Join host Steven Pesavento in an insightful conversation with guest Andy Hagans as they delve into the world of private equity. Andy, a seasoned entrepreneur and investor, shares his journey from building and selling businesses to becoming a player in the private equity space. Discover the strategies, mindset, and key takeaways that can empower you to navigate the private equity game and unlock value in existing businesses.
Key Takeaways
Resources Mentioned
Interested in connecting with other like-minded individuals? Then join our VonFinch Private Capital Network. Learn more at http://www.vonfinch.com/invest.
About our Guest:
Andy Hagans is a seasoned entrepreneur with over 20 years of experience in building, selling, and investing in businesses. After successfully exiting businesses, he transitioned into the world of private equity, where he combines his entrepreneurial mindset with strategic investments. Andy is passionate about unlocking value in existing businesses and shares his insights to empower others in the private equity game.
Are you looking for High-Performance Business & Mindset Coaching? Schedule a call now and see how we can be of service to you. http://www.investormindset.com/discover
00;00;00;04 - 00;00;08;12
Steven Pesavento
Welcome back to the Investor Mindset Podcast. I'm your host, Stephen Passive Evento and today I have Andrew Higgins in the studio. How you doing today, Andrew?
00;00;08;15 - 00;00;11;02
Andy Hagans
I'm doing great, Stephen. Thanks for having me on the show.
00;00;11;05 - 00;00;35;27
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I'm excited to talk with you today because it's you're in a unique position in the marketplace. You ran a business for many years, yet it up selling that and then you kind of got your eye on private equity. And private equity is starting to become a lot more popular. There's a lot of people talking about it, but you've been in the space in different fashions and forms for for many years.
00;00;35;27 - 00;00;55;24
Steven Pesavento
So I'm excited to talk about that because I think there's so many people who are trying to figure out, Hey, how do I hit my number? How do I take the skills and knowledge and expertise I have and how do I go and make the most money doing the thing that I love, and how do I then use investments to be able to get to the kind of life that I want to live?
00;00;55;24 - 00;01;19;29
Steven Pesavento
And you're living that, you know, after that exit, you're in a position where you've truly had optionality and a lot of people want to get there. So I'm excited to talk through that today. Before we get into that, let's look back all the way back at your childhood. What experiences or influences shaped who you are today?
00;01;20;01 - 00;01;45;01
Andy Hagans
Great question. I mean, how long you got? I'm sure a lot of things influenced me, but, you know, I had great parents. I think it's it's maybe common in our generation or younger generations for people to talk about their problems. And, you know, problems with their parents or whatever. I'm more like, you know, I want to talk about the good things that my parents gave me.
00;01;45;04 - 00;02;06;03
Andy Hagans
And I'm a parent also. So, you know, I'm not a perfect person. They weren't perfect people. But I hope my kids someday can talk about, you know, the positive things that I gave them. My mom and my dad are both incredibly hard workers right there. They're very hardworking people. So I think I definitely picked up work ethic from them.
00;02;06;11 - 00;02;27;02
Andy Hagans
I also just high standards, like with my mom, it was just assumed like, you're going to get A's in school, and if you're not like, why not? Like, But it was just assumed. And I think sometimes even just that, that assumption, it's almost like a form of confidence. It's like and one way you could be like, Oh, it's a high standard.
00;02;27;02 - 00;02;46;17
Andy Hagans
It's really strict, but in another way you could be like, Oh, my mom's confident in me. She thinks I'm smart. She thinks that I can get A's at school. So that was a huge influence. And my dad was a business owner and an entrepreneur. He owned like a auto, like a used car lot that also did car repair, car services.
00;02;46;20 - 00;03;01;27
Andy Hagans
And I worked at his car shop from age, I want to say age 11 and age 12 at least a little bit, you know, on Saturdays. And I think I just soaked up so much of the spirit of entrepreneurship from him, which looking back, I mean, that's an incredible blessing.
00;03;01;29 - 00;03;23;19
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, A lot of people focus on the problems because problems equal pain and pain moves people forward and pain forces people to go out and learn how do they not want to live or what do they not want to do and how do they break through? But at the same time, the pleasure, the experience, the positive is the foundation that you can also take and create meaning from.
00;03;23;19 - 00;03;52;02
Steven Pesavento
So, you know, worth ethic, high standards. Those are things that knowing you are so clear in how it set you up to get where you're at today. And so let's talk about this business. You sold a business 12, 18 years ago. You had a big exit. What happened when you decided to sell and what door did that open to you when it came to investing?
00;03;52;05 - 00;04;17;18
Andy Hagans
Yeah, good question. So and I should mention Jimmy Atkinson and I, he's been sort of a serial business partner of mine, and I've also had a couple other business partners like that. Michael Rich and a couple of other guys kind of in my orbit. And Jimmy and I had built a few different businesses that we had sold. And you know, you kind of do that once.
00;04;17;18 - 00;04;35;10
Andy Hagans
It's I've never flipped a house, but it's probably kind of like house flipping. Like you buy a house, you flip it, you make 30 grand or whatever. You get that rush and you're like, Well, that was pretty cool. Let's do that again. And maybe the next one's a little bigger, right? So Jimmy and I actually met at the University of Notre Dame.
00;04;35;10 - 00;04;56;29
Andy Hagans
We were roommates. And his dad, by the way, was also an entrepreneur, also a business owner. So it was just like in our blood. And we started this tiny little marketing online marketing business in our dorm room, which grew into a small lead generation business that we sold. And then we built a slightly larger lead generation business that we sold.
00;04;57;01 - 00;05;25;14
Andy Hagans
And then our next project was the one that you reference ETF database, and this was it was a little bit different, I guess, in that maybe maybe as opposed to our previous businesses, this was a little bit more of a passion for us because it was in the area of finance. And so he and I, we both had online marketing knowledge and ability and just kind of general website entrepreneurship kind of skills.
00;05;25;17 - 00;05;49;11
Andy Hagans
So we recruited another friend of ours, Michael Johnston, and the three of us built this business ETF database that at its peak like really pretty quickly grew to be the largest ETF specific media property in the United States. And if you think about all of the money that goes into ETFs every day, well, that's a pretty valuable market position to have.
00;05;49;11 - 00;06;08;21
Andy Hagans
Right. But but at the time, you know, we didn't really know totally how to leverage that, right? Like the business made money. It was like a good business. But like looking back, I'm like, Wow, we could have done more with that market position than what we did, which is fine. You know, life goes on and you learn, right?
00;06;08;21 - 00;06;38;14
Andy Hagans
But but we ended up getting an offer from a private equity minded individual company that had a vision of, well, we could we could buy this company and we could buy this other one or merge it and we could build something really big that would have a lot of enterprise value. So we sold it. And you know, when you're in your mid twenties or late twenties and all of us were either were just married or were about to get married.
00;06;38;16 - 00;06;56;12
Andy Hagans
And so when you can have a nice exit and then go around and like, you know, pay cash for a house and not have to worry about the next year or two of work, what you're going to do, it actually is life changing, right? So it doesn't need to be like a nine figure exit or whatever it should be life changing.
00;06;56;13 - 00;07;15;17
Andy Hagans
It just needs enough to where for me, I was like, well, now that this deal happened, I can literally do whatever I want. Like I can't do nothing like I did. It's not like I made enough money that I could just, you know, go buy a yard and live on my yard or something. But, but I had enough money or I was like, I'm just going to be an entrepreneur forever.
00;07;15;19 - 00;07;25;05
Andy Hagans
I'm going to either build businesses or later on I realized like, Oh, maybe I could buy businesses. But that was a turning point. I would say.
00;07;25;07 - 00;08;01;23
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's a moment like that that when you make that kind of money, not tens of millions of dollars, not hundreds of millions of dollars, but millions of dollars, so that you were in a position where that money could work without you ever working and you could live a pretty good life, but yet it gives you that space, that confidence to feel like you can go and have the creative desire to go after something that you also love, that you also enjoy, that that is enriching and fun and it becomes a game.
00;08;01;25 - 00;08;43;14
Steven Pesavento
Once you understand that the game of the business is simply just a game and that it's a fun one to play. If you find those skills and strategies that work. Yet one of the things that I'm hearing from you is that you recognize, Oh, well, we could have actually played the game before we sold even differently. But the only way that you got to that point of being able to recognize that was because you actually got in, you started doing things, you had experiences and you had an exit so that you can step back and be able to say, Oh great, how am I going to go take this to the next thing?
00;08;43;17 - 00;09;19;05
Andy Hagans
Absolutely, you're right. And I mean, that to me points to it took me a long time to really understand private equity and what it even is. And I think the the word can kind of mean different things in different contexts. But but even at the time, even prior to selling ETF database, the previous lead generation business that Jimmy and I built and sold, you know, we sold it to this private equity group, which is really just like two guys in their forties who were wealthy, who buy business, you know, who like we're kind of shrewd in a good way buying businesses and growing them.
00;09;19;08 - 00;09;38;20
Andy Hagans
And to me, like kind of had a little bit of a mystique, like, who are these guys? And it like, no one really explained it to me or at least it didn't click at the time. But over time I've kind of realized there's a little bit of a formula for this. And in my opinion, like this is just my take on it.
00;09;38;22 - 00;10;05;24
Andy Hagans
What private equity really is at this micro level, at least at the small level, is there's two ingredients. There's there's money and then there's an entrepreneur. So so in other words, if you start a business, but you don't really have any finance like, you know, you're just starting it off a shoestring budget and you're bootstrapping it, that's not really private equity, that's just an entrepreneurial venture, which is fine, by the way.
00;10;05;24 - 00;10;35;09
Andy Hagans
Like, that's great. By contrast, if you invest in something and it's purely passive, like I'm just buying Apple stock or Google stock or something. Well, that's public. That's the public equities market. What private equity has been for me, it's been a way to leverage the fact that, okay, I have entrepreneurial skills, right. And I can I know enough about businesses that there are some types of businesses.
00;10;35;09 - 00;10;57;29
Andy Hagans
I can look at them and say, this is a good business. But, you know, it would be even better if you did this and you did that and you changed your marketing plan and did a few. So like applying an entrepreneur entrepreneurial mindset to an existing business and then also having access to capital to you and say you know what, And this isn't just theoretical.
00;10;58;01 - 00;11;23;08
Andy Hagans
I'm going to buy this business and I'm going to do those things that I think could enhance this business. So you kind of you do need that entrepreneurial experience or ability because otherwise you're just buying a business, but you're not really unlocking any value, right? So you need you need to have the capital to buy the business, and then you need to have the experience or skill set to where you can actually unlock new value or else it doesn't.
00;11;23;13 - 00;11;47;21
Andy Hagans
You know, the transaction wouldn't make any sense. So I kind of I had this turning point where I realized, well, starting businesses is pretty cool. But I think maybe what I'm even more interested in is finding businesses that already exist and investing in them or buying them in partnership with other like minded guys and growing them. And so that's really what I've been doing since that time.
00;11;47;24 - 00;12;17;17
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, just to unpack this. Public equity. Equity is stocks, private equity is any interest in a business that is not publicly available to everybody and you're buying in with either money or you're buying in with skills, expertise, relationships, connections, but usually both because you're going to go and buy a piece or share the entire business, and then you're going to apply those strategies and skills that you have to help grow and scale it.
00;12;17;21 - 00;12;40;12
Steven Pesavento
And so you can be on either part of that transaction. If you're somebody who's just got a bunch of money, you can pump it into businesses and get strong stakes and bet on the people who are operating it. But what I love about what you're talking about is how can I actually add disproportionate value to the business, whether I'm the operator or whether I'm an advisor coming in to help support that company.
00;12;40;18 - 00;13;00;11
Steven Pesavento
And I want to buy as much of that business as I feel comfortable with at the valuation that I feel comfortable with, and then taking the skills, knowledge and experience that you have to then go out and be able to grow the value exponentially and set that business up for either amazing cash flow or beautiful exit on the end.
00;13;00;14 - 00;13;21;17
Andy Hagans
You hit the nail on the head. Steve And that's exactly right. Yeah. And to be clear, you can make a totally passive investment in private equity, and there's nothing wrong with that actually. So they call that being an LP investor, right? And I am an LP investor in several different private equity funds and I think that's a legit strategy.
00;13;21;17 - 00;13;49;18
Andy Hagans
It's a good way to you can make great investments that way, passive investments that provide you with cash flow and so on and so forth. But they're not the they're not the highest point of leverage, right? Like the deals that have made me the highest returns have been those exactly what you say. I forget the exact word you used, but basically leverage where you're not just putting money in, but presuming that you're comfortable with the valuation and presuming that it fits into your overall portfolio.
00;13;49;21 - 00;14;19;09
Andy Hagans
There are those opportunities where you're going, I want to buy as much of this as I possibly can because it's like asymmetric odds. It's like, I know this industry, I know this is a good deal. I understand the factors and it actually isn't an efficient market, right? Like with publicly traded stocks, it's generally an efficient market. But with private equity, there can be all sorts of little corners of the business world where there aren't other people competing against you to buy this business.
00;14;19;09 - 00;14;36;08
Andy Hagans
And so you can invest in good terms. And then again, presuming that you have value, you can add some of these businesses in the private equity world. They can you can double them overnight, right? That's not going to generally happen in most other types of business.
00;14;36;10 - 00;15;05;20
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, Well, what I think is so important to underline, because I don't think most people are thinking like this, which is you can be an LP and you can make an investment, which is phenomenal and it's a great way to be able to grow your wealth and not spend any time. But if you are in a position where you have skills, resources, network, connections and experience, that in itself can be a value to that business.
00;15;05;22 - 00;15;30;13
Steven Pesavento
And whether you're exchanging those skills and knowledge for equity in the company like a traditional advising relationship or a traditional employment or partnership type relationship, when you then invest that money as well, you're getting a multiple on the returns because if you're growing the business and you're doing X, Y, Z from your time, you're putting in a little bit of time because you know, what are those levers to pull?
00;15;30;16 - 00;15;45;08
Steven Pesavento
It's going to grow the size of your dollars that you have in that investment and put you in such a better position, a better position to be able to make great money and and theoretically, you're only going to do this on things that you actually want to work on.
00;15;45;10 - 00;16;11;09
Andy Hagans
Totally. And you know, another aspect of that to your point about things you want to work on, people you want to be involved with, you know, I just love entrepreneurship. Like I think it's in it's in my blood. Like I said, my dad was an entrepreneur. I literally started my first business in my dorm room with my roommate, and then literally 19 years later, we're still business partners.
00;16;11;11 - 00;16;33;25
Andy Hagans
So it's in my blood and it's I feel like it's my my tribe, so to speak, you know, not even intentionally. It's just when I like you and I were just briefly chatting before the show and Steve and we've talked, I don't know, maybe five times previously or something. So it's not like we've known each other a ton, but we're both entrepreneurs.
00;16;33;28 - 00;17;02;04
Andy Hagans
And so just like instantly when we start talking, we just have that instant rapport, right? Because we're both I think your words were this is like a game, right? And I think at some point when you have financial security, it is kind of a game, not in a bad way, but the money becomes a measuring stick for success and you become more motivated by almost, I don't know, like excellence, like you want to like it, like it, like you look at it like it's a riddle.
00;17;02;04 - 00;17;31;22
Andy Hagans
Like, how can I make this business operate better? And so I think, you know, even to be in a position to think that way or to be involved in projects like that that you're passionate about, it's an incredible blessing. So like, I know that we're both blessed, you know, to be able to do that. But to your point, when you can find projects where you have passion and where you have connections that can add value, it really is win win.
00;17;31;27 - 00;17;52;13
Andy Hagans
It's not dividing up the same pie into slices and you're arguing over, well, who gets the bigger slice? You're literally coming to business and saying, Hey, I have a connection or skill set. We can double your revenue growth or whatever metric it is. And that that literally is a win win. It's creating new economic value.
00;17;52;15 - 00;18;28;02
Steven Pesavento
Yeah. So if somebody is listening to this and they're thinking, Hey, that's really interesting, maybe I don't have a ton of money, or maybe I don't have a ton of time, but I've got one of them or maybe I have both. What were the things that you learned? And you know, there's a ton of them. So let's think of a couple of the things that you learned when it came to this idea of if you want to get in the game and you want to play in private equity, you want to work with other entrepreneurs, you want to invest money and skills and knowledge, how would you recommend somebody goes and does that?
00;18;28;09 - 00;18;30;05
Steven Pesavento
And maybe how did you go and do that?
00;18;30;07 - 00;19;04;03
Andy Hagans
That's a good question. And you're right, I'm sure I could say a million different things, But probably the biggest thing and the pattern that I've noticed in my own deal flow has been network. And if and if I look at really my roughly 20 year business career, all the companies I've been involved in, whether ones that I've co-founded or invested in or exited or funded or whatever, it's a pretty small cast of characters.
00;19;04;05 - 00;19;28;17
Andy Hagans
You know, in some cases, like like the guy who funded my business in 2005, then he actually funded my business in 2008 and then he bought a business in 2011 from me. Or the first micro deal that I really did that had success. That was eight years ago. I just did another deal with that partner last year, right?
00;19;28;18 - 00;19;54;14
Andy Hagans
It's the same group because we have trust, we have rapport. And honestly, if without it and it's not even a huge network, it's honestly, it's pretty small. But without those key people who I have relationships with, my deal flow would be zero. I would just be like, you know, because if you just Google, go to Google and type like businesses to buy.
00;19;54;16 - 00;20;32;00
Andy Hagans
I mean, I'm sure that you could find something that way, but you're going to be going through a slog of a ton of bad opera. What I would say are probably bad opportunities. Again, I'm sure there's some good ones in there, but you're at a real disadvantage because it's like, who owns this? Can they be trusted, you know, and so on and so forth, versus you have a trusted friend or a business partner or previous business partner or coworker that you worked with five years ago, that you had a good relationship and they say, Hey, let me tell you about this, this thing or this project or this side project I'm doing or or whatever.
00;20;32;02 - 00;20;47;00
Andy Hagans
In my experience, that's how all my good deals have happened is through that that network. And frankly, Steven, I wish I had I wish you should maybe give me tips on how do I expand my network, because I'm finding that that is where all the good deal flow comes from. Yeah. So the first.
00;20;47;00 - 00;20;48;23
Steven Pesavento
Thing is really deal flow in from your.
00;20;48;23 - 00;20;49;11
Andy Hagans
Experience.
00;20;49;11 - 00;21;18;08
Steven Pesavento
Is come from network. It's like there's nothing more valuable than the relationships that you have when you show up from a place of giving and value and as a person of influence, it's one of the reasons why going out and going to an event or paying for the opportunity to be in a room with certain people, like a mastermind or a workshop and then asking those people, Hey, who do you know that might do this?
00;21;18;08 - 00;21;39;21
Steven Pesavento
You know, we start out underwriting a bunch of businesses in the last 12, 18 months. And one of the best exercises that I went through personally, and I know you've probably done something similar, is I went through everybody that I could possibly think of who might know somebody, who could know somebody. And then you go and you start letting people know, Hey, this is what I'm looking to do.
00;21;39;24 - 00;21;53;08
Steven Pesavento
I'm looking to advise, you know, small to medium size companies that, you know, have 5 to $10 million of revenue and, you know, have some kind of a good profit margin or I'm looking for deals that.
00;21;53;08 - 00;21;54;16
Andy Hagans
Are.
00;21;54;19 - 00;22;20;20
Steven Pesavento
Turnaround deals that have 10 million plus of revenue, but they're losing money better or if it's even higher revenue. And then when you have a specific ask of people and you can start sharing it, they start thinking of you and they want to start sending more opportunities your way. Because everyone, not everybody, but a lot of people, most people, I think naturally want to help one another.
00;22;20;26 - 00;22;36;28
Steven Pesavento
And when they're not in that scarcity mindset of, Oh, hey, he's going to take something for me, it's like, Hey, I'd love to be able to send I'd love to be able to send Andy a deal. I'd love to be able to help him get where he wants to go. And I don't even have to expect anything in return.
00;22;37;00 - 00;22;58;13
Steven Pesavento
I might get paid for that information. I might be able to participate. Something great might happen ten years down the road. That has nothing to do with me and Andy. But because I helped him, somebody else came into my world. You never know. And it's it's it's really a way of thinking. And I think the book, The Go Giver, is one of the best examples of that philosophy.
00;22;58;15 - 00;23;23;18
Andy Hagans
Steve I love that. And you know, the point of just asking, it's funny how many people are afraid to ask for help, and you strike me as a very confident person and like rightfully so, like you're a very successful person, you have a very successful podcast. I think you're confident person. You're not afraid to ask something like if you don't know something you're not afraid to ask, like, Hey, you know, can you help with this?
00;23;23;18 - 00;23;39;12
Andy Hagans
Or do you have any tips on this? Or and I think so many people are just afraid to put it out there like I'm looking. And to your point, there are so like when someone asks me for advice, like, oh, what a compliment this is, this person asked me, Wow, they must think the world of me. They must think that.
00;23;39;12 - 00;23;56;07
Andy Hagans
And he's this really smart guy who gives great, right? So it's actually it feels good to be asked for help. And I think a lot of people are perfectly willing to help you, even if they're not compensated with just a referral. But you have to ask like you you can't just assume people know what's it like. That applies to me as well.
00;23;56;07 - 00;24;18;14
Andy Hagans
Like people can't just assume that like, I can't assume that people know I'm into private equity and that I like micro P and I'm looking for deal flow and I specialize in the payments industry. Have to actually go out and say that and say, Steven, do you know anybody in the payments industry who might be looking for liquidity or help grow in their business?
00;24;18;16 - 00;24;40;26
Steven Pesavento
I'm confident, but I have a ton of fears and anxieties and challenges of my own. And I think the the key that I've experienced and this might be different for other people is even when you're in fear of of asking the stupid question or asking somebody from help, do it anyways, because the worst thing somebody can do is say no.
00;24;40;29 - 00;25;01;25
Steven Pesavento
And if you do it in a way that doesn't come off negatively and maybe even do it from a place where you make yourself smaller as if you're asking for a huge favor, people will be like, Oh, that's not really a big favor. I'm happy to help. I'm happy to give you some advice. And even the ten people who say no one person says yes.
00;25;01;27 - 00;25;11;10
Steven Pesavento
And also now you have somebody who's your own advisor on your path towards getting in the game. So first one's deal flow, what comes next.
00;25;11;12 - 00;25;39;03
Andy Hagans
After deal flow, success in private equity, I would really stress you want to know yourself and and meaning that if you know that you succeed in a particular niche in adding value, but at the same time you have these other blindspots or weaknesses, it's so much better to be upfront with yourself and honest with yourself and also with others.
00;25;39;06 - 00;26;02;04
Andy Hagans
Right? Because I think coming into private equity as an entrepreneur or like as an entrepreneur or as a CEO, you're expected to have all the answers, right? Like, like if someone if an employee or an investor or even a customer asks you question, you need to know the answer. It needs to be right. And even when you're wrong, like you need to be like you need to have an answer and you need to deliver it confidently.
00;26;02;04 - 00;26;33;13
Andy Hagans
Right? I think in private equity it's like if you are an active investor, if you're coming in on the board of directors or in a partnership, the way to apply leverage is to identify what it is that you do best. And it probably is even the thing maybe that you enjoy, right? Because when you're passionate about something and it's fun, it's way easier to show up to work and work hard and it doesn't feel like work.
00;26;33;15 - 00;26;56;28
Andy Hagans
So if you can figure out like what? What is it that I do that almost feels easy to me? It's almost like effortless for me and it's fun. But then other people are like, Whoa, you do that. That's really hard. Like, I could never do that. If you can find ways to add value to a project or company where you're staying in that zone and staying in that lane, to me, that's the win win, right?
00;26;56;28 - 00;27;18;14
Andy Hagans
Because that's where you're having fun. You're not pretending you're something you're not and at the same time, whatever skill set you're giving them is something that you're already good at, Right? And and it doesn't even need you don't need even need to be the best, right? Like, I'm good at marketing. I'm not the best. I'm nothing like I'm probably not even top 10%.
00;27;18;14 - 00;27;40;11
Andy Hagans
Maybe I'm like top 30% or so. But there's a lot of companies that they just need basic marketing. They do not need the world's best market. They just need to block and tackle and get the basics right. So whether it's marketing or finance or sales, if you just know, like this is the thing that I do pretty effortlessly.
00;27;40;13 - 00;27;45;15
Andy Hagans
The world is your oyster. There's a ton of companies, I can guarantee you that could use that skillset.
00;27;45;18 - 00;28;07;09
Steven Pesavento
And I think that if you're not confident, it's going to be difficult for you to go in and pitch somebody, pay me for doing this or give me equity or let me buy in and do this skill set for you. If you don't have that confidence, it's no problem. The first step is going out and saying, Hey, where do I have leverage?
00;28;07;09 - 00;28;24;29
Steven Pesavento
What am I the best at? How can I add value to other people in the world and carve out 5 hours a day, 10 hours a week, 10 hours a month to go out and do that for other people at no cost to them and just say, Hey, I really want to do this. I think it's going to help you grow.
00;28;24;29 - 00;28;41;23
Steven Pesavento
I think it's going to help you get to the place where you want to be. Do you mind if I make this introduction? I think this connection is going to help you and then you do it and you don't expect anything to come from that. And yet what you're doing is you're building your confidence because you see yourself delivering that out to other people.
00;28;41;25 - 00;29;02;28
Steven Pesavento
And maybe there's an ask that says, Hey, if this works out, I'd love for you to share a couple lines or be able to be a referral or a reference from you know, what that was like. But you don't even need to ask that because if you're doing it for the right people, they're going to want to reciprocate without ever asking for it because you don't expect it.
00;29;03;00 - 00;29;19;14
Steven Pesavento
They're going to be like, Heck yeah, I want to I want to help you back in return. And if you do that five times, even one time, somebody reciprocating is going to help you move forward to getting deeper into the game. If this is the game you want to play.
00;29;19;17 - 00;29;37;03
Andy Hagans
Totally. And you know, whatever it is, whatever skill you want to learn or that you do know, this is one point I really want to drive home is that you don't maybe this is maybe I shouldn't say this out loud, but like, you don't need to be the best. Like, I think we're all used to hearing, like, I want to be the best.
00;29;37;03 - 00;29;54;07
Andy Hagans
I want to be the world's number one. This the number one that like, no, I don't want to be the best. Like, like I have a podcast. Is it the best finance podcast? No, I don't even think that's my goal. Right? Or like I said, I like I'm a marketing guy. Am I in the top 1% of what?
00;29;54;07 - 00;30;23;05
Andy Hagans
Am I the best marketer in the world? No, but if you're in private equity, especially micro small to midsize businesses, there are almost always maybe I shouldn't say always, but almost always take any smaller mid-sized business. Show me their business operations. There will be multiple places in their business where the execution is abysmal. Is terrible, right? Where they're just getting by, where they barely even do the thing.
00;30;23;05 - 00;30;44;17
Andy Hagans
Maybe they don't do it at all. Maybe it's a total disaster. It could be bookkeeping, it could be marketing. It could be management, it could be any, you know, any any business activity. And so if you're making an investment in a smaller, mid-sized business and you can come in and be like, you could even be, I'd be like, you know, I'm really good at blocking and tackling with finance and bookie.
00;30;44;17 - 00;31;08;20
Andy Hagans
I'm not the world's best, but I'm consistent. And I think I could add value and really improve this situation. A lot of small and mid-sized businesses will be like, You are a godsend. We don't need the world's best bookkeeper. We just need somebody to show up and, you know, to do it right. And so I don't know. Steven, am I am I sort of am I killing a sacred cow here by saying you don't need to be the best?
00;31;08;22 - 00;31;26;25
Steven Pesavento
I don't think so. I think it's great to be the best that you can be and to continue to strive to grow and and challenge yourself. But the world needs people who are going to take action, who are going to share strategies and find the right people to implement them if they're not going to implement them themselves in.
00;31;27;02 - 00;31;37;17
Steven Pesavento
And what you need is the result. And so if you can go out and help create results, you're going to be in a better place. So you don't have to be the number one person in the industry to do that.
00;31;37;19 - 00;31;40;05
Andy Hagans
Absolutely. Absolutely.
00;31;40;07 - 00;31;49;05
Steven Pesavento
So I know we're getting close on time. Share with the audience where they can find you, Find your podcast or or follow along.
00;31;49;08 - 00;32;11;08
Andy Hagans
Yeah, absolutely. So my my sort of online headquarters is wealth channel. We've talked about that a little bit, not too much but so wealth channel dot com that's my my sort of homepage home base these days online and it's also what hosts my podcast, which is the alternative investment podcast. And on the show I talk about a lot of the same themes we've talked about today.
00;32;11;08 - 00;32;51;03
Andy Hagans
Like I talk a little bit about entrepreneurship, but all different kinds of alternative investments, including private equity, micro private equity like we've discussed, but also the purely passive stuff. You know, how to invest passively into real estate, into hedge funds, private credit things like that. It's obviously it's a passion for me. And I just the goal of wealth channel, the goal of my show is to basically bring on the other smart people, the smartest people doing this stuff in these different asset classes, picking their brain, getting their insights and sort of gathering all that content in one place as as an educational resource.
00;32;51;06 - 00;33;13;20
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, it's a really great place if you're looking to get more knowledge and skills and connections when it comes to investing in private equity, real estate, businesses, etc., definitely check our wealth channel. We'll wrap up on this question From my view, The reason to invest, the reason to do business is create a better life. What's your definition or what's your view on creating a great life?
00;33;13;22 - 00;33;36;11
Andy Hagans
Oh boy, that's a deep question. Well, I mean, to me it is about balance. I love entrepreneurship, I love business. I would say in my early twenties I was I was not living a very balanced life. I was too focused on success in business. As I got married, as I got older, I had a family. Now I have a beautiful wife.
00;33;36;11 - 00;34;00;19
Andy Hagans
I have five beautiful kids. We go to church every Sunday or Saturday night and I'm happiest when those when those things are in balance with each other. You know, when I have a challenging job that's engaging me intellectually and then I'm working hard at it, but then when I can also turn it off in the evening and spend time with my kids and prioritize my wife so, you know, maybe that's cheesy, maybe it's what everybody says.
00;34;00;19 - 00;34;15;29
Andy Hagans
But I also think it's the truth that like, you know, just kind of living a quote unquote, normal life where things are in balance with each other. As the older I get, the more that that sounds like a good plan to me.
00;34;16;01 - 00;34;34;25
Steven Pesavento
Yeah, I think it's finding the balance for the chapter of life that you're in. There's something really, really powerful for that. And thank you so much, Andy, for joining us today. It was great talking to the I look forward to having you back on to dive into some more stuff another time. Thanks, everyone, for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.