The Wise Exit

ELISE MITCHELL - Episode 48 of the Cashing Out M&A Podcast (brought to you by Exitwise)

00:00:00:22 - 00:00:17:04
Elise Mitchell
As a leader goes, so goes a company, an industry, a home, a church, a country. You know, we as leaders have so much impact on other people. And so changing yourself and your mindset can really change the game for you in every way.

00:00:17:06 - 00:00:45:00
Todd Sullivan
Welcome to the Cashing Out podcast, where our fellow founders share real stories and offer honest advice around selling their companies to some of the top acquirers in the world. My name is Todd Sullivan, CEO of Exitwise, where we help business owners create the exits they deserve. Today, my guest is Tiger 21, chairwoman and three time entrepreneur Elise Mitchell, who founded Mitchell Communications Group, which was named a top ten fastest growing PR firm globally.

00:00:45:02 - 00:01:11:07
Todd Sullivan
Elise was named PR Week's Public Relations Professional of the Year and a Top 50 Power Player in PR. She's also the author of Leading Through the Turn Under Lisa's Leadership. Her agency grew initially using an outsourced talent model while landing global brands, including Walmart, Procter and Gamble, Hilton Hotels and Tyson Foods. Her company was a two time Inc 500/5,000 fastest growing company.

00:01:11:09 - 00:01:40:08
Todd Sullivan
And in 2013, Elise successfully completed a strategic sale of her company to global ad agency powerhouse Dentsu. In this episode, Elise and I discuss how she learned to turn adversity into opportunity to launch her business. Why you should take calls from prospective acquirers even if you don't want to sell your business, and how setting your business and team up for success after you're gone is the true measure of a great exit.

00:01:40:10 - 00:02:09:21
Todd Sullivan
I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Elise Mitchell. Elise, thank you so much for being here. I have been so excited to chat with you because, you know, I've looked at your career really through research and a couple of conversations and notes that everybody's sending me about you. And one of the things that has really jumped out at me is how you balance how intentional you are with the decisions that you've made throughout your career, but also being opportunistic.

00:02:09:23 - 00:02:27:11
Todd Sullivan
Like when somebody something drops in your lap, you seem to just know how to really take advantage of the situation that you're in. You know, I just think there's going to be so many learnings of the businesses that you've been able to build, the businesses that you coach, the M&A transactions. Yeah, I'm just really looking forward to this.

00:02:27:11 - 00:02:34:14
Todd Sullivan
So much so that I don't know if you know this that Mark Cuban had this spot today and I bumped him just to get you on. So thank you for being I don't.

00:02:34:14 - 00:02:41:09
Elise Mitchell
Believe that one bit, but thank you for the thought. Todd, I'm honored to be here. Thank you for having me.

00:02:41:11 - 00:03:03:00
Todd Sullivan
Elise, I'm going to try to do this this interview justice. At the beginning of your career, what was really exciting for me to see is that you knew very early on what you wanted to do, right? Which was PR So maybe you could start there and kind of take us through the evolution of PR for you and the business that you ended up building.

00:03:03:02 - 00:03:30:03
Elise Mitchell
Yes, that's one of the things that I always think I was one of those sort of geeky kids that like my first day at college. I knew I wanted to major in Public Relations. And when I graduated, I still do. I wanted to major in public relations. I don't think most coaches had experience, but I did. And it was because I when I learned about the career or what Public Relations was, I thought, I think I could be good at this and I think I would love it.

00:03:30:05 - 00:03:45:16
Elise Mitchell
And, you know, I have a sweet story. My mom, I remember sitting at the end of my mother's bed when I was getting ready to go off to college, and I'd always talked about, I want to be a lawyer or something like that. And I said, Mom, what do you want me to be? And I thought for sure she'd say, Oh, you should be this or that.

00:03:45:16 - 00:04:05:10
Elise Mitchell
And she just looked at me and she said, I want you to be happy. And I thought, Oh my gosh, what a gift that was. And I said, Really? Well, in that case, I want a major in this thing called public relations. And I remember she was thinking, probably, what exactly is that? And of course, it did turn out to be a great thing for me to focus on.

00:04:05:10 - 00:04:26:08
Elise Mitchell
It did play to a lot of my natural talents and strengths, and I had a wonderful start. I went to Abilene Christian University and had a great professors there. A lot of opportunities to get a lot of practical hands-on experience. And really that was the focus of most of my career, was being in PR both on the client and corporate side and also in the agency world.

00:04:26:08 - 00:04:31:15
Elise Mitchell
There were a lot of interesting twists and turns, but PR was pretty much the focus for most of my career.

00:04:31:17 - 00:04:44:02
Todd Sullivan
So very unusual at going in, knowing exactly what you want to do, coming out and saying, Yep, I did it. This is exactly what I wanted to learn. So you go out, you get your first job in PR. Can you take us through that?

00:04:44:04 - 00:05:05:14
Elise Mitchell
Yeah. So I started my career in Nashville, which is actually where I live now, sort of have come full circle, but I started right here in Nashville, was able to get a job in a small but growing public relations firm called Dye, Van Mol & Lawrence. Hank Dye, John Payne, model Tom Lawrence. They were all founders and it was a founder-led company.

00:05:05:16 - 00:05:25:10
Elise Mitchell
So I was very fortunate. They gave a green kid right out of school a shot at building a career there. I loved it. I was there for years and then lo and behold, fell in love. And I fell in love with somebody who was from Nashville, but he was medical school in Memphis. So we got married and I moved to Memphis, so I had to leave a job I loved.

00:05:25:12 - 00:05:47:14
Elise Mitchell
But then we went and spent about another ten years in Memphis, where my husband did medical school residency and also a fellowship. But that was really an interesting time to be building my career. I worked for a couple of ad agencies, again, founder-led companies, which if I think about it in his later years, my goodness, I had a front row seat to entrepreneurship done right.

00:05:47:16 - 00:06:11:12
Elise Mitchell
I got to sit at the feet of these great entrepreneurs and watch them build public relations and advertising firms from the ground up. And I was just really lucky to be a part of those teams and to have those very successful entrepreneurs as my mentors in those early days. I also then went on to corporate life. I was director of corporate communications for Embassy Suites, Hampton Inn and Homewood Suites Hotels.

00:06:11:14 - 00:06:34:17
Elise Mitchell
That was all part of what was left when Hampton Inn was sold off to Bass. It was also grouped in with the Harris Casino chain at that time, and I was fortunate enough to be the director of corporate communications when we decided to spin the two companies off from each other. So we had Promise Hotel group, which went one way, and I went with that group and then we had Harrah's Casino and Gaming, which went off in another direction.

00:06:34:17 - 00:07:00:02
Elise Mitchell
So it was kind of fun. I was I got to do the whole bull and bear and with the CEO ringing the bell on Wall Street and I remember thinking, Todd, this is the pinnacle of my career. It will never get any better than this. It was a heady moment, but it certainly wasn't the pinnacle, but it was maybe a sense of, gosh, it feels great to be a part of something really exciting.

00:07:00:04 - 00:07:23:02
Todd Sullivan
Yeah, this is incredible training ground, right, Going from these entrepreneurial led organizations. And it sounds like at least what I've learned about you is that you really embraced the mentorship. Right. And that's come full circle to you, really mentoring now, but learning from these people and really setting yourself up to actually start the company that you were really meant to start.

00:07:23:06 - 00:07:43:07
Todd Sullivan
I think one of the phrases that I love is the learning leader, right? So it sounds like you're constantly learning from these experiences that is just making you better and better and better. And I think so many entrepreneurs really could benefit from studying from the greats in their industry before they go off and deliver their own solution to the world.

00:07:43:09 - 00:07:53:12
Todd Sullivan
So how much longer in this career was it before you made the decision that I got to go do my own thing, or maybe that was pushed on you through circumstance?

00:07:53:13 - 00:08:15:14
Elise Mitchell
Well, that was another one of those sort of opportunistic things, right? I remember I loved working in corporate life. I loved that job. I loved that company. The brands were rapidly growing, very successful brands. And my husband was finishing up his training and we were starting to think about where we might move for him to begin practicing. He was an orthopedic surgeon, so what group did he want to join?

00:08:15:14 - 00:08:34:06
Elise Mitchell
And there were a lot of groups that were courting him, and I was keeping my fingers and toes crossed that we would go to some great American city, hopefully back to Nashville. But it could be somewhere else, but someplace that I could further my career from here. And I had this chart on the wall in our kitchen and I had, you know, going across the top.

00:08:34:06 - 00:08:55:04
Elise Mitchell
I had all these different locations that we were thinking about going to. And then down this side over here, I had all the criteria and every time we would go on one of these visits, I would start scoring everything in my mind. I sort of had an ulterior motive. He was like, I'm going to score really high, you know, all the places in the big cities because I'm kind of a big city gal.

00:08:55:05 - 00:09:11:18
Elise Mitchell
But it was funny, we went to visit. I remember one place in particular, it was Fayetteville, Arkansas, and we came back for that trip and my husband was like, Wow, this was fantastic. He said, I think this is it. I'm like, What do you mean? And he said, This is where we should go. And I say, Quit kidding me.

00:09:11:19 - 00:09:29:08
Elise Mitchell
We're not going to move to Fayetteville, Arkansas. I want to go to a big city. And he was dead serious. He said, I really do think this is it. And it was there, of course, began a quite a negotiation that went on for a few months, says, well, wait a minute, but I really wanted to go someplace like this.

00:09:29:10 - 00:09:48:19
Elise Mitchell
But in so many ways he was right about was a fantastic group. It was a beautiful place to go. It was a city that was growing. It just wasn't big for me. Remember there came this moment where I was kind of put out about it all, and I was sitting in a lawn chair in the driveway, would come home from work and I pull this lawn chair.

00:09:48:23 - 00:10:04:18
Elise Mitchell
I'd sit in the driveway. I was so mad I didn't want to go in the house. And Ray would come out to talk to me and I'd say, I'm not talking to you right now. You'll have to go back in the house. And this went on for about two days and the neighbors would come over and they'd say, Have you figured out where you're going to move?

00:10:04:20 - 00:10:27:12
Elise Mitchell
Yes, we have. We're going to Arkansas. And they were like, Oh, my goodness, I'm so sorry for you, because I knew I wanted to go to a big city. And I said, I know. What am I going to do? And I remember just sort of having this crisis moment. I'm like, What are you going to do? Right? So either you're going to let this change make you bitter or you're going to go you're going to let this change make you better.

00:10:27:14 - 00:10:44:18
Elise Mitchell
So bitter, or better. What is it going to be? Because it's really all up here, right? It's your mindset. It's how you approach these sort of these detours in life. And I began to think to myself, well, you know, I always kind of thought I'd want to start my own agency someday, but I thought you had to be old and wise to do that.

00:10:44:18 - 00:11:02:06
Elise Mitchell
And I was absolutely neither one. And I mean, I just rang the bell on Wall Street with the CEO, but that was kind of it, you know? Yeah, I had been working 13 years, but I didn't think I was nearly ready enough to be an entrepreneur or build a company, but I'd always dreamed of it. And I thought, this is the opportunity.

00:11:02:06 - 00:11:19:22
Elise Mitchell
It's sort of like children. I mean, when they happen, they happen. You can't always necessarily plan when you're going to be a parent. Same thing with entrepreneurship. Sometimes the opportunities present themselves. And so I remember I went into my boss and I told him, I said, okay, I have bad news and good news, the bad news is I'm leaving.

00:11:20:00 - 00:11:36:19
Elise Mitchell
But the good news is, is I'm going to start my own agency and I want you to be my first client. And I slid a proposal across the table to him. And of course, he was kind of taken aback by both of those things. I'm not sure which one shocked you more, but you know what? He came back the next day and he said, yes.

00:11:36:21 - 00:11:51:19
Elise Mitchell
And then I thought, oh, no. Like, how do you how do you start an agency? I don't even know. I guess I better go get an LLC and maybe I need a business card. Like I didn't know what I was doing, but I figured it out. And that was the start of Mitchell Communications Group.

00:11:52:00 - 00:12:11:22
Todd Sullivan
It's genius when you can start a company with a customer in hand right? So the situation's kind of forced on you, and maybe that's too strong a word. But, you know, this is something where you have a major pivot in your life. And this is kind of the maybe is this the first moment of looking through the turn right, the phrase that you use, and then you've got the book.

00:12:12:03 - 00:12:14:00
Todd Sullivan
What is is it Leading Through the Turn?

00:12:14:03 - 00:12:34:20
Elise Mitchell
Yes, Yes, leading through the turn. Thank you. Yes. Well, so you're right. So this all kind of ties to that. So I built the firm from that point on. We started working. There was nobody in northwest Arkansas. When I got there in my field, pretty much I ended up building a team, a virtual team of employees, people who worked for me in other cities and states.

00:12:34:20 - 00:12:39:02
Elise Mitchell
And, you know, honestly, that was before virtual or remote was a cool thing to do.

00:12:39:04 - 00:12:39:18
Todd Sullivan
Really. It would have.

00:12:39:18 - 00:12:58:07
Elise Mitchell
Been a necessity for me to build a team of about 10 to 12 folks who worked for me. But I was able to get some of the bigger clients in the region. Walmart Home, you know, Bentonville, Arkansas. Most people know Walmart was right there in our backyard. Tyson Foods, J.B. Hunt, all became clients within just the first few years of my being there.

00:12:58:07 - 00:13:20:06
Elise Mitchell
So not only was I able, as you say, very fortunately, to take my employer, the corporate client, with me as a client, but then I was able to secure some other ones and we began to build the firm. It actually sort of became an entity and was growing nicely. And I threw myself into this work and at the same time we were growing our family.

00:13:20:06 - 00:13:52:12
Elise Mitchell
We had our second child. By then, my husband was busy working his career and Todd, I slipped into a period of life that I think most entrepreneurs would relate to, which is I really became a workaholic. It was it was all I thought about was working, building the company, taking advantage of every opportunity presented to us. I don't think I ever said no or turned down work, even if I wasn't quite sure how we were going to get it done because I thought, Well, I have to take this client up on this opportunity because what if it doesn't come along again?

00:13:52:14 - 00:14:18:02
Elise Mitchell
You know, I'm we're not really to a point of stability. We're still growing and I got to keep it going. And so it really became the focus of my life. And even when I wasn't physically at work, I was mentally and emotionally at work. And it was this sense of it was a bit of desperation. I guess the time when you realize that this is all you really want in your life.

00:14:18:02 - 00:14:47:09
Elise Mitchell
And I, I became a person that I don't think many people liked that much. And it all led to an intervention, if you will, with my family. And what happened was I had a particularly tough day at work where I had taken a couple of my lieutenants because we'd had we had a full time staff by then, and I took a couple of them to lunch and was talking to him about the you know, the team was not performing up to the standards that I had for them.

00:14:47:09 - 00:15:08:06
Elise Mitchell
My expectations were just so very high for myself first, but for everybody else. And I got to the point where I started pounding my fist on the table in this restaurant. And I remember my two teammates just sort of looked at me. They didn't say a word. And we went back to the office and I thought, okay, you know, the message has gotten through.

00:15:08:06 - 00:15:25:23
Elise Mitchell
Now things are really going to get into shape around here. People are going to start performing at the level I expect them to. And I went home that evening and after dinner, my husband sat me down at the kitchen table. He says, we need to talk. And I said, okay, what about he said, I got a call from the office today.

00:15:26:01 - 00:15:50:18
Elise Mitchell
And I said, You did? He said, I did. I said, Elise, we all love you, but nobody really likes you very much anymore. What has happened to you? Oh, are you? And I just sat there and listened to him and I remember thinking it was my turn not to say a word. It was just to listen, because, you know, I knew he was right.

00:15:50:20 - 00:16:16:04
Elise Mitchell
But I said to him, I know I need to change. I don't know how I really didn’t. And it was just this sort of crisis moment of now everything seems to be working pretty well, You know, on the outside, everything looks really good. The company is growing, you know, things are going well. But on the inside, I think it was all kind of falling apart and it was, you know, quite a conversation that went on from there, as you might imagine.

00:16:16:04 - 00:16:35:12
Elise Mitchell
But at one point in the conversation, he said to me, hey, Elise, you know, you and I am not taking a vacation in years together. Just you and I both been building our careers, raising children. He says, Why don't we go away? My first thought was, well, you know, the company can't survive with me on vacation because I had not taken a vacation in years.

00:16:35:13 - 00:16:55:00
Elise Mitchell
He said, I think we need to go away and I think your team would be happy for you to take some time off. And so we began a negotiation around where to go in a moment of insanity. I agreed to get on the back of this motorcycle and take a ten day trip. And I remember thinking to myself, This is not a good idea.

00:16:55:00 - 00:17:12:07
Elise Mitchell
My husband's always loved fast cars and motorcycles and such, but I never I'd never gotten on a motorcycle with him before. Yeah, but I thought he really wants to do this. Maybe I should give it a try, but I thought it's going to be uncomfortable. The view is not very good for the back. You know what? If it rains, you have to wear a helmet so your hair doesn't look nice.

00:17:12:07 - 00:17:32:13
Elise Mitchell
And I'm not going to even be in charge like I'm going to be sitting on the back. All right. But I decided to go. And I will tell you, I got on the back of his bike and I never looked back. I was hooked on motorcycling. It was just the most intoxicating way to travel. The sights, sounds, the smells is just so amazing.

00:17:32:13 - 00:17:52:14
Elise Mitchell
To travel on A bike is very different than riding in a car. And I came back from that trip and I realized I was experiencing something I had not felt in a long time. And it was the sense of just the joy in the journey. Just because when you ride a motorcycle, you ride just to ride, you don't know really ride to go anywhere.

00:17:52:14 - 00:18:10:11
Elise Mitchell
You ride for the experience of riding. And so this is so very different. I've been so results oriented, so very driven in my life, and I sort of coined the term now it's like I've been a destination leader focused on getting to there. And then once I got to there, I wanted to get to the next and the next in the next.

00:18:10:11 - 00:18:30:03
Elise Mitchell
So I the rest of it was just scenery for me. And being on that trip, it really changed how I thought about the experience of living and the experience of of life and how you enjoy the journey. More. And long story short, when we came back, my husband said to me, You were meant to ride. You need to learn to ride your own bike.

00:18:30:05 - 00:18:48:03
Elise Mitchell
And I found myself not long afterwards I had an a Friday night in a motorcycle dealership taking the motorcycle safety course, and there were about a dozen other people in the room with me. And and I remember that evening. You take a written test on that night, and then the next day is the riding course. I remember we were listening to the instructor.

00:18:48:03 - 00:19:09:00
Elise Mitchell
His name was Big Mike. He's just kind of like you think he sounds. He was big guy with black leather vest and tattoos on his arms. And he said at one point that evening, I'm going to teach you something that will save your life. So of course, we all sat up. What is that? He said, The most dangerous place you can be on the road on a motorcycle is in an intersection for obvious reasons, he said.

00:19:09:00 - 00:19:33:18
Elise Mitchell
The next most dangerous place to be is in a turn. And we were like in a turn, like, Why is that a big deal? He said, Well, a turn is where a lot of the hazards in the road will gather like rocks, oil slicks, just anything that would make your bike slide as you're going through the turn, not to mention the trajectory, the turn itself, because either you'll end up sometimes in the ditch on one side or worse yet, in the oncoming lane, neither place you want to be.

00:19:33:20 - 00:19:52:11
Elise Mitchell
And so he said, there is a trick to this. And he said, as you approach a turn, I want you to look into the turn, assess the hazards that are there, make a plan for how you're going to adjust and navigate through those hazards. But you don't stare straight into those hazards. There's actually a name for that. It's called target fixation, he said.

00:19:52:11 - 00:20:20:09
Elise Mitchell
The problem with that is where you look is where your bike will go. So your bike follows your eyes. Yeah. So he said instead you look at the turn, make the plan. But he said, I want you to keep your eyes focused on where you want to end up. He said It's called looking through the turn. And I remember just sitting there and I was so struck by that and I thought, Oh my goodness, is this the greatest metaphor for business in life?

00:20:20:10 - 00:20:39:13
Elise Mitchell
Like how how not to be fixated on the potential hazards right in front of you, how to make a plan to adjust to random, but you never lose sight of where you want to end up? I thought, this is key. How do I be more like this? How do I be a better leader and run my business like this?

00:20:39:18 - 00:21:04:11
Elise Mitchell
How do I run my life more like this? And most importantly, how do I make the journey matter? Not just the destination, but like, how do I really enjoy the ride? And I think honestly, Todd, that's what I was missing. And that that whole idea really became my mantra from that point on. And it helped that visual and that concept really helped me change the way I approached my work.

00:21:04:13 - 00:21:25:15
Todd Sullivan
I love it. I love it. What a story. You know, I didn't want to interrupt you, but there's so much in there that is going to resonate with people because when you're back at work and you are taking every client because you're afraid that it could all go away someday, right? Or that client could leave and that client could leave, and then what are you left with?

00:21:25:17 - 00:21:47:13
Todd Sullivan
And I think what's really impressive is that you built the ability to accommodate that scale, right? You know, people all over the country working for you. And that was something that you had to solve because the talent wasn't local to you. So it gave you, honestly, that ability to to say yes over and over and over, which is making your job harder and bigger.

00:21:47:13 - 00:22:12:04
Todd Sullivan
And I can see you getting really, like, sucked into that and becoming this this different person. As entrepreneurs, our identities get so tied in to those businesses and then. Right, the intervention happens. And I know what it's like to be on a motorcycle. I rode a motorcycle for a while and it's almost indescribable feeling of freedom when you're riding, but your first experience is on the back, right?

00:22:12:04 - 00:22:30:13
Todd Sullivan
So I can imagine there's a lot of trust that you are handing over and now you have to let go a little bit and enjoy the journey, right? That is the job of the person sitting in the back. So I love I love all of these analogies and then you say, okay, I'm going to ride this bike and take a little bit more control.

00:22:30:15 - 00:22:54:21
Todd Sullivan
The analogy of looking through the turn, where do you want to be and enjoying the journey? This is fantastic recapping what you're saying, but it's hitting also home for me. And I know a lot of listeners right, that are starting companies. This is such great advice because it's so easy to say, Oh, you got to enjoy the journey when you're just like fighting for survival.

00:22:54:23 - 00:23:21:00
Todd Sullivan
That's what how it feels right every single day. And it's not only your journey you're providing. You're creating a journey, right for all the people that work with you, that are employees, that are customers, right? We can have incredible impact. So I just I absolutely just just love that story. You know, what I would say I would ask is that we're trying to give lessons, advice to founders who are going to be in the position of selling their business.

00:23:21:02 - 00:23:33:11
Todd Sullivan
So you come back from this trip and you've had this kind of real epiphany. It sounds like. But how long did it take to maybe adjust the way we're running a business to saying, you know what, it's time to sell now?

00:23:33:12 - 00:23:54:19
Elise Mitchell
And it was funny because as I tell people, when you have these sort of moments of realization of how you need to change as a leader, this is so crucial because as a leader goes, so goes a company, an industry, a home, a church, a country. You know, we as leaders have so much impact on other people.

00:23:54:19 - 00:24:16:13
Elise Mitchell
And so changing yourself and your mindset can really change the game for you in every way. And that point, the looking to the turn concept for me was the beginning of several years of me beginning to change myself. I became what I call still very much a destination leader, very focused on the goal. Right? I'm a destination leader with a journey mindset.

00:24:16:13 - 00:24:34:15
Elise Mitchell
So it's this balance between the two of I absolutely I want to accomplish a goal. I want to succeed. I want our company to grow. But I can't be the bottleneck. I can't get in the way. So that means I've got to empower a team around me. I've got to learn how to focus on what only I can do and give the rest away.

00:24:34:15 - 00:24:59:23
Elise Mitchell
And that means you have to delegate and give the good stuff away to other people so that the business can really grow beyond you. And this is kind of where you get to the idea of scaling so the business can't be built solely around you. If you ever think you want to sell someday. And really most of us, I think, have that as an end goal of at some point I know I have to exit the firm if I'd like to be able to monetize and I want to be able to sell.

00:25:00:04 - 00:25:18:14
Elise Mitchell
The firm cannot be built solely around you. You've got to build up a team around you and you have to empower and equip them so that the company can scale fairly significantly. And so that if and when you ever step away, the company can continue to grow and thrive and you can have succession planning and all of those things.

00:25:18:14 - 00:25:39:13
Elise Mitchell
This is why I think entrepreneurs don't necessarily start out thinking this way, but you have this realization to your point of the question. At some years along, you begin to realize, I've got to get out of the way. If this firm is ever going to grow beyond me, I've got to let other people help lead the way. So you begin to share the work.

00:25:39:13 - 00:26:08:21
Elise Mitchell
You begin to empower and equip other people. You motivate them and compensate them in ways that helps you build the firm. And at some point with us, we actually hit this period of rapid growth. And again, I always point out that period of rapid growth came after I changed. Okay? So when I began to let go a little bit and when I began to really bring a team of super smart people around me to help me build this firm was when we hit our stride.

00:26:08:23 - 00:26:30:15
Elise Mitchell
We grew over 500% in a five year period. And the funny part about that was it happened around 2008, 2009, which I know is not the time when most people began to grow. But we think about the clients we had Walmart, Tyson, JB Hunt. By that time we were already working with Procter and Gamble and Hilton and a lot of other really significant, what I call sort of mainstream consumer brands.

00:26:30:15 - 00:26:49:20
Elise Mitchell
We were doing national work for all of these brands, and those were brands that did very well during that time. So we were fortunate enough to be able to grow along with them and that led to some phone calls. And this is where I tell people that the game changes again, which is people were calling us to try to buy us.

00:26:49:22 - 00:27:11:09
Elise Mitchell
I remember thinking, is there like a sign in the yard that I missed that said for sale, call me. And buy my company I was like, If there was a sign, you know, rip it out because I don't think I ever want to sell. At that point when you are experiencing growth and you are seeing scale happen in a sustainable way, you don't want to sell because it's fun, right?

00:27:11:11 - 00:27:27:10
Elise Mitchell
This is what you work so hard to get to. But my aha for people is to think about it. That's the time you really need to think about selling because selling and going through an earnout and all of the things that happen beyond that takes more time than you think it will.

00:27:27:12 - 00:27:27:21
Todd Sullivan
It sure does.

00:27:27:21 - 00:27:54:18
Elise Mitchell
Preparing to leave, Preparing your team for your departure. Pivoting to something else like takes a couple of years. And so you really do want to sell when things are pretty good because you need the time and the runway and the energy to be able to drive growth post sales. So I think this that's a really a key point for people to have to remember is don't wait until you think you're tired or you think you're done having fun.

00:27:54:20 - 00:28:00:06
Elise Mitchell
That's probably not when you're most viable. You're most viable is when you're on your way up.

00:28:00:08 - 00:28:18:14
Todd Sullivan
Elise It's a great point. We use a lot of sports analogies and people listen to the podcast. We'll hear me say this multiple times, but really selling in the fourth or fifth inning or when you've put the runs on the board, right, you've got the lead, the heart of the lineup's coming up. It's a really fun part of the game.

00:28:18:16 - 00:28:35:13
Todd Sullivan
That is a time to really consider it because your buyers are buying that future growth. They're buying those future innings of winning. And I love how you add to it, right? You have to have energy in the tank, right? You can't be at the end of the game ready to say, I got to sit down on the bench.

00:28:35:18 - 00:28:45:16
Todd Sullivan
You have to have that energy to really if you're going to maximize your outcome, right, to perform for the buyer. And so I think that's that's really, really well said.

00:28:45:18 - 00:29:05:10
Elise Mitchell
That I wasn't really ready to sell as you could tell I was like, why are these people calling me? But I also learned another very important lesson, which is to take every conversation. Yeah, it was true. I wasn't returning these calls and my legal team, I had used a fantastic law firm in New York for many years to consult and advise me on many things.

00:29:05:10 - 00:29:21:01
Elise Mitchell
And at one point I remember they called me and they said, Elise, you have to start taking these calls. These people are now calling us to get to you. And we don't want to field these calls. Just take a conversation. You never know what you will learn, even if it is that you don't want to sell. And I was like, Well, you know what?

00:29:21:01 - 00:29:42:01
Elise Mitchell
That's probably true. So I began then taking serious conversations, and it was over about a two year period, maybe a half a dozen or so buyers that were fairly serious about us, that I went down the path some to consider, you know, what was your strategy? What would you do with us? What do you envision for the future of our firm?

00:29:42:03 - 00:30:06:11
Elise Mitchell
And the other big criteria for me is what are your values? What are the people like? Who would we be reporting to? What happens when things go wrong? How do I know that you're going to make things right? And this to me was sort of my checklist, which is what's the strategy? What's the values? There was a number of things on both of those lists, but to me, they both mattered because, sure, the money was going to be good.

00:30:06:11 - 00:30:29:03
Elise Mitchell
The numbers were going to be the numbers, whatever they were going to be. It's really more about what do you want for the future of your firm and for your people and for your clients that you care so much about. You don't want to just hand it over to somebody. You want to you want to steward it in the proper way so that it could help the company go to the next level in a way that maybe we would not be able to do for ourselves.

00:30:29:05 - 00:30:52:22
Todd Sullivan
Yeah, that's fantastic. So you're getting all of these kind of inbound offers, and I would say that for founders today that is getting even more common because there were, you know, a dozen years ago there were 600 private equity firms, now there are 6000 and everybody is looking to buy a business. And we find it as pretty distracting to business owners to have to talk.

00:30:52:22 - 00:31:23:11
Todd Sullivan
Bankers are calling in private equity. Anyone that is profitable growth rate, customer lists, all of that get a ton of attention. And so we tend to give the advice of you should have somebody else fielding all of that noise and then letting you know when these conversations are going to be really impactful, meaningful to you. Now, what I hearing your story, I almost want to adjust that because you're learning what is very valuable about your company to certain buyers, right?

00:31:23:11 - 00:31:47:12
Todd Sullivan
So as you're thinking about positioning the company, you're getting smarter and smarter about how people are valuing how different buyers might value your business. And you ultimately are selling to one of the largest global agencies in the world. So I bet that perspective was really interesting. Were you making adjustments to the business as you were learning what was really exciting buyers?

00:31:47:13 - 00:32:18:07
Elise Mitchell
That's such a great question. I don’t think we made adjustments that I will tell you what you just asked. Maybe think of something that was a huge insight for me at the time, which was it is very distracting to take the call. Yeah, it is. Any time you engage with people, yes, you do learn. But if it goes on and on and on, you end up spending an inordinate amount of your time talking with people and trying to figure out, is this the right buyer for me, unless you have a clear and this is what I was saying, it helps to have your criteria list in mind.

00:32:18:10 - 00:32:40:22
Elise Mitchell
Yeah, how am I going to decide? And having early stage calls might help you sort of come up with your checklist of what it is you're looking for, because we have some wonderful, wonderful offers. But it really wasn't what I thought we needed or wanted. Yeah, So the insight for me was I've got to keep my eye on the ball of building this company and keeping the momentum going.

00:32:40:22 - 00:33:05:13
Elise Mitchell
Or guess what? These conversations are not going to end up anywhere because the growth slows. So you cannot take your eye off the ball and get distracted by M&A activity until you are ready to do a deal. So I would say it's a little bit of both. Early stage conversations, certainly very helpful, but do not spend an enormous amount of time unless you're really ready and you're serious about taking the calls.

00:33:05:16 - 00:33:17:14
Elise Mitchell
And it would help if you had advisors, too, to help kind of shepherd you through the process so that you don't take your eye off the ball of growing your business because that is the number one thing that you have to keep doing.

00:33:17:16 - 00:33:43:18
Todd Sullivan
All right. That's great realization. I love the idea that you could create a checklist if you don't really know what's going to be really important to you, you'll start to learn. You'll ask those questions. And when you have a representative, maybe it's an investment banker in your industry that really knows who's calling, who's serious. If they know what your priorities are, they can kind of gear the conversations towards, Hey, Elise, you need to talk to these three groups.

00:33:43:18 - 00:34:03:13
Todd Sullivan
We think the fit is really, really great. And frankly, I would just encourage entrepreneurs to have those conversations with investment bankers that may be able to filter do that filtering for you, save you a lot of time and it's free. You can engage these people. They're really excited to talk to you and tell you about their industry. I just love that.

00:34:03:13 - 00:34:12:11
Todd Sullivan
So, all right, so you end up with a phone call or did you engage with an investment banker? How did you end up, you know, creating this transaction?

00:34:12:13 - 00:34:31:05
Elise Mitchell
So it was my legal team who said I remember very distinctly sitting in a conference room with them in New York in their offices saying, you know, I think I'm done having conversations. After all these wonderful companies. Talk to us. I'm pretty sure I still don't want to sell. We're very happy it's all going to go just like we're we're going to stay on the course, run it.

00:34:31:08 - 00:34:54:05
Elise Mitchell
And one of them said there's one more person we want you to talk to. Okay, So how is the conversation going to be different? They said, I think this one might be different. And that was when I said. Okay, one more conversation. And of course, it turned out to be the one. So I met Tim Andree, he is 6’11”, played in the NBA in his early career.

00:34:54:07 - 00:35:14:00
Elise Mitchell
He was in the field of marketing and PR as well, and he worked for a company named Dentsu. And Dentsu was one of the four big global holding companies in the global marketing communications space. And I had heard of Dentsu and knew of them, but I didn't know that they were interested in PR. Well, as it turns out, they were globalizing.

00:35:14:00 - 00:35:50:16
Elise Mitchell
They were acquiring other companies in other parts of the world in different spaces creative advertising, media, digital, but they didn't have anything in PR, and so they were looking to create a full service offering. They wanted to have a leading agency in PR to help them build out a much more international offering to clients. And so Tim said, not only do I want to buy your company, but at least I want you to be on my executive team and I want you to help us become a buyer, help us with M&A, help us find other PR firms that would like to become a part of what we're doing.

00:35:50:16 - 00:36:07:14
Elise Mitchell
Help us build out at international offering in public relations. And I thought to myself, this is a very different proposition. And I told him very quickly I don’t know anything about M&A and he said, I have a whole team of people that know about M&A. And he said, but we don't really know a lot about PR and I suspect you do.

00:36:07:14 - 00:36:28:04
Elise Mitchell
And I said, Well, actually I do, yeah. So it became a good match because I realized very quickly they wanted Mitchell, our firm, to stay who we were or keep our brand, our culture, our values are fantastic clients that we had achieve our great talent that we had, but they wanted to help us get to the next level.

00:36:28:05 - 00:36:52:00
Elise Mitchell
So after we sold to them, we opened up offices in New York and Chicago and we began collaborating with some of our international partners in other parts of the world that were part of the the bigger Dentsu family. And it was like the next five or six years. It was very exciting. Lots of highs, lots of lows. But anything like that in life is is going to have lots of different experiences.

00:36:52:00 - 00:37:10:15
Elise Mitchell
But we absolutely leveled up as a company and had bigger and better opportunities to learn from smart peers in other spaces and contribute, you know, and help the company be able to really collaborate much more across countries to serve clients more globally.

00:37:10:17 - 00:37:31:23
Todd Sullivan
It's super exciting that your career takes this next step, right? You have an M&A transaction, but then now you're finding yourself in an M&A role to go out and build further. It feels very similar to, you know, looking through that turn again, like what is going to be, you know, around the turn, where you really going? There must have been fulfilling.

00:37:31:23 - 00:37:54:11
Todd Sullivan
It's very similar to my partner Brian, who built a really big company with three or four other people and, you know, ended up having, you know, over a thousand employees. And in the end, he is running M&A, right? So he's he can really relate to the groups that they're acquiring at the time, seeing that kind of entrepreneurial journey and helping build the organization and in a very different way.

00:37:54:12 - 00:38:09:10
Todd Sullivan
Can you maybe step back when you were going through that M&A experience, were there any learnings that really jumped out? Right. Obviously, there was listening and finding the group that was the right fit. Anything else that jumps out at you that our listeners could learn from?

00:38:09:12 - 00:38:33:09
Elise Mitchell
Yeah, I will tell you this. Maybe this was even more powerful. Of course you need the checklist and strategy, values and all that for me. Help me find the right buyer for us for sure. But I think it was a bigger life lesson that came along after the sale was maybe a year or two in when I suddenly began to realize this, that this wasn't my company anymore.

00:38:33:10 - 00:38:53:20
Elise Mitchell
Now I was still with the company. Of course, I had an earnout and all that, but I had sold 100% of the company to Dentsu and at some point I began to think myself, Oh my goodness, it's really not my company anymore. I'm still the steward of it, right? I'm still responsible for growing it and leading it forward. But I'm not my company.

00:38:53:22 - 00:39:15:13
Elise Mitchell
And that was a very unsettling thought because to be honest, I had pretty much defined my self-worth and my self-identity. Was the founder and CEO of Mitchell Communications Group. Or if you don't fill in the blank to whatever your title is, you see yourself in this way, and so does the rest of the world. They see you in that way.

00:39:15:19 - 00:39:34:15
Elise Mitchell
It's where you get your respect, your strokes, you know, all of the all the blood, sweat and tears you put into building a company. There's so much reward in it, so much gratification. And then you sell it and you're like, oh, my goodness. Like, I don't know who I'm going to be without my company someday, because at some point my earnout will be over and I will leave.

00:39:34:15 - 00:39:52:00
Elise Mitchell
But like, what am I going to do? Then? It was such a shock to me and I will tell you, probably took me a good another year or two to kind of come to accept that I was not my company and that some day I had to walk out that door and who was I going to be then?

00:39:52:02 - 00:40:10:04
Elise Mitchell
And honestly, I think that may be the harder lesson for most founders, why they they think they can't ever bring themselves to sell. It's not because they don't like the idea of monetizing what they build or they don't think it might be exciting to get to the next level, but they really have no idea what they will do post exit.

00:40:10:04 - 00:40:14:01
Elise Mitchell
And I think that is the crucial question to answer.

00:40:14:03 - 00:40:41:17
Todd Sullivan
Yeah, I mean, so many of our guests talk about that, how their identity is tied to the business. Who are they going to be afterwards? Right. Have they lost that identity, how people view them, their own kind of self-worth? And I think, you know, in reading some of your book, there was a line in there that was about not running from something but running to the next adventure or whatever, however you put it.

00:40:41:18 - 00:41:05:14
Todd Sullivan
And I know I've been very fortunate to know what that next thing is, because I always viewed entrepreneurship as a career path. It didn't get too tied into one particular business, but we know entrepreneurs, they really fight that. And what happens is when you're in an M&A transaction, you know it’s the right thing to go and do you start to have this hesitancy like, oh, I'm actually going to go through with this, what's going to happen to me personally?

00:41:05:16 - 00:41:24:06
Todd Sullivan
And we see that struggle essentially at the goal line over and over and over. And then and what that ends up turning into is like, oh, maybe there's a little bit more on the table. Can we get that purchase price up and is just an excuse to delay because they don't know what they're going to do next. We spend a lot of time trying to coach entrepreneurs through that.

00:41:24:07 - 00:41:43:09
Todd Sullivan
So maybe what we could talk about is, you know, your career right now, right. You are giving back in some amazing ways. It is not only doing the speaking, the consulting, and you've written a book and I just I want to be respectful of your time, but maybe you can give us a little bit of what you are doing now and maybe some life lessons.

00:41:43:11 - 00:42:04:09
Elise Mitchell
Yes. Thank you for asking, Todd. So what I do now is I'm an executive coach and consultant. I work largely with founders, people that are like myself that are navigating growth in their company, which is often when you find the playbook that got you here, is not going to get you there and you don't really know what to do next because the company is growing.

00:42:04:11 - 00:42:18:20
Elise Mitchell
I usually people find me at that point, but I also work with a lot of founders who say, I know I need to exit at some point, but I don't know how. I don't know if my company is viable. I don't know what I will do next, all of those sorts of things. So I love doing that work.

00:42:18:20 - 00:42:39:19
Elise Mitchell
I, I feel like it is it is the way I can give back to other people in ways it is very similar to how other people helped me. So I often tell people there's there's really just two questions you need to ask yourself when you come to that point of What am I going to do next? The first question I remember distinctly having this conversation myself.

00:42:39:19 - 00:42:58:19
Elise Mitchell
First question I asked myself was, okay, I don't know what I'm going to do next, but like, when was I happiest in my career? Like in recent years? What was I doing? Who was I with? What was happening in the room, What gifts and talents were? I was was I using? And I would think to myself, and how do I get more days like that?

00:42:58:21 - 00:43:16:08
Elise Mitchell
So first question you ask is when was I happiest? How do I get more days like that? And the second question is, what is my greatest contribution to the universe at this stage of my career? Because in all honesty, you can do a lot of things. So it's not really about what can you do because you could do lots of things.

00:43:16:09 - 00:43:39:21
Elise Mitchell
Go build another company if you want, but what should you do? What should you do? That is the greatest contribution you can make? And I begin to realize, Gosh, you don't build a company from scratch. Sold it. I became a buyer on the other side of the table and I'm planning to pivot to something else that's probably useful wisdom and life experience that other people would want.

00:43:39:21 - 00:43:56:21
Elise Mitchell
I certainly want to do it too, and it's usually uncharted territory for most entrepreneurs because, you know, generally you build one big company once in your life. You might like to build a few times, but most of us build one time and have a big X at one time in our life before we go on to do other things in other ways.

00:43:56:21 - 00:44:17:05
Elise Mitchell
But so you go only only going to do it once. So I remember thinking to myself, I think I need to try to help other people who are going through this experience, because I sure learned a lot, not only in the mistakes I made, but just experiences I had that helped make me wiser, faster, smarter, more grateful, more appreciative of everything.

00:44:17:05 - 00:44:22:06
Elise Mitchell
And so I love what I do now in the coaching and consulting work that I do with founders.

00:44:22:10 - 00:44:45:15
Todd Sullivan
Yeah, fantastic. I love the two questions, right? When are you truly you're happiest? And then how do you give the greatest contribution right to the world? It's a privilege to be able to think like that. I think it's like a real gift and everybody should really try to think that way. I think I heard you once say that this idea of gratitude, when you wake up in the morning, what is that thing that you are grateful for?

00:44:45:15 - 00:45:07:02
Todd Sullivan
And it really could be anything. I think that that's incredibly empowering for people in general. I know like the whole giving back, helping people, I very much relate to what you're doing because it really is a gift to be able to help entrepreneurs through that entrepreneurial journey. And you're doing that today. I do want to kind of touch on your book because I'm able to ask these questions.

00:45:07:02 - 00:45:17:11
Todd Sullivan
I'm learning a lot right from leading through the turn. Can you tell me maybe what you can tell me is like, where can people find you? Where can they find this book? Yeah, let's let's start there.

00:45:17:16 - 00:45:40:00
Elise Mitchell
Thank you. I appreciate you asking. So it's called Leading Through the Turn. I actually happen to have a copy handy here. How a Journey Mindset can help leaders find success and Significance. Leading through the turn, I was fortunate to have a publisher. McGraw-Hill. Do you find it on any of the 80 of the book sites, Amazon or Barnes Noble or any of those?

00:45:40:01 - 00:45:59:06
Elise Mitchell
I also, for all the people who like to listen, I actually recorded my own audio book, which is a whole nother story about how would you hear yourself and your voice? Sort of like, That doesn't sound like me. That's another interesting experience. But I had a lot of fun recording and reading my own story so that it's available on AutoML as well.

00:45:59:08 - 00:46:03:09
Elise Mitchell
People can find me at my website, which is just my name. EliseMitchell.com.

00:46:03:11 - 00:46:16:15
Todd Sullivan
Elise, before we end, I know that stewardship is a big part of kind of what makes you tick, and I'd love to hear how you think about stewardship in your life and other people's lives today.

00:46:16:17 - 00:46:35:05
Elise Mitchell
You know, I remember always thinking to myself at Mitchell, I thought, I really just have a one word job description, which is steward. It is my job as the CEO that I'm supposed to protect my company. I'm supposed to put myself between it in harm's way. I'm supposed to try to think ahead about all the things that could go wrong.

00:46:35:07 - 00:46:51:22
Elise Mitchell
And I always really took that very seriously. And when I sold the company, I wanted to be a good steward of the transaction as well and felt like we were able to do that through the years, then it was funny when I pivoted into what I'm doing now. Part of it was how do you be a good steward at stage of your life?

00:46:51:22 - 00:47:12:13
Elise Mitchell
You don't have a company anymore that you're in charge of it. You're just you're you're consulting. What does stewardship look like? And I had this realization. I thought, you know, I don't think I've been a very good steward of what we have and what my husband and I have. Whatever wealth we've have accumulated, our relationships, our opportunities, our talents, gifts.

00:47:12:13 - 00:47:33:01
Elise Mitchell
And I thought, I've just spent so much time building companies that I'm not really being a good steward of my own life and my own assets. And it was then that I found and joined Tiger 21, which is a peer to peer learning group for high net worth individuals that allows you to really focus on stewardship. How do I how do I manage the wealth that I have?

00:47:33:01 - 00:47:56:10
Elise Mitchell
How do I invest it wisely? How do I navigate family dynamics? How do I think more strategically about philanthropy, what about estate planning? I mean, we had we had a will that we had written back when our son was born, and I hadn't really done anything about it since then. And so to say, I thought I need to be a better steward of what I have and I haven't been paying that much attention to it.

00:47:56:10 - 00:48:18:07
Elise Mitchell
So Tiger 21, became such a godsend to me and really helped me sort of focus my time and attention and getting my affairs in order and thinking more strategically about stewardship in my life and after being in Tiger for about a year and a half, our chair asked me to become a chair. So I. I decided to make the pivot from member to chair.

00:48:18:07 - 00:48:36:14
Elise Mitchell
I'm actually helping to build a Tiger 21 Cohort group. Group number three. We have three groups in Nashville now. I'm building the third group and I love it because it is another chance for me to pass on all that has been given to me. The learnings I have had and how Tiger and my peers in Tiger have helped me.

00:48:36:16 - 00:48:53:03
Elise Mitchell
I want to pour into and help other people who are looking for the same thing. So it's funny, when I was learning to be a Tiger chair, one of the things they asked is, Well, what is your mission for in your vision for being a Tiger chair? I was like, I don't really know except like, how do I help people?

00:48:53:05 - 00:49:23:00
Elise Mitchell
And the more I thought about it, I really felt like I nailed it. When I came up with the idea, I said, I want to help members hone their stewardship skills to embrace the richness of life, whatever that means to them. And I thought because that is the beauty of stewardship at any stage of life is how you manage whatever you have and how you use it wisely in ways that align with your values.

00:49:23:00 - 00:49:33:15
Elise Mitchell
And so that has meant so much to me, and that is absolutely how I approach building my Tiger group and helping my Tiger members because so much was was given to me at least.

00:49:33:15 - 00:49:45:20
Todd Sullivan
Thank you so much. Now, I don't do it every time, but I love this question. I think it's really appropriate. Is there one person in your life that you would like to thank for all your kind of personal and professional success?

00:49:45:22 - 00:50:02:06
Elise Mitchell
Oh, Todd, there are so many people you know, of course, my husband and my children. I always say, and I dedicate my book to them, they are fellow journiers of the best kind because they have been patiently with me through all of this. I never could do it without their support. But, you know, we had so many mentors along the way.

00:50:02:06 - 00:50:26:20
Elise Mitchell
But I suppose if I had to say any one person, it would actually be one team, which is of course the team at Mitchell. I could never have accomplished anything or enjoyed any of the success I've had without such talented, smart, dedicated, passionate people who wanted to be on that team, who could have gotten jobs anywhere. But they chose to be with us.

00:50:26:20 - 00:50:40:00
Elise Mitchell
And I'm still always just so touched by that and honored that they chose to be with us on that journey. They absolutely made the company really great and I will always be grateful to all of them at least.

00:50:40:00 - 00:50:51:07
Todd Sullivan
Thank you for doing this. Inspirational is really what kind of comes to mind sharing that full journey with us. I know I learned a lot and our listeners will learn a lot. Really, Just thank you for being here.

00:50:51:09 - 00:50:54:17
Elise Mitchell
Oh, thank you for having me, Todd. It was truly an honor.

00:50:54:19 - 00:51:16:22
Todd Sullivan
Thanks again for listening to the Cashing Out podcast. For more found her exit stories, please subscribe to the Cashing Out podcast on Apple iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. And please remember ex it was dot com and the Cashing Out podcast are for entertainment purposes only. This should not be relied upon as the basis for investment decisions.