Summary

Brian Slipka shares his journey of acquiring and managing businesses. He started his career in ERP software and financial services before deciding to pursue entrepreneurship. Inspired by his father's business and mentorship, he began acquiring small businesses, starting with a manufacturing company and later a transportation company. Slipka emphasizes the importance of self-reflection, authenticity, and learning from mistakes in the entrepreneurial journey. He has structured his businesses under the True North Family of Companies, with a shared services model to provide management and infrastructure support. In this conversation, Brian Slipka discusses various topics related to business management and leadership. He emphasizes the importance of having a management structure and shared services in order to efficiently run multiple businesses. He also talks about the hierarchical chain of command and the need for leaders to make bigger decisions. The conversation then shifts to the transportation industry and the unique challenges and opportunities it presents. Brian highlights the benefits of cross-pollinating ideas between different businesses and the importance of culture in driving success. He also shares his experience in acquiring brokerage firms and the advantages it brings. Lastly, Brian reflects on the legacy of his father and the drive to make him proud.

 

Takeaways

Self-reflection and understanding what you are truly chasing in life is crucial before embarking on the entrepreneurial journey.
Learning from mistakes and being willing to adapt and improve is essential for success in business.
Building a strong team and infrastructure is important for managing multiple businesses and ensuring their success.
Authenticity and genuine care for employees and business owners can create a positive and impactful business culture. Having a management structure and shared services can help efficiently manage multiple businesses.
Hierarchy and decision-making play a crucial role in effective leadership.
The transportation industry is the heartbeat of America and offers unique opportunities for growth.
Cross-pollinating ideas between different businesses can lead to innovation and success.
Culture is a key factor in driving business performance and should be intentionally cultivated.
Reducing displaced energy can significantly increase productivity and competitiveness.
Acquiring brokerage firms can provide access to deal flow and improve the state of the business brokerage industry.
Making a positive impact and fulfilling the legacy of loved ones is a driving force for many entrepreneurs.

 

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Transcript:

Jon Stoddard (00:01.104)
Welcome to the top M&A entrepreneurs. Today, my guest is Brian Slipka from Minnesota, True North Companies, who's acquired 24 Main Street businesses and started a few. And we're going to talk about his journey. Welcome to the show, Brian.

Brian Slipka (00:19.39)
Hey, great to be here, John. Thanks for having me.

Jon Stoddard (00:22.468)
Yeah, it took a little long time to get you on the schedule, but I am grateful for you being here.

Brian Slipka (00:28.234)
Well, I'm just grateful to be here and a lot of that, the best comes to those who wait, I guess, hopefully, right?

Jon Stoddard (00:34.268)
Hopefully, yeah. So let's talk about your journey here. What were you doing before the ordinary world, before you started acquiring companies?

Brian Slipka (00:45.646)
Yeah, I know it's a great question and I think that's central to the story, right? I mean, I was out in the business world. I mean, I came out of business school and sold enterprise software after interning at Ernst & Young and got that accounting experience, knew I wanted to be with people and be in front of people and help solve problems. So got into enterprise software. And then after five, six years of that.

I was very fortunate to be a part of some big sales cycles, some big pursuits and had, frankly just if I'm being blunt and honest, had kind of a life change in a couple of years just from a financial performance standpoint and sales standpoint and had the benefit of just having some liquidity and having the freedom to maybe pursue something different. And so really the next chapter of my life was in...

technology finance. So what I did is I basically left the world of enterprise software, enterprise technology, selling software. And we're talking big ERP, ERP systems, MRP systems, that sort of thing. And then actually went to a technology finance company that was owned by a bank that allowed me to help finance those types of projects for companies all around the country, primarily in the Southeast part of the US. And so I spent 15 years rising through the ranks in that industry.

rising all the way up to being the head of the technology finance business unit at the bank that I worked at. About a billion dollar business unit and then it was during that time that the rest of the story starts to emerge. But that's my background that sort of equipped me uniquely to get into what I'm doing now.

Jon Stoddard (02:33.908)
Yeah. Let me ask you about that ERP software. Who was that the big ERP software? Was it SAP or Griflight?

Brian Slipka (02:39.106)
So I was with PeopleSoft and you know, rose through the ranks of inside sales and then got into the field sales and then became a global sales named sale account manager right when we were getting acquired by Oracle. And I was working a big transaction with a Fortune, you know, 20 company in the US. And then it was able to close the deal after Oracle acquired us. And so at the time it was the largest application sales transaction that Oracle had done. And so.

It was a pretty big deal. I was still in my 20s and I got paid a lot of money. But you know what, I tell folks I earned it and I was a little bit of fortune, good luck, yeah, but I executed and I delivered and that was sort of a lesson that started to emerge throughout the rest of my career is you gotta execute when called upon and you gotta bet on yourself. And I definitely formed a habit early of betting on myself.

Jon Stoddard (03:33.008)
Yeah, that's fantastic. And then this is the financial, raising capital for financial companies. What were you doing exactly in there?

Brian Slipka (03:43.582)
Yeah, so that was so I was in the leasing industry. So then I what I did what I did is I left I left the world of enterprise software and then started basically financing big technology projects, data centers, equipment, all that sort of thing all around the country for large companies as well as some smaller mid market companies. And, and what I would do is I'd work with a CFO or business owner and put together the right financial instrument that was non dilutive.

that allowed them to grow their business, invest in capital, CapEx or expansion or growth, and really focus on things that really were going to enable their business to grow. And so, you know, another lesson that I love to talk about later is just the notion of smart money over cheap money, because we weren't the cheapest form of finance. But what we were is the smart form of finance to allow CFOs to grow and keep their powder dry and have the right tool for the right job. And so you think about life and isn't that isn't that isn't that crazy? I mean,

Like that's kind of how life works. It's not always the fastest or the smartest or the cheapest or whatever unit of measurement you think that you might want. It's got to be a good fit.

Jon Stoddard (04:41.39)
Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (04:54.332)
Yeah. What kind of, how expensive was the money back then, leasing projects for data centers? Just, I know this is a few years back, but what does it look like? Yeah.

Brian Slipka (05:02.594)
Well, I mean, you mean, what were the rates at and stuff? Well, I mean, this was during the bond, basically the illiquidity that preceded the recession. What a lot of people forgot what happened or forget what happened is before the mortgage disaster that happened in 7, 8, 9, what was happening during that time is the bond market got all screwed up and then the markets got inverted just like they're inverted here in 2023.

And the brutal truth is that capacity for lending and all that sort of thing started to ice up. So I can't remember what the exact rates were or the cost of funds. But frankly, again, that doesn't really matter. What matters is we had capacity to serve the client in a manner that got them what they needed to in a cost effective way that mitigated their risk. And that was really a lot of lessons learned in that.

Man, you think you know what you need to do to be successful, and it looks good, black marks on a white sheet of paper, like, hey, I need to do this, and this. But then the brutal truth is that's not how the world is. You know, like a lot of times you got it's the qualitative dynamics that give your company or the job you have or the team that you're working with a competitive advantage.

Jon Stoddard (06:23.756)
Yeah. Also, it was like writing paper, you know, as a sales guy, you're just like, Hey, man, can I get those numbers in? Right? Can I make those numbers work? And it may not work for the overall business because you got to stay in these guidelines.

Brian Slipka (06:37.75)
Yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. And so it's the right tool for the right job, right? I mean, and I think that's where that's a huge lesson that started to emerge in my time, you know, crafting financial instruments for my clients. And the whole time, John, I was like, I was, I had this entrepreneurial bent. And so what I loved about that role, and again, for all the listeners out there that are, you know, for whatever reason, they might be listening.

Jon Stoddard (06:52.304)
which probably.

Brian Slipka (07:04.746)
I mean, they may have an entrepreneurial bent, but they may be stuck in like a corporate job or something or maybe wanting to, you know, stretch their entrepreneurial muscle a little bit more. You know, find those avenues that you can be entrepreneurial in whatever walk of life you're in. I mean, that was the one thing that completely stood out for me during my time there.

Jon Stoddard (07:25.084)
So fast forward, when did you start to go, I need to do this on my own, I need to be responsible for all of the business and I'm gonna start purchasing? Because you've acquired the skills to finance it, now you just gotta go find the right business and own 100% of it.

Brian Slipka (07:43.798)
Yeah, so a couple of things happened during my life and my career, right? So again, you know, I take this being on your show, John, as grateful and just pleased that you extended the invitation. But I also feel like it's an obligation for me and an opportunity for me to express some lessons learned because, holy cow, I mean, there's been a lot of lessons learned.

And a lot of my story is about my upbringing. I was very entrepreneurial. My dad ran a small manufacturing company. I want to say when I was younger, it was like 10 or 15, 20 employees. And then it grew to like 70 or 80 before. And then during that time, he turned it into an ESOP. He converted it to an ESOP and then kept leading it. And so I just from afar, from the background, I saw a lot of entrepreneurial elements that were happening, right?

He was a civic leader. He was a mentor. I had people stop by our house where he was offering mentorship to them. And so I just grew up around this environment of giving back and trying to serve your employees, serve your clients, serve the community, and chasing something bigger than greed or ambition, right? Selfish ambition. And so that's kind of where the story begins. So then...

Jon Stoddard (08:58.768)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (09:02.958)
I was entrepreneurial in high school doing all these different things. I built computers. I always tell people, I was a poor man's Michael Dell. I was cobbling together computers from those big computer shop or magazines back in the early 90s. And I had that entrepreneurial DNA, but didn't really know what I was doing. Right. So fast forward, you know, get out of college, go to Ernst & Young, go sell software, go put together financial instruments.

Jon Stoddard (09:17.448)
Whoa.

Brian Slipka (09:31.978)
And that whole time I was trying to fill my cup entrepreneurially. Right. So, you know, I would buy rental properties. I'd do the, you know, invest in an exotic, you know, angel investment of sorts. And that really just wasn't filling my cup. And frankly, I learned the hard way with a lot of angel investments during the recession, just how little control you have. And so the story to answer your question.

Jon Stoddard (09:36.551)
Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (09:55.436)
Yeah. Well, when you say, I got to interrupt you, when you say that, it was basically an angel of ask that is like, Hey, I'm just going to give you this money. And I don't expect anything.

Brian Slipka (10:08.466)
Oh my gosh, you're so true. So you're so right. I mean, if you're gonna do that for anybody who's listening, if you're gonna do that, you either gotta do it with like 30 companies just to spread your risk and diversify your risk because you're looking for one or two. Yes. Because if you don't do it with like 30 of them, your probability of success is like really low. And even then it's like, is that really how you wanna be a steward of your resources?

Jon Stoddard (10:19.488)
Yes, just one or two in the portfolio.

Jon Stoddard (10:31.665)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (10:36.502)
I mean, I could have thrown it all into an index fund and I'd be in a much different financial situation. Because what I did is, being vulnerable to the listeners, back in seven, eight, nine, I spent a lot of money on angel investments that I got zero return on. And so I tell people the amount of money I lost was peanuts compared to what I learned. Right. And that's helped make me a lot more than what I lost way back when.

Jon Stoddard (10:51.857)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (11:05.106)
in better decision making and being honest with myself and what I'm doing and why I'm doing it.

Jon Stoddard (11:11.048)
Yeah. Now, where's your dad in this? I mean, there is one decision you make about your finances, and you say, I have enough, is when you turn your company over to NISO. It's no longer about your dad. It's about, hey, I want to reward my employees. They put stuff into this. That's like a huge decision to do that.

Brian Slipka (11:35.714)
Yeah, no, great questions. What's interesting about my dad. So my dad was a retired colonel in the US Army. He was a guy's guy, leader's leader, natural leader, right? He and the founder of the company started, just the two of them, they grew it a little bit. My dad started running the company in the 80s. And then my dad was making good money, but middle income. And then when the owner wanted to retire, he gave my dad a little bit of equity. But...

But what my dad said at that time was, hey, I think we should turn it over to an ESOP, you know, and let the employees own it. And he participated in that. And he was the largest shareholder when he retired. But what's interesting is he didn't do it to actually monetize his life's work. He for him, it was just like it was I mean, a good lesson here. Go back to 1989 or whenever they started the ESOP. My father, I mean, the owner offered to sell.

100% of the company to my dad. And I think the offer was like a few hundred grand or something, right? That business was worth millions and millions of dollars when my dad retired, right? Tens of millions of dollars. But my dad decided to convert to an ESOP early on. That frankly sat in, had sat in me my whole life, right? Like, so my dad never was able to, you know, capitalize on his leadership skills, on his people skills, on his...

business savvy that he had in other areas of life. And so when I look at how I've grown True North, it's made my decisioning a little bit different because I just keep in the back of my mind that my dad, man, he left a lot of money on the table, but here's the thing, he did it for his employees. And that leads to a bigger notion of what are you chasing in life? And I ask all my companies, leaders, my employees, I challenge them all, like, you gotta know, what are you chasing in life? Because my dad never chased money.

he chased impact and influence. And so he got that through him leading that company, even though he might not have been rewarded as much financially. And so that was a life lesson that I learned. And frankly, my dad lived a pretty fulfilled life. He passed away back in 2013. He retired in 2004.

Brian Slipka (13:59.082)
He's a big part of my story, but he taught me a lot, but he didn't really do anything to help get me get started because my story with True North doesn't really start until he passed away. And it really activated me to do something, take the lessons of my father, lessons of my past, the lessons of my professional career, and leverage it to move forward.

Jon Stoddard (14:11.004)
Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (14:25.32)
Yeah. Do you think you're we're all different beings, especially, you know, father son that you liked money more than he did. I mean, when you're telling me he was a colonel or retired colonel, you don't join the services to get rich. And obviously, over a 20 year period, if a retired full benefits, he's like, I'm pretty sad with my retirement account. You know, like he's not.

One of those guys that says I gotta chase the next dog. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (14:56.478)
Yeah. I mean, it's hard to answer that. You know, I don't think I so I don't think I chase money either. You know, this is a deeply personal question when you really boil it down. And it's good that you're asking it because that's what all these all the listeners need to answer for themselves is what are you chasing? And for me, so you've so let's go back to my career, right? So now it's here. It's 2013. My my father passes away. I'm having quite a bit of success in the corporate realm, leading

Jon Stoddard (15:06.471)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (15:26.422)
uh... leading a team of people in moving up through the sales manager sales leadership ranks running uh... division are headed towards that it wasn't yet running one but i was headed directionally towards that and out but i was kind of miserable and i have my dad was in hospice dying of cancer and i was expressing my frustration about corporate you know corporate uh... nonsense and i was making seven figures uses and as a as a seven-figure of the seven-figure wager for over a decade and

And so I had resources, right? I was living the dream, right? The American dream. But I was complaining about like, man, the people here, I was traveling all the time, you know, my kids were young and I was missing out on a lot of stuff. My wife and I weren't spending a lot of time together. And my dad just asked me, again, this question, and he's like, Brian, what are you chasing? Like, you have everything that everybody would want, like, what are you chasing?

And it was a sober reflection of self, right? So he passes away and that question just lingers in my mind. We all have had those moments, right? And yeah, so.

Jon Stoddard (16:33.848)
Yeah, yeah. When your dad dying of cancer asks you a question, what are you chasing? And it's the most impactful question in your lifetime that just sticks with you for a long time. I mean, did you

Brian Slipka (16:49.31)
Oh my gosh. And so that really began, John, the journey. That began the journey to the True North family of companies, which today is 28 companies, you know, over a quarter billion dollars a year in revenue, tens of millions of dollars of EBITDA. You know, and they've been leveraged acquisitions. I mean, I'm doing it the old fashioned way, one company at a time. But I've built an infrastructure that's chasing impact and influence over

Profit and so what that means the competitive advantage that it gives me is that I'm not chasing like a three to five year Girl company flipping turn and make a ton of money. I'm chasing the cultural fit I'm like back to my dad US Colonel like is that a good relational fit? You know these people is this the kind of culture I want to be a part of And I want to lead I want to be a steward of you know so that's so you can start to see kind of the my past is what shaped has shaped my current my present and

certainly will my future.

Jon Stoddard (17:48.3)
Yeah, it's great that you had a great mentor. I want to bring a point of, do you know who Mr. Beast is, the guy with the videos? And...

Brian Slipka (17:55.434)
Oh yeah, I didn't know until recently. My son was very clear about clarifying who he was and the impact he's had.

Jon Stoddard (18:03.012)
Yeah, it's very interesting. And look, I don't know exactly if I can answer the question, what are you chasing? But every time he talks about, look, it's not money that he's trying to accumulate, it's like value that he's trying to share. And it's either entertainment or it's what he can give with what he gets. And when he says he...

When he gives away $100,000, he makes a million on a video. And he goes, it's more like a river than this pond that I'm watching over.

Brian Slipka (18:38.478)
awesome, it's powerful. And you know what the thing about Mr. Beast that you know that I that I've learned about since my son told me I got I should read up on him you know was is what you said is so true the river concept right and he surrendered he actually is surrendering selfish ambition now some people may not agree with me in me saying that but his intent he's not chasing selfish ambition around profit right or greed right

Jon Stoddard (18:46.44)
I'm gonna go.

Brian Slipka (19:06.198)
He's chasing impact and influence in his own way. Now, you can question all you want, you know, what people's motives are, but the ambition element is what you kind of distill down to. And it's just fascinating, the human experience at work, right? And a lot of that has to do with, you know, when you look at entrepreneurs, right? I mean, we're the same way. I mean, it's a human experiment. It's just crazy how...

how every situation is a little unique.

Jon Stoddard (19:38.712)
Yeah, and I don't know how I'd say it. You know, Rush Limbaugh used to call it from like, I'm on, I got talent on Loan From God. It's just passing through me and it's his curiosity of creating best videos. Like I watched a video that was on, my kids watch it, there he's 15, so he watches the video and it just came out, an hour later it had 54 million views.

Brian Slipka (20:07.842)
Whoa. Wow. Wow, that's crazy. So what was the main message in that? Like, clearly there was something I was captivating.

Jon Stoddard (20:11.761)
And he is just as

Jon Stoddard (20:17.188)
Yeah, you know, it's just entertainment. I don't know what it is. There's no meaning in his videos. Hey, I'm going to go look at a vacation that's $0. Here's a vacation that's $10,000. Here's a vacation that's $100,000. And here's a vacation that's $1 million. And he puts that into 15 minutes and makes it entertaining. And it has 54 million viewers in just an hour.

But he's a student of trying to encapsulate and entertainment in 15 minutes.

Brian Slipka (20:52.946)
Yeah, well he's doing a good job. Wow. That video certainly did a good job. Unbelievable.

Jon Stoddard (20:55.312)
Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (20:59.38)
Yeah. Well, he just does that all over. He was on Joe Rogan the other day and he goes, uh, you know, uh, there's only four to 7% of the planet speaks English. And he goes, I'm just going to translate the rest of my videos into the country of origin. So Spanish and German and English. And he goes, that's where he's like a student of business also.

Brian Slipka (21:23.958)
Yeah, yeah, fascinating, fascinating accomplishment and achievement and the impact and influence he's having. I mean, and it comes back to the platform we all have, right? So, you know, even like in my career, the platform that emerged when I started the True North Family of Companies and I started acquiring businesses. So, you know, my story is I started acquiring businesses. You know, and...

Jon Stoddard (21:48.016)
Now let's talk about that first one, that very first one and what that looked like and how you found it. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (21:53.494)
Well, yeah, we'll go back to my dad, right? So my dad passes away in fall of 13. And I'm talking to some folks from my community, my church, my, you know, just networking in my ecosystem. And, you know, a friend of mine, you know, was going through a tough time and had a chance to, you know, he's in a leadership position and he wanted to leave and start his own business or buy a business. And I said, you know, let me go buy a business.

My dad had just passed away and my dad had asked me, you know, Brian, what are you chasing? And he also told me, you know, in another conversation, he's like, Brian, why don't you just go after these reliably profitable heartbeat of America companies where people toil, they sweat, they grind, they generally speak and show up every day, they don't complain. And I'm like, wow, that sounds like attractive to me. Because I was traveling around the country and grinding with all these hoity-toity white collar.

Jon Stoddard (22:46.48)
Hahaha

Brian Slipka (22:52.342)
decision makers and that was all fine and good, made me feel important. But again, what are you chasing? If that's what I'm chasing, that's a pretty empty feeling, you know, making you feel important like that, like that will pass. Whereas my dad expressed like, hey, Brian, the impact and influence I had running my little small business that was an e-stop was I helped people. I changed their financial dreams. You know, I gave them jobs, but more than that, I gave them so much more. And he's and he just challenged me. And so that's sad. And then I.

So then I partnered with a good friend of mine when we bought a small little manufacturing company up in Anoka, Minnesota that we still own to this day. And that was 2014, right? So that was 2014, we acquired the company. In 2015, I partner up with another person and we buy a transportation company, a small little LTL carrier here in the Twin Cities. We still own that company. And that really started what we can't,

what became a methodology, an infrastructure, a system and a process to come alongside a business owner, help preserve their life's work and be a steward of it as they transition to the next stage of their life. So it became deeply personal for me, like how do I help these business owners? Mentoring was such a big part of my life, my dad was a big mentor. And so I saw my dad in all these cellars, like how do I...

how do I take with their wisdom and I transfer and be a steward of it into the next generation. And so that's why we have an internship program. That's why we hire a lot of young folks because we wanna be a steward of it, just like the older generation has been for me. And so that's where the deeply personal side of it drives the True North strategy, right? I mean, and has catapulted us to the number of companies and the size of the companies.

the size of acquisitions, and directionally where we believe we're going.

Jon Stoddard (24:55.264)
Yeah, let me let me ask you about the specifics about the 2014 manufacturing company. So how big was that? Where are we talking about? SMB 1 to 5 million

Brian Slipka (25:04.938)
Oh yeah, for sure. It was a Main Street company. So it cashloaded about $350 to $400K a year, S.D.E. You know, just Seller Discretionary Earnings. Adjusted EBITDA. So it was an absentee owner, along with a financial partner, and the two of them both wanted out. And the operating partner ended up taking a job for one of the manufacturers of the...

Jon Stoddard (25:15.176)
Uh-huh. Retiring was the owner retiring.

Jon Stoddard (25:21.903)
Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (25:27.7)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (25:33.238)
equipment we are running in our shop. And then obviously the financial partner just took their money and we're done. But they're ready to exit. And what we liked about it was is that we felt like, wow, we could step in this business and we wouldn't have to be there every day. Now, my operating partner was willing to be there every day. It became his day job. But what was nice is he didn't have to be. There was a foreman there. There was a general manager there.

that sort of thing, right? Plant manager. But it was a small company. I mean, we're talking like two million in revenue, you know, with that kind of cashflow. We bought the business, we bought the real estate and we had our ups and downs. I mean, manufacturing in the US back in 14, I mean, it was doing okay, but then, you know, it was up and down. I feel like we've already lived through like three cycles in just that little small company.

Jon Stoddard (26:09.412)
Yeah, yeah.

Jon Stoddard (26:29.112)
Yeah, as a what did you guys manufacture? What do you?

Brian Slipka (26:33.098)
I was a CNC Swiss machines, turning, lathes, anything from a turning standpoint, precision machining, which is big in the upper Midwest. And there's a lot of them, contract precision machining. And we had a lot of stable customers. We've had a lot of new ones as well emerge. The company is a lot bigger now. I mean, we've made a couple of tuck in acquisitions, but again, it's still up and down.

Jon Stoddard (26:38.191)
Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (27:00.988)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (27:01.778)
I think a lot of would-be investors, especially ones that will listen to this program, think that, oh, if I buy a company for $350k of cash flow and I can cover my nut, and they think that, well, it's only going to go up. They build pro formas around it just only going up. Well, you need to temper that sucker. You need to stress test that sucker. What if I lose my three biggest customers and they're gone? What happens? How do I cover my SBA loan? How do I cover my debt service?

Jon Stoddard (27:24.059)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (27:31.314)
entrepreneurs or would be buyers of businesses. I mean, you got to know this. That stuff does happen and it will happen. And that was the lesson we learned in the first business.

Jon Stoddard (27:40.368)
Plan on it happening. Yeah. Yeah, what did you guys do during the ups and downs with it? Hey, we got a great, we got this big new contract. We got 10 employees. Uh-oh, lose the fast forward. We're not getting the contracts. What do you do with the employees? Yeah.

Brian Slipka (27:59.998)
Oh, let's add in there, John, that we lost our plant manager and foreman, they walked out on the same day. I mean, you could write a book about just that company, right? And I wish I had a better answer. The listeners are gonna be like, oh my gosh. I just started writing checks. I mean, I kept the thing going. Like I was, you know, it was like, what am I doing? Because keep in mind, I still had the day job. I was earning a heck of a living. And I just had made the decision,

Jon Stoddard (28:09.948)
Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (28:13.372)
Hahaha

Brian Slipka (28:29.298)
you know, own a heartbeat, a piece of the heartbeat of America. I want to own a small business. And by golly, I wasn't going to let this thing fail, right? And.

Jon Stoddard (28:38.098)
Yeah. So this is not exactly this SMB acquisition is planning to be the next step just yet.

Brian Slipka (28:45.474)
I'm just telling the listeners though, and I mean, this does happen. And so like, it's not a great story as far as how it started. I mean, to be exact, our first year went okay. My partner is an awesome human being, he's an awesome individual, and he's a great leader. And so we weathered the storm. I mean, I believed in him, I believed in what he stood for, I believed in his leadership skills, and we were kind of turning the ship around, right? So part of this was intentional, like,

We had to take one step backwards to take two steps forward and all that stuff. But the issue with that is it required capital. And so what's going to happen when, no matter if any would be buyers, you're going to walk into a business and you're going to find out in 30 to 60, 90 days, like, wow, this needs to change, this needs to change, or I'm just going to not do anything. And my whole strategy now, fast forward 25 plus businesses later, is to do no harm. Be like...

you know, buy a business and do no harm. Because I just want to assess and diagnose. Like I don't want to, like I don't want to be responsible. I think another thing, another pitfall that people do is they try to change everything. Like, you know, like, I'm the new buyer, big bad, you know, I'm big boss man now. And that's like the worst thing you can do. And so, so and, and so we learned, you know, and Steve did a great job, my partner. And so we got through it, we grew the business, we ended up acquiring a couple more tuck ins.

Jon Stoddard (29:45.126)
Hahaha

Brian Slipka (30:11.518)
And I actually reduced my ownership in that business for him to buy more of it. And so he has control and interest now and he's running the day to day still and has a great team. And they're doing good and doing well. That story has gone favorably. But it wasn't without a lot of ups and downs and lessons learned.

Jon Stoddard (30:31.276)
Yeah, so you, yeah, I have some students like, you know, just, I don't know if it's illusion like, hey, everything's been great. If I get a business doing $350,000, it may be better than what you're doing. But there's going to be ups and downs with this. Plan on it. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (30:48.514)
Oh, plan on it. And then here's the other thing. You know, are you really built to be an entrepreneur? I mean, a lot of people think they are, and they aren't. And when the brutal truth comes through, they're simply trying to buy a job. You know, and are you willing to not take a paycheck for six months a year, you know, even longer? I mean, are you willing to, are you able to, right? And so, like those are all soberly.

sober reflections of self that you need to be asking if you're thinking about buying a business No matter if you have the financial wherewithal or not. I mean this again this is this is human reasons This is human kind of behavioral stuff, you know, like are you are you how do you respond to adversity? How do you respond to strife when you know the customer who had 40% of your business says, you know, we're done I know by the way, you know, I know you bought half a million dollars of raw materials

to produce our product, but our contract says we can cut you off tomorrow, and you're left holding the bag of all the raw material, right? I mean, that happens. So not only do you not have the business, but your networking capital is poof, gone, because it's all stuck in stuff you can't monetize. I mean, that's the brutal truth of running a small business and being an entrepreneur, and the whole M&A world, and the world of business brokerage, lower middle market.

Jon Stoddard (31:53.114)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (32:11.69)
I think there's a lot of visions of grandeur, like you were saying or alluding to, that it takes a unique skill set and people need to have a sober reflection of self before they jump in.

Jon Stoddard (32:26.884)
Yeah, it's not for everyone. I gotta tell you the truth. I know pretty much all the coaches here in the business buying world, and they'll even tell you, I mean, 97, 8% of people that go chasing a business to purchase don't end up buying one. Cause it just, the skills, the experience, and money required to purchase one, they're not hungry enough or whatever it is. It's just like, hey,

Being an entrepreneur, running your own business, and responsible, it's like a 24 hour job because you're thinking about ideas, you're thinking about cash flow, you're thinking about employees, 24 hours a day. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (33:03.734)
You know, it's 24 hours a day. And then if you throw on top of that, like the employment folks, you know, employees that want raises and move up the ladder and, you know, and.

Jon Stoddard (33:15.04)
I deserve more. I want more money.

Brian Slipka (33:20.221)
Yeah, so I mean, yeah, we could go on and on. I mean, it's endless.

Jon Stoddard (33:22.852)
Yeah. So you bought this transportation company, you had a new partner and it was a cap stack was kind of dead equity again, or did you ever use SBAs to purchase?

Brian Slipka (33:34.122)
Yeah, so even going back to the first one, the manufacturing company, you know, the partner and I were yoked together. We both had equity. I was the money guy. I provided the front capital to acquire the business, take out the bank loan, assure that there is success there. And the second company, the trucking company, transportation company, it was very much structured the same way where I had a different operating partner who had been in transportation his whole life. Still is. Still is one of my partners to this day. Still is.

Jon Stoddard (34:02.512)
Did you, I got a question. Did you start seeking out people with specific knowledge to be able to run these businesses or were they coming to you? That somehow they found you're the money guy.

Brian Slipka (34:10.722)
Great question. Yeah, I know it's a great question, but really it was God's timing. Like I've just, the older I get, the more I'm just like, you know, God's timing. This individual, I got a phone call from my pastor at my church of all people saying, hey, this guy stopped me in church the other day or called me and said he'd like to buy a business. He doesn't know who to turn to. So he was asking me. And I said, well, you got to talk to Brian. I'm like, okay. Well, have him give me a call.

Jon Stoddard (34:41.282)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (34:41.915)
And that started the con, I mean, no kidding, that's the story. So that started the conversation and then I met with him for like a year before we actually bought it. And then he's still my partner to this day. I just was with him earlier this morning. We're looking at another company. And so it's crazy how, again, I call it God's timing.

Jon Stoddard (35:02.096)
I just want to mention that all of the ways out to do deal sourcing, putting planting seeds in your church is one of them.

Brian Slipka (35:11.654)
Well, so again, I surrendered selfish ambition, right? Like I mean, I wasn't doing it for that. You know, I don't, I mean, they just knew I was a business person, business leader, and they're like, you know, Brian would be a good guy to talk to. I think part of it is because I knew I'd given an honest, straightforward answer that I didn't have an agenda. Like, I think, again, I think back to this world of M&A, you know, when you surrender, when you're vulnerable, you know, you're vulnerable, you surrender the outcome.

but you're willing to do the work. Like when you have that figured out, like in a very authentic way, I mean, people see that. I mean, and I look at some of the businesses I've acquired, and you fast forward, and a lot of the business owners, a lot of sellers of the business are like, man, this guy just, he's willing to buy the business, but he's also willing to not buy it. If I don't like, I mean, he's just, he's vulnerable, he's honest, he's surrendering the outcome, but he's willing to do the work. And I think that's an attractive,

at you know feature but it's got to be real. You got to be sincere about it. And so again when people are looking at like where they fit in this in this realm of M&A no matter what realm you are whether you're an intermediary whether you're an accountant an attorney a buyer a seller think about selling your business I mean think about bringing bring together a small like private forming a small private equity firm or a fund or a holding company. I mean be honest with yourself like.

Dear Lord, I mean, like, there's, don't, don't deceive yourself, right? And I think that's where, and just know what you're chasing. Because, because if you're honest with yourself and you're willing to surrender the outcomes of what you're pursuing, it's amazing how, you know, it's an infectious sort of gravitational pull that folks have because they know that you're, my Minnesota accent came out there, did you hear that?

Jon Stoddard (37:03.876)
Yes, I did.

Brian Slipka (37:07.778)
They know that you're authentic and you're genuine. So anyway.

Jon Stoddard (37:12.38)
Yeah, I think part of that is, you know, if you unpack it, like, hey, how do you get good at something? You also have to not care about what other people think about what you're doing. And being a student business is being curious, right? How does this work? How can I do it? How can I make it better? Or is this something I have to accept? Like when you say do no harm.

with manufacturing in a $50 million business can come into a $2 million business and go, I can make this better, right? But sometimes you shouldn't.

Brian Slipka (37:52.918)
Here's the thing though. So I speak from experience when I say this. Like I've made some really silly and stupid decisions. I mean like there was one business where I partnered with, I had a partner that helped pursue the acquisition of it. I had sourced it. I can't remember how I found out about it, but you know, I said, hey, take a look at this and look good, numbers look good, good terms. Like let's do it, let's go for it. You can run it, you know, we'll be fine. Buy the business.

Comes to me, I'm the money guy, comes to me, says, hey, I think there's a few movies that can help grow the business. And I'm like, okay, well, it makes, sounds good. And I was running so hard, I had all these other things, I had all these other pursuits going on. And some of the other businesses I lead and run and own, I'm in the business every day. So like, I'm not just a business buyer. I mean, I get in the weeds on other parts of the business. So I was distracted. So I approve inventory purchases that,

balloon up to $500,000, $600,000, $700,000. I approve an inventory management system investment that couple hundred thousand dollars. Meanwhile, the whole time, we don't have a good hand on the financials and I'm kind of, again, I'm busy. And bottom line, long story short, you blink and that business cost me about two and a half million dollars. I mean, poof.

I am so serious when I say like I've learned through my mistakes. I mean like I'm by no means like have this thing figured out. But what I would have learned what I've also learned is that through my mistakes, that's when I get better. And through my mistakes is that's how I get better. You know, you don't learn through like just success after success. You learn through your adversity and your pain. So I've learned some painful lessons that have caused my team and I to get better.

Jon Stoddard (39:26.065)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (39:45.922)
to build an infrastructure, to have systems and processes to thoughtfully onboard companies and to thoughtfully onboard employees and to thoughtfully steward the businesses and to groom the next generation of talent. I mean, this is all a byproduct of us being really bad at things.

Jon Stoddard (40:04.068)
And getting better. Yeah, hopefully. Yeah. So what does it look like when you start? Did you have a holding company called true north or when did this come about and say you know what it's working? I'm gonna start buying other businesses. I'm gonna have true north up here, and I'm gonna have a bunch of other businesses down here

Brian Slipka (40:22.166)
Yeah, no, it was really the first one back in 2014 was called True North Precision. And then we acquired the trucking company. We called it True North Transportation. And then that kind of started a litany of LLCs and S-Corps that had True North, you know, whatever, right? And so you fast forward and now all these holding companies and different companies have True North, you know, whatever on them. So really, when I say True North family of companies, it's a...

Jon Stoddard (40:27.707)
Okay.

Jon Stoddard (40:32.695)
Uh huh.

Brian Slipka (40:52.222)
It's an amalgamation of independent entities, but it's a family. We have a shared services model. So what we do have at the top is effectively a holding company, but really what it is a management company that manages all the businesses and the infrastructure to them and the accounting and a lot of the shared services. So every business, as we've acquired them,

basically pays the management company a management fee. And then that's where my team and my infrastructure is provided. So and that management company only has one customer. It's technically me. It's all my companies. Right. So it's got 25, 30 companies as customers. But it's the common thread is they're my businesses. And some have more services than others. But that's how we structure it. And it allows us to have.

Jon Stoddard (41:39.344)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (41:47.103)
control authority over decisions and that sort of thing.

Jon Stoddard (41:51.428)
Now, why did you structure it like that?

Brian Slipka (41:54.698)
You know, again, just being vulnerable, being honest, you know, it's just, you know, I'd been involved in a lot of rental properties and I had, you know, and we had a management company take, you know, manage a lot of my holdings. My office right here that I'm in right now is down here at the University of Minnesota, Dinkytown is the neighborhood. And we had a lot of rental properties down here back in the day. And we had a management company take care of them. Well, that management company would take a fee.

provide all the services. And then I just would have to within that individual LLC that the property sat in. I just had to be really smart about like, OK, like I got to build in that management fee and all my pro forma's. Right. So I mean, just it's it wasn't it wasn't that genius. It was just the brutal reality is when I started buying companies, I'm like, well, I mean, I need a management company to, you know, I need a, you know, feed to provide the services, you know, the, you know,

my time, the accounting team's time, and eventually my whole team of 10 plus people that support the management and leadership of a lot of these companies and the functions of a lot of the shared services.

Jon Stoddard (43:08.324)
No, it's very traditional to a military structure where there's hierarchical chain of command, right? I mean, it insulates you from like, hey, Brian, you know, there's a movie, I was in the service too. So when somebody says, hey, don't take the don't take your gun out of your holster, it means you're at a rank at some point that you're not in the weeds anymore. You got to be making the bigger decisions.

Brian Slipka (43:29.642)
Yeah. Hey, by the way, thank you for your service. No, no, you're right, though. So so the other thing it does is, you know, we have a buy and hold mentality. Like I plan to every business I acquire. And I really mean this from the bottom of my heart. Every business I acquire, I plan to hold forever. Like I don't have any plans to ever sell it. Right. But I also not I'm not Pollyanna. I mean, like, you know, you got I got to realize that, you know, there's gonna be.

Jon Stoddard (43:34.052)
Yeah, thanks. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (43:58.178)
times where things change and it makes sense to sell the business, right?

Jon Stoddard (44:01.553)
Warren Buffett even sells some of this portfolio. I mean, yeah

Brian Slipka (44:04.978)
Yeah. Well, and I'll even say I'm like a very, very poor man's version of Warren Buffett, like with very, very small companies, right? But but similar approach, right? The the brutal reality is, is like you buy a business, you expect to hold it, but nobody has a crystal ball. And so the other benefit of having the management structure the way that we do, where we every entity pays the management firm a fee to provide shared services, is if I ever wanted to

Jon Stoddard (44:10.281)
Hahaha

Yeah.

Brian Slipka (44:33.326)
decouple one business? Well, it's really easy to put together the SDE, the worksheet on the cash flow, the financials on the business, and just see that that's the management fees and these are the services that were provided from it. So any would-be acquirer could say, okay, this is what the business has worked to me, right? So part of it is my brain thinking about that, but I don't have any intentionality to actually do that. But we were forced to, like with some of these dogs or some of these lessons learned kind of stories where I had to

We had to part with them, but that's another reason why we structured the way we do.

Jon Stoddard (45:08.612)
Yeah, I'm looking at your portfolio here. I'm going to do a shared screen real quick, so people can see this screen.

Jon Stoddard (45:23.661)
He's got a company, True North Company, True North Advisors, Sunbelt, Business Advisor to Business Brokerage, True North Mergers and Acquisitions, a lot of transportation companies. So you get into the nitty gritty of the transportation. What do you like about that? The business.

Brian Slipka (45:45.998)
Well, you know, I think the common thread I like about is it's the heartbeat of America. It's, you know, I'm dealing with a lot of, you know, blue collar businesses and a lot of these businesses, you know, we stay away from consumer businesses. It's really B2B, the ones that we deal with, notwithstanding the Sioux Falls Canaries. That's a that's a minor league baseball team. You know, I do have I do have some weaknesses. You know, I'm a sucker for really good sports sporting events and I'm a big sports guy. So.

Jon Stoddard (46:01.753)
Yeah.

This.

Jon Stoddard (46:12.417)
Yeah, yeah.

This was out of your strike zone if I look at it the other

Brian Slipka (46:19.818)
Well, you know, it's actually you're right. It totally is. But what's interesting is it's just like any challenge in life, you know, true nor sports really has become like this thought leader now within the minor league realm, within the within the league that we're in. And so we believe that you'll see that part of our business grow. And, you know, and then you see like pillbox back company popped up. I mean, that's a that's a Minnesota company. We felt really.

really close to the founders and they were in a position where they needed some growth capital and it just made sense for them. And so we were able to come alongside them and really helping them. They got an MLB license now for the bats that they sell. So we expect that company to grow a lot with the uniqueness that we provide. You know, just good story.

Jon Stoddard (47:03.792)
Fantastic.

Yeah. And a lot of I see manufacturing company box companies, there's a packaging company, very, yeah, blue collar, just B2B type businesses. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (47:21.518)
Yeah, like Lake Mills you popped up there. Like Lake Mills or Norseman in Lake Mills, Iowa. I mean, that's the largest employer in Lake Mills now. And that's a transportation company. Right. I mean, that's Heartbeat of America. They do mail runs. They do over the road stuff. LTL stuff. I mean, this is Heartbeat of America, which, by the way, John, drives almost half of the U.S. economy. And yet I think any listener here that's listening to this thing knows that

I'm a big small business advocate, right? And any listener probably knows like it oftentimes gets neglected. You know, we all talk about it in the M&A circles and the M&A conversations because we live in, you know, typically the lower middle market or middle market or main street for a lot of listeners. But, you know, business brokerage type of stuff. But the rest of the country, there's I mean, there's a huge part of the country that either works for the government or works for big companies. Right.

And so we kind of get, I sort of feel like, you know, we get neglected a little bit, right? And yet we drive half of the GDP. You know, it's like, wow, darn it. Like we need to advocate.

Jon Stoddard (48:30.877)
Yeah. Well, I think you've got some pretty big publicity as far as trucking goes when, you know, UPS drivers get a $49 an hour share. I go like, Oh my God, that's $170 a year. What the hell? And my wife the other day goes, I think, you know, I think delivery costs for Amazon is going to go down. I go, how is that? They just drivers just got an increase to $49. Now that's not going down. That's up.

Brian Slipka (48:58.355)
No, you're right. You're right. You're totally right. And by the way, like the transportation companies have actually we've actually been kind of in a post covid recession, like the brokered freight market is way down, all that stuff. So like trucking companies actually been struggling the last six to 12, you know, 12 months ish, you know, just sugar high of the of the pandemic and whatever. And it'll bounce back. Just needs to normalize. But

But the point is there's overcapacity. So when you see UPS doing what they're needing to do to maintain drivers, but then in the same breath, they're seeing a yellow freight file for bankruptcy. Yeah, you do want to, because all that's going to do is shrink capacity, which is going to mean that there's less of a supply. And so demand is going to go up. So it's going to be only more expensive, right?

Jon Stoddard (49:31.196)
Go out of business. Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (49:47.376)
So these are macroeconomic problems that you sit back and go, how's this work out in a perfect test to bubble? Like, oh, there's gonna be supply and demand. That always affects businesses on a macro level, right? But how does that affect you when, you know, gases for diesel is still 482 in Tucson and could go up, could go down based upon interest rates?

Brian Slipka (50:17.162)
Yeah, no, I mean, it's all, they're all, it affects us greatly, right? But, you know, for me, it's the directional, you know, I have this notion with a lot of my team, my team leaders where I talk less about specific goals and I talk more about directional focus, right? Because it's kinda like, are you looking up or are you looking down? Like, it's not, are you looking up at something? Are you looking up or are you looking down? I mean, it's directional. Are you headed in the right direction or are you heading in the wrong direction? Because...

If we try to hit something specifically, you know, looking up, you know, we're going to be disappointed. But if we're directionally going in the right direction, you know, typically that's good. So, anecdotally, to answer that, you know, it's the you have these forces of change in transportation. You have these forces of change in the macro economy. And then you have the forces of change within, like, usually your own company, right? These internal forces. So, it's managing these three concentric circles.

forces of change in an effective, practical way. And what it comes down to is you've got to directionally know, be eyes wide open and be very self aware. And I just feel like a lot of times the small business, get back to me being an advocate for small business, I think we are uniquely positioned better than anybody to be nimble to those three forces. Does that make sense?

Jon Stoddard (51:41.608)
Do you stay nimble with the size and your cost structure to be nimble or what does that mean? Yeah.

Brian Slipka (51:50.166)
No, I think stay nimble because we can quickly adapt, right? I mean, a small business can quickly mobilize and respond to certain periods of adverse conditions in an economic situation.

Jon Stoddard (52:02.64)
Yeah, like yellow cut wasn't nimble enough because of their cost to structures. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (52:07.342)
Correct. Yeah, they had such an incredible amount of cost committed along with, you know, they grew, they got ahead of their skis a little bit with some of their acquisitions over the last 10 years. And so it just kind of toppled them over, right? They got too top heavy and boom, they just, they fell.

Jon Stoddard (52:25.884)
Too much debt, yeah, way too much debt. I was gonna bring that metaphor in, it's like if you ever learn how to ski, everybody, I can tell that most people do this, they look at their skis all the time when they first start. But when you get better, you start looking ahead.

Brian Slipka (52:41.29)
Yeah, yeah. Well, and if you get ahead, but if you get ahead of your skis and you're looking down, that's the problem, right? Like, but you know, if you keep your head up and. Ha ha.

Jon Stoddard (52:48.136)
That's it. Yeah. When you get too ahead of your skis. I got to ask you about cross pollination of ideas here. I mean, in the trucking business, it's easy to do. I had a friend that bought was a CEO of a private equity company. It was buying HVAC companies and he was able to cross pollinate ideas. Like one company was really great at doing this and take that idea.

and boost revenue 10% just from ideas that he got from another company he purchased.

Brian Slipka (53:24.406)
Yeah, we've totally done that. I mean, that is the benefit of having this diversity of thought across all these businesses, right? I mean, so like Centennial Carbide, which is a small load carbide, tungsten carbide distributor that has done a really good job in the Upper Midwest, which is one of our companies, has some really best practices that we've drawn out of it and emerged that we've applied to, we've applied to not only a couple of other distribution companies, but some of the, some of the,

some of the other manufacturing companies and some of the packaging companies and assembly companies. So there's definitely synergistic value that does naturally emerge. But let me come back to something that we haven't talked about today. And that's culture, right? Culture, right? I mean, the culture trumps talent, trumps really good business ideas. I mean, I'm telling you, the culture is what transcends all of it, right? So

Jon Stoddard (54:11.269)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (54:23.55)
I think the one thing with TrueNorth that we really spend a lot of time and money and energy on is culture. And so getting all the business leaders across all the business units together and then being able to do what you just described where we swap the good, the bad, and the ugly and we're like, hey, have you tried this? Have you tried that? I think that's kind of common sense, but above that is trust. Like above that is like we're in this together. Above that is helping people, surrendering selfish ambition or me holding it all for myself because you know.

Maybe there's something in it for me, right? Or I want to win the top company of the year award from True North, right? I mean, well, no, I mean, like, we surrender that selfish ambition and we want to help people. Help people and success will follow. And that's, again, and we work hard at it. You know, I talk to people all the time. Culture is either by design or by default.

Jon Stoddard (55:15.997)
And if it's by default.

Brian Slipka (55:20.054)
We're all stinking thinkers, right? I mean, human nature, right? I mean, human nature is gonna always go towards, especially if you aren't proactively talking to folks, is gonna go towards like, well, what about this? And what about that? It's gonna be a very questioning sort of mindset. Whereas if it's by design, it's like, no, here's what we are. It's like, we're declaring our narrative, right? We're declaring who we are. We aren't gonna just allow it to kind of gravitate. You know, it's like the quotes, all the quotes.

Jon Stoddard (55:39.506)
Yep.

Jon Stoddard (55:45.884)
It's where you plant your flag. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (55:47.582)
Yeah, amen, amen. I mean, just look at a sports team. I mean, hey, we're this. You know, when we declare, when teams declare who they are, that's when they can focus. They reduce displaced energy, right? Think about this notion of displaced energy. And I could go off on this for a long time, John. I mean, the world is about, I mean, if the masters of the world that truly are, I would say are the most quote unquote successful.

are the ones that have figured out a way to reduce displaced energy. Right? So, what that means is, in an eight hour work day, distill it down to the common employee, or the common worker, or the common man or woman who's going to work professionally. What do you do in your eight hour day? Okay. Imagine, well, I'm really only productive about two and a half hours a day. You know, five and a half, I'm just not super productive. I'm kind of doing this, I'm doing that, whatever. Imagine a world if you could...

reduce that displaced energy. And now that you can fulfill that two and a half hour productivity level across all eight hours. I mean, you literally will run laps around your peer groups, your, you know, whatever unit of measurement you want to, you know, you want to use. And so I think this notion and having a culture of, hey, how do we reduce displaced energy is a competitive advantage for, certainly for us. And we still have a long ways to go. I mean, but we focus on it. It's by design.

Jon Stoddard (57:13.684)
Yeah, that's an interesting way to say that displaced energy. I mean, there's a lot of examples of that. Uh, just listening to Elon Musk go, you know, there was a better way to get satellites up there versus NASA. And the guy launches two to three a month now with his Skynet.

Brian Slipka (57:33.288)
I mean, Elon Musk for all of, you know, whether you love him or hate him. I mean, think about that for a second. We just said, I mean, isn't that crazy? Like the, he just solved the better way. He's actually reducing displaced energy of the legacy way of doing things. And now he's becoming, he's making that problem hyper efficient, let alone solving. I mean, he's solving it too.

Jon Stoddard (57:53.04)
Yeah, reusable rockets at land. That's like, NASA, I didn't even know if that was on the board in NASA. I'm sure it was on the board, but it would take 10 years because it's a government operated entity. Yeah.

Brian Slipka (57:56.238)
I'm going to go to bed.

Brian Slipka (58:05.258)
Yeah. Well, and I was reading the statistic, you know, like, you know, anything, you know, anything that the government does typically, and it's I'm not trying to blame the government. I'm just trying to I'm just trying to state reality. It is what it is. It's going to be less efficient. Right. So so it's going to what, you know, by all accounts, different statistics show different numbers. But basically, it's one half or less productive. Right. So so in other words, for one dollar of private investment, you're getting, you know,

Jon Stoddard (58:16.513)
It is what it is.

Brian Slipka (58:35.626)
you know, it's going to cost the government over $2. Right? So when we think about how we deploy resources, like back to heartbeat of America, small business, like innovation. You know, what Elon Musk, I mean, like there's a lot of truth to maintaining this prominence that our country has always had around innovation and entrepreneurial spirit and all that. And a lot of it, we just got to make sure we preserve. And that's one of the reasons why I'm so

trying to become more of an advocate publicly, overtly around being this, you know, for small business, because it's so important to our, who we are and what we're all about, and engagement and fulfillment as an individual.

Jon Stoddard (59:17.456)
Hey, I don't have much more time, but I want to ask you about some of the companies you bought the Sunbelt Business Advisor, True North Mergers and Acquisition. Sounds like it's a little lower middle market actually helping people exit larger stuff. Why did you buy those? What did that what advantage did it give you to buy a brokerage and first access like first access to business? Because what did it do?

Brian Slipka (59:31.946)
Yeah, I mean...

Brian Slipka (59:42.23)
Not really. I mean, I think some people who know me, or they've heard of me, their knee-jerk is to think that. You know, that, oh, Brian gets first looks. Well, really I don't. I mean, that's a lot of different advisors and brokers. There's fiduciary realities to that. I mean, I got to sign NDAs just like everybody else. And if I want to have my team look at the data room of a company. So not really. But what I did find out...

Jon Stoddard (59:49.543)
Yeah.

Brian Slipka (01:00:09.174)
couple things. First off, True North M&A, I started. So I founded that. That was born out of my acquisition of Sunbelt. And Sunbelt, the reason I pursued Sunbelt was pretty simple. I had started buying all these businesses and I'm like, wait a second, like, there's a lot of boomers. Like there's a lot of boomers retiring over the next 10 to 15 years. There's a tsunami. Like, and then I kind of worked with a few

brokers and I was kind of like, yeah, that wasn't that I didn't have a great experience. I mean, I think there's maybe a better way to do this. So it was a combination of I knew there's going to be indisputable, you know, opportunity for brokerage firms to be successful because there's going to be a lot of deal flow and a lot of need for brokers. And then I wanted to improve the state of the business brokerage industry. Right. I mean, like if I could instill some, you know, with my background and in finance and leadership at the sea level.

and instill some business processes around professionalism and integrity and doing the right thing in all circumstances and high character, surrendering the outcome, helping people and successful follow all of those mantras. I felt like I could make a difference. And so like that business has quadrupled since we acquired it. And yeah.

Jon Stoddard (01:01:29.04)
The Sunbelt one? That's in the true north too, huh?

Brian Slipka (01:01:32.766)
Yeah. So I mean, that's been wildly successful. But again, it's because it's yoked with the right principles of helping people and being really humble and vulnerable to just trying to focus on service and servant leadership, as opposed to just being, you know, having to be in a commission breath sort of, you know, broker. Right. So that's really.

Jon Stoddard (01:01:52.484)
Yeah, Jason, I'll have to bring this to your attention. I had an interview with a guy and he goes, contrary to what you might think, what we look for when purchasing the business was the CEO spent less time in the air in the airport. The one that spent more time, we knew it was personality dependent. So we say, how many flights do you make a year? Like, why would you ask that question?

Brian Slipka (01:02:20.974)
That's interesting. Yeah. Well, I mean, think about owner, owner centricity, right? I mean, if that if that owner has to be in a plane visiting clients, you know, the majority of the year, you're right, it's it is owner centric. I mean, that business will suffer when that owner is no longer present.

Jon Stoddard (01:02:32.721)
Yeah.

Jon Stoddard (01:02:36.72)
That's right. Yeah. So, Hey, we've already taken an hour. I have to ask you a very personal question. Do you think you've made your dad proud?

Brian Slipka (01:02:46.614)
Yeah, man, I mean, what a great question. And if, yeah, I'd probably start shedding a tear if I had a glass of wine in me, or if I was even more vulnerable, right? But the brutal truth is, is like, that is one of the key and common threads that drives me. I mean, just his legacy was profoundly impact on my life and how he led.

And he did it without, you know, again, without selfish ambition and he did it for all the right reasons. And, you know, he never paid himself a lot. He just, he wanted to have impact and influence. And what he did echoes to this day. And, you know, I think if we can create something at True North that does the same thing, I mean, yeah, that's what it's all about.

Jon Stoddard (01:03:34.592)
It's a tough question to answer because it's like every day you get up and are you making your parents proud? Yeah They're not even on the planet, you just go, are they? Yeah

Brian Slipka (01:03:40.01)
Yeah, amen. And serving something bigger than ourselves.

Jon Stoddard (01:03:49.488)
Brian, thank you so much for being on my show.

Brian Slipka (01:03:52.05)
Oh, thanks for having me, John. And, you know, I just keep on leading from your vantage point, too. I mean, this podcast is just one of those things where people need to people need to hear this, and especially in our industry and in our in our ecosystem. And so as we move forward, everybody needs to know that, like, let's be part of the American dream and continue to advance the small business.

Jon Stoddard (01:04:14.332)
You're bullish on the USA. Thank you. Yeah. Hold on.

Brian Slipka (01:04:16.77)
Nice your arm. Take care.