What does it actually take to land a $1.4 billion manufacturing deal in a parish of 70,000 people? Mike Tarantino has the playbook — and he's running it in real time.

In this episode, Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Mike Tarantino, President and CEO of the Iberia Industrial Development Foundation, to break down the mechanics of modern economic development dealmaking. Mike walks through how Iberia Parish, Louisiana beat out 15+ competing communities to land First Solar's 2.3 million square foot facility — now employing over 825 people and anchoring an entirely new advanced manufacturing ecosystem in Cajun country. From building the public-private partnerships that move at the speed of business, to courting site selectors, to retaining the legacy businesses that quietly built the local economy, Mike shares the relationship-driven, numbers-first approach that turns a community into a magnet for capital.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Why incentives sweeten deals but never make a bad deal good
• How Iberia Parish landed First Solar's $1.4B advanced manufacturing facility
• The site selector ecosystem and how to get on their radar
• Building public-private partnerships that move at the speed of business
• What drives location decisions in a remote-work, AI-enabled economy
• Why business retention is the unsung hero of economic development
• The role of generational and family businesses in regional growth
• Building supplier ecosystems around anchor tenants (tier 1, 2, and 3)
• How Marine Corps discipline translates into dealmaking focus
• Diversifying a legacy oil and gas economy without abandoning it

🤝 Connect with Mike Tarantino: 

🌐 https://www.iberiabiz.org 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-tarantino-cecd-21693017/ 

🎙️ The Mike Drop with Mike Tarantino: https://open.spotify.com/show/7KaiEyDlxpUmGyzzjSUynL

🤝 Connect with Co-Host Scott Shea: 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/escottshea/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 

🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ 

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What if the same company could give you four bites of the apple? Steven Pivnik did exactly that — and nearly lost it all in between.

In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson sits down with Steven Pivnik, serial founder, endurance athlete, and exit advisor who built and monetized the same software company four separate times before finally selling to a $4 billion competitor. Steven shares the real story behind the wins — and the gut-punch in the middle when he came back from a two-year contract to find fraud, falsified financials, and a company one month from bankruptcy. From immigrating from the former Soviet Union as a toddler to coding Pac-Man on a Commodore 64 to climbing Mount Everest at 55, Steven's story is a masterclass in pattern recognition, founder resilience, and the discipline it takes to actually build something worth selling. Now an executive coach with The CEO Project and exit advisor with Acresis, he helps founders avoid the mistakes that nearly cost him everything.

🎯 What We Cover:

• How Steven licensed the same software to IBM and Microsoft in back-to-back deals
• The "MBA in a box" he got working under a seasoned management team post-acquisition
• Why pattern recognition is the most underrated founder skill
• The fraud and betrayal that nearly killed his company while he was away
• Why he interviewed every employee on day one of his return — and cut from 30 to 8
• How he made good on two missed payrolls over 12 months after coming back
• The KPI discipline that separated his second act from his first
• Bringing in a CEO for the final exit — and how to "love like you've never lost"
• His ideal client profile: 10+ years in business, $10M+ revenue, 90% of net worth tied up
• The transformation founders experience when accountability replaces "we've always done it this way"

🤝 Connect with Steven Pivnik: 🌐 https://www.stevenpivnik.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenpivnik/ 

🎙️ Built to Finish Podcast: https://stevenpivnik.com/podcast/

📘 Built to Finish (Book): Available on Amazon:https://a.co/d/0g77FiBE

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Most financial advisors are sitting on their biggest asset and don't even know it. Dr. Jon Randall breaks down exactly what your practice is worth — and how to build it so buyers are lined up when you're ready.

In this episode, Joshua Wilson sits down with Dr. Jon Randall, founder of eXtraordinary Financial Advisors (XFA) and author of The Extraordinary Financial Advisor Practice. With over 25 years of experience coaching financial advisors from $250K to $10M+ in revenue, Dr. Jon unpacks the operational, psychological, and strategic levers that separate stagnant practices from firms that scale to 10X — and eventually sell. Whether you're an RIA, an independent advisor, or building inside a larger enterprise, this conversation delivers a clear-eyed blueprint for turning your book of business into a transferable, high-value asset.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Why the $1M–$1.5M revenue ceiling hits nearly every advisor — and what it takes to break through
• How private equity interest in the financial advisory space signals strong multiples for sellers
• The "practitioner to CEO" shift that unlocks 10X growth
• Why your clients are more transferable than you think — and how buyers actually see your book
• What makes a practice highly attractive vs. a difficult acquisition
• Partnership equity mistakes that don't show up until you're ready to sell
• How to build a partner track with criteria — the KPMG model for independent firms
• The psychology of scaling: why your old model stops working and what to replace it with
• The chip-on-the-shoulder driver — and what fuels growth when you don't have one
• How Dr. Jon's Grace Notes non-profit uses music to change trajectories for at-risk youth

🤝 Connect with Dr. Jon Randall: 🌐 https://xfa.co 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonrandallxfa/ 📸 https://www.instagram.com/xfa.coach 📘 https://www.facebook.com/XFA.COACH

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

He was the only survivor of a plane crash that killed five people — burned on 80% of his body, pulled from a coma, and given little chance of a full recovery. What Wade Berzas discovered in that hospital room became the foundation for everything he now teaches entrepreneurs.

Wade Berzas is an EOS Implementer, business coach, and speaker who works with privately held entrepreneurial companies of 10 to 250 employees. After a decade as VP of Sales at Global Data Systems — a $40M IT company — and surviving a catastrophic 2019 plane crash that took the lives of his closest colleagues, Wade rebuilt his life around four pillars: Faith, Perseverance, Surrender, and Love. Today he helps leadership teams scale without burning out, build companies that run without them, and create the kind of culture that survives anything. In this episode, Wade shares raw, unfiltered lessons from the crash, the coma, and the comeback — and how those experiences directly shaped his approach to EOS, sales, leadership, and life.

🎯 What We Cover:

• How Wade's entrepreneur father shaped his work ethic from age 5
• Selling at 15 — and falling in love with the art and science of connection
• What EOS is and how it transformed a $40M IT company
• The 2019 plane crash — and what happened to the company while Wade was in a coma
• The four pillars of a life fully alive: Faith, Perseverance, Surrender, and Love
• Why vision boards matter — and the Superman story that stopped him cold
• How ego and fear are the #1 inhibitors holding business owners back
• The sales mindset shift that changes everything: stop selling, start connecting
• Why entrepreneurs must surrender control to actually grow
• What Wade tells the companies he coaches: 10 to 250 employees, call him

🤝 Connect with Wade Berzas: 🌐 https://www.linkedin.com/in/wade-berzas/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

💼 Josh: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

💼 Scott: https://www.linkedin.com/in/escottshea/ 

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Most companies are spending money on marketing without knowing if it's working. Jeremy Beyt has built a career proving there's a better way — and it starts long before you run a single ad.

Jeremy Beyt is the CEO and Co-Founder of ThreeSixtyEight, a full-service creative agency based in Louisiana known as the Challenger Agency. In this episode, Jeremy joins hosts Joshua Wilson and Scott Shea for a wide-ranging conversation on what most businesses get wrong about marketing, why creativity alone isn't enough, and how he built and merged a company that turned down both a private equity acquisition and a Shark Tank appearance along the way. Jeremy brings a rare perspective — trained as a commercial real estate appraiser, self-taught designer, lifelong drummer, and behavioral economist at heart — and every chapter of his journey informs how he thinks about persuasion, data, and building businesses that last.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Why people make decisions on emotion — and how to build marketing around that truth
• The PE firm that courted Jeremy's company with private jets and fancy dinners, and why he said no
• How two agencies 368 feet apart merged into one and what almost went wrong
• Why most companies are at 5–10% marketing clarity when 40–50% is achievable
• The data fundamentals every business owner should know before spending a dollar on marketing
• How to align your sales and marketing teams around shared metrics that actually drive decisions
• The difference between spray-and-pray marketing and problem-obsessed creative strategy
• Why Jeremy turned down Shark Tank — and what that taught him about autonomy
• The operating agreement lesson he'd go back and fix if he could
• Music as the ultimate business analogy: what drummers can teach you about leadership and listening

🤝 Connect with Jeremy Beyt: 🌐 https://www.threesixtyeight.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-beyt/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

Connect with Scott - https://www.linkedin.com/in/escottshea/

Connect with Josh  https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Before Scott Rainey owned a safety consulting company, he was getting bit by dogs in North Louisiana — knocking on doors as a landman, trying to convince hostile landowners to let oil companies onto their property. That pivot into entrepreneurship wasn't clean. It nearly ended in bankruptcy. Here's how he got out, started over, and built something worth selling.

Scott Rainey is the founder and President of Quest Safety Solutions, a safety consulting firm serving oil and gas service companies across New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. With over 20 years of oil field experience — 15 of them in safety — Scott built his company from the ground up after a near-miss acquisition deal nearly wiped out everything he and his wife had worked to build. Today, Quest functions as a fully outsourced in-house safety department for oilfield operators, handling OSHA compliance, workforce certifications, training management, and insurance coordination — so clients stay on the job and off the audit list. Scott holds an MBA and the Certified Safety Professional (CSP) designation and lives in Lafayette, Louisiana with his wife Mandy and their three children.

Joining host Joshua Wilson is co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA — Managing Partner at FA Mergers, former M&A attorney with 200+ transactions, and founder of a self-funded building materials company grown to 400+ employees via acquisitions. Scott is a longtime personal friend of Jude's, and their shared history makes for a candid conversation about faith, risk, and what it truly takes to build a business worth exiting.

🎯 What We Cover:

• What a landman actually does — and where the TV show gets it right (and wrong)
• How Scott stumbled from land work and environmental management into oilfield safety consulting
• The acquisition deal he rushed into without doing his homework — and why it nearly ended in bankruptcy
• What he wishes he had done differently as a first-time business buyer, including the due diligence he skipped
• The conversation every entrepreneur dreads: going home to a pregnant wife after walking away from a job with no plan
• Why safety is not just a cost center — it is a license to operate, and without it your employees do not go to work
• How Quest functions as a full outsourced safety department for 10–70 person oilfield service companies
• The AI agent demo that shifted how Scott sees the future of his entire business model
• Why he is deliberately building Quest Safety Solutions to sell — and what he envisions doing after the exit
• His closing advice for any entrepreneur standing at a fork in the road

🤝 Connect with Scott Rainey: 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-rainey-mba-csp-48058b22/

🤝 Connect with Jude David: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/guests/jude-david/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

She spent thousands of dollars on wedding flowers she didn't even love — and watched them end up in the trash by the end of the night. That experience became the blueprint for a business that has now served over 60,000 weddings and helped couples save more than $100 million on flowers.

Lauren Bercier is the Co-Founder and CEO of Something Borrowed Blooms, the leading silk floral rental company disrupting the traditional wedding flower industry. In this episode, Lauren joins hosts Joshua Wilson and Jude David to walk through the full entrepreneurial arc — from a bootstrapped idea born in a man cave in Lafayette, Louisiana, to a nationally recognized brand now in the middle of a Series B raise. She breaks down what it actually takes to build a scalable consumer brand, navigate the VC landscape as a female founder, and lead a team of 40 people serving customers across the country — all while staying capital efficient and keeping the mission intact.

🎯 What We Cover:

• How Lauren turned her own bad wedding flower experience into a rent-and-return business model
• Why Rent the Runway inspired the Something Borrowed Blooms concept
• The tech stack evolution: GoDaddy to Shopify to custom platform to BigCommerce
• What 60,000 weddings taught her about scalable, direct-to-consumer operations
• The realities of raising venture capital as a female founder in a female-focused industry
• How a Series B in 2025 is funding a platform relaunch that drove 26% YOY sales growth in its first month
• Expanding beyond weddings into the broader $10B+ events market
• Turning competitor florists into B2B pro partners
• Why polarizing feedback is a signal your business is actually changing something
• The "shoulds" she ignored — and why staying focused on the model made all the difference

🤝 Connect with Lauren Bercier: 🌐 https://www.somethingborrowedblooms.com 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/lauren-bercier/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@sbblooms

🤝 Connect with Co-Host Jude David: 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jude-david-jd-dcl-mba-172a6a76/ 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/guests/jude-david/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What if you could invest like the Hilton family — without having $100 million in the bank? Mark Miller has spent nearly 40 years making that possible, and in this episode, he pulls back the curtain on exactly how it works. The strategies, the philosophy, the network — and the surprising backstory of how the Hilton family fortune ended up in a foundation instead of the family's hands.

Mark Miller is the Managing Director of the Hilton Family Office and CEO of Hilton Tax and Wealth Advisors, built in direct partnership with J. Bradley Hilton, grandson of legendary hotelier Conrad Hilton. A bestselling author and nationally recognized financial expert, Mark has been featured in Kiplinger's, The New York Times, and Money Magazine and has appeared on Fox News as a financial expert. Recognized as Presidential Businessman of the Year, he received a personal commendation from President George W. Bush. With nearly four decades in financial services — starting at IDS American Express, moving through the brokerage world, building a financial publishing company, and ultimately being asked to run the Hilton Family Office — his core mission has stayed the same: give investors with $500K to $20M access to the same tools, strategies, and disciplines the ultra-wealthy have always used. Lower volatility. Less emotion. Stronger long-term compounding. 

In this episode, we go inside the Hilton Financial Network, explore the launch of their new technology fund, and unpack what "True Wealth" really means for the high-net-worth families, executives, and business owners they serve. If you've ever wondered how the smart money actually invests — and why your financial advisor probably isn't telling you the whole story — this is the episode.

🎯 What We Cover:

• How Mark went from IDS American Express and the brokerage world to being asked to run the Hilton Family Office
• Why Conrad and Barron Hilton left their billions to a foundation — not the family — and how that shaped J. Bradley Hilton's mission to build from the ground up
• The fundamental difference between retail investors and smart money institutional players — and why the gap shows up in your long-term returns
• Why reducing portfolio volatility often produces better compounding than chasing market highs
• The expanding Hilton Financial Network: technology fund (blockchain, digital assets, robotics, biosciences), bridge lending via Hilton Finance, and commercial and residential mortgage lending
• The #1 thing Mark evaluates before any partnership — and why integrity always comes before deal structure
• The most common wealth-building mistakes even affluent families keep repeating — and how to avoid them
• The Hilton True Wealth Podcast: what it covers and where to find it when it launches in April 2026

🤝 Connect with Mark Miller: 🌐 https://www.hiltonwealth.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmiller-hiltonfo/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Some PE deals don't fall apart in due diligence — they fall apart because no one can find the right CEO. Travis Hann has built his firm around solving exactly that problem. If the operator doesn't exist — or can't be found — the deal doesn't happen.

Travis Hann is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Pender & Howe, a fast-growing boutique executive search firm serving mid-sized companies and investors across North America. He also serves on the board of Kestria, the world's largest global executive search alliance — a network of 42 boutique firms operating in 42 countries. Since founding the firm in 2019, Travis has helped private equity sponsors, family offices, and venture capital investors find the mission-critical operators who make deals possible. For investor-backed businesses, the stakes aren't just high — the deal itself is often contingent on the search. Travis has been assessing executive leaders every month for over a decade, and in this episode, he pulls back the curtain on exactly how that process works: how he spots inconsistency, why a polished resume means almost nothing, what it takes to find an operator willing to put their own capital on the line, and why the CEO role today demands a completely different toolkit than it did five years ago.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Why some PE deals are entirely contingent on finding the right CEO or operator
• What separates a standard executive search from a deal-dependent one
• The consistency framework Travis uses to assess C-suite candidates across multiple touchpoints
• Why charisma can be a red flag — and how to see past it to real competency
• The Top Grading methodology and why it stress-tests candidates better than traditional interviews
• How to find operators willing to co-invest and put their own capital in the deal
• When PE firms and investors should engage a search firm — and why earlier is almost always better
• Deal vs. team: how to decide which one you're actually betting on in a services business
• Why AI-polished resumes have changed the talent assessment game
• What the modern CEO role looks like today vs. five years ago — and what the new toolkit requires
• The subtle behavioral signals Travis watches for that most hiring processes completely miss
• How Pender & Howe grew from a spin-off of 4 people to a 20-person North American firm

🤝 Connect with Travis Hann: 🌐 https://www.penderhowe.com 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/travishann

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

He only buys companies everyone else is running from — and he's been doing it for 20 years.

Nate Moore has built a 700-person operation by acquiring distressed childcare and home care businesses, walking into chaos where others see dead ends, and turning them around through leadership, structure, and a relentless belief in people.

Nate Moore is a serial acquisition entrepreneur and founder of Moore Consulting & Investment Group. For over two decades, Nate has operated at the intersection of distressed business acquisitions and people-first leadership — buying broken childcare and home care companies, identifying hidden talent inside failing organizations, and rebuilding them into stable, scalable operations. Today his platform serves 1,500 children per day and employs nearly 700 people across multiple locations.

In this episode, Nate shares the mindset behind pursuing deals no one else wants, what he looks for when he walks into a distressed company, and the leadership framework that drives every turnaround. He also gets candid about getting fired from a top sales job at 19, what that moment taught him about influence, and how personal adversity shaped the operator he is today.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Why Nate only buys distressed businesses — and how he spots turnaround potential others miss
• His path from car sales to flipping houses to acquiring his first company at 22
• The leadership change that drives every successful turnaround — and why the right person is usually already inside the company
• How he manages 700 employees and 1,500 kids per day using three spreadsheets
• The mindset shift that separates operators who scale from those who stall
• What getting fired from a top car sales job taught him about influence and character
• Why he reads body language in every conversation — and how it makes him a better communicator and leader
• His framework for scaling: be resourceful, don't depend on the resources
• How he uses his current customer base to identify future expansion opportunities
• The difference between knowledge and wisdom — and how intentionality bridges the gap

🤝 Connect with Nate Moore: 🌐 https://www.mooreconsultinginvestmentgroup.com/team 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathaniel-t-moore-ba022231/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Most business owners confuse value creation with wealth acceleration — and it's costing them everything after the deal closes. This episode breaks down the family office framework that changes how you think about your business, your exit, and your legacy.

Joshua Wilson sits down with Benjamin Domingue, founder of Family Office Partners, a multifamily office serving private business owners from pre-transaction planning through multi-generational wealth management. With over 15 years of experience and involvement in 45–50 family transactions, Ben brings a rare combination of deal-side coordination, wealth advisory, and family planning expertise that most owners never know they need — until it's too late.

Ben challenges the conventional exit planning narrative, explains why wealth is built through a series of transactions not a single event, and walks through his three-segment wealth framework — liquidity, longevity, and legacy. He also reveals why fixating on your purchase multiple is exactly what buyers want you to do, and why "doing nothing" is sometimes the best financial advice a newly liquid owner can receive. Also joining the conversation is Jude David of FA Mergers, adding the transaction advisory perspective on deal timing, deal structure, and what sellers are really saying when they think they're talking about price.

Topics covered:

• Value creation vs. wealth acceleration — what advisors should actually focus on
• Why "exit planning" is the wrong mental frame for most business owners
• The operating model vs. revenue model gap in ultra-high-net-worth advising
• Why a $20M exit at 45 may not cover your lifestyle — the real math
• The three segments of wealth: liquidity, longevity, and legacy
• Why business owners should never lead with their purchase multiple
• The psychology of post-exit identity loss and what to do about it
• Why "doing nothing" is sometimes the wisest post-liquidity move
• How to structure a second act using PE-backed platforms
• The 94% third-generation wealth erosion problem — and how to fight it

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

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DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Scott Harkey put $750,000 cash down on an agency tuck-in — and turned it into $10 million in enterprise value inside his group. That's EBITDA arbitrage. And according to Scott, most independent agency operators grinding away at 17–25% margins have never once thought about it. This episode covers the deal math, the culture traps, and the billboard rollup opportunity most investors are completely missing.

Scott Harkey is the founder of The Harkey Group, a multi-agency advertising platform with clients including Wynn Resorts, Disney, and Marriott, and Harkey Media, a $200 million out-of-home billboard fund acquiring and developing assets across the U.S. Over a 20-year career he has built, bought, and sold advertising agencies — including a recent exit to private equity — while operating across two distinct rollup verticals: professional services and real estate-adjacent media. Scott is a Forbes Agency Council member, 4A's Business Council member, and national speaker on marketing and brand strategy. His next book, Brand Uprising, is forthcoming from Fast Company Press.

In this episode, Scott unpacks why cultural misalignment is the most underestimated deal-killer in agency M&A, walks through real deal math on how tuck-ins create massive multiple arbitrage for operators without PE backing, and explains how a market dominated by three publicly traded giants — Clear Channel, Lamar, and Outfront — leaves 2,000+ independent billboard operators ripe for consolidation. He also shares the pitching framework from Oren Klaff's Pitch Anything that transformed how he wins clients and closes deals. A must-listen for M&A professionals, agency owners, PE sponsors, and entrepreneurs building toward an exit.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Why culture fit kills more deals than pricing — and how to evaluate alignment before you close
• The EBITDA arbitrage math: buying at 3x, selling inside a group at 10x–15x — with real numbers
• Building a boutique agency rollup without PE capital using bank debt and creative deal structures
• The $200M Harkey Media billboard fund and why fragmented out-of-home is a rollup goldmine
• His PE exit: what triggered the sale, what cultural misalignment really looks like, and what he'd do differently
• Why starting from zero is almost always the wrong move — and what he tells every entrepreneur instead
• Why the owner must be the deal person — and why hiring a salesperson is a "kiss of death" for agency new business
• Community as the new sales strategy: the psychology of why buyers join, not just buy
• Brand Uprising: the coming convergence of marketing, psychology, and sales
• Mining your losses for data: how 200 failed pitches became his most valuable competitive intelligence
• Bouncing back from a slump — why internal shifts matter more than external tactics

🤝 Connect with Scott Harkey: 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottharkey 📱 Instagram: @scottharkey

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What does it take to turn a text message into a viral brand? Bryan McGehee, founder of Gatr Coolers, did exactly that — starting from a camper with his wife and kids, betting his house on a cooler company, and going full-time the same month COVID shut the world down.

Bryan McGehee is the founder of Gatr Coolers, a premium customizable cooler and drinkware brand built out of Thibodaux, Louisiana. Bryan spent years working pipeline jobs, living in hotels and campers, before a text from his brother Mitch sparked an idea that became a decade-long entrepreneurial ride. Joining host Joshua Wilson is co-host Scott Shea, who first connected with Bryan through shared business experiences and knew his story needed to be told.

In this episode, Bryan gets raw about the real cost of building a manufacturing company in South Louisiana — hurricanes, inventory tax, staffing wars with oilfield wages, and supply chain chaos that left him waiting on last year's inventory well into this year. He also breaks down the marketing playbook that helped Gatr grow to 50,000 Instagram followers, 50,000 on Facebook, and hundreds of thousands on an email list — almost entirely without paid ads.

🎯 What We Cover:

• How a Thanksgiving text from his brother Mitch became Gatr Coolers
• Why Bryan went full-time in March 2020 — and signed a building lease two weeks before COVID
• The "wife test" that shaped every marketing decision Gatr ever made
• Why he ditched influencer culture in favor of real users and user-generated content
• How strategic product partnerships with brands like Realtree and Benelli generated 60–80K emails at a time
• The hidden costs that blindside Louisiana manufacturers: inventory tax, hurricane shutdowns, insurance
• Why he tells college students most of them probably shouldn't start a business
• What it felt like when a customer cried opening a custom cup engraved with her late sister's photo
• His five-year vision: US manufacturing, new product lines, and changing Thibodaux's economy
• The brand-naming logic behind dropping the "o" 

🤝 Connect with Bryan McGehee: 🌐 https://gatrcoolers.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryan-mcgehee-38b75268/ 📘 https://www.facebook.com/gatrcoolers 📸 https://www.instagram.com/gatrcoolers/

🤝 Connect with Co-Host Scott Shea: 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/escottshea/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What does a banker actually look for before saying yes to your deal? Ben Smith, Market President at Red River Bank in Lafayette, Louisiana, pulls back the curtain on how banks evaluate business acquisitions, equipment financing, and commercial lending — and what business owners can do right now to set themselves up for growth.

Ben brings nearly 25 years of banking experience, starting in credit review and commercial lending before becoming the market president responsible for growing Red River Bank's presence across Acadiana. He breaks down the five Cs of credit, how banks think about risk mitigation, and why the most rewarding deals are often the hardest ones to get across the finish line.

Whether you're a business owner thinking about your next acquisition, an entrepreneur looking to finance equipment, or a dealmaker who wants to understand how lenders see your transaction — this conversation gives you a genuine look inside the bank.

Topics covered:

• How banks evaluate business acquisitions using the 5 Cs of credit
• The difference between bankable deals and deals that need a PE or alternative route
• Short-term vs. long-term financing — structuring debt the right way
• Equipment financing: why it's the "easiest deal" and how it actually works
• What a market president does (it's not just playing golf)
• How Red River Bank approaches risk mitigation and flexible deal structuring
• Why smaller vs. larger banks differ in lending flexibility
• The mindset of a great banker: composure, neutrality, and the duck analogy
• Real estate market outlook for Acadiana
• Growing up in the oil and gas corridor of South Louisiana

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Bubba Page watched a $50K investment grow to $200K on paper — then passed on the chance to cash out. A year later, that company went bankrupt. His position went to zero.

That one decision — and the hard-won wisdom that followed — reshaped how he approaches every deal today. He calls it the cookie jar rule: when someone passes the jar, you take a cookie.

Bubba Page is a 5x INC5000 serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and founder of Influence.vc — a venture capital syndicate on AngelList built around consumer tech and consumer product companies with high influencer growth potential. After going through Techstars, raising venture capital across multiple companies, and exiting a business in 2020 (the same week COVID shutdowns began), Bubba now reviews nearly 200 deals a month and has built a portfolio that includes four unicorn-stage companies across 25 angel investments and six funds. In this episode, he gets brutally honest about when to sell, how ego-driven angel investors quietly destroy their own wealth, why pattern recognition is the only real edge in early-stage investing, and what it actually takes to get a check from someone who sees 200 deals every month. He also shares the story behind Josh's Pickles — an investment that proves betting on the founder is always the real bet, no matter how unexpected the category.

This week, Bubba returned capital to his investors with a 46% net return in just two and a half years — and explains exactly why he took that base hit instead of waiting for the home run. His answer is more strategic — and more honest — than most VCs will ever say out loud.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Why most angel investors lose money — and the minimum deal volume required to build pattern recognition
• How a venture capital syndicate (SPV) works vs. a traditional fund — fees, carry, and structure explained
• The cookie jar rule: what happens when you don't take liquidity when it's offered
• The 1-in-20 vs. 2-in-20 fee model — what syndicates cost vs. what funds cost over a 10-year window
• How to get to the top of an active investor's deal list: warm introductions, traction, and "lines not dots"
• Why Influence.vc follows lead investors and never leads a round
• Secondary market basics: buying out early investors at a discount and when it makes sense to act
• AI's disruption of the SaaS-dominated VC world — and what smart investors are repositioning toward
• From tech exits to pickle investments: why the founder always matters more than the product
• Bubba's Father Operating System: applying entrepreneurial systems and one-on-ones to family leadership

🤝 Connect with Bubba Page: 🌐 https://influence.vc 🌐 https://thebusinessbootcamp.com 🌐 https://fatherhoodmovement.com 💼 Search "Bubba Page" on LinkedIn

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Most first-time buyers skip the QoE. Elliott Holland has spent 15 years watching that mistake blow up deals — and families. In this episode, he breaks down exactly when you need one, what it finds, and why the EBITDA number you're looking at may not be real.

Elliott Holland is the founder and CEO of Guardian Due Diligence, a Harvard MBA, former private equity professional, independent sponsor, and one of the earliest self-funded searchers in the country. Known as the "King of QoE" on social media, Elliott has reviewed 75+ deals per year across a deal range from $500K to over $100 million, specializing in quality of earnings for self-funded searchers, first-time buyers, and the private equity firms and family offices who want a deal-oriented thought partner — not just an accountant. He built Guardian after a failed self-funded search left him driving Lyft and sleeping on his mom's couch. Today he's the straight-talking due diligence authority that buyers rely on when everything is on the line.

🎯 What We Cover:

• What a quality of earnings (QoE) actually is — and why Elliott calls himself a professional BS caller
• The difference between funded search and self-funded search, and why self-funded has the highest growth potential
• Why first-time buyers are uniquely vulnerable — and personally guaranteeing everything
• The exact deal size where a QoE stops being optional ($500K–$1M)
• What QuickBooks won't show you — and how sellers manipulate EBITDA before going to market
• How bank statements, tax returns, and operating systems tell three different stories
• Sell-side QoE: why smart sellers pay Elliott before going to market
• How Elliott works as a fractional deal thought partner for PE firms and family offices
• Why Elliott chose digital marketing over hand-to-hand combat to build his business
• From Harvard MBA to Lyft driver to King of QoE — the failure that built Guardian

🤝 Connect with Elliott Holland: 🌐 https://www.guardianduediligence.com/ 💼 LinkedIn: Search "Elliott Holland" ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@GuardianDueDiligence

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What does an investigative journalist notice that most deal makers miss? Adam Daigle of the Acadiana Advocate has spent 15 years covering business, M&A, and economic development across Louisiana — and his pattern recognition for spotting winners and losers might be sharper than most investors in the room.

In this episode of The Deal Podcast, Joshua Wilson and Jude David sit down with Adam Daigle, business journalist for the Acadiana Advocate, to explore what investigative reporting and deal making have in common. Adam shares the craft behind asking tough questions, reading people, and spotting business red flags before anyone else — skills that translate directly into the boardroom and the deal room.

From why restaurants make terrible investments to how he identified business trends others missed, Adam brings a unique outsider-insider perspective on what makes businesses — and the people behind them — succeed or fail.

Topics covered in this episode:

• What investigative journalism actually looks like in practice
• How to ask hard questions without creating adversaries
• Why "no comment" is never a safe answer
• The patterns Adam sees in businesses that fail vs. those that thrive
• Why restaurants are one of the worst investments for deal-focused buyers
• The real problem with restaurant franchise models and royalty structures
• How technology is simultaneously improving and threatening journalism
• Why the Acadiana Advocate is expanding while most papers are shrinking
• The challenge of combating misinformation and social media noise
• Why local, trusted journalism matters for business communities

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

From tennis courts in São Paulo to building one of Lafayette, Louisiana's most ambitious mixed-use hotel developments — Gus Rezende's story is one of grit, community, and hard-earned entrepreneurial wisdom.

Gus Rezende is the co-founder and managing partner of Social Entertainment, a Lafayette-based holding company with 300+ employees, 12 Tropical Smoothie Cafe locations, restaurant concepts including Central Pizza, real estate investments, and the highly anticipated Hotel Lafayette — a groundbreaking downtown development pairing an 82-room boutique hotel with the region's first downtown craft brewery, Bayou Teche Brewing.

In this episode, Gus opens up about the full arc: arriving from Brazil with no English, bootstrapping a janitorial company, surviving early failures in food and beverage, buying distressed businesses, building a portfolio that grew faster than their systems could handle — and the hard but necessary maturity of deciding to divest even the things that are working when they no longer fit the vision.

Topics covered:

• Growing up in São Paulo and earning a tennis scholarship to the U.S.
• How tennis created a career-defining network in Louisiana
• Starting his first business (a janitorial company) out of necessity
• Early failures: Tropical Smoothie and bar ownership as learning laboratories
• Building Social Entertainment as a holding company over 18 years
• Managing 300 employees and multiple business lines simultaneously
• The discipline of divesting — even good investments that don't fit the vision
• How a COVID-era phone call sparked the Hotel Lafayette deal
• Structuring a patient capital project with community-driven investors
• Why incremental wins are the only path to transformational downtown development

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

90% of family wealth is gone by the third generation — and it's not bad investments doing the damage. It's governance failures, the hard conversations nobody has, and the failure to pass down the values and stories that created the wealth in the first place. In this episode, Tim Brown breaks down what actually separates multi-generational family offices from those that quietly fade back to shirt sleeves.

In this episode of The Deal Podcast, Joshua Wilson sits down with Tim Brown — family office advisor, co-founder of Somos 22 and Fortaleza Network, and consultant to the Anschutz Corporation and Anschutz Investment Company out of Colorado — to explore the full lifecycle of a single family office. Tim maps the three stages every family office moves through: the founder's stage, where the "why" is still being defined and stakeholders identified; the midpoint stage, where governance emerges and the office begins deploying across the capital stack; and the multi-generational stage, where a full institutional team — CIO, chief legal officer, chief of staff, and trust company partner — runs an endowment-style operation built to outlast its founders.

But portfolio construction isn't where family offices fail. The hard part, Tim argues, is that third leg of the stool: governance. Who sits on the family council? How do you make in-laws feel like in-laws and not outlaws? How do you build a family bank that gives the next generation the chance to feel like first-generation wealth creators? And how do you pass down not just capital, but the values, stories, and hard-won wisdom that built it? Tim also dives into Somos 22, a global community that hosted over 1,000 unique family offices from 29 US states and 14 countries last year, and Fortaleza — an invite-only, YPO-style network built for deeper connection capital between serious family office professionals.

Read Tim's LinkedIn post referenced in this episode — a vulnerable reflection on navigating a difficult 2024, reframing fear through curiosity, and building resilience: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tim-brown-65315811_i-wrote-a-post-the-other-day-about-how-success-activity-7434942942739378176-P84u

📌 Topics Covered:

• The 3 stages of a single family office and what shifts at each level
• Why 90% of family wealth is gone by the third generation
• "Shirt sleeves to shirt sleeves" — the real reasons it happens
• Core capital vs. surplus capital and how families think about allocation
• Why governance — not investing — is the hardest part of a family office
• Turning in-laws into allies: how great family governance actually works
• Why splitting a corpus among heirs quietly destroys generational wealth
• Family councils, professional management, and values transmission across generations
• Somos 22 and Fortaleza: what they are, who they're for, and how to get connected
• Adjacent leadership — Tim's philosophy on vulnerability and storytelling
• Why next-gen members silently struggle to live up to the wealth creator
• 82% of the world is employed by private families — what this means for the future

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Most business owners are leaving money on the table — not because they're running a bad business, but because they can't prove how good it is. In this episode, we break down exactly what buyers look for and how to build a business that commands top dollar.

Joshua Wilson sits down with Mark Sims, a former Chief Information Officer and Head of Strategy & M&A at Scott's Miracle-Gro ($4B company), who now helps businesses transact, transition, and transform through his consulting firm Consult MSG. Mark brings a rare generalist perspective — spanning Fortune 1000 consulting, corporate M&A, and private equity due diligence — to help middle market business owners understand how buyers really evaluate their businesses.

Mark introduces his Five C's of Value Creation framework and breaks down the most common gaps he sees in businesses preparing for a sale. From clean financials to vendor contracts to AI implementation, this episode is a practical roadmap for founders who want to maximize exit value — whether they're 18 months out or just starting to think about it.

Topics covered:

• How buyers calculate EBITDA multiples and what moves the needle from 6x to 8x
• The Five C's: Competitive Positioning, Cash Conversion Cycle, Clean Financials, Concentration Proof, and Capabilities
• Why most small businesses struggle most with clean and trusted financials
• How to identify which divisions, geographies, or products are actually profitable
• The difference between "run the business" and "manage the business" technology
• Why disorganized data elongates deals and erodes buyer interest
• How SOPs and vendor contracts expand your buyer pool
• Practical AI use cases for small and mid-size businesses
• The "parking lot report" AI technique for high-impact client prep
• Why being a generalist consultant is a competitive advantage

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What does it look like when faith and dealmaking become the same story? Brandon Robinson — a practicing CRNA turned multi-unit Planet Fitness franchisee — shares one of the most remarkable entrepreneurial journeys you'll hear on this show.

Brandon built a portfolio of Planet Fitness locations in Louisiana from a standing start, backed by nothing but a $777,000 landlord contribution, a business partner who said yes without hesitation, and an unwavering conviction that God was guiding every step. He navigated a high-stakes franchise acquisition, a failed $1.36M coffee shop, and a make-or-break dinner in Jackson Hole, Wyoming — where a conversation about funeral wishes moved a dealmaker to tears and unlocked a life-changing exit.

This episode is part spiritual testimony, part M&A case study, and part masterclass in entrepreneurial grit. Brandon shares why he left the security of a medical career, how he found the right attorney, the right business partner, and the right buyer — and why the journey, not the closing check, is what he remembers most.

Topics covered:

• Going from CRNA to Planet Fitness franchisee with no franchise experience
• How a random parking lot encounter launched an entire business
• Getting into a billion-dollar REIT's space when you have no balance sheet
• The $777,000 Weingarten tenant improvement deal and what it meant
• Why he chose his exit partner before hearing the offer price
• The Jackson Hole dinner story — and the Paul Meyer connection
• How anesthesia trained him to lead when everything falls apart
• What it means to leave the comfort of a professional career for entrepreneurship
• Losing $1.36M in a coffee shop and what he learned
• Building a legacy, not just a net worth

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What if most private equity firms are using AI completely wrong — and leaving massive IRR on the table because of it? Mohamad Chahine has sat in nearly every seat in the deal ecosystem: corporate engineer at Schlumberger, MBA consultant, PE deal team member, operating partner, and now PE tech founder. In this episode, he shares a rare practitioner's perspective on value creation, the trust curve, and why the PE library desperately needs more voices from people who've actually done the deals.

Mohamad is the author of Private Equity Next and is currently building Meit Trium, a platform developing what he calls "AI Value Readiness Operating Systems" — tools designed not to save analyst hours, but to maximize IRR in ways human effort alone cannot.

Topics covered in this episode:

• Mohamad's full-circle journey: engineer → consultant → PE deal teams → operating partner → PE tech founder
• Why an engineering mindset is actually an asset in private equity
• How PE firms really view consultants — and when they add vs. destroy value
• The concept of Total Value Creation and its five buckets
• EBITDA as a flywheel metric and how to trace value creation to its source
• What founders need to understand before pursuing PE capital
• The trust curve: why operating partners should be engaged before acquisition
• Why most PE tech startups are solving the wrong problem
• AI as a multiplication tool vs. an efficiency tool — and why it matters to LPs
• Mohamad's upcoming trilogy: The PE Quarterback, The PE Coach, and The PE Game Plan

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

From sugar cane fields in New Iberia, Louisiana to investing in the next frontier of space technology — Theo Williams' path to venture capital is unlike anything you've heard. If you want to understand how early-stage VC actually works, this episode is required listening.

Theo Williams is a Partner at Creations VC, a venture capital firm focused on dual-use space technology across data infrastructure, advanced energy, metals and manufacturing, and defense. Before Creations, Theo led portfolio development at Salesforce Ventures — one of the world's most prolific B2B SaaS investors with a $6B portfolio and 500+ companies including Wiz and Anthropic. He also spent time at TIAA/Nuveen managing farmland, timber, and agribusiness investments across a trillion-dollar platform. In this conversation, Theo breaks down the full arc of venture capital — from fundraising and valuation to due diligence and exit — with rare candor and hard-won perspective.

Topics covered:

• How a Louisiana upbringing shaped Theo's edge as an investor
• The VC business model explained simply — how funds raise and deploy capital
• Why early-stage valuations are art, not science
• The role of academic researchers and PhDs in VC due diligence
• How gut instinct can actually be measured and tracked over time
• What Salesforce Ventures taught Theo about spotting breakout companies
• The mindset shift required to become a GP and manage other people's capital
• Why "trust but verify" is the most important lesson from small-town to big-deal
• How VCs prepare founders for acquisition and work toward a strategic exit
• What Creations VC is investing in today: space tech, energy, defense, and more

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What if the biggest mistake you're making isn't a bad deal or a wrong hire — but spending your life doing things you're capable of instead of things you were made for?

Dominic Dupré grew up watching four cousins build successful companies in Louisiana's energy corridor. He graduated into the shale boom, swung sledgehammers on a workover rig, and had his entrepreneurial dreams derailed by the 2014 oil bust — only to be called back into the family business to turn around a failing crude hauling division. What followed was one of the most clarifying journeys we've heard on this show: from survival mode to self-discovery, from operator to investor.

Today Dominic is the founding member of Tule Creek Capital, a Gulf Coast investment firm focused on heavy industrial and environmental businesses. Joining host Joshua Wilson is co-host Scott Shea, who first crossed paths with Dominic when FA Mergers was working a logistics deal — and the connection stuck.

🎯 What We Cover:

• Growing up in a Cajun entrepreneurial family and why business was Sunday dinner conversation
• Why Dominic never wanted to work in the family business — and what changed
• The 2014 oil bust: what happened, who got hurt, and what it taught a young entrepreneur
• Turning around a failing crude hauling division inside Dupré Logistics
• How the family business exit was structured and what made the transition work
• Moving from operator mindset to investor mindset — and the gaps in between
• Why Tule Creek Capital over-indexes on culture and gut instinct in deal evaluation
• The key man risk problem that disqualifies most SMB sellers before diligence even starts
• How to know when you've found your highest and best use as a founder
• Rich Dad Poor Dad, Traction, and the books that shaped how Dominic thinks about wealth and growth

🤝 Connect with Dominic Dupré: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/guests/dominic-dupre/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dominic-dupre/

🤝 Connect with Co-Host Scott Shea: 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/escottshea/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Most business owners spend years building something great — and almost no time thinking about what comes next. The buyers on the other side? They think about this stuff every single day.

In this episode, Joshua Wilson sits down with co-host and Kin Capital Partners co-founder Jude David — an M&A attorney turned acquisition entrepreneur who has closed hundreds of transactions and built a portfolio of a dozen companies from the ground up with his own capital.

Jude pulls back the curtain on how Kin Capital evaluates deals, builds platform companies, structures acquisitions for both sides, and navigates the increasingly crowded and complicated world of independent sponsors. Whether you're a business owner thinking about an exit, a buyer evaluating your first acquisition, or an operator managing a growing portfolio, this episode is packed with hard-won insight from someone who has lived every side of the deal table.

Topics Covered:

• What Kin Capital Partners is and how it started with three dudes and a handshake
• Why Jude went from M&A attorney to acquisition entrepreneur
• How to evaluate platform businesses vs. tuck-in acquisitions
• The EBITDA thresholds Jude uses to filter deal flow fast
• Why manufacturing beats service businesses in an AI-driven world
• Geographic strategy mistakes in buy-and-build plays
• The real difference between funded PE firms and independent sponsors
• Why blind bid processes hurt sellers — and what to do instead
• The pyramid framework for sustainable business growth
• Questions every seller should ask a prospective buyer

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

He sold his company for $230 million right before oil prices collapsed. It wasn't luck — it was a board meeting. Thomas Chance joins The Deal Podcast to share what 30+ years of building, selling, and starting over actually looks like from the inside.

Thomas Chance is a serial entrepreneur, engineer, and Louisiana native who built CNC Technologies into the world's largest privately held offshore survey company — 600 employees, 10 offices worldwide, $25M EBITDA — then sold to Oceaneering in 2015 for $230 million. He then spun off and built ASV (Autonomous Surface Vehicles), a pioneering unmanned marine technology company, and sold that to L3 Technologies (now L3Harris) in 2018. His father before him built and sold a landmark survey company in 1991. Now his sons are doing the same.

Topics covered:

• Following his father's entrepreneurial path from civil engineer to company founder
• Building a pre-GPS satellite positioning system in the 1980s (before GPS existed)
• The emotional reality of leaving a family business after a sale
• Hiring the people a new acquirer just laid off — and why it worked
• Growing CNC Technologies to 600 people and the world's largest private offshore survey firm
• Why a board of advisors (not PE) told him to sell — and why he listened
• Timing the $230M exit before the 2015 oil crash
• Carving out the autonomous underwater vehicle division at close
• Building ASV and selling driverless boat technology to L3 Harris
• Startup advice: learn the industry first, then go start your company

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

Jude David on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jude-david-jd-dcl-mba-172a6a76/ 

Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast 

Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What do Grammy-winning songwriting credits, merchant cash advances for the Latino community, and a reverse merger into the OTC markets have in common? They're all part of Yoel Damas' story — and it's one you won't forget.

In this episode of The Deal Podcast, Joshua Wilson sits down with Yoel Damas — entertainment attorney, Grammy-credited songwriter, and now CEO of a publicly traded revenue-based finance company targeting underserved communities. Yoel breaks down how a chance conversation led him from the music business into the world of merchant cash advances, how he spotted a massive gap in capital access for Latino and minority-owned businesses, and how a random meeting about a vodka brand became the catalyst for a reverse merger into the OTC markets. He's now pursuing a NASDAQ uplisting, and he holds nothing back about what he'd do differently.

Topics Covered:

• How the music industry changed from radio gatekeepers to Spotify playlists
• Why artists lose money without proper paperwork — and how Yoel fixed that
• The story behind landing an Apple distribution deal in 2006* when 'it was impossible'
• How a colleague's tip led Yoel to invest in merchant cash advances
• Why Latinos and gig economy workers were underserved in revenue-based finance
• What a reverse merger actually looks like from the inside
• OTC shell companies — the pros, cons, and honest lessons learned
• The filed NASDAQ application and uplisting process*
• His father's decade in a Cuban political prison — and why that shapes everything
• What Yoel wishes he'd done differently before going public

*2006 (corrected post-recording).

*Update since recording: Audits for the 2023 and 2024 periods have been completed and publicly announced, and a confidential DRS S-1 has been filed.

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/

Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What happens when a six-time X Games competitor realizes the athletes he idolizes are losing their homes, battling addiction, and going broke? Dan Brisse made a decision that changed his life — and now he's helping 750+ investors do the same through multifamily real estate.

Dan Brisse is the co-founder of Granite Towers Equity Group, a private equity firm specializing in multifamily value-add apartments. Before building a real estate portfolio, Dan spent 15 years as a professional snowboarder — competing in six X Games, winning multiple gold and silver medals, and gracing the covers of major action sports magazines. After watching his peers flame out financially, Dan taught himself to invest, built passive income streams, and transitioned into full-time real estate. In this episode, Dan shares the raw story of his journey from living on peanut butter sandwiches in Salt Lake City to running a PE firm with hundreds of investors.

Topics discussed:

• How parental support and belief shaped Dan's career trajectory
• The financial destruction Dan witnessed among elite athletes
• Discovering passive income and the books that changed everything
• Breaking down a real multifamily deal: acquisition to exit
• How Dan's wife becoming a real estate professional saved them $35K+ in taxes
• The depreciation strategy that took his tax bill from $52K to $17K
• What Granite Towers looks for in a perfect deal
• Fixed debt vs. bridge debt and why hold period matters
• Investor relations best practices: transparency over perfection
• Why you should never rush into a deal with the wrong partner
• Ray Dalio's Changing World Order and why inflation is the silent wealth killer
• The mindset shift from trading time for money to building passive income

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast 

Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What does nearly five decades of business law teach you about deals, people, and life? Veteran attorney Joe Giglio has spent 49 years in the trenches of business litigation, shareholder disputes, and M&A transactions — and the lessons he's learned go far beyond the courtroom.

In this episode, Joe sits down with Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David to share the wisdom that comes from a lifetime of navigating high-stakes business conflicts, mediating shareholder disputes, and advising deal makers through some of the toughest decisions of their careers. From surviving Louisiana's oil and gas depression of the 1980s to building a thriving practice at Lisko and Lewis, Joe reveals how saying "yes" to unexpected opportunities — and knowing when to say "no" — shaped his entire career.

Topics discussed in this episode:

• Why the best lawyers listen more than they talk — and how that applies to deal making
• How Louisiana's 1980s oil crisis forced Joe into business law and transformed his career
• The single rule Joe follows in every client relationship and why it works
• Business divorce: navigating shareholder disputes when partners can't agree
• The Aesop's Fable analogy every deal maker needs to hear before going to court
• Texas Shootout provisions — how they work and when they backfire
• How to identify whether someone across the table is trustworthy or a "scorpion"
• Why your client is always smarter than you in their field
• The power of in-person meetings to save deals and build trust
• Mentorship, faith, family, and building a legacy that outlasts your career
• Joe's priority framework: faith, family, friends, community, and travel

Whether you're a business owner navigating a partnership dispute, an attorney looking to sharpen your deal-making instincts, or a future deal maker seeking wisdom from someone who's seen it all — this episode delivers.

🔗 Website: https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

Joshua Wilson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast Powered By: FA Mergers https://www.famergers.com/

📩 Want to be a guest or have a topic suggestion? Reach out via LinkedIn or our website.

🎧 Subscribe and leave a review so you never miss an episode!

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

Walter Hidalgo Jr. built a chemical company from scratch in 2001, sold it at the perfect time in 2014 (right before oil crashed from $120 to under $20/barrel), and felt completely lost after the exit. After a detour into the restaurant business, he reunited with his 25-year-old son to relaunch the original brand and this time, they're doing it together.

In this episode, Walter opens up about the emotional reality of selling a business you built with your own hands, why cold calling strangers has always worked better for him than calling people he knows, and how his son keeps him from chasing every shiny opportunity that crosses his path.

Whether you're building your first company or thinking about your exit, this conversation is packed with hard-earned wisdom from a serial entrepreneur who's been through the full cycle build, sell, lose yourself, and start again.

Topics covered: 

• How he spotted a business opportunity from a customer's truck bed 
• Selling at the peak (luck vs. preparation) 
• The identity crisis every founder faces after an exit 
• Cold calling 101: "A little rejection never killed anybody" 
• Father-son dynamics: visionary vs. integrator → Why you should stay in what you know after a liquidity event 
• Advice for the next generation of deal makers

Guest: Walter Hidalgo Jr.: Founder, Enviro Chem 

Host: Joshua Wilson

Co-host: Jude David, FA Mergers

📩 Got a question for a future guest or want to be on the show? 

Visit TheDealPodcast.com

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with veteran banker and operator Brady Como for a masterclass on debt, risk, and long-term dealmaking.

With decades of experience spanning commercial banking, business liquidations, oilfield services, and real estate investing, Brady shares lessons most dealmakers only learn the hard way.

This conversation explores:

• Why banks are often the least greedy partner in a transaction
• The real difference between consumer debt and producer debt
• How underwriting teaches discipline in dealmaking
• Why experience collecting money matters more than lending it
• How purpose, patience, and people shape long-term success
• What separates producers from consumers in capital allocation
• Why retirement without purpose is a dangerous idea

This episode is a must-watch for entrepreneurs, operators, investors, and the next generation of dealmakers who want to understand how capital actually works in the real world.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Tim Prevost, a third generation banker who worked his way from shredding paper and serving as a teller to becoming CFO of a community bank.

Tim shares a rare inside look at how deals are evaluated from the banking side, why relationships still matter more than spreadsheets, and how judgment, timing, and trust influence lending, acquisitions, and long-term outcomes.

This conversation covers:

• What commercial bankers actually look for in deals
• How teller-line experience shapes better decision-making
• Why valuation starts with comparable sales, not gut feel
• The parallels between treasure hunting and dealmaking
• Moving from commercial banking into the CFO role
• How banks measure success beyond profit
• Why community banks move faster and think differently
• The importance of trust, follow-through, and doing the next right thing

This episode is for founders, dealmakers, operators, and finance professionals who want to understand how capital decisions are really made.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Joris Delanoue, founder of Fairmint, to unpack how tokenization and blockchain are reshaping private markets.

Joris explains how Fairmint helps companies put their equity on chain by transforming cap tables into smart contracts, removing unnecessary intermediaries, and unlocking new paths to liquidity while preserving compliance and investor protections.

This conversation covers:

• What it actually means to put equity on chain
• How private company cap tables become smart contracts
• Why over intermediation hurts founders and investors
• The role of transfer agents in a blockchain world
• How tokenization blurs the line between public and private markets
• Liquidity, tender offers, and secondary transactions for private equity
• Why knowledge-based accreditation may replace wealth-based rules
• How regulators, founders, and investors can all win with better rails

This episode is for founders, private equity firms, family offices, investors, and operators who want to understand where capital markets are heading next.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Marvin Travasos, founder of Coastal Pumping Equipment, to unpack what it really takes to build a durable, multi-location industrial business rooted in faith, leadership, and long-term thinking.

Marvin shares his journey from welder to owner, growing Coastal from a single operation into a four-location company serving oilfield, municipal, and disaster-response markets. More importantly, he explains why investing in people, accountability, and culture created real enterprise value.

This conversation covers:

• Building a capital-intensive business from the ground up
• Why learning the trade matters more than chasing shortcuts
• Scaling from one location to four through necessity and execution
• How training and developing people drives long-term value
• Why accountability is the missing ingredient for most owners
• Faith as a leadership foundation, not a slogan
• Building a company that runs without you
• Why patience is the hardest and most valuable skill in business

This episode is for founders, operators, family business owners, and leaders who want to build something real and lasting.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What if the thing slowing your growth isn't what's missing — it's what you refuse to cut?

Yarin Gaon sold his fourth company at 28, ran turnarounds as an Entrepreneur in Residence at a venture capital firm, mentored 400+ founders through the University of Chicago and SCORE, and has earned an MBA along the way. Today he runs Fractional Partners, where he applies a private equity-style operating playbook to lower middle market businesses stuck in what he calls the "messy middle" — the $2M to $20M range where founders have product-market fit but haven't decided what's actually worth scaling.

In this episode, Yarin breaks down why most founders default to growth by addition (more channels, more customers, more SKUs) when what their business really needs is growth by subtraction. He walks host Joshua Wilson through the exact framework he uses to identify which 20% of a business is generating most of the profit — and why scaling everything else is the silent killer of EBITDA, exit multiples, and founder sanity.

🎯 What We Cover:

• The two mistakes Yarin made before exiting his Israeli e-commerce company at 28
• Why over-built proprietary systems become a liability — not an asset — at exit
• The gap between MBA frameworks and how owner-operators actually run businesses
• Growth by addition vs. growth by subtraction — and when each one applies
• Why EOS solves execution problems but can't solve strategic ones
• How to attribute true overhead by revenue stream to expose your real profit center
• The mindset shift from operator to owner: resource allocation as the real job
• Why pausing is the hardest — and most profitable — thing a founder can do
• What private equity does post-close that founders should do pre-sale
• The Fractional Partner model: more than an advisor, less than a co-founder

🤝 Connect with Yarin Gaon: 

🌐 https://www.fractional.partners/ 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/yaringaon/ 

📸 https://www.instagram.com/fractional.partners/

📘 Free Resource: The Clarity Playbook — playbook.fractional.partners

💼 Thinking About a Transaction?

FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk.

🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast:

🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 

💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ 

▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Jared and Rachel Doise, husband-and-wife founders of Legends Born Grill, a nine location restaurant and bar concept built over more than 20 years in Acadiana.

This is a real conversation about building a business together, navigating risk, staying grounded in values, and choosing sustainability over ego-driven growth. Jared and Rachel share how they balance vision and discipline, emotion and logic, faith and execution.

This conversation covers:

• How a career detour led to building a nine-location business
• Why Rachel’s conservative financial discipline kept the company alive
• How to grow without losing culture or values
• The role of faith, humility, and gratitude in leadership
• Managing risk without chasing scale for scale’s sake
• Why launching people matters as much as launching locations
• How marriage survives pressure when business gets hard

This episode is for founders, family business owners, operators, and couples building something together who want to grow without losing what matters most.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Kristine Goebel, founder of Accompany Suite, to unpack the real reasons companies struggle during growth, acquisitions, and exits.

Kristine shares how emotional intelligence, communication, and leadership behavior directly impact profitability, retention, and deal outcomes. Drawing from her experience with Toyota, wealth advisory firms, and middle-market companies, she explains why most operational problems are actually people problems.

This conversation covers:

• Why emotions quietly limit scale and valuation
• How fear, anger, and risk show up in leadership behavior
• The hidden culture risks in mergers and acquisitions
• Why work-life balance is the wrong conversation
• How transparency builds trust before an exit
• What private equity groups often miss during integration
• Why mindset determines whether change actually sticks

This episode is essential listening for founders, operators, private equity teams, and family offices focused on sustainable growth and successful exits.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Mike Flash, former co-owner of Dixie Electric, a second-generation family business founded in 1979 and successfully exited after more than four decades.

Mike shares the deeply personal story behind selling a family business that carried his parents’ names, supported generations of employees, and became part of the fabric of the local community. This is a rare, honest look at what happens before, during, and after the sale when legacy matters as much as price.

This conversation covers:

• What it’s like to exit a multi-generation family business
• Why Mike walked away from buyers who wouldn’t protect his employees
• The emotional weight of selling something tied to family identity
• Why most owners underestimate how complex exits really are
• The difference between running a business and selling one
• Life after the sale and navigating the transition from owner to employee
• Honoring legacy through leadership, faith, and giving back

This episode is for family business owners, founders, and operators who want to exit well without compromising values, people, or purpose.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Ted Anthony, a veteran patent attorney with decades of experience advising founders, operators, and acquirers on intellectual property in M&A transactions.

Ted breaks down how patents and trademarks actually function inside real deals and why IP should protect economic value, not be confused with creating it.

This conversation covers:

• How patents show up in middle-market M&A
• Why many founders misunderstand the value of patents
• What buyers look for during IP diligence
• Patent term limits, maintenance fees, and enforcement risk
• Why laddered patent portfolios matter for exit value
• Provisional patents and when to file
• Trademarks vs patents and why they work differently
• Licensing strategies that unlock hidden value

This episode is essential listening for founders, inventors, private equity groups, and advisors navigating technology-driven deals.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode we sit down with David Podell, a specialist in advanced tax mitigation strategies for founders, partners, and closely held businesses.

David breaks down how defined benefit and cash balance plans can be used as powerful tools for owners who are paying too much in taxes and want to build personal net worth outside of their business.

This conversation covers:

• How high-performing companies legally reduce six and seven figures in taxes
• Why defined benefit and cash balance plans are owner strategies, not employee perks
• When these plans make sense for exits, buyouts, and succession planning
• How tax mitigation strategies can increase business valuation
• Why CPAs bring in specialists instead of trying to do this alone
• Who qualifies and who should not consider these plans

This episode is for founders, dealmakers, operators, and investors who want to keep more capital working for them instead of sending it to the IRS.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Brett Swarts, founder of Capital Gains Tax Solutions, to unpack how founders, investors, and advisors can exit assets without watching 20–50% disappear to capital gains taxes.

Brett breaks down the Deferred Sales Trust and explains how it differs from traditional strategies like 1031 exchanges, why timing and flexibility matter more than ever, and how smart exits preserve momentum for the next chapter.

This conversation covers:

• Why capital gains tax is the biggest hidden cost in exits
• Deferred Sales Trust vs. 1031 exchanges
• How founders, Bitcoin holders, and real estate investors exit strategically
• Why most “passive income” strategies still trap owners
• How exit planning impacts legacy, estate taxes, and family wealth
• Why solving tax problems helps M&A advisors win more deals

This episode is essential for founders, dealmakers, M&A advisors, real estate investors, and anyone preparing for a major liquidity event.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Rip Reeves, CEO of Institutional Investor, to unpack the evolution of global investing, asset allocation, and the allocator–manager ecosystem.

Rip shares his journey from a first-generation college student in South Louisiana to Wall Street, portfolio management, and ultimately leading one of the most influential platforms serving CIOs, asset managers, and allocators worldwide.

This conversation covers:

• How a single college class changed Rip’s career trajectory
• What Wall Street looked like before email, LinkedIn, and automation
• Why grit and networking still outperform credentials alone
• How institutional investing has become truly global
• The convergence of public markets, private markets, and private wealth
• Why relationships and communities matter more than products
• What young allocators and future CIOs need to focus on now

This episode is for allocators, asset managers, investors, and professionals who want a deeper understanding of how capital really moves and how long-term careers are built in global finance.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Larry Attenhofer, a senior commercial banking leader at Hancock Whitney with nearly three decades of experience financing middle-market businesses.

Larry walks through how banks actually underwrite deals, what separates strong borrowers from risky ones, and why relationships and communication matter just as much as financials.

This conversation covers:

• How banks define the middle market and why it matters
• What credit analysts and bankers look for in a “good” deal
• Common red flags that kill deals early
• Working capital lines, leverage, and balance sheet structure
• How business owners should prepare years before an exit
• Why the banker CPA attorney triangle is critical for growth and M&A
• Career advice for future bankers and finance professionals

This episode is essential listening for founders, operators, dealmakers, and finance professionals who want to understand how capital decisions are really made behind the scenes.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode, we sit down with Andre Broussard, a seasoned CPA operating at the intersection of private equity, venture capital, and middle-market deal execution.

Andre shares how he functions as a “CFO by the hour” for founders, operators, and investment groups and why accounting today is far more about psychology, judgment, and trust than debits and credits.

This conversation covers:

• How CPAs support PE and VC firms before, during, and after exits
• Why psychology and sociology matter more than spreadsheets in dealmaking
• Common mistakes founders make when preparing to sell a business
• What causes deals to fall apart late in the process
• How AI and automation are reshaping accounting and financial diligence
• The difference between VC growth thinking and PE cash-flow discipline

This episode is for dealmakers, investors, founders, and operators who want a clearer picture of how financial reality and human behavior collide in real transactions.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode host Josh Wilson sits down with CJ Miller, a transactional attorney who has built his career in the boardroom rather than the courtroom.

CJ shares his journey from growing up in a small family business in South Louisiana to becoming a trusted advisor for banks, entrepreneurs, and middle-market companies. He explains what transactional law really looks like day to day and why helping people structure deals, manage risk, and plan for the future brings lasting fulfillment.

This conversation covers:

• The role of a transactional attorney in business growth and M&A
• Why Louisiana law is different from the rest of the U.S.
• The reality of career pivots and returning to what fits
• Lessons learned from moving in-house and back to private practice
• Practical advice for business owners preparing to sell their company

This episode is for founders, dealmakers, attorneys, and operators who care about process, clarity, and building something that lasts.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

He was drowning in investor debt, swinging a hammer in Houston just to make payroll — and still found a way to build something worth fighting for. This is a story about grit, partnership, and what it really takes to grow a trade business from the inside out.

George Boudreaux founded Pelican Roofing Company in Lafayette, Louisiana on July 4th, 2014 — not from a place of momentum, but from a burning need to survive. After a real estate venture in Houston went sideways and left him half a million dollars in the hole, he bootstrapped a roofing company and grew it into a regional force. But after years of hurricanes, burnout, and carrying too many people for too long, he knew he needed a partner — not a buyer. Nathan Rath, a 12-year Halliburton veteran who traded oil rigs for rooftops, answered that call. Joining host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea, George and Nathan unpack the real mechanics of finding the right partner, making hard decisions, and building a business with staying power. Pelican Roofing has grown from roughly $9M to $19M in revenue — with no storm tailwind.

🎯 What We Cover:

• How George lost $500K in Houston and rebuilt from scratch with a roofing company
• Why he started Pelican Roofing on July 4th, 2014 — and what that date meant
• What Nathan gave up at Halliburton and why family drove him toward ownership
• The list George wrote in December 2022: "Find a partner by July 4th, 2023"
• How they structured and inked their partnership deal on August 8th, 2023
• Growing from $9M to $19M with no hurricane boost — and the hard lessons in between
• The first principles exercise that led to layoffs right before Christmas
• What makes a great door-to-door roofing salesperson — and why motivation beats resume
• How Nathan's community roots (and a pelican suit) built Pelican's brand in Acadiana
• What George and Nathan are really looking for before they'd ever do a PE deal

🤝 Connect with George Boudreaux: 🌐 https://pelicanroof.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-boudreaux-64031120/ 📘 https://www.facebook.com/BoudreauxGeorge/

🤝 Connect with Nathan Rath: 🌐 https://pelicanroof.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/nathan-rath-2aa371120/

🤝 Connect with Co-Host Scott Shea: 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/escottshea/

💼 Thinking About a Transaction? FA Mergers helps founders, investors, and business owners navigate the full M&A process — from valuation to close. If you're exploring a sale, acquisition, or capital raise, let's talk. 🔗 https://www.famergers.com/

🎙️ Follow The Deal Podcast: 🌐 https://www.thedealpodcast.com/ 💼 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/ ▶️ https://www.youtube.com/@dealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode of The Deal Podcast, we sit down with Edward Bienvenu, a commercial banker based in Lafayette, Louisiana, to unpack how relationship-driven banking actually works at the community level and why some of the best deals are the ones you never do.

Edward shares his unconventional path into commercial banking, starting in biology before realizing finance offered the right balance of structure, people, and long-term impact. What began as an analyst role evolved into a career built on advising business owners, structuring thoughtful deals, and helping companies grow responsibly.

This conversation goes beyond credit scores and spreadsheets. Edward explains how experienced lenders evaluate deals from a global perspective, looking at the full picture of a business owner’s assets, risks, and long-term plans rather than relying on automated approvals or one-dimensional metrics.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

In this episode of The Deal Podcast, hosts Josh Wilson and Jude David sit down with Paul George, consultant, speaker, and host of The Paul George Show, for a wide-ranging conversation on leadership, faith, business, and life after the exit.

Paul shares his personal mission framework, “Love God, serve others, and die with no regrets,” and explains how a lack of personal clarity often leads to broken businesses, burnout, and regret after successful exits.

The discussion explores the contrast between nonprofit and for profit leadership, the role of mission and values in building scalable companies, and why many founders wait too long to think about succession, legacy, and life beyond ownership.

Listeners will hear honest insights on:

• Why profit and purpose are not opposites
• How attachment to money and identity can quietly undermine leaders
• What happens when founders sell their business without a plan for what’s next
• How faith, discernment, and discipline show up in real-world dealmaking
• Why the most successful exits are prepared years in advance

This episode is for founders, operators, and investors who want to build businesses that last, exit well, and live with clarity beyond the transaction.

Connect with the Guest:

Paul George: LinkedIn

Connect with the Hosts & The Deal Podcast:

Joshua Wilson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuabrucewilson/

YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/@thedealpodcast

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

On the show, we sit down with Lance Strother a coach, entrepreneur, inventor, man of faith, and lifelong developer of people. Lance is the kind of dealmaker who doesn’t just chase outcomes. He builds lives, teams, and cultures that last.

Born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana, Lance shares how his journey through coaching, ministry, invention, and business shaped a philosophy that challenges how most leaders think about success. We explore why having “many irons in the fire” is not a flaw when it’s rooted in a clear mission, and how authenticity becomes one of the strongest forms of insurance for a fulfilled life.

This conversation goes deep into themes leaders rarely talk about openly:

• Why love can be a serious business strategy with real teeth
• How humility and truth drive real growth in the boardroom
• What inventing, failing, and finding the right business partner actually teaches you
• Why asking boldly and early changes the trajectory of your career
• How loss, faith, and service shape resilient leaders and dealmakers

Lance also shares the story behind building and launching a nationally recognized sports training product, what he learned about partnerships, and why integrity matters more than ROI alone.

If you lead people, build companies, or wrestle with balancing ambition, faith, and responsibility, this episode will challenge and encourage you.

Connect with Lance on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lance-strother-8360243b/

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.

What separates a good deal attorney from a great one? In this episode of The Deal Podcast, hosts Joshua Wilson and Scott discuss the legal side of mergers and acquisitions with veteran corporate attorney Frank Slavich, who brings over 25 years of experience in corporate law, M&A, lending, and commercial real estate.

Frank unpacks the real role of an M&A attorney: not to kill deals, but to protect clients while keeping transactions moving. You’ll hear how he balances business logic with legal risks, the importance of choosing the right partners, and how emotional attachments can sabotage a sale.

From succession planning to the infamous “Texas Shootout” clause, this is a must-listen for dealmakers, founders, and brokers looking to close clean deals. Frank also shares insights on how AI is (and isn’t) currently impacting legal practices.

DISCLAIMER The Deal Podcast is for informational and educational purposes only. Nothing discussed constitutes investment advice, a solicitation, or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Always consult a licensed professional before making financial or investment decisions.