The Inner Wealth Podcast
Mike Kitko is the Founder and Creative Director of Inner Wealth Global, a personal and professional development company that helps business owners create aligned wealth, success, freedom, and deep fulfillment—without sacrificing themselves in the process.
As an author, speaker, podcaster, and coach Mike guides visionaries and impact-driven entrepreneurs to align their inner world with the life and business they are truly meant to live and create. His work helps you master your mind, energy, and emotions while building intense personal power so that wealth and opportunity flow effortlessly.
Through coaching, training, and transformational content, Inner Wealth Global helps business owners break free from unnecessary struggle, trust their path, and create a life deeply aligned with their soul.
The Inner Wealth Podcast
Ep191: Leap Into the Void: My Conversation with Michael Schieffer About His Journey Into Alignment.
In this episode, Mike sits down with Michael Schieffer—husband, father, real estate investor, and now founder of Exit Factor of O’Fallon—to explore the courageous leap from a secure W2 job into full-blown entrepreneurship. Michael shares the inner and outer journey of leaving behind a decade-long career in commercial lending, stepping into alignment with his true purpose, and navigating the mental and emotional turbulence that comes with redefining success. They unpack the fears, family dynamics, and internal programming that often keep high-performing leaders stuck—and what it really takes to create time freedom, fulfillment, and a business that serves your soul. This episode is a must-listen for anyone ready to stop surviving and start intentionally creating.
Key Takeaways
- Clarity Leads to Courage–Michael’s moment of vision didn’t come from force—it arrived through stillness and inner alignment. The courage to leap followed clarity of purpose.
- Freedom Requires Letting Go of Security–You can’t have both freedom and false security. True expansion comes from releasing comfort to step into the unknown.
- Identity Is Not Obligation–You don’t have to live the same life as your parents or meet anyone’s expectations but your own. Fulfillment starts with authenticity.
- Alignment Attracts Opportunity–Michael didn’t chase his business idea—it landed in his lap once he committed to the life he truly wanted.
- Emotional Courage Is the Real Work–Leaving a job, letting go of old identities, and choosing purpose requires you to feel it all—and move forward anyway.
Notable Quotes
“There’s part of me that’s still scared. But I’m not scared of the income. I’m doing this for more time with my family.”
“I didn’t leave because I hated my job—I left because I craved more freedom, more control of my time, and a deeper sense of purpose.”
“I was terrified to tell my parents. I had this imagined fear that they’d resent me… and none of it was true.”
“You can’t have security and freedom at the same time. If you want to be free, you have to let go of needing to feel secure.”
“I’m not trying to be anyone else anymore. I’m choosing what’s right for me and my family.”
Music Credit: "What's Left of Me" by Wes Hoffman & Friends
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Mike Kitko is an executive self-mastery coach, speaker and author. He found external success through powerful titles, incomes, and material possessions. He ultimately fell into depression, toxic abuse of alcohol, and the near collapse of his family before he began a journey of internal happiness and success.
I've got an awesome guest today and you know I don't do many interviews on the Interwealth podcast, but I'm always looking for that exceptional story of transformation, of courage, somebody who's jumped into the void and shifted from a life that they were kind of living, that they had to live, into a life that they get to live. I'm always looking for that. Today I've got my man, michael Schieffer, on the podcast. Now. Michael came to me a while ago, some time ago, through the Choose your Destiny Live Intensive Workshop and we began working together and that's when we really started to understand what Michael had in his heart, that was trying to be created in the world, and we dove in and we uncovered some things and some opportunities and we're going to share that on this episode. Now. Michael, up to this point, has been a commercial banker. He's been in the loan industry. He's a real estate investor. He's got a couple of rental properties. He's flipped about a dozen properties as well. The guy loves farming and he has a family farm and he loves being on the farm.
Speaker 1:In this episode we're going to talk about his journey and his leap into business consulting in his new business called Exit Factor, which actually launches in about a week, a week and a half. So sit back, get to know Michael Schieffer and just experience and see what courage looks like in jumping into the void and jumping into your real purpose in this lifetime. Into the void and jumping into your real purpose in this lifetime. Do you ever wake up feeling like there's something missing in your life? Do you ever feel the need to escape your business? Are you running your life or is your life running you? I'm Mike Kitko and I'll help you design and create a life so authentic and aligned with who you really are you'll get excited just to wake up. I'll help you create real wealth, success and freedom from the inside out. Welcome to the Inner Wealth Podcast, where we learn and choose to live inspired each and every day. Michael, welcome to the show.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, man, it's fun. I was excited to get you on here and I can't wait for people to hear your story, because you are the vision of what I had in mind when I created InterWealth and InterWealth Global and InterWealth Mastermind. It's people that are doing exactly what you're doing, not in the industry, but just the act of courage that you're demonstrating.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is the vision I had in mind when I joined, so it's good to hear they match up.
Speaker 1:That's exciting, so I've already done. We've already done. They've already heard your intro before the show, but tell them a little bit about who you are and what's going on in your life Currently. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Currently. Currently today, I am days away from my final day in my W2 job. I have started my own business. It is a consulting firm for businesses looking to exit and the name of that is Exit Factor of O'Fallon. It's been quite the buildup to that. I've had this idea in my head for over a year and the story of how it came to me is quite awesome. But currently, yeah, jumping into that business, I'm also dabbling in real estate. More than dabbling, I'm in real estate pretty heavily. I flip a couple of houses at a time and I have a few rentals. So that's where I am currently. I got a lovely family wife, two girls and then I don't know if Mike knew this yet, but one on the way. Congratulations. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:And the way Congratulations. Yeah, that's awesome. So yeah, and you just had one not too long ago. Yeah, it'll be two under two.
Speaker 2:It will be two under two.
Speaker 1:Angie and I had a rule two hands, two kids, that was it. Well, I wanted 10, but we kind of set the limit at two hands to to to, uh, two kids. Michael, we don't have a, we don't have a limit on how far we're going.
Speaker 2:So no, my gosh.
Speaker 1:Well, between me and Angie, we don't have, we no longer have a uterus, so or, or we like I, I'd like to have more. I love kids. But listen, talk about your W2. And you're one of the. You're one of the guys that you didn't hate your W-2. You didn't hate your job. You never hated it. You never expressed any bitterness towards being employed. It was just you were in that role and it was kind of a security blanket and it had expired.
Speaker 1:So talk about that. What do you do Like? What are you currently doing? How, how does that look? And and what is it like to you know to recognize that there's something more to life than what you're living?
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, so I've always had way too many irons in the fire, that's no secret. You knew that. Um, so I could count them out. I got my W2. I farm with my dad and grandpa. I like to flip houses, I have rentals. Me and my wife have a garden at our house. We have a mini farm here. We like to go to Lake the Ozarks, I like to golf, I like to do way too many things, and as I build up these side things, some of these are taking up way too much of my time and and I found that I enjoy them, more so than my W2. Um, so it got to the point where something, something had to give. I can't do it all. Um and uh.
Speaker 2:Working with you, I identified what, what I do want to do with my time, and that is the real estate and this new business that I was forming. So the big thing in the middle was this 40 hour work week that I was. You know, you have to get there at eight and you leave at four. It doesn't matter how busy you are, it doesn't matter if I'm swamped out of my mind or don't have a thing to do. I gotta get there at eight and leave at four.
Speaker 2:Um, and that's not how my brain operates. I I'm really task oriented, so, um, if I have something to do, I want to do it right now and I want to get it done. Um, as opposed to and on the other side of that, if, if I don't have anything to do, I don't want to sit at my desk and and act like I'm doing some kind of job, um, but yeah, so that that the obvious thing to get rid of was that 40 hour right in the week, right in the middle of my week. So now I can shift everything um and hopefully get, uh, these other tasks done during my work week, instead of being in the house until 10 o'clock pm or going to clean up a rental on Sunday morning at 7 am. I mean, that's not the times I want to do any type of work. I want to relax and enjoy time with family.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the growing family, and as you were talking about that, I've got all these thoughts and these concepts in my mind that pop up. The one that I think what you were speaking to is if you don't own your time, you don't own your life. Right, you wanted to take back control of your time and, in essence, you wanted to take back control of your life.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and I don't even know where to start on this. So what is your?
Speaker 1:W-2? Let's start there.
Speaker 2:Yep, good place. So I have been a commercial lender for 10 years. I worked for a small bank, silex Bank, early on and then, in the latter part, I worked for People's Bank and Trust Fantastic banks both of them and I really, really like my job. I really enjoyed it. I learned a ton. You know there's there's part of me that you know I'm still young, I'm 32 years old.
Speaker 2:But I look back and I say man if I would have gotten into this when I was 22, I'd be so much further ahead. That's not the truth. I had so many experiences and I've gained so much knowledge from these jobs. The fact that I can go into conversations now with a potential client that I'm going to be working with and say, hey, I have 10 years experience working with businesses like yours from a different type of table I was a commercial lender. I've seen these types of things, so that aspect of experience is just I'm grateful.
Speaker 2:I think I don't regret my past one bit. I'm just super, super happy to be where I'm at, headed towards this final day, happy to be where I'm at, you know, headed towards this this final day. Um, but yeah, and as far as you know, the exit from the bank, I I don't think there's a bit of hostility, you know, maybe there is, but I definitely don't hate or not enjoy any of my previous coworkers and and I don't think that's the the way they feel about me either Um, I have a really good, um, really good relationship with my uh, well, soon to be previous employer, uh, justin St Pierre, there at the bank. Um, I think he's going to be a big proponent of, you know future Michael. So, um, he, he's sad to see me go, but uh, I think a lot of people there kind of saw the writing on the wall as I kind of got a little bit further removed and I'd be in and out and they'd say where were you? And I'd say oh, I was closing a loan for a customer.
Speaker 2:Okay, At some point I can't be closing loans for customers three hours a day Come on Michael.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and there was. That's what I think makes you exceptional in this realm. So I'll tell a quick story. I remember my older daughter growing up, like when she when we left Oregon to come to Missouri. But when she went from elementary school to middle school, she hated her elementary school, like it was almost like to like middle school. She had to hate her elementary school to middle school. She hated her elementary school. It was almost like to like middle school. She had to hate her elementary school.
Speaker 1:Then, when we moved here, in order to love high school, she had to hate middle school. And then, when she graduated high school, she went to college and in order to love her college, she had to hate her high school. So it was like she always had to make the past wrong in some way to feel good about where she was. And then she changed colleges. She loved her first college. Then she changed, you know, went to a second college and then she had to make the first college bad and wrong. But that's what makes you exceptional is is you've never I've never heard you one time complain about your having a job the bank, it was just you were craving more of freedom, more time, freedom, more control over your life but I've never heard you complain one time about any of this.
Speaker 2:No, I mean my wife might hear it occasionally, but no, I really don't have a real complaint, don't have a logistic like a. A real complaint about it, yeah, I love that I can't name.
Speaker 2:I can't name one person that, um, that doesn't quite get. You know, that gets along with every single person in the room. So I mean, yeah, are there people at that bank that maybe I butt heads with, fine? Yeah, um, are there things about a W2 that I? I I completely resent? Are there things about a W-2 that I completely resent Absolutely? But as far as the place, the people there, no, fantastic, love it, love it.
Speaker 1:So your commercial lending. And then there was this magical moment on one of the Interwealth mastermind business calls and it was kind of a moment of awakening for you. Tell us about the you know, you know the moment I'm talking about. Tell us about that moment, what happened.
Speaker 2:Are you talking about my idea?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, the concept, the vision, the clarity.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so. So dealing with uh, dealing with customer customers at the bank. It's no secret that business owners try to lower their tax threshold as much as they possibly can. So they bring me tax returns and their bottom line is always as low as possible so that they can avoid paying an absorbent amount of taxes. So seeing this and then seeing how it was done on paper, and then in their other financials, I look across the table and I say this guy's got this great business, but on paper he struggles to get a loan from a bank to where I'm telling you, you can't afford a certain loan payment. And then this guy is telling me back well, yes, I can certain loan payment. And then this guy's telling me back, well, yes, I can, I don't know. So there's a disconnect between what the business is actually doing, what shows up on the paper, and then what the loan officer is able to do for them. So my idea was I wanted to start a consulting business to make businesses bankable and that was going to be my slogan making businesses bankable. And I went through the logistics of it all and how I was going to be my slogan making businesses bankable. And I went through the logistics of it all and how I was going to jump into this and become this consultant and I could never make sense of it on my own. So that idea kind of fizzled away for I want to say, almost a year it fizzled away.
Speaker 2:Then this drive to be my own, you know, on my own came up again and I was looking at businesses on Viz by Cell and one of them happened to be a Sinarama, which is a sign store, and anyways, I went down the path of trying to get more details on it. I learned that it was a franchise owned by UFG United Franchise Group and went through their whole tour and got the whole pitch from them and somewhere along the lines I decided I didn't want to do that, I didn't want to buy that business. So that stopped. And months later I want to say half a year went by and I get a phone call from the franchise salesperson. He said, hey, it didn't work out with Sinorama, but I was looking back over your file and your past experiences and I have something else that might you might be interested in, and that's when he was pitching me Exit Factor, which is also owned by the same franchise group in it.
Speaker 2:And that's when he was pitching me, exit factor, which is also owned by the same franchise group, and this guy, dan Neimanitis, he, he, he gives me this pitch and he's going through what this business does and the whole time he's talking. I'm laughing and like almost like a, like a nervous laugh, like oh, how's the why is this happening? The guy was pitching my idea to me, yeah, and the only words that were different was when I used bankable. He would use saleable or exitable. So exit factor is making businesses exitable, saleable. My idea was making businesses bankable. It's the same exact thing. It's the same exact thing, a little more in depth, but same thing. So I want to say that took me a total of 20 days from when he pitched the idea to me to being under contract on buying the franchise and bringing it to St Louis buying the franchise and bringing it to St Louis.
Speaker 1:You know it's, it's amazing. And I get to, I get to work with awesome people and I get to see, you know their, their success compound over time and with enough soak time, everybody, everybody, will start to step into their. You know their, their vision, as they intended. With enough soak time. Not everybody, not everybody, gives it enough soak time Right now. What I mean by that is I just finished writing a chapter in my new book and it talks about just the patience required, the patience and the trust required for whatever you're clear about, whatever you intend when you create that intention, that vision. It's just trusting and being patient enough and the universe will deliver. Life will deliver, god will deliver. Whatever that thing is out there, I don't care what it looks like I'm not, I'm not wrapping dog around that, but it's whenever you're, you're in a place of trust and patience, it's going to show up. And you came on right after that happened. You called and you said you're never going to believe what happened and I said that on the, on the mastermind with everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that was before I committed to buying and I said this came in my face that I have no idea why this is happening. But I'm going to look into it deeply and, after a little bit more research, yeah, it was what I wanted.
Speaker 1:And our good friend Brian Schroeder says that the where people go wrong in the creation process often is not receiving. When you get what you said you wanted, when it shows up, you got to receive it and you did. And that was that. 20 days. Right, 20 days was the receiving process. But you could have easily said, no, I'm going to stay in my job, I'm going to keep, I'm going to keep my security blanket. But instead you jumped into the void and you started to like, like, actually receive the, the, the, the clarity that you had received.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually did. I fought it for quite some time, even after that, because even with working with the franchise, I said, hey, maybe is there a way I can retain my job and get this on its feet. And then it turned into maybe is there a way I can keep my job and still maybe hire some consultants and manage it while I work my job. And we're six months in. I started this in October, so it's almost exactly six months is how long that I've been dragging this out, since I actually bought the franchise.
Speaker 1:So when did you give notice?
Speaker 2:The 14th, 15th of March, I gave a month. Yeah, actually I honestly didn't even give a date. I said I just want to clean up my relationships. You know, if that takes two weeks, fine, if that takes six weeks, whatever. You know, I didn't have a commitment to another employer. I didn't have any dates that I was concerned about other than you, than your retreat. That's true. I said I got to have all for that, um, but no, I, I'm just letting it play out and I will help them get it All of my loose ends tied up. So that's where I'm at right now.
Speaker 1:So let's timeline this the 14th. You gave notice and you said I don't know. I'm not going to give an exact date.
Speaker 2:This episode will launch on March 27th and when is the official or maybe the soft and the official launch of exit factor? I? Uh, as far as the franchise concerns, it's april 1st. That's the official launch. Like all my systems processes, it's set up. I have a consultant fired and she is already working with a client. Um, so we we're moving and grooving, uh, this thing now that we finally have the foot. I honestly, I probably had the foot on the brake a little bit, but once, now that I had the foot on the gas, I think it's gonna we're going to start to see some serious momentum now.
Speaker 1:When is the official launch the public?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a. I have a, I have a lunch and learn, uh, April 4th, Thursday during lunch, and anybody that wants to come by all means come by. That's going to be at the Waterbury building in O'Fallon, and just let me know and I'll add you to the list.
Speaker 1:So this is a worldwide podcast. So 830 Waterbury Falls Drive in O'Fallon, missouri, so if you're interested from coming from anywhere around, the world. Yeah right, 830 Waterbury Falls Drive in O'Fallon, missouri. That's where this thing's going to be held and Michael will be there and he'll be sharing, kind of what he's doing, his vision for Exit Factor. And come and jam and come and show up.
Speaker 2:Yep, I hope not to bore anybody. That's the main thing there. I don't want to get up there and talk for 30 or 40 minutes. I just want to get up there, say my spiel and then walk around the room and talk to people individually. So that's kind of what I have in mind with that. Nothing crazy or fancy of what I have in mind with that.
Speaker 1:Uh, nothing crazy or fancy, just just some food and drinks and hopefully talk to everybody. And that's april 4th. So we're not done with this thing yet. We're not, we're not wrapping up yet. We're just, we're just getting the, you know, kind of getting that message anchored a little bit that the week basically a week or or a week and a half after this, this, after this episode drops, michael will be in full momentum, full throttle. So now, okay, we talked about the full throttle, april 4th is full throttle.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about kind of the discussions that you and your wife and you and your family have been having behind the scenes. Because, like I started off, this is an act of courage. Not everybody has the courage to jump into the void, and you are right. So, and I love the entrepreneurial spirit, you know that I love the entrepreneurial spirit because when you're in business for yourself, there's nowhere to hide.
Speaker 1:It's eat what you kill, you market, you create a concept, you market, you kill, you market, you create a concept, you market, you sell, you're the operator, often until you build something when you can start hiring employees, you are the hunter and you are the consumer. So the point being is like that's scary and it takes an act of courage. This is a very Brian Schroeder and I had a conversation one time. This is the most spiritual, freaking development work that you could ever imagine because it challenges every aspect and you're going to feel everything you don't want to feel. You're going to experience what you don't want to experience. Tell us what those conversations were like leading up to this.
Speaker 2:Okay, so just a smidge of background with my wife. Um, she's an occupational therapist. She used to be in SSM hospitals, um, in the hospitals. When COVID happened she was also. We were expecting Amelia, our first child, and she said I'm not going back to the hospital. And at that point she started, um, her health coaching business, uh, which at this point now is is doing great. Uh, she got into a multi-level market selling wine and then, uh, she also did some in-home visits for, uh, a Missouri program called first steps. So she had a few irons in the fire but she left W2.
Speaker 2:At that point I wanted to too. I had decided I was going to be a realtor. Hindsight, I'm really glad I didn't. I do not want to be a realtor. I do have my realtor's license, but it's only for my own flips. I don't want that to be my full-time job. Will I take one on occasionally? Fine, yes, but that's not my full time thing.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, sarah, now she's been working from home. Now she's starting to homeschool our youngest daughter. So this is where the vision kind of takes place. Sarah is super flexible in our life outside of my W2, super flexible. So I think that was the whole goal here is that we could, um, we could get to a point to where we could leave on a Tuesday and go to lake and come home on a Thursday Um, no questions asked, just needed somebody to come to our house and watch our animals or something.
Speaker 2:Um, but as far as conversations terrifying. It's terrifying because through the bank, I get all of my healthcare paid for. Insurance is paid for. They also match 401k and all that good stuff. A lot of employers do that. So that's a question mark. It's kind of like something, something I don't want to say. They're holding it over your heads like, hey, if you leave, you won't have health, health insurance in the 401k match anymore. You just have to account for that, you know. Early on, you asked me what does it take in a month? What do I need in a month to survive? And you, I went through the budget and then I just added 1500 bucks for health insurance and another little bit for 401k. It's. It's just a shift in mentality and, uh, it just took a really long time to get there.
Speaker 2:Um, I mean honestly, yeah, I'm still scared but um I'm, I'm still scared, but um, but at this point I'm not scared about the income at all. Um, I'll make the income, that's. That's not a there's not a doubt in my mind that I'm not going to make the income. I might make two or three, three times the income, or or or I might not.
Speaker 2:I might not cover what I'm making right now, but none of that even matters. None of it matters because, um, that's not the reason I'm doing it. I'm doing it for for more time with my family, my daughter. You know she's always wanting to go places with me and you know she can't come sit in my office at the bank all day, but maybe there's a day where I'm looking around at houses and she can get in the truck and ride around with me. I mean, so there's there's a lot more flexibility that we were after, and and that's what I think we're going to be getting here soon.
Speaker 1:That is the reward, man that is, and you will. You will make two to three times the the income that you made at the bank. You'll crush it, in fact, you and I. You know you got all these irons in the fire. And one thing let me back up because you mentioned it. But Michael loves farming, michael loves being on the farm, michael loves being on the family farm and tending to the animals and tending to the farm. That's one piece of it. Right, he's got so many irons in the fire, but one one of those irons is real estate. And there was a time, like I think it was over the last few months, where you're where you're like, already replaced, already made as much in real estate over the last 12 months as I would have in Tibet.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So the income, the income has already been replaced and by ramping up activities that you're already doing and the exit factor is just going to serve your soul, because it's really what's in your soul trying to get out, it's really the purpose that you're looking to explore right now and that's just going to create even more income and compensation. But the reward, the treasure, is time, freedom, and that's what you are after and that's what we're all after in the entrepreneurial game.
Speaker 2:Yep and you. You mentioned discussions prior to leaving my job with my wife and yeah, I'll just go back to, we're both terrified. We were both terrified for the longest time. There's a lot of times where you know I would let's go back to last year. I would say January 1st that's when I'm done and Sarah would say, oh, are you sure, like, we really, like, how are we going to do this? And then that turned into February 1st, march 1st it's here now. But yeah, we kept pushing that because we had a. There was a lot of pushback, not just from Sarah, I can't blame her, it was me.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was me because, yeah, I was terrified you know, thrown away and even though I mean, I'll say it, I'm not, I'm not complaining about my previous salary, but I'm not impressed. I'm really not impressed with it at all. I can easily cover it and now I just have that confidence built up that that part is not even a doubt or a worry, it's just. I honestly think there was so many other things at play, which I've talked to you about as well. You know the. You throw my parents into the mix, um, you throw my community into the mix. I just had this idea built up that my parents were going to hate me if I left my W2, like my parents were going to hate me.
Speaker 2:My mom's worked at People's Bank for 38 years.
Speaker 1:The same bank as me.
Speaker 2:I had this fear that I was going to leave and mom was going to resent me and think I was stupid. She might think I'm stupid actually she said it out loud but she doesn't resent me. She wishes me well.
Speaker 2:And here we go, like we're off to the races now I just had these discussions imagined in my head that I was going to have with my parents and they were going to disown me, and none of that happens. And then you got the bank. I mean, man, an icon of Lincoln County, there, anytime anybody asks for a donation, the bank's the first one there with $10,000. Like, so I think that all weighed into it. As man, I'm leaving this wonderful place and all these people are going to hate me. Nobody hates me, nobody hates you.
Speaker 2:I was making it all up.
Speaker 1:Nobody hates you and, and I want to, I want to, I'm going to unpack some stuff real quick and and I want to, I'm going to. It's a little bit of a teachable moment because really, what happens is when you said when I asked you the question I ask that question 10 times a day when I'm talking to people what do you need to survive? How much? When somebody is looking to make the leap from W2 into entrepreneurism or looking to level up in some way, what does it take? And it usually doesn't take a whole lot to manage our lifestyle. So I think I'm around people with a good, healthy income, but we're not high maintenance in terms of we don't have this lavishly millions of dollars of spend every month. But the point is you didn't need a whole lot to make the transition. But there is this conditioning and programming. When you're built the way I was built, and when you're built the way you were built, there's conditioning and programming that says I need a job to be secure, somebody else needs to pay my benefits. I don't know if I can be successful. What if it fails? It's almost like we're built in order to and you're going to experience it.
Speaker 1:In order to experience freedom, you must give up the need for security. You can't have security and freedom at the same time and freedom at the same time. Freedom can help give you financial margin, but to get into a place where you are free, you must give up the need for security. But that is what's terrifying. Just like and I'll throw it over to you right after this, just like when you were saying the word terrifying, when I went up and I did some skydiving back in August last year, I was in that, I was in that doorway and I was petrified but I was jumping anyway, right. So, and that's what emotional courage is. It's the presence of fear in your body, but the courage to move forward anyway. It's the willingness to feel all that discomfort and all that fear and still move towards the objective. And that's what you did. You're starting to move through the story that you need security. Where, so did your? You know, where did your parents come in to play with that security mindset that you were holding on to?
Speaker 2:that security mindset that you were holding on to. Well, you know, I can't pinpoint anything exactly. It probably all goes back to the fact that, yeah, 38 years at one bank, um, super low risk, yeah, always. Just, you know, staying within means, um. And then you know, yeah, we, we are a well-known family in lincoln county, so I mean there's a lot of eyes on us and you know. Then there's always the phrase of uh, like your dad is such a great guy, like, yeah, he is like 100%.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But there's always this um man, I gotta be like my dad, I gotta be, you know, I gotta. I gotta live up to this. No one told me this, but that's, that's what he's playing in your head, is that? Wow, everybody thinks you know, dad has created this, um, a bridge of hope, which is a homeless shelter in Troy. Amazing, it's incredible, but I got this. Everything I got to hold myself up to, I got to be this guy is what I was trying to tell myself. I have to be him and I don't have to. I'll do my own thing and hopefully do as much good for the community that he did. Like that's the goal. I want to, but I don't have to do the exact same thing, Right.
Speaker 1:There's a, there's a book and you and I you you've heard me talk about this book a billion times, but no more, mr Nice guy, yeah, I was going to mention that book somewhere here, because that was such a huge influence on my life that no more, mr Nice Guy, it's like top three for me.
Speaker 1:It's Dr Robert Glover. Dr Robert Glover, no more. Mr Nice Guy, it's stop worrying about pleasing or impressing or the judgment of others. Just live your life. You're not built like anybody else. You can't make anybody happy. You can't make anybody pissed off. They're going to do that themselves. The only thing you can do is just live your life to be authentic, to be powerful, to be fulfilled, to be free, to be prosperous, and let everybody sort out their own mess and their own judgment and their own emotions and their own anxieties. And as you stepped into that place of you know, letting go of the judgment of others, you started stepping into into more alignment with your authenticity. And that's what. That's what created this. Could you speak to that?
Speaker 2:Yes, and in that book he calls it the nice guy syndrome. That is, that was me to a T nice guy syndrome. You know I not. That doesn't mean that you don't, you can't be nice to people. Yeah, it's not about being an ass people.
Speaker 1:Yeah it's not about being an ass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not about being an ass yeah, getting cured of nice guy syndrome doesn't mean that you're an asshole to everybody and you walk around just treating everybody like crap. No, it just means that you stand up for yourself, you do what you want for you and your family. And and that is where my intentions are right now is that I'm not shoving anybody aside, I'm not telling anybody else they can't live their life how they live, to want to live. But as for me and mine, this is what we're doing. Yeah, and, and that's where I am right now, that book was super empowering and not a I I had a ha aha moment when I read originally, but it truly didn't kick in until months after. Yeah, honestly, I think I read it a second time. Actually. That was, yeah, that was a good one.
Speaker 1:That's one that, once you've been subjected, once you realize that you're living through a nice guy filter and lens, I think, michael, that book, probably every time you go through it you're going to, you're just going to be a little little more catharsis.
Speaker 2:So so it's actually on my bed stand.
Speaker 1:I intend to do it, to read it again so yeah, I've probably been through that book about five or six times so far, and it's only been like a year or two that I've had it, so so I mean it's just a just a longer than that, but just a wonderful, wonderful read. It looks like what you're doing and what you're saying is you're just letting go of the opinions, of what everybody else wants for you, and you're just choosing yourself. I love that. That's what creates authentic alignment.
Speaker 1:So, now let's talk a little more about Exit Factor. Talk about the exact work that you're going to be doing in exit factor.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, the intention behind exit factor, uh, my particular brand, my particular business, is exit factor of O'Fallon O'Fallon, missouri, uh, in St Louis. Um, the intention behind it is that, um, we're helping businesses clean up their financials. Different processes with employees, you know, structure their business, anything to make them more sellable. The statistic behind it is that I believe the number is 86% of businesses that go to a business brokerage don't sell. And what happens with those? Most of them just fold. They just close up shop, sell their real estate. They don't actually sell the business, they just sell the real estate and equipment. Maybe it's more like an asset sale.
Speaker 2:The intention with this company is to give them value. Every business has value. Every business has value. Some business owners think that they're worth less than what they actually are and some business owners completely inflate what they think their business is worth. The goal with with what I want to help with is to give them a clear value of where they're at today, a clear path over the next year to two to three potentially, how we can increase the value and by, by growth, increase the value by cleaning up processes. So, maybe, maybe you've got three employees and every day, these employees just do random tasks. Now we need to go in. These employees just do random tasks. Now we need to go in, define clearly what each employee does, what their daily job tasks are, weekly, whatever it be. That way, if employee A leaves, you get a job listing. You can hire someone to jump right into their role. All those things that streamline the business, makes it more appealing to a new buyer, things that buyers don't like An owner-operator. That's one of the first things we always work to remove.
Speaker 1:If there's an owner-operator, the person has a job not a business.
Speaker 2:Yep, the person has a job. I don't want to buy a job, I want to buy a business. I want to buy a business that I can show up at and I can manage if I want to. But I don't A prime example and I'm not throwing my dad under the bus, but he's got a heating and cooling business and he has a job. If he stops working and going to service calls and the business will stop, so particularly with his business, we would work to divvy up his task. So maybe he's doing his own bookkeeping Well, I know he is. We would find a bookkeeper for him. Maybe he's running service calls. We need to find a trained employee or take his employee on hand and train him to do some of these service calls. Get as many of these tasks off of the owner operator as possible. That way, when that person steps out of that role, the new buyer doesn't have to step into that role. I can just buy the business and it's operating.
Speaker 1:And if the person leaves, if an employee leaves, the whole Yep, a key employee the whole operation doesn't collapse Right. So there's always and I've been on when I was in fortune 500, when I was in corporation, I was on both sides of acquisitions. I was on, I was I was the, the acquirer and I was the acquiree. And it's a. It's a fragile time. That business transition is very, especially for the, especially for the company being acquired. When, when the, when the owner says, hey, we've just, I've just sold or we've been acquired, everybody is looking to see if they should exit. At that moment it's like everybody is that moment.
Speaker 1:everybody dusts up dust or, yeah, dust off their, their resume, right.
Speaker 2:A prime example. The franchise owner from Denver spoke about how she had a business that she was working through, and she repeatedly said now I know you might care about your employees and you might want to fill them in on this and tell them what you're doing, but I promise you, please do not tell them. Please do not tell them. And the lady kept it to herself as she was building this business for an exit. But then she told some of her key employees that she was getting ready to sell the business a couple months before it went through. They all quit and found jobs elsewhere, and her deal fell through and her business was then worth nothing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I was.
Speaker 1:I was working for a company called I was working for a company called techtronics in portland oregon and we were acquired by a company called danaher and danaher's up. It was huge at the time it was. It was called danaher I think it's something different now, but it was a holding company and they took what we had 3,000 employees or something and they brought us all like into a conference, into separate conference rooms, and told everybody and it's like this was a multi-billion dollar company that we were running and it was completely a secret that we were being acquired right, completely a secret Surprise meeting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and that's where you find out. But it's in that moment that I had a brand new kid. Our younger daughter was brand new, and she was. She was just a couple of months old and my first thought is, oh my God, I'm going to, am I going to lose my job? And that's what everybody's thinking on when the acquisition needed to prepare for those things way ahead of time, so that when the business is sold, everything doesn't fall apart just because of the transaction.
Speaker 2:Right, my, my buddy, uh, did it the right way. He bought a carpet cleaning business and the employees did not know until the day of the transition.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Dusty and his uh, new well, dusty Sanders. There you go, yeah, dusty, and his new well, dusty Sanders. There you go, dusty and his new manager walked in and said hey, I am the new owner of this business. Everything's going to go on as it was before. You all are still employed. You know, the reason that this was sold is to hopefully grow the business, not to deplete the business. You're all good and all the employees were happy. You know, not to deplete the business. You're all good and all the employees were happy. They were scared and obviously change is never fun. I'm going through that right now but if it's handled that way, that's the best thing for the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you prepare. So there's a saying about an oak tree and I shared this with you on a call one time. I used this in a sales call. I love it. I'm glad you did Shit. I didn't create it right, I didn't. It's not my invention, I just stole it too. But there's two best times to plant an oak tree. What are they?
Speaker 2:50 years ago and or today.
Speaker 1:Yeah so the best time to start preparing to sell your business is.
Speaker 2:Obviously, five years ago is the greatest time to start, but today is the next best time.
Speaker 1:If you haven't started preparing for an exit, today is the perfect time.
Speaker 2:It's the best day to get started and it's never too early.
Speaker 1:I've even heard people say on the first day that you are a business owner, that you are building a business. You start preparing to sell it from day one. It's never, ever too early.
Speaker 2:That should be the mindset from day one, cause you're going to see your business grow the most and you're going to see it operate the most efficiently. If that's, if that is the the the goal, even if even if it's 10 to 15 years out, have it ready to sell at any point, because that means it's a well-oiled machine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now there's. There's a bunch of people in my ecosystem and in the interwealth mastermind and that I work with and clients that are in the business acquisition scheme and they are always looking to acquire a business and they each have niches, they each have their industries that they prefer. But one thing they're doing is they're from the second on, whether it be biz, by sell. They're analyzing if this business is sellable, if this business is actually acquirable, and they have a couple determinants and it's is it. Is it dependent, like you said? Is it dependent on the operator? Do they have systems and processes? Is the growth? Is the growth sustainable? Are they? Are they asking too much, right? I mean all of these things, and this is what you help businesses prepare for it to make sure it's airtight so that when they want to sell they can. That's exactly right. But that work's got to take place way before you even think of or you're not sellable, right, and it's going to take you a couple of years to in order to get that thing so that it is sellable.
Speaker 2:Yep, and currently I'm working on that mindset shift with business brokers. Believe it or not, this is going to be. One of the hardest hurdles here is because if a business goes to a business broker and they think they're worth a million dollars, maybe the business broker thinks they can get them sold for 750.
Speaker 1:If you're the business broker.
Speaker 2:Would you rather sell that business right now for 750 and get your commission check, or would you send it off to me and let me clean up this business for potentially one to three years, in the hopes that in three years I'm sending it back to you, which I would have some kind of contractual agreement with them? Send it back to them 50% higher, you know, so maybe it's worth 1.5 at that time, right? I think the instant gratification with with them currently is is one of my biggest hurdles. Some get it, some don't, but that's what I'm working on right now with these relationship with business brokers is trying to get them to see the value and sending them off. Let them grow, let them nurture for a couple of years and then bring them back and make more money. I think that the fast paycheck is what we're after currently.
Speaker 2:When in all reality it's better for us to grow a little bit for two years and then get them to sell.
Speaker 1:Increase the value and increase the commission over time. Well, michael, it sounds like you are in alignment with what you want to do and, moving into alignment, it sounds like you've got massive clarity. It sounds like you're excited about this. It sounds like you've got like massive clarity. It sounds like you're excited about this. If somebody wanted to, maybe they have a business right now and they're looking to get that thing prepared. Maybe they have line of sight for an exit, maybe they don't, but if they wanted to connect with you, how can they find you? Where can they find you?
Speaker 2:Exit Factor of O'Fallon is on Facebook, instagram, so you can find me there. My email is michaelschiefer at exitfactorcom. You can contact me there as well. Or we have a website which is linked to every franchise in the nation, so if I'm not the closest one to you, somebody can help you or contact me and I can refer you to the right direction.
Speaker 1:Somebody can help you or contact me and I can refer you to the right direction. Awesome, and I'll put all of those, all of those links, in the show notes. So if you or somebody you know is running a business and wants to, wants to get it airtight before you sell so that you get max value out of your business, go connect with Michael and connect with X.
Speaker 2:And how that looks. Um, that doesn't mean that you have to come to me and pay me. You have to sign up for my consulting. To get a tidbit from me. How it would look is I'd have an intro call roughly 30 minutes. We'd talk about where you're at currently and then talk about what's best for you. Maybe that just means you need some sort of SBA loan and I have a referral for you. Maybe that means that I can already tell that just means you need some sort of SBA loan and I have a referral for you. Maybe that means that I can already tell that you might just need a bookkeeper, and I have a referral for you there too. So it might be something simple that we can hash out in a short conversation. Or maybe it is something that you do need a consulting package for, so we can discuss that in a short phone call.
Speaker 1:And this is from experience I was. I started my business back in 2017 and I was always afraid to tell people that I was brand new in my in my career. Right that that well, especially getting the first client. I was scared to say you're going to be my first client, so I kind of held that back. But what I've learned later is those first clients got more of me than anybody else ever, because there was there was a hundred percent of me being divided amongst just a few people. It's a good way to put it.
Speaker 2:That's a good way to put it, because I also struggle with that.
Speaker 1:It's like I'm new, but I'm not new, I have a ton of experience yep, when, when you're, when you're one of michael's first five clients, you're going to get like all of him that you need and and a lot more Cause he's going to. He's going to be passionate and I'm just speaking from my own experience. He's going to be passionate about you. He's going to be passionate about your business. He's going to be passionate that he gets to do what he's passionate about. So he's going to give you extra time, extra attention, and you're going to get massive value out of it. I can speak from experience.
Speaker 2:That's very well stated, because I know that's going to happen.
Speaker 1:And that's exactly why you definitely want to be one of Michael's first five clients. Michael, it's been awesome connecting with you. It's been awesome unpacking this with you, but it's been even more awesome watching you step from where you were into what you wanted to do and to see your heart, like, continue to fricking, expand into your, into your purpose.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Looking back, I mean, my journey is so fun. I mentioned that I don't regret anything. But, like, looking back behind me, I'm just like, wow, that was pretty cool how I got here. So, uh, I don't regret any of it at all. I'm just super excited for what. You know. I tell Sarah we're going to have a great summer because I'm not quite super busy yet with the new business, we're going to the lake every week. I love it. I'm really excited for what it's going to bring.
Speaker 1:Time freedom, man. If you don't own your time, you don't own your life. Guys, thanks for hanging in there with us. Connect with all of Michael's contact information in the show notes, even just have a discovery session with him. But in any way, man, just cheerlead Michael Schieffer on, because he's another entrepreneur that made the jump into the void and that's where you're going to find freedom. Until next week. Until next week, if you enjoyed what you heard and you want to learn more, go to wwwinnerwealthglobalcom for more tools and resources.