The Cash Rich Exit Podcast

A Note of Gratitude: 🎉 This episode marks a milestone - 350 Episodes of 'The Cash Rich Exit Podcast'! And I am genuinely humbled. What began as a microphone, an idea, and a deep belief that business owners deserve better exits has grown into a community of founders, CEOs, and dreamers I get to call the Self Made Nation. Three hundred and fifty conversations. Hundreds of guests who showed up with honesty, hard-earned scars, and the kind of wisdom you cannot find in a textbook. And thousands of you who keep listening, sharing, and building your own paths to a cash-rich exit. Thank you. Truly. Here is to the next 350.  Colleen   Episode Summary: For a milestone episode, a milestone story. In episode 350, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with Aaron Schroeder, founder and CEO of Bright Spot Climate, a greenhouse gas consulting and emissions strategy firm that has become one of the first companies in Canada to transition to an Employee Ownership Trust. Aaron grew up on a dairy farm in rural Saskatchewan, studied engineering, and built Bright Spot from a one-person consultancy into a 40-plus-person firm with offices in three cities. From the very beginning, he carried a conviction that the people who built the company alongside him should share in its rewards. This episode traces his "Jerry Maguire moment", the late-night letter to his team, the lightbulb realization when EOT legislation appeared on the horizon, and the real, unvarnished work of building governance, adjusting accounting systems, and letting go of control. It is a candid, refreshing look at what a values-aligned exit can look like in Canada - and why the EOT may be one of the most important succession tools founders have ever been given.   Key Takeaways:   Bright Spot Climate works with large industry, government, municipalities, and universities to quantify, report, and verify greenhouse gas emissions, and to implement technologies that reduce them. Aaron describes his team as the behind-the-scenes engineers helping Canada move toward its net-zero-by-2050 goals.   Aaron's entrepreneurial roots trace back to the family dairy farm in Saskatchewan. He started Bright Spot as a solo consultant just over 10 years ago and grew it organically; his sister Michelle, a professional agrologist, joined early and they had long shared the idea of broad ownership.   In 2022, before any mechanism existed, Aaron wrote a late-night letter to his team - his "Jerry Maguire moment" - sharing his conviction that the concentration of wealth among a few is one of the world's biggest problems, and that in their corner of the world, they could address it through employee ownership. The team received it positively, though with some understandable trepidation given there was no clear pathway yet.   The company already had a project-level profit-sharing program - a kind of de facto employee ownership - but the EOT represented a bigger commitment. The lightbulb moment came when Aaron learned the EOT mechanism would include every employee without anyone having to put money up front.   Bright Spot officially transitioned to the EOT structure on April 1, 2025, once the legislation had passed. Aaron worked with a partner at Blake's who specialized in trusts and had been following the legislation closely, and with accounting firm MNP to update accounting policies and prepare for financing.   Aaron's biggest lesson for other founders: sequence the changes. He had to establish a board, change governance, update accounting systems, and transfer ownership all at once - while still running the business during a turbulent year for the climate sector. Ideally, he would have put the board and accounting changes in place earlier so each could settle before the ownership transition.   An EOT requires governance by a board of directors. Aaron went from being the sole decision-maker (with an advisory senior leadership team) to being governed by a board while simultaneously giving his senior leadership team real decision-making authority. He recruited the board through his network and a public posting, looking for complementary skills and board experience.   The two hardest aspects of letting go were not the loss of final say - Aaron had made peace with that - but the difference in risk appetite between a sole owner and a board, and the slower speed of board decision-making. He now builds buffer time into decisions to bring board members up to speed.   The most surprising upside: a co-benefit of heightened entrepreneurship across the team. Younger employees and new grads have stepped up to help run and innovate the company with enthusiasm beyond what Aaron expected. A senator at the employee ownership conference framed the EOT as an opportunity to build more wealth in the country - not only by creating more entrepreneurs inside companies, but by freeing founders to exit and go start something new. Succession does not have to mean retirement; it can mean liberation to build again.   If you are thinking about long-term succession, or how to build a legacy that lasts without sacrificing your team or your impact, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.   📩 Help us celebrate 350 episodes - leave a five-star rating and review, and share this episode with a fellow entrepreneur. It is the best gift you could give the show. *** The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.   All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.   This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.   Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Bobbie Racette started with $300 at her kitchen table. Nine years later, she became the first Indigenous woman in Canada to build, scale, and sell a tech startup. In this episode - the first time Bobbie has dug into the details of the sale on a podcast - host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with the founder of Virtual Gurus, an AI-powered inclusive talent marketplace that matched underrepresented talent with businesses including Mastercard, Telus, and BMO. Bobbie shares the full arc: bootstrapping to $1.8 million in revenue before raising a cent, hearing 170 no's before closing a seed round, scaling through three funding rounds during COVID, becoming the first Indigenous woman in Canada to close a Series A, navigating founder fatigue, stepping down as CEO before the exit, and ultimately selling to a U.S. private equity firm that rolled Virtual Gurus into North America's largest virtual assistant platform - with the AI sold separately to a Calgary company. This is a conversation about what it takes to build something from nothing, what it costs personally, and what comes next when the mission is bigger than the transaction.   Key Takeaways:   Bobbie created Virtual Gurus in 2016 after being laid off in oil and gas and unable to find a job. She is Cree Métis, queer, and covered in tattoos - and nobody would hire her. The business started as a way to create a job for herself and evolved into a platform providing remote work to marginalized talent across Canada and the U.S.   She bootstrapped to approximately $1.8 million in annual revenue before seeking external funding. The seed round took over two years and 170 investor rejections before closing at $1.25 million. The Series A, two years later, was significantly easier.   Virtual Gurus scaled past $40 million in revenue and closed three funding rounds during COVID. Total capital raised was $14-20 million.   The exit was not originally planned. For the first four years, Bobbie intended to keep the company as a legacy business. The shift came around 2022 when the scale of the operation began to outpace the original mission. The board recognized that an acquisition was likely the best path forward.   The company was simultaneously pursuing a Series B and fielding acquisition offers - a dual-track process. The data room was already built for the fundraise, which accelerated due diligence to approximately five months. The acquisition by a U.S. private equity firm closed in November 2025.   The AI platform was sold separately to a Calgary-based company - effectively a double sale. The core business was rolled into the acquirer's larger virtual assistant platform.   Bobbie had stepped down from CEO to president in May 2025, with her COO becoming successor CEO. The successor stayed with the company through and after the acquisition. Bobbie's role during due diligence was primarily support - being available for the team mentally, emotionally, and strategically, while the finance team and executive team drove the process.   Founder fatigue and decision fatigue were real and significant. Bobbie emphasizes that founders need to talk about this more openly, and that boards and investors need to be supportive during those low periods rather than adding pressure.   Retention of employees during due diligence was one of the hardest parts. Bobbie's culture at Virtual Gurus was built on honesty and transparency, and not being able to tell her leadership team about the acquisition felt deeply uncomfortable.   Post-exit, Bobbie has retired her parents (her mother was her first angel investor, contributing her last $20,000), bought a new home, and is investing time and capital into the next generation. She is now an angel investor in five businesses - all founded by people from underserved communities, including Indigenous and LGBTQ+ entrepreneurs.   She has launched Tapwe (Cree for "truth"), a platform to support underserved founders with financial literacy, mentorship, AI-powered matching, and startup scaling resources. A documentary is in production. Her newsletter, The Fire Report, scaled to 4,000 subscribers almost immediately. She is also doing regular paid advisory sessions each week through her website.   Bobbie's story is a reminder that a cash-rich exit can be deeply values-driven, inclusive, and barrier-breaking - and still set you up for whatever comes next. If today's episode has you thinking about your own journey, whether you are at the kitchen table, scaling fast, or quietly eyeing your exit, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell via LinkedIn or email    Please leave a five-star rating and review to help more founders find this show. *** The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.   All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.   This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.   Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Here is a stat that should keep every small business owner up at night: approximately 80% of businesses never change hands. The owners simply close the doors, walk away, and leave decades of effort and equity on the table.   In this episode, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with Markian Pergat, an Ottawa-based entrepreneur who has lived the full arc - from student painter, to burnt-out sole operator sleeping five hours a night, to building a business that runs without him - and who is now on a mission to help service-based, trades, and Main Street business owners do the same. Markian walks through his EXITS Method, a five-part framework covering the emotional, strategic, and structural work required to build a business that is actually sellable. The conversation is a candid look at what happens when technical excellence masks business fragility, and what it takes to shift from self-employed technician to business owner with real options.   Key Takeaways: Approximately half of Canadian businesses are still owned by baby boomers, and roughly 80% of small businesses never successfully transition to a new owner. They simply close.   Markian started with College Pro Painters at 19 (winning Rookie of the Year for Eastern Ontario), then founded Sand and Stain, a seasonal wood restoration business in Ottawa. He spent years as a one-man operation - doing all sales, production, and emails - before hitting a breaking point and trying to sell. A broker told him the business was essentially unsellable because it was entirely dependent on him.   That wake-up call launched a four-to-five-year transformation. Markian systematically removed himself from every role, built an online quoting calculator that replaced in-person estimates (going from 8-10 quotes per day to over 100), hired for sales and production, and turned the business into something that runs with minimal owner involvement. The irony: once it became sellable, he no longer wanted to sell.   The EXITS Method is a five-part framework:  E (Equanimity) - the emotional and mindset work of letting go of identity, title, and control.  X (X Factor) - differentiation plays including micro M&A, where small businesses merge or acquire to reach a size that attracts larger buyer pools.  I (Independence) - separating the owner from the business, and reducing dependency on any single employee, supplier, or customer.  T (Transferability) - building the value levers that make a business attractive to a buyer: systems, recurring revenue, documented processes, and scalable operations.  S (Strategy) - creating multiple exit pathways rather than a single plan, because life, markets, and technology can change overnight.   The most common problem Markian sees: technically brilliant tradespeople and service providers who are thinking like technicians, not like business owners - and certainly not like buyers. The shift from "How do I do this work better?" to "How do I build an asset that works without me?" is the fundamental unlock.   Markian's sweet spot is businesses in the zero to $5 million revenue range (up to $10 million), typically below the threshold where private equity would show up with a cheque. These businesses have the most room to pull levers and create value - and the most to lose if the owner does nothing.   The best deals often happen off-market. When a business is visibly well-run, systematized, and not dependent on the owner, unsolicited offers start showing up - just like the best real estate deals happen before a listing goes live.   Exit preparation is synonymous with business building. Start before you are ready. Even if you decide not to exit, going through the process of making your business sellable will make it better to own.   Be part of the 20% who exit on purpose and on their own terms. Book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Let us talk about your time frame, your value, and your vision. Reach out on LinkedIn or email.   Please leave a five-star rating and review to help more founders find the show. Thank you!   ***   The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.   All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.   This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.   Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

What happens when four moms start making labels in a Hamilton basement and, 14 years later, get a call from a global industry giant? In this episode, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with Julie Cole, one of the four co-founders of Mabel's Labels, to trace the full arc: from masking tape and permanent marker frustrations in the early 2000s, to building a fiercely loved e-commerce brand, to a reported $12 million acquisition by Avery Labels that closed in under six months. What makes Julie's story unique is the fact that she is still at Mabel's Labels a decade later, now as Senior Director of Public Relations, championing the brand she helped build. The conversation covers what buyers actually look for, why keeping your house in order is non-negotiable, how four co-founders (who were also family) navigated decisions without destroying relationships, and why selling your business does not have to mean falling out of love with it.   Key Takeaways:   Mabel's Labels was founded approximately 23 years ago by Julie Cole, her sister, and two university friends who married into the family. It started in a Hamilton basement solving a simple problem - kids were losing their gear, and there was no good labelling solution beyond masking tape and marker.   The four co-founders divided responsibilities by department (production, IT and finance, marketing, PR), which worked well early on but eventually created silos. Each founder became protective of their team's priorities, and the business reached a point where it needed one person overseeing the whole operation rather than four co-CEOs pulling in different directions.   Managing a co-founding team that is also family requires deliberate effort. The founders brought in a coach to navigate difficult growth decisions and to separate business disagreements from personal relationships - a practice Julie compares to Midday Squares' weekly "family therapy" sessions.   The acquisition by Avery Labels (a publicly traded company) happened fast - the initial call came in July, and the deal closed on New Year's Eve of the same year. Julie emphasizes this timeline is not normal and should not be expected.   Due diligence is where you can lose money. A letter of intent might come in at one number, but if the buyer finds problems, the offer shrinks. Julie's advice: keep your housekeeping in order from the start, not just when a deal appears.   The exit process is a full-time job. Having four co-founders meant one could focus on the transaction while the others kept the business running - a luxury solo founders do not have. Julie has seen entrepreneurs take their eye off operations during a sale, get left at the altar, and end up with a year of lost sales and deal fatigue.   Because Avery is publicly traded, the founders could not tell their staff about the potential acquisition. They told the team it was a tax audit - which felt terrible given their culture of transparency - but was necessary for regulatory compliance. Once the deal was announced, the founders led with reassurance: no one was losing their job, the brand was staying, and the team would be supported through the transition.   Two co-founders left immediately after the sale, one stayed as general manager for a couple of years, and Julie has remained for 10 years. She now reports to a former direct report who became GM - and is fully at peace with that dynamic. Her role is to be the brand's voice, its public face, and its connection to the community.   The brand's longevity is built on community. Julie was one of the original "mom bloggers", has attended Mom 2.0 conferences for 18 years, and has continuously followed her audience from blogs to Facebook to Instagram to Reddit. Mabel's Labels looks like a low-tech product but is a high-tech, e-commerce-driven business that has adapted to every platform shift for over two decades.   Julie is also the author of 'Like a Mother: Birthing Businesses, Babies, and a Life Beyond Labels', a bestseller covering her parenting and entrepreneurial journey.   Julie Cole's story is a reminder that a cash-rich exit does not have to be the end - sometimes it is the start of the next chapter in the same business. If her story has you thinking about your own entrepreneurial journey, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Reach out on LinkedIn or email    Could you leave a five-star rating and review please? It helps more founders find the show. *** The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.   All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.   This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.   Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Episode Summary: What is the difference between a business that generates income and one that creates wealth? In this episode, host Colleen O'Connell-Campbell sits down with husband-and-wife team Krystyn and Matt Harrison of Horizon Advisors, who bring complementary perspectives from different sides of the deal table. Krystyn is a five-time founder who learned the hard way what happens when you run your own sale process, lose competitive tension, and have a seven-figure LOI collapse in eight weeks. Matt spent his M&A career watching owners come to market for the wrong reasons - cancer diagnoses, divorces, sudden deaths - and seeing how lack of preparation cost them millions. Together, they now work with founders at a million dollars or more in EBITDA to build businesses that are more valuable, less founder-dependent, and full of options - whether that means scaling further, stepping back, or selling. The conversation covers founder psychology, the control trap, why your best seller being the owner is a red flag to buyers, and how to flip the mindset from working in your business to working on it.   Key Takeaways:   Krystyn built Prosper, a coaching platform with 30,000 users and clients including RBC and Lululemon. When a close competitor raised $150 million, she pursued a sale. Running her own process without an M&A advisor, she lost competitive tension, watched a seven-figure LOI fall apart, and ultimately exited on far less favourable terms. Lesson one: do not run your own process. Lesson two came after the deal closed - Krystyn had no plan for what came next. An empty calendar and an identity crisis followed. The exit is not a headline. It is a phase of the business, and personal readiness is part of it.   After Prosper, Krystyn operated within a U.S. private equity roll-up in the e-commerce ecosystem, where she learned to build value through the enterprise value lens - not just revenue growth, but moving the multiple by putting systems, process, data, and assets in place.   Matt's M&A experience revealed that most owners came to market for difficult reasons - health crises, divorce, death. Very few were proactively prepared. The most common gaps were financials with small errors that eroded buyer trust, tax planning that should have started two years earlier, and founder dependency that made the business look risky.   Founder dependency is one of the biggest destroyers of enterprise value. Matt saw owners proudly declaring themselves their company's best salesperson - which is exactly what buyers do not want to hear. Buyers want a sales engine, not a sales hero. Client concentration of 85% held by the founder is pure risk in a buyer's eyes.   Profit pays your bills. Value gives you options. A profitable business with heavy founder dependency may generate strong income but will not command the valuation or optionality the owner is hoping for.   Krystyn's two litmus tests for founder dependency: First, in the last two weeks, how many of your leaders came to you with problems versus solutions? If they are bringing problems, you may have created a culture where you solve everything for them. Second, imagine you are on a desert island for four weeks with no devices - what would break? The answers reveal where the business is too dependent on you.   Horizon Advisors works with founders at a million or more in EBITDA. They start with a complimentary 90-minute value baseline assessment covering approximately 24 value drivers, then move into long-term one-on-one advisory engagements (bi-weekly two-hour sessions with the founder, quarterly strategic planning with the leadership team). All advisors are former operators and owners themselves.   They track enterprise value monthly and view everything through the lens of building optionality - not just preparing for a sale, but making the business more valuable regardless of what the founder decides to do next.   Krystyn also hosts the podcast 'Worth Owning', exploring what it means to build businesses and lives worth owning - with a focus on the emotional journey, not just the transaction.   If this episode has you wondering whether your business is building enterprise value or simply generating income, book a one-on-one Wealth Gap Analysis with Colleen O'Connell-Campbell. Let us connect today's decisions with your future cash-rich exit. Reach out on LinkedIn - Colleen O'Connell-Campbell - or email    📩 Leave a five-star rating and review. *** The Cash Rich Exit Podcast is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.   All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.   This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.   Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.

Welcome back to 🎙💫 "I'm a Millionaire! So Now What?" 💫🎙 Our distinguished guest this week is Lisa Anna Palmer, founder and CEO of the Light Your Leadership Institute, and author of "Light a Fire in their Hearts: The Truth about Leadership." Lisa dives deep into the nuances of leadership, management, and the crucial role trust plays in fostering growth and success within your organization.   In my insightful conversation with Lisa, you'll discover:   🔥 The critical differences between leadership and management, and how understanding both can empower your team    🌱 The concept of vertical leadership development and its role in nurturing personal and professional growth    💡 How trust can close leadership gaps and build a stronger foundation for collaboration and innovation    🧘‍♀️ The importance of creating healthy boundaries and fostering a culture that prioritizes self-care and well-being    🌟 An inspiring story of meeting Sir Richard Branson and learning valuable lessons on listening and seeing the best in people    Tune in 🎧 to uncover how you can ignite the fire of leadership within yourself and your organization, using trust, vision, and compassionate connections.   If this episode resonated with you 💎, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (and a review if you have a few extra minutes).   Your input enables us to consistently deliver insightful content and engaging conversations. Join me in expanding the Self-Made Nation and championing the impact of trust and empathetic leadership in the entrepreneurial landscape! 🚀 ***   I'm a Millionaire! So now what? is brought to you by O'Connell-Campbell Wealth Management at RBC Dominion Securities.   All opinions expressed by the host, Colleen O'Connell-Campbell, and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and do not reflect the opinion of RBC Dominion Securities.   This podcast is for informational purposes only before taking any action based on information in this podcast you should consult with a qualified professional.   Colleen O'Connell-Campbell is a Wealth Advisor at RBC Dominion Securities, a member of the Canadian Investor Protection Fund.