In this episode of JackQuisitions, Jack sits down with Rand Larson, owner of Scale Path, to talk about the real reason so many operators struggle after closing their first deal: they’re doing it alone.
Rand shares the origin story of Scale Path—starting as an informal peer group called Trench Therapy—and how one conversation with an overwhelmed HVAC owner (who was staring down a brutal first year post-acquisition) revealed the biggest missing piece for new leaders: a room of other owners who actually get it.
They dig into what peer groups do best (practical, P&L-impacting advice) and what they’re secretly built for (that final 10%: the mental load, the isolation, and the pressure that comes with personal guarantees and leadership). Rand also breaks down the behind-the-scenes realities of building a community business: why some groups fail, why “industry fit” matters more than people think, and how trust becomes the true bottleneck as you scale.
The conversation goes deep on Scale Path’s acquisition (Rand “tucking” his community into a stronger brand), what makes community businesses hard to buy and sell, and the key safeguards to avoid member churn when the face of a network changes. Plus: why the second, third, and fourth acquisition often come easier than the first—and how to position yourself so brokers take you seriously faster.
If you’re navigating your first acquisition, running a home service business, or building a leadership network you can lean on—this episode will hit home.
🔍 What You’ll Learn
- Why new operators feel stuck after closing—and what actually fixes it
- The “90/10” rule of peer groups: P&L execution vs. therapy and pressure relief
- Why most peer groups fail when they mix business models (and how to structure them correctly)
- What makes community businesses risky acquisitions—and how to protect retention
💼 Special Thanks to First Internet Bank!
Looking to buy or expand a business? First Internet Bank is a National Preferred SBA lender specializing in acquisitions for the skilled trades. Their SBA loan program offers up to 90% financing for business acquisitions, partner buyouts, and commercial real estate—plus optional lines of credit to fuel future growth. Unlike traditional lenders, they take a “how can we” approach, making deals happen for both first-time buyers and experienced operators.
👉 Special Offer: Mention Owned and Operated for a reduced good faith deposit and a complimentary deal review + buyside prequalification.
Connect with Alan Peterson from First Internet Bank HERE
🔗 Connect
Jack Carr – https://www.x.com/thehvacjack
Rand Larson – https://www.linkedin.com/in/rand-larsen/
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They get into this industry and they realize, oh, I don't know exactly what I'm doing and I don't have a network, I don't have people around me. I just get to help other business owners and like I get to connect them with other people inside of our community who do know you need other business owners to talk to new leaders.Sharing the, the just sort of weight and the burden that that comes with. People ask me all the time, they're like, Jack, how did you get your second? Third, fourth acquisition. I can't even get on my first kind of shockingly high that once you get your first deal done, like the second, third, fourth deal is not much of a challenge.Probably got at this point, 60 members who have acquired businesses inside of our community. Do you plan on one day moving away from that though? I don't know. Well, like.Welcome back to Jack Acquisitions. Today I am super pumped. I have my buddy Rand Larson here today. Rand is the owner of Scale Path, which is an awesome organization that I'm part of that does. Do you wanna describe Iran? So I don't butcher this, but essentially it's uh, mastermind groups for business owners.Yeah. Yeah, that's basically it. We put business owners into groups of, you know, eight people at a time. We, you know, similar revenue sizes, similar business models, similar personalities, like highly driven, ambitious people. And, you know, we share information. Like what's working, what's not working, challenges, problems to solve, all that kind of stuff.Just to, you know, master the classic mastermind. I hate that word. 'cause mastermind is like, yeah, it's been, uh, coveted by I think a lot of like disingenuous content creators. But yeah, it's a mastermind, but, you know, hate the term, but that's what we do. No, that's awesome. So you started this project though a while back and it wasn't called Scale Path, what was it originally?And walk us through those early days of why you chose to connect owners in this way. So the, the name change is interesting 'cause I think the first name was really the group that you're in. Mm-hmm. Uh, which is Trench Therapy. That was like the first name therapy for operators in the trenches. Um, and then eventually I was like, let's put a name behind it.So we called it SMB Community. I've, since I've since learned a lot of branding, I was like, that's not a good brand. It's like way too generic. Far too generic. Uh, but the whole reason why it started was I met this other business owner and he bought a large HVAC company, about 18 million in annual sales.And, uh, I go out and we just start eating dinner at this, you know, grungy diner. And he was having a massively tough time. He, a lot of the work that he was doing was in new construction, uh, Publix works projects and mm-hmm he bought, buys a company in late 2021. Early 2022 interest rates rise. Builders put a pause on new estimates.Builders put a pause on paying him amount of work he already completed. His bank payments go up 'cause interest rates go up. And then he is got, you know, a dozen operational issues. He's got elite estimators, significantly overestimating everything. Um, or sorry, underestimating. Everything over time.Mismanagement, poor financial reporting. So he didn't have clarity into like seeing the amount of money that he was losing and he lost, I'm pretty sure the number was almost $2 million his first year running the company. All of his working capital gone and you know, all, so all of the challenges impacted his personal life, which was really like.When I met him, I couldn't help him solve any of the actual, like problems he was going through. I didn't have much expertise, uh, but I was a good shoulder to cry on that day. Um, and you know, he, you know, he said, you know, Hey, you know, I think I've just financially screwed my family. I don't know what. Like, I'm not depressed, but I understand people who say they're depressed, what they mean.Um, so he said all this, all these things that said, Hey man, you know, I was the most relatable person to him at the time. I said, you need actual business owners. 'cause at this time I was a GM running, uh, John's septic company. I was like, you need other business owners to talk to other people with personal guarantees, other people like new leaders sharing the, the just sort of weight and the burden that that comes with.And he wasn't a new leader, but um, just other people who shared the same burden. So we started that first peer group, uh, trench therapy entirely free for the first year. Started another peer group, ran that one for free for a while, and then grew it and then eventually acquired this, uh, uh, new brand scale path, which is, uh, a brand.Michael Gurley started with a, with another co-founder. We acquired that in May and rebranded to it. And then, you know, here we are, probably one of the most important decisions you can make in your ETA journey is which SBA lender You are gonna pick a lender who will be in your corner to get you closed on the deal, as well as set you up for future expansion.That is why we partnered with Alan Peterson from First Internet Bank. He and his team take a how can we approach as well as I personally know they specialize in home service acquisitions. Mention the show or my handsome bald head and receive a reduced good faith deposit, as well as a detailed deal review and maybe even a buy-side.Prequalification, no strings attached. Head on over to Alan FIB. Dot com. That's A-L-A-N-F-I b.com, or click the link below to get connected. That's awesome. And I mean, that's the reason that I got into the original group of trench therapy. It's also the reason that I started owned and operated or with, or.I should say I didn't start, own and operated. I jumped onto owned and operated, which was at the time, uh, a not utilized brand that had a little bit of recording behind it. And then it went dark for two years and then John and I started it back up. But the reason that it started back up was, 'cause I reached out to Twitter at the time, which was a little bit different than it is today.And I said, Hey, I'm a new operator. This is hard. I don't know. Most, most operators that I'm meeting who are buying into the industry, um, hvac, plumbing, electrical, septic, any of these industries, they don't necessarily come from hvac, plumbing, septic. Some of them are ex Wharton grads. Some of them are, uh, you know, middle market managers from different organizations, and they just decided they.They're done with W2 and then they get into this industry and they realize, oh, it's fragmented. I don't know exactly what I'm doing. Um, and I don't have a network, I don't have people around me. And so that's why we started owned and operated, was to help build that. But also, like that's where you and I got connected was, Hey, let me let, let me be with these owners and let's have therapy every couple weeks.But on top of the actual quote unquote therapy part, which is why it's probably better to not call it therapy. Yeah. It was, it's really like, again, it's a time where we can all get together, ask each other questions on like sized like type business. Models. Um, and so I've been in that now your group for what, two years?Three years? Yeah. Yeah. It's, well, three years I think counting a portion of the free of the, the, those free that time when it was free. Yeah. And the whole therapy thing is interesting. Like what, what I say now when I talk to people is like, 90% of the time, like 90% of any conversation is productive.Directly hits your p and l. You're talking with other people who run very similar companies and the information that you receive is highly applicable and it's all very, like, how? How do you take this information and actually apply it and grow your business? That's 90% of it, but the last 10% is, you know, hey, I'm incredibly frustrated at this thing.Or you know, my GM just quit and now I have to like. Ref, you know, now I have to search to find a replacement for 'em. I have to do their job and I have to do my job. I'm incredibly overwhelmed. And that last 10% therapy part is there when you need it. Um, and for us, that's been a good balance. 'cause there's, there's only, well be a little bit rassier, but there's only getting out a call and like being very transparent and just venting.It's good for a period of time, but it's not good 100% of the time. Um, you want to use your time protectively like any good business owner. So yes. Let's step back to the, the beginning stages, right? So you're, you're doing this essentially as a, you know, a startup. This is a startup In the beginning, how, how long did you run it as a startup and how were the first kind of days or months or years running this as a startup?What were like the big difficulties that you ran into? You know, it was challenging it, you know, I would still say that we're in like the startup phase. You know, we're sub 1 million in annual revenue and that what that really means is like, you know, we have a system and a process and like a repeatable thing that we're building, but we haven't built it yet.And the early days, I think in any startup, the most challenging thing is that you actually have to figure out how it works. And figuring that out instead of just like, uh, you know, plumbing, you know, be reductive, but like, people need running water in their homes. Hvac, like, people need heat in, in their, in their houses.Um, how dare you, sir? How dare I? It's so much more complicated. Just that, um. Peer groups, you know, you Yeah. Well, I guess the argument against me would be like, well, you need other business owners to connect with and share information with. But there's this, there's this like ethereal element where other people are looking for different things.Um, when, you know, there's, I run in these conversations where people think they need a peer group. But really they actually need a business coach, or they need a mentor in their industry who's four or five steps ahead of them. I have to do an amount of like education and sort of consultation whenever I talk to someone to figure out what they're actually looking for.Um, and, you know, rewind the clock two, three years ago, I didn't know that that's what I was, that's what I needed to do. So there's, there's this element of like, figuring out what you actually are selling. That is a challenge. And I think, you know, we started with a plumbing HVAC peer group pretty quickly, and it worked.And then I, the next three or four peer groups were all agnostic. Like now I say similar revenue sizes, similar business models, similar personalities. Before it was just like a bunch of people who had acquired companies and. Just a, just a room for those people and they would still be helpful to each other.But when you put a software person, a manufacturing person, e-commerce person, a plumber in the same group, like the plumber's gonna talk about ServiceTitan and like how they have to redo their CRM and no, everyone might have an idea on how to help them solve that problem, but they're not gonna actually have the answer.And before, when I was building these groups, like those types of conversations would happen where someone wants some very specific, applicable advice and they weren't getting it. Um, and that, that was the challenge with the next like three or four groups who started candidly, besides, besides one of 'em. I don't know why, but it worked and everyone loves each other in that group and they still do.The others fail and you know, I had to shut 'em down just 'cause they were not working. Um, so those are the types of. Challenges and like new things you learn as you sort of build a concept from scratch. What is the time differential between that? And then at some point you said, Hey, I'm gonna actually go and acquire a business.I'm gonna go purchase a, which, I mean, the market has to be really tiny for the amount these that are actually for sale. Yeah. I have to go purchase a mastermind group facilitating business. Yeah. Yeah. I, I never went out and tried to acquire. I still don't, like, I, I don't actively peruse biz buy, sell or anywhere.Uh, the way we acquired scale path was, I had, I had helped, let's see, like Gly and his co-founder, his co-founder, steps down, and then Gly puts the, uh. Operations of the company in the hands of his head of community and his head of C, sorry, not his, his head of, uh, content at Gurley Media. Uh, now it's called something different.And so he starts running scale path and, you know, he's not a community guy. He's getting introduced to all these new challenges. So we, I just start trying to help him like. Here you go, here's what we're doing. Here's the challenges that we're experiencing. And you know, them vice versa. And then when, even eventually when it was like, Hey, this, this company doesn't really fit into our portfolio anymore.They were looking, someone, someone to sell it to. And, uh, I was their first call. So it, so it, it really, it really came to me without having me having to go out and look for anything. And then you mentioned the market. The market's funny. It's either incredibly small. It's, it's basically incredibly small.Like you can buy like a, a, a peer group or two in Chicago and it, it'll have a ridiculous multiple on it and will not be worth it to buy. But, uh, they exist like below two or 300,000 in annual revenue. Um. And then there, there was one deal I, I don't know if it's still active, but it was like 8 million in annual sales where this guy had built it up over two or three years and was looking to sell it.And I looked at it and it was for a number of like red flags. I, I think, yeah, for a number of red flags, it did not make any sense. Yeah, the only ones that I've seen that have been extremely successful are like CEO. Level, like very, very high level of CEO Fortune 500 company owners. And I think, 'cause as you become an owner, right, you, you don't, as you become a leader in general, you don't push your problems down to your team.You have to talk them out with other leaders that are on a like-minded level. So like the CEO of some giant corporation is not gonna go and have similar. Uh, issues as me as someone who's running, you know, a $5 million HVAC and plumbing company. And so it becomes a very interesting thing. Um, but yeah, those are the only ones I've seen for sale that are actually like huge in making money.And that's because being able to connect 10 CEOs of Fortune 100 companies is a value in itself. Like that's a huge value to be able to get those 10 people into a room, like not only from. Their time perspective, but also just like that's a network. 'cause this is a networking business. I don't, I don't know that it would always work to buy because you're just buying, you know, a list of.People that that person has met at some point or reached out to or networked with or created a, a networking space. Do you, do you feel that that's accurate To some extent, yeah. I mean, I think I would have an incredibly challenging time selling, uh, scale path because it's, it's heavily tied around like my personal brand and my trust at the MO and my trust between each member and me and, you know, my small team at the moment.Do you plan on one day moving away from that though? I don't know. I don't know. Well, like the, you know, you can call this like a lifestyle business, but. This is, uh, like I think everyone should start like a commuter or, or just like a small peer group business. 'cause it's incredibly fulfilling to run basically every day I just get to help, I just get to help other business owners and like either tell them what I know, which isn't much, but I get to connect them with other people inside of our community who do know, like the answer to their question.So right now we've got eight. Peer groups. We've got a ninth coming in early February. And through all these conversations I'm having with people, eventually people will overlap with their same challenges. So we're like, Hey, this person over here in this group solved it. You should connect with them one-on-one.And I'll be able to like, provide very, very narrow, um, connections, uh, you know, uh, connections to also like very highly specialized vendors. Um. That otherwise people wouldn't hear of. And it's, yeah, I just help me all day. I think you're missing I'm, I'm gonna redirect the question. Oh, sorry. Yeah, no, no, that's, it's good to to know that.But the, the question more relies around, like, one of the, the kind of business tropes, if you will, or the business advice that you'll get from a lot of, um, entrepreneurs is you need to replace yourself, right? You need to replace yourself and replace yourself early on, because that's what makes the business a business rather than.A job. Yeah. And so this is one of those businesses where it's kind of interesting because your distribution, your personal distribution comes from you, Rand knowing people and getting your name out there and getting your personal brand out there. Do you, do you feel like in the near future there is a move with your business acumen to try and, uh, try and fulfill that advice?Or do you think that you'll continue to build personal brand and then drive that into scale path? The answer is yes. Like that's the direction we're going in. What will, what we will eventually be is. Reductively a sales and marketing company for other business coaches, uh, either in local territories or running like basically 20 groups where it's still very, very similar industries and very, very similar.Revenue sizes Will, will basically be a sales and marketing company for them, but there, there will be. I'm just thinking of the next steps. I'm like after three and 5 million, that official like. Ran not being the face and not getting on sales calls, that that is the step where that happens. But between one and three is where I'll still, I'll still probably be interacting and interfacing with people, you know, communicating e even directly to customers.Um, I think I'll be more and more removed, but it'll, it won't be, you know, an of light switch of like flipping it off and then suddenly I'm out. Is that, is that one to three, number three to five, is that an industry standard or a benchmark or is that just your personal belief? You asked me a question on a podcast and I gave you the, the numbers that are off the top of my head.Well, that's what I mean a lot of times, right? When you ask me numbers, it's, it's 'cause they're benchmarks in the industry. It doesn't mean that they're right for my business. It's just, hey, this is the industry standard. I just don't know. I'm trying to figure out when I'm looking at this business model, right, like how much of this are you making decisions.Because you enjoy, like you enjoy going out and talking to people and you have friends in the industry. A lot of these people, I think you would consider their f and I'm not putting words in your mouth. No, I do. But like I would consider us friends and I'm in your opinion, so that's why I say that some of these people are your friends, they're your acquaintances.Maybe they're in between somewhere. But how much of this decision is driven of not replacing yourself is driven by. You actually enjoying what you're doing and don't mind being the face while it's small because you get, you know, social aspect out of it. You get your own, uh, mastermind groups, uh, out of it.You get your own therapy, uh, versus, um. Like, Hey, could you go tomorrow? Right? For a listener out there who's like, Hey dude, I wanna make a mastermind group. This is kind of cool. Or I wanna go buy that Chicago group. Like, but I don't know anybody. I don't want to know anybody. I just want to, I think it's a cool business model.So is there a way that it's less about like, Hey, I get to help people every week, like you get to do and more from like a ruthless business person just saying. This business is, I would run it like this instead, where I'm gonna run Facebook ads and TikTok ads or whatever. I'm gonna sponsor the Wharton entrepreneur, the Stanford entrepreneur, and all these conferences, and that's how I'm gonna grow my business.And it's not gonna be me and my face. It's just gonna be the brand. I'm curious as like, how much of this is you and how much of this is the model? I mean, right now it's, right now it's me. I think, I think that's pretty safe to say. Like right now it's, it's me. Eventually it will be the model. Um, I, I think I'm at a sweet spot right now where I can still retain a lot of personal relationships with people.Um, but my capacity's already running out. It'll be, it'll be, you know, like right now we're not looking to add many more, uh, new peer groups unless they like natural, naturally, organically come to us, I should say. Without a, a different business coach in place, like we're at the inflection moment right now that we have to have other coaches running these things, building relationships, being helpful with people.Basically what I am doing right now, we just need to create copies of, um. And that's the inflection point we're at right now. And we, we already know, like we already know coaches, we know coaches are easy, not easy to find. Mm-hmm. You have to filter through some, some crap. But coaches are findable. Uh, I think we've got a good sales and marketing strategy to get in front of people.And right now we're just trying to craft the offer. And, and then what you mentioned about like someone else going out and, uh, running it as like a crude business person, I definitely think it's possible. The, the thing about benchmarks is, you know. All of these communities, I think they, they look very, very similar at face value.You know, you've got Vistage, um, it's like, tell me who the CE of Vistage is. I don't know. Uh, tell me who the CEO of EO is. I don't know. Um, C 12 is actually, like, he's, he's running that company part partially off of his personal brand. I mean, they get a large amount of organic referrals. I'm sure a lot of C 12 doesn't know who the CEO of C 12 is.His name's Mark Mike Shero. And, um. But the number of benchmarks you can find from these things is, is kind of challenging. Mm-hmm. They all, they all get intermixed. You either get to like 2 million sales and you've got 10 different coaches, or you've got 2 million sales and it's like three people. How, how, what's the biggest one that you've seen or heard of?I think, uh, I think Vistage is the largest. And what do you know? Just like even ballpark, it's like 10 million plus in terms of top line or where do you think that one falls? I think it's, I think it's 200 million, I think it's 200 million in annual. That is a big group. Yeah. Yeah. I wanna say it's like somewhere between four and 11,000 members.I, the both of those numbers stick out for whatever reason. And then they charge I think $15,000 a year. Um, I think it comes up to like 200 million. Something like that. That's crazy. No, that's really neat. I didn't, I didn't realize there was that big of a group out there. It is. It is interesting from. Just like growing a networking business, it, it's odd to consider that you have a network of like 11,000 people.Mm-hmm. It's just, it's a number that's hard to grasp and that not, not only that, but like that's extremely valuable in just even more ways than connecting business owners or people like having a network of 11,000. Individuals and distribution to 11,000 individuals from like a newsletter perspective or a, just like any connection perspective, that is huge.Especially if they're all business owners or high level CEOs, c-suite individuals, like talk about, uh, sponsors. Breaking down the door to get into that. Yeah. That's wild. It happens to me at a hundred members, it's slightly less than a hundred members. Um, and it, it's, it's annoying 'cause I have to, I mean, it's my, it's my job to like preserve the sanc sanctity of the group.Mm-hmm. So I get those pitches maybe once every week, once or once every week or two. It's, it starts to become annoying, but, uh, I, I can only imagine how many Yeah. Tms, the CEO of Vistage gets, dude, that's, that's so a super interesting model. Very cool. Um, going back to the acquisition, do you feel that it was a big win for you and the company?Like, as somebody who's ran, I don't get to ask this very often, but as someone who's ran like the company, the exact same company as a startup and as a startup with a. I don't even want to call it a tucking 'cause you took that brand, you tucked your own company into that brand. So like buying emerging company and doing a pretty large acquisition in, in relative terms.Yeah, I, I consider it a win. I definitely consider it a win. There's like this argument in ETA where it's like, Hey, just go out and maximize your leverage. 'cause if you go bankrupt, like, well, there's no money anyways, so what are they gonna come and take? And there's also the complete opposite argument.It's buying it. Like, I don't recommend anyone buy a 500,000 to a, you know, a million dollar, uh, HVAC company. Our, our deal was very simple, very easy to get done. We did it in a month and like there's been challenges and there's been big wins, but like they've been relatively low stakes, and you got to see what happens when you buy another brand.It's like. Um, you know, I'm hesitant to buy another one because I know the amount of like Pole that Glee had, Michael Glee, uh, when he sold it. And like some members were just very tied to him. Um mm-hmm. And that's why I also know, I'm like, I have, I would've a hard time selling this myself because people are gonna have a hard, you know, poll, uh, to me and.But, so for that stakes, it's like, it was a massive learning. Uh, I shouldn't say not massive learning curve, but we got to learn a ton at a very low stakes level, and that that's like very hard to find. So as you look back on that acquisition and potentially doing more in the future. Um, like what do you recommend to other individuals going out there and maybe buying, I, I don't even wanna say the same space, but like similar spaces, like do you have any big watch outs at making sure, because I could see a world where someone goes and tries to buy one of these businesses and has that exact same issue that you're talking about is like everybody was friends with Rand.The business is bought, it's higher stakes, and now they get wiped out because everybody leaves. Like any kind of advice around that or how to, to reduce attrition? Any learnings from your personal acquisition? Yeah. Well, I've got, I think I've got two, maybe three things to say. I think the first one is look for a.Sales and marketing funnel that does not rely on the personal, uh, brand or e even like a, a bit of retention retention's harder. I'll talk about that in a second. But a sales and marketing funnel. So whether someone's using, you know, email marketing or um. Like cold email marketing or direct mail or social ads, um, anything like that.Like look for a, a system that is working because the number one problem in like growing a community, retaining it, and the actual business model, relatively simple customer acquisition is the really, really difficult part. So look for a system that is repeatable and it's working and it's proven. The second thing on retention is I would probably recommend, um.Having whatever seller you work with, role equity into the acquisition. Yeah. And still maintain a fa like a front face towards the membership. Um, with a certain amount of like hours or minimum amount of time every week where they are regularly interfacing people so they don't just dip out and leave, but they stay present.And we, like Gurley still does that. He, he engages with our Slack room. We pull him in for, um, like a webinar, monthly webinar, office hours webinar. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And that's been tremendously helpful. 'cause it's not like, Hey, I'm just completely ghosting. But it's, you know, hey, you know, we need someone who, like, this was our pitch when we, when we acquired Scale Path.It's like, hey, we need a full-time person who's really gonna run this thing and grow it and provide a lot, uh, more value to members than, you know, girdle's personal time allows and that resonate with people significantly more than. Gly just completely leaving. And I should say like, that's not my own experience.It's not my, just my own idea. I spoke with another guy who runs a community. It's like community plus educational content in the finance space yesterday. It's exactly what he did. He built his company up over four or five years to, I don't know, maybe two to three, 4 million in annual sales. Really, really successful.Uh, guy. And he, um. He rolled when he sold his company, he rolled, uh, a, a minority portion of equity and he's staying on, um, in a role for, you know, a predetermined amount of time so that his acquirer can actually go out, build the relationships, build trust. Yeah, and that makes sense, especially in your type of business.'cause, and again, like if you, if you sold as well, I, I would have a very hard time, and I'll phrase this as a question. Do you think that you would have a hard time. Actually leaving the business because like again, this is a Brandand face brand and so like it kind of gives people the best of both worlds.You get to exit or that person gets to exit, but still have that networking, communication kind of the fun part of the business. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if, if I were to exit, like if I removed myself as the, right now, I'm the facilitator of seven of the eight groups currently. And if I removed myself from those, like I think we would have a really challenging time with customer attrition.Yeah. Um, just like, Hey, here's your new coach and now you have this new person who's gonna lead everything. I think that would be a big challenge. So like, if, if I did sell like, that is probably where I would still have most of my, you know, activities. And then someone else would take on all of the strategic, uh, marketing work.I mean, I, I love this story mostly because it proves, uh, something that I talk about on this podcast all the time is like, this business came. The acquisition side of this business, the actual scale path is because you were doing it right? Like if you weren't already doing this and weren't already talking about community and weren't already in the field, like crushing this already, then you would've never gotten this opportunity.And so people ask me all the time, they're like, Jack, how did you get your second, third, fourth acquisition? I can't even get on my first. It's 'cause the first is the hardest if acquisition wise. But I would assume that's the same like. Startup is the hardest. And then those acquisition tuck-ins are a lot easier later on because you're already the authority in the field.You're already the authority in this brand or sector or job type. And so like that's, I think that is so cool as part of your story. Um. What are next steps? Um, so we've probably got, at this point, 60 members who have acquired businesses inside of our community who've already acquired businesses. Mm-hmm.And I looked at those 60, I was like, how many people have acquired multiple businesses? And it's like 20 or 25. Yeah. The number's shocking. I'm like kind of shockingly high that once you get your first deal done, and these are. Obviously people I interface I talk to every single month when they have deal, like the second, third, fourth deal is not much of a challenge.Like they've got a brand name. Brokers know them when they reach out to a new broker who doesn't know them. Say, Hey, I'm buying companies in the towing space and I've already done it. You, you just go to the top of the list. Oh, yeah. As like that's the person I send towing deals to. You already have ethos too.Like you can say, Hey, I've already purchased two of these, or one of these. I'm going to purchase the second one, versus the random guy down the road who's never bought anything and who might just be a tire kicker and cut out at the last, you know. 90, what is it? The one yard line? Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's, I'm really good at sports, the 90 and nine yard line.I, uh, well, it's also safety for the broker. Like at the end of the day, the broker's scared that if they're gonna work with anyone who, they're like uncertain of that, they don't know what they're doing. Like that's sort of what a broker what I think safety for a broker, safety for the per seller, because it's the same thing.I wanna make sure my team's okay. They're not going to, you're not gonna come in here and destroy my business. They have a job. Like I feel less bad about the sale. Um, if I'm the seller when that happens, just because again, I know it's going to someplace good, or at least you hope, but there's a higher likelihood.Well, the broker also knows what you're looking for and they know the problems that you're scanning for, and they know that your time is valuable and you're not gonna waste it by Yeah. You know, like getting into a deal and then re-trading at the last moment. That might be their, that might be their concern with private equity, but less so with a business owner who's got his first deal on the table.Yep. Sweet man. So what's, what are the next steps for you? What's the next year look like For Scale Path and Rand, we are uh, gonna be bringing on some coaches this year. The number's probably gonna be two or three goals, two, but it'll probably be two or three, potentially more. We'll see what happens when we hit mid-year.Um, but we're doing one in-person market, which will be our test to like really. See what in-person, what an in-person peer group looks like. How do we launch territory? How do we get people involved, engaged? You know, we, how do we do like a launch event? Like it's, our plan is actually to, to do a launch event.Um, we've got, I think all the tools to execute it well, but we actually have to, like programmatically what happens, what do we say? How do we communicate it to people? Um, structure and offer. Right. Um, trying to think about what else, uh, any, any rand across America tours? Prob? Probably not. Probably not. No.Rand across America tours? You gotta, no, you gotta put the, the, for anybody who doesn't know Rand went on a Rand Across America tour to promote scale path last year. Uh, it was really cool to see. I think it had as much as you don't you say it wasn't a success. From a branding perspective, personal branding perspective.I think like whenever I talk to someone and they know you, they're like, oh yeah, he came to this meetup in Tallahassee and it was so much fun and I gotta see his, his cool van, or I went to, to Main Street Summit and I saw his van. Um, so I still think it was a cool thing to do. It's a once, it was a lifetime, maybe twice in a lifetime thing.Yeah, we'll, we'll see if it happens again. I'll still be utilizing the van as a tool. It'll just be much more strategic. I, I, I went on a seven month road trip from, I think like September. To April of 20, you know, to April of 2025. And I was burnt out at like month five and six. And then I went on another trip this year from September to November.I was like, I was burnt out after week three. It was like, it happened very, very, very fast. So also, it's a lot of social capital. It is a lot of social capital. You mean that I'm building or like that I'm expending when I going out. That you're extending, like, like that you have to, it's show up to these events and you have to entertain and, and make sure you put on a good event.And for me would be a lot. That's actually the easy part's. That's actually, that's my nightmare's actually. I, I've done close to 50 events. I think I cal, it's like 45 events I've done Breeze. If I'm like in a room and like I'm the. Facilitator or whatever, no problem whatsoever. I can talk and like everyone is happy to see me.It's actually a really, really easy thing because like you're the guy that everyone knows. So like being friendly and people saying hi, like that part is actually easy. It's just the travel, it's, it's just purely, uh, the travel and even the coordination, like, yeah. Got a team that does that for me. Um, it's purely just the travel.Mm-hmm. And like time away from it. Like right now I wake up. And I go to bed and I work from the same place. I work out from the same place every single day, and it is, I'm a hermit right now and I love it. Yeah. It's also super, actually, it's not that cold in Ohio. I was gonna say, it's also snowy and terrible where you are, but it's not right now.No, not right now. That's fun. Awesome. Rand, do you have any last words or any kinda last bits of advice for anybody out there that's looking to potentially start or buy a business in or outside of the Mastermind space? Yeah, I'd probably say lean into your strengths whenever possible. Like what proof do you have of your capabilities already that you've already done and that you can write down on paper and say, Hey, broker, like this is what I've already done and I just want to apply it here.Um, I, I just think. Number one is that like, that's how it'll help you sell yourself better. But number two is that if you've got even construction, no one wants to buy construction companies. But like if you've got construction experience, um, and you wanna buy a construction company. It'll help you sell yourself, but number two, you will actually know what's going on when you acquire a business and skip that, figuring it out phase because you'll already have an eye on what problems that people are going through.You'll already have an idea on what like the sales and marketing funnel looks like. You'll actually already have, you'll, you'll be four or five rungs up. On the step ladder of actually like running a business and knowing what you're doing rather than starting it from scratch in a brand new industry. So I think whatever, you know, whatever you can look for that, definitely look for it.Sweet. My last thing, so, so if, if people want to talk to you more about masterminds or get a hold of you or hear more information about your awesome road trip, where can they go and find you? Uh, join scale path.com. We're gonna, we're gonna redo the website pretty soon, but join scale path.com. And then I'm on Twitter and LinkedIn.So DM me wherever I'm there. And I'll answer you Rand. Is Rand at Rand Larson or is it special at, on Twitter, it's at Rand Business. And then on LinkedIn it's just Rand Larson. Larson. Awesome. Thanks Rand. I appreciate your time today. If you like what you heard, five stars, leave a comment to why Rand is completely wrong about anything he said today.Not me, only him. Leave a comment, roast me the comments, roast him like subscribe. Follow wherever you listen. If you are on Apple or Spotify, please leave us a five star review. It takes five seconds and it goes so far for us. Leave that. Love you. We appreciate it guys. You have a good one. Thanks.
