#21 Entrepreneurial Inspiration with Marty Fahncke

Devin's friend Marty Fahncke, Acquisitions Advisor and Founding Partner of Westbound Road, LLC, shares the story of how he went from a long-haired, rock band t-shirt-wearing telemarketer to working on the executive floor in a suit overnight. As his story unfolds, Marty sheds some light on the unknown (at least unknown to Devin) territory of mergers and acquisitions, and how he lets his principles and values guide his actions in this line of work.

Devin and Marty share laughs, lessons, and a look into the life-altering decisions that often come disguised as ordinary moments. Marty’s journey is a testimony to the fact that a simple clue, or God-moment, can pivot your entire career trajectory. No matter what profession or role you find yourself in right now, we’re confident you’ll find inspiration in Marty’s stories and innovative ways of thinking. And if you've ever felt the entrepreneurial itch or considered the leap into the world of mergers and acquisitions, this episode is especially right up your alley.

Guest Website: https://www.WestboundRoad.com

Xero Shoes: https://xeroshoes.com/go/devin

A special thanks to Eggtc. Shawnee for sponsoring this episode!
https://eggtckc.com/eggtc-shawnee

Transcript

Devin Henderson: 0:04

All right, everybody, welcome to the Possibility Mindset Podcast. I'm Devin Henderson, I am your host and I believe that something greater is always possible for you. And let me introduce you to my awesome friend, marty. All right, so that's the informal introduction, right? So I'm gonna give a couple of thanks and then we're gonna talk about the awesomeness of everything that you are.

Marty Fahncke: 0:25

I notice you didn't introduce my last name. I didn't for a reason, because you can't pronounce it. No, I can, I can. I'm gonna play a little game with them about it. Okay, I even okay. So we'll get to it All right.

Devin Henderson: 0:36

well, before we get to Marty's last name, I want to say thank you once again to etc. This is my first podcast in 2024 where I'm actually recording in 2024. So it's awesome that we have this partnership going. They give us this space. They feed us breakfast. How was breakfast? Ah?

Marty Fahncke: 0:51

so good, I'm full. I need to take a nap now.

Devin Henderson: 0:52

Yeah yeah. And you've eaten here before. Yeah yeah, good place, yeah, yeah yeah, and you're sharing with them.

Marty Fahncke: 0:58

You're not gonna say that.

Devin Henderson: 1:00

Wait, should we talk?

Marty Fahncke: 1:01

about what you're used to.

Devin Henderson: 1:02

Yeah, so before Marty knew that the restaurant was called Etcetera, which, by the way, if you don't know, it's like spelled E, like it's based off the word Etcetera, but it's E-G-G-T-C. Etcetera, right? Well, the first time you saw the sign, what did you think the name of it? I thought it was.

Marty Fahncke: 1:18

Ecstasy and I, you know, I mentally put an S in there. So I was like, oh, Ecstasy, that must be a really really good place to eat.

Devin Henderson: 1:25

Is that what brought you in?

Marty Fahncke: 1:26

Sure.

Devin Henderson: 1:27

I was like oh, et cetera.

Marty Fahncke: 1:28

Okay, well, that makes sense too, but I still call it that I drive past here all the time because there's a scout camp actually not far from here.

Devin Henderson: 1:37

That I've been Nash Camp Nash yeah.

Marty Fahncke: 1:41

And I've been a scout leader for seven almost 18 years. So, I drive past here all the time, I've eaten here several times and I still call it Ecstasy in my head, though.

Devin Henderson: 1:47

Okay, so we lost camera there for a second and had to make a switch, but anyway, we were talking about what the moon landing and no, no, we were talking about Camp Nash and how you were a scout leader and how you thought this place was called Ecstasy, anyway, et cetera. Thank you, et cetera. Shani Also want to let you know I've pitched it one time on this podcast. This has been life changing for me. Zero shoes Check it out. Are you familiar with barefoot walking or barefoot style shoes?

Marty Fahncke: 2:13

Only for watching your podcast. Okay, so you saw it. So I saw an episode where you first talked about those. Yeah, I have people who I know, people who wear those things, but I haven't tried it, haven't been into it.

Devin Henderson: 2:21

Yeah, so for me it really has made a difference in just I'm. I just feel I'm not sure I'm developing better muscles in my ankles. My knees are stronger than they've ever been. I feel great. These shoes allow your toes to display because of the white toe box. There's a zero level drop, which is where Zero gets its name, so that you're not, your heel isn't elevated, it's. It's very flexible. The shoes are very light. They're awesome. Go check it out. Zeroshoescom slash go slash Devin Okay. So zero with an X, x-e-r-o. Zeroshoescom slash go slash Devin. Get on there and check it out it. Really it's amazing.

Devin Henderson: 3:00

If you've ever thought about, you know barefoot is good, but you can't go barefoot in the wintertime. Well, they even make winter boots, right, so that, yeah, seasonal. They make fashion shoes. If you want to really get that barefoot simulated walk while you're wearing something on your feet, zeroshoes is the way to go. Zeroshoescom slash go slash Devin. Okay, let's introduce you formally now. Same with your last name, marty. Before I pronounce his last name, I want you to just go to the title of the episode, look at his last name and see how you think you would pronounce it. That's the fun part. Like, how would you say it Because go ahead, pause it right now. Go look at it, come back to us. Okay, I wonder what they're thinking. I'm just going to say it's Fonkey, and the reason I'm thinking of that is because I don't know if this is still in your email signature, but you used to put it phonetically in there Yep, maybe Deer, and then Key, because people must have been pronouncing it wrong, I'm guessing.

Marty Fahncke: 3:56

Every way you could pronounce that. Yeah, how do people say it? So it's weird, because my last name doesn't have enough vowels it's way too many consonants and yet people try to put more consonants in it. So the number one thing that they put in are Frankie or Frana check, or yeah, I've heard Frankenstein, frankenstein, fonkey.

Devin Henderson: 4:15

Funky, you had to just.

Marty Fahncke: 4:17

Yeah, you know, it's a tough one.

Devin Henderson: 4:19

Yeah, so Marty Fonkey, this is Marty Fonkey. So many things to say about Marty. Okay, we're going to start with serial entrepreneur that's one of the terms you gave me. Is that kind of like the serial, anything but serial entrepreneur? You're a big entrepreneur guy. That's what you are. You've done many entrepreneurships.

Marty Fahncke: 4:39

And none of them related to breakfast soup. Yeah, so yeah, I've started and built I don't even know how many businesses now in my life and some of them have been miserable failures and some of them have been very successful and I've just kind of always had that entrepreneurial, been ever since I was a kid.

Devin Henderson: 4:59

Honestly, yeah, that's great man, some people do just get that entrepreneurial fire lit in them early on and no one has to tell them go out and start a business. This way, you just go and you fail, you learn and then you just get up and you do it again. So I love that. So, yeah, many, many businesses, which I want to hear about some of those, because it sounds like a variety of them.

Devin Henderson: 5:17

Marty yeah, he's a business growth strategist, helping entrepreneurs around the world. As a marketer, you've generated over $1 billion in sales. Is that it? That's it, I know. All right, there's still time. There is still time, that's true. And as a mergers and acquisition advisor, he's been involved in nearly $500 million in deals. Yeah, $500 in deals, $500 million in deals. It was the way that I have that written is I didn't write that the way I was going to read it. He loves and here's the cool part he loves to teach and inspire other entrepreneurs, which is one of the great reasons to have you on the podcast today. This is we're talking about the possibility mindset, asking what else is possible. When you ask what else is possible, what greater way than to find a mentor, find an advisor, find a teacher who's going to teach you, invoke this wisdom in you to how can I pursue greater possibilities in my life?

Devin Henderson: 6:23

Because you can cut down years on the curve of learning when you're learning from someone who has failed over and over and over again. So that's who's coming to us today. So, entrepreneurs, buckle in, get ready. We're going to learn some cool things, even if you're not an entrepreneur. You're going to have fun. I've known Marty for a while, so thanks for joining today.

Marty Fahncke: 6:42

Thanks for having me. I am so excited to be here.

Devin Henderson: 6:43

Awesome, man, Cool. And let's talk about what we first met. Was it? What? Won't you tell them?

Marty Fahncke: 6:49

The Toastmasters yeah, yeah, tgif Toastmasters. Yeah, go check them out.

Devin Henderson: 6:53

Yeah, tgif. They're here, local in town. We're hopefully going to have some people from that club as a panel here to talk about what Toastmasters has meant for them. Tgif is the title they gave themselves for that specific chapter in Overland Park, because TGIF stands for Thank God. It's Friday, yup Friday, because Fridays is when we would meet.

Marty Fahncke: 7:14

So pretty awesome. But I was actually in a different club in Utah before moving to Kansas, so I've been in a couple of different Toastmasters clubs and it was absolutely beneficial and critical to my success in a lot of ways, because it's difficult to be successful in business either as an entrepreneur or, as you know, if you work in the corporate world without having good communication skills, and Toastmasters really does a great job of that, and I know you when you were transitioning your business from magician to speaker and key noter. I think it helped you as well.

Devin Henderson: 7:47

Yeah, oh for sure, we were talking about this over breakfast. That that was. That was the whole pivotal moment for me. You know, I met with Brad Plum, one of the guys in the club. Hey, brad and Brad, what up? And he said hey, you know you're doing well with the magician thing, why not try speaking? And the rest is history. You know I went to the first meeting, got hooked, started learning how to develop a message and how to how to speak instead of just entertain, and I mean that's what started it all for me.

Marty Fahncke: 8:14

I was there, I got to see it. It was the beginning before you were rich and famous.

Devin Henderson: 8:18

Yeah, I just I was doing the math and I was like I tell people I've been speaking for 13 years. It's actually been like 15 since I started that because I was in my 20s. I started at 29, which is unreal. So you know, a lot of entrepreneurs do join Toastmasters because they want to improve in their speaking skills, but it's not. It's again not just entrepreneurs, I mean people.

Devin Henderson: 8:38

Companies have their own internal Toastmasters clubs to help their salespeople or people who give any kind of presentations become better at speaking, you know. So what exactly did it do for you? Can you tell us, like I know you said it proved on your communication? Did it do other things that helped you with business and life?

Marty Fahncke: 8:56

I wouldn't be here right now for Toastmasters.

Devin Henderson: 8:58

All right, it brought them to the very top.

Marty Fahncke: 9:01

To, to, to, etc in Shawnee Kansas.

Devin Henderson: 9:04

There you go, well, say no more man, that's it. Well, and then it's funny because we've had some random run-ins over the years. Well, at one point in time when I was still heavily doing, I was still doing a lot of kids parties at the time, and you've forgotten about this now, or I'm wrong.

Devin Henderson: 9:18

No, I'm sorry as a scout leader, you hired me to come and perform for one of your kids. It was just like a Boy Scout picnic or it wasn't a blue and gold banquet, but it was just a picnic in the park and that's gone from his memory. That's how bad the performance must have been that he's like I'm just going to block that out, how old I'm getting. So we had that, and then do you. Okay, let's see if you remember this one, because I know this is true, okay, no-transcript.

Marty Fahncke: 9:42

Oh, yeah, yeah, but where was that?

Devin Henderson: 9:44

I can't remember what city that was in, who knows. Yeah, okay, we wouldn't know yeah but I remember that's when you introduced me to whatever. At the time, your entrepreneurial venture was on some kind of app to help people sleep.

Marty Fahncke: 9:56

Oh yeah, absolutely. It was like the music app. It was Whole Tones to Sleep. It's still out there.

Devin Henderson: 10:00

Yes, Whole Tones. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's one of the businesses.

Marty Fahncke: 10:03

I started actually.

Devin Henderson: 10:04

Okay.

Marty Fahncke: 10:05

So on my serial entrepreneurial journey was yeah, started that from scratch and built that to about $24 million in revenue by the time I wrapped that one up.

Devin Henderson: 10:14

And I think that you sent me like it was just like a file of something to listen to and it did help me sleep at the time, but I need to get back on that.

Marty Fahncke: 10:23

Yeah, that was frequency based music. That was. There's a long story there. That's not necessarily applicable to what we're doing, but it's music that has embedded frequencies and the relief stress helps you sleep those all sorts of great things. I eventually came up with a version because testimonials kept flooding in about how that was helping people's pets. So we actually came up with a pet version. So if you have a lot of times dogs during like 4th of July fireworks time. They get really scared, Like you play that?

Marty Fahncke: 10:51

and your dog will calm right down. So yeah, we came up with a sleep version, a pet version and all sorts. It's a great product.

Devin Henderson: 10:58

Yeah, that's really cool. Is that kind of like a white noise thing? No, it's different than the white noise because it actually has frequency.

Marty Fahncke: 11:08

So think of this let's go back in time 50 years, yeah all right.

Marty Fahncke: 11:13

And you come to my house and I say, hey, devon, I got some great leftovers here. Do you want to eat some leftover whatever? And I say, okay, I'm going to put it in this magic box and I'm not going to put it in the oven, I'm going to put it in this magic box. And the magic box is going to excite the water molecules in the food and the vibration and friction of the excited water molecules is going to heat it up from the inside out and it's going to use frequency waves to do that. And you look at me like what are you talking about? I'm talking about a microwave. So we understand, as human beings like that frequencies can do things right. Your voice has a frequency, this microphone is picking up a frequency and sending it to the camera, and everything has a frequency, and so your cells in your body are vibrating at various frequencies, and so this music.

Devin Henderson: 12:00

I can feel them right now. You're getting me excited.

Marty Fahncke: 12:03

So this music actually has embedded frequencies that, as they're absorbing into your body, can do certain things, including help you sleep and reduce stress. So it's way more than just the sound, it's actually the frequencies doing things.

Devin Henderson: 12:18

Frequency based. Frequency based. Yeah, wow, that's wild man it is, I will tell you when it I'm talking about possibilities.

Marty Fahncke: 12:25

When it first came to me I was like I don't want anything to do with that Is that right, I did.

Marty Fahncke: 12:30

I refused having to do it. They did it. The artist and the partner launched it anyway, without my involvement or not, or because I just said it's too weird. They launched it. They sold like 300 copies at like a launch party. And then they did a survey and they asked them well, what did you think about it? And the testimonials came in and they sent them to me and I was like no way, no way, is this true?

Marty Fahncke: 13:01

I'm aiming like a sleep, better pain relief, claims that you can't make without getting sued by the FDA like cancer, all sorts of I know, just like there's something to this that I'm missing, and so I said, okay, I'm going to look at it. So I looked at it and I said, oh, there's something here, and so I agreed to launch it and I wrote the copy for it. And I remember to this day I was sitting in the parking lot of Vietnam Cafe up in.

Devin Henderson: 13:33

River Market. Oh okay.

Marty Fahncke: 13:36

I remember sitting in the parking lot and I was talking to my copywriter, Jeff, and I was trying to inspire him and I was like, think about what you feel when Darth Vader's music start.

Devin Henderson: 13:47

Okay.

Marty Fahncke: 13:49

And it changes your body, Like if you watch a movie without music.

Devin Henderson: 13:54

it's completely different or jobs.

Marty Fahncke: 13:55

Right. So they use music to create certain things in your body, and it's not just emotional, and I said let's talk about this. So that was the genesis of the copy we wrote, anyway this is why I watched Jaws with the sound off.

Devin Henderson: 14:10

Yeah, because it's not scary. It's just that Jaws is going to eat that person.

Marty Fahncke: 14:14

So I launched it and sold $300,000 on the first day, on Black Friday of 2014.

Devin Henderson: 14:21

Wow, I thought you were saying the black market, no, the black market, yeah. And then went on to sell about $24 million worth of that.

Marty Fahncke: 14:29

Wow, man, that's incredible.

Devin Henderson: 14:30

Yeah, that's fun to jump into. That Now is the reason you were hesitant at first, because you just thought there's nothing here. It was too weird for me to woo-woo. I didn't understand it. But, once.

Marty Fahncke: 14:42

Like I said, once I saw the testimonials from people who actually had used it and what it was doing for them, then I had to go study it and then I realized it was real. I realized, oh okay, this isn't woo-woo, it's true. So you can go to YouTube and look up Soundwave Sand Sculpture. So there's a guy that has these tables and he'll just put sand on it and then he'll play certain music under it and the sand changes shape based on the music and it's beautiful, like snowflakes. It's gorgeous. Look at that. It's really cool. I'm like, oh well, music does things.

Devin Henderson: 15:18

Sounds do things, frequency do things.

Marty Fahncke: 15:21

So I studied it pretty aggressively and then they were using 528 hertz actually to clean oil off of oil spills and actually playing this sound frequency and it breaks up and dissolves the oil. When the gulf, when the gulf oil still happened several years ago and they were using frequencies to break up the oil, so okay, this is real. So once I understood it was real, then I agreed to market it and you know, here we go.

Devin Henderson: 15:44

Well, it just makes you think of how faith works. Like the wind blows, you don't really believe in the wind until you see the leaves moving right. Right, and then with the sand and the frequency it's like, and you were skeptical at first, like eh, but then when you see the results, that's what makes you go. I'm a true believer now, so I like that whole demonstration of faith. That's awesome, man. Thanks for sharing about that. That's cool.

Marty Fahncke: 16:03

There's a planning on it, but there we go. I know, I know.

Devin Henderson: 16:06

Well, I have a couple more fun fact things before we get into sort of like how the possibility mindset has really fueled your you know career as an entrepreneur and your different ventures. A couple of things. We were having breakfast and he mentioned he had grandkids. This guy's a grandpa. I didn't even, I didn't even know.

Devin Henderson: 16:21

And I was this young handsome person, and so I was like I don't want to ask you more about that right now because I want to save that for when we record. And I said that's the problem with having breakfast before you record is that you don't want to, like, get too deep because you want to save it for the conversation. But then he goes. But then you also discover things that are good for topics and, case in point, I also learned you are a motorcycle guy.

Marty Fahncke: 16:40

I didn't know that either about you.

Devin Henderson: 16:42

So tell us about your motorcycle and how you became. Do you have the leather? Oh, yeah, do you beat people up.

Marty Fahncke: 16:48

No, no. What's the motorcycle lifestyle look like? Yes, the Vietta people. No, I don't beat people, but I do go to Biker Brothers. Okay, tell us about that life. So you know possibilities, right? I wrote a motorcycle as a kid. I actually got a motorcycle as a graduation present when I graduated high school.

Devin Henderson: 17:06

You got mom and dad. I don't remember motorcycle yeah yeah, yeah.

Marty Fahncke: 17:10

I've been given my mom and dad both crap about that recently, though, because my motorcycle was in Phoenix, arizona, and I lived in Salt Lake City at the time, so it was like I don't know a thousand miles away, and my dad literally like goes congratulations, you know, I'm giving you a motorcycle, and it was one of his that he had had before, and I don't know why it was in Arizona. I still don't know why. Okay, but you got to go get it.

Marty Fahncke: 17:33

So I kind of ride with a friend and then I wrote a thousand miles Like I'm 18 years old, I'm riding a thousand miles on the motorcycle and this is not like a motorcycle you should be doing a thousand miles on. And I had to go up over Flagstaff and I got. It was in June and I hit with a freak snowstorm.

Devin Henderson: 17:47

So here I am, I'm 18 years old.

Marty Fahncke: 17:49

I don't have a clue what I'm doing. I'm doing a thousand mile motorcycle ride in the snow and I'm like what were my parents thinking? Like you know, just here you go. And then so it was. It was crazy, but I wrote a motorcycle for several years and then kids started happening and think of them like.

Devin Henderson: 18:07

Well, you know.

Marty Fahncke: 18:07

I'm probably shouldn't do things that are super dangerous.

Devin Henderson: 18:11

Yeah, I don't even get on ladders. I mean, you know, I'll alone be riding motorcycles.

Marty Fahncke: 18:15

Yeah, but my kids are grown now, and so I started riding again a couple of years ago, and I'm proud that I actually Caution to the wind, baby.

Devin Henderson: 18:23

Literally You're like forget it.

Marty Fahncke: 18:25

Who cares? And I ride year round, so I there's not a month of the year that I've missed.

Devin Henderson: 18:30

Really.

Marty Fahncke: 18:31

I started riding like three or four years ago.

Devin Henderson: 18:33

You would ride it out in this weather. No, what is it like? Negative eight today? Negative eight today, and no, I would not. But where do you cut the line? Where's the line? You won't go out.

Marty Fahncke: 18:41

Well, that depends.

Marty Fahncke: 18:42

So, in general, the line on the tent doesn't matter if I if it's, if I haven't ridden that month, I have to ride. But I just did a New Year's ride with I'm America, a member of the American Legion writers, and so we did a Legion ride on New Year's Day. They have an annual ride, yeah, and I think it was 30, I think about 30, well, no, it was just below freezing. I think it was 29 when we left in the morning and it was like 36 something along the way back. Wow, but yeah, so so I'll ride below freezing.

Devin Henderson: 19:11

Nice, I've got chaps and you know all the, all the things and yeah, but yeah, chaps and chapstick, that's all you take with you.

Marty Fahncke: 19:19

The only thing I won't write in now because of my early experiences in the snow. I won't write in the snow because that's just, that's just for. But yeah, no, I write, I write and I'll write cross country. I wrote last summer. I wrote all through Colorado and over to Utah and back through Wyoming and really, really gorgeous ride. And then before that I wrote out to the summer. Before that I wrote out to Cheyenne, wyoming, for Cheyenne frontier days and saw Garth Brooks and Ned Ladoo and I'm bringing that up because we may have a story later that involves Ned's dad, chris Ladoo.

Devin Henderson: 19:49

But I don't know, I don't know, I don't know if I'm going to tell that story or not. So we'll see. Well, and I don't know how much you're going to get into this, but you've mentioned Utah a few times this morning. What took you? Where did you start? And am I jumping the gun on your story? I don't know. Yeah, so I was born in Utah.

Marty Fahncke: 20:03

Yeah, I've moved around several times since then and lived in California, lived in Washington, other places, but I moved from Utah to Kansas City 17 years ago almost 18 years ago, because my son, one of my sons. I've got five kids. One of my sons is deaf and the Kansas School for the Deaf here in LA is one of the best deaf schools in the country.

Devin Henderson: 20:25

I've performed there. Did you know that I did, I did? You weren't there, so I was like do you remember that one? But yeah, during the snowstorm actually one time, really Okay.

Marty Fahncke: 20:34

So your act would be great for that, because it's so visual it was fun, Well, I remember.

Devin Henderson: 20:38

so yeah, they had an interpreter there for me Sure.

Devin Henderson: 20:41

So this was my first time performing for a deaf crowd, so I would say the line kind of wait for the interpreter, but it was difficult because it wasn't just words coming across. They had to watch her and then come back to me to watch the visual thing I was doing with the trick. So I was just aware I was like I'm going to go real slow so that they have the time to go back and forth. Now I probably wouldn't have given them enough credit. They're probably like speed it up, fella, you know, because they can probably take in more than I realized and with the proper training I probably could have been more effective, but they seem to love it. I mean, this was like you know forever.

Marty Fahncke: 21:13

This was like what would they love You're Devin Henderson. What would they love you? Come on.

Devin Henderson: 21:17

Thank you.

Marty Fahncke: 21:17

I didn't want to say it, but yeah, I'll say it for you, okay. So Utah and then you moved here, so we moved here. We were going to stay until my son graduated, but he's 25 now, so apparently I like it around here.

Devin Henderson: 21:30

Yeah.

Marty Fahncke: 21:31

I was heavily involved in the in scouting, which is really strong in this part of the world, and made a lot of good friends. And here I am.

Devin Henderson: 21:39

But it was the Kansas school for the deaf. That, initially. That's what brought you here. Wow, okay, awesome. I wonder how many schools like that there are around the country and this, yeah, anyway, that's, you know, there's a lot of schools around the country and we looked all over.

Marty Fahncke: 21:52

We went to Oregon, looked at Indiana, florida, looked at a couple in California and this was. This was the one. It was the right move, awesome.

Devin Henderson: 22:00

I feel like so far this is just fun facts and background, but it's like this. So far that's been a great podcast. We could just quit here, but I feel like we're just getting started. Tell us about your, your grandkids. You have how many grandkids? I have six grandkids Awesome man.

Marty Fahncke: 22:14

What's it like being grandpa? It's the best. It's so much better than being a parent.

Devin Henderson: 22:17

That's what I hear.

Marty Fahncke: 22:17

It's so much better.

Devin Henderson: 22:18

What's? What's the other thing? You got a long time to go, yet.

Marty Fahncke: 22:21

But can you imagine 20 years from now?

Devin Henderson: 22:24

how many grandkids you're going to have Holy.

Marty Fahncke: 22:26

I know how do you know, with seven daughters, you're going to be yeah, yeah, it's going to be awesome. No, it's fine, you, you, you, you sugar them up, you get them all hyped up and send them home. Yeah, man, and no, it's good. I've got some here in Kansas City, I got some in Utah, I've got one in California and and visit, visit as frequently as I can. So very nice, yeah.

Devin Henderson: 22:46

Well, okay, let's go back now. Let's actually start the podcast. Ladies and gentlemen, okay, marty Fonkie, hi, when I know you from Toastmasters and I see you here and there, I don't get the whole story, but I just know that Marty's one of these mysterious people Because when you would speak at Toastmasters, you would just come up with here's what Twitter means in my life right now and you would do all these whatever you were working on at the time, and I'm like who is this guy? I can't define him, I don't know what to call him. So you're going to help us figure that out and how the possibility mindset has played into your life and advanced you. But you started.

Marty Fahncke: 23:21

If it makes you feel any better. My mom still doesn't know what I do for a living. Well, and that does. You don't keep doing internet things.

Devin Henderson: 23:26

An internet thing, the internet thing. Guy, 30 years ago you started as a telemarketer, right? Is that a good place to start? That's a great place to start at the beginning. At the beginning, let's do it.

Marty Fahncke: 23:38

Yeah, so way back in the olden days, before the internet existed, there used to be lots of TV commercials on the air and they'd be selling everything from Slices and Dicers to Elvis's 68 Comeback Record, to jewelry or whatever else, and back then you'd call a toll-free number. Operators are standing by. You're probably not old enough to remember that.

Devin Henderson: 23:59

I remember the there's a kid maybe. Yeah, yeah, I was prank calling people and I was pranking you, did you probably?

Marty Fahncke: 24:05

So I was one of those operators that was standing by and it was a huge call center, Thousands of employees, hundreds of these cubicles. It was just a factory and minimum wage which, at the minimum wage at that time, was $3.35 an hour. And I was a young, starving family man. I married very young and I had my first child very young. And I'm looking around going. I am not going to be able to provide for my family $3.35 an hour, but I'm here because this is what I have. So one day I was sitting there and I'm taking calls and I'm taking orders and at that time there was an exercise machine called Soloflex that was really popular and those things sold for $1,000 just to make that.

Devin Henderson: 24:52

And was that sort of like the Bowflex, but the precursor to. Bowflex yeah.

Marty Fahncke: 24:59

And so there was a stop smoking program that we would sell. That I loved. I had an honor selling that because it worked. Like literally, people would call us crying afterwards. I bought it and it worked.

Devin Henderson: 25:10

And I stopped smoking finally.

Marty Fahncke: 25:11

So some of the stuff we sold was really good stuff right.

Devin Henderson: 25:14

Just curious about this no smoking thing. Was it a CD? It was a PIL CD's.

Marty Fahncke: 25:20

And I can't remember. I was 30 years ago. Give me a break. I don't even remember why I hired you to come talk to my scouts, but anyway, yeah, it was a whole program. It was called Cigarast. I don't remember the name of it, cigarast, it doesn't exist anymore. Yeah, cigarast. So I'm sitting there and I'm like, ok, I just got off a call and I sold something else, like a piece of fitness equipment, something and I was like man, I started adding up and I realized that in the past hour I had sold $10,000 worth of stuff and I had made $3.35. So I'm like there's a big gap here between this and this. How do I get my hands on some of that? And it wasn't because I was greedy, it's because I need to take care of my family right.

Marty Fahncke: 26:08

So I'm like somewhere between what I'm making and what's over here is $9,996.35 or $0.65.

Devin Henderson: 26:19

You did that all in your head. Well, I got it wrong, so I said OK.

Marty Fahncke: 26:22

Who's making all this money? So I started looking. I said, ok, the people who manufacture and sell these products and put the ads on TV are making all this money, so I want to be one of those. How do I get there? I don't know, I have no idea how I'm going to get there, but I've got to figure this out. So I started looking around. I said, ok, what's a stepping stone to there? And I started looking around and at my company 1,000 employees, huge building. I looked around and said who's making good money here? Who seems to be having a great time and enjoying it? Who?

Devin Henderson: 26:52

likes their job right.

Marty Fahncke: 26:53

And I looked around and it was the sales department of the account executives who actually went and sold the services to those end users. So I'm like they've got it going on. I want to get there. I need to get where they are because they drive nice cars and wear nice clothes and seem to have enough money to support their families. I got to get there. I don't know how I'm going to get there, but I'm going to get there. So the next thing I know they opened up a division to service what at that time was the very first home delivered premium pet food. It was a carnation company that came or carnation said we're going to sell this home delivered premium pet food, which home delivery pet food was not existent. It was the very first. And they said we need people to help take the calls on them. I'm in whatever, because that's getting closer to the end people who are making the $10,000 an hour.

Marty Fahncke: 27:46

So I jumped right in and I said I'm in. They said, ok, come on over. And so people would call in. They'd get a free sample. And then my job was to call them back and say, hey, did Fifi like the free sample? Can we send you some more? Can we put you on a subscription program? And all of this was completely new and innovative at the time and I became very quickly the number one salesman. There were probably 80 of us or something and I was writing birthday cards to cats and dogs and sweet talking old ladies. But I believed in what I was selling.

Marty Fahncke: 28:19

I knew that the product I was selling was a premium quality product and I knew that the service I was providing, which was delivering it to their homes, was a huge benefit, because a lot of people can't lift an 80 pound bag of dog food or, if it's wet food, a case of 24, that's a 10, right.

Marty Fahncke: 28:36

They've got to drive to the store and at that time premium pet food wasn't available at the store so you can only get it from your vet. So you'd have to go to your vet, get premium food, load it in your car, haul it home, pay a fortune for it, and this was cost effective. I felt good about myself, knowing that I was selling something that helped people and pets. So I'm just cranking away and cranking away at it and I'm just doing the best I can do For probably six months. One day and they had on the hallway outside our room they had like salesmen of the week and salesmen of the month and all this kind of stuff and my name is like on 80% of those plaques.

Marty Fahncke: 29:15

This lady named Opal Singleton and I'm going to talk about her later too. But Opal Singleton, who was the number one corporate sales person there she was the number one, that was her account and she had other accounts. She'd sold tens of millions of dollars for the services, for this call center services, and she was walking down the hall thinking I really need to get some help, like I need to get like an assistant or some sort of help, and out of the corner of her eye. She was saying my name, marty Fonkie, marty Fonkie, marty Fonkie, and she literally stopped and looked at the wall and goes this guy might know something.

Devin Henderson: 29:54

She's like who is Marty Frankenstein, right and Marty Frankenstein?

Marty Fahncke: 29:57

So I probably just said. So she walks in the room and the supervisor says who is Marty Fonkie? And she's like, yeah, he's over there. Would you be interested in coming upstairs to the corporate offices and doing some work for a day and seeing if you'd be interested in working up there? I'm like, would I? Heck, yeah. So I literally put my headset down and followed her upstairs and she told me what she needed and what kind of things had to do. And I was just an assistant, I was just an administrative assistant and I worked for her for half a day. But I was like this is it? This is my shot. I'm on the upstairs, I'm at the executive level, I'm a nobody, but I've got to figure out how this works. And so at the end of the day, 5.30 comes along and she goes would you be interested in coming back tomorrow? And I'm like, heck, yeah. Now keep in mind, at the time I was wearing ripped jeans, a Van Halen t-shirt and I had a long hair. I had a mullet.

Devin Henderson: 31:05

The 80s. I want some pictures.

Marty Fahncke: 31:06

The 80s, that's awesome.

Marty Fahncke: 31:08

So she says would you be interested in coming back tomorrow? And I said I would. And she kind of looks at me and she kind of looks me up and down. She doesn't say a word, she just looks me up and down. Well, I'm on the executive floor where everybody's wearing suits, so I leave, I get a haircut and I go to the secondhand store and I bought a suit and I showed up the next morning early and I was standing outside her office door when she got there and she looked me up and down again. She never said a word. She looked me up and down again and just kind of nodded and that led to a career.

Marty Fahncke: 31:52

We eventually closed Direct TV. We handle all their customer service. That was a $300 million account as a team, her and me and Brett. But just thinking about possibilities, I knew that was my ticket, that was my shot and I was like and I had friends, I kind of hung out with a rough crowd and I'm not cutting my hair for anybody. I was like no, I'm cutting my hair for my family. I know that I can't dress like this and look like this and work in this environment. And she never said a word. But her eyes told me OK, you can come back tomorrow, but you probably ought to clean up.

Devin Henderson: 32:26

And amazing, without saying a word. What wisdom is there to let you figure it out for yourself.

Marty Fahncke: 32:31

Right, yeah Just the look.

Devin Henderson: 32:34

I mean already the possibility mindset is written all over this story. Going back to the call center and seeing that discrepancy between you're making minimum wage versus, well, some people are making $10,000 off of what I'm selling, I think a lot of people may not have the awareness to say, wait, to see that first of all, and then to ask what else is possible, which is what you ask when you have a possibility mindset. What else is possible? Can I get more of that? And why? To feed my family, just to support them better. So I love how you had the good intention behind it. Like you said, it wasn't greed, you just want to provide so and then it just kept going door after door. What else is possible? What else is possible? She asked me to come up there. What else is possible? Well, how can I look better, how can I succeed more if I'm to come back for day two? And you act on that. Right, that's amazing. So then, yeah, what from there? Where did you go.

Marty Fahncke: 33:25

So from there, she basically said you're a kid, you don't know anything, which is true. I really just read constantly, study constantly. And so she had a Wall Street Journal subscription, all these subscriptions, all these newspapers and magazines. One of my jobs was to voraciously read everything Again this pre-internet Read everything. And she had a list of target companies that she wanted to go after. So if I saw anything about any of those companies, I would cut it out and put it on her desk. Well, about two weeks after I started working with her, there was a complaint file against me, because all I did was sit at my desk with my feet up reading and somebody literally hey, that new guy you hired, he's terrible, like.

Devin Henderson: 34:08

Ollie does his sit. Funkeys over there are reading yeah, I do.

Marty Fahncke: 34:10

And she's like that's literally the job I gave him and that's what I need him to do, because he's critically analyzing media to find me opportunities to go sell our services. And the vice president had called her in like, hey, I'm hearing some stuff. And she told the vice president, just let me do my job. I'm the number one person here. I sell more than any five people combined. I know what I'm doing and I know what he's doing. And he's doing what I told him to do, because you can't be successful without knowledge, and so he's getting knowledge. So back off.

Devin Henderson: 34:45

Wow, that's so awesome. She had your back on that and she knew what she was doing. What are you looking for when you're sourcing? Like you're looking for ad spots, or, oh, this would be our bio.

Marty Fahncke: 34:56

Like people who read this magazine buy pet food, I mean at that time, it was who's launching a new product or who's got some new initiative or who's having a recall? Like potentially a recall, because we would handle recalls Like you got to call in and get your product. So just a clue. You're just looking for clues. Oh, they might need call center services which is what I was selling at the time.

Marty Fahncke: 35:21

So you're just analyzing any little opportunity and then we'd go and say hey, we heard you were doing this or that. Our biggest day ever at that company was the San Francisco earthquake, which was, I think, in 1989.

Devin Henderson: 35:36

During the World Series. During the World Series. Yeah yeah, I remember that I was watching that game.

Marty Fahncke: 35:40

Then the candlestick park was going like that and right after that and of course bridges were collapsed. It was pretty bad. Right after that the president of the United States got on and said the thing you can all do to help right now is to call the Red Cross and donate. And then he gave the Red Cross his toll-free phone number. Guess who? Those calls went to Us and we got annihilated. We literally got millions of calls. Yeah, it was crazy when the president of the United States and at that time this was still back, when there was only a few TV channels, everybody was just watching TV, because it was so crazy that earthquake.

Marty Fahncke: 36:16

And so then he gets on there. Everybody called right now and it was like millions of calls, so we got bombed.

Devin Henderson: 36:22

George Bush senior? I think it was senior. Yeah, it was George Bush senior. And were they donating? Well, thanks, man. Were they donating blood money, bows?

Marty Fahncke: 36:29

It was money, not blood money, but money.

Devin Henderson: 36:31

Comma money.

Marty Fahncke: 36:33

Punctuation matters too. It does. That's a problem with listening, right? Well, it was money at the time because, again, there were collapsed bridges and still at that time there were still people buried under rubble and stuff like that. So yeah, that was a pretty intense time.

Devin Henderson: 36:52

Now was Opal coaching you on how to find these opportunities, or was she like, hey, figure this out?

Marty Fahncke: 36:59

No, she was telling me what to do and what to look for. But that was the start. So from there then I looked at it. I still had that goal. I was like it's the people who come up with these great ideas, these great inventions or whatever and then sell them on TV. Those are the ones really making the big bucks. And so, and I still had that goal, and so I was working with them now and we were selling them our services. They were our clients, but I was still wanted to be them, and so I worked through a long thing Again, that possibility, I want to be over there to what. Eventually? I was on that side of things. I was working with the inventors and working with the creators and helping them bring their products to market and putting them on TV and QDC. And then the internet came around and I was the very first person to ever put a URL on an infomercial Really, which, at the time right here.

Devin Henderson: 37:49

I know it's crazy. Why are you funkin' people?

Marty Fahncke: 37:50

Yes, dating himself yet again.

Devin Henderson: 37:52

It's just how old he is. Wow, like URL on an infomercial.

Marty Fahncke: 37:54

So at the time, the infomercial space, they were all like no way, people call, they order. We have scripts to upsell them. It's a controlled environment. There's no way we're gonna put a website address, a www address, on there and let them go off into the wild and we can't control. It was so interesting the fear that people had about. No, I'm not gonna do that.

Devin Henderson: 38:20

It's probably like the way people feel about AI today. Ai everybody, yeah, AI is a whoa.

Marty Fahncke: 38:24

Yeah. And this was when the internet was still maybe a fad. Yeah, and I was like no, I'm like no, seriously, people are fad, maybe it still is fad.

Devin Henderson: 38:32

Maybe it's just a long term fad. It's gonna be a really long fad.

Marty Fahncke: 38:35

So people? So I was hired by a very visionary CEO who did a couple of different things, taught me a lot, but one of the things was like well, we don't know until we try, let's go do it. Yeah, yeah, nice. So we consolidated with a couple people and we put it out there and it worked. It worked great, because, duh, of course it worked. But it's weird to think that back then people were afraid of it. They were afraid of it.

Devin Henderson: 39:01

Where does risk play into this? When is it too big of a risk? Because so many organizations today are risk averse for good reasons a lot of times. But when is it okay to? When does a calculated risk become too much of a risk? How do you write that out In that?

Marty Fahncke: 39:18

case. I mean we put it on an infomercial that was probably doing a million dollars a month, let's say, and we probably bought. I think we bought and we were buying. Let's say, let's say we were buying $100,000 a month in media time. I think we put $10,000 of that into spots with the URL and let's put it out there and see what happens. And what do we think happened? People went to it and they bought. And so we're like, oh well, that was a good risk.

Marty Fahncke: 39:45

And then we and it was crazy because at that time most infomercials ran on the weekends really aggressively over nights and then Saturday mornings and Sunday mornings was a key time for infomercials and so our call centers we're super staffed up we had tons of calls on Saturdays and Sundays. When I put the URL out there, we got most of our orders on Mondays. I was like, wait, a minute, why is that? Well, I went back. Not only did I put an, put a URL on there, I would put videos, snippets of the infomercial itself, to download. There wasn't streaming. Then this is I mean, this was four years before YouTube existed, so you could go to the website and you could download bits of the infomercial. So I put like the kind of the main pod of it and then the call to action and the testimonials and you could download. And what I found out was at that time only about 30% of the United States had broadband, so 70% went in a dial-up.

Devin Henderson: 40:38

So when did they get to work? Exactly, exactly.

Marty Fahncke: 40:42

So, they literally were writing down the URL and they'd go to work and they'd watch the videos and then they'd order. Why is, all of a sudden, all these orders on Monday? We don't even have an airing on Monday, because they it was so unique.

Devin Henderson: 40:52

Dark ages man, it was so dark ages.

Marty Fahncke: 40:55

But it was so that curiosity effect, people like, like and watch a video. And this was new, this was people you won't watch it, and so they. But they didn't have broadband and you know so.

Devin Henderson: 41:04

And they probably watched the whole video as opposed to now. Right, I'm just thinking no, no, no.

Marty Fahncke: 41:09

We couldn't do the whole video because it was the file size was too big, Even a few people.

Devin Henderson: 41:13

What I mean is the whole, at least what you posted, the whole thing whereas now you watch a minute of a YouTube video and you're like onto the next one, right?

Marty Fahncke: 41:19

Right.

Devin Henderson: 41:19

Because everything's too available, and then it was like this goal.

Marty Fahncke: 41:22

Oh, yeah, watch this.

Devin Henderson: 41:23

I can't wait till Monday morning to come watch this clip. And you're going to, you're going to take it all in. And it was some exercise machine, right, they're just watching, yeah.

Marty Fahncke: 41:30

What I learned, though because I did have enough presence of mind to put analytics on all of this was that the the I could tell what they watched before they actually ordered, and overwhelmingly it was the testimonials Okay.

Marty Fahncke: 41:43

And that's when I learned how powerful testimonials are in marketing. I already kind of knew that, but like it really drove and I was like, wow, okay, they watch this, and then they watch that, and then they watch the testimonials and then they click the buy now button. Okay, I was like, oh, testimonials are important, so I use testimonials for all of our marketing, for all of our business.

Devin Henderson: 41:59

I'd love to pause your journey right there on testimonials, because people have mixed feelings about testimonials. From what I've heard, I use them on my website. Others I mean everyone uses testimonials. I use a lot of video testimonials as well, which I kind of feel like is a notch up because you're getting the emotion, the real thing. You know you're getting like in the I like. I like to take testimonials on my camera. I'm on my phone right after the keynote when the energy still.

Devin Henderson: 42:22

I'm like oh my gosh, we just had Devon, this was so fun Rather than in their office later they'll. Some people say I'll, I'll send you one later because I like to think about what I'm going to say and it's like we had Devon Henderson. He was a blast and it's like that's not really going to sell. But I think a lot of people see testimonials as contrived and that people wrote the testimony because they felt obligated. So do you have anything to say about the power of it or the lack of the power.

Marty Fahncke: 42:47

Okay, you just say you're just 100% testimonials all the way yeah, it's the way to go. It's like. It's like when people do market research and they will how much would you pay for this item? And people, well, I'd pay that much. And then you put it to market and that's like, oh, that's not really what they'll pay. People think they they know something, but they don't. They don't really right. They think that testimonials are contrived, but they aren't realizing how much of their decision making process of anything has to do with reviews and testimonials. Even though they think they're contrived, they're still believing it.

Marty Fahncke: 43:20

I suppose Chaldini's principles and influence. I don't know if you're familiar with that, but everybody should read that book, by the way, influenced by Dr Robert Chaldini. And it's okay the influence Influence by Dr Robert Chaldini. Okay, highly wrecked. Anybody should read that book. Okay, and it talks about the principles of influence and there's there's sort of, but one of those is called social proof. And you you really lack the ability to communicate a message effectively without that piece in there, the social proof piece.

Devin Henderson: 43:52

And I think I'm I'm more likely to trust a testimonial if there's bad ones and good ones mixed in, you know rather than just going to like a speaker website.

Devin Henderson: 44:00

What are we going to do? We're going to put our best on there. Now, sometimes in the podcast, I like to share some of some like helpful criticism that I get because I do a survey at the end of my keynote. So I like to be honest about. This is what someone said. I missed the mark a little bit with this person, but that's that's good for me, because I'm going to correct that, you know so. I don't want to hide that, but you know we're going to put our best stuff out there, but more of like. You know, when you go to Google reviews or Reddit or whatever, you can trust the good when you see the bad, but the good people will be like no, no, no, dude, this was amazing Cause it's not going to land well with anybody anyway, and I think it's. I think it just there's more of a trust level there when you see both sides.

Marty Fahncke: 44:37

Yeah, I agree.

Devin Henderson: 44:38

Anyway, I'm just, yeah, okay, so, so, anyway, the testimonials. That was. That was rocking, for you. Put the URL on the information for the first time. Which, by the way, who's the oxy clean guy? That Billy, billy Maze. You have a Billy Maze. Look and feel you could have been the one giving so the information, the picture has been lost.

Marty Fahncke: 44:57

I've been looking for it for several years. I don't know where it went. I have a picture of me with Billy, with arms around each other, and we look like pretty similar to the same beard.

Devin Henderson: 45:07

I see theorists would say he's sitting right, I even have.

Marty Fahncke: 45:10

I had on a blue shirt that that mashed his and and so oxy clean was actually one of my clients. Well, that's the product name, but Orange Glow International was the name of the company that created oxy clean. That oxy clean, orange glow and kaboom were the three big brands and they were. They were on my clients for several years until they got bought by a church in Dwight. But I knew Billy pretty, pretty well before he passed away Great guy Okay, great, okay, I don't know.

Devin Henderson: 45:37

I jumped ahead. I jumped ahead several decades. I know We'll be talking about this.

Marty Fahncke: 45:39

Oh, I know, okay, so, so, so, visionary CEO. So I'm working for this visionary CEO and he's like go put a URL on an infomercial, let's see what happens. And we, we did and it worked well, and so I'm doing. I'm running an internet business, one of the very first successful internet e-commerce businesses. Again, I'm going way back 20 something years and we were also wholesaling our products out to Target and Walmart and Kmart at the time and Sears and whatnot. We had a lot. I did a lot of fitness and home exercise equipment and so. But we also hold sell our products to some online retailers. And there was one online retailer in particular who sold our products and they were out marketing me and they were. They would get to the search engines more aggressively than I would. They had at the end and they were, and so I'm like they're selling the same thing I'm selling because we wholesaled it to them. I've got more margin because I'm the manufacturer and yet they're somehow able to acquire customers like better than we are.

Marty Fahncke: 46:42

And so it was really frustrating and I had a good team and I'm a I'm a good marketer, my team's good marketers and we're doing well. But I can tell these guys keep bumping into to where we are and I'm like man, they're really frustrating me. And so I went to the CEO and I told him man, this is what's happening. I said we need to stop selling our product to these guys. And he's like, well, they're selling a lot, like, yeah, but they're, they're selling out from underneath us right Right.

Marty Fahncke: 47:03

Right, well, that's a good point, cause then we're not building the customer database, and we're not, you know so and he's like, well, why don't you go out and buy them? I hadn't thought of that Now. I had already had some experience in Mergers and acquisitions before that, because I had, before that time, I had built a company and sold it for a million and a half dollars. So I knew that this buying and selling of businesses existed, but I hadn't yet put the possibility mindset on it, right. So I just kind of like, well, what do you mean? He goes, go, go call him up, see if they want to be acquired. Okay, so I call him. Hey, this is your main competitor online, and how?

Devin Henderson: 47:42

you doing how you?

Marty Fahncke: 47:43

doing and he's like, oh hey, hey, you know, yeah, I'm kicking your butt. I'm like, yeah, yeah, I am, how would you, how would you like me to buy you? And he goes oh yeah, I'm open to that.

Devin Henderson: 47:56

Really that?

Marty Fahncke: 47:57

easy. Yeah, I'm like okay. So, yeah, let's talk. And so a couple meetings, a couple talks and we acquired their company and he was doing $2 million a year in sales and I was doing a million and a half a year in sales. Yeah, that's very early on, so that was pretty good money online back then. And okay, now here's I have a math riddle for you.

Devin Henderson: 48:19

I have so many questions about this story. This is great.

Marty Fahncke: 48:21

I love this, but I'm just going to follow you, so my company's doing a million and a half dollars a year in sales online.

Devin Henderson: 48:25

So you're half a million. Is that where you're going?

Marty Fahncke: 48:27

Well, let's, let's make sure the audience Sorry, I'm going to try to get prideful and jump ahead and there are $2 million in sales and we put the two together, what do you think our annual revenue was in the second year? Oh, okay, I'm just because the math says three and a half but it's got to be more than that, because when you're combining forces, I'm going to say five, five and a half.

Devin Henderson: 48:45

That's a great guess you can get Was it last week, completely wrong.

Marty Fahncke: 48:48

$30 million. What $30 million we did in the second year? Wow, okay, how? Because one and one doesn't always make two. Yeah, okay, one and one can often make 11. Totally, and that's what happened here. Wow, brett and his team were phenomenal. My team was phenomenal. He was missing some stuff, I was missing some stuff. When we put the two together, all cylinders were firing and we just crushed it. Dude, how inspiring is that?

Devin Henderson: 49:19

Yeah, Seriously, because I think about it, talk about it all the time, when just even whoever you can collaborate with, even if it's a competitor, even if you're not going to emerge, it's like me and another speaker getting together having a mastermind.

Devin Henderson: 49:32

You've talked about that yeah, I'm missing things, he's missing things. Sometimes I think, as entrepreneurs, we want to hide from our competition. We want to hide what we're doing and put a hedge around it so they can't steal our stuff. But if you can tap into each other's brilliance and resources, I mean, look what happened. That's insane.

Marty Fahncke: 49:49

Yeah, it was crazy awesome. That's insane. Here's the cool thing in what I'm going to ask you another math question, okay, all right, I'm ready. We bought his company, okay.

Devin Henderson: 49:59

I got my mud water and I am ready for this next question.

Marty Fahncke: 50:01

All right, so we bought his company. Okay, yes, we paid $3.5 million for his company. How much do you think that cost us?

Devin Henderson: 50:11

Well, out of that $30 million, not very much, I mean a fraction of what you made, but how much did that cost you?

Marty Fahncke: 50:16

Okay, so we said we're going to give you $3.5 million for your business. How much do you think we took out of our bank account and gave him it there?

Devin Henderson: 50:24

Yeah, I'm not good at this. I'm not good at math. I was going to say $3.5 million, but I know that can't be the answer. That's the logical answer. You're so smart, devin. You're doing exactly what everybody else says. I'm trying to be smarter than I am. I always can't see.

Marty Fahncke: 50:41

All right. So most people would think oh, you bought a business for $3.5 million. You must have given them $3 million out of your pocket to do that. Nobody does that.

Devin Henderson: 50:51

Okay.

Marty Fahncke: 50:52

That is not how effective mergers and acquisitions works Okay. All right, we paid about a quarter million dollars, about $250,000 in cash, okay, and the rest was in what was called earnouts. They got stock.

Devin Henderson: 51:05

Okay.

Marty Fahncke: 51:06

And they took a piece of that future earnings.

Devin Henderson: 51:09

Okay.

Marty Fahncke: 51:10

And so they wound up making more than $3.5 million in the long run, but the company only paid $250,000 to acquire that and that's actually how most people.

Marty Fahncke: 51:19

So when I talk to business owners and I'm like, hey, whether it's a plumber or a restaurant, I don't do a lot of restaurants but I say, look, you're doing a million dollars a year and you want to do $2 million a year next year? Okay, that's the easiest way to do that. And what does everybody think? Well, I'm going to have to double how much I sell, right, sell twice as much products and services. That's hard, yeah, that's really hard to just sell more. If you could sell more, I would have done it by now. What if you go out and acquire a million dollar business and then overnight you're a $2 million business and they go. Okay, that's logical, but I don't have a million dollars to go acquire a million dollar business, right, you don't need that.

Marty Fahncke: 52:02

You could do it. There's ways to do it for literally not one penny out of your pocket or at most maybe 10% out of your pocket. So you can take a hundred thousand dollars and buy a million dollar business. Put the two together and now you have a $2 million business. That maybe is a $10 million business because if you get those synergies right and so business owners a lot of times don't understand that's part of my mission to educate people about that because you just think, well, oh, they bought it Three and a half million dollar business. They must have had three and a half million dollars laying around.

Devin Henderson: 52:32

No I wouldn't do that so here's my big no that is so interesting I don't know much about. I've seen a lot of acquisition and mergers because a lot of times when people have me come speak is after an acquisition or you're trying to get the team building and like hey, we got these two groups, or like people.

Devin Henderson: 52:49

Sometimes it's when and this was my where my question is leading where a company is being acquired, but a lot of people are losing their jobs and it's their last big company party and people are depressed about it.

Marty Fahncke: 53:01

It's a tough audience. It's a tough audience.

Devin Henderson: 53:03

It was, it happened, yeah. And what are the ramifications of the people, the families who don't benefit from this acquisition or merge? I mean, what are your thoughts, feelings around that? You know?

Marty Fahncke: 53:15

And that's and honestly, for the most part that's in a space I don't plan, so I don't do great big companies that are going to like merge and then lay a whole bunch of people off. I see, I see I focus on entrepreneurial business.

Devin Henderson: 53:29

I work with entrepreneurs.

Marty Fahncke: 53:31

So I focus mostly on businesses that are between one and 15 or $20 million Okay, it is my kind of sweet spot and, for the most part, those types of businesses that do mergers and acquisitions. You're needing those people. I'm almost never involved in a transaction where you're merging something and laying up a tree. Okay, so I, for those people who are affected by those big corporate mergers where there's huge layoffs, I feel bad, it's terrible and I don't play in that space. And that's part of why I don't play in that space too, because there are those incidents where they're going to merge the thing and then you've got two accounting departments or two this, and they've got to lay a bunch of people off and that's.

Marty Fahncke: 54:14

I just don't play in that space and there's a ton of money in that space, but I don't want to do that.

Devin Henderson: 54:22

That's not what I want to do so with the entrepreneur thing. I'm curious where from that? Like, what else do you do now, because you obviously you help with these merger type things for entrepreneurs? Is that the pinnacle of what your business is? Is that?

Marty Fahncke: 54:33

maybe what you do? Yeah, so well it is. I've also in this field, so I now have taken equity positions in lots of businesses. So I own lots of businesses in lots of different spaces.

Marty Fahncke: 54:47

And you know, something else that I try and teach entrepreneurs is owning your supply chain. So, for example, you know we were working with a brewery that we were, we had invested in. We took a piece of equity in that brewery and they wanted to do a huge campaign with a whole bunch of swag, right, hats and you know, koozies and sweatshirts and blah, blah, blah. So we actually took an ownership stake in the company that does all of the printing and all of that custom work. So now we're buying from ourselves, right? So, as a business owner, I would say look up and down your supply chain. Who are you paying money to and who's paying money to you? And should you own a piece of that? Should you have a stake in either all or part of the businesses that surround your business as a satellite? Yeah, because A you can get better quality, you get preferential treatment and you're making money on yourself.

Marty Fahncke: 55:42

So I always encourage that as well when.

Devin Henderson: 55:44

I'm talking about the commerce Interesting the whole supply chain thing. Yeah, that's crazy.

Marty Fahncke: 55:49

So all this is stuff that you read about in the Bloomberg blogs and whatever else and you think about oh, this is Wall Street stuff, this is big business stuff, this is oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, so-and-so, merge with so-and-so or airlines or whatever. It's applicable at the small business level too, in the entrepreneurial level, because those synergies and that working together and that, like all of this, can be done at a smaller scale and help grow any kind of entrepreneurial business. So, but people don't think about it.

Devin Henderson: 56:15

Well, I love how exactly People don't think about it. I love how that visionary CEO is like go see if they want to be bought. And you're like what?

Marty Fahncke: 56:22

We can do that.

Devin Henderson: 56:24

And so sometimes it's just about having someone instill that possibility in you. At Marty, just remember to keep asking what else is possible and that to me I felt like opened up for you, like, oh man, anything's possible. Now I can always seek out people to acquire, to work for win-wins, buying your supply chain. That's amazing. What things can you tell the audience? I don't want to miss any big gaps in your story. Are there any other significant moments that have brought you where you are today?

Marty Fahncke: 56:53

All right, I'll tell my Chris Ladoux story. Okay, all right, let's have so sometimes possibility, and it's I got to.

Marty Fahncke: 57:04

Let me back up to the very beginning of what I was going to say when we so I was going to say that thank you for having me on the podcast, Dev, and I'm honored to be here. Yes, and I'm very excited to be here, because whenever I'm on a podcast, I listen to several episodes of the podcast before I'm on it. I want to get to know the host. Now I know you, but I want to get to know the host and the style of the podcast and the messaging. And the messaging of your podcast so intrigued me because it's very different than most Anything I've done. Most stuff I've done is very hardcore, business oriented or marketing, or emerged acquisitions and yours is possibilities.

Marty Fahncke: 57:35

My set and I was. I seriously was listening to the episodes and you've got Top Gun Pilot and a professional boxer and a chiefs cheerleader and all these really successful people with this anchor like I'm the pinnacle of whatever I am. And I was listening to the episodes I started to get some really serious imposter syndrome because I'm like I'm just a regular guy, I'm not famous, I don't have the book, I'm not a keynote speaker. I do speak here and there, but I'm not a keynoter. And I started really I almost canceled on you. I really yeah, I almost went like I'm not qualified Like when.

Devin Henderson: 58:13

Was it like last night, or no? No, no.

Marty Fahncke: 58:16

Like a couple of weeks ago.

Marty Fahncke: 58:18

I don't know I'd listened to a couple of episodes I don't think I'm qualified to be here, well, but then I got to the, I said, okay, get out of your purely business, entrepreneurial head and think about. And I realized that I've never noticed before I've always considered myself sort of a pessimist, but I've never noticed before listening to your podcast, that actually I've had a possibilities mindset for most of my going back to the call center story, because that's what popped into my head. I'm like that's probably. I was thinking about the people I worked with at that time. They were not sitting there, going, calculating, going how do I go with the next step. They were just like I hate my job.

Marty Fahncke: 59:06

When I'm going to come and do my job, and then I'm going to go home, and so just listening to your podcast, what I'm being here has helped me identify that I don't want to thank you for that.

Devin Henderson: 59:18

That's great man.

Marty Fahncke: 59:19

How was that. And so, as I was thinking about, well, what can I talk about as possibilities with you, another story popped in. I wasn't sure if I want to share it, because it's kind of the opposite of possibilities, but it's being open to the clues that life gives you. So I'm going to tell this story. I was a consultant working with several different companies, and there was a big Right there with a big product company who had a hugely successful product. They were probably doing $100 million a year.

Marty Fahncke: 59:53

I was consulting with them and they kept saying we want you full time. We want you full time. I'm like no, I got other clients, I got this gig. I love what I'm doing. I love being a consultant. I don't want to work with you full time on entrepreneurial.

Marty Fahncke: 1:00:02

They kept hammering and hammering. Finally they said look, they were in Washington DC or Falls Church, virginia, beautiful town. And they said look, why don't you just bring your wife? We're going to send you a couple of first class tickets. Bring your wife, come out, stay a week and we'll set you up with a real estate agent. We'll get some houses and we'll take you out to dinner and let's just see what the possibilities are. And I'm like, okay, I'm not going to turn that down. So we fly out there first class. They rented us a nice car and we check out the area and it's in a beautiful area like Fairfax, virginia Falls, toronto, virginia. It's been really gorgeous. You know Tyson's Corner. We went with the real estate agent and looked at houses. We found a house. Oh my gosh, there's a beautiful house. We found the. We kind of started mentally moving in. I went to them. We were like, where's the movie theater that we'd go to? Okay, we went to the movies one night.

Devin Henderson: 1:00:51

Okay, this is where we'd go, or here's the mall, and we're like mentally okay.

Marty Fahncke: 1:00:56

So I go back and I'm like, yeah, you guys, you guys did your job, like you reeled us in. We get on the plane to go home and we spend the entire flight talking about the future and what that looks like and how excited we are and everything else. And I know this story is going to sound crazy, but this is a hundred percent true story. We get on the, we land in Salt Lake City. It was. It was a time of year that Salt Lake wasn't pretty Like. Salt Lake's really pretty in the wintertime, when it's snowing, in the summertime or early summer spring, when it's green, but it is a desert. So there's times when it's really brown and we landed it was really. We're like, oh man, it was so green in Virginia, it was so brown here. We're like, oh, oh, we're so glad to get out of here. Right.

Marty Fahncke: 1:01:41

We get in our car, we start driving and a song comes on the radio from who? At that time I was an artist, I knew, but I didn't lie. I just you know he was around and he was pretty, pretty popular locally. His name's Chris Ladoo. He's a country artist and actually Garth Brooks mentions Chris Ladoo as his inspiration. Oh really, yeah, garth, and they did a. They did a song called what you Can Do With a Cowboy, and then there's another song where he says worn out tape of Chris Ladoo lonely women in bad boots.

Devin Henderson: 1:02:09

Anyway.

Marty Fahncke: 1:02:11

So Chris Ladoo is like a guy who never was a superstar. He was always kind of on purpose, like he's, like I'd rather. I'd rather keep my integrity and only be down here than than sell out and become a superstar. So he was. He's a great artist and he had a song out that I had never before or since heard on the radio. But we're driving.

Devin Henderson: 1:02:32

You're good, come on. Yeah, sonia, everybody hey.

Marty Fahncke: 1:02:34

Sonia, oh yes, brought us those amazing omelets. You can tell the cool we're way lacks here, sonia's cool, we're just talking about Chris Ladoo.

Devin Henderson: 1:02:42

I'm checking the plumbing stuff and the prying stuff. He is about to buy them. Oh, I'm so sorry.

Marty Fahncke: 1:02:45

You're about to. You just told that story to thousands of people, Sonia.

Devin Henderson: 1:02:48

Yeah, You're G they don't know that's real life. And you're VIP anyway, sonia, it's not for you, though I thought you were going to do your private, all right, so so Chris Ladoo is planning on the radar.

Marty Fahncke: 1:02:59

So we get in the car we just landed. We're so excited for the future. We're going to pack up our kids, we're going to move across country. I'm taking this high paying job where we found a house we didn't put an offer in, but we're going to put an offer in, a beautiful house and everything's like. And we're driving along and this song comes on and it's called Beneath these Western Skies. Now, this is in Utah, right, and it talks about raising my kids in the in the western summertime. And we both go quiet and she looks at me and I look at her.

Marty Fahncke: 1:03:34

I don't remember who said it first, but one of us said we're not moving to Virginia, are we? And the other one was like no, we're not. Now call it. You know, chris Ladoo is not God, but I believe, crazy enough, I believe God was talking to us through that. He was like no, you're supposed to stay here for now. And so I called, I called the company. I was like hey, I'm not accepting the job. You know, this is vice president position. You know big, a lot of my. And I said, hey, I'm not saying. And they got. They were very unhappy. They fired me as a consultant. They were ticked Cause I told. I told him, yes, the last day out, yeah, I'm coming. And then I call them like the next day I'm like, yeah, I'm not coming. And they were, they were livid 60 days later they went bankrupt, locked the door.

Marty Fahncke: 1:04:22

The employees showed up and the doors were locked and never opened again.

Devin Henderson: 1:04:26

I just got chills literally. That's insane.

Marty Fahncke: 1:04:29

So possibilities mindset was hey, somebody's offering you a big, high paying job and they're whining and dining you and pressuring you to take it and like, of course, it's great money and it's this great position and it's opportunity. And there was all blah, blah, blah. Yes, we're gonna do it right, possibly as well as it. And then we go home and then a message comes that says, no, that's not the possibility, that's for you. And so I didn't take that and it was the best move ever. I would have been just closed on a house in a brand new area that I couldn't possibly afford and it will have just lost my job, with no family, no support, no anything, if I would have gone forward with that. So I don't know how that fits into the possibilities mindset. Other than possibilities aren't always positive. Moving forward Sometimes it's that being open to the possibility that you are where you're supposed to be for now.

Devin Henderson: 1:05:25

Well, I see perfectly how it fits, and only because I'm always thinking about the possibility mindset the possibilities were in Utah, not in Virginia, you know.

Devin Henderson: 1:05:36

So it's like what else is possible here in Utah, a place where we want to be, where we want to raise our children, where we feel God is calling us to right now and he revealed it in a Chris LaDuce song and then we don't always get to see like why things were like, why God's plan was the way it was. But when you do get to see how awesome is that, I think that just reinforces your faith and to follow your true calling, to follow the Lord's lead in in your life and that's that's what I get from it is that the possibility mindset. If you wouldn't have been asking what else is possible, you would have been zoned in on this new opportunity, blinded to the blessing that you already have.

Devin Henderson: 1:06:15

And that's one thing I always talk about always give thanks, agt, you know. Be thankful for what you have right now, because things can look so good. The grass is always greener in Virginia, right?

Devin Henderson: 1:06:26

I mean literally that that day it was. And for you you realize we already have what we want. And how did it feel? I mean, what was the feeling when you found out they went bankrupt? Not that you were happy that they went bankrupt, but for you, what kind of peace came over you. What could, what? How'd that feel in that moment? I was so grateful.

Marty Fahncke: 1:06:45

I was like if we'd have gone, like what? Oh my gosh, that would have been an absolute disaster, just an absolute disaster. And so it's made me. Ever since then, it's made me more aware of of. Well, let's never thought of this until just now. But you talk to me. Oh, you do these mergers and acquisitions and then all these people get to lose their jobs.

Marty Fahncke: 1:07:12

I could go do that. I could be involved in multi hundreds of millions of dollar deals. I choose not to because I don't like the way a lot of those turn out. I don't want to be responsible for people getting laid off and losing their jobs. So could I be much more successful in my field and make a lot more money? Yeah, I could. I don't want to, because what I have to, what would the outcome of that, would be something I'm not going to live with. Yeah. And so I think, when I think about the possibility, you have to know what the possibilities are within your own set of values, because it's not always just about the money, it's not always just about the success or whatever else. It has to. It has to align. Those possibilities have to align with your values, yeah, or you're making a mistake chasing them.

Devin Henderson: 1:08:00

One of my life mantras and the title of my keynote is something greater is always possible, and I always make it clear to people that doesn't mean more success, more money sometimes. Something greater is always possible in what you already have, just realizing the blessing and it, being thankful for it. And that's when you see fruit from your life grow that you're like I want what I already have, yeah, and I was missing the blessing, and now I appreciate it more. And that's when greater things come your way More peace, more joy, more fulfillment.

Marty Fahncke: 1:08:32

So, ironically, it wasn't maybe three months later that this CEO that was like the go, put a URL on an infomercial and let's go by he called and said the same things I'm not going to hire you. He was one of my clients at the time. Oh wow. And he said I want, and I did the same that none, I don't, I don't want to, you know. And he, but he, he succeeded, yeah, and dragging me to California and I and I worked in California for a number of years and had an absolute wall. I mean it's super, I mean that's where we built that e-commerce business.

Devin Henderson: 1:09:03

Yeah, so you would have missed out on that.

Marty Fahncke: 1:09:05

I would have been working full time in Virginia and missed out on what's turned out to be the where I am today.

Devin Henderson: 1:09:12

Or you would have gotten laid off and then, a month later, maybe not been in the right space for him. Right, because it didn't work out?

Marty Fahncke: 1:09:17

Yeah, because I well, I would have had to resign as their consultant to go take that full.

Devin Henderson: 1:09:22

So I would, I would have ticked him. Oh, I see, I would have been like, hey, I would have burned that bridge. I got you. I would have been like, hey.

Marty Fahncke: 1:09:27

I'm taking this full time gig.

Devin Henderson: 1:09:28

Wow, so I can't consult with you anymore.

Marty Fahncke: 1:09:30

But instead I was continuing and he was like I really like what you do, I really like what you're doing for our company, I really want you full time. No, no, no. But he talked me into it and it was great. I did great with her. I'm glad you, I would have burned that bridge completely.

Devin Henderson: 1:09:42

I'm glad you chose that story. That's a great one to end on.

Marty Fahncke: 1:09:44

I didn't even. I never thought about the correlation of those two things until just now, right.

Devin Henderson: 1:09:48

About that you wouldn't have had that opportunity in California.

Marty Fahncke: 1:09:50

I've always thought about, yeah, that, oh, I would have been, I would have been, you know, lost my job and I'm stuck in Virginia, but it never occurred to me until just now that that would have precluded me from what truly has led me to the path I'm in today.

Devin Henderson: 1:10:02

Wow, that's the beautiful thing about just sharing and talking and verbalizing, you start to realize things right. That's why it's this is a side note, I mean, I was talking about this early in bed this morning how your. She heard a quote that your, your sorrow gets cut in half when you share it with people, but your joy multiplies when you share it with people. So by sharing this story, you had that realization of, oh, the blessing that you didn't see before, of how you didn't burn that bridge and you kept going on in that venture.

Marty Fahncke: 1:10:29

Yeah.

Devin Henderson: 1:10:30

That's, I mean, that's possibility, mindset written all over this. This is, this is so great You're a great host.

Marty Fahncke: 1:10:37

You know these stories I wasn't going to share. You're a great guest man.

Devin Henderson: 1:10:41

I appreciate it. I do have a couple final questions for you in a second and but first. Is this a thing where I know you didn't really come on here to promote products or anything, but is it a thing where, if there's an entrepreneur looking at new possibilities to maybe partner with slash, acquire another, are you for hire? Is this something where they should connect with you? What's the best way for them to get a hold of you?

Marty Fahncke: 1:11:02

Yeah. So let me tell you who should reach out to you. Sure, I mean, I'm a great guy, and then how? Yeah, so so the who would be any business owner who's thinking about selling their business to call me first. Any business owner who's thinking, hey, I'd like to grow my business through acquisition, I wonder if it would work for me, they should call me, okay. The third category is if you know anybody who is in that, if you know of a business that, hey, we're thinking about selling or we're interested, refer them to me. I pay really generous referrals, so a referral from me can be fifty, sixty, seventy thousand dollars to you. Who refers to me?

Devin Henderson: 1:11:39

So I'm ready to sell, if you know. I know a guy.

Marty Fahncke: 1:11:41

You know a guy who is thinking about buying or selling a business. Send them my way, okay. So to your listeners, like if you know of anybody, say hey, well, joe's thinking about selling his business. Connect me up, because it'll it'll benefit all of us.

Devin Henderson: 1:11:55

And what a great model for marketing. I mean, you know that that you're making sure you're clear on who your audience is and telling them who I love that. So all right, and then how to reach me.

Marty Fahncke: 1:12:04

Well, first of all, my very unique last name, marty Fonkie. Yes, you can just Google me if you can see how it's spelled here on the YouTube or whatever you try. Sorry, linkedin, I'm very active on LinkedIn, so connect them there, or my website is westboundroadcom.

Devin Henderson: 1:12:19

And even the name on that in the show.

Marty Fahncke: 1:12:21

Westbound Road dot com, and even the name of my, my main company, is possibilities mindset. The Westbound Road, is really that going? West in that, what's next and what's the adventure? And freedom and, like my, you know, ties to my motorcycle rides.

Devin Henderson: 1:12:36

Yeah, but it's all tied together. The story you just shared, the Chris Ladoo story, that yeah, yeah.

Marty Fahncke: 1:12:42

And I've gone and ridden my motorcycle to where his memorial he's passed away now, but he's got a really great memorial in in Casey, casey, wyoming, and and I've ridden my motorcycle there and what not. Like I said, it's a whole lot of Chris Ladoo wasn't supposed to be, but anyway. But Westbound Road my company is is named that just because of that, that possibility that what's next down the road in the future, and so it's. It's. It's so interesting to me, your podcast, when you invited me here and I was just like, oh, I don't, I don't know, and then I'm, I'm not, we actually are pretty line and I didn't realize it. So, yeah, so and I'm the only Marty Fonkie in the entire world.

Marty Fahncke: 1:13:21

So, if you, if you, which is good and bad, because it's good because you know it's amazing to find, but it's bad because I'm easy to find. So I am very proud of the fact that when, when people Google my name, I'm the only one that comes up, the only one in the world, and you only find good stuff, thousands of things will pop up on Google. My kids like to play that game with their, their friends. When they were little they would say, hey, let's Google your mom and dad. There there's, you know, basically yellow pages. Oh, I wonder if my, my dad has anything and they Google me like 10,000 results come out.

Marty Fahncke: 1:13:53

Oh yeah, they play that game. But everything is good. Because you talk about testimonials, like I am. I am acutely aware that that, with a being the only person with my name in the world, that if I screw up or take somebody off or rip them off or mess up like it's going to show up, and I've worked really hard to make sure that doesn't happen.

Devin Henderson: 1:14:15

Nice job Westbound Road, westbound. Road you like the like, true modern cowboy, aren't you? I just imagine you just riding off into the sunset man. I do, right off into a lot of sunset.

Marty Fahncke: 1:14:26

I think my face, but my personal Facebook profile has a picture of a sunset through my handlebars. Oh yeah, and I don't use that professionally, but my personal. And don't friend me on Facebook. I'm not, I don't use Facebook. I have like hundreds of unresponded to request that I don't do it.

Marty Fahncke: 1:14:46

But yeah, I I my ultimate goal. When I was younger, before I knew anything about mergers, acquisitions, what was I wanted to own? I wanted to own 10% of 10 companies and spend my time driving around visiting each of those companies and helping them and advising them, but then just wanting around the country and and and, somehow, through some weird chain of events, it's actually coming true. Wow, that's so cool. Yeah, except from my motorcycle. I didn't know I was going to be on my motorcycle. Yeah.

Devin Henderson: 1:15:16

Yeah, it all started with telemarketing.

Marty Fahncke: 1:15:18

I'll start with.

Devin Henderson: 1:15:18

Well, man, well, hey. Before I ask you the last two questions, just want to say once again, thanks again to a center of shiny for providing breakfast or a space to see whichever you want to call it.

Devin Henderson: 1:15:30

And also remember to go to zero shoes dot com. Get yourself some of these barefoot style shoes. It just might change your life. It might be the solution you're looking to for healthier ankles, knees. All that so that zero shoes with an X, zero shoes dot com. Slash, go, slash, dev. And also, by the way, you know, if you're listening to this on Spotify or Apple for the full experience to see my handsome friend, marty, you know, go to YouTube for that full experience and and share that, subscribe, comment, let us know if you got something out of it. Also, if you're listening, one of the best ways you can help us extend our reach and impact more people is to give us a five star review. If it's a genuine, you know, five star review, we appreciate that and then comment how did today inspire you know what? What did Marty say that made you grasp and embrace the possibility mindset? So okay with that one. One last question and I did?

Devin Henderson: 1:16:22

I don't know. The one question was how can people connect with you? That was number one. Number two is just briefly one piece of advice for my daughters, so I've been watching you are ready for this.

Marty Fahncke: 1:16:32

I knew you're gonna add. I've been rocking my brain. No, all right. Devon's daughters, listen to your dad. He's smarter than you think. That's it.

Devin Henderson: 1:16:43

That's all I'm gonna say that's awesome, marty funky, ladies and gentlemen, thanks, okay, awesome. We're gonna sign off with the phrase what else is possible. I'll say what else you say is possible. You're ready, okay? Never stop asking the question what else is possible? See you next time.