Adam Torres and Jeff Dyck discuss growing companies.
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Show Notes:
What does it take to be a “bridge builder” in the business community? In this episode, Adam Torres and Jeff Dyck, CEO of Bold Bridge Advisors, explore Bold Bridge Advisors and Jeff’s personal mission to start, acquire, and grow businesses that impact 100 million lives in the next decade.
About Jeff Dyck
As a seasoned innovator, orchestrator, and bridge builder, Jeff brings together people, technologies, and business models to tackle challenges and generate profitable opportunities that uplift the health, wealth, and happiness of all.
He does this by partnering with owners and helping them get hyper focused on doing the work that matters most, so they can make more, work less, and sell businesses on their terms.
About Bold Bridge Advisors
They partner with and invest in business owners who plan to sell in the next 1-5 years. We help you optimize your profitability and operation, so that you walk away with 2-10x more money in their pocket at sale.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest on the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on Be Our Guest to Apply. All right, so today’s guest is Jeff Dyke, and he’s CEO over at Bold Bridge Advisors.
Jeff, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me, Adam. So this is a great topic we have today. So art of bridge building how to build and grow companies in a way that benefits everyone involved. So great topic. And I guess just to get us kicked off here being a bridge builder, let’s just kind of start pretty basic.
Like let’s define that. What does that mean to you? So a bridge builder is a person that brings together people, partners, and resources that help other people overcome obstacles or create opportunities so that they can kind of go further faster. And I kind of use the analogy, you know, if you’re a business owner, you kind of understand this, you get to this point in your business where you’re at the end of what you know how to do.
And it’s kind of like, you’re walking through the wilderness and you’ve got, you know, all these trees and scary things all around you. And you get to like, Let’s say you get the end of a cliff and there’s like a chasm, big, deep gorge thing. And at the bottom, you got alligators and I know big rocks and pointed stuff.
And you’re like, you can kind of look across. It’s like, you’re staring across the Grand Canyon. And you can either see the other side, or you can’t because of the clouds and the fog and whatever else and a bridge builder, somebody who kind of like, just shows up next to you and says, hey. How are things going?
Looks like you’re kind of in a bit of a pickle here and they say. You know, I actually know what’s on the other side there and you know, there’s some different ways that we could get there and let me show you. Let’s do it together and it’s the idea of somebody kind of coming alongside kind of like a.
Just a guide for you and helping you kind of get to the other side and build the bridge, or in some cases, maybe you need a boat or heck, let’s do a slingshot or a cannon, you know, over top of the, the cows, if you will. It’s really just about, yeah, that where did this start for you? Where is there some, a bridge builder in your life that influenced you or otherwise?
Like, I’m just curious. Where did this start for you? This concept? You know, I’ve been doing this my entire life. It, it brings me so much joy. Like I can’t, you know, I got five or six phone calls today with people that are kind of on the edge of the, you know, chasm, if you will. And it just brings me so much joy.
I have no, description that, so as, as a teenager though, did you have that, like, thought process of even being what a Bridge Builder was like? I’m just curious ’cause it’s interesting. No, no. So, so how it came out for me was, so back, I don’t know about the time I was in my twenties. I just sold two of my companies.
I sold them pretty young and then. I got to work with a friend of mine who was great at building sort of web companies and really good at building the software and was struggling to figure out business models and connecting to people, partners and capital asked if I wanted to go explore and play.
And so I got to spend about 2 years working with a ton of different tech startups, about 40 in total. And was this in your 20s? Did you say this was in like mid, late 20s? I’m just trying to, wow, what an amazing thing. Early mid 20s. It was such a cool experience. And then later in my career, I kind of brought that forward into some work that I did in the corporate setting working with and collaborating with different companies all over the world.
And and living to in different countries, and and then I went back and actually in a point of inflection, which I think a lot of us get to in our late 20s, we’ll call it was like, okay, well, what do I do next? And who am I? Those are those kinds of questions that I was asking. I went and interviewed on the advice.
And I’m still asking those questions. You said in your late 20s. I wasn’t asking that question. Then you were asking that question. Go ahead. Go ahead. Sorry. The trick though, Adam is like, you know, you always want to be constantly like reinventing yourself. Yeah, sometimes there’s a question of like, self identity.
Like, who am I? What am I good at? And so what I did was and this was on the guidance of somebody that was I think a career coach or something along those Lines that a family member of mine knew and she was awesome she said hey Why don’t you go and talk to people that you’ve worked with before because I never had a traditional role even in corporate It was design your own And so I went and interviewed clients from my corporate career clients from you know, my own businesses people that i’d work with my friends and I asked them a couple questions I asked them tell me about The work that we did together, so give me, you know, paint me a picture for what do you think it is that we did together?
What was the value that I created for you and, you know, give me an example. And then, if you were to pitch me to somebody who. You know, needs the things that I can do really, really well. How would you pitch me? And I interviewed, like, 30 people I did what you’re doing now with this podcast. I recorded everything.
Ask for their permission, of course, and then I had a friend transcribe that and then help me with some of the pattern identification in there. And I learned that I’m a chaos wrangler. I get into, like, the. Gnarliest of businesses or you know, opportunities or problem sets or what have you and sort of pick things apart and put it on the table, make things make sense.
I’m a chaos wrangler. I’m a bridge builder too. So with this chaos in mind, like, where do we need to go and what’s the right way to get there? And so what needs to be done in what sequence and then who are the people and the resources and what are the partners both the things that are obvious. And the things that aren’t like, how do you take concepts from parallel.
Areas right instead of applying from business, let’s take it from I don’t know. We’re doing some interesting stuff with chemistry right now and applying it to business, or how do we take something from art and design and pull it into business. Or from, some other random magazine video games and throw it into business maybe look at the problem differently and kind of get to.
An outcome that people are excited about. Man, Jeff, it sounds like you like punishment over here, man. You want the problems, you want to get in the weeds, you want to solve things. I’m like, don’t bring me any problems. I want things to be easy. It never works that way, but at least I could want that.
Right. I want to make the problems easy. Right. I think oftentimes we get like wound around the shoelaces. We think the problem is bigger than it is, but we need somebody to come along. And like, Pull us out of the, you know, pull us out of the chaos that we can see a clear picture. And oftentimes the problem isn’t that hard.
It’s not that complicated. It just, when you’re in it, it feels so visceral and so difficult to pull back that you just need help. And you know, and you had a guest on, I think it was yesterday or maybe a couple of days back, Eric Grafton who does exit guide. Great, great guy. You know, what he’s solving for is you’ve got all these business owners that want to exit it.
And the problem is they can’t because they’re not ready to so he’s trying to help them get ready what I found is that a lot of times these business owners also are not ready to exit But they know that they need help and they’re not really sure what to do next. And so What I do is i’ll invest in those companies.
So start acquire grow companies And come alongside them and sort of fill in the gap that’s missing and bring the right people partners resources around that so that they can actually overcome that and get their business to a place where You They could exit and ideally it’s an exit to me versus you know, we take it out into the market but that’s anyway, there you go.
What kind of, so what, I mean, what kind of lessons have you learned along the way when it comes to things like that, like investing in or structuring and, and really getting, cause you’re getting your hands dirty here. It doesn’t sound to me like you’re the most of passive investors. I’m not saying you’re controlling it by any means.
So I don’t mean the opposite of that. Like you have you, you like to be active. I get that from you and correct me if I’m off. But like, what are some of the lessons you’ve learned, you know, along that way, cause that’s not an easy path, right? For sure. You know what I do is I just, I get to know people on a deep level.
I mean, it all starts with people. And so there’s a great book called The Go Giver, and it talks about like, Man, that’s the second time I heard of The Go Giver today. Shout out to Kurt Mayer today. The Go Giver. we record our interviews in batches. So if today’s one of my big studio days, I’ll do.
14 interviews today and you’re the second person today talking about the Go-Giver. Go ahead. I love it. I’m smiling ear to ear, Jeff. No, I freaking love it too. Okay. Just like the Go-Giver talks about like how do you be intentional and kind to others? Like not just, hey, talk, say I’m gonna, I’m gonna introduce you, this person, but how do you go out of your way to look for opportunities to, to help people achieve the things that they wanna achieve?
And, and I think the way that you get to that is, you know, when I meet people, I ask them three questions. Number one, like what’s your, why don’t tell me about what you do. Tell me about what’s your, why, like, what’s at the core of driving you to do the things that you do in the way that you do them, what are some of your current, like goals and dreams?
Like, where do you want to see yourself in 12 months, in three years? I don’t want to say 30 years, but like, you know, what’s here and now what’s present and this is business, this is life, this is philanthropy, it could be safe, like, what does that look like for you? And I tend to get under the covers a little bit more than surface level.
And then. You know, if I could bring somebody into view for you, or something into view that would further your mission, your vision, or your impact in the world, who or what is that person or thing? And, you know, I don’t know if I have that person or thing, Adam, but, you know, in, in encounters that happen, maybe a week later, 2 weeks later, I’ll find something that maybe that person can use and I can bring that back to them and say, hey.
You should really look at this. I had a conversation with a fellow about a friend of mine, actually, about 2 years ago, and he said, hey, I need to meet this guy. I need to have him at our South by Southwest event. I said, who is it? Some guy called Robert Smith, and you probably know who this is.
I didn’t. And he runs Vista Equity. He’s a very influential African American business leader. And and so I said, well, I don’t know, man, this guy’s name is Waziri Garuba. I said, let me let me see on that. And I was at an event that night at a friend’s house and this guy called Rob walked up to me, introduced himself.
And I’m like, you seem like a really interesting, I think you need to meet my friend Waz. And it wasn’t until the next day that I realized it was the same guy. And he went, he went on and spoke at this event for young African American men about, you know, how to become entrepreneurs, which is really cool.
And so just weird stuff like that. I mean, it’s all about, like. Find a way to get to know people, put yourself in sort of situations that. You know, allow you to be intentional about how to bring people or things into view for somebody that can really help them. Thank you. And you know, know what they’re trying to achieve and and be like their biggest advocate, you know, if your buddy is launching a book and you say, hey, man, it’s awesome.
Be the 1st buyer of that book. And everybody out there, go buy my book, too. Thank you. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. There you go. Go buy Adam’s book. No, come on. I’m just playing. I had to throw that in there. No, I agree with you. You should throw that in there. I interview a lot, a lot of authors, and I love bringing them on the show, because books just have a spot in my heart, and I know they’re not easy.
They’re hard, and I’d love to support. Authors and that’s why I say that not don’t go buy mine go buy one of your buddy’s books. That’s fine. We’re okay Okay. Well Well, so the other thing too around structuring is just know what you want out of the deal as well And you know in acquisition so in m& a mergers and acquisitions There’s a saying that you know, the best deal is the one where nobody is completely satisfied I don’t entirely agree with that statement, I think that you can come to terms That are really great for both parties and, you know, the way that I tend to do stuff with folks is, hey, let’s pilot a relationship.
Let’s start a relationship together for, like, 3, 4 months together. And see if we’re really a good match, because we may not be, and I’ll put some risk at the table. You put some risk at the table. Let’s try some things together with very specific outcomes that we’re going to achieve. And if we get there.
Or if in the path to getting there, we think that, hey, this is a slam dunk. Let’s, let’s formalize it. Let’s, let’s really get into business together in an equity way and, and let’s go crush this thing. and that way, becoming partners in businesses, you know, it’s a marriage, it’s a marriage, it’s a marriage, divorce is a lot more expensive.
Oh, yeah. And so that’s kind of what I would say there. And then to be flexible, like if you’re not flexible, like, if you’re not willing to, to, it’s a give and take thing. Right. It’s going to be really hard for you to partner with other people and or even exit your business. I mean, so many times I’ve been in 100 conversations with business owners just in the last 12 months who are trying to sell and.
You know, they want their price. They want their terms and they’re not going to budge. And so they get offer after offer after offer, but they don’t take any of those offers because it isn’t exactly what they want. And, you know, the data says, at least in acquisitions that. I think Eric brought it up yesterday, 80 percent of businesses that go to market never sell.
And, but what he didn’t share that I think is also important is that something like 60 to 70 percent of the business owners who actually do sell. Don’t get the amount of money they want when they sell. Right. And so, you know, there’s a way to get to the amount of money that they want, but it’s all about, like, structuring terms that help you as the buyer.
Get to, you know, the outcome that the seller is also happy with. So there’s got to be flexibility. I think on both sides. To really get a deal done that makes sense and this could be an acquisition. This could be a partnership. This could be. You know, really anything. So I know speaking of acquisitions and speaking of your personal roadmap, I mean, you’re looking to start acquiring, grow businesses that impact 100 million lives in the next decade, like that’s a beehive if I ever heard of one, like, like I want to dream here for a moment, I’m an entrepreneur, you’re an entrepreneur, many entrepreneurs listening to this light, how do you plan on carrying out that vision?
Yeah, well, want to get to the why behind that 1st. So and then I’ll, I’ll get to you, like, how do we get there? so the why behind that is, I want to build a portfolio of companies that generate cash flow to give back in 3 very specific areas. So. Making dreams happen for others.
There’s so many amazing people in this world that have the potential to change it. They’re just missing access to people, partners, resources. Resources could be capital. It could be access to knowledge or networks. Right. And so you know, I want to do things like help sponsor the financial burden of adoptions for families.
So that they can change the basically the course of the generation of people that come after that kid. Second is creating opportunities for experiential education. I think the college system is broken. There’s so many, you know, kids and even adults that learn better by doing. And so like mentorship and being mentored by amazing entrepreneurs has made me who I am.
In part, we all stand on the shoulders of giants. And so how do we, how do we pair people in our companies with amazing opportunities to learn hands on with other people who have been there, done that? And then the third is creating community and supporting the development of communities where people don’t feel alone because loneliness probably is the leading cause of death in this country, death of soul, death of life, you know, et cetera.
And so how do we create like intentional communities, especially for men, because we, we tend to be fairly isolated where we can be authentic, where we can experience joy, love, laughter, where we can go and shoot off guns and do fun stuff together, something that extends below the surface level. And so, with that in mind, your other question was, okay, well, how do you achieve that?
And so part of the way that we achieve that impact is through those 3. Sort of impact areas, but part of that too is to Use that as a lens to look at opportunities to acquire companies to start them to grow them. So. Looking at a company that, for instance, we could hire somebody with special needs, or we could create a division that allows us to put people with special needs to work for people with disabilities.
Right? We ran a company last year that, you know, you could be anywhere in the world and work with this company and and make a great living. We had some folks that were disabled. We had some folks that were single parents and like, their kids would be bouncing around in the background and. Apart from just just bringing tons of joy, it just creates an amazing culture and everyone is impacted.
Right, you get 40, 50 people on the phone and yeah, you see a smiling bouncing baby in the back, ideally not screaming, but, you know, it brings you joy or somebody’s got their puppy dog, which bonus points. If you bring a puppy dog to a zoom call. I’ve been thinking of getting one just for a prop.
I don’t know. I’m just saying I love it too when somebody does. I don’t have one though. Go ahead. Go ahead. I love them though. Get your puppy, bring it to Austin and go sit at a coffee shop and everybody will come and meet you. Yep. The law of attraction. But yeah, you know, for me, it’s, really about, being intentional about the types of companies and businesses that we get into and the types of opportunities that we go after.
Knowing full well that we need to find a way to live out. Some of these sort of outcomes that we want to achieve in those companies. I think the other thing too, and there’s a, a book out there called the dream manager. I don’t know if you’ve come across that or if anybody’s mentioned that today, but it speaks about how do you identify the dreams of the people who work with you and for you and how do you help them achieve them?
And you know, it, it talks about it from the, from the standpoint of like reducing churn and companies, but I think it should just be like a, like an essential part of your company. No, what are the dreams of the people that work with you? And find ways to help them achieve it, and you can help 1 person achieve their dreams.
They can go and help their families achieve their dreams or their community. And so it’s really, for me, how do you get to 100M? You change 1 life, or you help 1 person, and that person goes out and helps 3 more, and those 3 more go help more. It’s ripple effect. It’s great. And I think I think that’s a great way to end it, Jeff.
This has really been a pleasure having you on the show today and learning more about how you are and are thinking about and working to empower and help other entrepreneurs and also investing in ideas and I mean, you’re in the mix, you’re by no means a passive individual, I would argue in this ecosystem of entrepreneurship and business.
So I appreciate that because many people that, you know, we need people like you that like to get their hands dirty, get in there with founders and, and to give knowledge that maybe that’s not there. I mean, at times resources. I mean, I think it’s amazing. So that being said, Jeff, there’s so much more you have to offer and and just to connect with.
If somebody wants to follow your journey or to connect, I mean, what, what’s the best way for them to do that? Find me on LinkedIn just linkedin. com forward slash. I think it’s my last name. D Y C K J B easy way to find me. Fantastic. And for everybody listening, we’ll put, Jeff’s LinkedIn in the show notes that you can just click on it, head right on over or just, I mean, I looked them up on LinkedIn.
Super easy. Jeff, J E F F, duh D Y C K. So real super easy to find Jeff and speaking of speaking of finding people, if you’re watching this, You’re listening to this for the first time and you haven’t found that subscribe button. Here’s a hint. It’s right there. Just push it Push that subscribe button because we want you to catch some of this other programming and of these other guests we have coming up This is a daily show each and every day We’re putting out content and bringing on amazing guests like Jeff.
And we want you to enjoy that. We want you to get the content and we want you to succeed with that. So hit that subscribe button. And if you’re a long term listener and you haven’t written a review yet we’re talking about go givers here. Go give me that review. Maybe that doesn’t apply perfectly, Jeff, but leave me alone.
No, I’m just, but let me, let me have that one. Jeff really meant, I do appreciate you coming in the show. So thank you. Thanks very much, Adam. I appreciate you having me and thanks for listening.
