Engineering Your Business for a Profitable Exit with JR Rivas
In this episode, we sit down with JR Rivas, an entrepreneur who shares his unique journey of building and preparing a business for sale.
JR discusses the strategies he employed from day one to ensure his company was attractive to buyers, including the importance of eliminating risk and understanding financials. He reflects on the lessons learned throughout the exit process, including deal fatigue and the complexities of earn-outs.
Join us as we explore JR's insights on entrepreneurship, planning for exits, and what lies ahead in his next ventures
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Transcript
>> Lani Dickinson: JR I'm so excited to have you here today. Thanks for coming on the
Speaker:show.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Thank you for having me.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah. tell us a little bit about
Speaker:who you are, what you do, and you've been
Speaker:on this exit journey for a good, what year?
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: More than that. So my name is JR Rivas
Speaker:We run an Airbnb done for you program
Speaker:where we handle the locating of the property and
Speaker:the interior design of the property. And
Speaker:pretty much from like a year in the journey, we
Speaker:were like, oh, I didn't even know you could sell a
Speaker:company unless it was like a multi million billion
Speaker:dollar endeavor.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Right.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: And, so we started to ask around and talk
Speaker:to people, and I actually had a friend that sold an
Speaker:agency that had declining revenue
Speaker:and no salespeople, and they managed to
Speaker:get a seven figure offer with, 80%
Speaker:upfront. So once I heard that, I
Speaker:was like, oh, maybe I can sell a business.
Speaker:So I started talking to brokers. We
Speaker:basically started planning for the exit from
Speaker:like, nine months into starting the
Speaker:company.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Okay.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: and our revenue had already kind of been on an upward
Speaker:trajectory. So, yeah, we
Speaker:listed the company in
Speaker:February, right at the two year mark.
Speaker:And, we entertained a lot of different offers. We were
Speaker:under contract once and then fell out,
Speaker:and now, we're under contract again.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Awesome.
Speaker:So you did it a little different than most people I
Speaker:interact with. You got the idea
Speaker:that, hey, we might be able to sell this thing
Speaker:very early in the journey. And so what
Speaker:things did you do differently? Like, well, you might not
Speaker:know, but what did you intentionally say? Okay,
Speaker:we got to do this differently because we're building this to
Speaker:sell.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah. So I had a friend who went on Shark
Speaker:Tank and he ended up getting a deal,
Speaker:but from Mark Cuban. But in the due diligence
Speaker:process, they told him, like, yeah, we really don't want to
Speaker:do this deal. You should just sell it. I probably have a
Speaker:buyer for you. And then he sold it. And the
Speaker:buyer or Mark Cuban's team told him,
Speaker:if you would have sold this like nine months earlier, you would have gotten like
Speaker:four times the money for it. and that
Speaker:always stuck with me because by the time someone wants
Speaker:to sell, they've gone through that port, that part
Speaker:where now they're not going to get what they could have gotten
Speaker:at their peak. So that always stuck with me.
Speaker:And as entrepreneurs, we all have ideas. Like, I know I could spin
Speaker:up another business tomorrow. So I wasn't so much
Speaker:married to the idea.
Speaker:As for your question of what we did differently,
Speaker:we started to Engineer the company from a
Speaker:perspective of a buyer.
Speaker:And that was interesting because
Speaker:the biggest takeaway was that everything that a
Speaker:buyer looks for is how to eliminate risk.
Speaker:So everything that you do to get your company ready to sell
Speaker:actually makes it a better company. So you should be doing it anyways.
Speaker:and I just learned so much about what actually makes a company
Speaker:valuable by talking to these people, talking to you,
Speaker:and, just asking questions to now where I'm like, okay,
Speaker:if I were to start another company, it's probably going to be better than this. Ah. Because
Speaker:from day one, I'm going toa find recurring revenue. I'm going toa look
Speaker:for a certain cac to ltv. I'm going toa look
Speaker:for a certain, business model
Speaker:that, would appeal to. And I'm gonna know from day one,
Speaker:like, what are theyn toa say when we're at the table
Speaker:negotiating? What are they gonna say? And I'm gonna work from
Speaker:day one versus when you're already sick and tired of the
Speaker:business, which, I've kind of gotten to the point, like through
Speaker:the, exit. I've gotten to the point where I'm like, I can't wait to
Speaker:get this over. Like, I have so much deal fatigue right now
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: That's real deal fatigue.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: on the calls on Poker Face. Like, I'm always like, yeah,
Speaker:ah, we'll run it for a few more years. But in the back of my mind, I'm like, I
Speaker:can't wait for this to be done.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah, exactly. You hit.
Speaker:There's so much gold in what you just said. Deal
Speaker:fatigue. It is real. I often tell people,
Speaker:take calls before you're ready because of what
Speaker:you said. You don't want to plateau and then try and
Speaker:sell m People are buying cash flow,
Speaker:right? So you want to still have upward
Speaker:trajectory and, and growth that's available.
Speaker:So if you're trying to grow your company
Speaker:and be on that upward trajectory, and then you've got to
Speaker:take calls, you know, having a deal room ready and having
Speaker:other people who can participate in the calls and the
Speaker:due diligence is really important. But
Speaker:you don't know that if you haven't come into it with
Speaker:the benefit of, you know, you had a few people who had done exits, you'd been
Speaker:asking questions in reading and all of those things. So
Speaker:hopefully people like, rewind that and re listen to
Speaker:what you said because you,
Speaker:hit several really important key points there.
Speaker:when did you start? I assume you have a deal Room
Speaker:now where you have like data in the sandbox type
Speaker:of thing. When did you start that part?
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: So around the one
Speaker:year mark when we were like we're going toa try to sell at the two year
Speaker:mark we started asking, we were working
Speaker:with this guy who was like consults for you on a
Speaker:monthly basis. He's like this is what you're going to need. You need to get your
Speaker:face out of the ads. You need to show that
Speaker:someone else can do the coaching calls. You need to show that someone else can
Speaker:do xyz. You need all these management people in
Speaker:place. So we started to know
Speaker:what they were going to ask for and we started kind of putting it
Speaker:together early on so that we could get ahead of the, and not
Speaker:only get ahead of the objections but say to
Speaker:them, oh, a year ago we were doing it like this and
Speaker:in preparation for this sale we started doing it like
Speaker:thises. And that was a big, because that was a big question like why are you guys
Speaker:selling? You're at the two year mark, you're on this upward
Speaker:trajectory. So our answer was like, well we've
Speaker:always planned. This has been the plan from day one here.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Ready to sell. Yeah.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: So I think that helped us
Speaker:out a lot.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Helps you out in the deal because
Speaker:there's. You're not a stressed out buyer who has to dump
Speaker:it.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: And that answer says like we built this from day one.
Speaker:So yeah, you know, we don't need your
Speaker:desperation.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: But we still made a lot of mistakes. Like I was telling you
Speaker:today, I didn't go to school for accounting and
Speaker:I fig I realized through this process our accounting method was
Speaker:completely wrong for our type of business
Speaker:which I've never even thought twice about in my life.
Speaker:So there's still some mistakes but next time around
Speaker:it's going toa be a lot more tidy and, and having
Speaker:your books in order and stuff like that, which we tried to do as much
Speaker:as we could but without the knowledge
Speaker:of what they're going to ask for. like what's
Speaker:an adjusting entries report? I just learned that one
Speaker:this week. What's a compilation report?
Speaker:so all these different things that now I know the next time around this is
Speaker:gonna be so m much easier.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: You know what's interesting is I think there's a statistic and this
Speaker:isn't exactly accurate but it's something
Speaker:like only the Small Business association
Speaker:says only 30% of business owners get
Speaker:their financials. 5%
Speaker:do something to open and look at them.
Speaker:That doesn't say how many people take action on them,
Speaker:but the kinds of things you just talked about and
Speaker:cash based versus accrual base and all those things.
Speaker:It makes a difference if you're planning to
Speaker:sell. But how many business owners do you
Speaker:know who are just running it with a, entry level
Speaker:bookkeeper?
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: That's better than doing it on the back of a napkin.
Speaker:But when you get to the place where you're ready to sell, you need
Speaker:somebody who's like, how do we
Speaker:do an adjusting entries report? And what does it even
Speaker:mean?
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Exactly.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: So then it's like hours with accountants that I've
Speaker:never.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Hours and dollars.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah. Our person never doesn't understand this stuff.
Speaker:So now I'm on upwork and I'm interviewing these people and I'm trying to find
Speaker:someone who's done this before and done this for exits. And
Speaker:you're kind of scrambling because there's all these deadlines. So.
Speaker:Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot if you don't
Speaker:have someone holding your hand that's done this.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: So last year when we met and you're like, yeah, I'm
Speaker:selling my business in February.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: And I started asking you a few questions.
Speaker:Do you remember back to that moment, like, what was your biggest aha.
Speaker:Like, ooh, I might not be ready in February?
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: well, it wasn't that we weren't ready in February, it was
Speaker:that for the number that I was. For the number you
Speaker:wanted. We weren't ready and we
Speaker:didn't get that number. But we got
Speaker:very within 14% of that number.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Awesome.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: And I'm very happy with the deal. I'm very
Speaker:happy to move on with my life. And I'm very happy
Speaker:that, like I said, I have a million ideas. So I know I'm
Speaker:gonna spend something out bigger and better. And now knowing
Speaker:what I know, the next business is gonna have all these.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: I have accounting right up front.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah. And we'renna. We'll probably exit that one. Another
Speaker:big lesson. Wait till three years if you can.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: but we'll probably exit right at three years for a bigger
Speaker:multiple and with a better model, maybe less
Speaker:stress and much less stress.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: So, what are the. After we talked that night, what are
Speaker:the things you like went back home and you're like, we gotta do a
Speaker:couple things different right away.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah. So I, immediately went back home. I talked
Speaker:to my business partner. Well, I was texting him like mid
Speaker:conversation with you. I'm like, lonnie says we have to do this, Lonnie says we have
Speaker:to do that. And the biggest
Speaker:things were not
Speaker:trusting the broker 100%
Speaker:because your broker think of it as like a real estate agent.
Speaker:If you're selling your house for 600,000
Speaker:do and they have an offer for
Speaker:575 but you know, they know that they could
Speaker:get maybe 6:30 if you waited a little bit longer or
Speaker:whatever. Most likely they're gon TOA take the 575.
Speaker:So they don't necessarily have your
Speaker:best interest in mind. Although you know, they're great people, they help
Speaker:out a lot, they're very knowledgeable. But at the end of the day
Speaker:like sometimes they might steer you towards a
Speaker:deal because they know that this person has a higher
Speaker:shot of closing even though it's not the best deal. So
Speaker:you have to kind of play the game of the
Speaker:buyer and you have to play the game with the broker
Speaker:as well. And there's been times where like I tell my
Speaker:broker because I know I need, when my broker takes this to
Speaker:the seller, to the buyer, she needs conviction.
Speaker:So I give it to her as like this is a non negotiable
Speaker:when in reality it's probably not just so that
Speaker:she carries that conviction over to.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: That conversation so she doesn't feel like
Speaker:we could fudge here.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: M. Exactly.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: And that's fudging with your future.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Exactly. So that's a big thing. you have to be
Speaker:so detail oriented because there's
Speaker:101 ways that you will get got in these
Speaker:deals.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Ye.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: in ways that like you can't even imagine. And
Speaker:not that like business buyers are scrupulous
Speaker:or whatever, but they're business people and they've done this
Speaker:before. They have a lot of experience. They've bought
Speaker:and sold. So they know how to
Speaker:put in deal terms that are really favorable and try to
Speaker:sell them off to you as if. Oh, everybody does this.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah. And you experienced that in your first offer.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah. Now isn't your buyer the same buyer
Speaker:just came back and said okay,
Speaker:let's.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: We've had many interviews. so we were under contract.
Speaker:We ended up we pulled out of that
Speaker:agreement because I didn't like. Me and
Speaker:my business partner, we didn't like the earn out portion
Speaker:and we just really felt like we weren't going to get
Speaker:the portion of the earnout.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: The other thing, the other big reason we pulled out was our
Speaker:broker was charging us 10% which I
Speaker:didn't know at the time is like outrageous.
Speaker:at least for our, I don't know, maybe there's some industries, but for
Speaker:our industry that's extremely high. we've
Speaker:had offers as low as like 4% for
Speaker:brokers that were just as credibleeah. and when you're talking millions of
Speaker:dollars, that's hundreds of thousands of dollars. Makes a big
Speaker:difference, especially divided by.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Two in a partnership.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah. So I would say, yeah,
Speaker:those were definitely some big realizations.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah, so you said the big earn out
Speaker:word. So this is a big
Speaker:like, do I, don't I conversation.
Speaker:And from my perspective,
Speaker:I've been on the buyer'side you know, I've
Speaker:been on the acquisition side when I was in corporate. I've
Speaker:been on the selling side when I was trying to sell my gym before
Speaker:COVID which closed it down, so we didn't have to deal with that.
Speaker:But
Speaker:the people who come in and this is
Speaker:smaller buyers who are like, you're dealing with a buyer.
Speaker:Right. But it's also like private equity deals where they bring in
Speaker:a whole team of mergers and acquisitions peoples and lawyers and
Speaker:know people are really overwhelmed with that process.
Speaker:And everybody is trying to sell this
Speaker:idea of the earn out. And so people are like, should I
Speaker:take it? Should I not? Generally
Speaker:the earn out is the promise of what they call
Speaker:the second bite of the apple. So
Speaker:leave 5 million in and in
Speaker:three to five years we turn that into 15 million. So it
Speaker:would d be like a private equity type of a thing. I don't
Speaker:know. And you don't have to disclose your deal terms about what your earn out
Speaker:is. so it's like there's this promise of
Speaker:more at the end
Speaker:and then. And so that sounds
Speaker:attractive. You know, I leave, I roll 5 million in equity and
Speaker:in three to five years I have 15 million. Like who
Speaker:wouldn't do that deal? But the other side
Speaker:of that is the terms of how
Speaker:the earnout is earned. The seller
Speaker:often loses control of the thing that will create that
Speaker:result and they become a longer
Speaker:term employee of the business or consultant of
Speaker:the business or something. But they've lost control. And so
Speaker:oftentimes people don't end up with their earn out. I don't
Speaker:have data on when a small
Speaker:business is purchased by a single owner
Speaker:or a couple of people who buy it. How many people actually
Speaker:get their earn out? But I know on the private equity side, less
Speaker:than I think it's people.
Speaker:73% of CEOs don't make it
Speaker:to the five year period. They're ousted because they
Speaker:won't do the hard things that take it from 5, 6,
Speaker:7, 8, 9, 10%
Speaker:profit to 20, 25% profit.
Speaker:So did you and your partner,
Speaker:I know you have't earn out and you don't have to discuss the terms of
Speaker:that, but did you have to struggle with I want more cash
Speaker:up front versus I do want to
Speaker:stick around or that second bite of the apple. Sounds
Speaker:good. Walk us through what goes through
Speaker:the seller's mind and the decision to
Speaker:say, all right, finale, take her now.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: So, the first deal I had to earn out. The second deal,
Speaker:it's like an equity earn in. I
Speaker:don't know what the VC term is for it.
Speaker:so it was a long journey with the earnout.
Speaker:number one, I feel like if you aren toa take an earn out,
Speaker:you should get at least 70% cash
Speaker:upron in my opinion. we had
Speaker:a call with this guy who had built like
Speaker:a nine figure company and sold it,
Speaker:very popular software that people have heard of.
Speaker:And he told me he was like never
Speaker:on a zoom call. He's like never taken earn out.
Speaker:All I've ever seen and done is create hard feelings and you
Speaker:never get the money. so
Speaker:once he said that, I was like, am I okay
Speaker:with getting this cash upront if I never get another dollar?
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Right?
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: And the answer is yes. And
Speaker:obviously I'm sticking around. I have nothing
Speaker:planned yet after this. I'm going to help
Speaker:the buyer succeed as much as I possibly can, be
Speaker:as available as I can for him, genuinely
Speaker:help him to reach his goals.
Speaker:but I understand there's
Speaker:very specific goals to hit and maybe if we fall a little
Speaker:bit shy of that, then we might not earn the equity for that year or
Speaker:whatever. So, that's kind of how I would
Speaker:look at it. But when it's like a, well, 20% upfn
Speaker:and then if you hit this goal next year, I've also
Speaker:heard all kinds of different rounds. I had a buddy who, his earnout was based
Speaker:on maintaining 80% of the revenue.
Speaker:which he felt like the guy would have to be an idiot to
Speaker:mess that up.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: so I would say it's very complex and
Speaker:there's always a lot of terms in the air andouts and definitely have a
Speaker:lawyer. That was another mistake I made. I signed an LOI without an
Speaker:attorney and because I was like, oh, it's non binding,
Speaker:but There's a clause 14 binding
Speaker:provisions. This, this and this
Speaker:are binding. so that was a whole learning
Speaker:lesson. So there's just a lot
Speaker:of missteps that you can make
Speaker:and really just understanding what's normal. Like
Speaker:maybe having another thing is I had. We've gone
Speaker:through three attorneys now. One
Speaker:worked with tech startups for the most
Speaker:part so those deals were just completely different. So he
Speaker:would throw out all this stuff and then we would take it to the
Speaker:broker and she'd be like well that's not for a
Speaker:deal like this. And then once I really asked around and
Speaker:talked to people I realized like yeah, she's probably right. And he
Speaker:was very, very aggressive. to the point where
Speaker:like we took what his
Speaker:remarks and we took it to another lawyer and the
Speaker:other lawyer was like this wouldn't kill the deal for
Speaker:me if I was on the other end. But as their lawyer
Speaker:I would say well if they're going to go this aggressive then now we have
Speaker:to go way more aggressive and then dial it back.
Speaker:So there's even a mini game to play or a side quest with
Speaker:like which lawyer you choose and what's your strategy
Speaker:and how do you think they're go goingna play ball on
Speaker:their end. So it is a real life
Speaker:game of chess, but the consequences for making
Speaker:bad decisions are high.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah, no for real. And you can't go back becausee like you
Speaker:said, there's contracts and lawyers on each side ready to
Speaker:go all in. what I heard in that
Speaker:is being really clear on
Speaker:what you're okay to walk away with. And I heard that in the
Speaker:broker conversation as well. It's like here's the direction
Speaker:I gave her and she thought there was no wiggle room
Speaker:because here's the number we must
Speaker:have and then knowing that in the earn
Speaker:out that's a really great way to think about
Speaker:okay, I got toa get the number I
Speaker:need up front and then if that never
Speaker:happens I'm still in great shape for
Speaker:whatever it is the next piece of the journey is.
Speaker:I also feel like and often say the
Speaker:people who successfully make it through
Speaker:you know, a life changing exit is there re
Speaker:really clear on what the exit gets them
Speaker:in terms of life, other opportunities,
Speaker:next business, you know, whatever.
Speaker:so calling out that clarity I think is important because often people
Speaker:don't take the time to get really clear on what that is. And
Speaker:it sounds like you've done that work
Speaker:to say, you know, what does this mean and what am I really willing to
Speaker:take? So what's on the other side of exit for you? I heard
Speaker:you say, you know, I might start something else and build that for exit and do
Speaker:it different. But like in terms of what
Speaker:does this exit really create for you on a deeper level? I mean,
Speaker:yeah, another business. But like you said, you have a million ideas
Speaker:and 90% of them could work. And you know, you're smart
Speaker:and you can do that, but what does it create for you?
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah, great question.
Speaker:So, at the end of your talk yesterday,
Speaker:you basically
Speaker:in different words stated that
Speaker:after you went on this entire journey you kind of
Speaker:realize like you one, I don't know if you would call it regret or
Speaker:whatever it was. Like sometimes I think
Speaker:I should have just been on welfare so I could be with my
Speaker:kid. And if I was like
Speaker:22 that I would have been like, this is
Speaker:crazy. Like she's made so much money. Like maybe she just didn't
Speaker:make enough or whatever. Which I know you've made plenty
Speaker:enough. Plenty enough.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah, it's not that.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: but now at 30 I'm
Speaker:like, that's what I want. So I want to have
Speaker:an exit. I want to take a year or however
Speaker:much time we need to help the buyer. In the meantime,
Speaker:I want to have a kid, get married and
Speaker:take my time figuring out like take some time to
Speaker:properly invest the money. I want to give away
Speaker:a lot of it, like a big chunk for it. And I have
Speaker:some ideas for that and some people I'm working with.
Speaker:so most people's answer I think here would be like,
Speaker:well, I want to start another business. I want to invest that to 10xit or
Speaker:100x. I could, I don't know if I can curse your
Speaker:but I could give a fuck about it.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: You can curse all you want.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: I could give a fuck about a hundred xing it.
Speaker:Yeah, I think just
Speaker:optimizing for more quality of life.
Speaker:And I've fantasized about all these ideas of
Speaker:what to do. Everything from like
Speaker:building a very simple. Like I've
Speaker:built spreadsheets on how I can build a business to make a million
Speaker:dollars a year with three people. three full time
Speaker:people and down to
Speaker:like how much time it would take for each client, how
Speaker:much of my time would it take to. And I could see that being a
Speaker:thing and I think I could do that and be very comfortable.
Speaker:even if I don't get to a million ebitda, or maybe I could
Speaker:sell that. but I have some ideas that are also like big
Speaker:play too that I think could be like $100 million
Speaker:companies or like take a crack at very, very
Speaker:difficult Problems. But these are all just
Speaker:ideas swirling in my head. Like the other day, like, m. My
Speaker:girlfriend is, a PA And I said, how
Speaker:do hospitals communicate patient
Speaker:information between Hospitals's a mess. Exactly.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: S a mess.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: And I was like, that's a billion dollar idea.
Speaker:Do I want to kill myself to do that? It sounds
Speaker:exciting. It sounds amazing. I'm sure someone's thought of it.
Speaker:Someone's maybe tried it and failed. But that's a really big
Speaker:problem that you could make a billion dollars with if you could figure out how to solve.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: so one day I wake up, I'm like, I wan toa do that the
Speaker:next day I'm like a, ah, two person, three
Speaker:person company with high 80%
Speaker:profit margins where I have to work five hours a week
Speaker:and I can hang out with my kid. That would be
Speaker:amazingah. and give money away and all that stuff. Hang
Speaker:out with my friends, see my family. My mom's getting
Speaker:old. I just saw her in, Tallahassee.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: We'll edit that out so she doesn't hear that part.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: She knows itah.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Okay.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: and I'm like, you know, I see her every now and
Speaker:then, and based on life expectancy,
Speaker:I probably have like, statistically
Speaker:60 more times that I'm gonna see her.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: That, hits different.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Exactly. So I think when I was
Speaker:younger, all I wanted to do was just make more. Make more. I bought a
Speaker:Lamborghini last year. I think around the time I met you, I bought a
Speaker:Lamborghini. I have 17 properties in
Speaker:my portfolio, a few of them over a million
Speaker:dollars each. and every time I've got acquired
Speaker:more stuff, it's just brought more,
Speaker:responsibility and never more happiness.
Speaker:So I'm like, I actually want to scale down and
Speaker:I want to maybe get a smaller place. And
Speaker:maybe the other day I was like, maybe I should buy a Prius
Speaker:or a Tesla instead of having a Lamborghini.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: You can do that. Just don't get in the fast lane and go just under
Speaker:the speed limit and manage the battery life in the fast lane.
Speaker:I'm good with it. If you just were there in the slow lane.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah. So I think most of my goals post exit are more
Speaker:around, like, who, I'll become versus, like, what
Speaker:I'll make.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: And that's what I think I'm super excited about.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: That's amazing. At 30 years old, you have an old
Speaker:soul.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Yeah. Well, I started business at 18. 18. I
Speaker:started a tax business, which technically this would be
Speaker:like my second exit because I Sold the tax
Speaker:business. But it was one of those deals that you warned people
Speaker:against. It was like an equity
Speaker:transfer or debt transfer
Speaker:seller finance deal that I never got paid on.
Speaker:but I technically exited that business and I was like
Speaker:22ah. so I started business at
Speaker:18, so now I'm 30. It's 12 years
Speaker:of grinding, hiring people.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Well, and as an entrepreneur, you, that's like dog years.
Speaker:There's no playbook and no SOP when you start like
Speaker:that. And I know that you've already done things to like take
Speaker:care of your mom and that kind of stuff and bought the house and all that
Speaker:kind of stu ###uff so, you're just an amazing
Speaker:human and I love just where your headspace is and
Speaker:I love hearing your story and like all the things you want to
Speaker:do after. It's just a pleasure
Speaker:to know you and an honor to be involved in.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Thank you. And thank you for all your help too.
Speaker:Like, I remember last year on the
Speaker:cruise I was like, I need to sit Lonnie next to
Speaker:Lonnie every single day. And I just asked you
Speaker:a million questions.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Do you remember when I was like, so tell me about your sales
Speaker:process. Because one of the major things is do you have consistent,
Speaker:repeatable, optimized sales process that's gonna give
Speaker:you value? And then if you also have monthly recurring
Speaker:revenue in addition to that, it's like, okay, now we're
Speaker:talking, right?
Speaker:And you were telling me like, about
Speaker:your social seller who closed most of your deals. And I'm like,
Speaker:but you're gonna have like 75
Speaker:year old guys sitting in a boardroom who've never heard
Speaker:about social sellers. And you've got to sell 17 year old in
Speaker:Canada whose mom's gonna ground him if his grades
Speaker:drop. And that's your sales. Like, do you remember
Speaker:that moment? I was dying inside, laughing.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: So since then he actually left. Cause he turned
Speaker:18. This kid was 17, making 10 grand a
Speaker:month.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: People probably thought I was kidding. They're like, he turned 18 and he
Speaker:left.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: and then he was like, I feel like I've hit a ceiling here.
Speaker:I want to go be a closer He was just an appointment setter.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: And he ended up leaving. We had figured out
Speaker:another traffic source by that time and now we got someone
Speaker:else to take over his job. So now we have two traffic sources.
Speaker:and yeah, we definitely heard you on
Speaker:that.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah. Well, it's just those
Speaker:of us who live in the digital world,
Speaker:we sort of lose track of what people in the non
Speaker:digital world think about and how
Speaker:they consume. I know when I was introduced to social selling, I was
Speaker:like, these people are literally
Speaker:messaging on their phone. But you know, when I left
Speaker:corporate, it was through social sellers selling my
Speaker:product.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Right.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: So yeah, that was really a fun night for
Speaker:me. so anyway, I'm glad you got a lot out of that. If
Speaker:people want know more about you, follow you, learn
Speaker:about your journey, where would they go?
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: so I heard recently that the highest IQ
Speaker:social media is X. So I've started
Speaker:to try to be more active on there.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Ye.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: And so yeah, follow me on X. Just search for
Speaker:JR Rivas or Rivas on X.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Awesome. Well, thank you for being here and I can't wait to see
Speaker:what you do next.
Speaker:>> JR Rivas: Thank you.
Speaker:>> Lani Dickinson: Yeah.
