Listen to the Podcast HERE:📱
➡︎YT: https://www.youtube.com/@stagcoaching
➡︎Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/business-growth-masterclass/id1741987960
➡︎Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/stag-coaching
===========================
Kellen Ketchersid
Kellen is a co-founder of Stag Business Coaching, business strategist, and a systems thinker. He leverages his extensive experience in biotech and consulting to empower entrepreneurs to navigate complex challenges with strategic growth solutions.
Albert Gillispie
Albert is a serial entrepreneur, business efficiency expert and co-founder of Stag Business Coaching who has founded several multimillion-dollar companies. With expertise in optimizing operations and innovative systems, he mentors business leaders who want to unlock their business’s full potential.
Tanner Noble is a Senior Business Advisor with Transworld, with 16 years of finance experience across various industries, including retail, biomedical manufacturing, and commercial real estate. As a Partner in a Private Equity Firm focused on Multifamily Real Estate, he managed over $100M in assets. Tanner specializes in connecting business buyers and sellers in Lubbock, Texas, crafting personalized strategies to navigate complex transactions.
===========================
Let’s Connect!
Website: https://www.stagcoaching.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stag-business-coaching/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stagcoaching/
FaceBook: https://www.facebook.com/stagcoaching
Twitter: https://x.com/stagbizcoaching
—————————————————————————————————————————
EPISODE 8 TRANSCRIPTION
Introduction
[00:00] Albert Gillispie: Is your business sellable? 70 to 80 percent of businesses are not. And what if you don't want to sell your business? According to today's guests, building a healthy and well-run business is very much the same thing as building a sellable business. Welcome to the Business Growth Masterclass where business growth is made simple.
[00:22] Albert Gillispie: Listen, as we discuss best practices to streamline your operations, increase your profits, and ultimately create healthier business. More stable and more valuable companies. Today's guest is Tanner Noble, and he is a broker with the Transworld business advisors. He's a business broker. He helps business owners and leaders buy and sell products.
[00:48] Albert Gillispie: It was a fun conversation. It went in a lot of different directions. And, what really stuck out to me that I think you will enjoy is how Tanner has used his entire career as lessons learned to build his network and add value to people along the way. It has ultimately led him to his current career and really where, where he feels.
[01:18] Albert Gillispie: He belongs in what he has built towards for the last 20 years is being a business broker. And so that was one of the lessons that stuck out is what it looks like to really build a network by building real relationships with people, authentic relationships with people, and continuing to find ways to connect them to others, to add value to everyone in his life.
[01:45] Albert Gillispie: And so listen along there's there's a lot of tidbits here on what makes a business sellable What makes the business valuable and how you can control that? So I think you'll get a lot out of it. Enjoy the podcast. All right, we are live Welcome to the podcast Tanner Noble Glad to be here. Thanks for having me on.
Role and Impact of a Business Broker
[02:05] Albert Gillispie: You bet. Well, let's, let's jump right into it. Why don't you tell our listeners, what do you, what do you do for a living? What do you do for a vocation these days?
[02:17] Tanner Noble: Yeah. So right now I am hyper-focused on helping business owners sell their businesses. I am a business broker for Transworld Business Advisors and Transworld is based out of West Palm Beach. My, corporate headquarters is in Houston and I run the Lubbock office for Transworld. So I'm a business broker. I help business owners sell their businesses and buyers find a business to buy.
[02:49] Albert Gillispie: Okay. How, I mean, explain it to me like I'm five. What does a business broker do? It's a good question.
[02:56] Tanner Noble: So, you know, there comes a time in every business owner's life when they decide You know, they've built up this thing for however many years and they decide it's time to transition to the next phase of their life, whether that be going on to a new business or retiring or, you know, whatever, whatever the case is, and a lot of owners don't have the ability to transition the business to someone either within the business or within the family.
Challenges in Business Brokerage
[03:27] Tanner Noble: So, you know, some business owners will bring in their kids to take over the business. Some will bring up current management employees to take over and then others don't have that option. And so that's where I come in is I help them basically come up with. What does it look like to sell your business?
[03:47] Tanner Noble: What is the value of the business? And, sort of what is the process to get to transition your business to the next owner?
[03:56] Albert Gillispie: Is that, I mean, that sounds complex and like, there's a lot of moving parts to that. I guess, like, first and foremost, is there a need for that? There are a lot of businesses that sell or like what?
[04:11] Albert Gillispie: What does the current market look like?
[04:13] Tanner Noble: That's a good question. Yeah. So, you know, there's these statistics going around today that are, there's 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day. And I think it's like seven or 8 percent of those are Owners of small businesses. And so if you do the math, I mean, that's a whole lot of businesses every day that are coming for sale.
[04:36] Tanner Noble: And that's just from the baby boomers. That's not, you know, there's lots of businesses that sell with. Other generations as well. So is there a big need? Yes, there's a huge need. Sorry. I lost my train of thought there. I was going to say one of the questions you're, I think, you were going to ask is like, sort of, how did I get into business?
Starting a Career in Business Brokerage
[04:56] Tanner Noble: And you know, I got into business because I was looking to buy a business and in Lubbock and just West Texas in general, as I'm looking for businesses to buy, there was just not a whole lot of deal flow. I was, I'm on all of these databases where I receive businesses that are listed for sale. And there are so many businesses for sale in Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston, and Austin.
[05:22] Tanner Noble: And there just wasn’t deal flow in Lubbock and West Texas. And so I started kind of looking into that and I realized there's not really just a specific niche business broker in Lubbock that's all they're focused on. And so that made me decide to look into what if I became that broker and about the same time, as I was investigating that, I got an email from Transworld that they were looking to start a deal.
[05:50] Tanner Noble: And so I kind of followed that thread a little bit, and it looked like this is a perfect fit. This is, you know, what I was kind of looking to do on my own. But they've already got 40 years of history doing this very, very well. And they've built out all the processes, advertising, marketing, and the legal work that goes behind selling a business.
Valuation and Selling Strategies
[06:11] Tanner Noble: They've already got that all figured out. So I thought, well, I'll go ahead and start that. And now that I've been in it, I am seeing so many business owners who are looking to sell their business within the next, call it year to five years. And it has blown me away that there is a huge need for someone like me to come in and help facilitate those transactions.
[06:36] Tanner Noble: I mean, The hardest thing for me to see is whenever I'm looking at these, or talking to a business owner, and they’re like, I basically came to them too late, or they came to me too late. And they're like, yeah, I'm ready to just retire. And they’re, you know, 70 years old, they've built this business, but they don't really know what options they have to transition it to the next owner.
Approaching Retirement Without a Succession Plan
[07:00] Tanner Noble: They just think that either there's no buyer for them, or they don't even know that, or they don't know how to do that, how to sell their business. And so what they end up doing is just saying when the lease is over, we're going to just close the doors and they could, you know, maybe they've got a hundred thousand dollars worth of business value, or maybe they've got a million dollars worth and they're just going to close the doors.
[07:21] Tanner Noble: And that, to me, is just not right. I want to help those people transition what they've built over the last however many years. It is their baby. For most of these business owners, your business is your baby, and you've nurtured this thing for years and years. You should be able to capitalize on what you've built—the value that you have created not only for yourself but for your employees, your customers, your vendors. There's a whole network of people that your business touches and all of those people deserve to see you continue this thing you've built with a new owner.
Misconceptions and Realities of Business Brokerage
[08:05] Albert Gillispie: There's so much there. As a business broker, most people who are somewhat familiar with that, when they initially hear it, think of a realtor or some kind of commission sales job where you’re just going to make introductions and wipe your hands of it.
[08:30] Albert Gillispie: My exposure to this so far is that there's a lot more that goes into it, where it could take three months; it could take two years depending on how ready the business is. But can you speak to some of the different hats you wear as a business broker and some of the services that you provide, like helping them increase their valuation and some of the things that you're helping them do behind the scenes to get there?
Improving Business Valuation
[09:01] Tanner Noble: Yeah, that's a great question. And it's funny because I do get often business owners are like, well, you're just going to make an introduction. That's just like you said, like, you're just going to introduce me to, you know, make a relationship and earn this view.
[09:14] Tanner Noble: And that's not. True at all. I mean, so it starts with helping you come up with where is your business position today? The biggest mistake you can make as a seller of a business is to decide, Hey, I want to sell my business and I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to go find a buyer because you're going to take your foot off the gas of the business.
[09:35] Tanner Noble: And you know, you're, you're. Revenue your, you know, all the projects you're working on, all the things you, all the things you do as an owner are going to start decelerating and that's going to lower the value of your business. So the right off the gate, right out of the gate, like I want you to know, like that's the worst thing you can do is take your foot off the gas of your business.
[09:53] Tanner Noble: You want to be going full throttle and getting as much revenue and business as you can in order to increase the value of your business. So that's why you engage a broker. From the beginning is to, to, so you don't, you know, let an expert do it. Don't do it yourself. Think you can do it as far as the services.
[10:10] Tanner Noble: So the first step is, like I said, to get in there and help you figure out where your business is today. What is the value today? What do I think I could sell it for? And with that comes a lot of nuance. I mean, every business is so different. It’s my role to help walk you through that, to figure out what the value is. From there, we decide if the value is at a place where you think you can sell it today and if you would be happy getting that value. For some people, it doesn't matter. They're in a health situation or they have to move for some reason, so there's an immediate need to sell their business, and they don't have a choice. The value is what it is, and we're going to sell it for this today.
[11:01] Albert Gillispie: Yeah.
[11:01] Tanner Noble: It's almost too late at that point to change things. Exactly. For others, maybe they're just thinking about the process, the potential of selling their business, and maybe the value isn't where they want it to be. Well, another service that I offer is to help them see, okay, here's where you're at today, but here's where you could potentially be if you focus on these things to help grow the value of your business, for example. So there are really three main ways to grow the value of your business. One is to increase the revenue, and, you know, that's pretty obvious—get more sales.
[11:41] Albert Gillispie: More sales, more customers, more contracts, more...
[11:46] Tanner Noble: ...bringing in more revenue into the company. The second way is to increase your efficiencies. So, you know, maybe you have grown this business for many, many years. You've got a bunch of employees, and maybe some of them have been there so long that they just aren't pulling the weight that they should.
[12:08] Tanner Noble: So maybe it's helping you figure out how to streamline the expense of labor. For most businesses, labor is the biggest expense, right? So maybe it's cutting that, or maybe there are other line items on the P&L, on the expense side, where you could trim the fat, so to speak, to help raise the bottom line.
Risk Management in Business Valuation
[12:28] Tanner Noble: The third way to increase the value of a business is by decreasing the risk. So, some business owners who have a small business, maybe their business is worth, say, a hundred thousand dollars. So, we'll call that business A. Business A is worth a hundred thousand dollars.
[12:45] Tanner Noble: Business B is worth a million dollars. Now, in order to get to that, basically, you're coming up with a multiple of profit. For business A, if a buyer comes in and buys this hundred-thousand-dollar business, they step in, and most likely, they're going to be the one running the business, doing most of the things in the business at that size. If they make a mistake after they buy this business, and it's a hundred-thousand-dollar mistake, that business is gone. So, the risk to that buyer is very high, and the business could go away by making one mistake—of many mistakes that could be made. So, that's very risky.
[13:26] Tanner Noble: The multiple on that is going to be lower, probably one to two times most likely. Versus business B who's got a million-dollar valuation, they probably have a profit of, I don't know, $250,000, maybe $500,000. And so, if the buyer comes in and makes a $100,000 mistake there, the business isn't going to go away.
[13:46] Tanner Noble: Their bottom line is going to suffer; they're not going to get to go on that trip to Hawaii this year, but they're going to survive. They're going to be able to go through the next year. So, that business is less risky, and therefore the multiple will be higher. So, maybe the profit is $300,000 in that business, and the multiple is three times to get to that million or close to a million.
[14:09] Tanner Noble: So anyway, de-risking the business is the third way. And it's, you know, like I said, it, that's just one example of how you can de-risk. It is by the bottom line or that's one example, of riskiness. And there's many more that I can help business owners, you know, look at, to see how do we de-risk this.
[14:28] Albert Gillispie: Yeah, I think things like customer concentration—making sure you don't have any one customer with more than 15 to 20 percent of the revenue, putting in place contracts with certain vendors for repeat services—basically automatic revenue, and creating redundancies in training positions.
[14:50] Albert Gillispie: You know, if one person, heaven forbid, gets hit by a truck and they're no longer in the business. You have other people that can take their place. And so that it's kind of a good Segway to one of our other businesses, which is stag business coaching. And a lot of what we do is to help de-risk businesses is basically, there's some vision for the company, whether it's, you know, moving revenue from a million to 2 million, or whether it's getting ready to sell.
[15:24] Albert Gillispie: And a lot of the curriculum and tools that we give businesses is to help them. Basically make a business sellable, which is also making a business healthy, stable, more predictable, and more enjoyable to operate if they don't want to sell.
De-risking Businesses
[15:44] Tanner Noble: And so, yeah, absolutely. And I would say I'm glad you brought that up because I would say to any business owner listening to this, all three of those things that I just mentioned are ways to increase your value, that they're increasing revenue decrease or increasing efficiencies and decreasing risk.
[16:00] Tanner Noble: Those three things are all three things that Stag Coaching can help with. Like, I mean, If you have any desire to do any of those three things to your business, highly recommend going to Stag Coaching because they can help you do those things just with the tools you just described.
[16:18] Albert Gillispie: Okay. So we kind of jumped into it hot and heavy, but how are you able to advise these people?
[16:25] Albert Gillispie: Like what background do you have, how did you get here? Yeah, I feel like 16-year-old Tanner wasn't like, you know, I want to help people buy and sell businesses.
[16:36] Tanner Noble: No, I wasn't. I never thought I would be doing this. Actually I didn't know it existed even really until the last few years.
[16:43] Tanner Noble: You know, I think that. So I have a finance degree and have always been involved in some way in accounting and finance and small businesses. And so, you know, I think I understand how a business runs and how on the accounting and finance side, like how to look at numbers, and as a partner with you in our real estate businesses, we're always looking at opportunities to buy commercial real estate.
[17:14] Tanner Noble: And so, you know, especially in the last couple of years, we've looked at apartments to buy that are 30 million, 50 million. And with that comes, I mean, that's a business in and of itself. One property is a business, and so analyzing those has really taught me a whole lot about how to value assets and how to look through a P and L and see, you know, how to help add value to an apartment.
[17:42] Tanner Noble: And that translates very well to just business. Ownership, I mean business valuations as well. And then also just like I had mentioned before, you know, I was looking at buying businesses since. 2019 I think is when we first started looking. And so I've looked for five years. I've been looking at analyzing businesses for sale and trying to figure out how to buy them.
[18:10] Tanner Noble: And so I have a lot of experience in just looking at tons of different businesses and seeing what their value is and why and how they run their businesses and things like that. And so. Those things have definitely helped me get to the spot. And then finally, just now that I've been a broker and like seen deals and spoken with, you know, hundreds of sellers now, I can see quickly if the business is sellable today, how to get it there if it's not, and, or if it's something that I even want to work with.
[18:43] Tanner Noble: One thing I didn't mention earlier is part of that valuation process and finding out what the risk to this business is, is a mutual thing. I'm looking at, do I want to take this business on to list? Because my time is valuable too, and I want to focus on businesses that I think I can sell.
[19:03] Tanner Noble: So, part of it is figuring out, am I a good fit for you, business seller, to sell your business? And then on the other side, is this a good business for me to list? So anyway, those things have made me qualified to do this.
[19:17] Albert Gillispie: I hadn't, I hadn't. I've made some parallels between commercial real estate and business valuations.
[19:25] Albert Gillispie: And, I mean, there's some of that that I hadn't quite connected the dots on out loud, but I mean, you're exactly right. How you value commercial real estate is you value it like a business, the income minus the expenses. It's a multiple—essentially, it's a multiple of that bottom line.
[19:43] Albert Gillispie: So, you know, for the listeners here, we've spent a decade buying, operating, and selling commercial real estate and have developed a playbook where we've underwritten thousands and thousands of commercial assets valued in millions and millions of dollars. You've developed an eye for that, where you've done it over and over, and you can look at financials and see the story that it's telling, and see the inefficiencies.
[20:14] Albert Gillispie: Basically, we have 12 to 15 improvement projects that we've implemented over and over on each asset that we buy. We've acquired over a hundred million dollars worth of commercial real estate in our career so far. And so many of those lessons are applicable to businesses.
[20:42] Albert Gillispie: That's part of what drew us to this. This is such a need. We touched on that—the silver tsunami of boomers that are retiring every day—there's such a need there. And so much of the skill set that we've developed over the last decade can really serve our local community because a lot of this ecosystem, this business brokerage, merger, and acquisition ecosystem, doesn't really exist.
[21:13] Albert Gillispie: In Lubbock, in West Texas. That's fascinating. Take me through your day-to-day. What does your day-to-day look like right now?
[21:22] Tanner Noble: Yeah. So it's different every day, which is right up my alley, and which I love. Right now, I'm really focused on finding businesses to sell.
[21:34] Tanner Noble: With that, I'm meeting with sellers a couple of times a week, hopefully more than that. For example, this week, I went to the Permian Basin to talk with a seller. I drove three hours away to meet with the seller. I'm having those kinds of meetings a couple of times a week. As I'm listing businesses, I'm getting a lot of buyer inquiries on those businesses. Buyers are emailing and calling, wanting to know more about the businesses I have listed.
[21:59] Tanner Noble: I'm speaking with them, explaining to them what the opportunity is. Some of those buyers I’m able to redirect to another listing I have that might be more fitting for them. And then, I’m just trying to network with people who connect me with business owners who are looking to sell their business or buy other businesses. Lots of time on the phone, how are you, this is awesome and kind of crazy how this has developed.
Methods for Finding Potential Business Sellers
[22:38] Albert Gillispie: How are you finding people that want to sell their business? What are you doing?
[22:43] Tanner Noble: Yeah, so, there are a couple of different ways. When I first started, Transworld was big on this thing called drop letters. Basically, it's a letter that we put on business owners' doors that has generated a lot of leads for me.
[22:55] Tanner Noble: My Houston office is also doing email and phone marketing. So, about half of my leads are coming through the office that way. Another source is my circle of influence. People like you, Albert, and our other partner, Steven, and just people we know are focused on—well, you and Steven especially—are focused on helping bring opportunities.
[23:19] Tanner Noble: So, I've gotten several from that. Other people I know are also sending me opportunities that way. We have found a couple of different strategic buyers who are looking to make acquisitions to help grow their own portfolio or to bolt on to their existing operations.
[23:40] Tanner Noble: And so through that, we have been able to connect with a couple of people in the industry who are going out on our behalf, looking for businesses that are for sale or potentially for sale that meet those buyers' criteria. That has been awesome lately. We’ve got two guys right now—actually, we have more than that, I guess—but two are hyper-focused on it.
[24:05] Tanner Noble: And they’re bringing opportunity after opportunity. There are so many businesses out there that are potentially for sale. The old saying is everything's for sale at the right price, and it's actually really true in the business world. There’s a lot of opportunity out there.
[24:22] Tanner Noble: Those are the biggest avenues where I'm seeing leads come in.
[24:26] Albert Gillispie: That has been an unexpected but super fun part of building this ecosystem. In our capital company, we’re going to our friends and family investors, and most of them are business owners, and asking, "Hey, are you looking to grow? Would there be an acquisition for your business that could help pour gasoline on that fire, essentially?"
[24:46] Albert Gillispie: That has worked so well. You get a look behind the curtain, and you kind of get to see our friends and family in their best light. You get to see them shine in what they do, and then basically they're painting a picture of what they're looking for.
[25:16] Albert Gillispie: And then we have two guys that are hyper focused on that. Like there's been a lot of hours every day driving around West Texas and knocking on doors and calling their database but really, we've got 7 guys that are spending quite a bit of time.
[25:36] Albert Gillispie: You know, essentially trying to find what our strategic buyers are looking for and that. It's so synergistic with everything we're doing that I can't wait. I'm so excited about that.
[25:48] Tanner Noble: Yeah, it really is exciting that there's a pause right now, I don't know, maybe a pause is not right.
[25:57] Tanner Noble: There's a lot of hesitation right now from some people who are like, you know, interest rates are high. The election is coming up. We just had the debate last night. And, you know, there's a lot of people that are just kind of concerned about what's going to happen. In the next 12 months, I guess. And so, so there's a lot of hesitation from people out there right now. And just kind of waiting to see, like, I just kind of want to wait and see. And so that's interesting, but it's just crazy to me how many people are out there just don't have a plan for what they're going to do with their business.
[26:36] Tanner Noble: They know that they're ready to transition, but they just don't know how to do it. And with these people, these guys that we're talking about, I mean, they're going out there and they're finding them and it's been awesome to see the results of that. And I think we're on the beginning, you know, sort of leading edge of this as a brokerage in Lubbock.
[26:55] Tanner Noble: And I mean, over the next five years, this thing's going to blow up and we're going to be able to help so many people in the West Texas in the MNA space, grow or transition their business. And, one of my main goals with this is how do we get like when those businesses sell, how do we get it to where we're bringing in buyers of those businesses that are going to stay in Lubbock?
[27:23] Tanner Noble: Like, how do we keep that money in the Lubbock in West Texas ecosystem? Because a lot of private equity buyers are these business acquisition entrepreneurship through acquisition type people who they're following the Harvard business school plan, right? And they're going out there and executive somewhere, or they're, maybe military and they're looking for, what are they going to do that? They don't want to spend a night. They don't want to spend their energy at a nine to five for some big corporate company. They want to go buy a business. Well, those people are coming from New York and California and all over the country, really all over the world. And so how do we help those buyers? How do we sell them on? This is why you need to come to Lubbock to buy this business. And here's why you want to stay here. This is a great place to grow a family and raise a family. I mean, it's a great place for that. It's super friendly, super conservative, very business friendly.
[28:23] Tanner Noble: Like, there's just so many benefits to Lubbock and West Texas. It's like, how do I get out there and market that to the world so that they can come and buy businesses in Lubbock? And then, how do we keep that money here and just build the Lubbock economy? You know, I don't want to—I hate thinking about selling, you know, a large manufacturing business, and then the buyer comes and then they just move it to California, Arizona, Florida, or whatever.
[28:51] Tanner Noble: Like, I don't know. I just have a passion for wanting to help build that ecosystem and economy in Lubbock.
Preserving Local Economy in Business Transactions
[28:58] Albert Gillispie: That's awesome. And so much of the conversations that we have with business owners, you know, they haven't really been approached by business brokers, those wanting to buy or sell.
[29:12] Albert Gillispie: But they’ve heard stories of private equity groups that come in from Chicago or wherever and completely turn over the labor force in a couple of years, and just hear all of these horror stories. And I think that's important. You know, kind of a niche that you and we are trying to fill is, "Hey, there's a lot."
[29:39] Albert Gillispie: There's a lot of talent in West Texas. There's a lot of talent in Lubbock and the surrounding areas—Midland, Odessa, Amarillo, El Paso. There's a lot of talent and networks there that can pour right back into the communities that we're in.
[29:58] Tanner Noble: Absolutely. I mean, especially when we've got Texas Tech, Lubbock Christian, Wayland Baptist, South Plains College—we've got all of these great resources for jobs.
[30:08] Tanner Noble: Like for people coming out of college and ready to go into the workforce. Yeah, exactly. How do we keep those jobs here?
Advice to Young Entrepreneurs
[30:17] Albert Gillispie: You have a very diverse and eclectic career. You've been in a lot of industries. So maybe touch on that a little bit—you do have a breadth of experience—but I think, you know, touch on that, but what do you wish you could tell 24-year-old Tanner about business That you didn't have then?
[30:51] Tanner Noble: It's a great question. You know, I think the biggest thing I've learned since 24-year-old Tanner is how important relationships are. Business is all about relationships. It's about trust, value, and commitment. In a relationship, those are the things that make or break it.
[31:14] Tanner Noble: And you know, I've seen so many examples of successful businesses that focus on their relationships and focus on strengthening and growing them, whether that's as a business owner, with your employees, with your customers, with your vendors and suppliers, or the community—all of those things matter.
[31:41] Tanner Noble: Like, if you are focused on strengthening and building relationships with integrity, trust, value, and commitment, you're going to do really well. And I, you know, as a 24-year-old, I was kind of like, "I'm just out there to go get a paycheck. I just want to get a paycheck. I want to buy a big house."
[32:00] Tanner Noble: I want to buy a big car, you know, whatever. And I wasn't really focused on the relationships. I was just focused on keeping my head down, doing a good job, working hard, and whatever. I think if I had taken the time, especially with people that are ahead of me—because, you know, oftentimes we're timid and scared to reach up above where we are.
[32:30] Tanner Noble: And because we think that people ahead of us don't want to have anything to do with us, you know, we have an ego. But most of the time, that's not true. Most of the time, if you reach out to someone who's ahead of you, they're going to respond. You have to put in the work, and you've got to be the one that's scheduling a lunch with them or a coffee or whatever.
[32:53] Tanner Noble: But if you're willing to do that, most of the time, people are willing to meet with you and talk to you. And really, as a 24-year-old, I wish that I would have done that and not thought, "If I do this coffee with this person, I'm going to get X out of it." One coffee is not going to get you anything.
[33:12] Tanner Noble: Most of the time it's building a continued relationship, having a commitment to learn from that person and. You know, give them value as well that those things will take you so far.
[33:27] Albert Gillispie: I've learned that for sure that you are our low key extrovert That in tickled every time we go on a work trip At whether it's the apartment association or or whatever, there'll be some social and we talk to people all day long and at five o'clock.
[33:47] Albert Gillispie: I'm drooling. I have like run out of words to say, and you're just getting started and you're in the middle of it, it could be titans of our, our industry. You're in the middle of it, yucking it up, developing real relationship. And I want to commend you on that.
[34:09] Albert Gillispie: Like you have such a unique gift to have really to, to build authentic relationship. Like you do that over and over and over. And it's not this like transactional thing like you were describing. It's like this real authentic relationship where you get to know the person and you get to know their family and what makes them tick.
[34:37] Albert Gillispie: And then, once you have understood—listened for understanding—you’ve done this so much that you have this network of people, and you think, "Hey, I really need to introduce you to this person because they can help you with X, Y, and Z." You’ve just done that for a decade. The business brokerage is just another extension of that. I mean, I feel like you're exactly where you need to be, where God wants you with your unique gifts—your passion for the community, your networking gifts, and decades of business experience and education in finance, like how crazy is that? You know, looking back on the last 20 years of all of that experience building to where you're at today.
[35:31] Tanner Noble: Yeah. Well, first of all, thank you for saying that. I appreciate that. I will say about the sort of extrovert or like going up to people.
[35:39] Tanner Noble: That's something that I definitely have practiced. It’s not something that I was necessarily good at 10 years ago, but it’s something that I've worked on hard—basically getting out of my comfort zone. That’s really what it is—getting out of my comfort zone.
[35:57] Tanner Noble: And going up and talking to someone—yeah, I've been able to practice that for a long time now. I get joy out of connecting people, regardless of what I get out of it. Obviously, if I'm connecting a business seller to a business buyer, then I'm going to get a commission, and that's awesome.
[36:14] Tanner Noble: But also I just enjoy helping people connect—like solving a problem or, you know, like you said, when I'm meeting someone and learning about them, I’m like, "Man, you should meet this person." That gives me joy. So yeah, I like doing that. And it really is fitting for the business brokerage world because that's what I do all the time—connect people.
[36:38] Albert Gillispie: I love it.
[36:38] Tanner Noble: Alright. We try to keep these episodes typically 30 to 40 minutes long. We're getting towards the end of that. How can people get ahold of you? How can they do business with you? How we find you?
[36:50] Tanner Noble: Yeah, so pretty simple. You can call me on my cell phone or text. My number is 8068530833.
[36:58] Tanner Noble: You can email me. My email is tnoble@tworld.com. Those are the best ways to get a hold of me. And I may not get back to you in an hour, but I should get back to you within a day.
[37:14] Albert Gillispie: Awesome. Well, thank you for being on the podcast. We'd like to have you pretty regularly just to check in and give an update on what's going on as we build out.
[37:25] Albert Gillispie: This ecosystem in West Texas. So I hope you'll join us again, but thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate your vulnerability as always. Thanks man.
[37:37] Tanner Noble: Absolutely. Thanks for having me on. It's been a pleasure.
[37:40] Albert Gillispie: Thank you for listening today. If you got value out of that podcast, if you want more of the same, if you want more lessons learned from experts, go ahead and subscribe to the podcast.
[37:52] Albert Gillispie: Click Subscribe Now and keep coming back. We have a lot more in store and we're really excited about this first season of the podcast. And, as always, if you feel stuck in your business, if you feel like you've hit a plateau and can't grow, if you feel like you're out of control and you're working too much in the business, reach out to us at Stag coaching.com.
[38:18] Albert Gillispie: And fill out our business assessment. It's free. It'll tell you what's going on in your business, where you're weak and where you can improve. And we would love to help you and love to guide you along on the right track and get you to where you want to go in a fraction of the time. Thank you.