Building a $100 Million Business with William De Temple

Josh
 Good day, fellow dealmakers. Welcome to the deal scout on today's show. We're going to talk about the tipping point of businesses when it comes to really scaling a business. It seven figures, eight figures, nine figures at a hundred million dollars. I don't know. Let's have a conversation with someone who's done it. William de temple did I or day temple. 

 William
 D temple. 

 Josh
 Day temple. Welcome to the deal scout. 

 William
 Glad to be here. Josh looking forward to helping as many of your audience as we can scale and grow their companies. 

 Josh
 Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. All right. On your LinkedIn, it says we help presidents of seven and eight figure companies achieve rapid growth, 20% net profit, regardless of industry. Kind of give us an idea on what does a day to day, activity in the business world of WM look like, what do you do every day? 

 William
 Well, my day is scheduled with coaching calls with business owners. And, you brought up a very good point there about the companies, the size of companies we want. One of the biggest things we have found is so many small businesses don't know how to get to 20% of that profit. We are constantly helping and guiding them and coaching them so they can get to 20% that profit, because that's how 20% net profit that gives them the surplus cash to reinvest into the business though they can continue growing it. There's a lot of different things that go on and we'll get into that. I'm sure as you asked me more questions. So, 

 Josh
 Under 20% net profit, is that where they're just surviving? They're striving to survive rather than focusing on growth and scale. 

 William
 Yeah. Typically you'll find a lot of companies are under 10% net profit and they, don't why they're struggling. They don't understand. A lot of people are scared to price their product appropriately or their service appropriately. Okay. Consequently, they think they've got to keep the price low to get the customer well, the customer, if if you want high quality, good customers, they will pay for high quality, good service. You have to come across like you're a real high quality company and that you're charging appropriately for the services and value you deliver to your customers. 

 Josh
 One of the points you said, like going straight to it is, you're saying it's a fear, right? That's a, that's a mindset. That's not a, we're not talking even about competition. We're not talking about commodity. You're talking to the number one issue is you saw that business owners have a fear about pricing accordingly. Is that right? Right. 

 William
 Yep. 

 Josh
 All right. Walk us through this. How did you, when was it that you first realized that this was one of the main hurdles businesses are facing? 

 William
 Well, we go back a couple of decades after I sold my fourth company, which I'd actually scaled from bootstrap to over a hundred million dollars in the nineties. I got recruited by venture capital to come in and fix their underperforming investments. When I started doing the due diligence on why these companies were underperforming, there was a variety of different things. We found the pricing of their product was one of the things that we found, but there was also a lot of other things with regards to how the organization was structured, who they had, did they have the right people in the right seats and so on and so forth? There was a lot to it, but that's where I really started figuring it out because I was lucky when I founded my very first company in the early seventies, I had a good friend of the family who was a seasoned business executive come over to me and say, William, if you're going to build a company, you need a business coach. 

 William
 He took me over and introduced me to a gentleman and said, you need to hire this guy. Because I hired that guy, I actually scaled my first company from bootstrap to over $12 million in revenue. That was in 1970s dollars, not today's dollars. We did that in seven years and then a strategic buyer came along and offered me so much money. I couldn't turn it down. I sold the company and those are the things that we like helping our clients achieve. 

 Josh
 You've been in the game for a while. So you've probably seen a lot. 

 William
 Yes. 

 Josh
 All right. Since that first one, so you built your first, could you tell me what kind of industry was in. 

 William
 The very first company we built was actually toys and it started off with, we started to import toys and then I got frustrated at the manufacturer. One of the key manufacturers were using, so I flew over to Asia to meet with them and try to figure out what we could do to make sure we had better product. By the time I left, I bought the company. 

 Josh
 Wow. Super cool. All right. You built that, sold that in seven years from bootstrapped to over 12 million in revenue. What year did you exit your first business and how old were you? 

 William
 I exited my first business in 81 and I guess I was about 28. 

 Josh
 Wow. All right. For frame of reference, I was born in 1981. The year I was entering into the world, you were exiting the first business. In the eighties and early eighties, where you, what was it like to have a first exit under the belt? 20, 28 years old, got a chunk of change in the pocket. What was going through your mind? What was going on in your life? How did you respond to that event? 

 William
 Well, trying to think back and remember that. 

 Josh
 14 years ago. 

 William
 Was exhilarating and overwhelming and everything else and it took a while for me to realize, okay, because my wife and I probably, we spent probably about six months or so just vacationing and doing stuff. It was like I said, okay, well, I'm bored. I gotta find something to do. What am I going to do next? I started hunting around and looking for the next opportunity. It's like, once you get this in your blood, you can't stop, ? Yeah. 

 Josh
 Yeah. So, so you got bored, right? You, you did the I vacation. I bought stuff. He bought whatever car you want in 1981, what kind of car, what was your first really cool car purchase? Cause I'm sure there was one in there. 

 William
 Actually cars have never been a big thing for me. 

 Josh
 Cool. 

 William
 My boat was more important to me than my car. 

 Josh
 Right. W what was your first really cool boat? 

 William
 I I'd actually upgraded from a, a 23 foot double Eagle. I went up a 32 foot, and then I went up to a 48 foot Tali craft. Super. So, 

 Josh
 All right. Not even hitting 30 yet, most people are climbing. The corporate ladder, got the golden handcuffs on working their butt off. They look at you. And at that point you exited, right. You got bored. Six months later, you went on the hunt. Let me ask you this question when it comes to community, right. When it comes to hanging out with friends, right? Most people go to work eight to five, they come home, friends, they're following that corporate ladder, especially like in the eighties and nineties. Right. Here you were, you took a different route. What kind of relationships did you have at the point where there are other people like you, who were building and exiting companies in the eighties and nineties? 

 William
 Not as many as there are today. It was a pretty thin group of people that were doing that. Actually, as I, as my career advanced, I got involved with the tech coast angels out of Newport beach, California. Yeah. I'm actually working with some of the original founders of that angel network. I learned all about the history between where they started that angel network and how they grew it. And, and it had grown tremendously. I was with them for many years, investing in a lot of small companies and startups and stuff. It's like, I had the opportunity to, network with these people, be with these people, pick their brains and everything else. It was a great organization to be part of. We, we had some great successes on our investments and we had a few that didn't turn out so great. But that's the nature of the beast. 

 Josh
 Yeah. I. 

 William
 Mean, sometimes s**t happens. That's beyond the business. Owner's control. Sure. They can't beat themselves up when that happens. They've got to realize that, it is what it is. 

 Josh
 Yeah. So Mr. William, let me ask this question. Let's say you and I had the ability to go back and now you can't give yourself like financial advice, like, Hey, by Google, by early apple, by the first Bitcoin mining and then sell in 2021, right? Like you can't give yourself financial advice, but you and I are able to go back. You just had the exit event. You're 28 years old, may you and younger William get to sit down and have a conversation about life or business principles or whatever, but just can't be financial. I go by this, what advice would you give your younger self. 

 William
 Building? Your management team, your management team is the biggest asset you'll ever have. If you've got the right people on your management team, you can scale your company. And, but you've also got to be wise enough to them. Okay. I I've run into a lot of entrepreneurs that think they know more than they do know, and they hire really great people. They ignore what the really great people tell them to do. 

 Josh
 It's almost like this. I'm going to paint a picture from what I've seen. I've interviewed probably a thousand people and a lot of hard driving visionaries and entrepreneurs, start to build high growth businesses, ego, we're pain kind of gets you moving humility keeps you going right. Having the humility to seek wisdom, hire coach, right. Or talk to your management team and go, Hey guys, I don't know what your thoughts is. That is that a correct assumption? I don't have as much gray hair or as wisdom as you've accumulated. What are your thoughts? 

 William
 You're you're right on the button there. I mean, that's what they need to do is talk to their management team, get feedback, get ideas bouncing around. Don't be a dictator because if you're a dictator, it's gonna be a disaster. People are going to get fed up. They're going to leave. You start getting turnover and turnover is the most expensive cost you'll ever have. 

 Josh
 Cool. How long was it before the first exit before the wife got sick and tired of, you said you got to go back to work, man. You got to go get back in the game. How long was it before you launched your second company? 

 William
 It was probably seven or eight months and it really, she wasn't pushing me out the door, but I was going crazy, bored and frustrated, cause I needed stuff to do. I needed to do something. Yeah, I started the hunt looking for what I was going to create next. 

 Josh
 There's only so much Atari or Sodoku. You could play in 1981 before you start to get bored and all your friends are at work climbing the corporate ladder and trying to figure that out. Right. Seven months later you start business number two, the first time it took you seven years to go from bootstrap to 12 mil had the second window. 

 William
 Well, the second one, obviously we're better capitalized in the first one. I was able to bring on a strong management team pretty fast and were able to put things together very rapidly. And, and so we scaled that company even faster than the first company. And, but we also, it was probably about seven years before we got it sold as well. There seems to be cycles out there that just are the thing. Again, it's getting the company to the right size and having all the industry's looking at you because I don't care what industry you're in. There's lots of other people in that industry, bigger companies that are looking for those great companies that have got growth potential. One of the things you've also got to look at, you got to take a hard look in the mirror and that is to determine what your strengths and what your weaknesses are. 

 William
 One of the things that I realized, not so much with my second company, but with my third company, was that I hit my glass ceiling. I taken the company as large as I could take it. And, I realized that I needed to exit the business or I was gonna make a mess out of it because I didn't have the experience, the knowledge and the wisdom that I've got today, to be able to take that company to the next level. 

 Josh
 If we add up all of your exits, all of your awesome investments in the last 78 years, like give us an idea. We don't, however much you're willing to share because I've got a very specific question after that. How would you, how would you kind of bucket it, 

 William
 Trying to understand your question more. 

 Josh
 I'm trying to understand how best to ask it without putting, without saying, Hey, how much are you worth? What I'm trying to get to the real question is this. You can back into how you want to answer it. You've made a lot of money. You've had some exits and you've made a lot of money. We could just say you've made a lot of money more than most will ever see, is it harder to make it or to keep it? 

 William
 It's probably harder to keep it. I've, I've made some pretty at the time. I thought they were great investments and things turned south and I lost a bunch of money too. I mean, I've had great wins, but I've also had some significant losses. Typically my loss is, well actually just bought all my losses were when I was investing in things that I didn't know enough about my companies, I had no problem keeping those cause I was in control and I could manage it and I can control it. When I started investing in other things that I didn't know, and I was relying upon other people, that's when I started making some mistakes. It was more because the interesting thing is in the angel investor network, we did great. I made some really great returns on my investments in there, but then we're working with the entrepreneurs and helping them through the process is when I went into the public markets and started investing in the public stocks, that's when I really took hits. 

 William
 I'm like, what the hell is going on here. 

 Josh
 Completely out of control. I know a lot of people, we've interviewed people who were hedge funds and they play in the public market and that's all they do. They say whatever we do, we will not step into the private cause. This is what we know, third generational foundations. They go, this is what we know. Well, on the flip side, we've been never viewed, entrepreneurs, investors, people, who've built companies, sold companies. They're always saying that space and they go, we will not invest in these. When did you learn that? You're like, all right, I got to invest in things that I know when and have some level of control. And how old were you? What was the precipice of that decision? 

 William
 I would say it was in the late nineties that I realized that making these investments in areas that I wasn't knowledgeable about was really a bad, my bad choices. It's like, I kicked myself for some, a lot of the investments that I made back then. That's life you learn from either through school of hard knocks or you hire the right people. Unfortunately I wasn't wise enough back then to hire the right people, to manage my stock portfolio. Thankfully I've overcome that problem. 

 Josh
 Yeah. I'm 40 and I'm just learning a lot of hard knock lessons. Cause that was the, I was the guy who had to run through the brick wall myself to go, oh yeah, that hurt. Now I'm starting to go, okay. Who could I pay right. To teach me not to do things right. I have bad behavior things because I'm emotionally driven in certain aspects. I now hire consultants and coaches because I have blind spots, a high driven visionary. I have many, many blind spots, probably like most highly visionary people out there with that for me, the first step was humility of going. I don't know. I need help raise my hand, go, I need help. Right. Once I did that business, when a lot faster, let me ask this question when it came to making a lot, losing a lot, which one had a greater impact on you, right? 

 Josh
 The, the pain or the pleasure, like which one had higher intensity? 

 William
 Well, I'm sure the pain did. I mean, I had a lot of joy from the successes and I had a lot of pain from the losses. So, I definitely, and I, I like how you talk about hiring coaches and stuff because that's really what I ended up doing was I started, getting a hold of people that really understood the public markets. I hired some people to teach me who I needed to have managed that portfolio, because that was not my field of expertise at all. Okay. 

 Josh
 I mean, I read some of this stuff and it's so far over my head, especially new technologies and all these things so far over my head and like people like, you're going to miss out on this train and I'm like, even if I catch the train, I don't know what to do with it. Right. I try to stay in my lane and then if I have expendable money or something like it's high risk, I might go, okay, here's but my bucket stays here. All right. I'm 40 and you're now mentoring me. Right. So, let's just say we caught up every quarter or something like that. You were a board of advisors for my holding company and you're giving me a piece of advice step away from business advice. What personal advice do you give to a company that you're advising, a young CEO, highly visionary, highly driven, seems to have good moral compass and family values. 

 Josh
 What kind of advice will you guide them? 

 William
 Well, that's a really good question. It's got a lot of different thinking about it and there's a lot of different things I could discuss in this because probably one of the most important things is your management team and picking the right management team. How do you screen that and determine who's the right person you're going to add to your management team, because if you get the wrong person in that company, they can cause you all types of grief and trouble. Okay. So, and with the coaching that we do, we work with our clients virtually every week. It's not waiting till the next quarter and finding out the results. It's like, we guide them along the process all the way. That way, we're able to catch things early on and help them avoid making big mistakes. 

 Josh
 Yeah. What was the greatest moment of in your business career? Like you look back and you're like, if I could relive that day, like you're like, that was the day we got the home run. We got the grand slam. We got, what was the, it might be financial. It might not be what was the greatest day in business ever for you? 

 William
 That's a really good question. I've had a lot of great days. I'm trying to think which one was the greatest day. I don't know. It's it's, probably what the greatest day has been is the companies that we're currently helping through our coaching program. That's where I get the most pleasure and the most everything, because we help take these companies sometimes are, around a million dollars sometimes at 18 $20 million. We help them restructure, reorganize and position them. So they can really scale and grow. And we've taken companies. I I've got one of our clients when we started to work with him, his net worth was about a quarter of a million dollars. Two years later, his net worth was $250 million. 

 Josh
 That's cool. 

 William
 Okay. On that anniversary day, he actually brought that information to me and said to me, do you realize what you've done for me? Like, I wasn't looking at that side of the coin because I was looking at the business side and the management side and the structure and everything else. It was exhilarating to have him come and tell me what I've done for him. 

 Josh
 Yeah. What was the scariest? You've been in business since the seventies. Right. And you've seen a lot of businesses. What was the scariest day in business you've ever experienced? Because you went through recessions. You've been through, I don't know. Yeah. You've been through a few wars. You've been through a lot of cycles. What was the scariest day in business for you? 

 William
 Well, the thing is, I'm going to maybe switch that around because there is no decade that goes by that there is not a financial crisis and people seem to think, oh, everything's going great. You know? They, and they go out with Gusto trying to do all types of stuff. They don't realize that, there's lots of pitfalls and traps and things going on that we don't understand. I mean, for example, the recent real estate market, I've been saying a year, you better watch that real estate market because real estate goes up, but it also goes down and they're, we're starting to see some of the crap that's going to be happening in the real estate market, but it's the same thing in any industry, in any business. So you've gotta be very cautious. I mean, when you talk about all the different things I've been through, I mean, I, I remember black Monday, I remember the SNL crisis where they all got shut down. 

 William
 I remember so many different things that went through over the decades, and there has never been one single decade go by where you haven't been hammered and oftentimes out of left field where you never saw it coming. If you don't, if you're not prepared and so you like, here's another tidbit I work with all my clients on is I always want them to have, excuse me, a minimum of 180 days operating cash in their bank so that if all revenues stopped, they could pay every bill that they've got. Keep every person employed, everything going on for that 180 day cycle, because there's, you will come out of it. Of course you've got all types of options and abilities. Cash keeping good cash reserves is incredibly important. 

 Josh
 Yeah, man, do companies ever come to you business? Actually how do typical business owners come to you? Right? Did they referred by a friend? Did they find you online? Do they see you standing next to, Russell over here? Like how do people find you? 

 William
 We get a lot of referrals where existing clients have referred other friends of theirs to us. We do marketing, like any good company should do marketing. We do marketing. We get people that come through us from out of nowhere. And, it's just the nature of the beast. Even shows like this, coming on these shows and sharing our experience, our knowledge, our wisdom, and helping other people say, wow, I want some of that. Because my passion is all about creating good sustainable jobs. I do that by teaching business owners, how to create good sustainable businesses. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Awesome. Out of all the people you've worked with, like what, what is someone that you've, cause you've worked with some pretty cool people, I'm looking at some pictures and I'm looking through your history and out of all the people you've met, who did you most aspire or like when you connected with them, you're like, I want, I wish I could spend more or have them mentor me or, is there anybody out there that you're like, this is a Sage that I want to, learn from? 

 William
 Well, there's a few of them, obviously my connection with Mr. Richard Branson is or serve Richard Branson actually has been a great connection. There's other people out there that we've done a lot of stuff with, from various fields. Yeah, I've got a pretty substantial Rolodex and I've got some very high net worth people in it. As a matter of fact, I'm getting close to completing my newest book right now. Cool. My newest book, we haven't decided on the final title yet, but the title we're working on is you can build a nine figure company. The subtitle is with lessons from 16 founders of nine figure companies. The caveat on that is out of those 16 founders, 14 of them are billionaires today. Two of them are well on their path becoming billionaires. I mean, those are the types of people I network deal with on a regular basis. 

 William
 Okay. And none of these people are public. They all privately owned businesses and that's another very interesting thing. If you start doing the research and study, you'll find that there's a lot of privately held companies out there that are worth over a billion dollars. And, but because they're not public, there's not a lot of stuff going on out there in the world. People don't know how big they really are. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. I think that is, that's super fascinating, right? Like, cause you could talk about all right, I built a company and I went, I did an IPO. Right. I went, I went to the public market and of course I had a big payday. Right. From these organizations privately held companies, there's a lot to learn because their exits weren't to the public market. Right. In, in these 16 stories, right. These 16 entrepreneurs that you're asking wisdom and you're pulling these golden nuggets and such when you were talking with them and sharing their stories, what's one that really came out to you and you're like, wow. I thought, I, I thought I figured this out, but it really surprised me. That's something that I need to learn in my next, 

 William
 I, I think I got so many golden nuggets out of doing those interviews. I'm not sure where to start. I'm trying to remember the name of the guy right now. He's got this job. I'm trying to remember the name of his company, but his, he is a timeshare business and he's actually the third largest timeshare company in the world and is privately held, not publicly traded. It competes against a Marriott and Hilton and that, and he's just got an incredible business there. If the story from where he started, it's very fascinating what all the crap that he went through before that company actually started going and growing and taking off and that, and everybody's got a lot of trials and tribulations that they go through before they become a success. 

 Josh
 Yeah, man, I got so many questions. I want to ask you William life and about wisdom when it comes to achieving that much. See, I grew up on a construction site and the only way that I was exposed to higher, I grew up and construction. I mean swinging hammers, scraping paint, digging footers in Florida. Right. You know, like in the hot sun. It for conversations about wealth, generational wealth building a hundred building and scaling, like I was my dad's only in longest employee, right? These kinds of things, I'm learning now in my forties building my own companies, building my teams, I'm learning through interviews and with people like you. It comes to, life's tribulations, challenges, growth mindset, that fear of pricing accordingly, the fear of hiring a coach and overcoming that hiring, high level management team rather than the lowest, how can I get this done for the cheapest and whatever, right? 

 Josh
 There's a lot of fears and mindset, things that business owners have to overcome. What was the hardest one for you to overcome? As you're sharing with me, what are some wisdom nuggets that you can Knight me with and send me off to the world of business? 

 William
 Well, let me just share with you that like you, I grew up in a family business, basically ours was a cattle ranch and believe me, there's nothing more hard work than cattle ranches, I think. Getting away from that and back to your question, , The biggest thing is if you've got a good business coach, you're, when you run into things that you're scared of, that you've got fear of, you've got somebody you can talk to and say, geez, I'd love to do this, but is it the right move for me? It the way we should be doing things? I S we're able to help people through that stuff. I want people to achieve great success. And, and that's one of the reasons why with our coaching program, we don't charge by the hour, we have a flat rate fee. Our goal is to help the company scale and grow. 

 William
 It's not about us making a ton of money because I've got enough money that I don't need a lot, but I also learned over the decades that if people don't pay you for your experience, knowledge, and wisdom, they don't respect you and they don't follow your advice. So we require everybody to pay. 

 Josh
 I find, and that one of my first fitness companies, technology company, my goal was for everybody, for it to be free for the people, right. What I found is helping people lose weight and get in shape when people paid, even if it was a little, they had better results, 

 William
 Same. 

 Josh
 Program, as soon as they had to take out their wallet and give something or lose something. That's when they got true results, people pay attention when they pay. I find, 

 William
 Well, I considered an investment when they're actually investing in themselves. Yeah. That's when they get better results, 

 Josh
 What's a, what's a goal for you, right. So you've already made enough. You're like, I really don't need to work. What's what kind of goals keep you driven forward? There a milestone, certain amount of companies, a certain dollar, for other people? What, what drives you every day? 

 William
 Well, we actually track is the number of jobs we help create through all the companies we're working with. My goal is I would like to get to the million job creation level. Once I get there, I'm probably going to set a new milestone to go to 5 million jobs, ? Yeah. Cause as I said, that's my real passion. I mean this country, unfortunately they shipped a lot of jobs overseas. Now I'm trying to do things that are going to help us create good sustainable jobs right here in the United States. 

 Josh
 Super cool. As you're going through this process, there's a business out there and they're going, what? I would love to have a conversation with a coach or someone who's been there, done that and maybe could give some insights, show me my blind spots and help me grow. I want to grow. I want to have an exit. I want to go further and faster, but I want to do it with wisdom. What's a good place for people to connect with you and do a deal with you. 

 William
 Well, how they need to go to our website, which is number nine, figure company.com. There's a ton of information on there. They can watch some videos, they can watch different things. They can listen to some of our things and they can get more comfortable with what we do and how we do it. They can turn around and contact our staff and schedule a call with me. I'll be happy to talk to anybody and, help them understand where their, what they, what it is they really want to achieve. You know? Cause I just, I love helping companies scale and grow. That's all. 

 Josh
 Yeah. What do you do for fun? Other than helping companies build scale and grow? 

 William
 I've got four grandchildren and my two children and then I've got my family and my families. I'm very close with all my family. So family is super important to me. It's probably the most important thing besides what I do. So I love that. I love doing things with the family, otherwise, traveling and stuff. Look, I've been, I've done business in nearly 50 countries around the world and that's one of the other things I'd like to point out. People get so stuck in doing business in the U S and they don't realize how much opportunity there is outside the U S and we've, we help a lot of companies scaling grow on a global basis so that they're able to do a lot more than what they can do by competing with people in the us when they're going outside the United States and going to other countries, because you're an American company you're highly respected right off the bat. 

 William
 You can pick up business that you never dreamed of picking up. That's some of the stuff we also help them with. 

 Josh
 Why do you think that is? 

 William
 Because the us is still considered the wisest country in the world, the most successful country in the world, ? 

 Josh
 Yeah. No, but w what prevents, what is it in their mindset that prevents them from thinking outside the U S. 

 William
 I have really never figured that out. 

 Josh
 Is it a fear? Is it a like lack of vision? It like what, like when you're talking to the people like, and you go, Hey, have you considered United States, outside of that there. Like, what are the, what is the first response you get? 

 William
 Generally, they've never even thought about it. They look at that as being a vendor. I mean, basically the same thing I did, I was working with a manufacturer out of Korea. As I said, their quality was up and down and all around, and it was driving me nuts. I went over there to, try to have a conversation and figure out how we could make this work better and ended up buying the company. I had no intentions on going when I went over there to buy the company. I was so frustrated by this owner, by the time I was finished, I offered to buy him the buy the company from, and he says, okay. And I'm like, 

 Josh
 Huh. 

 William
 So, you'll be amazed what you can do. As I say, I've done business in about 50 countries around the world, and there don't be afraid, fear is the biggest thing is going to hold you back. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Super cool. One more time, where can people find you? What was the name of the business? 

 William
 It's nine, the nummber number nine, figure company.com. That's where they can find us and contact with us. 

 Josh
 Yeah. So, William, I'm sure that there's a question I should have asked you during this interview, but I screwed up and I probably didn't ask the right one. Right. What questions should I be asking you? Or what question do you wish someone would ask you? You're like, man, I've been on hundreds of interviews. I've been to the top of nobody's ever asked me this one day, I want to be asked this. What is that? 

 William
 I've never thought about it from that perspective. Let me think. I guess, I guess what it is, is what is most important thing in your life? It, is it your business or is there something else it's the most important thing in your life? Because, I mean, I love my company. I love what I'm doing in my company, but my family and all the other stuff that we do, those are far more important than what I do in business. 

 Josh
 Has it always been that way or did you have to learn the hard way? 

 William
 We have been a very close knit family from when I was very young. So for me it's been that. It's interesting because all my siblings still live in the same geographical area that we grew up in. I have lived in, I've actually lived in six countries on three continents and I've done business in nearly 50 countries. And, I've been all over the world doing just all types of things and they all look at me and try to figure out what made me do what I'm doing. You know, 

 Josh
 Where's your favorite place to live out of all the places you've ever been. If you could pick one to live. Let's just say, the world is not crazy, right? Let's just say before the world went absolutely nuts. Where, where was your favorite place to live? 

 William
 I still love Southern California better than any other place in the world. I hear all these people complaining about the taxes in California and stuff. And I tell them, you know, what? The pendulum swings right now, the pendulum's way up and the taxes are way up. It's not going to be long before some government's going to come in and drive the taxes down so they can get elected into the country. What's most important is California at the turn of the century was the ninth largest economy in the world. Now I'd seen California go through growth through the, the seventies, the eighties, the nineties. Today I actually was a summer of 2019. California was ranked the fifth largest economy in the world. Wow. Okay. And, and people don't understand, they need to do research and dig down on things. Because California is the fifth largest economy in the world, there is so much business that goes on in California and Californians have a different attitude towards entrepreneurs. 

 William
 You can, they will help you more than they will in other states. Other places, we moved out to Florida to help my wife's parents because they were getting up in age and various things. We moved out to Florida and I was like a fish out of water in Florida, because there was none of the structure infrastructure that I was accustomed to in California. There was no angel networks. There was venture capital groups. There's none of the things I was used to. I went and I met with a major law firm that I've been dealing with in California for decades before I got some introductions. I started to put together angel network in Florida. My goal was to do like what we, what the tech coast angels were in California. And, I met with over 200 high net worth individuals. There was only two of them that were willing to participate in a angel network. 

 William
 It boggled my mind. I got pulled aside one day by one of these people. I was told, look, you don't understand. We have these old boy networks here in the Southeast. If you're not part of no boy network, you're not going to get anything done. And I'm like, come on. I thought that one out was slavery. So, you know, 

 Josh
 I love the great state of Florida, but I have experienced that. I had to, I had to move out of Florida to try to learn. I had to move to Dallas and I had to move, out west to try to figure out about money and investing and work with venture capital groups and such. I got my ass whooped because I didn't know. My goal here, my daughter is nine. I have a nine, five and a two. My goal is thanks, man. It's amazing. My goal here is that I start building that ecosystem here. That way, when she does my kids do, if they do want to be entrepreneurs, they don't have to go chase capital to the west coast. 

 William
 No, no. You need to let them go. Chase capital. Never give it to them. 

 Josh
 Yeah. Oh yeah, no. I want them to earn it, but I don't want them to have to go out there. I want them to go in their backyard and go, Hey, Bob or Sally, you guys are angel investors. My dad taught me how to pitch to, can I ask you for money? Right. That's the goal. They don't have to travel. Yeah. When that time comes, I'll have them come talk with you and you could give them some guidance. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. William, thanks for coming on the show. I really appreciate it. Fellow deal-makers in the audience as always reach out to our guests. If what they're saying, resonates with you. If you'd like to learn more, all their contact information will be in the show notes below. This is the mission and purpose of the shows to connect with dealmakers, to learn, to get some wisdom, guidance, and then connect deals and deal makers together. 

 Josh
 All right. So let's keep that going. If you have a deal that you're working on and you want to come talk about it on the show, head over to the deal, scout.com, fill out a quick form. Maybe get you on the show next to talk about your deal until then we'll talk to you all on the next episode. Bye everybody.