In this podcast episode, Carl Allen interviews Tracy Thompson, a skilled mindset coach and dealmaker in his Protege and Dealmaker Wealth Society programs. They discuss how Tracy’s background in sales, marketing, and copywriting seamlessly transitioned into her role as a successful dealmaker. She emphasizes the importance of influence and psychology in negotiating deals, drawing parallels between her copywriting experience and dealmaking. The episode highlights Tracy’s journey from sales to becoming a key player in the Protege program, where she now helps others succeed in business acquisitions.

Carl and Tracy dive into the concept of “getting leverage on yourself,” discussing the mindset required to push through discomfort to achieve success. They note that connecting people who have capital with those who have deal flow is key to dealmaking, as often individuals lack access to both. Tracy’s current work involves helping baby boomer landlords exit their real estate investments with minimal tax implications, creating a win-win for both sellers and real estate investment firms. Carl praises her for facilitating connections that bridge gaps in the market.

The conversation shifts to the power of community and networking, as Tracy shares how she met her current business partners and expanded her opportunities. Both Tracy and Carl emphasize the significance of mindset, self-investment, and determination in achieving high-level success. They discuss how hunger and drive, rather than initial wealth, are what truly lead to life-changing accomplishments for many in the Protege program.

Carl and Tracy also touch on Tracy’s leadership role in the Women in Protege initiative, where she helps empower female dealmakers within the program. This subgroup provides a supportive space for women to connect, share experiences, and offer mutual encouragement. Carl commends women as some of the best dealmakers due to their attention to detail, discipline, and risk aversion.

Finally, Carl shares insights about his upcoming book, The Creative Dealmaker, which focuses on the emotional journey and psychological challenges involved in business acquisitions. He highlights the importance of understanding the personal and professional growth that comes with being a dealmaker, framing it as more than just a business endeavor—it’s about transformation and legacy.

Full Transcript:

So when I’m in my home office, I’m surrounded by greatness. I’m surrounded by two of the greatest athletes that have ever walked the Earth. Right? So, and every time I’m looking at my computer, and I can see them now because we’re on Zoom, I feel like I’m just absolutely surrounded by greatness, and it makes me play at a higher level.

So here’s the trick that most people don’t think of. Am I willing to get leverage on myself? Right. So what does that mean? That means, am I willing to lean in to being uncomfortable? Am I willing to get leverage on myself in that, what if I don’t? What if I don’t do this? What we’re basically doing is we’re connecting capital with deal flow because all the people that have deal flow don’t know how to raise money. Right. And all the people that have got money don’t have access to deal flow.

A very warm welcome to the Creative Deal Maker podcast. I’m Carl Allen, I’m your host, and I’m gonna be interviewing expert guests sharing investor strategies that will completely and utterly disrupt the market when it comes to buying and selling businesses all over the world. Hey, guys. Carl Malan. Welcome to another episode of the Creative Dealmaker podcast. Got somebody really, really cool on the show today. Very, very good friend of mine. Known her for a long time. She’s an unbelievable deal maker, one of the best mindset trainers that I’ve ever met, and she’s also in my Protege enrollment team inside of Protege and Dealmaker Wealth Society.

So, coming live from Las Vegas, Nevada, warm welcome to Tracy Thompson. How are you doing, my dear?

I am fantastic, Carl. I’m so excited about this today. How fun.

I know. I know. So, obviously, I know you really well. You’re a very dear friend of mine. But just for our audience, just give them a few minutes about your background, like, from where you started to, like, how you ended up being my buddy, doing deals, being in Protege as a coach, as a trainer, and, obviously, as a deal maker as well.

Wow. Okay. So my life story in two minutes. Let’s see.

Take three if you need it. I don’t mind. I’m just… There’s no rush.

I’m just kidding. I, well, let’s see. I started out in, I’ve always been in some form of sales. I’ve always loved human psychology. I love figuring out what makes people tick, you know, why they do what they do, why they don’t do what they don’t do. So sales has always been a passion of mine. So I started there and eventually evolved into marketing, which I believe go hand in hand, marketing and sales, and started in, TV and radio, believe it or not, making commercials. And I actually voiced a lot of commercials. I don’t think I ever told you that.

Did you really? I didn’t know that.

Yeah. I wrote the commercials.

What kind of commercials?

That was a local market. So I always worked directly with the owners and came up with campaigns, and it was super creative, and it was fun. You know, it wasn’t just spots and dots. Selling airspace wasn’t so fun. But when I got to work directly with the owners and ask them the deeper questions like, how do you wanna grow? Why do you wanna grow? What do you wanna do? What’s your brand about?

Yeah.

Then I got to be creative. And that really sparked my copywriting career. So I started writing the commercials. I co-produced. I did a lot of voiceovers. Sometimes I was actually in the commercials. So that was very fun.

So that’s really interesting, right? So copywriting and, like, advertising, it’s all about persuasion, isn’t it? And I’m guessing those are a lot of the skills that you transition into your deal-making career because influencing a seller or an investor to join you on your deal is all that really matters, isn’t it?

Absolutely. It’s always enrolling. Either you’re influencing or you’re being influenced. And so I learned very early on that psychology. Like, what makes a commercial popular is the same reason that you can influence somebody when you want to make your point. You wanna make your case. So, yeah, it’s all about influence. Absolutely.

Interesting. Talking about influence, you’ll never guess who I spoke to today.

Ah, who?

So let’s play a little quiz game, right? So I’ll give you a clue. He’s top of the reading list for the books I need people to read in Protege, one of my absolute heroes in the world. And I got connected to him through one of our new proteges that joined, Rachel, who’s done incredibly well as a dealmaker, has come into Protege, and was messaging me saying that she knew this person and that I want an intro. And I’m like, are you kidding me right now? Like, I love this person. I absolutely wanna talk with him. He’s made such a massive impact on my life, and then I’ve used his teachings to plug into proteges, to help them do deals, and he’s been incredible. So looking to build some really cool stuff with this person. So I don’t know. I like your guesses. Who do you think he is?

Stumping me. I feel so terrible. I, like, I should know all the books that we’re reading right now, like, the back of my hand, and I don’t know. I was so blown away by the Iron Cowboy.

Yeah. And then I’m like, I don’t know.

Yeah. So James was on my podcast. It’s not James. James is on my podcast, one of the first episodes. And as you know, he keynoted at our Protege live event in Atlanta last year. And, but yeah. I’ll tell you who it is then. Chris Voss.

Chris Voss. Yeah. I was just talking about Chris Voss. I literally was just talking about him right before the podcast.

That’s so funny. “Never Split the Difference,” right?

Yeah.

One of the greatest books you will ever read on negotiation and influence.

Yes.

And he has a great master class online as well about it. So he’s the CEO, founder of the Black Swan Group, but he was a former FBI hostage negotiator. Right? And so he’s taken all of those incredible learnings, like, from saving people’s lives into business and into deals. So yeah, I got connected with him, had a chat with him earlier.

Oh, nice.

Full setup with his team. You know, I’m, what I really wanna do is plug him into the upper echelon.

Yeah. Let’s see. And maybe have…

So one of our four mastermind echelon events, to fly him in for the weekend and have him do his stuff. That’d be pretty amazing, wouldn’t it?

Yeah. It would. It absolutely would.

Yeah. It would. It absolutely would.

That’s so funny that you said that. Yeah. I literally was just telling someone I was talking to about “Never Split the Difference” and Chris Voss. So, yeah, small world. Yeah. On the same wavelength.

Absolutely amazing. So, and I don’t know if you can talk about this. And if you can’t, it’s fine. We can talk about something else. But yeah, so you and I have been friends for, like, six years, seven years.

Right?

So, we met in the Top One Mastermind with our incredibly good friend, Todd Brown. Have you seen Todd Brown recently?

No.

Oh, great. He’s kind of like a bodybuilder now. Jacked. This guy is ripped to the bone. Right?

It’s all mind work.

Yeah. He looks incredible. Like, the discipline that he’s had to go through to get to that. So, anyway, we met at Top One with our incredible business partner, Chris Moore. We became really good buddies—me, you, Chris, Clay, one of your former partners. And then we kind of, I think, lost touch through COVID as most people did. And then I think you and I spoke about 18 months ago. I was at Abraham Gray’s event in Atlanta. I was speaking at his Gray Method event, his business buying event. You know, Abraham’s a brilliant friend of mine, business partner now. He asked me to speak at his event, and I remember walking around the car park of the hotel, having a conversation with you, and you were working in a big mastermind around commercial cleaning companies.

Mhmm.

I remember we were having a conversation about how a lot of these businesses were trying to grow organically—more customers, more services. Do they go into power washing or anything like that? And I said, really, these people should be buying other companies. And that gave you the idea to come into Protege as a dealmaker and then obviously bring a lot of those cleaning companies into the program, like Steph Botha.

Christine.

Christine, Steph Botha, Chris, and Michelle Wyand. Incredible dealmakers that we have now in our program.

Spencer Ward. He just bought with his partner, just bought that commercial cleaning company. They’re on to the next already. It’s amazing. And you know, I just think it’s amazing that you have that influence and that know, like, and trust with that community to bring them into the Protege program. And there have been some incredible successes inside of that. And I know originally, you were gonna do cleaning company deals, but now you’re into something really, really cool.

Yeah.

So, tell us about it. I know what it is, but obviously, don’t need to go into too much detail. But yeah, just walk us through the roll-up that you’re doing with your two partners and how amazing that’s gonna be.

Yeah. Well, I just wanna say the power of network—before I preface this—the power of community and network is everything. I met you, we met each other and Chris at a mastermind. And so when we really leverage the power of our network, it’s everything. So I met my two new partners, Ian and Tyler, through a conversation inviting them in. So I got to enroll them into Protege myself. So that’s how I met Ian and Tyler. And so I knew that they were working on a few big projects. And the one that we combined our efforts on, and I’m collaborating and a partner in with them on, is a really innovative real estate play. It’s helping baby boomer landlords exit with almost zero tax burden—tax implications.

Which is crazy, right? Because like, one of the problems with the baby boomer market is, boomers that own businesses, for example, like, sixty to seventy percent of their liquidity is tied up in business. And if you’re a non-business owner baby boomer, seventy percent of your liquidity is tied up in real estate.

Exactly.

So, we’re solving that problem in Protege for baby boomer business owners, right? We’re cashing them out of their deals and giving them income versus capital gains. But you’re solving the problem for the non-business owner boomers who have got all this real estate—they’re Airbnb-ing, they’ve got short- and long-term rentals—and they’re not getting that liquidity out of those assets. So, how are you actually doing that? Because that’s an amazing thing.

It’s really fascinating. I mean, Tyler and Ian can certainly speak more specifically to the mechanics. They’ve been working on this project for five years, developing all of the intricacies of it. But at a high level, we’re really in the business of connecting. So we’re connecting these real estate investment firms who want to buy a ton of single-family residences and multifamily properties, but can’t—they don’t have access to that—not a bill for.

Right.

So, we have these hungry real estate investment firms who want to buy in bulk. We have all of these thousands, hundreds of thousands of baby boomer landlords who are needing to retire and exit, but they have no connection to each other. So we’re that connection. We’re able to help the baby boomer make their exit almost tax-free. I mean, in most cases, the 1031 exchange environment that we bring them into annuitizes their retirement over time.

Love it.

And mitigates the taxes. So, we’re really in the business of connecting.

I love that. I think what’s really interesting, right—and you know me, I’m old school. I like doing this on paper—so let me get a piece of paper. I’ve got a yellow piece, an orange piece of paper. I’m gonna get a green piece of paper. So, the green piece of paper—let me get my magic marker—it’s capital, right? It’s capital. And then on the green piece of paper, let’s do deal flow. So, what’s really interesting about Protege, what’s really interesting about all the other communities, is what we’re basically doing is we’re connecting capital with deal flow because all the people that have deal flow don’t know how to raise money.

Right.

And all the people that have got money don’t have access to deal flow. Like, I was talking to the chairman of a massive angel investment network this week, and they have all this capital, and they just want deal flow. Right? We’ve got all the deal flow in the world coming out of Protege, and the ones that can’t raise capital, we’re able to connect the two together. And then that’s really where the magic happens. There’s a lot of stuff that goes on in between, right? You gotta meet sellers, you gotta negotiate terms, you gotta structure deals. You gotta do all that stuff. That’s easy, right? Deal flow and capital—if you can crack that, or you can partner with somebody, if you’re the deal flow queen, you find the capital king or vice versa, you bring those together, the rest of it is really easy. Right?

Yep.

And that’s what we’re doing. We’re the people connecting the two hungry parties, and it’s gonna be a beautiful marriage. You could probably build a billion-dollar company out of that and then exit it. You could buy title companies. You could buy wealth management firms. You could buy all the businesses around the ecosystem, around the core focus of connecting investors with buying these portfolios of real estate. And then you’d get it to, you know, a billion-dollar valuation through a roll-up, right?

Mhmm.

Then you could just exit that or even take it public on the stock market.

Then you could just exit that or even take it public on the stock market. So, could you imagine, like, eighteen months ago when you and I started talking, that number one, you’d be the absolute number one sales enrollment person inside of my Protege program, and number two, you’d be partners in what could be a billion-dollar roll-up in the real estate industry? Like, if I’d have said that to you, like, eighteen months ago, you’d have thought I was crazy. Right?

Yeah. No. It would have inspired me, but it probably would have scared me at the same time. I—no. I couldn’t have imagined. But, you know, I gotta say again, when you—anyone—when we make a decision to invest in ourselves, to put ourselves out there, to, you know, get beyond that comfort zone, to push ourselves that little bit more than the average Joe, the one that—you know, the mediocre, the ones that are just gonna stay where they are the rest of their lives. When we do that, man, it’s magic.

I knew, Carl, when I first came into Protege and I saw the people—the caliber of people—you have here, I knew that something special was happening. The dealmakers you have here are incredible.

Let’s talk about that a little bit more, because like, mindset as a subject really kinda fascinates me. You know, I’ve done all the Tony Robbins events, and you followed me through that journey, right? You’ve done Date with Destiny, I believe. You’ve done Life on the Street and all these amazing things. And, you know, when I went through the Tony Robbins stuff, I was fascinated to understand, like, what makes people take action. Like, what are people thinking? Like, why do people do what they do? And then, once you understand that, you can model the absolute killer people in the world, the best people in the world. And then if you follow the same regimes that they have, or you do the same things that they do, you’re gonna be able to get the same results.

But let’s talk about mindset for a minute. One of the things that, you know, really kinda fascinates me about Protege is oftentimes, like, people come into Protege, and, you know, they’re very, very wealthy, but they’re not hungry. Right? They’re not hungry and get bored and decide, “You know what? I’ll go on to the next shiny new thing.” Yeah. And then you have people who come to Protege, and they’re literally—they’re starving. They have no money. But they make their investments, come into the program, and because they’re so determined and so hungry, they absolutely crush it and become multi-seven-figure business owners in a matter of, you know, a couple of months.

Why do you think that happens? What is it that separates those people from the ones who come in with wealth but no hunger?

There—you know, mindset is such a fascinating and vast topic. But specifically here, what I have found over hundreds of conversations with people that were on both sides—who wanted to come here, wanted to come into this world and take that step and lean in and believe in themselves—and those who did. So, I’ve had the privilege of seeing both psychologies, right? Both mindsets, if you will. I think it’s human nature—well, it is human nature—for all of us to be aspirational.

Right.

We want the better life. We want to travel. We all have that vision. We have that compelling part of ourselves that compels us towards that. But there is that piece in between that says, “But can I do it?”

Yep.

“Can I? Is it for me? Is it really for me?”

Do you want it badly enough?

I’m sorry?

Do you want it badly enough, I think, is really important.

Yes! Do I want it badly enough? And here’s the trick that most people don’t think of—am I willing to get leverage on myself?

What a big idea.

Right? So what does that mean? That means, am I willing to lean into being uncomfortable? Am I willing to get leverage on myself in that, “What if I don’t?” What if I don’t do this? What’s going to happen to me if I don’t? What’s going to happen to my family if I don’t? What does my legacy look like? What does my retirement look like if I don’t do this? If I don’t break out of what I’m doing right now and I stay where I try to stay where I am, what will that look like? And being willing to feel the pain. You know what I’m saying, right? That feeling of, like, “Oh, that doesn’t feel good.” I don’t like that. I don’t like the idea of what my life will look like, what my legacy will look like if I don’t jump.

Yeah, it’s interesting, isn’t it? And so, I was at an event a few weeks ago, and I got up on stage. I was the keynote speaker, and the talk—my presentation—had been advertised, you know, “How to buy a business using creative financing.” So, hundreds and hundreds of people in the room. So I got on the stage, and I said, “Right, put your hand up if you want to buy a business,” and all the hands went up. Yeah. And I said, “No, you don’t. You don’t want to buy a business.”

And they were like, “What? What is he talking about?”

I said, “We don’t buy for logical reasons, right? We’re actually buying for emotional reasons. Right? So what does that mean?” So I said, “Nobody wants to buy a business. Nobody wants to own a business. What we want are the dimensionalized benefits that you get from being a business owner.” Right? And when you start to unpack this, this gives you that leverage that you’ve just talked about. Right? So, what do people truly want? They want freedom. They want wealth creation. They want cash flow. But even cash flow—what is cash flow? Yeah, you can buy a Rolex. You can buy a $30,000 Kobe Bryant basketball jersey. But it’s not the thing; it’s what the thing means and the emotions that it stimulates. Right? So, take Kobe and Steph. I dropped fifty thousand bucks for these two bad boys. Right? But when I’m in my office—I’m in my office here in Florida, right? So, when I’m in my home office, I’m surrounded by greatness. I’m surrounded by two of the greatest athletes that have ever walked the Earth. Right? So, and every time I’m looking at my computer and I can see them now because we’re on Zoom, I feel like I’m just absolutely surrounded by greatness, and it makes me play at a higher level.

So, I didn’t buy them for the thing.

I bought them for what the thing means to me and how it affects me and helps me perform at that other level. There are other benefits of owning businesses. Work-life balance, pride, even ego in some places. I’ve talked to a lot of proteges that they close a deal, they go to the bar with their buddies and say, “You know what? I’m not an employee anymore. I’m an employer. Right? Look at me. I’m balling. I’m flexing. I’m at that different level.”

So, I think it’s really interesting when in a lot of the mindset stuff that you do, we’ll talk about the women in Progyz movement in a minute. It’s really interesting in those early days of coming into Protege, we really help you understand what you actually want. Who are you fighting for? Your family, your community, or all those different things. And what does that mean for you? When that’s dialed into you, when you wake up in the morning and you think, “You know what? I don’t wanna call that seller back, or I don’t wanna put that offer in, or I don’t wanna speak to that lender. I’m just not doing it.” If you think about what it’s gonna mean for you, your why, your purpose, and what you’re actually fighting for, I always think that gives you the fuel to kind of take it to the next level.

Absolutely. And we have to be willing to feel both sides. The aspirational is fantastic, and some people can propel themselves just with that. But most of us need both. We need both the stick and the carrot. We need to be able to tap into both motivations, both those core motivations. And when you do that, man, I mean, like, Kobe. I mean, you’re talking about Kobe. You know? Like, arguably, you could say, well, he was the top. He didn’t need to try harder. He didn’t need to push harder. But if you were to ask him, they’d be like, no. There’s the stick behind, like, but if I don’t, I’ve failed. And that failure pushes by. Right?

I love that. You have to be more. He wasn’t competing against the rest of the NBA. He was competing against the better version of himself that he knew he could be. Right? That’s right. It’s like I would have failed myself. I did not become who I was meant to become. Yeah. And you know what? I say this all the time. Being a dealmaker is more than buying a business. Yeah. It’s more than that. It’s truly who you become. True identity. Right? It’s your identity. We all live our lives around beliefs, values, but your identity, who you are, is like the ultimate, isn’t it?

Absolutely. I am a dealmaker. Right. Yes. Yes. And what does that mean? That embodies that freedom, that power, the ability to create your future, your legacy. Like, being a creator and a dealmaker is synonymous. Creativity is everything. My new book’s coming out next week, The Creative Dealmaker. You’re in it. As you know, you’re a character in my book. And I could have written another technical book. Right? I have, you know, my Zero Money Down Business Buying Secrets book is a bestseller. But I decided to write a novel or a fable.

And I’ll tell you why I did it. Because when you’re buying a business or you’re selling a business, there’s obviously process steps you need to go through. If you’re buying a business, you need to determine your buy box. Then you need to do some deal origination on-market and off-market. Then you gotta go talk to sellers and get numbers. Then you gotta work up the deal, vet the deal, then you make offers, and then you sign the lines, and then you raise capital, and then you do due diligence, and then you do some legals, and you close the deal. Everybody knows that process.

But what they don’t understand, which is why I wrote a novel, is they don’t understand the drama, the emotion, and the psychology that we go through when we transact a deal. Right? And I liken this to having children. So, I’ve got two boys as you know. One’s sixteen, the other one’s twenty-seven. When my twenty-seven-year-old was born, that night in the hospital, I was absolutely beside myself. I didn’t know what was gonna happen. I didn’t know what to do. I was so emotional. I was so anxious. Am I gonna be a good dad? Is he gonna come out fine? Is he gonna have seven arms, no head? It was horrible. Right?

It’s one of the worst experiences in my life because I was so nervous. But then when the second guy came out, Josh, like, how he came, that was fine because I knew exactly what was gonna happen. So oftentimes in dealmaking, your first deal, either as a buyer or a seller, is really difficult. And so what I tried to capture in the book was that emotion. So, it’s about a guy called Terrence who’s making an executive shift. He’s a senior director in a large PR company and decides he wants to own his own business. He doesn’t wanna start one because that’s dumb in terms of starting one up. He wants to acquire one that somebody else has built and doesn’t want anymore.

So, he meets Jacqueline, who’s a sixty-year-old retiring baby boomer, just lost her husband, wants to sell her very profitable small Chicago-based PR company. So, they come together. I tell the story of the deal through all the process steps, like the valuation, the deal structure, the financing, how he originated the deal, she had other offers, and how they built rapport and got on really, really well and was a great fit. But I captured all the drama and the emotion and psychology that buyers and sellers go through when they transact on a deal, especially for the first time.

So, I can’t wait for you to read it. You are in the book, as you know. I’ve changed people’s last names though. You’re not Tracy Thompson. You’re Tracy Topping. My editor and publisher said, “Hey. Just so you don’t get into lawsuits, just change people’s second names.” So, that’s what I did. Chris is in it. Ross is in it. Ross’ wife Jess is in it. My wife’s in it. But loads like, Jeremy Bronson’s in it, although I think I call him Jeremy Brown. Everyone that is close to me and has been an incredible part of my life, including you, I’ve put in the book really as a kind of a thank you, but then the book emphasizes all your different skills.

So, you’re the enrollment coach that puts the buyer into Protege, and then he learns all the ways of doing deals and the support that he gets beside the community. So, I can’t wait for you to read it. It’s gonna be I’m gonna be bringing a box of them to Upper Echelon, which starts two weeks today, the next mastermind event, and I’m gonna be signing all the books for everybody. You will get a free copy of the book, which is gonna be cool.

Let’s talk briefly about women in Protege. Right? So, yes. This is something that you decided to do yourself. I know you’ve been doing it with Britney, who’s an incredible CPA and dealmaker inside of Protege. But talk about the Women in Protege movement that you’ve created, and, yeah, what are your plans as a group inside of the community?

When you and I first started talking about eighteen months ago, whatever it was, about this space, me coming into Protege, the very first thing I said to you was, “Gosh. You know? I know this is a male-dominated industry as a whole. Yeah. But there’s suspiciously, like, not enough women here.” And you said, “Yeah. We really, Chris and I, want more. We want more women dealmakers because they’re so amazing, and the women we do have are so incredible.” How do we do that? Please, let’s lock arms. Let’s figure out a way to empower more women to come here.

And I believe that was right exactly at the same time that Alexis had just started. Right? Telling me that. Lot of power. Alexis Moon. Yes. Very young woman. Very young woman coming in, and that was really inspiring to me. And Dr. Natasha and I connected early on. And she and I put our heads together. Pretty soon, I proposed to both you and Chris that I spearhead and lead a Women in Protege subgroup. It’s like her own little meetup where we women here can have our space, our place and space where we can be really unvarnished and real with each other and support each other in ways that women, we—we’re just wired differently. We do things differently. We have different life responsibilities aside from dealmaking.

So, Britney stepped up with me, and we’ve been supporting the women in Protege now—I don’t even know how many months. It’s been at least six months, maybe longer. Six months or longer. And every single time we get together, I am always blown away by the level of professionalism and amazing powerhouse women, and they’re all so generous and so incredible in paying forward their gifts and their talents.

There are some incredible women in Protege. Right? Britney, there’s Julie Voss, there’s Alexis, there’s Mona Carter, Judith Hsu, Patty Plow who just bought a massive ESOP company with David Martin. You’ve got David’s wife, Celine, Dr. Natasha, Crystal Anderson. There’s loads of incredible people on the female side now in Protege.

And you know what’s really interesting? Females, women for me, are the best dealmakers. Right? There’s three types of people that, if I look across the Protege student base and I look at all the people that are just, I mean, relentlessly crushing it, buying business after business—the women, the salespeople, and the retired military. Retired military, because we just talked about mindset, those people are very mentally tough and will just see it through. They won’t quit. Right? I love those people. I love salespeople because they understand that dealmaking is a numbers game.

Deal making’s a numbers game, like sales is a numbers game. You’ve got to vet multiple prospects to get deals closed, which is really, really good. And then women—I just find women, again, they don’t quit. They’re very, very coachable. They follow the rules, and they’re very meticulous, they’re very detailed, and they don’t take unnecessary risks. So women, salespeople, and former military are probably the greatest dealmakers on the planet.

I also like real estate investors. Right? Real estate investors make phenomenal business buyers and dealmakers because a lot of their skill sets are very transferable. They know how to originate deal flow. They know how to talk to people. They know how to negotiate. They know how to raise capital. So, there’s all these amazing pockets of dealmakers that are kind of sprouting out, but I love the Women in Protege movement.

I’m probably not invited, but if you ever want me to come on one of those calls one day and chat, I’d be happy to do so. But they’d probably say, “No, it’s women only.”

We adore you. We talk about you behind your back.

You do?

Yeah. It’s all good. Cool. It’s all good.

So, I just want to say something, Carl. We change lives. I mean, all the way across the board, we are affecting so many people in what we do as dealmakers. We’re affecting the sellers’ lives, their family, the families of the businesses that we own when we take over. We’re affecting all of our lives inside each other’s lives inside this community. We’re affecting our family, our legacy. If you really look at this, this is about transformation. This isn’t just about business. This isn’t just about buying a business or knowledge. It’s about really, truly evolving who we are individually, and then by extension, changing the lives of everyone around us.

Yeah.

I feel very strongly about that.

Thank you for saying that. That’s, and that’s so true. We really aren’t in the coaching business, solely. We’re in the empowerment business.

Absolutely.

I look at some of the stories, like Michael Scott. He did a no-money-down deal, sold it for a hundred and fourteen million dollars. Right? And now he’s helping other proteges and even investing in their deals. Right? It’s crazy how he’s paying it forward. You look at Abraham Gray—he’s done over a hundred acquisitions. He did a lot of those before he came into Protege, although he’s been following my stuff for a long, long time. But, again, he’s investing in people’s deals. He’s helping people. Everyone’s got that pay-it-forward mentality.

So true.

Yeah. It really is amazing. And, yeah, this is my mission, Tracy. Right? So, like, if you look at the marketplace, if you look at the United States, what’s crazy is you’ve got two and a half million businesses that are on the market available to buy. Yet every year, about seven million Americans will go and start a brand-new business from scratch. A business that’s got no revenue, no customers, no employees, no brand, no reputation, no credibility, but they do it anyway. Right? Yet they should just go and buy a business.

Like, ninety-six percent of startups fail in ten years. My message to these people is: go and buy a business that’s ten years old. Right? By using other people’s money, it’s like doing a marathon but starting a hundred yards from the finish line. Right? A lot of people don’t get that. A lot of people think it’s really cool to start a company and then not have any cash for two years. You know what I think is really cool? Cash flow.

Yes.

You can buy a company. You can walk into cash flow on day one. Right? A lot of people don’t realize that. They’d rather go through the hustle and the strife and the brain damage of building something from scratch. I just don’t understand it. The only business I’ve ever started was Dealmaker Wealth Society.

Yeah.

Never started a business. I’ve always bought companies, but this is the only business I started. But then we’ve scaled up now to a huge business, but we’ve acquired five other companies into what we do. We bought a real estate coaching company.

I was gonna say now you’re buying coaching companies.

We’re buying coaching companies. Right. As we’re talking to our proteges, and they’re saying, “Well, hey, I’m making all this money from my businesses. I’m taking these distributions. I want to invest in real estate.” Okay. Now, yeah, I’ve done some real estate deals, but I’m not a world-class coach like I am on the business side. So, I went and acquired a company called Partner Ribbon that does that. Right? So, we brought them into the portfolio. And, yes, we’re scaling that business, but we’re allowing proteges to kind of get involved in that.

And Peter, who’s our partner in that deal—we bought a majority share of that company. He stayed in for a bit because he likes us. He’s speaking at the Upper Echelon mastermind in two weeks. So, you’ll get to meet Peter, lovely man from Atlanta, great dealmaker. He’s gonna be showing a lot of his creative real estate deal lessons and how we can translate those into our business acquisitions.

Nice.

Nice. It’s gonna be cool. It’s gonna be cool. So, I’m gonna let you go. I know we’re coming up on time out. But, Tracy, really appreciate you coming on today and sharing your wisdom and telling some stories with me.

So, guys, hope you enjoyed the episode, and I will see you soon for the next Creative Dealmaker podcast. Until then, bye for now.