Exit Coach Radio

Read the 5-minute summary for this episode and many others at owl.ceo. The OWL (Owner Wisdom Library) turns insights from more than 1,200 Exit Coach Radio interviews into short, practical lessons for business owners on growth, leadership, operations, and exit planning.   Bill Black interviews Don Burzen who shares tips, ideas and precautions to help business owners and their families leave their business, while enhancing and protecting the value of the business in the aftermath. We upload new content daily so check back often!

  What happens after you sell your business, and how do you prepare for the next chapter of life? In this episode of Exit Coach Radio, Bill Black talks with Peter Levitan about life after a business exit, the importance of having a post-sale plan, and the personal and financial questions that often follow a successful sale. Peter shares lessons from selling his own business, why business owners need to think beyond the transaction itself, and how clarity about goals, lifestyle, and financial needs can shape better decisions. He also discusses his move to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and offers practical perspective for owners who are asking not just how to sell, but what they want life to look like afterward. This episode is especially relevant for entrepreneurs, agency owners, and business leaders thinking about exit planning, succession, personal transition, and life after ownership. Topics include: life after selling a business exit planning and personal goals post-sale financial planning owner

How can leaders put people first while building a stronger, more resilient organization? In this episode of Exit Coach Radio, Bill Black talks with Kathleen Quinn Votaw, CEO of TalenTrust, author of Solve the People Puzzle, and professional speaker, about the importance of people continuity in today’s business environment. Kathleen shares insights on how leaders can support employee health, strengthen company culture, and prepare their organizations for recovery and long-term success. This conversation is especially valuable for business owners, executives, and leadership teams focused on talent retention, culture health, workforce planning, and sustainable growth. Topics include: people continuity putting people first employee health and engagement culture assessment leadership during recovery Special offers: Take the free Talent & Culture quiz: https://talentrust.com/quiz/ Learn more about Kathleen’s book, Solve the People Puzzle Listen for more conversations on leadership, growth, successio

              Why is business valuation a moving target, and what does that mean for your buy-sell agreement? In this episode of Exit Coach Radio, Bill Black talks with Z. Christopher Mercer of Mercer Capital about why business value can change over time and why business owners should regularly review and stress-test their buy-sell agreements. Chris explains how shifts in performance, market conditions, risk, and ownership expectations can affect valuation, and why outdated assumptions can create problems when a transition event occurs. This episode is especially relevant for owners, partners, advisors, and family businesses focused on succession planning, shareholder alignment, and long-term exit readiness. Topics include: business valuation buy-sell agreements ownership transition planning valuation risk succession and exit strategy Learn more from Z. Christopher Mercer: Website: www.ChrisMercer.net Listen for more conversations on business value, succession, leadership, and exit planning throu

What causes conflict in a family business, and how can owners address it before it damages the company or the relationships behind it? In this episode of Exit Coach Radio, Bill Black talks with Vince Mastrovito, owner of Prometis Partners Inc., about the most common sources of family business conflict and the practical steps leaders can take to manage those challenges effectively. This conversation explores how communication breakdowns, unclear roles, succession issues, and competing expectations can create tension inside a family-owned company. Vince shares insights that can help business owners strengthen alignment, improve decision-making, and protect both business continuity and family relationships. Topics include: family business conflict succession planning communication and leadership business coaching exit planning for family-owned companies Listen for more conversations on leadership, growth, succession, and exit planning through Exit Coach Radio. Join Bill Black for his weekly humor co

Mike Koenigs is an unemployable serial entrepreneur with a high-school education whose obsession with taking apart gadgets to figure out their inner workings started as soon as he could crawl. He quickly learned he has the attention span of a bag of gnats on amphetamines. His curiosity in tech, psychology, entertainment, storytelling, entrepreneurship, marketing, and spirit has taken him to Uganda where he witnessed a woman dying of AIDS in a mud hut to the great pyramid in Egypt where he chanted in the king’s sarcophagus with Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer. He has played the didgeridoo in an IMAX movie, produced a feature film, started and sold five businesses from scratch, survived stage 3A colorectal cancer, and created a video game that shipped with six million boxes of General Mills cereal. He believes entrepreneurship is an international language of peace, opportunity, freedom, and abundance.   Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com    

Steve Medland is a Certified Financial Planner and co-founder of TABR Capital Management, an independent, fee-only financial planning firm based in Orange County, California. Today, he is going to talk about issues that the Millionaire Next Door faces. Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com      

  Wayne knows websites - and how to measure their success. Questions we discuss: Why don't most websites help entrepreneurs reach  their goals? What is the number 1 mistake entrepreneurs make when having a new website built? What can/should people do today to improve the results they get from their website? Be sure to have a pen and pad ready to capture the "353 rule"! Contact at www.uglymugmarketing.com Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com  

              Skip Weisman is in the business of improving workplace communication so that small business owners can create a more positive, productive and profitable company. Questions Asked:  1) You typically work with small businesses with between 6-60 employees, why do you focus on that size/type of business? 2) How, specifically, does communication kill company profits in small businesses? 3) What are the biggest communication mistakes small business leaders make in leading their employees? Contact Info Website: www.YourChampionshipCompany.com Email: Skip@WorkplaceCommunicationExpert.com Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com    

Joe Bertotto of CU Services, LLC, is a consultant who helps develop high care, high performance, and high accountability cultures in the workplace. Joe’s work in this field began 25 years ago and his expertise is in leadership and culture development. His goal is to help leaders create a work environment where employees feel they get to come to work, instead of feeling they have to come to work. While everyone has their own unique strengths, we all can be exceptionally bad at identifying what they are.  Joe shares valuable insight on metrics for measuring strengths and weaknesses, as well as how this knowledge can be used to benefit the company and employees. He also explores the idea that individual well-roundedness may not be as important as we make it out to be. While weaknesses can’t be ignored, cultivating unique strengths can be potentially more fruitful. Joe’s tried and true process of helping coworkers understand, tolerate, appreciate, and eventually leverage one another is indispensable information f

                  Kristen Allott is the owner of Dynamic Brains, a company that optimizes brains for high stake events for better decision making, creative problem solving and health. Website: www.KristenAllott.com Email: Allott@dynamicbrainsconsulting.com   Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com      

Brandon Miller is a CEO of 34 Strong, Prominent Vistage member, and Gallup Certified Strengthsfinder Coach. He is in the business of building enduring strengths-based interdependent organizations through developing strong people, strong partnerships, and strong teams. The Strengthsfinder assessment has been gaining popularity, especially among Fortune 500 companies. Brandon is an expert at using these results to help teams communicate more effectively and improve all around.  In his interview, Brandon connects the dots between leveraging employee’s natural strengths to increase in morale, retention, and engagement. Brandon explains how the Strengthsfinder assessment is different by focusing on what is right about people rather than what is wrong. People who are using their natural talents will become more engaged, and when this is applied to entire teams, they will enjoy a healthy boost in morale. Brandon shares measurable results as well as anecdotal evidence that prove the effectiveness of his claims. As a

Debbie Lundberg is an author, speaker, and president of Presenting Powerfully. Today, she will discuss reversing the slobification of America.   Questions discussed:   1) What makes a good leader?   2) How are we motivated or driven?    3) When things don't go as planned, what next?      Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com

Andrew Bennett believes a business's ability to thrive flows from its leaders. Leaders create the conditions for people to access their potential. Through consulting, coaching, speaking, training, and writing Andrew helps leaders create workplaces that unlock the power of the human mind and spirit. Today he’ll be talking about Transformational Leadership.   Questions Answered:    1. What are the most important actions a leader can take to create an inspiring workplace? 2. What gets in the way of creating an inspiring workplace? 3. How can listeners use your information for their own transformation during their exit from what they’ve built?   Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com      

BizEquity's Valuation as a Service (VaaS)TM system was created to democratize business valuation knowledge for all business owners and the advisors who serve them. Our vision is to value every private business in the world and to make business valuation affordable, accessible, and real-time, thus ushering in the next great cloud based software and Big Data company for Small Business.   Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com  

Brad Davidson, VP of Metabolism and Performance Research at Stark, has an understatedly important job. He works with a group of highly-trained specialists to help rejuvenate high performing people, let them move more freely, look better, and have limitless energy. Energy is a leader's greatest asset and Brad’s expertise is in teaching executives which lifestyle choices they make that are limiting them from reaching their full potential. Even if you think you’re performing at your highest potential, chances are you can still improve, and Brad’s knowledge is invaluable.  In his interview, Brad explains why people who are experts at recovery are the most successful, and why dedicated downtime helps increase productivity. He also analyzes different kinds of stress and how to avoid unnecessary stress with simple changes to lifestyle choices. Identifying good sleep habits and being nourished as the most important factors in living with limitless energy, Brad takes the time to share some tips for achieving both. You

Joining us next is Elizabeth Thornton, CEO of Global Initiative of Objective Leadership and Professor of Management Practice at Babson Executive Education. After deeply and honestly analyzing why her first business venture failed, she struck mental gold by realizing the importance of objective thinking. This prompted her to further study things like psychology and neuroscience, eventually leading her to develop a course called “Principles of Objectivity.” She teaches both students and established business executives to think more objectively and avoid common cognitive errors that can inhibit personal growth and success. In her interview, Elizabeth deeply discusses the difference between subjectivity and objectivity, as well as how they apply to business. Her insight into neuroplasticity and its relevance in the workplace is truly fascinating. She offers a variety of tips on how to analyze your own thought processes, overcome your instinctual responses, and break outside of your existing mental models. We are

Best-selling author ("Built to Sell") John Warrillow is back with new research that 3 or 4 business owners who sell regret their decision just one year after sale.    Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com

In 2001, Charles Nenner founded, and is president of, the Charles Nenner Research Center. Mr. Nenner has provided his independent market research to the following entities all over the world: hedge funds, banks, brokerage firms, family offices, and individual clients. Mr. Nenner worked for Goldman, Sachs & Co in NY, from 2001 to 2008. Before that time, Mr. Nenner worked exclusively for Goldman, Sachs & Co. in London, where he served as a technical analyst for Goldman’s fixed income trading group from 1998 to 2001. From 1997 to 1998, he served as the head of trading research at Rabobank International, and from 1992 to 1994, he was head of Market Timing at Ofek Securities in Tel Aviv. Mr. Nenner served as Director of Research at Windsor NY between 1987 and 1989, and was a Financial Consultant with Merrill Lynch out of its Amsterdam Office from 1985 to 1987. Mr. Nenner initiated a system of pattern forecasting and securities analysis, and developed a computer program which takes many indicators into acco

Kerri Salls is in the business of early exit planning for owners of private and family run businesses. Join Bill Black for his weekly humor column at https://Blackpapers.substack.com