Steal It

Then literally just steal it and implement it in your own business. That's the whole idea. See what's working for someone else and adapt it for your situation.

What We're Doing

Right now in Scalepath, this is what we're doing. We have an "AI-Use-cases" channel in our Slack. It's where members share exactly how they're putting AI to work in their businesses.

The Takeaway

Skip the theory and look at what other business owners are actually doing with AI. Find examples that fit your situation and implement them directly.

You don't need to reinvent the wheel. The best ideas often come from seeing what's already working and making it your own.

Start collecting real AI use cases from other business owners today.

The AI VA

A construction company owner built himself a full AI virtual assistant. He gave her a name, a title, her own email inbox. She knows his preferences, what coffee shops he likes for meetings, what steakhouses to book, no meetings before 9am, and absolutely no meetings during golf season after 1pm.

She drafts emails on his behalf and reaches out to people as a real employee within the business. Not impersonating the owner, operating as her own person with her own email address. He was planning to hire an EA. Now he's not. Once he works the kinks out he's planning to replicate his AI VA to all his managers.

Route Optimization

A pool services company owner runs 2,500 service stops per week across 200 routes. He built a geo-optimization tool to handle route planning, something that's always been a nightmare. It works. Soon he'll hand it off to a team member. He estimates it'll save at least one fulltime role in cost, maybe two.

He also built a custom app to audit his field tech's chemical usage. He'd been trying to eyeball this stuff for years. Now he has a daily automated report that shows chemical costs at the job level, which tech was involved, and whether usage patterns point to over-application or a pricing problem.

Second Brain

A niche B2B services owner built himself a "second brain." An AI agent running on a Mac Mini on his desk, connected to all the frontier AI models via API. He loaded it with all his business context across every platform that doesn't have an API, created custom GPTs for each department so his team can query data and SOPs in one place, and set up the whole system so it can only take orders from his Telegram messages.

It logs into his platforms, pulls reports, aggregates data into spreadsheets, and can be queried in real time. He's building something now to automate deal sourcing. Separately, he's also replacing a niche industry software platform with a developer for less than $10k, layering AI workflows on top of an Airtable backend.

Vibe Coding

A home services company owner rebuilt his own version of Service Titan entirely through vibe coding. Every single tab that Service Titan has, he replicated. Then he customized it beyond that, folding in features from Pipedrive and other tools he was paying for separately.

He did it in about two months. A different company had quoted him $30,000 to build essentially the same thing. I'm sure everyone reading this is going to comment about how inferior vibe coding is to ST, but I spoke with him last week and he says it's working even better than ST. His words not mine.

Rethinking Hiring

An accounting firm owner had his whole team on ChatGPT, then switched everyone to Claude because the technical capabilities pulled ahead. He's now rethinking his entire org chart, not because AI is replacing his people, but because the skills he thinks he needs to hire for are completely different. This kind of critical thinking and decision making in the age of AI is becoming essential for business leaders.

The Takeaway

These aren't tech companies. They're construction, pool services, accounting, and home services businesses. The owners aren't waiting for perfect solutions. They're building AI assistants that know their preferences, optimization tools that save headcount, custom apps that solve years-old problems, and entire software platforms through vibe coding.

The common thread? These business owners are treating AI as a practical tool, not a buzzword. They're solving real operational problems and rethinking how their organizations should be structured.

If you're not experimenting yet, you're already behind.

Our next editions are our "Scalepath Member" deck and our "Acquisition Class of 2025" deck. We're making 250+ individual personalized cards. Printing them out on professional trading card stock and mailing entire decks to people.

Favorite Cards

The first cohort of these were pretty cool but here are a few of my favorite cards right now, featuring some SMB Twitter celebrities that you know and love.

Get Yours

I'm going to buy ~2,000 booster packs to handout at conferences. If you'd like to buy some and start being a collector, comment or DM me.

And if you're a business owner and want me to personally design and print a card for you, let me know!

Start Collecting

We're creating 250+ personalized trading cards for our Scalepath Member and Acquisition Class of 2025 decks, printed on professional stock and mailed directly to collectors.

Whether you want to grab booster packs at an upcoming conference or get your own custom card designed, this is your chance to join the entrepreneur trading card movement.

Send me amessage on LinkedIn or X to get your hands on some cards or to have one made just for you.

Let me explain what I did.

The Project

I created a collectible card series for entrepreneurs.

All generated with artificial intelligence.

This was not a joke.

This was not a product.

This was a marketing experiment for my peer group business, Scalepath.

The Numbers

121 unique designs.

250 decks.

12,500 cards total.

I did it for most of the speakers at Main Street Summit and a few friends and members of my business, Scalepath.

The Design

Each card transforms real entrepreneurs into pop culture icons that reflect who they are and what they do.

The Gamble

If this works, I am a genius.

This experiment was possible because of the community I've built meeting over a thousand business owners. See 1083 People.

If this flops, I am an idiot.

There is no middle ground here.

Time will tell if this marketing experiment for Scalepath pays off or crashes and burns.

If you like my content, follow me on X and LinkedIn.

He looked into it and discovered his Google Ads had been broken for days without anyone noticing.

The Solution

Instead of panicking, he took immediate action.

He pulled a list of 75 customers they had done work for last year.

He handed the list to 2 customer service representatives with a simple instruction: call these people.

He gave them an outbound script from a different HVAC business owner in our group.

The Results

90 minutes later, the results were in.

7 jobs booked, including one for $3,800.

Total marketing spend: $0.

Conclusion

Sometimes the best marketing strategy is not about running ads but about reconnecting with people who already know and trust you.

When one channel fails, having alternatives ready can save your business.

If you like my content, check out my LinkedIn and X.

Trades guy.

No college education.

No family money.

The Beginning

In 1979, he started a well-drilling company.

Grows it over 20 years, sells to private equity.

Stays with the buyer for 3 years, likely the same amount of time as his non-compete.

The Comeback

Then leaves and immediately starts another well-drilling company.

Stories like Randy's are exactly why I built Scalepath—to connect ambitious business owners. See Scalepath.

Now they have 125+ employees drilling up and down the West Coast.

Conclusion

Randy’s story is an awesome real-world example of what is possible when you start with nothing but determination and the drive to build something valuable.

Follow me on X and LinkedIn for more.

These gatherings are specifically designed for genuine business owners seeking meaningful connections without the usual networking pressure.

The Experience

These meetups offer a casual atmosphere where high-caliber business owners can engage in authentic conversations.

What makes these gatherings unique is that you will not encounter professional networkers or salespeople trying to pitch their services.

Where to Find Us

We will be visiting these cities:

• St. Louis
• Indianapolis
• Cincinnati
• Columbus
• Cleveland

Unique Approach

My vision is to create intimate gathering spaces where every attendee shares substantial common ground. Instead of navigating through large crowds trying to find a handful of relevant connections, you will be in a carefully curated room where meaningful discussions flow naturally.

Who Should Attend

This event is exclusively for:

I've met over a thousand business owners through events like these See 1083 People.

• Active business owners
• Entrepreneurs running their own companies
• Leaders seeking peer-to-peer connections

Conclusion

These meetups are designed to foster genuine connections among business owners in a relaxed, pitch-free environment.

If you would like to participate in these exclusive gatherings, send me a message through LinkedIn orX.

While artificial intelligence continues to evolve rapidly, there are some capabilities that will remain distinctly human, and we need to cultivate them now more than ever.

The Technology Convergence

We are witnessing an unprecedented combination of technological advances:

• AI and emerging technologies
• Lower barriers to entrepreneurship
• 50x faster app development with AI
• Access to global talent pools
• Increased data accessibility
• Widespread automation

The Real Challenge

Having information at our fingertips is not going to be the problem.

What is going to be far more challenging is knowing what to do with all that information.

Critical Skills

The skills that will become increasingly valuable include:

• Critical thinking
• Sound judgment
• Strategic decision-making
• Second and third-order thinking
• War gaming scenarios
• Decision-making documentation and training

The Human Edge

This is where humans maintain their advantage.

While AI can assist with these processes, it cannot fully automate the complex web of judgment and decision-making that humans excel at.

Conclusion

In a world where information and automation are abundant, our ability to think critically and make wise decisions will become our most valuable asset. While AI can be a powerful assistant, it cannot replace human judgment and strategic thinking.

Follow me on LinkedIn and X for more content like this.

Here’s the full story.

Real Stories

We came together to share real stories, what’s working, what isn’t, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.

There were no sales pitches. We left the surface-level networking at the door.

The entire focus was on having honest conversations with other operators who understand the journey.

Atlanta Meetup

Conclusion

These meetups are designed to combat the isolation of entrepreneurship by fostering an environment for genuine connection.

The goal is to provide a forum for sharing authentic experiences and lessons, free from the pressure of sales or superficial networking.

I’m doing these meetups all over the country, not just in Atlanta.

If you would like to join the next one, let me know by sending me a DM on X.

(This is not true for most of our members, but I’ve just heard these conversations more than I previously have).

A Different Tone

Conversations have gone from general experience sharing, planning, growth, and team development to a different tone.

Now, the sentiment is more like, “We REALLY need to get sales in the door or we’re in trouble.”

Another common theme is, “our cash crunch is the worst it’s ever been, and the end of it always feels like it’s coming but never hits.”

The Core Reasons

This shift seems to be happening for a few key reasons.

• Some folks are growing very fast, 200%+ per year in one case. Growing fast usually requires cash to fund the growth, leading to a cash crunch.
• Some of it is because people have recently acquired one or two companies on top of their first acquisition. Many sellers ran lackadaisical AR processes that were worse than the buyer thought, and it took more effort to fix than planned.
• Some of it is because of the natural J-curve that happens after you buy a company. It’s bigger and longer than most ETA knowledge really suggests.
• Some of it is just because some industries are slowing down right now. Project based businesses in our peer groups specifically in the last one to two months are hurting.

Additionally, several of our members who were never interested in bringing on investor equity are more interested than ever. They are now considering selling a small portion of the company to fund growth.

FUD Manifesting

I spoke with another business owner today who is in a couple of other peer groups.

Without me prompting him, he also said that something has happened in the last couple of months that is different.

It seems like a lot of looming FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt) is finally starting to manifest.

Conclusion

In summary, the tone of conversations among business owners is changing. The focus has moved from general growth to urgent needs for sales and cash flow, driven by everything from rapid expansion and acquisition pains to a simple slowdown in certain sectors.

This is not an isolated observation. It appears to be a recent development, suggesting that a general feeling of uncertainty is now having a real impact on how business owners are operating and planning for the future.

I am curious if others have seen the same thing, or have different opinions.

Thanks for reading! I share more on X and Patron View.

Through these groups and my conversations with over 2,000 business owners, I’ve dug into what really works—and what doesn’t.

In this podcast, we’ve tackled everything from working-capital traps and hiring discipline to burnout and the surprising reasons why some owners sell just a year or two after buying a business.

Keep reading below to get an idea of what I covered in this podcast episode.

Video Gallery

Listen to the full conversation below, or click here to watch it on YouTube.

The Scalepath Solution

I founded Scalepath to create a community for small business owners, providing a structured environment to share experiences and learn from one another.

The goal is to move beyond mere therapy and create a space where entrepreneurs can find actionable advice to grow their businesses. Each peer group consists of about eight business owners in similar niches and revenue sizes.

They meet for two-hour virtual discussions once a month to talk through mistakes, explore opportunities, and share lessons learned from their experiences.

Real-World Lessons

My conviction in this model was solidified after seeing an acquisition entrepreneur nearly lose everything.

After purchasing a large commercial HVAC installation company in late 2021, the new owner faced a perfect storm of rising interest rates, clients delaying payments, and an estimator who was significantly underbidding projects.

This experience highlighted the intense pressures and unforeseen challenges that can overwhelm even seasoned operators. It was this realization of the need for a support system that led to the creation of the first peer groups.

Building Community

Initially, these peer groups served as a form of business therapy—a place for owners to vent and connect with others facing similar struggles. Over time, the focus shifted from just sharing frustrations to driving a clear return on investment for its members. A great event, as I discovered, is small, intimate, and brings together people with similar business models and challenges. I found that a three-hour format allows for deep, meaningful conversations where everyone has a chance to contribute.

While building a national network, I also learned that organizing local, in-person events is surprisingly difficult. Entrepreneurs are busy, and getting them to commit to regular meetups requires a dedicated effort that few have the time to sustain. This reinforced the value of a structured, facilitated community like Scalepath.

The Van Life

To bring these communities together, I made a bold move: I bought a $42,000 camper van to travel the country full-time, hosting small business meetups wherever I went.

This “van life” approach became more than just a logistical solution; it turned into a standout B2B marketing tool.

Showing up in a camper van is memorable and breaks the ice, making it easier to build genuine connections.

It’s a testament to the idea that sometimes, the most effective marketing is about creating unique, personal experiences.

Key Entrepreneurial Insights

Through countless conversations, a common theme has emerged: the dream of buying a small business and running it for 30 years is becoming less desirable for many. After two to three years, many owners confront the harsh realities of growth constraints and personal fatigue from constantly fighting fires. They realize their initial vision may not align with the day-to-day grind.

Another critical lesson is the danger of undercapitalization. One of the most consistent pieces of advice shared within the groups is to take every dollar a bank is willing to offer during an acquisition. New owners often underestimate their working capital needs, and since banks are hesitant to lend more until a business has a two-year history under new ownership, that initial capital is crucial.

Conclusion

The journey of a small business owner is often isolating, but it doesn’t have to be. The real work begins after the deal closes, and having a support system in place before a crisis hits is invaluable. Peer groups provide a space for entrepreneurs to connect, share unfiltered stories, and gain actionable insights that aren’t typically found on social media.

Scalepath is built on the idea that community is one of the most valuable assets an entrepreneur can have. By learning from the wins, misses, and messy middle of others, business owners can navigate their paths with more confidence and clarity.

What you’re about to read are the real entries from a business owner’s journal—the kind of brutal honesty that never makes it to LinkedIn posts or conference stages.

From $40K hiring mistakes to celebrating when you DON’T get new business because you can’t afford the deposits, this is what actually happens when you buy a company.

Early Struggles

February 13th – Just three weeks after closing the second acquisition, the reality is setting in. The team is struggling to see projects as “ours” instead of separate entities, and cash is burning faster than anticipated. Despite a strong backlog, managing the cash cycle has become the primary concern, though there’s still hope if liquidity can be stabilized.

The honeymoon period ended abruptly. What seemed like straightforward team integration revealed deeper challenges, while cash flow management became an urgent priority that overshadowed everything else.

Crisis Mode

March 6th – Operational disasters struck simultaneously. Two major projects were executed incorrectly—one oversized, one undersized—requiring complete reworks that eliminated over $10,000 in expected profit. The first workers’ compensation claim added further delays, and working capital reached zero. The situation became so dire that missing out on a large project actually brought relief, as there wasn’t enough cash to cover the required deposits.

This period exposed the harsh mathematics of business ownership. When you’re capital-constrained, even good opportunities become threats. The gap between revenue potential and cash reality can paralyze growth completely.

Tough Decisions

March 27th – Made the difficult decision to terminate an underperforming employee whose poor fit had already cost approximately $40,000. A replacement was hired to start April 7th, representing both a financial reset and renewed optimism about team building.

Cutting losses quickly proved essential. While the immediate cost was painful, allowing dysfunction to continue would have been far more expensive. Sometimes the best business decision feels like the worst human one.

Finding Rhythm

April 17th – The new production hire appears to be an excellent cultural and technical fit. Equipment relocation to the new facility also began, marking the first significant operational progress in months.

May 8th – Personal challenges complicated business operations, but several high-margin projects provided much-needed financial breathing room.

The right personnel decisions began paying dividends. Progress felt incremental but meaningful, though the constant interplay between personal and professional pressures remained a persistent challenge.

Breakthrough Moments

May 29th – Personal and business conflicts are slowly resolving, with May tracking to become the best month to date for both sales and profit.

June 19th – Transition discussions have begun as improved financial performance becomes evident. Cash flow continues strengthening gradually, with May officially confirmed as the strongest month yet.

July 10th – June surpassed May as the best month ever, though progress still feels like “two steps forward, 1.99 steps back.” The transition work continues with cautious optimism.

Success came in waves. Each “best month ever” was hard-fought, and even victories felt incremental—two steps forward, 1.99 steps back perfectly captures the grinding nature of business growth.

Conclusion

This journey shows what acquisition stories usually hide: the sleepless nights, cash crunches, employee disasters, and personal sacrifices. But it also shows the breakthrough moments that make it all worthwhile.

This kind of raw honesty is exactly why paid peer groups outperform free alternatives. See Free Peer Groups.

Ready to read more brutal honesty from business owners? I share more on X and Patron View.

The Difference

Inexperienced business owners: hires someone they think will be great, notices a handful of red flags quickly, screws up basic things, doesn’t have the right attitude, but they keep them for a few months hoping for change.

Experienced business owner: fires that person in the first month.

The Pattern

In our peer groups I’ve seen this happen a bunch. And for some reason, that person that should’ve been fired always manages to damage a company vehicle or a client’s property (unintentionally).

Conclusion

The lesson is clear: when red flags appear early, experienced owners act fast.

The cost of waiting almost always exceeds the discomfort of making a quick decision.

Stop hoping for change and start making the tough calls your business needs.

Follow me on X for more content like this.

This milestone represents the culmination of years of building relationships one handshake at a time, hosting events that sometimes felt too small to matter, and fostering connections within the entrepreneurial community that became the foundation for everything that followed.

Taking Over

The acquisition brings together 85+ business owners in our humble peer groups, creating a powerful network of entrepreneurs supporting each other’s growth.

Michael Girdley will be staying on as an advisor, ensuring continuity and wisdom as I steward this community forward.

As Michael shared in his announcement:

Rand is the perfect guy for this seat. He’s been driving all over the country for the last 3 years, building a peer group of his own through blood, sweat, and tears. Now he’s bringing the energy, focus, and time needed to level up this community.

This wasn’t just about buying a business – it was about taking responsibility for a thriving ecosystem of entrepreneurs who depend on these connections for guidance, support, and growth.

The Journey

This acquisition would not have been possible without the encouragement and support I received from each and every one of you who has attended one of my business owner and ETA meetups over the years.

That same support allowed me to be featured in Forbes, showcasing the power of what we’ve built together. It gave me the confidence to make bold moves – like buying a $42,000 camper van to travel full time and host small business owner events all across North America.

Every event, every conversation, every connection has been building toward this moment.

What’s Next

We’re working on a bunch of new ways to help the small business owner community, and now we have more scale and power to do it effectively. The acquisition gives us resources and reach we never had before, opening up possibilities we’re just beginning to explore.

The goal remains the same: creating meaningful connections between business owners who can learn from each other, support each other, and grow together.

Now we just have a bigger platform to make that happen.

Thank You

I owe it all to you – thank you! This journey has been possible because of the incredible community of entrepreneurs, supporters, and fellow business owners who believed in what we were building from the very beginning.

Every person who attended an event, every conversation that sparked a new idea, every bit of encouragement along the way contributed to making this acquisition a reality.

This success belongs to all of us.

Thanks for reading! I share more on X and Patron View.

After watching my friend Chase Murdock struggle through several coaches before finally finding an excellent match, I realized there’s a significant gap in the market.

This observation, combined with my experience building SMBCommunity.co, sparked an idea – what if there was a better way to connect business owners with the right coaches?

That’s when I decided to start BusinessCoachList.com, a solution that could help countless business owners find their perfect coaching match.

Business Coach Discovery Problem

Finding a business coach can be tricky for a few reasons:

• There’s no centralized place to find and compare quality business coaches
• The discovery process relies heavily on Google searches and “vibes” from discovery calls
• Business owners lack clear criteria to evaluate coach-client compatibility
• The market is saturated with coaches of varying qualifications and specialties
• There’s little transparency around coaching methodologies and results

I’ve experienced similar challenges while building SMBCommunity.co, where peer groups share many characteristics with finding the right fit in a coach-client relationship.

The Solution

So I thought – “hey, what if we had an open directory of really good business coaches that was organized well with specific criteria business owners can search for. Rather than just googling, doing discovery calls, and choosing a coach based off vibes.”

BusinessCoachList.com aims to solve this problem by creating a searchable, well-organized directory that helps business owners find coaches based on specific criteria relevant to their needs.

Building with Delegation in Mind

The fun part of this project is that I have one really good employee who works for me who I’m delegating 90% of this project to.

I’m mostly giving them ideas and direction, but they’re going to do most of the work that it takes to actually build out the site, do cold email to get coaches on the platform, build the coach onboarding survey, competitive research, all of it.

This approach allows me to leverage my team’s strengths while focusing on strategy and vision for the platform.

Investment and Initial Goals

My plan is to fund the website ($1,000) and fund the SEO ($400/mo) and see if we can get good results.

What is a good result you ask?

Well, good question, I think I’m looking for 3 quick wins:

1. Getting business coaches to sign up on the website from cold email
2. Getting business owners who are looking for business coaches to use the directory
3. Collecting some referral fees when I can match people together

Primarily, if I can get great success with #2, I’ll be happy. But at the moment I’m just trying to get this rolling and get traction, there’s more opportunities down the line, but right now we just need to get a proof of concept.

Moving Forward

With a clear vision and dedicated resources, BusinessCoachList.com is poised to fill a significant gap in the business coaching marketplace.

By creating transparency, organization, and a structured approach to coach selection, we aim to save business owners valuable time and increase successful coaching relationships.

Are you a business coach looking to expand your reach or a business owner tired of the coaching discovery process? Shoot me a message on LinkedIn by clicking here.

I had no idea what to expect.

On night 2, I sat down at a dinner table with a few people.

This is how it went.

Dinner Conversation

I shared a meal with several interesting people at that table.

• Mark Edler – owner of the accounting firm Edler Zain
• Chase Murdock – owner of Decada Group, a Salt Lake City based Holding company
• Jarrett Vaucher – founder of Your Data Playbook

We got on the discussion of interesting things I’ve learned from our peer groups at SMBCommunity.co, and Mark Edler said something interesting…

“Rand, you should write a book about everything you’ve learned talking with all these business owners about the things they are struggling with”

Then, Chase interrupted with a bit of an addition, something like “yeah – some of these stories need to be shared”

Now, I don’t think it’d be a good book, I don’t think it would really sell well, and I don’t think I’d enjoy writing it.

Then I said this:

“I’m not sure if I’m really qualified to talk about small business ownership, I’m still very early in the game.”

Book Title

When Mark and Chase shared their thoughts, I thought that if I had to write a book, this is the book I’d write:

How To Make Good Decisions

Yes, yes, an extremely vague title, but this has been an idea on my mind for a while.

Why Decision-Making Matters

A few reasons why:

1. Everyone makes a few large decisions in their life, ballpark is one big decision every 3 months.
2. I have never heard of a process or system anyone uses in their lives to intentionally sit down, think, work through detailed thought exercises, gets them to write down all their options, gets them to work through a logical process of why they are making a specific decision, gets them to write down what the plan is/what success looks like, and gets them to come back months later to evaluate whether it was a good decision or not, and write down the unexpected things they did not imagine happening when they made the decision
3. I believe that by working through a process of how we make decisions, gives us the ability to measure them, which then gives us the ability to learn from them, which then gives us the ability to make better decisions in the future.

This topic is very interesting to me, because I want to learn it for myself, and I figure teaching it to others would be a good effort and a novel thing that doesn’t really exist yet as far as I can tell.

Where I Stand Today

I have 26 pages of chicken scratch on all my ideas that may be included in the book. And likely for the rest of the year it will remain as chicken scratch. I have no goal on a publishing date.

But I do have the goal of learning this for myself and documenting it along the way, which I think gets me 80% of the way there.

The Vision

In the meantime, I’ll be building the framework of “How To Make Good Decisions” as I test it out, and we’ll see where this goes.

My general goal is to turn this book into a timeless and widely renowned “How to Win Friends And Influence People” level of success.

But 99% of books sell less than 1,000 copies, so I’ve got a long road ahead.

I had the opportunity to tour his facility in Bel Glade, Florida and see firsthand the innovative work they’re doing.

Manufacturing in the USA

Manufacturing in the USA is a hot topic right now. And for good reason – companies like CLN of South Florida are proving that American manufacturing is not just alive, but thriving with innovation and cutting-edge technology.

Inside CLN of South Florida

McKenzie Reed, the owner of CLN of South Florida runs a 100% manufacturing operation specializing in three-axis CNC router tables and a machine called a channel letter bender.

Their flagship product, the Fusion, boasts a patent making it the fastest machine in the industry.

During my visit, I also witnessed their 5×10 graphics finisher in its finishing stages – literally watching a machine building itself.

These aren’t small-scale operations either; CLN sells these machines to large industrial scale wholesale sign manufacturers, including Fortune 500 companies.

Technology Behind Industrial Signs

The machinery at CLN is designed specifically for the sign industry.

Their two flagship products work in tandem:

1. The Fusion plus channel letter machine bends channel letter return, which gives industrial signs their structure.
2. The CNC router tables cut the faces and backs of the signs.

Customers typically purchase multiple machines at once, allowing them to complete industrial exterior signs from start to finish.

The process is impressive: the Fusion bends the coil, the routers cut the faces and backs, then these pieces are assembled, clinched in the back, and the result is an industrial letter ready to illuminate the exterior of buildings.

American Innovation

What struck me most during the tour was seeing American manufacturing innovation in action.

Every machine is built on-site, and the team was preparing to showcase their work at the Industrial Sign Association Sign Expo, their largest trade show of the year.

Despite McKenzie towering over me during the tour (I looked like an ant next to him!), the experience was enlightening and showcased the precision and quality that goes into these American-made machines.

Supporting US Manufacturing

If there’s one thing my visit to CLN of South Florida reinforced, it’s that we need more U.S. manufacturers like McKenzie and his team.

Companies creating specialized, innovative machinery that serves other American businesses are the backbone of a strong manufacturing sector.

Want more content like this? Follow me on X.

Jacob’s business is a fascinating dive into a world most of us only see the polished end-product of.

As Jacob put it, his company, Florida Event Decor, serves corporate events by setting up a bunch of beautiful decor.

They build out custom items depending on what clients might want, but also have a treasure trove of inventory ready to go.

The Business Model

So, how does this whole thing work?

It’s surprisingly brilliant. Event producers and managers are constantly in need of decor for their events.

We’re talking about things that make an event pop – lights, vibrant colored walls, those popular leaf walls, stylish colored chairs, you name it.

Jacob and his team build these essential items once. Then? They rent them out. And rent them out again. And again.

These pieces can be used multiple times a year for all sorts of different events.

We have a lot of inventory items that can be used at multiple events. We have a lot of different things in our inventory that come in various colors and various options… We like to have a lot of optionality to really fit exactly what the Client’s looking for. Jacob Becker

Custom Creations

But what about those events that need something a little more… specific?

Think “cowboy,” “pirate,” or “Greek” themes. This is where Florida Event Decor really shines.

Oftentimes we have clients that have specific themes or specific things that they want at their events Jacob Becker

Clients come with specific themes or unique requests, and Jacob’s team gets to work.

“Give it Back” Loop

Now, here’s where it gets even more interesting.

These event producers, who are about to make a gajillion dollars on their event, don’t want the headache of figuring out where to store these custom-built, sometimes bulky, decor items.

Penny-pinching on storage just doesn’t make sense for them. So, what happens? It’s better to just give it back to Jacob.

He takes it back, breaks it down in his warehouse, and when that themed event (or a similar one) rolls around next year, he rents it out again, repeating the cycle.

Ultimately, we try to serve that niche and provide different awesome items and different things to make these events really come to life Jacob Becker

The Crew

This isn’t a one-man show, of course.

Jacob’s got a well-oiled machine. There’s an office crew handling all the admin work and scheduling – the essential behind-the-scenes tasks.

Then there’s the installation crew, the road warriors driving to these events and setting everything up, making sure it looks perfect.

And let’s not forget the craftsman crew, the talented folks in the workshop building new stuff every single day.

Jacob was kind enough to show me around, giving a glimpse “before the magic happens because most people just see it at the event. All set up and beautiful and there’s a lot that goes into it before we actually get to that point.”

Conclusion

Build it once, sell it forever.

It sounds more like the mantra of an AI or SaaS company, doesn’t it?

But here it is, packaged in a “boring” business like event decor. And it’s absolutely amazing.

It was a pleasure getting the tour and insights from Jacob. As he said, it was “pretty fun to have the opportunity to show off all this, the different cool stuff that we do.”

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I’m incredibly humbled by this experience, and if you told me two years ago that I’d be a cover story for Forbes, I would have called you crazy.

I wanted to share some excerpts from the article that really stood out to me, but I encourage you to read the full story here.

Here’s what they wrote about me:

Owning a small business can be a solitary grind. Rand Larsen’s SMB Community peer groups give entrepreneurs a place to vent, swap advice, and learn how to survive the chaos.

Unexpected Journey

What’s fascinating about this whole experience is that I haven’t built the next unicorn startup or disrupted an industry with groundbreaking technology.

Instead, what caught Forbes’ attention was something far simpler:

For over a year, Larsen, the 29-year-old founder of SMB Community, has been crisscrossing the country in a 2019 Dodge Ram ProMaster camper van. He’s logged more than 10,000 miles hosting small business meetups in person and pitching his Zoom groups. Larsen’s van parked in Tampa, Florida.

I simply bought a camper van purely as a business tool to meet and connect with business owners across America.

Sometimes the most impactful ideas aren’t the most complex or innovative.

A Real Need

The idea for SMB Community came from a real human moment with a business owner in crisis:

“You can’t talk about this stuff with employees,” Larsen says. “Not even managers. You don’t want to overburden your spouse. And your friends just don’t get it.” The man felt completely alone. te> That conversation sparked what we jokingly called “trench therapy”—a safe space where business owners could speak candidly about their struggles without fear of judgment or competition. Real Solutions With membership at $3,000 per year, our community delivers tangible value: When the Google Business profile for 33-year-old Jack Carr’s Brentwood, Tennessee-based Rapid Response Plumbing, Heating & Cooling disappeared from the web, he turned to his SMB Community peer group. He found someone who had dealt with the same issue. With his business generating about $5 million in annual revenue—roughly $14,000 a day—the membership fee paid for itself when his peer group helped resolve the issue faster than he could have on his own. Power of Connection What I’m most proud of is watching the transformation that happens when business owners realize they’re not alone: “You build a callus,” Larsen says. “At first, people come in feeling beaten up, like they’re the only ones struggling. Then, after a few meetings, they realize ‘oh, it’s not just me.'” That moment of recognition is powerful. The psychological burden of entrepreneurship lightens when shared across multiple shoulders. Being Different Matters I’ve learned that sometimes it’s not about being the most successful or accomplished person in the room. Sometimes, it’s just about being interesting enough to stand out. In my case, it was recognizing a fundamental truth about entrepreneurship that resonated with others: “Running a small business can be an incredibly isolating experience,” Larsen says. The van, the road trips, the meetups—they’re all just vehicles for something more meaningful: creating spaces where business owners can find the support they desperately need but rarely ask for. Conclusion While I haven’t built the most substantial, transformative, or innovative company to be featured in Forbes, I’ve lived an interesting life and done something many others haven’t. And sometimes, that’s enough to make a difference. Special thanks to Forbes and Brandon Kochkodin for writing this incredible piece and sharing my story with the world. Read the full article here.

We’re all familiar with the liquidity trap — where the only way out of a growth plateau is money, but you don’t have that money.

So you get stuck.

What Is the Talent Trap?

The talent trap is the same thing but with people.

→ You need better talent to solve your problems.
→ But better talent costs better money.
→ You don’t have the money.
→ So you do it yourself.
→ But you’re stretched thin, and not nearly as good as an A player.
→ So the problem persists, slowing down growth, keeping you stuck.

And just like that, you’re circling the drain.

Real Examples

In our peer group call yesterday, one entrepreneur talked about this.

“In my case, the person I need is a salesperson. But to hire them, I’d need $250,000. The business can’t sustain $250,000 right now. So I do it myself—but I’m busy, and I’m not as good as they’d be. So I’m stuck.”

Another peer bought a business and walked straight into the talent trap without realizing it.

“The seller had wildly overstated what the team could do. The reality? Everyone needed to go—but the business can’t afford to replace them.”

By the way, the quotes are paraphrased.

Where It Appears

Talent traps happen in sales, operations, finance—everywhere.

Every good business finds a way to break out, but how?

• Offer equity in lieu of salary?
• Grind through the pain until you can afford them?
• Take on growth equity? Or more debt?

Talent Acquisition Challenge

On top of the cash problem, there’s all the other problems with finding and attracting talent in the first place.

• Local talent depends on your local market.
• Perceived risk of working in a small business versus corporate.
• “Who wants to work for a shit-stained printing company in NYC?”

Authenticity Dilemma

This entrepreneur has a hesitancy to “sell the dream” to new talent.

“’Hey, I’m buying other businesses. We’re going to scale. Join the pirate ship, it’ll be worth it. But I don’t like to lie or inflate the story too much. We all know how tough small business is.”

And that’s another challenge—most people don’t want to board a pirate ship.

They want a cruise ship, preferably one with a 401(k) and ping pong tables in the office.

So what do you do here?

If you’re in this guy’s shoes.

What’s your move??

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Here’s my rating/scoring system for what I value in coffee shops:

1. Atmosphere
2. Staff
3. Seating
4. Comfy Seating
5. Hours of Operation
6. Strong Outlet Access
7. Restroom Cleanliness
8. Music Volume
9. Water Access
10. Walkability
11. Wifi
12. Food
13. Coffee Taste

Scoring System

Here’s more about what I mean with the things I listed above.

Each criterion matters differently to me depending on how long I plan to stay and what work I need to accomplish.

Atmosphere

Think of things like tall ceilings, building materials like marble/stone/brick instead of white drywall.

Staff

Friendlier the better, if I walk into a place and it feels like it’s run by teenagers in a sitcom, I think it’s funny/funky in the best way.

Seating

Needs ample seating, nothing sucks more than walking into a place and it’s packed to the brim with no options to sit.

Comfy Seating

I will actively seek out coffee shops with couches/cushioned chairs, because I usually pick a cafe and sit down all day, wooden chairs get uncomfortable after a while.

Hours of Operation

I actively seek out places that stay open to 8 or 9pm so I have the option of working late.

This also means brewery+cafes get thrown in the mix, but breweries can get too rowdy after 5.

Strong Outlet Access

It always sucks walking into a coffee shop knowing I’ll have to move and adjust seating just to get a charge.

Restroom Cleanliness

Cleaner the better.

I’m typically spending several hours in a coffee shop, having a clean, well-maintained restroom is essential.

Bonus points for single-occupancy restrooms and those with modern fixtures that don’t require touching handles or knobs.

Music Volume

Ideally, music is present but at a low volume so I can put on headphones or take calls without Taylor Swift blaring at me all day.

Drinking Water Access

Gotta have a self-serve water station, for most coffee shops this isn’t a problem.

Walkability

I take phone calls everyday and prefer to walk around when I do.

If the area around a cafe is nice and walkable, that’s a big plus.

Wifi

Oddly enough, most Starbucks have subpar wifi, its hit or miss.

Every local cafe I’ve been to has strong wifi, so I don’t even think about this.

Food

I rarely eat at these places, but having convenience can be nice sometimes, and ideally it’s a bit more than just baked goods and mini sandwiches.

Coffee Taste

Believe it or not, this is the last thing I care about, I like most coffee, and really can’t distinguish top 5% grind from top 50%.

Even if you get a bad cup of coffee, turning it into a latte costs an extra $1.50 and makes it taste way better.

Conclusion

As an aside, my favorite cafes are the ones where I look at a beautiful interior design, staying open late, fully staffed, not too crowded, located in a nice walkable area, where I say to myself “I have no idea how this place turns a profit. But it’s awesome.”

In early 2022, I met an acquisition entrepreneur who had lost close to $2,000,000 after buying his business.

We’re eating dinner together, and something he said really hit me:

“I think I just financially screwed my family”

I had driven 4 hours to meet him, and had no idea what he was going through before sitting down.

We keep talking and talking about what he was going through,

He bought his company in late 2021, a few months later, interest rates rose.

The builders he was working with cancelled projects, and paid him even slower on jobs he’d already completed, on top of that his SBA loan payments were increasing.

Then, he went through a huge J-curve. He bought a company with almost 100 employees, and there were tons of skeletons in the closet.

Money was being lost in every conceivable way.

Underbidding jobs, then mismanaging overtime, then lackluster AR collections. You name it.

$1.8M gone. All of his working capital. In one year.

Anyways, we’re sitting down in this grungy diner, I’m trying to think of every way I can help him, when I realized he really needs other business owners he can talk to.

1. Just to have people to confide in. People to build camaraderie with through the tough times. A little therapy with people who’ve gone through similar times.
2. To actually get some tactical answers to what the hell he can do in this shit storm.

He had friends to talk to, sure. But they don’t understand or can relate with being a business owner.

For obvious reasons, he can’t talk to employees and managers.

For many entrepreneurs, even sharing all the ups and downs with a spouse isn’t ideal.

So, my now friend was basically facing the most daunting, stressful, challenging period of his life ever.

Alone.

So I offered to help him find other business owners to talk to, other people who want to collaborate and share on their journeys together.

That’s when I learned about “peer groups”

Groups of other experienced business owners, getting together to commiserate losses, celebrate wins, and share tactics, resources, and the realities of SMB ownership.

So I built 2 groups pretty quickly, just to see if they’d be helpful. And they were.

Ran them free for a year, just to help.

Eventually, I realized how fulfilling they were, to the members, and to me, and committed to it full time.

That commitment also led me to host over 30 SMB/ETA events across the U.S. with 1,000+ people in attendance this year (and we’re doing more in 2025)

During this time I’ve learned a lot about what business owners actually go through every day, and about what a successful peer group looks like, and what doesn’t work.

I’m extremely optimistic for our community’s growth over the next few months

So this is my call to action for you:

If you’d like to attend a local meetup with other small business owners, or you’d like to learn more about the peer groups

Visit the link here 🙏

Pretty wild when I think about it.

Taking a Break

I’m taking a break from events for a bit to rethink my approach and strategy.

Here’s what’s bouncing around in my head right now.

Plan

1. Small regional gatherings: I want to run intimate events for 25-50 business owners. These would be single-day sessions focused on peer learning, with some light programming and shared meals. I’d document everything to share with small business owners.
2. In-person peer groups: These would be led by members of my community.
3. Virtual peer groups: I’ve promised a lot of small business owners I’d start these. It’s finally time to launch many of them.

The Problems

I’m trying to solve two main problems for small business owners:

1. They’re feeling isolated and alone
2. They need better ways to share knowledge with each other

Big Picture

There are so many ambitious people out there testing new approaches in traditional small businesses.

They’re trying new operational tactics, but there’s not enough sharing happening.

I see a big opportunity to facilitate more of that exchange.

Topics

This covers everything from AI and automation to new software systems, employee incentives, and leadership practices.

I think I can help by creating spaces for people to share their tactics and lessons learned.

This way, everyone can reach their goals faster with fewer headaches.

What’s Next

Right now, we’ve got all these people blazing parallel trails.

I bet we could all move quicker if we combined our knowledge.

I’m just trying to figure out how to make that happen – and honestly, I’m wondering if people even want that.

Cold Email

Rory’s path to ownership started with something surprisingly simple: a cold email to the previous owner.

No business brokers. No complicated negotiations. Just genuine curiosity about what it meant to run a garden center.

That initial conversation in early 2024 quickly turned into serious discussions about acquisition, and by May, Rory had become the new owner of South Pleasantburg Nursery.

Local Roots

For Rory, who moved to Greenville in 2021, the decision to pursue this business made perfect sense.

He wanted something close to home, where he could be part of the community. As a customer himself, he already knew the nursery’s reputation for quality.

When the previous owner showed interest in retirement, everything aligned perfectly.

This kind of alignment is something I've seen repeatedly in my conversations with business owners—I write more about it in How and Why I Started My Business.

The Edge

What sets South Pleasantburg apart from big box stores isn’t just its local ownership – it’s their entire business model.

While chains like Home Depot and Lowe’s operate on consignment, paying growers only for what sells, South Pleasantburg takes a more invested approach.

“We actually buy our inventory from growers. We’re invested in every plant’s success.”

Premium Choice

During my tour, Rory shared insights about the garden center industry that most customers might not realize.

Their premium-grade soils, for instance, are carefully selected for quality. It’s a stark contrast to big box stores, where customers sometimes find growth issues in potting soil.

“We really stand behind everything we sell here,” Rory emphasizes, and it shows in their carefully curated selection.

Full Service

South Pleasantburg isn’t just about plants. The business has evolved to meet all gardening needs:

Rory's direct approach reminds me why peer groups work—real connections beat surface-level networking. See Free Peer Groups.

They maintain a thriving pond department, complete with koi fish and construction supplies.

Their selection includes high-end pottery and home goods.

Every product is chosen with their customers’ success in mind.

Video Gallery

Watch our full conversation where Rory shares his journey of acquiring this 60-year-old garden center and what makes it special in Greenville’s retail landscape.

Conclusion

What struck me most during my visit was Rory’s commitment to maintaining the nursery’s legacy while bringing his own vision to its future.

His focus on quality over quantity, genuine customer service, and strong grower relationships shows that South Pleasantburg Nursery isn’t just surviving – it’s thriving under new ownership.

In a world of big box stores and mass-market retail, this sixty-year-old garden center proves that personal touch and quality still matter in the garden business.

Stories like Rory's are exactly why I spend so much time meeting entrepreneurs across the country. I share more of these conversations in What I Learned From 256 Entrepreneurs.

Full Video Transcript

Rory Tyer: I just cold emailed the owner. Initially it was like, I want to sit down, just ask you about what it’s like owning this business. And on a follow up phone call he was like, why are you interested?

Rand Larsen: I’m here today with Rory Tyer at this garden center and nursery he just acquired. Rory, tell us a little bit about this acquisition.

Rory Tyer: Yeah, this is South Pleasantburg nursery. It’s almost 60 years old. And I’ve lived here in Greenville since 2021. We were buying plants here. My family and I was looking for a business and I wanted something that was close to home. And I just cold emailed the owner, it wasn’t listed, and asked him if he. Initially it was like, I want to sit down, just ask you about what it’s like owning this business. And on a follow up phone call he was like, why are you interested? And I said, well, I’m looking to buy a business from someone who wants to retire. And he was interested. So it kind of snowballed from there. We closed at the beginning of May this year.

Rand Larsen: That’s awesome. And tell us a little bit about what you guys sell here at Pleasantburg.

Rory Tyer: South Pleasantburg Nursery. Yeah, yeah. So we’re retail nursery and garden center. And so we sell plants. We don’t grow any of them. A lot of garden centers or a lot of nurseries will grow their own plants. But so we buy plants at wholesale, sell them at retail. And our goal is to have like the best quality plants and the highest customer service at a location that’s like really convenient for the population of Greenville.

Rand Larsen: You also sell a few other things. You sell fish, you sell fountains. Tell us about these other things you sell on top of amazing plants.

Rory Tyer: Yeah, so the former owner built a lot of ponds for people. And so we actually still have a ton of pond care and pond construction products. We sell koi fish and goldfish. We have a lot of stuff to care for them. We have some, like, home goods, a ton of pottery, indoor and outdoor fertilizers, pest control, weed control stuff. All the kind of things you think of at a garden center.

Rand Larsen: That’s wonderful. And tell us something not a lot of people know or understand about your industry.

Rory Tyer: Oh, yeah. So two things that I think are really interesting because a lot of times, like, I don’t think of them as our competitors, but if a lot of people are going to buy plants and soil and stuff, they might think of like Home Depot or Lowe’s. And something you should know about the stuff that is there. Let’s start with the soils, their Soils are not as good of quality as the stuff that we sell here. You know, potting soil in particular, we’ve had customers open the bags and find growth stuff in it. We’ve had customers buy plants and put it in their soil and call us up asking, what’s going on? And we’re like, where’d you get the soil? And they’re like, oh, well, from a big box store. And the reason, it’s just lower quality, which is part of why they. Why it’s cheaper. So the soils we have, like, we really stand behind. And that’s true of a lot of independent garden centers, IGCs. The other thing I would say is if you look at Lowe’s or Home Depot, you see a lot of plants, and a lot of them seem pretty cheap. And the reason they can do that is because they don’t actually buy their plants from the growers. They have them, and they only pay the growers for what they actually sell. If you return a plant to Home Depot, it’s not off Home Depot nose. That’s off the grower. And we don’t do that. So, like, we source plants that we think people that, like, work in people’s yards and that we think people will love, and we strive for really high quality partnerships with our growers. And so we just have a much more locally focused quality approach, and I think that stands out to our customers when you look at our inventory.

Rand Larsen: That’s wonderful, Rory. Well, thanks for showing me around your nursery, man. It’s been great getting to know you for the past couple years.

Rory Tyer: Yeah.

Here’s how I turned my van life van into an unexpected B2B marketing success at Main Street Summit.

Decision

The story is, I initially skipped the Main St. Summit —since I run my own events nationwide, paying to attend others isn’t as valuable to me as it might be for others.

Then, the day before, friends started texting asking if I’d be there. That’s when it hit me.

I have this eye-catching van that attendees would recognize.

Why not grab an entry-level ticket ($250), park right by the venue ($1.25/hour), and run van tours all day for people I hadn’t met in person yet?

Strategy

1. Create a memorable story worth sharing for years.
2. Low investment ($250 ticket) with potential business returns and at minimum, it provides me an opportunity to build my brand.
3. Even with racking up parking tickets, one new customer covers all costs.
4. Perfect opportunity for an unconventional marketing play.

The decision – it sounds like a fun “Rand” thing to do.

The Execution

So I drove from Nashville to Columbia, Missouri, secured a prime corner spot right by the venue, and announced “come one, come all.”

During any downtime, I’d stand outside the van, catch familiar faces walking by, share my story, and give them the tour.

The Unexpected Wins

Funnily enough, what started with a basic ticket turned into VIP access — on the last day of the event, one person I gave a tour to, offered up his guest “gold pass”, and I was given equal access to the event as if I had a $5,000 ticket.

The story got even better. Over dinner, the Mayor of Columbia mentioned they weren’t issuing parking tickets during the event weekend.

Event Sneak Speak

Check out the bus here.

The Impact

In just one day, nearly 100 people toured my $42,000 van life van.

It proved itself as the ultimate B2B marketing tool – no questions needed.

Now, I just need to actually wrap the darn thing.

Next step: wrapping it NASCAR-style with SMB Community logos and touring the rest of the country.

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I just bought this camper van to travel the country and host small business meetups everywhere I go.

Earlier this year I took an impromptu road trip across the New England and Midwest regions of the US, hosted 13 meetups for business owners and acquirers over just 5 weeks.

Originally, I just did it because I thought it’d be a fun life adventure, everyone LOVES meeting up with fellow entrepreneurs in person but few people are building spaces for that to happen, and candidly it was a marketing experiment for my business — SMB Community – a peer group for small business owners.

I met ~300 people during that first trip and was blown away by the positive feedback I received.

Since then, I’ve hosted events for another 400+ people between events in Dallas, Tampa, Seattle, Las Vegas, Atlanta, Charlotte, and a handful of other cities.

People want to meet in person, learn, build community, build camaraderie, and I enjoy making that happen.

I’ll be posting a lot more about this journey, and I’m relying on you good folks reading this right now to encourage your business friends in various cities to attend my events.

Next events are Madison Wisconsin, Chicago, NYC, Fort Worth TX, Austin TX, St. Louis, Nashville, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Louisville, and every major city in Florida.

If you’d like to be invited to your local SMB meetup, please follow me and comment your city below!

Join me on the road to hosting events for >1,000 people 💪

What started as a simple pre-dawn ride to catch my flight to Vegas turned into an impromptu obstacle course through the darkness of early morning suburbia—and a conveniently placed construction site.

Unexpected Detour

“Bit of an insane story. Our Uber broke down, we got a flat tire… I recorded onto my phone, trying to make light of the situation.”

Picture this: it’s 4:30 a.m., and the quiet morning darkness is rudely interrupted by the sound of a tire breaking down, basically saying “I’ve had enough.”

My Uber driver’s expression said it all—we were truly stranded. No jack, no tire iron, just questions running through my mind:

“Am I going to make my flight?”
“Did I leave myself enough time to get to the airport, check in, and board my 6 a.m. flight?”

“Should I just go home?”

With each passing minute, I thought to myself, “This is nowhere near the trip I thought Vegas would start out as.”

Great Escape

I thought so, but oh boy, was I about to be proven wrong.

With my flight’s boarding time ticking closer, I did what any desperate traveler would do—called a Lyft. Simple solution, right?

Well, that’s when the chaos ramped up a notch.

It was 4:20 a.m., and my flight was departing at 6:00, with boarding starting at 5:20.

I was really cutting it close.

Urban Wilderness

The GPS had other plans, routing my emergency Lyft to a nearby construction site. You ask, “What stood between me and my ride?”

“We have to hike down this because our new driver is going to be pulling up there, new challenge. The rock wall.”

This is how it went down:

Me, luggage in tow, channeling my inner explorer through a makeshift jungle, racing against time to reach my Lyft and make my flight.

I forgot to mention—all while navigating a field of 6-foot-tall grass and a rocky trench obstacle course that even Bear Grylls would be proud of.

Video Gallery

Want to watch the full misadventure unfold in real-time, including my live commentary

Check out the full video on my X profile.

Morning to Remember

Looking back, it wasn’t the morning I planned, but it’s definitely become one of those life stories that gets better with each retelling.

Sometimes the best adventures are the ones you never signed up for.

After this morning’s chain of unfortunate events, I’ve made an executive decision: the Vegas slots can wait for another trip.

I think I’ve pushed my luck enough for one day.

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Remote Vans thinks they’ve cracked the code.

I toured Remote Vans’ Cincinnati facility with 20 of my friends.

Here’s the full story,

$300K Van Revolution

Remote Vans is disrupting the luxury van market with builds reaching up to $300,000.

Their Cincinnati facility focuses on quality in an industry plagued by post-COVID reliability issues.

Their secret weapon? Custom engineering like the innovative two-person swivel seat – perfect for sunset beers with mountain views.

Quality Over Quick Profits

The van market has a problem: $220,000 builds losing $85,000 in value within six months.

Remote Vans spotted an opportunity. They’re betting on premium builds that hold value while competitors’ vans fall apart.

Business Titans Tour

The facility tour attracted notable entrepreneurs, including Colin King, whose holding company generates $28M in annual revenue.

King recently acquired Vermont Teddy Bear Company, North America’s largest teddy bear manufacturer, which alone generates $10M in annual sales.

Video Gallery

Want to watch the complete tour of Remote Vans’ facility and hear from successful business owners?

Check out the full video on my YouTube channel.

The Power of Business Owner Events

The Cincinnati event proved exceptional. Five attendees requested the contact list – a rare occurrence that signals strong networking potential.

Future events are expanding to:

• Pittsburgh
• Las Vegas
• Seattle
• San Francisco

Conclusion

Remote Vans is redefining luxury van life through quality-first engineering.

The growing SMB Community proves business owners crave meaningful connections beyond typical networking events.

I’ve broken down the most valuable tactics he shared with me, from revenue mix to fleet focus, inventory management, multiple locations, service and repairs, and more.

If you’re in the trailer business or thinking about getting in, this is the stuff you need to know.

Video Gallery

1. Revenue Mix

Here’s the first thing I learned walking through Shane’s operation – you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. The real money comes from multiple streams:

Shane’s average trailer is $9,000, and yes, that’s great. But what keeps him stable? It’s having his hands in everything.

• Steady service revenue stream from repairs and maintenance.
• Parts department providing consistent cash flow.
• Service any brand trailer, not just the brands they sell.

When trailer sales slow down (and they will), Shane can use other revenue streams to keep the lights on and continue to provide stability during market fluctuations.

2. Fleet Focus

Shane is a big fan of fleet customers, they’re absolute game-changers. He specifically goes after businesses that run multiple trailers.

• Focus on businesses operating 5+ trailers.
• Implement a dedicated sales role for fleet acquisition.
• Prioritize multi-trailer purchase opportunities.
• Develop recurring service relationships with fleet operators.
• Create comprehensive fleet maintenance programs.

Whatever they need, they will always come back. It’s like having a subscription business in the trailer world.

3. Inventory Management

This one’s crucial, and Shane learned it the hard way. Success in this business isn’t just about having inventory – it’s about having the RIGHT inventory and managing it properly:

• Utilize floor plan financing to maintain larger inventory.
• Establish relationships with multiple manufacturers.
• Maintain ready-to-sell inventory for immediate customer needs.
• Share inventory across locations to maximize selection.
• Monitor inventory turns and adjust purchasing accordingly.

You want to make sure you monitor your inventory regularly – every day a trailer sits, it costs you extra money, and unsold inventory isn’t smart.

4. Multi-Location Strategy

Shane strategically places his locations 30 minutes apart, close enough to share inventory, but far enough to avoid cannibalization.

• Establish locations within a 30-minute drive of each other.
• Implement a unified inventory management system.
• Enable selling from the total inventory pool (250 vs 100 units).
• Develop location-specific specialties.
• Share resources and expertise across locations.

This isn’t just about having multiple locations; it’s about how they work together.

When a customer walks in, they have access to everything they own, not just what’s on that lot.

5. Employee Compensation

Shane is very clear about this tactic – your compensation structure can make or break your growth.

• Structure commissions based on gross profit.
• Implement enhanced bonus structures for growth periods.
• Add corporate-style benefits to attract top talent.
• Create incentives for upselling and customer retention.
• Pool commissions for service/parts teams.

When the company wins, everyone wins – that’s not just talk, it’s in their paychecks.

6. Service Expansion

Want to know where the real opportunity is? It’s in expanding your service capabilities beyond basic trailer work.

• Offer chassis and suspension work on RVs/travel trailers.
• Develop full fabrication and customization capabilities.
• Provide comprehensive service offerings beyond basic repair.
• Train technicians in multiple specializations.
• Implement a complimentary inspection program.

Shane’s technicians are trained across multiple specialties because versatility equals profitability.

7. Strategic Partnership

Here’s something most dealers miss – strategic partnerships can double your business if you do them right.

• Establish relationships with rental companies.
• Create cross-referral programs.
• Share customer bases where beneficial.
• Secure service contracts for partner fleets.
• Leverage partner relationships for market expansion.

We partnered with rental companies – they store their trailers on our lot, and we get all their repair work and first shot at sales when they upgrade their fleet.

In this case, you’re not just a dealer anymore, you’re part of a larger ecosystem.

8. B2B Service

If you want to grow fast in this business, you need to think like a B2B company, not a retail store.

• Assign a single point of contact for each business customer.
• Implement priority service for fleet customers.
• Develop comprehensive maintenance programs.
• Focus on minimizing customer downtime.
• Create efficient communication protocols.

The whole service model is built around getting business customers back on the road as quickly as possible.

9. Market Positioning

Here’s the truth – competing on price is a race to the bottom.

• Focus on service quality over price competition.
• Provide full lifecycle support (sales, service, parts).
• Implement corporate-style benefits and operations.
• Develop a professional image distinct from basic trailer lots.
• Build a reputation for reliability and expertise.

When a business owner needs a trailer, they’re not just buying the metal – they’re buying the confidence that you’ll keep them running.

10. Inventory Optimization

Let me share something crucial about inventory – it’s not about having everything, it’s about having the right mix.

• Stock units ranging from $2,500 to $50,000+.
• Balance common and specialty trailers.
• Maintain relationships with multiple manufacturers.
• Stock based on business customer requirements.
• Monitor market trends for inventory adjustment.

Remember to constantly watch what moves and what sits, and adjust to demand.

Conclusion

These tactics can work, but they’re not a magic bullet. Every market is different, and you’ll need to adapt these strategies to your situation.

For another trades success story, see my piece on Randy Holt's well drilling journey. See From Well Drilling To Success.

Business insights like Shane's are what we share in Scalepath peer groups. See Scalepath.

Many dealers have tried to implement everything at once and get overwhelmed. Start with what makes sense for your business right now.

Focus on building one area at a time. What I’ve learned is that the most successful dealers aren’t just selling trailers – they’re building a complete solution for their customers.

Follow me on X for more content like this.

We discuss my journey into entrepreneurship, my retirement industry ventures, and my journey visiting 10 states in 4 weeks and meeting 200-300 successful entrepreneurs.

Video

Watch the full video by clicking here.

Or watch below:

Video: What Rand Larsen Learned From 256 Successful Entrepreneurs

Full Transcript

Matthias Smith: Awesome. Well, Rand, good to be here in Salt Lake with you and on the standalone podcast episode to talk business, buying, operating, and just ETA community stuff.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, it’s gonna be really fun. Thanks for putting this together. This is Matthias bringing us together to talk about podcasts on this podcast.

Matthias Smith: Yep.

Rand Larsen: And here for SMBash. And we’re pumped to see a bunch of people for more community stuff. It’ll be fun.

Matthias Smith: Absolutely. How’s it traveling in?

Rand Larsen: It was good. It was good. Like normal flights. Nothing to complain about.

Matthias Smith: Nice. Yes.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, I have trouble, like, working on airplanes, but doing a bunch of preparation for what we’re gonna be talking about today here, man.

Matthias Smith: Yeah, well, you’re wearing the shirt for this, the Rand Run. So let’s dive right in. I’d love to hear about your background pre-ETA community building, business, buying stuff. Can you talk about it from the ground floor, you know, college onward? And then from there, can you segue into the SMB space?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah. I think a lot of people start these podcasts and they were, like, entrepreneurial from a very young age. They were starting lemonade franchises. And I wasn’t really that way until college. I’d probably say that the youngest I started in the general entrepreneurial space was just investing. I started investing when I was 16 in stocks. In college, I tried to make that a thing and day trade, which did not go well. I lost a bunch of money. Do you have any good stories?

Matthias Smith: Of stocks that you day traded?

Rand Larsen: I have a couple. I was a part of our—I went to Boise State, and I was part of our student-managed investment portfolio where we managed, like, 300, 400 grand for a variety of investors who wanted to basically give a bunch of college kids free money to play with. And I made two large investments there. One went really well, one went kind of poorly. The one that went really well was really just lucky. It was a triple-leveraged S&P 500 tracker. So I think the stock ticker was UPRO. I was like, well, if the S&P 500 is so reliable and steady and always goes up, why don’t we just get three times that? That does not work for a bunch of reasons—it is pretty dangerous, especially in turbulent times where you’re not really certain that things are going to go well. It just does not work like that. But I got lucky, and we were in that investment for six months, sometime in 2017 to 2018. And we ended up with a 30, 40% gain. My professor—we switched professors, and the first professor was laissez-faire. He was just like, yeah, go for it. Invest in whatever you want, sure, I don’t care. And then the next professor came in, he was like, whoa, what the fuck are we doing?

Matthias Smith: Right?

Rand Larsen: And I was like, what do you mean? And then he told me why this idea had paid off, but it was a bad idea. And then the other ticker was a chemical company, which I was like, well, yeah, everyone needs chemicals. But for reasons that I don’t know, it just took another 30% dip during a similar period.

Matthias Smith: Interesting.

Rand Larsen: Chemours, or it was a spin-off of a larger chemical company.

Matthias Smith: Buying something that’s doing, like, 3x or a magnifier of the S&P in turbulent markets, to some degree, is almost like putting an extra turn of EBITDA leverage on a project-based revenue SMB. And we’ll get there, right?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, but it’s just much more dangerous, right? Well, and then, you know, as we’re moving forward, I got a corporate job out of college, didn’t really like it. Moved to startups with more—I don’t know, I thought, you know, I’m a generally ambitious person. So I started—the first startup I joined was a company called Pharmacann, a very small team selling cannabis to seniors to solve things like arthritis, dementia, and psoriasis. Went okay there, but left there, started making—started my own company making documentaries about seniors in retirement communities to preserve life stories and legacy for future generations of people’s families. I could tell you about how that panned out. I started B2C selling to the grandparents. Didn’t work, went to their children. They loved the idea, but it still didn’t work. And I actually pivoted to a B2B model where the plan was to get other videographers work because the idea of these is really good. And what you can do is you can take the videos, the documentaries that you actually film in the retirement communities, do them for the residents for free, and give those materials—give marketing materials back to the residences to use on their social media pages, on ads, as well as, you know, these facilities give 30 to 90 tours a month to prospective residents and their children. And so this, you know, these documentaries would have been a valuable proposition for them that no other retirement community had around them. Super passionate about that, and it worked.

Matthias Smith: Okay, how did you come up with the idea?

Rand Larsen: You know, I don’t know. You just iterate until you find a good customer. The idea was good. Everyone told me they loved it, and then no one would pay for it, which was frustrating. So yeah, it’s very simple. You start scratching off customers. Okay, can’t sell to the grandparents. Children are still difficult because they can’t convince their grandparents to buy into it. But you can absolutely give away a free product that turned into marketing for someone else because, you know, you raise those communities’ occupancy rate by a 70 to 80% difference—for those, that specific gap is hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit for most.

Matthias Smith: Most communities everywhere love free.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. COVID killed that business pretty quickly. We were in Washington State. We got hit very early on by COVID, and, you know, no one knew what was going on with COVID. No one knew when it was going to end. And in July, I was finally like, this is not gonna end anytime soon. Started figuring out the next thing. Heard a podcast, Brent Beshore, talking about buying companies. That sounded a lot easier than starting companies.

Matthias Smith: Which pod was that you’re asking?

Rand Larsen: That was My First Million.

Matthias Smith: Oh yeah?

Rand Larsen: Yeah. Still like those guys. Fantastic pod, listen to all the time. So listened to that. Jumped on Twitter, found a bunch of other people, which is where, you know, other M&A people are. Which is where the next part of the journey is—where I meet a guy named John Wilson who’s hiring an entrepreneur-in-residence to train someone how to buy and run companies, either for him in his portfolio or to invest in them.

Matthias Smith: What year was this from a timeframe standpoint?

Rand Larsen: This was 2021.

Matthias Smith: So I got on Twitter March of ’22. So this would have been the year before me.

Rand Larsen: You said you got on Twitter March of 2022. Yeah, then this was the year before you, pretty much exactly. I think I started working for John in March or April.

Matthias Smith: Got it. Okay. So you get on Twitter, you kind of go down the rabbit hole of sorts.

Rand Larsen: Yeah.

Matthias Smith: You connect with John, and then what happens next?

Rand Larsen: I move out. I moved to Ohio. I was born and raised in Washington State, so it’s a 44-hour drive, and you lose the timezone difference. So I moved to Ohio.

Matthias Smith: Why Ohio?

Rand Larsen: That’s where John is. That was, you know, where he’s buying and running companies—plumbing, septic, HVAC, skilled trades businesses.

Matthias Smith: So the job had to be—

Rand Larsen: Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. Well, initially when we were talking, there were others—I’d sort of beat out other private equity people who could actually help him buy companies because I had this weird—He wanted to start, own, and operate a podcast.

Matthias Smith: And—

Rand Larsen: And, you know, I had this weird background with videography and making documentaries, which I think he liked. And then the other private equity people who were applying for the position wanted it to be remote. And I was like, that is a stupid decision to have this cool of an opportunity. I’m like, I don’t care if you give me the job. Whoever gets it should be in person, though, because it was a phenomenal opportunity. I still think I probably got dealt an incredible hand that no one else got. There are other people hiring entrepreneurs-in-residence, but it’s a couple of people—like Kelsey Larrick, Michael Girdley—but I don’t think many other people got the amount of access that John gave me.

Matthias Smith: And, like, think of it, in all honesty, I mean, who wouldn’t want Rand Larsen instead of, like, Archibald Proctor the Third, right? Like, the PE guy from Wharton or Harvard. You’re just more fun to work with, honestly.

Rand Larsen: You know what? I appreciate you saying that. It’s interesting when I think back because I look back and, like, even something—the early acquisitions anonymous episodes—I was like, guys, can you please spell out what EBITDA is? I don’t even know how to spell that to Google it online. Can you please tell me what the acronym is? And that is the lack of information that I had going into acquisitions. I knew nothing interesting.

Matthias Smith: So let’s segue back for a second. You went to college in Idaho. When I think about Idaho, I think about Napoleon Dynamite and, like, “Hey, Tina,” whatever the phrase is. What is it like living in Idaho? And then also, you’re in a frat, too. I was looking at your LinkedIn to prepare for this. Any good stories that you can share there? I know there’s kind of a code of conduct, right? What happens in the frat stays in the frat. But what got you to do that? And then just Idaho living.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, Idaho living first. I mean, it’s super outdoorsy, lots of kayaking, a couple of fun lakes there, boating. Very, very outdoorsy. Probably my favorite place to park this—that’s a part of the city. Good, decent hiking. Tons of foothills around the area. Really like Boise. And for the fraternity—so, I don’t know. There’s fun stories. I was our risk management chair, which meant that, yeah, I had to deal with all of the shit that came down from any type of issue.

Matthias Smith: So you’re that guy.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was—I don’t know—I was bulking during the time, so I was literally the big guy in a leather jacket who was standing at the front door deciding who gets in and who doesn’t.

Matthias Smith: Interesting.

Rand Larsen: And some nights that was much more difficult than others, like on Halloween or any type of large party. We called them sober brothers, and I was sober most of the time.

Matthias Smith: Was there a pretty big Greek scene at Boise?

Rand Larsen: No, no, no, not really. The fraternity I was in was Tau Kappa Epsilon. And, you know, a lot of other colleges have actual houses dedicated to them. We just had people’s duplexes.

Matthias Smith: Interesting.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah.

Matthias Smith: So I went to Wisconsin-Madison. You may or may not know, I actually rushed a fraternity. Long story short, I decided not to. But there were a couple that got disbanded or disbarred from campus while I was there.

Rand Larsen: It’s a problem, man. It’s a problem. There’s some cult-like behavior that goes on. We didn’t do anything nefarious, certainly.

Matthias Smith: No, yeah. When you were there, no one died, I take it.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, no one died. No one died.

Matthias Smith: Good.

Rand Larsen: That I know of.

Matthias Smith: Yeah. So going back to—so, okay, pivoting from frat life to being the entrepreneur-in-residence working for John. What was the day-to-day like doing that? What did you do?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, I’d probably say there were maybe three main activities we did every day. One was honestly just learning and shadowing John. I shadowed a lot of seller calls. I obviously didn’t play a part in negotiations, but taking notes and watching John go through the process of acquiring a company, sitting in on phone calls, that kind of stuff. Another part was just Own an Operator. We were getting it off the ground, so that was a large project. And then, early on, I was in kind of a do-everything role. So we let go of our recruiter at the time. I stepped into those shoes for a month or two and just started hiring plumbers, drain techs, that kind of stuff. Let’s see. And later on, we got into actual operations. So it’s hard to say because that role had to do a little bit of everything. But eventually, we bought three companies, like, six months apart from each other, which is a ton of work. During that time, I built and documented everything that we were doing so we could basically hand off my role to anyone who wants to be the new acquisitions assistant to John.

Matthias Smith: So making SOPs, just—

Rand Larsen: Yeah, we have a 55-page document I built to walk someone through everything that you could want to know about basically helping John buy companies. We built our SOP or a wiki sort of, but it was really just a Google Sheet with a timeline of when do you get certain pieces of seller’s information—like bank statements, tax returns—when do each of those things fall, when do you need them, and when do they need to be communicated by the bank? And we used a lot of Live Oak’s information to create our own organized system of it because a lot of times when you work with a bank, it’s like, “Hey, by the way, now we need this.” And then you get that, and they say, “Okay, now you need this.” And you have to go back to the seller, say, “Hey, now I need more information. Why didn’t we just do this last week?”

Matthias Smith: Basically, the process is piecemeal, right? Because they want one thing, then that—

Rand Larsen: Leads to the next versus just getting all of it at once. It’s just an annoying process, and it should have been done better. And now we built it to know all of the information we need immediately. So instead of a bank coming to us and requesting something and us going to the seller to get it, we would already have it. So we could email the bank the same day and then wait for them to come back to us a week later and ask for the next thing, which we had already gotten also.

Matthias Smith: Now, were these SOPs all written, or were any of them Loom videos? I know now some people talk on Twitter about making the Looms to train the VAs, and they can train the next VA, and before you do it, you have the Russian army of VAs—

Rand Larsen: Helping you buy an egg carton company. That’s a cool story—Sarah Miller. Yeah, we did a bunch of Loom videos as well. I’d probably say that the big three core pieces were maybe two or three Loom videos, but they were an hour each, walking through each stage of an acquisition process or just explaining it. And then a second part was the large Google Doc, which was just a ton of writing. And then the third piece was a Google Sheet, which again was just, “Hey, here’s the pieces of information checklists, when you need to get it, by which stage of the information-gathering process you need to get that information.”

Matthias Smith: Got it, got it. So you went from working for—so one thing I want to cover is you went from working for John to starting the peer groups thing.

Rand Larsen: Yeah.

Matthias Smith: And then there is a transitional period between there where you’re doing ghostwriting stuff. Walk through that. What brought you from being the entrepreneur-in-residence for John to pivoting to the ghostwriting and then doing the community-building stuff now?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah. This is a funky transition. So the plan when I was working with John was to go buy and run a company and for him to invest in me to do that. I started that journey, and I started it prematurely. I didn’t have the amount of cash to retain the amount of equity that I would want in an acquisition. Buying a company, going through five years of work, and giving away 80, 90% of the equity to someone else just didn’t make any sense to me.

Matthias Smith: Right. And I think you probably have to be the one guaranteeing it too, right?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that’s—it just didn’t make any sense to me versus me just starting my own business, making another 100 or 200k to then go and actually put down most of a down payment and give away 10% equity instead of 80%.

Matthias Smith: And doing more of the common preferred model with you being the majority common holder and preferred being different.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah. So anyways, I started that prematurely. I was like, okay, I got through the LOI process and basically saw, you know, if I got into dead deal fees, I would have to go back to a W-2 and work to recoup that for another year until I go buy another company and restart the process. I was like, this is not a smart thing to do because dead deal fees would set me back years if that happens.

Matthias Smith: And, like, in all honesty, who wants to go back to a W-2? I mean, you have to—

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah. Now it’s much more difficult before I go back. So one skill I had was just social media, media writing. I hit up a bunch of friends, asked them, slowly built a small clientele. I tried to scale that business a little bit, which just meant hiring other writers, which proved to be incredibly difficult. Good writers are very, very hard to find. It’s hard to get them to care about a client’s work. But, you know, I realized at that time, once I was like, okay, this is gonna be a very difficult business to scale, I had this other thing which I had been doing for a while. While I was working with John Wilson, I took a vacation, went home to Washington State, and I met up with a buddy who had recently bought a large commercial HVAC installation company. I go to visit him and just—

Matthias Smith: Have curiosity to pop in. Is this someone on Twitter that I know?

Rand Larsen: They’re not active. No, no, you probably do not know them. Okay. So anyways, I go to meet this person. I’m not gonna say their name because, for everything I’m about to say, I’m not gonna say their name. They were going through an incredibly difficult period of their business. They had a large exposure to construction and installation and worked with a ton of builders. I think interest rates had just risen at this time, which was spring 2022. The first interest rates rising had just been announced, and that caused builders to pull jobs. It caused them to pay him even slower on work that he had already performed. This leads to a ton of cash flow problems.

Matthias Smith: Yep.

Rand Larsen: You know, he’s five, six months into the acquisition, so he’s just getting punched in the mouth with all of these pains that keep happening. And I’m talking with him. We’re at a diner, just chatting. And it’s very clear within 10, 20 minutes of talking that he’s in distress. And he starts bringing this stuff up to me. And after a while, I’m like, how can I help this person? I’m just trying to act like a therapist, right? Just asking him, how does he get out of it? And after a while, I’m like, I can’t help this person. I was managing our septic and drain company at the time. We were doing a quarter of his sales.

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: And, you know, I have no ownership, no equity in the business. So he’s just at a completely different stage. I say, “Hey, man, you need other people who actually relate to you, who share these similar problems with you, and talk to them regularly because I am not the person who’s gonna help you solve these problems.” And he says, “Yes, I need other people.” But he didn’t have them at the time. I had a small following on Twitter. I was like, “Well, would you like it if I tried to get people together for you?” And he said, “Yes, that would be amazing.” I sent out a few tweets. I’m sure if you scroll far enough back, you can find them. And that’s how we started the first peer group.

Matthias Smith: Got it, got it. Super, super cool story. So basically trying to help someone solve a problem where you yourself did not have the solution at hand, but you knew the people collectively that were in that industry that would be okay. And that was the impetus.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. I think that first—it’s like, I didn’t even know what a peer group was back then. And I think that first peer group had just a very random collection of people who—it was mostly just a business therapy call. We’ve moved on to something way more professional now. I was gonna say way more—just more professional now. More structured on feedback and getting advice and helping each other run better companies versus just complaining to each other. But there’s an element where, you know, you do one event with another business owner who understands you about something shitty happening in your company.

Matthias Smith: Yeah. And so the comment you mentioned just while you were talking on that point, I was looking at prime over time here, and it’s jumped. I mean, I remember back a couple of years ago—my phone’s being slow, so I don’t want to sidetrack the podcast—it was like three and a half, and now it’s eight and a half. And so if you’re taking out debt when prime is three and a half or four, and then it goes up, if you don’t have a good debt service coverage, you’re gonna be—

Rand Larsen: And this was a maximum. You know, he took out every dollar of debt he possibly could.

Matthias Smith: Wow.

Rand Larsen: Yeah.

Matthias Smith: Okay, so the next thing I want to talk about—so the peer groups you covered, how you started that. How has that developed since you started that?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah. So we started that first peer group, we ran it for free for a little over a year, started another peer group, ran that one for free, and eventually, you know, when it came time to move from the ghostwriting business to the next thing, when I realized the ghostwriting was not gonna work—the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze is actually the appropriate term. It’s just, you can grow it, it’s just a ton of work.

Matthias Smith: When was that from a timing standpoint? Like, year, month?

Rand Larsen: Man, I honestly can’t remember it. Sometime later 2022.

Matthias Smith: Got it. Okay.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, that was around the same time. It was January 2023, I think. I told myself I was gonna take the peer groups a lot more seriously, and it took me a while to actually do that and to actually get out of doing the ghostwriting, but that was around the same time. It was January 2023 when I at least wanted to make the transition to the peer groups. Sorry, your question—there was more on the transition.

Matthias Smith: Yeah, yeah. So more on the transition side. Like, going from the ghostwriting to the peer groups and having that become what it is now, where you have multiple ones that are built out. What did that look like as far as building, getting the traction in the peer groups, and making that pivot, if that question makes sense?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, the—I mean, the first thing I did was I was like, well, is this worth being the thing? And I think I had started—it was just those two peer groups. I was like, well, I’ve been doing this for these guys—one peer group for 12, 14 months, another peer group for six, eight. And I said, well, if I’m gonna figure out if this is a good business model, some percentage of people in these groups are gonna pay me. And so that’s the validation right there—actually charging for the thing that you want to build a business on. And it works. One peer group was a little bit more of a struggle. I had to really convince people. Another one was just like, yeah, sign me up, let’s do this. And then after that, moving even deeper, it just goes into the classic, I don’t know, put-one-foot-in-front-of-the-other story of being a business owner. I’m like, okay, try to launch new peer groups. You probably can—again, you can scroll through most of my Twitter and see, okay, this is when I really started launching it. Yeah, I launched three peer groups at the same time. I expected them all to go really well. I’m pretty sure they all failed. It’s such an interesting thing that I’ve learned—what makes a good peer group and how the ones that I thought were going to succeed easily totally failed. Not totally failed—they just weren’t good enough for people to pay to commit to.

Matthias Smith: I feel like that’s kind of the classic story of entrepreneurship to a degree. Like, peeling the onion back a layer, right? Sometimes you have an idea, you want to see if it’s gonna work, and you just have to test it. Unless you’re buying a business, when you’re starting something, you don’t always know if there’s product-market fit. And it sounds like that was what you were working to figure out. You got the three going, and some worked, some didn’t.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It is just—does it actually make money? I think everyone has ideas of great businesses, and I have the same thing all the time, but the proof is, does it actually make money? Especially when you’re getting it off the ground. You can see a bunch of people’s business ideas on Twitter, and the number of times that they actually charge for something and make money from it is—I’m guessing it’s lower than the amount of ideas people put out on the internet.

Matthias Smith: Yeah, it’s definitely interesting. I mean, in starting my business—not to change this from talking to you—but you find something where you think there’s a market, and you kind of have to go through the skill factor, getting your name out there. I imagine that’s the same with the peer groups. You had one person that was kind of the champion, like, “Hey, this is going well.” Then they tell their friend, they tell their friend, and before you know it, it’s a snowball effect where you get the critical mass going. Was that kind of what it was like with the peer groups?

Rand Larsen: No, not as much as I would have thought. That just hasn’t happened as much as I would have thought. I think a lot of times these peer groups do get built out of word of mouth and authority and reputation—like EO, YPO, Vistage have a ton of that. But even they do a lot of sales and marketing. Vistage chairs are aggressive. Pretty much all of them are aggressive. They push hard. They are salespeople. EO, I don’t know, maybe a bit less so. They do a bunch of free dinners, and I’m not really sure how YPO markets or sells, but Entrepreneurs’ Organization, I think they’ve got either 4,000 or 14,000 members nationwide.

Matthias Smith: Wow.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, it’s big. I think their average yearly fee is $8,000, I think.

Matthias Smith: Wow. What is your goal for these peer groups? What do you want it to become?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, that’s a good question.

Matthias Smith: I sort of put you on the spot there.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, well, there’s a balance of having a big, audacious goal and doing what I actually need to do every single day, which is literally DM people who I think would be great fits to be in a peer group with each other, start them, run them on a free trial, be engaged, ask people for feedback on how they’re going, actually build the next peer group. That takes 99% of my focus, and even picking my head up to think about what lies down the road five years—I’m like, so little. It feels like it doesn’t matter right now because the actual work it takes to get to wherever is in five to ten years in the future is way more micro—like me sprinting every single day versus me pulling myself out and thinking about much. Maybe that’s the wrong mentality, but that’s the way my mindset is currently—just building the next peer group. But to answer your question, yeah, I think it’d be awesome to build something like EO. It’d be awesome. Probably closer, a little bit niched down. We’ve got the Silver Tsunami happening. Pretty much all of our members are acquisition entrepreneurs. And in my opinion, acquisition entrepreneurs probably need the most help with other people who are doing similar things, right? Because there’s a certain level of ambition, risk-orientedness that it takes to go out and buy a company or multiple.

Matthias Smith: Yeah. And if you think about someone going from a W-2, working in corporate finance, buying a plumbing company, they presumably have no to minimal transferable experience.

Rand Larsen: Yeah.

Matthias Smith: And the other people in the group are ones that are maybe a little bit further along, do have that experience, so they can tell them, “Hey, these are going to be roadblocks or surprises that will come up.”

Rand Larsen: Yeah. And there’s a few elements there. Number one is someone who’s used to corporate W-2 life, right? Jumping into business ownership—just business ownership in general. The second part is acquisitions, which has its own dynamic—you’re a new person, new company, you usually have to have an ongoing relationship with a seller and have to make them happy, even though most of the time they’re not going to be making decisions that you as the new business owner agree with. You have to get buy-in from the team. Just the acquisition part of operations is enough of itself to be something different from EO, where you’re an acquisition entrepreneur. Sure, you’re going to be put in a peer group of other people who have been running their businesses, probably mostly, certainly not with a $5 million personally guaranteed SBA loan on their balance sheet. That’s very, very different. And then there’s the third element of you buying into a plumbing company where you were the corporate accountant, and now you’re in plumbing, and you don’t know what that is. And you need to talk to other acquisition entrepreneurs who are buying skilled trades businesses.

Matthias Smith: Interesting.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, it’s levels there.

Matthias Smith: So my thought is, I would imagine, given how many people you’ve worked with in these peer groups, that you’ve learned a lot about different industries. What are, just super high-level, some takeaways—if I don’t know, this might be a corny, generic question—from running these about things that you didn’t envision or that you wouldn’t have known about what it’s like being an operator, or that these people have shared in these peer groups? Just surprise things that come up running a business.

Rand Larsen: Man, there are some really difficult topics that I would have never thought could happen as a small business owner. I’ll move through them briefly, but these are things that are not common in our peer groups, but these have happened—like buying a company and then five months later an employee dying on the job. And how do you deal with that? There’s actually an article on my website, smbcommunity.co, that goes through an entire dialogue between me and a towing company owner who had an employee die on a job site—exactly what he was doing minute-to-minute because, what the hell do you do? And again, you just acquired this company five months ago. You barely know towing at this point. What the hell do you do? And a couple of the answers there were, well, you call the other towing company owners you know and ask them for their support. And this is an industry where, if you’ve been in towing long enough, you know you will have an employee die. And you have to figure out how to deal with it. What that means is you have certain—imagine buying a company and not knowing that after an employee workplace accident, you have either 16 hours to report something where, if it’s an eye injury, it’s reported at a different timeline than it would be a hand or foot injury. If it’s a death, it’s a much shorter timeline—I think it’s four or eight hours—that it needs to be reported to OSHA, or you run into an entirely different liability where, oh, you delayed getting back—it looks nasty now. And this is something that you acquired this business, you had no idea that this is something you were supposed to do. Luckily, the specific business owner handled all those things and had good advisors to help him walk through that process legally—exactly what he needed to do during.

Matthias Smith: These things, for something like that too—I mean, isolating the legalese and OSHA—you have the personal side, right? Trying to support the family of the person that died, which is huge. Death is terrible. But then you have the business side, and how do you balance those, I imagine, right?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah. And the article goes into that balance because it’s tough. You have to do the best of what you can for that family. And there’s also a chance that they sue you for negligence. In this case, there’s almost a 100% chance that the towing company owner is in the right and he did everything he possibly could to prevent this situation. But this is just a dangerous industry. And then the other couple of things on my mind—what are the other things in business ownership that are either difficult or you wouldn’t expect? One is just partnership dissolutions, which are brutal. I think they’ve happened twice in our peer groups now. And it is just—they come from stories of people knowing their business partners for 15 years, and it just doesn’t work out. Someone stops doing what they said they were going to do or potentially goes through a mental health struggle.

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: And that impacts the business relationship. And then you, as the business owner who’s actually involved and committed, have to deal with that, which means taking on more debt, buying a partner out, getting investors, and also negotiating by kicking someone else out of your business or getting a lawyer to help you fight with another person’s lawyer. It can get nasty. That’s another one. And then there are a few others I could say, but I just won’t because I don’t want this to be too depressing.

Matthias Smith: Yeah, right. And just to keep things on track here—so pivoting from people dying at towing companies to something more positive. You are what I describe as a road warrior.

Rand Larsen: A road warrior?

Matthias Smith: You’re big on driving. My whole thing is if something’s farther than four hours, four and a half hours, it’s gonna be a plane ride for me. It’s not gonna be a car ride. There’s some math involved there, depending on if you have to connect or what airport it is. But anyways—so last fall, you drove 10 hours from Akron, Ohio, to Columbia, Missouri, for Main Street Summit. Talk about, just super high-level, your love for driving. I mean, you just seem to be always driving to these meetups.

Rand Larsen: I don’t know. I just like driving. There’s no reason or rhyme for it. I balance it with both doing—you know, if it’s 10 hours to Missouri, it’ll be three hours of work stuff, which is just me putting a bunch of calls on my calendar of either prospects or just getting ideas from current peer group members on how I can improve what I’m doing. So a few hours there, frankly, a couple of hours of just popping some music, just having some fun.

Matthias Smith: What sort of music do you like, man?

Rand Larsen: It depends. Honestly, whatever—like, the hippity-hoppity stuff. I don’t know.

Matthias Smith: Does it depend where you’re driving? City versus highway?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, cities—I end up turning down the music, especially if it’s a large city. I’m just like, I need to pay attention. It’s one of those things where I’m like, I can’t see, I need to turn down the music. But highways, yeah, I pretty much just go hard.

Matthias Smith: Got it, got it. So we’re now going to pivot to the shirt.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, let’s talk.

Matthias Smith: Talk about the Rand Run, just from a super high-level—like the impetus behind it and how the idea came to mind.

Rand Larsen: Yeah. So for everyone maybe listening to this, if you go to the video, you can see me wearing a shirt of—I promise you this is not North Carolina.

Matthias Smith: Do we have the shirt on video?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, this is not North Carolina. This is—

Matthias Smith: It’s also not California.

Rand Larsen: Well, it’s definitely not California.

Matthias Smith: You’ve seen all my suits in California.

Rand Larsen: Oh, yeah, yeah, I have. Yeah. I hope that acquisition goes well. Good luck with the water rights. So anyways, this was the original planned Rand Run. The way it started—it was a joke from Reg Zeller on Twitter. I don’t know if it was a joke. He posted something about local communities—I was inspiring. I was like—and I’ve always had this idea of, why aren’t people doing local SMB owner meetups everywhere? Every single time I’ve gone to an event or a local meetup, it’s been really fun. I don’t know why people don’t do it, especially—I’m like, you guys are down the road, right? You’re in Madison, right? There’s 10 of you guys, and you could talk with each other, but why is no one doing it? So anyways, I had this idea. Reg commented on me to help the Denver event—Kyle Durstler’s Denver small business owner meetup event there. And I helped. I flew out. I mostly just did the promotion of it.

Matthias Smith: This was the Denver one back in February, right?

Rand Larsen: Yeah.

Matthias Smith: Okay.

Rand Larsen: Yeah. So I just did a bunch of promotion for it, let a bunch of people know about it. There were a variety of ways I did that, but generally, it was just emailing and DMing people, saying, “Hey, come to this meetup. It’s gonna be fun.”

Matthias Smith: And that one had, like, what—30, 40, 60?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, 60 to 70 was the number.

Matthias Smith: Yeah, yeah. People were coming and going at different times, but that was packed.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, it was fantastic. Shout out to Kyle Durstler, Zen Windows. He’s the guy.

Matthias Smith: The Viking.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, he was the guy with the Viking beard. That’s how I regularly introduce him.

Matthias Smith: I’m just gonna—next time I see him, I’m gonna call him the Viking.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah.

Matthias Smith: I don’t—

Rand Larsen: I don’t know if he enjoys that so much. I think he tolerates it when I say it. But anyways, we do—so we do this event, and I meet up with one of the guys in my peer groups, and all my peer groups are virtual. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in person. And I see this guy, and this is—I don’t know, this story is more important to me. He left our peer groups. The reason he left wasn’t because of any problem with the peer groups or with the other members. He left because he was getting out of his business. He had gone through the gamut. He was the W-2 corporate sales guy. He bought a company for all of the good reasons that you’ve read on Twitter. And he ended up struggling with the journey a lot, for a variety of reasons. But for the most part, it was—the stress was tough for him. The time away from his family was tough for him, and he didn’t see the financial reward as really worth the amount of pain that he was going through. And he was in a bit of a tough industry, which was hard to scale. It’s one of those interesting niches, but very hard to scale out of because it’s a niche.

Matthias Smith: Can you share the industry?

Rand Larsen: No, it’d be too direct, especially since I met him in Denver. You’d know who he is. So anyways, he gets out of his business, he successfully places a GM, and—dude, I’m super, super happy for him. He’s going to go raise his family. He’s got a new kid on the way, and he’s going to raise his family. He’s going to take a couple of months, and he’s going to go back to a W-2. He’s got a minority ownership in the business that he bought that he’s going to retain. And as long as that GM stays around, I assume everything’s going to go well. And I see him in person—he was the second person ever to sign up for our peer groups. He was the second person ever. And I was like, man, I’ve seen this guy go through the entire gamut of the small business ownership journey. And it was just a super cathartic moment meeting him in person. Very special, very happy. We had a good, long conversation, and at the end of it, I was like, “Dude, I want to meet your family. Let’s go. I want to live with you.” I was like, why do I feel this way? And it just brought a new perspective of local relationships, which I think are incredibly powerful, especially being able to build with others and talk with other people who are in front of you and around you—not just on a Zoom call. I love the virtual peer groups, but the in-person stuff is just a different experience in a really, really positive way. And again, the question on my mind is, why isn’t everyone doing this? I was like, okay, well, I’ve got time. My business is literally called SMB Community. It’s the only thing I care to invest in. I’ve got a great incentive to grow the SMB community. My business is literally just community-focused. What was that Charlie Munger quote? “Show me the incentives, I’ll show you the result.” I don’t see a lot of people who are incentivized to grow the community side of what we’re doing on Twitter. And I thought, hey, this makes sense for me. If I meet enough people, I can probably build a couple of peer groups out of it. And this has probably been a really, really fun series of events, and it’s probably going to kick up a lot of dust, and it’ll be a really interesting experience either way, whether it pays off or it doesn’t. And that’s sort of how I started it. And from there, it was more about executing, which just meant planning the road trip and reaching out to a bunch of folks.

Matthias Smith: Wow.

Rand Larsen: Super.

Matthias Smith: Incredible. You know what, in all honesty, what you’ve built with these meetups is nothing short of incredible. Just seeing the community that’s coming together. In each of these pictures I saw last night as I was preparing for this, I was watching a video of one in Toronto where it was some guy’s truck, and everyone was checking out the truck. I don’t know the whole backstory.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, I can tell you, man. I took notes on this for every single city—of the interesting things—and this was one of the most interesting things that happened. So this was Toronto, and Toronto had—man, this is crazy. I’ve got family in Toronto, and originally we were gonna do it at a bar, and a couple of people reached out and said, “Hey, man, that bar is gonna be packed on Thursday. You’re bringing 40, 45 people—that’s not gonna work. It’s gonna be way too packed. No one’s gonna be able to find each other. Even with us all wearing name tags, it’s gonna be way too busy.” So I look for a new event. My cousin—he’s a subcontractor for a security company, and that means he does a bunch of events, and he knows some managers of local bars around the area. So he hooks me up with one of them—I think it was Black Lab Brewing in Toronto. And we went to that event, right? So that’s one thing—we changed the original event that we went to.

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: And then at that event, everything goes really well. Meet a bunch of people, just have a good time. And then towards the end of the night, I’m getting—it’s like 8:30 p.m.—the event was supposed to be over by 8.

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: But we stayed for a while because everyone was having a fun time. And this guy walks in, and he’s got the thickest French-Canadian accent you’ve ever heard. I’ll spare the audience from trying to do an impression, but it was unbelievable. And he walks in, he’s like, “What’s this going on?” Okay, I did the accent. He’s like, “What’s this going on?” More French than Canadian. And I’m like, “Well, this is a meetup of small business owners,” and obviously I’m the host. Somehow he also found—we met right at the cash register at the time. And he was like, “I am a small business owner.” I was like, “No fucking way.” I was like, “Okay, cool, what business?” And I was expecting to hear any of the boring stuff that you and I have come to love—like, “I run a plumbing company,” whatever. And then he’s like, “I outfit”—I forgot what he said—”I outfit Mercedes Sprinter vans intoR21;—then he had some really fancy words like “outdoor living experiences” or something. He had a really cool phrase that he said on top of it. And yeah, he takes these $60,000-$70,000 Mercedes Sprinter vans and just outfits them—pimps them out—to be totally—what do you call it—like van life. He’s the pinnacle of van life. That’s the vehicle you want.

Matthias Smith: I’ve heard van life can be dangerous for young couples. I don’t know if—not—

Rand Larsen: In one of these vehicles? I bet he’s got some security features, man.

Matthias Smith: Right?

Rand Larsen: Man, I wish I could give him a shout-out. I forgot the name of his business. And just to tie it up—his van was parked outside, and I was like, “Hey, guys.” I took the remainder of the people—I was like, “Hey, I know the event’s over, but this guy’s got a dope van. He’s also a small business owner. Let’s go check it out.” And we did. You can see it on my Twitter. We did a walkthrough of his van.

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: Showers, he’s got some awesome batteries. I think you can stay off the grid for three or four weeks at a time because of the quality of battery that he had. And it was a really unique experience. So we got a few more of those in different cities that we visited.

Matthias Smith: Yeah. In that video—I mean, I’m not sure what date it’s gonna post, but I did retweet that because I thought it was pretty awesome. My internet’s being slow here, so we’ll keep going.

Rand Larsen: Yeah.

Matthias Smith: But yeah, I guess just to be cognizant of time, just to speedball a couple of questions here. So how many cities for these meetups?

Rand Larsen: 16. We hosted in 15 of them—the D.C. event, Steve Rustler’s, I was not a host—so we hosted events in 15 cities. But on the Rand Run, there were 16.

Matthias Smith: Which city had the best beer, and which had the worst beer?

Rand Larsen: I don’t know which city had the worst beer—that wasn’t a thing I really kept track of. And believe it or not, I only had beers in eight cities. I didn’t drink a beer in every single city. So of those, it was Baltimore—I forgot what—and again, this is also on Twitter—Adam Markley recommended some dark beer, which is usually what I go for, and it was absolutely delicious. I forgot the name of it. I forgot what it tasted like, but I was like, I’m not really a beer guy, but I was like, I want another one of those, which is pretty rare for me.

Matthias Smith: Got it. Okay. This might actually not be a people question. In your view, what has been your impact on the SMB community?

Rand Larsen: Man, I don’t know. In my view, I thought about this—there’s—it’s hard for me to see the results. I was thinking about this. I got 300 followers from Twitter off of this. Frankly, I expected over a thousand. I was like, this has got to be—this is really cool, what I’m doing. People must love this.

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: And people did. But it didn’t get the result on Twitter I was sort of expecting. But what did happen was a lot of the people I really respect in the community—everyone you know on SMB Twitter—reached out. Not everyone, but a lot of people reached out to me personally just to say how cool it was that I was doing it, and knowing that other people who I really respect, who are 8, 10, 15 years down the road from where I am, admired what I was doing—that was really important for me.

Matthias Smith: Yeah, no, yeah. What you’re doing is super cool. I mean, I know people like Eric Pacific, one of our good friends, Reg, and others are definitely supportive of it.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah.

Matthias Smith: What do you think is missing from the SMB community—either Twitter or just as a whole, like the operator space post-acquisition or even the acquisition side? If you had to pinpoint one thing.

Rand Larsen: I’ll say two things. Number one is, again, this goes back to no one is incentivized to grow and support it. I think it’s the reason that Madison doesn’t have a regular small business owner meetup. I’ve got a list of 10 people—like, you guys should just do it. And that’s what you and I are going to do. We’re going to throw out a Madison, Wisconsin meetup. It’s been great. The reason that a lot of people aren’t doing this is because no one’s incentivized to do it. And I’m incentivized, again—it’s just that Charlie Munger quote: “Show me the incentives, I’ll show you the outcome.” Very clearly. And right now, what we have is no one is really incentivized to grow the community. And this is the only thing that I care about and I’m focused on, and I’m heavily incentivized to do.

Matthias Smith: You’re the champion of the community.

Rand Larsen: I wouldn’t—thank you for calling me that. Someone asked me—

Matthias Smith: Someone has to be the guy, right?

Rand Larsen: Yeah. Sorry, what was your original question? I had—

Matthias Smith: Yeah, what are we missing?

Rand Larsen: I just think people aren’t talking about what happens after the acquisition. It’s the same thing—yeah, we’ve got the horror stories that we’ve already talked about today, but how do you actually operate your company? How do you actually handle the transition? The idea that there’s no—it’s like on Twitter, where’s the thread that says, “Here’s my guide to firing employees”? No, people can’t post that because their employees are going to see that.

Matthias Smith: Right.

Rand Larsen: That’s why you’ve got operators who can’t talk about that stuff because their employees are going to see them—

Matthias Smith: They’re going to have real problems in their company because of what’s on their Twitter.

Rand Larsen: And there’s other things like that—like, “Hey, here’s our post-acquisition announcement space.” I mean, how many people have you helped buy companies? And we should be getting all of this data information together to help new people who are acquiring companies or talk more about the philosophy of what makes a good transition. And there’s a lot of people who are incentivized to help you acquire a business, but not incentivized to help you with what comes after, which is what I’m trying to talk about.

Matthias Smith: Yes. So it sounds like, generally, the lack of knowledge that’s out there but not disseminated across the space for new entrants.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, man, it’s not even out there. It has to be created in the first place. And it does just start with conversations in private peer groups. And then I can talk about this stuff—like, what happens when you deal with an employee death? Does that need to be in your acquisition playbook? Probably not. But no one has talked about that ever.

Matthias Smith: Do you think having some sort of central wiki with these guides is the way—or something that’s paid because someone has to go through the effort—but altogether, I don’t think so.

Rand Larsen: I honestly don’t think so. The problem with wikis is that internal company documents that you basically force your employees to use—but also help them because that’s where everything lives—make a lot of sense. But wikis where other business operators go to learn about problems—there are difficult things. Number one, you will never get the full gamut of the SMB ownership experience in a playbook or a document, or if you take every single Twitter thread—again, I’ve never seen someone say, “Here’s how I fire my employees. Here’s how to deal with employee death.”

Matthias Smith: So someone should read that as a tweet—the whole—

Rand Larsen: Someone should, yeah, please, just to prove me wrong, frankly. But the problem with wikis is—those are a couple of things that people are going to have to deal with. And if it’s a paired problem, you will never have the full gamut of the experience on a wiki. And number two, to actually make a wiki valuable, you have to retrain someone’s brain—like an operator’s brain—that when they encounter a problem, they go to the wiki because they know they can find the answer. That’s a two-part problem: you will never have the answer, and you have to retrain someone’s brain, which are two incredibly difficult things to do.

Matthias Smith: Yeah, completely makes sense. I think that answer is super helpful. Two more questions for you.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, let’s do it.

Matthias Smith: So in your travels doing these meetups, doing the Rand Run, what common thread or threads—I’ll let you pick one or more—connect the searchers from state to state?

Rand Larsen: Sorry, repeat that.

Matthias Smith: Yeah. So in your travels doing these meetups, are there any themes from one to the next that connect the operators and business buyers?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, this is an entirely different thought, but I have a new appreciation of what the American Dream is because, in every single city, it felt like I met and spoke with the same type of people. In every single city. The whole SMB Twitter thing is fantastic—everyone has a similar level of ambition, risk—I keep saying risk-orientedness—risk aversion, but everyone has similar goals. People want to do really great, compelling things. And it felt like I met the same level of ambitious people in every single city. So that’s the thing that unites everyone.

Matthias Smith: Just people that want to grind and want to create a better life for themselves and their families.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Matthias Smith: Definitely. Lots of those people out there on the acquisition side.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, again, I met them in 16 different cities. You met the same type of person. Everyone’s doing something different in a different business, in a different city, but everyone had very similar goals and ideals, which, I don’t know, is reflective of what America is to me.

Matthias Smith: And I think to that point too, I can definitely attest that that’s indicative of when I talk with searchers or buyers on Zoom calls. Because I’m not crazy like you doing all these meetups, albeit I do travel a lot.

Rand Larsen: You can co-pilot with me, man, passenger seat.

Matthias Smith: You can fly the jet—like the jet. Yeah, yeah, okay. That’s definitely a theme that I see—people just want to grind, and they want something that’s better, subjectively, for themselves and their families in whatever way you want to define that.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, I agree. I don’t know, I just agree wholeheartedly.

Matthias Smith: One last question. What have you learned from your tour that you did not know when you started?

Rand Larsen: I actually didn’t expect the number of cool ideas that were going to come out of this. There have been four large things I want to execute on—all of them. I can only do one at a time, which is very frustrating. But I had no idea the amount of ideation that was gonna happen. I think if you’re in your business, heads down, working like I have been, it’s easy to fall into a mindset of—you sort of know how to do everything, and what you need to do to advance your business is just repeat that thing more. In this case, I found four different big ideas that are really, really compelling. One of them is just a mixture of a new peer group I’m gonna host. Typically, we’ve got five to seven people in each cohort, and we charge $3,000 a year to be a part of that. There’s a free trial associated with it. I was like, man, there are so many people I talk to who run either smaller businesses, or that price point is just difficult for them, or even that they just dislike the format. Some people join a peer group, try it for a free trial, and say, “Hey, I just want a different format.”

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: And I didn’t think about this until I was on the Rand Run. But I was like, well, what if I just add more people, increase the time, charge a smaller amount, and change the format to be something different? I’m like, yeah, I could totally do that. I could help more people doing this, and I can still make it profitable and incentivize it for me to grow and help other people. So we’re going to be testing a new peer group format out here soon that should be more inclusive—people with lower price points who are still buying companies. And a couple of other ideas—Steve Weissner wants me to do the same Rand Run again but hire a videographer to ride passenger seat and just do the whole lifestyle vlog content. I’m like, yeah, this could actually totally work. And immediately when we started talking about that on Twitter, I got four people to offer sponsorship—not hard offer sponsorship, but they’d be like, “Yeah, I’m interested.”

Matthias Smith: You could make a Netflix documentary—hit every state.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, that’s true. Getting the Netflix deal would be a different challenge.

Matthias Smith: So, okay, last question—not from the notes, just in the interest of time here. For someone that’s recently bought a business—an acquisition entrepreneur that is constable in the peer groups—what is your pitch to them? And I know you’re a salesperson, but just in general, why should someone join a peer group, and what does it look like from a high level as far as the times that you meet every month or week or the cadence?

Rand Larsen: Yeah. I think there are three main reasons to join a peer group. Number one is camaraderie. The business ownership journey is lonely. Being able to talk with other people who understand you, who have been in your shoes before or will be in your shoes, and people who care about you—I think it’s incredibly important. It makes life more fun, just the personal aspect. The second aspect is far more practical, which is a return on your investment. You join a peer group, you talk with other smart business owners who are doing interesting things in their companies, and you are there to solve problems in your business and get ideas and inspiration from others on how you can be doing your job better as a business owner. And the idea is that you need to be able to see those benefits on your P&L. You should be able to take tangible conversations that you have inside of your peer group and apply them to your P&L and pay for the cost of you joining a peer group in the first place. Ideally, you pay a few thousand dollars, whatever the price is, and then you end up coming away with $20,000 in cost savings, revenue generation, anything like that. So, the first reason is just the personal aspect—it’s very fun to be in a peer group, solves the “business ownership journey is lonely” problem.

Matthias Smith: Meet people, make friends.

Rand Larsen: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then see them in person.

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: The second problem is just very practical—see it on your P&L. Benefit your business, join a peer group. And then the third aspect is a combination of the first and the second, but it’s emergencies. When you go through a true emergency in your business or your personal life, you need a peer group or support network of some kind—people you can lean on, who you can basically call at 12 a.m., and they will answer the phone and actually stay up with you until 3 a.m. until you’ve talked yourself out of whatever is going on. It could be a business emergency, it could be a personal life crisis. You need those people, and those relationships have to be developed before you hit an emergency. If you had an emergency or a crisis and you’re alone, that’s what you will experience—alone entirely. And going through those experiences is very, very difficult. But with other people—even just having someone to soundboard something, someone who you trust and have talked to for a while, who already understands what you’re doing—you don’t have to give them any context.

Matthias Smith: Yeah.

Rand Larsen: Into anything that you’re doing. It’s super powerful when you hit those bumps in the road. So those are the three main reasons.

Matthias Smith: And what is the cadence for the number of meetings a week, a month?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, we’ve got a couple of different formats at this point. It’s every three or four weeks, between 60 and 90 minutes at a time. So depending on how you boil that down, every year, 12 to 16 meetings.

Matthias Smith: Do you give homework, or are these structured? How does that work?

Rand Larsen: Yeah, the structure is pretty simple. I send an email a couple of days before the call asking people to answer a few simple questions. Feel free to steal this, everyone, but the first question is just, “Hey, give us an update in the last few weeks. How has it gone for you? Just tell us how it’s going.” Number two is, “Bring a topic or discussion point or idea—anything you’re struggling with in your business—to the group. Anything that you want to talk about. Where do you want to focus the discussion around?” And then the third question is a revolving question that I change. It could be, “Hey, we’re just running into 2024—what are your 2024 goals this year?” Or it could be, “Hey, we are a couple of months into 2024—how did 2023 wrap up for you? Did it wrap up in a way you expected?” That kind of stuff. So the third question is a revolving question—I change it every month.

Matthias Smith: Got it. Well, Rand, thanks for hopping on here. It’s been great catching up, and I feel like I know or understand a lot more about your business now than before. Good talk with you, man.

Rand Larsen: Absolutely. Thanks for hosting. Thanks for doing this. We’re at SMBash today, and that’s gonna be a fun event, man. We’re gonna meet a bunch of cool people. And thanks for hosting this podcast one more time.

Matthias Smith: Yeah, of course.

Here's my RANDom van life adventures so far.

Cardboard Plant

Saw a cardboard plant burn down in Bentonville, AR

Dallas to Austin

Road trip with Adam Markley from Dallas to Austin

Austin SMB Meetup

Set up for the Austin SMB meetup Regrettably I don’t have any other photos to share, but it was ~30 business owners, Thomas Ince, Ayo Phillips, and Josh Schultz cohosted with me.

Also, Jaren Johnsons sponsored!

Interview with Brandon Lewin

Interview with Brandon Lewin and shoutout to him for hosting us at his comedy club in Fort Worth.

Shoutout to Craig Marquis and Jared Johnson for cosponsoring.

American History Museum

Beautiful American history museum in Bentonville.

Main St Summit

Attended Main St Summit, basically gave tours of my van all day

Somehow persuasive enough to get Chris Koerner in my van, didn’t even have to offer candy!

Mexican Food

Best Mexican food I’ve ever eaten is at Fuzzy’s Taco Shop in Columbia, MO.

Coffee Shop

Best coffee shop I’ve ever been to is also in NW Arkansas - Onyx coffee Lab in Rogers

Shoutout to Ben Rowell for the local tips. NW Arkansas is highly underrated.

Goal Post

First time ever on broadway in Nashville, watched a tow company remove the goal posts from the river when Vanderbilt upset Alabama.

HVAC Jack

Hung out with HVAC Jack at his shop in Nashville

My Event

Got a bunch of business owners to put their hands in the air and look like they’re having a fun time at my event.

Shoutout to Aaron Harper for sponsoring.

Nahuel Hilal

Nahuel Hilal flew out for my Nashville event, I’m still stoked about this.

Van Tour

Van tour with a bunch of SMB owners in St. Louis.

Shout out Andy Harbut for sponsoring

Cubs Game

First cubs game ever!!

Chicago SMB Meetup

Chicago SMB meetup - of course I had to host it at Randolph Tavern.

Pregame

Alabama-Wisconsin pregame with Matthias, Eric, and Tom.

Madison SMB Meetup

Giving van tours again at the Madison SMB meetup - Reg Zeller spotted in the wild.

Shoutout to Benjamin Wood for sponsoring!

Small and Mighty Crew

Knoxville SMB Meetup with Hunter and John and friend listening to live music.

Small and mighty crew.

Chattanooga SMB Meetup

Chattanooga SMB Meetup with Preston. He offered his private jet to get to the venue but I said “no thanks, I have a travel van, I’m all set”

Thanks for the offer Preston!

Drive to Birmingham

Drove to Birmingham, AB for Dylan's SMB meetup.

Alabama BBQ

Damn good barbecue in Alabama!!

60 People

Atlanta SMB meetup with ~60 people

Shout out to Meow, Brandon, and Dustin for sponsoring.

Rory and Family

Stayed with Rory for a few days for the Greenville, SC meetup.

Dude has a beautiful family and his daughter drew me a picture which still lives in my van

Downtown Greenville

Downtown Greenville is one of the most beautiful places on earth.

After Hours

Charlotte SMB meetup and after-hours hang with Sean, Peter, Matt, and Keval

Shoutout to Sean for sponsoring and Kevin for cohosting!

It was rooted in my own family history.

My grandparents died before I was able to meet them as an adult.

I wish I could have had their stories saved.

This is how I tried to change that for others.

The Mission

I recognized a simple truth: once our parents are gone, their stories and knowledge disappear with them.

Sure, there might be some dusty memoirs somewhere, but it’s not the same.

I wanted to create something more meaningful – professionally produced video documentaries that would preserve life stories and legacies for future generations.

Business Evolution

We started with a direct-to-consumer approach, offering comprehensive documentaries for $3,000.

While adult children loved the concept, it was challenging to convince either them or their elderly parents to make the investment.

This led to a pivot. We began partnering with retirement communities, offering $1,000 subscription packages.

The documentaries served dual purposes: preserving residents’ stories while providing unique marketing content for the facilities. Communities could use these stories to differentiate themselves and showcase their residents through social media and promotional materials.

The Sales Journey

The initial B2C approach taught me a lot about selling to different audiences.

We tried selling directly to seniors, which proved difficult. Then we targeted their adult children, who loved the concept but often struggled with either the cost or convincing their parents to participate.

Our B2B pivot to retirement communities opened new opportunities.

We positioned ourselves as a unique selling proposition – no other service provider was offering documentary services. This became a powerful marketing tool for communities looking to stand out in a competitive market.

Value Proposition

For retirement communities, we offered:

• A unique service that differentiated them from competitors
• Professional video content for social media marketing
• Compelling stories to share with prospective residents
• A valuable service for existing residents and their families

Personal Growth and Lessons

The experience taught me valuable lessons about sales and human nature:

• People will invest in profound ideas that appeal to emotions
• There’s an art to selling something intangible – a service that doesn’t exist yet but resonates deeply with people
• The importance of demonstrating concrete business value, like helping retirement homes increase their occupancy rates
• Understanding value construction and how to build compelling pitches
• The power of emotional selling, especially when it connects to universal experiences like preserving family memories

Conclusion

Starting DocuFamily demonstrates my character and what I value.

Today I apply these same lessons about community building to my work with Scalepath peer groups. See Scalepath.

It shows what I’m willing to bet my time and money on – ideas that matter to people on a deep, personal level.

I ran this company from Sept 2019 – July 2020. Sadly I shut it down during COVID lockdowns, as traveling to retirement homes and senior centers became impractical.

Even though the business didn’t survive COVID, the experience reinforced my commitment to creating meaningful impact through entrepreneurship.

1. I Printed 12,500 Trading Cards at a Conference
2. My Weirdest Marketing Experiment Yet
3. What Happened When I Turned Entrepreneurs Into Superheroes

I just finished the weirdest marketing experiment of my career.

Here's what happened.

The Concept

The idea was simple: design and print collectible cards for the speakers at Main Street Summit.

Portray real entrepreneurs as superheroes, put them in popular movie scenes, things that relate to their businesses.

My goal was to hand thousands of these cards out at Main Street Summit, do cool stuff, stand out, build relationships, and see what serendipity comes my way.

The Numbers

I went all in on this.

121 unique designs for entrepreneurs.

250 decks printed.

12,500 total cards printed.

The Results

This part is cool.

We managed to personally hand these cards out to 65 of the 121 people we personally designed cards for.

Including Carl Edwards, pro NASCAR driver.

Sahil Bloom, Author of 5 Types of Wealth.

Brent Beshore, Founder of Permanent Equity.

And a whole lot more amazing people, including 10 more main event headliners.

Almost every single time I showed someone their card, it brought a smile to their face.

Unexpected Outcomes

A few other things happened that I did not expect.

1. People wanted these cards as gifts to their children

It is very common for mothers and fathers to bring gifts to their kids back after a big work trip.

Even just tonight, a guy texted me a photo of his 3 children exchanging their favorite cards with each other.

"Made my kids day."

2. Shareability

People were showing off cards to each other.

Swapping cards, when an attendee would meet with a speaker they would show them their card as a fun greeting.

So cool.

3. It evolved

Day 1 it was a brand new concept that people thought was fun and creative.

Day 2 at least 50% of the people I handed their cards to had seen decks floating around and was familiar with the concept.

Then loved that I gave them their card personally.

4. Newsletter subscribers and customers

On the back of every card was a QR code to my newsletter, so far we have gotten 5 subscribers.

Big loss here but not worried about it, when you do stuff like this you figure out what works and what does not.

1 new customer, 2 calls booked with $10M+ revenue businesses which is great.

I will be doing a bunch of follow up next week offering to mail people decks so there is a longer tail here.

5. Energy attracts energy

This is the most important part.

The same kind of person who sees these cards and loves them is the same kind of person who resonates with the stuff I do.

These cards basically acted as a magnet to find other creative ambitious fun people.

What's Next

I expect something like this has a very long tail impact.

It is unique and unforgettable.

Should bring interesting serendipity and luck into my life.

If anyone has ideas on where to go with this, let me know.

Conclusion

Sometimes the best marketing experiments are the ones that make people smile. This was not about immediate conversions or massive subscriber growth. It was about creating something memorable, building real relationships, and attracting the right kind of energy.

Follow me on LinkedIn, Instagram, or Patron View for more.