Episode 16

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Published on:

19th May 2025

Stop Babysitting Your Business: Use AI Automation to Boost Valuation & Win Your Freedom

In this episode of Freedom to Exit, Lani Dickinson delivers a wake-up call for founders still stuck inside their business: buyers don’t want your hustle—they want your systems.

Lani breaks down how AI and automation directly impact your company’s value, employee retention, client satisfaction, and ultimate ability to scale—or sell. You’ll hear why burnout, dropped leads, and repetitive tasks are slowly eroding your valuation, and how small changes in automation can unlock the freedom (and exit multiple) you actually started your business for.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • Why most businesses that list never sell (and how to avoid being one of them)
  • How automation impacts profitability, client experience, and valuation
  • What buyers are really looking for—and why they don’t care how hard you work
  • How to hit industry benchmarks that matter in due diligence
  • Why AI improves employee retention and eliminates burnout
  • The truth about client expectations, speed-to-lead, and how automation meets them
  • Real stories of founders who stopped babysitting their business—and finally stepped away

Links Mentioned:

7 Ways AI Can Boost Your Sales and Save You Time – Free Guide

The Changes Assessment – See What Buyers See in Your Business

Enjoyed this episode?

Subscribe to Freedom to Exit for more no-fluff insights on building a business that buyers chase.

Connect with Lani Dickinson:

📌 Instagram: @stealthfreedomtoexit

📌 Facebook: Lani Dickinson

📩 Email: info@stealthfreedomtoexit.com

🌐 Website: stealthfreedomtoexit.com

If this episode helped you, send it to a fellow founder—and don’t forget to leave a review. It helps more business owners find the show and take their next step toward freedom.

Transcript
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>> Lani Dickinson: Welcome back to Freedom to Exit. We're gonna talk about how

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you can't exit, what you still have to babysit, and

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how automation can increase the business value and free you

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up. Cause here's the real truth. While

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most owners of today were working really

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hard with their head down building a business over

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the last 20, 30 years, the rules of the

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game changed. Buyers today do not

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want to work in the business. They want the cash flow

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that comes from the business. And maybe they want to be

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connected to the outcome that the business provides for the

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buyers. They don't want to buy a job

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that they have to work in. That's the painful

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truth of what's going on today. So this is also

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why only one in five businesses sell and

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the four out of five that don't. There's a whole army

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of people being trained on how to take

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advantage of the fact that the owner is

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still working in the business. And

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so these deals look like massive

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owner financing. A, reduced payout in the

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beginning, a future payout based on some

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metrics that the owner no longer controls the

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existing cash flow of the business, paying the

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owner of salary while they train

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new people how to basically disassemble

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everything they built. This is the real reality of what's going

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on in business buying today. If you

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cannot walk away from your business without it crumbling,

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you don't own a business, you own a job and a

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stressful one with no health insurance. And

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it's one that nobody wants to buy. Buyers today are looking

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for something scalable, stable and

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completely independent of them. When they buy the

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business, they are not buying your hustle, they're

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buying your systems. And today we're going to talk

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about how automation, even if you just do a little bit,

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especially AI powered automation, can help you

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finally step out of the day to day, increase your

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valuation and get you the freedom you started

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the business for in the first, first place. Here I have

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a tale of two agencies with the same revenue. Both of

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them doing about 1.2 million a year.

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The first ones still taking sales calls,

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still handling client onboarding, writing

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proposals, checking reports before they went out

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and responding to Slack messages over the weekend. The

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second had automated lead qualification in booking

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a templated onboarding recorded video process

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for onboarding of new clients. All the delivery systems

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handled through SOPs and automation. AI handling

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all of the frontline FAQs and follow ups so they could get to

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the 12 follow ups needed to close the sale. Guess what happened?

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Agency one can't sell. The buyer

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said, well we'll buy it at a

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discount. But you need to come with the business a minimum

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of three years, ideally five. Can you imagine selling

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your business and becoming an employee of it for five

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more years doing it the way the new owner wants

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to do it. And by the way, they're not on site in the business

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because they're not working in the business and agency

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too. Sold for 4 times EBITDA

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clean quick premium offer,

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no earn out, no need to stay on as an employee.

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Why? Because it was a plug and play business

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that had also been optimized, which I'm going to talk about in a

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future episode optimization. So buyers

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buy systems, not superheroes.

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Your firefighting ability is not impressive

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to a buyer and I know that hurts to hear that

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they don't care that you know how to do all the

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things and that you are that is not a badge of

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honor if you're ever going to exit your business

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either for time and location freedom. Now stop missing

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dinners at home and stop missing the events and

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activities or the ability to exit fully

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in a sale later. Buyers don't really want

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to buy your genius. They want to buy a

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recipe, not the chef. You gotta think about that.

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And if the recipe only works if you're in the

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kitchen, it's not scalable and it's definitely

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not sellable. Automation really helps you step out of that

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role and let your business run like a machine, even

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if you're on the beach or building your next thing. Here's one of my

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favorite stories. It's frustrating, but it really

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shows the difference between how humans approach it

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and how an AI assist sales

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process could work. I have a friend who was helping a tanning

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salon and they were going crazy not

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understanding why they were giving away a free session lead

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magnet and it wasn't converting into higher ticket

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sales for the other things that they were offering. And

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they were just, you know, couldn't figure it out. So

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they hired a marketer who did some secret shopping and found

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out that the receptionist was answering the

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phone to book the free appointments and saying when the

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owner starts selling you all the upsell stuff, you

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don't need any of that. So all the money that the owner was

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putting out to generate leads, the

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reception was turning away the

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profit that that was meant to bring in.

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Many of us are familiar with loss leaders. We lose money on the

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sample a lot. We believe that a certain percentage of that is

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going to turn into business on the but not if the receptionist

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is saying you don't need any of that. Ouch. Painful

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way to Learn a human behavior lesson. She was

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uncomfortable with selling and didn't say that to the

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owner of course, but just did her own thing in the background.

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So all that money being spent was being killed by the front

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desk. So we put in some AI and some automation. The AI

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is s not afraid to do the upsells. It will follow up all

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the number of times that are needed. Consistent

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messaging, better conversion, a front desk that

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could focus on higher value tasks or

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something that they were already good at. Here's another part

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that owners often don't think about when they're moving into a

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sale. Automation helps you hit industry

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benchmarks, which are often hard to hit

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because benchmarks are saying this is how the

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business that is profitable and successful. These are the numbers

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that should be hitting. But a small business

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with and this is like up to 20 million that doesn't

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have some kind of AI and automation in

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place is gonna have a hard time hitting

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benchmarks. Buyers, consultants,

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valuation experts, they are all going to

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compare everything in your business to the

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benchmarks about your industry type. Speed

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delete. How fast are you responding? Client churn. Are

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people sticking around or leaving because of dropped balls?

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Review volume and quality things we've talked about on other

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podcasts. Operational consistency,

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cost of delivery. Are you overspending

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on products and supplies or human

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labor? When automation could streamline all of that

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profit margin, Are you dropping enough profit to the bottom

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line? You bit a whisperer T shirt on. Today it's

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all about do you create profit? Is

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there cash flow? And then things

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like cost to acquire a lead? They drastically

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drop when you add in AI and automation

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for your follow up. So the cost to acquire

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lead suddenly becomes way more affordable or

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the lifetime value of a customer that increases

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when you add in AI and automation.

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When you know about the statistics about

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people want what they want right now, the humans are

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rarely available right now to do it. So

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AI and automation can give them what they need

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now, which increases lifetime value of the customer.

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It doesn't just help with one of these

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AI impacts, all of these and many, many more.

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These were just the first few that came up when I was

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outlining this. When you improve these numbers,

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you're not just growing revenue today, you're

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increasing valuation based on the

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business being able to create ebitda which increases your

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chances for a more successful sale more on your

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terms. Speed to response in this process

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is pretty much everything. So let's zoom

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in on one benchmark. Speed delete. Because

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that's where new people are looking for you and you're

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going to make more revenue, which leads ideally to more

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profit, which means more exit multiple

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90% of customers want an

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immediate response. Only 60% of

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those people define that as under 10

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minutes. Some people define that as less than

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five minutes. So 90%

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say immediate. That's somewhere between five and 10 minutes.

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And most small businesses responding in hours

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or days so they all get back to them after

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lunch. Doesn't work. You simply

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cannot meet this expectation on your

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own. No human could. Neither could your staff.

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What happens when you're slow? Even if you don't think you're

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slow, 90% want a full

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immediate response in between five and 10 minutes. So what

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happens when you're slow by those terms? You lose the lead.

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They're already googling your competitors, you're lowering your

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conversion rates, you miss the booking, you get

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worse reviews. And when you start asking for

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referrals? Crickets. So this

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is something to look at. If you aren't getting

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natural word of mouth in natural

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unsolicited referrals, it might be in

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how quickly you're following up or not following up,

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because that's a pretty tough definition to meet. It also means

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that you're not delivering the experience that makes people

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refer. So we go back to the review podcast that we

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already talked about. So staff burnout. They're

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part of this equation. The repetition

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of answering FAQs over and over and

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over, doing the same process over and over. The stuff

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robots can do, doing it over and over and over again. That

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leaves staff burnout. So let's talk about that in your

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team, they are human, they aren't robots. And

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humans get cranky when they're stuck doing the same thing over and over

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and over again. 67% of

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workers feel burnout from repetitive tasks. And burnout

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shows up as process resistance,

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poor tone with customers, a little ey rolly,

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low morale, certainly turnover. But AI

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never gets tired, never forgets, never

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forgets to do. The upsell never rolls its eyes. It

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just executes exactly as you tell it to,

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as many times as it needs to to get to the yes.

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And that's good for your customers and your team,

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because meaningful work drives retention

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and culture, which clients are then further

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drawn to. So here's the flip side of the

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repetition problem. Employees who say that their

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work feels meaningful are are

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69% less likely to leave within

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six months, and they stay on average

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7.4 months longer.

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87% say recognition and

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connection to purpose and something that matters and is

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worthwhile is more important than

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compensation. So when you have

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Happy people who feel connected to the work and

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they feel like they're making a difference in the world. Not just ask

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answering FAQs and they stay longer.

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Guess what? They know the process, they know the system, they're more

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efficient, they know your regular customers, they can treat them

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special. So when we add in AI and automation,

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we can redirect the human capital to where it can

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make a huge difference in relationships.

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So when you automate low value repetitive

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stuff, your team gets to do the work that actually

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fulfills them, which creates more loyalty, more

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engaged brand ambassadors, basically. The

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other thing that this does is all these

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repetitive tasks that don't get done. We should

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do, we know we should. It would be important to do

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them. Things like updating credit card

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expiration dates, things like sending out

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disengagement letters like an attorney, they don't send

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those out and a new case comes in for the

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person they haven't disengaged, they might be on the hook for

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representing that person. So the letter's got toa go.

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Well, if we don't use AI in automation to do that

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and the employee says I'll do them tomorrow or I'll

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do them Friday when I come back, there's some risk,

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right? So what happens? The owner might

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do it at night during dinner, or

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miss the kids ball game or whatever because they don't want the risk

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and the employee went home. So these

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boring, repetitive things can all be

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given to AI and happen right

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now just the way they should. Decrease risk,

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increase loyalty, increase engagement and have a better

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client experience and employee experience. So

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here's some objections I know you're going to have for me. And

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here's some truth bombs to knock those objections right

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down. My business is unique. I can't tell you how many times

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I've heard that. Sure, but it doesn't mean that your

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intake process, your FAQs and your follow

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up are. There's something in your process that's

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pretty much all the same. Automation handles

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the repeatable part so you can focus on the special

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sauce. Okay, here's a great one. Clients want me.

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They won't buy anybody else. They won't work with anyone

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else. Okay, maybe. But the research shows they

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want a fast, responsive,

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predictable experience. Even more. The

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data supports that. Remember the 90% in under 10

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minutes. You can't do everything in under 10

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minutes. So maybe you keep the older

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clients who are trained to be only with you and

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you slowly start introducing team. But the new

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clients need to not get you. And the data

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shows that people Would rather get what they

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need now even from AI, then

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wait two days to hear back from anybody personally. Okay,

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here's the next one. I've tried automation, I've tried the

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systems, I've tried that. It was super clunky, was too hard to learn.

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Every day this stuff gets better. Every few seconds this

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stuff gets better. But what I would say is that was

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then, this is now. Today's systems are

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literally drag and drop easy. And in my

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case, for my clients, we just do it for you.

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And we back this with 24.

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7 human support to help people implement

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fast and keep going. So to get over the tech

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fear of things and automation is impersonal.

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Okay, I want you to go download by lead

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magnet and listen to the voice demo in the lead

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magnet because you will hear real calls

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that sound exactly like well trained humans.

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Most people are shocked that it's AI. The other day

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I was writing some stuff and the AI said to

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me, do you want to take a break so that I can get a Red

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Bull? Just kidding. AI doesn't need

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Red Bulls. So AI can

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really personalize the experience for your incoming

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clients and for you. Here's the big picture. Freedom,

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growth or exit. Whether your goal is to work

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fewer hours, travel more, make it home for

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dinner, tell more bedtime stories, or sell your

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business, or just stop being the one that holds it all together,

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AI and automation is the

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tool that can help get you there. It gives you

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time, scalability, brand consistency,

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consistent voice, better staff, happier

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clients, higher profit, which all of that leads

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to a more valuable business. You don't have to disappear and

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stay gone overnight. You just have to start stepping

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back. I remember when my client Rosie said to

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me, we had just started working together and she

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said, now when can we take a vacation? Is that in

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about two years? And I said, no, I'm all about

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happy, healthy, wealthy and whole

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entrepreneurs. And no, now that you've said

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that, you've got to go away, at least for the weekend, right

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away. And so she was scared, so she took a short

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road trip. She lives in Southern California, so she

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went to Palm Springs for the weekend. She was definitely

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scared to leave for a weekend, so she wanted to be

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within driving distance. She texted me over the weekend and sent

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me pictures and she said it's great to be making money from

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the cabana. The team in the process has it handled.

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So no, you should not wait two more years to take a

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vacation. Yes, you should be coming to dinner, having it hot

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with your family. Stop missing out on the things that matter. That's actually

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the reason I do what I do is to help people stop

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missing the moments that matter. So you don't have

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to disappear overnight and stay gone forever. But you do

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have to start stepping back. So here's what I want you to do.

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Download the free guide the seven ways to incorporate AI

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into your business. Today you'll get actionable

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automation strategies plus access to my live demos

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where you can hear how AI actually

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sounds like a human and how efficient and effective it really

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is. And you can also take the changes assessment where

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you can see what a buyer would see if they were

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to assess your business and pinpoint the

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places where you can make the changes now to have

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better outcomes now and later. Both links are in the

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show notes. Here's the thing. You won't get

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to exit either for time and location freedom now or

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to sell the business later if you're still in the business. This

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is literally why only one in five

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businesses sell that get listed. The only way out

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is to become replaceable, not

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irrelevant replaceable. Because a business

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that runs without you, that's the one buyers fight to

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buy. That's the one that gives you the life you really

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want now and in the future. So thank you for

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joining today. I'd love for you to subscribe and share this

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episode with somebody you know needs to hear it. Thanks so much.

Listen for free

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About the Podcast

Freedom To Exit
Freedom to Exit with Lani Dickinson
Freedom to Exit helps small business owners turn buyers into beggars by building sustainable, scalable, and sellable businesses—while avoiding earn-outs, seller financing, and discounted exits.

Hosted by Lani Dickinson, this podcast is for entrepreneurs who want to build a business that runs without them and sells on their terms.

Most businesses never sell. Why? Because they weren’t built to be sellable. Whether your goal is time and location freedom or a profitable exit, the steps are the same:
- Designing a scalable, self-sustaining company
- Building predictable, repeatable revenue
- Structuring your business to attract the right buyers
- Avoiding seller financing, earn-outs, and bad deals
- Understanding how buyers structure deals so you can negotiate from strength

Each week, Lani breaks down the realities of exiting a business, shares insights from top entrepreneurs and buyers, and gives you the tools to maximize your company’s value before you even think about selling.

If you want to own a business that works for you—not the other way around—Freedom to Exit will show you exactly how to get there.

About your host

Profile picture for Lani Dickinson

Lani Dickinson

Lani Dickinson is a former Fortune 175 CEO who left the corporate world to help business owners achieve what most never do—true freedom. Through STEALTH, she helps founders scale smarter, exit richer, and reclaim their lives by transforming their businesses into sellable, high-value assets.

Most entrepreneurs are trapped in a cycle of working too much and earning too little freedom. Lani’s expertise lies in building sustainable, scalable, and sellable businesses—giving founders the ability to step back, cash out, or create a legacy that lasts. If you’re ready to stop running your business and start owning your life, you’re in the right place.