Journey to an ESOP & Beyond

This episode we invite Diana Clark, who specializes as a full-time ESOP communication’s consultant, to provide a framework to understand the power of frequent and effective communication around employee ownership.  If you are brand new to ESOPs or been an employee-owned company for a few years or even many years - the bottom line of communication will improve the bottom line of your business. 

This episode is part 2 of discussing the inside note versus the outside note on an ESOP transaction.  We feature the recently released part 2 of Inside Out - as it is an excellent sequel in the story of how human emotions can play into how we make decisions , in particular how anxiety can cause problems in daily life. The podcast contrasts this to how we deal with the anxiety of the company going...

This episode represents the 2nd interview with Joe Hurt of RLH Construction.  Joe discusses some of the challenges and opportunities of an established ESOP.  A few years into their ESOP, RLH Construction has experienced very strong results from the ESOP.  Joe is the CEO of the company and has worked through issues such as leadership transition, retiring a large portion of the initial senior debt,...

This episode provides clarification to the difference between an inside note and an outside note.  In an ESOP transaction there will be two types of notes created when the transaction occurs.  This episode is part 1 of 2 episodes.  The first part explains the background of the terminology as it relates to why these two types of notes exist.  The majority of this episode deals with the inside note...

 On the podcast this week, we interview Corey Rosen, the founder of NCEO and a huge contributor to ESOPs discusses the updates and trends relative to ESOP companies. Through our discussion, Corey highlights the expansion of ESOPs as the finance world has begun to leverage this realities and benefits of an ESOP in private equity.  Some of these ideas discussed on this podcast have been highlighted...

In this episode we discuss the motivations for selling your business to an ESOP.  The focus of this episode is to help better understand the reasons to choose an ESOP.  The episode was encouraged by the experiences of working through other company’s ESOPs and interacting with diverse personalities and companies, along with their varying goals and objectives.

This episode will be very informative through the long-tenured experience of Renee Jenkins with Holiday Builder’s ESOP.  Renee has been a long-time employee of the company managing the Finance/HR Branch. On this episode of the Podcast, we discuss the issues in a straightforward approach and solutions that she has worked through. This discussion covers possible issues that can arise during the ESOP...

We find that once an ESOP closes, there is some degree of uncertainty on the next steps. In this episode, we focus on the ESOP closing guide to prepare clients on the correct ways to implement the organizational structure and timeline of a successful ESOP. In other words, we cover how to accomplish a company’s goals in the transition of an ESOP that take specific knowledge of timing and communicat...

On this episode, Jason Miller (former National Director of ESOPs for Bank of America) and I explore the “Expanding ESOP Initiative” that was recently aired on 60 Minutes.  The focus of this podcast is to provide an update as to what is happening in the National ESOP space and how the ESOP initiative started.  The initiative’s work is centered around the question: “Why are there not more ESOP compa...

This episode focuses on the development of an expected valuation to help a shareholder understand selling their shares to an ESOP.  When the historical average cash flow is much lower than the forecasted cash flow, the negotiated fair market value or adequate consideration can be much lower than desired.  This is what the podcast refers to as “bridge over troubled water.”  Where the bridge is hist...

 This episode is a general overview of ESOP communication.  Diana Clark and I discuss the importance of communicating an ESOP transition to your employees.  We discuss how to present an ESOP to your company, answering the question: What is in it for the employee? This is a very essential part of the ESOP journey--once the ESOP closes this marks a new beginning for the company. Communication is cen...

Randy Macho Man Savage was a childhood hero who my brothers and I constantly impersonated while watching WWF wrestling.  For a time, I didn’t realize it was choreographed fighting and not a real fight. This podcast episode uses this picture of WWF Wrestling to discuss what is called the “bring down” call for an ESOP transaction. This is a call conducted by the independent valuation firm representi...

This podcast episode features Nancy Pratt, CFO of Frederick Derr and Company.  They are a construction company out of Sarasota, FL who closed on a 100 percent ESOP transaction at the end of 2023.  The episode is our first interview from a CFO perspective. Nancy does a phenomenal job of explaining the ESOP process from the role of the CFO. This episode also compares and contrasts an ESOP transactio...

This podcast is all about designing your ESOP so the company can be successful and avoid any potential pitfalls. Through the episode, we get to celebrate the movie: “Titanic” (Spoiler alert - the ship sinks at the end). One of the aspects of ESOP design is understanding the ESOP process and the importance of cash flow and balancing leverage for the company with the respective tax benefits. As a wh...

This episode we dive into the very essential role of the transaction/ongoing ESOP trustee with Bill Kropkof out of Dallas TX.  Bill’s background includes time with the Department of Labor - so he brings a perspective that is very helpful to think about how that affects a transaction as well as ongoing work related to best practices related to trustees.

In this episode, I discuss the tension of making these choices around ESOP - but not just the path of an ESOP.  This episode is to discuss some general ideas around what shareholders face when making decisions towards how they go about the transition of their business.

On this episode - Dale Hobbs founder of Hobbs Madison - consulting firm discusses him and his partner (Gary Madison’s) journey to an esop.  Dale and I discuss the process that we worked through to sell 100 percent of their stock to a newly formed ESOP.

On this episode I have been re-inspired by this great song to focus on why holistic planning your ESOP should minimize your worry of selling your stock during your journey to an ESOP.  As we go through the planning process, there simply are measures taken to balance all of the elements of your ESOP plan to provide a win-win-win…yes a triple win - one for the shareholder - one for the company and o...

I have been talking about EOS for years - so helpful to get to interview Mark O’Donnell, CEO of EOS Worldwide to discuss how Traction has made such an impact with companies executing  strategically and implementing innovation at the highest levels. The ESOP is a natural choice for EOS companies given the strong core values, culture, business processes, and most of all people leaving a long-term le...

This episode is focused on addressing a super common question with companies going through the ESOP process with their key people.  Proactive communication is really the best way to approach your key people - however the question is when should you talk with them and how much can you tell them.  This is really difficult to answer as it deeply depends on your company culture.  But there is some gui...

In this episode - I interview Steve Storkan and their approach at EOX, an organization founded out of the NCEO to develop state employee ownership educational resources to support companies considering ESOP as an option.  Their approach is in response to research that shows - states with education on ESOPs have a lot more ESOP companies.  Steve has an interesting ESOP background and leading the in...

In this episode, we jump right into the expanded version of Season 5 by dealing some factors related to communicating the ESOP to your employees.  Jumanji is an ideal movie to explain that there is something that changes after an ESOP that can change the outlook on how employees see themselves - who they are and who they want to be - we want them to move from employees to employee owners on this j...

This episode is really meant to get at the heart of what defining employee communication for ESOPs.  We interview employees that are volunteering at Smooth Fusion - an ESOP company out of Texas - to participate in a newly formed esop committee.  We discuss the roles in the company, their ESOP communication strategy as well as extras that they are aspiring to that align well with company culture. ...

This episode officially kicks off the Season 5 and the expansion of the podcast as a direct resource for Employee Stock Ownership Plans.  The Journey to an ESOP just became better because we are incorporating “& Beyond” to discuss not only pre-esop topics but go beyond that and deal with post-esop topics and issues that come up.  This episode provides a high-level understanding of what is to c...

In this episode we finish the series we started to help prepare folks for the ESOP site visit.  The focus of the episode is to understand in covering first the financial highlights and how they connect to points you will want to make with the trustee and their valuation  firm.  In addition to the financials - the remaining part of the presentation will be to cover the ESOP deal structure and anyth...