Episode 43 - Rethinking Success and Exit Strategy with Justin Goodbread
What does it look like to steward your business and family with intentionality, especially when it's time to plan an exit? Entrepreneur and author Justin Goodbread joins host Deb Meyer to talk candidly about sacrifice, scaling, and what too many business owners get wrong when it's time to let go.
Whether you’re years away from selling or just starting to think about legacy, this conversation blends practical wisdom and deep faith in a way that resonates with purpose-driven parents and entrepreneurs alike.
Exit planning isn’t just about spreadsheets; it’s about soul work. Whether your business is ready or not, ask: Am I emotionally and spiritually ready to step into what’s next?
Episode Highlights
01:30 – Why Justin doesn’t believe in “work-life balance”
10:50 – Debunking homeschool myths and owning your kids’ education
24:00 – The heartbreaking stat: Most exits leave owners dissatisfied
36:00 – Deb’s reflections: right-sizing Justin’s message for smaller business owners
42:00 - A study on how money brings happiness (hint: it’s not through spending on stuff)
Related Episodes
Ep 16 - Maximizing Your Business Exit (Retirement planning for small biz owners)
Ep 27 - Breaking Free from Work-Centered Identity (with Jerome Myers)
Connect with Guest Justin Goodbread
Books The Ultimate Sale and Your Baby’s Ugly
Justin’s Podcast: DecaMillionaire Decoded
Connect with Host Deb Meyer
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
Website: WorthyNest.com/podcast
Full transcript
Deb Meyer (00:00.364)
I’m excited to introduce today's guest, Justin Goodbread. I first became acquainted with Justin through the Exit Planning Institute's SEPA program, the Certified Exit Planning Advisor Training, back in 2020. And Justin was actually a speaker for one of the lessons. I just loved his practical experience as a seasoned entrepreneur, mostly for service-based businesses. So he launched his first venture at just 15 years old.
in awe. And over the years, Justin built multiple companies and he's even had an eight figure exit. He's the creator of Deca Millionaire Doctrine, which is a five phrase framework designed to guide business owners from operational overwhelm to strategic freedom. He's also a two time bestselling author with books, The Ultimate Sale and Your Baby's Ugly. Love the title.
And Justin also hosts the long running podcast, Dec A Millionaire Decoded. They have over 500 episodes packed with strategic insights for business growth, exit planning and leadership. So welcome to the Beyond Budgets podcast, Justin.
Justin Goodbread (01:10.754)
Thanks, Dad. Thanks for having me.
Deb Meyer (01:12.02)
Yeah. Now I know this isn't technically in your bio, but you are a devoted husband and dad. So all of our listeners are parents and you've really navigated that work life balance pretty well. You successfully scaled and sold multiple businesses. How have you prioritized family time in the midst of it all?
Justin Goodbread (01:32.11)
I'm not sure that I would say I navigated it very well. That's a work-life balance thing. I'm gonna make a very bold statement. I don't believe in this world's concept of work-life balance. I think as a family unit, each family has to live the lifestyle that they believe God's designed them to live. And so when our kids were young, we made the decision to homeschool our kids. And so Emily quit her job as a college educated.
Deb Meyer (01:35.158)
You
Deb Meyer (01:42.453)
Okay.
Justin Goodbread (01:58.414)
very, very ambitious young lady quit her job to be a mom. And she made our family her number one job. And that's her words. And I don't mean to buy anything degrading that, but that's just, she said, I want to be everything to my family. First and foremost, they're my mission field. And in order for me to do that, Justin get out and work. So in the early days.
Deb Meyer (02:07.532)
Mm.
Deb Meyer (02:14.604)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (02:20.332)
Earn some money.
Justin Goodbread (02:22.797)
Yeah. I mean, in the early days, you know, it wasn't this work life balance thing. I'm a dad. I'm a husband. I'm a provider. I'm working so that my wife did not have to. And so she can stay at home and be with our kids. you know, whenever the world often says work life balance, what I often hear on many podcasts that go on as well, I should have an equal amount of time at work as I do at home. And we're going to keep track of these two little ledgers. And I just think that's a lot of hooey. In the early days as a business owner, in early days as a family.
Deb Meyer (02:52.908)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (02:53.163)
You know, things are tough. You know, I remember the first time I went out to get a shovel and I didn't have a shovel. It's like, who doesn't have a shovel? Everybody has a shovel. Well, no, I never bought a shovel. always, my dad and mom always had the shovel. So, you know, now I'm to buy these little things like a shovel on top of trying to raise a family is expensive and it's hard. And so the thing of work life balance did not exist in the first 10 to 15 years of our life. And I'm being very candid with you on that, but we had this dream.
We had this dream that as Dave Ramsey, my hero says, live like no one else. So later you can live like no one else. I was taught through my training as a homeschooled student and through all the things that I went through, that if we labored very, very diligently in the first 10, 15 years of our marriage, kept our resources in check, kept our priorities in order and lived a very difficult life that many people want time of leisure in the first 10, 15 years of our marriage, then the latter
Deb Meyer (03:28.524)
you
Justin Goodbread (03:50.734)
30, 40 years of our marriage, Lord willing, we would actually have that life of balance. And so the first, you know, the first 10, 15 years, was tough to have. There are vacations that my family went on that I didn't go on. And there were vacations that we went as a family together, but my mind was not there. In I see photos and I was like, I don't remember that. Where was that? She said, that was here. Yeah, you weren't thinking cause you were dealing with this at that particular time. She remembered the business side. Now fast forward.
Deb Meyer (03:55.916)
Hmm.
Deb Meyer (03:59.872)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (04:11.712)
Hmm.
Justin Goodbread (04:19.565)
through those years of labor where it's a little out of kilter. Now our children are in college and teenage years about to leave the nest and Emily and I literally just spent five days in the Caribbean, just she and I together. And so now this work-life balance has actually swing the other way to where now the family has the vast amount of time right now for the last four or five years as the kids are in high school going forward. So I don't believe this thing called work-life balance, but I do believe that
Deb Meyer (04:30.956)
Aww.
Deb Meyer (04:35.244)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (04:47.679)
as a family unit, each of us can make sacrifices and each of us can look at the journey in a long view, long form view and make decisions that could impact others around us. In my case, it was to impact my wife to be able to be the mother that she desired to be.
Deb Meyer (05:03.092)
I love that because I think so few people are honest about that. You know, like when they do have a stay at home spouse that's there to raise the kids, it really is that family unit working together and using their God given strengths and whatever realm they feel God's calling them. So I just appreciate you being honest about that because I think a lot of people just assume like
well, you have to do it this way or this one size fits all. And in your case, it really did work well to have that, you you were focused on building the business, having some financial security and that provider role. And then your wife was really focused on investing in the kids and being there for them. Homeschooling is a huge undertaking. So that's awesome.
Justin Goodbread (05:50.702)
And she had the hardest job. Listen, I mean, I'm not going to sugarcoat this. I would not trade places with that girl. She's a superhero. She's my rock. And for her to deal with what she dealt with on a daily basis, still deals with as a, as buried to me, which is, know, you almost had to be psycho. God's got special crowns in heaven for that girl just for that. And then to raise three kids that are three years apart homeschooling them. even before homeschooling is popular through the COVID errors. mean, being able to do this years ago. And then we, you know,
Deb Meyer (05:57.644)
Aww.
Deb Meyer (06:07.328)
Hahaha
Justin Goodbread (06:18.923)
keeping them moving forward, keeping me moving forward, keeping our home, the safe haven. So whenever I come home from work, tired and beat up, I can come home to joy. It is something that, that I believe that God gifted her with. And I think that her calling as she says was to do this exact thing. And I just, I had the opportunity and the privilege to watch her in that grow in that area.
Deb Meyer (06:37.398)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (06:41.12)
Wow, nice, okay. Well, I could go on another tangent, because I'm really interested in homeschooling just in general, but I guess that was in her realm, so I won't ask you around. yeah, guess, yeah, so now that your kids are college age, they were able to get great roles, or get into great schools and things like that with that homeschooling education.
Justin Goodbread (06:53.281)
We can talk about homeschooling. I was homeschooled my entire life. What everyone, mean.
Justin Goodbread (07:09.261)
Yeah. So I'll take it back to when I was homeschooled. I was homeschooled 40 years ago in the many States, the United States. It was illegal to actually teach children at home. Whenever I was homeschooled back again, 40 plus years ago, there were less than 15,000 homeschoolers nationwide. And it wasn't until president Clinton signed house resolution six that allowed homeschoolers actually go to government education schools or government colleges. So whenever I graduated, I could not physically go to a public university. I had to go get my GED.
Deb Meyer (07:11.404)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (07:38.23)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (07:38.69)
Forget the fact that my SAT scores were what they were. They were very good. I could have gotten any college I wanted to nationally with my SAT scores. but I couldn't go to school until president Clinton signed house, house HR six. Once he signed HR six, allowed homeschooling students to go to college. What, what I dealt with back in the day, because it wasn't popular is you'll, you won't be socialized. You'll be an introvert. You'll be the weirdo who's sitting at home in their mom and dad's basements. I think that my credentials and the life that I've lived, I kind of nixed that.
Deb Meyer (08:08.15)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (08:08.395)
I mean, I literally was on stage last week in front of 1200 people and was the best keynote at the whole event there. So I don't think the stereotype of homeschooling back in the day is true. What we see today, especially because of COVID, COVID changed the world and so many parents overnight had to become homeschooling parents, not by choice, but by mandate. See, my mom made the choice and my wife made the choice to do this years before it was over government mandate.
Deb Meyer (08:35.382)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (08:35.777)
So now what the improvement is, is those individuals who have that desire, not has been mandated, who have the desire to say, hey, I really don't, I want to be the teacher to my children. don't believe our, the way I look at it is, this is Justin being really authentic. So please forgive me or edit this out if you want to, but I don't believe the guy gave my kids to us for us to send them to a different belief system to educate them. I don't believe that's the way he designed us.
Deb Meyer (09:01.228)
Mm.
Justin Goodbread (09:03.213)
And I think the best teacher I know is my wife. The person who has the best character is my wife. Then when I look at the world outside of religion or outside of politics, the most influential, the most successful people in the world hire tutors, one-on-one tutors to train their children. They don't use this assembly line style education system that our government now uses that was coming from the 19...
Deb Meyer (09:19.788)
Mmm.
Justin Goodbread (09:27.681)
early 1900s out of manufacturing era. They don't use that. They go and they use very, very targeted student or teachers one-on-one with that student. And as such, it produces a very interesting outcome. So I could have gone to any college I wanted to after the law was signed, free ride. And then my brother, my sister and I are by all accounts from the world's viewpoints, hyper successive, successful. So the product is there in my family, but it's not just my family.
Deb Meyer (09:37.142)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (09:41.004)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (09:55.82)
I've seen the studies now in last 30 years that those students who have that one-on-one tutelage from somebody who is a master or somebody who has the master's heart. That's the key. My mom didn't have to know music in order to teach me music. She hired a piano teacher who was a graduate of Juilliard to teach his music. And today I can play concert piano. She didn't have to know history. She hired a history professor for the university of Georgia to teach us history. She didn't have to know science. She hired a doctor to teach us science. And you get this.
Deb Meyer (10:05.292)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (10:25.185)
We were poor. We were poor. All she did was paint the dream of, want my children to have this type of education. And those professionals gave their time willingly because they love to teach. They have the art of teaching. And so it's not a matter of my mom or my wife having to know the master of all these type things. It's them caring about their student, their child. And when caring about the child providing education and the results are phenomenal. So all of our children now, my daughter's in school. She has a free ride. She can do anything she wants to in life.
Deb Meyer (10:32.894)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (10:36.661)
Mmm.
Deb Meyer (10:51.0)
Mm wow.
Justin Goodbread (10:53.821)
And it's all because we taught them their teacher, loved them more than anybody else in this world, and wanted to see them succeed more than anybody else in this world. Didn't have an agenda other than watch them outperform their teacher. And their teacher crafted their education because their teacher knew them better than anybody else in this world. And she crafted their education for their success. And now they're walking in that way, which we believe God's designed them to walk. It's very interesting approach. But now, again, most people can recognize this by default.
Deb Meyer (11:02.571)
Mm-hmm.
Hmm.
Justin Goodbread (11:22.935)
four years, five years ago through COVID. Most people can now recognize it.
Deb Meyer (11:24.83)
Mm-hmm. Right, right. Yeah, no, we witnessed it a lot too in our community in Florida. I mean, we were in like a very small knit community with one charter school right there in the neighborhood, but it wasn't always a great fit for every student and just saw a very large homeschool community grow out of that. And even some people, you know, developing co-ops where they're saying, hey, this parent's great in teaching this subject, so let's bring some other kids that are
homeschoolers and let's meet and do the subject collectively, not necessarily going the private tutor option. So that's cool. Okay. Well.
Justin Goodbread (11:58.359)
Absolutely.
Justin Goodbread (12:02.893)
It's brilliant. There's so many ways that we can educate. I believe this, Deb, I believe that God is preparing us for what he's preparing us for. I believe that every single day he says, there's something in front of each of us that we have a mission that we can accomplish. For me, it's been in business, for my wife, it's been in family, for the listener, maybe something else. But even whenever we look at our children, God gave my three children to Emily and I to prepare us for something on this journey in front of us. I mean, you think about it as a parent.
Deb Meyer (12:21.516)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (12:29.868)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (12:31.841)
how much we learn, training them. I mean, I see my middle son and he infuriates me at times because he's so much like me and I can see my weaknesses in him, right? And I have to pray for him more than I pray for all my other two kids because I see me in him. And my wife says, I see my daughter and then she infuriates me because I can see her in me. And we laugh about this now, but.
Deb Meyer (12:33.526)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (12:54.721)
believe that ultimately God gives us our children, God gives us our positions, He gives everything that He has this go through in life. It's preparing us for what He's prepared for us. And ultimately it's so we can serve others and impact them for the kingdom.
Deb Meyer (13:05.83)
I love that. Thank you. That is, I feel the same way. I, it's good to be in connection there with each other on that note. All right, well, let's switch gears. I know you started your first business at age 15. So I'm sure some of that was because you were homeschooled, like you had the opportunity to probably have a little more flexibility and freedom in your school day, but.
Did you always know you wanted to be an entrepreneur at that point or was it more happenstance?
Justin Goodbread (13:40.706)
It wasn't either. was my dad said, if you don't have a job by Friday, don't come home. And he said, you can't work fast food. You can't work for anybody I know and you can't work for a grocery store. Okay. So I'm 15 years of age. Now they had, they, what they again, crafted my education because of who I am and my personality type. They knew they had to make it difficult and they had to make it challenging and they had to make the reward exponential and the penalty exponential. Now, of course, if I didn't have a job by Friday, would they let me in?
Deb Meyer (13:44.627)
Justin Goodbread (14:10.153)
I hope they would have, but also know how arduous my dad was in his training. So I don't know. He may maybe slip on the back porch for a day or two or something. don't know. but after a week or so, Deb, after a week or so, I mean, a week or so beforehand, they were teaching us things and we'd already gone through business training. already had business owners teach us about business and we've been to Zig Ziglar conferences and Les Brown conferences. And we've been to the Amway conferences, which was a multi-level.
excuse me, a multilevel marketing company back in the day. We'd been to these conferences from the age of 10. We had read the books. I mean, we had already kind of understood business. And so come day five, I went and pulled the lawnmower out of the garage because if I didn't have a job that day, don't come home. Drug it down the road. Do you know my daddy? Do you know my dad? Do know my dad? Because what his rules is, you can't work for nobody I know. Finally came to this guy's yard, which was really high, cut his grass, get made 40 bucks, came home from work.
I pulled the lawnmower back home, had my $40 in the head. Dad came home from work, tired like he always did, stinky like he always was. I mean, just a hardworking man. He sits down and he says, you're clean, you smell good, what's up? I was like, well, here's my $40, dad. He goes, what'd you do? Cut the grass. Cool. He goes, you owe me five bucks for rental on the machine and for gas for using my gas in the machine. So you me five bucks, you have 35 now. Now we gotta give so much to the church for, we gotta put so much in long-term savings, so much, and then this is how much you can play with. Okay, cool.
Deb Meyer (15:08.385)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (15:26.404)
huh.
Justin Goodbread (15:27.403)
And it wasn't about the money. was about the pride in the moment that I was able to accomplish something which seemed like a mountain at that particular week. And then he made this monumental move in my life, Deb. said, so I want you to learn something here. If you've learned to work hard and work for yourself, you'll never be beholden to the man. That was his terms. And I think we'd all recognize that terms, that old colloquialism, that the man, if you will, the boss or the corporation, et cetera, who oftentimes may not have our best interest in mind.
Deb Meyer (15:34.38)
Mmm.
Justin Goodbread (15:56.226)
And he taught me at that particular point, how to be a business owner or the power of being a business owner. Then my mom quit working at the hospital to come home and help us start a little landscape company. The little landscape company scaled over five years. actually, my brother and I was, my brother's three years younger than me. My brother and I both made more income after all of our shenanigans than my mom and dad did combined within a year and a half's time. We actually, the two of us produced at
Deb Meyer (16:20.406)
my goodness.
Justin Goodbread (16:23.777)
three times the level of mom and dad's income combined by the time we were 17 and 15. And so we knew business. We went, we made up to 47 employees at one time and we had multiple crews, multi everything, but we're just teenagers. You know, we're just running a business and we went our different ways through college. sold the business. And then after Emily and I got married, I moved to Tennessee, started three other, two other companies, sold them and ultimately ended up.
Deb Meyer (16:27.062)
Wow.
Deb Meyer (16:31.68)
Did you have a crew of people helping you or were you just?
Deb Meyer (16:42.112)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (16:53.389)
Fall in love with helping business owners and teaching business owners how to rapidly scale and what that led to was an unbelievable exit of my own. And now I have the privilege of coaching business owners through what I call my five F frameworks, nothing popular, nothing uncommon. We've seen this before that business owners need to have a deep faith, whatever their faith is or belief system that they can execute on. They need to have family is number two. you lose, if you gain the world through money, you lose your family. What good is it? You need to have friends.
Deb Meyer (16:55.276)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (17:21.389)
There's going to be people in your life that whenever times get hard, you've got to have them there. Your fitness has got to be your fitness is my fourth F you got to take care of your body. I believe the body is the temple of God, but we've got to take care of our bodies. What good is it to gain the world of business or finances, but then not be able to enjoy it with your family. And then finally five is finances. And so I have this framework that I walk now business owners through the five F's and those are my heart hierarchy. Some people put money above everything else. And it's like, why, why money is so cheap.
Money is so easy. What does it do to gain the world and lose your family, your friends, your fitness, your finance, your, your, and your faith. If you lose those for the sake of money, it doesn't work. And so now I get to teach business owners and as they get their life prioritized, right. I watch businesses double and triple within a matter of 12, 18 months. I teach financial advisors all over the country how to take businesses and, and help their clients.
Small business owners like HVAC companies who may have what I call chucking a truck, they may be making a million dollars in top line revenue within about two or three years, they're pulling in close to $10 million in top line revenue. Business is so easy once you understand there's a roadmap and a formula. So I have this unbelievable privilege now, Deb, to teach this to my brothers and sisters out there on the front lines who are pushing toward their ultimate goals.
Deb Meyer (18:37.764)
that's such a wonderful expression of how you took some of those early entrepreneurial lessons and then really used it to help other entrepreneurs who maybe have been struggling. They might have had the business for 10 years and just been at a flat line revenue level or profit level, but it sounds like you're really making a huge impact. So thank you. Yeah. So I know there are a lot of jaw dropping statistics around exit planning.
Justin Goodbread (19:00.365)
It's a lot of fun.
Deb Meyer (19:07.493)
and a lot of people don't know them. What's one statistic you wish every small business owner knew?
Justin Goodbread (19:13.815)
Well, let's define our terms first. What is exit planning? Oftentimes, you know, I was speaking on stage this last week and someone came to me and they said, Justin, exit. I don't want to sell my business. Exit planning is not about trying to sell your company. That's the misnomer out there. Whenever we hear it through our frameworks, I always like to define the term. Basically, as a business owner, we have this business. It's an asset. And oftentimes it is our largest asset. Statistically speaking, one of these statistics is it represents roughly 80 % of your net worth.
Deb Meyer (19:23.435)
Mm.
Justin Goodbread (19:43.318)
And most business owners don't realize that the asset, this stock, if you will, this piece of real estate, we call it business using it as a metaphor, that it is attractive to somebody else. If you build it right. What happens for the business owner is they sacrifice like I did in the early days to, to sacrifice and build an income to provide for Emily while she's at home, taking care of the children. And the business does provide good income. And there are many business owners that reach this level of.
200,000, 20,000 a month, 30,000 a month in total benefit by the time they do their take on pay and whatever they run through their company, it provides a good lifestyle. And, that's what it is, is lifestyle. And oftentimes we as business owners, we get accustomed to this lifestyle, whatever the standard of living is, we get accustomed to it. We desire more because that's the human nature. We want to have the nicer car, the nicer vacation, or the bigger house, or do more with our grandkids or our kids. We desire more, but we love the lifestyle we live.
Deb Meyer (20:24.096)
Yes.
Justin Goodbread (20:42.323)
Ultimately though, happens statistically speaking is that 80 % of businesses will never transact. They'll never move from you, the owner to somebody else. So what does that mean? That means that 80 % of those businesses provide a good income until they don't. And there's a study that shows depending on the, the, whenever what's called short time syndrome kicks in, whenever you're like, okay, I'm tired.
Deb Meyer (20:50.636)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (20:58.892)
Mm.
Justin Goodbread (21:07.277)
Whenever that happens, it's typically we see it depending on the generation from about 47 to about 65, that rough framework. Baby boomers are typically in the sixties. My generation, the exes are typically in their mid forties. Whenever we start experiencing this, it's like, you know, is this all there is? How, how could I continue to make this $200,000 a year, $100,000 a year, $400,000 a year in income for the rest of my life? How do I do this? So we start looking externally to say,
Well, I've got this income coming in. Let me try to invest it. Let me invest it in the stock market. And we realize, my goodness, I haven't been investing in the stock market the last 30 years, like my W2 counterparts have. I don't have a 401k that has seven figures in it. my goodness. If I had a million dollars, it's only going to provide me 50,000 year in income. I got to have $5 million to provide my 250,000. my goodness. How do I achieve this? So then we go out and we say, okay, let's buy real estate. And there's such a boom out there on the internet about real estate. And now
Deb Meyer (21:56.79)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (22:04.225)
wait a second, I gotta go out and borrow money, put myself in extreme debt in order for me to build real estate and run a business that's hyper risk. And we as business owners, we don't like that. So what do we do? We ended up just basically burying our hole in the sand, head in the sand like an ostrich and we continue in our business. And before you know it, we get tired or before you know it, something happens. And we wake up and we're like.
Deb Meyer (22:10.464)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (22:23.616)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (22:28.437)
I can't do this anymore, but I can't, got to work to provide my family lifestyle I'm used to, or we got to go and live on beans and rice. So exit planning is saying, look, it doesn't have to be this way. Exit planning is simply saying you have this asset, this business. Let's make this business very attractive to somebody on the outside or inside. Let's make this business a very valuable asset. So when
Deb Meyer (22:35.564)
Mm.
Deb Meyer (22:49.76)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (22:56.235)
The time comes that hopefully you choose, not have to, but you choose to say, I'm ready to now pass this along, or I'm ready to take some chips off the table using that old poker metaphor that we would all recognize. I'm ready to take some chips off the table. I have this business, man, who can, can somebody pay me some money for this business? So exit planning is simply, how do I take this asset, this business and make it.
Deb Meyer (22:58.902)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (23:14.732)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (23:19.757)
Beautiful. My book is called Your Baby's Ugly. How do I take my baby, my business and make it beautiful that somebody's willing to pay me some money for my business so that I can live the same lifestyle that I'm used to living? That's what exit planning is. Now to your question, the one statistic that drives me absolutely bonky, and there's a lot of them I've just quoted four or five here, but here's one. Those who do transact, those business owners who do transact only 4 % are happy.
Deb Meyer (23:30.924)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (23:48.699)
Mmm, after exit.
Justin Goodbread (23:49.326)
only 4 % of this. let's, put this into real terms for us right now in the United States, there's roughly 12 million businesses that are going to try to transact over the next five years, 12 million of those that transact. mean of those 12 million, roughly, roughly only about one and a half million of those will transact. Okay. Let's use a million because we can do this in our math in our head. If of those 12 million, only 1 million will transact.
Deb Meyer (23:54.188)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (24:19.533)
That means first of all, 11 million businesses are going to have to, they're to go into atrophy. That's 11 million dreams that are dying. That's 11 million communities that are losing a staple. That's 11 million charities. It's not going to have somebody providing for the charities. That's 11 million clients who aren't going to have that business to serve them anymore. That's 11 million businesses who have employees that rely on that business to provide for their kids' education, their house and their car payments. That's 11 million businesses that are done. That ought to be an eye-opening experience, but that's
Deb Meyer (24:31.169)
you
Deb Meyer (24:44.129)
Mm.
Justin Goodbread (24:47.949)
That's the data point. know that that one million is going to sell, but how that one million who sells only 40,000 are happy. Seriously? So I have a 12 million business owners, 4 % that are for 40,000 ones who sell as happy that to me is ludicrous.
Deb Meyer (24:49.804)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (25:03.404)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (25:10.911)
I believe that God has got God is on his lifestyle, especially if we're believers, especially if we believe in divine, divine, I'm a Christian. I believe that that in God and Jesus. And so I believe that the God of the universe create us live exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or even think. I believe that. And so for me, it breaks my heart to see business owners who have sacrificed decades of their life, the most selfless people I know.
People who are trying to serve their communities while at the same time provide a lifestyle for their families to give them a step up. It breaks my heart to know that you're going to do this for decades and the vast majority, 96%, who actually transact are going to be miserable. It doesn't have to be that way. And so that to me is the statistic of all statistics that shocks me, Deb. It is saddening to me.
Deb Meyer (25:41.718)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (25:51.404)
you
Deb Meyer (26:00.832)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, it's sad to me too, and I mean, I think that's why both of us kind of, you obviously more invested in the exit planning space and everything with Exit Planning Institute, but just to see the years of toil, the years of heartbreak, and not every business owner goes through heartbreak all the time. It's just, it is a lot of work. There's lots of.
risk in starting a business. There's lots of rewards sometimes too, but there's heartache along the way. And to have that asset just disintegrate or if it is even liquidated to have a person so tied up with their business identity that they can't enjoy life afterwards, it's a real sadness.
Justin Goodbread (26:53.483)
And it doesn't have to be that way. There is a pathway, friends. There's a pathway. If we believe God is a God of order and we believe he was sovereign, and I do, I believe everything happens for his good and for our good and his glory. I believe that with all my heart. Then this business is ultimately his. We're just stewarding it. We're stewarding it to the best of our abilities. I was reading this week as we were in my wife and I were on vacation, I was reading Solomon again. It was interesting to read Solomon's life when he asked God for wisdom. He actually went out and hired people.
to teach him how to be a better king. People who had been there before who taught him the ways of being a king in multiple areas. You can actually read this in the book of Kings. And it's very interesting that the wisest person who ever lived also hired coaches. They hired people who were in front of them who had been there, done that to show them a way on how to and how he could achieve the desires that he believed God had put in his heart to achieve. Same is true for us. I went, I love hunting. love hunting. And I was in Argentina this last year hunting down there.
Deb Meyer (27:43.872)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (27:50.56)
And it would make no sense for me to go to a different continent to try to hunt an animal that I've never hunted before to a country that I don't even speak the native language and try to wander through the wilderness and try to find this critter that I was after. It makes no sense to me. What did I do? I hired somebody who was born and raised in that area who had guided literally thousands of people to this particular area that they knew the way they knew the pitfalls. They knew the terrain. They knew the language. You knew everything about it. And by the way, had ultimate success. I hired somebody.
Deb Meyer (27:53.504)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (28:17.228)
Mm.
Justin Goodbread (28:19.137)
We business owners, we're very interesting in the fact that we're very prideful. We're confident individuals because we're very talented and we're tenacious and we'll grab the bull by the horns because that's what's led to our success. We grab the bull by the horns. My wife in her own sense is a business owner. She has her business of a homeschooling and she is tenacious in that area. She will fight you over her children, over her house. That is her business and she is full of the same them and bigger that I have in the marketplace she has in the house.
Deb Meyer (28:23.424)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (28:41.409)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (28:46.892)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (28:47.093)
And our pride seeks up, it's this hubris pride that causes us to actually weigh more in ourselves versus surrendering that home or that business to basically be a steward. Whenever we step back and we follow somebody who's gone through this process before and they say, hey, here's the way in which you could generate wealth. Here's the way in which you could create a homeschooling environment. Here's the way in which you can do whatever it is that each of us do. Whenever we find somebody before us, it actually decentralizes our identity from that particular thing.
Deb Meyer (28:53.824)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (29:15.436)
Mmm.
Justin Goodbread (29:15.757)
Now my wife now says I had the privilege of stewarding my children. These blessings that God gave me, sometimes curses, but most of them blessings that God gave me, right? She says these are God's kids. But it's having somebody pull her out of that particular framework and say, okay, here's how I And by the way, whenever she, I remember this day when she suggested they're God's kids, he's gotta deal with these things. I'm just gonna do the best I can. He's gotta have to deal with them. That was a release for her, Deb. It was unbelievable.
Deb Meyer (29:19.532)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (29:41.985)
Yeah.
Justin Goodbread (29:43.308)
It was a release. And I know that you recognize this as a parent as well. It was very interesting to watch that. Well, I get to see it with business owners saying, it's not your business. I know that you worked hard for this. I know you started it, but if you're truly full of faith and you believe that God is sovereign, he put you in this position to serve people the way that most of us would if we have faith in our lives, then ultimately it changes the paradigm to where it's like, okay, Lord, let me be the best steward I can. Let me find somebody to help me steward this asset. And now
Deb Meyer (29:46.017)
Yes.
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (30:12.781)
Biblical principles are true. What's the scripture say? Be not deceived. God is not mocked. Whatsoever you sow, you're going to reap. And so if we sow the right things in our business, if we sow the right things in our home, the law of nature and God's not going be mocked, he's going to bring those things to pass into fruition. So I just had the privilege now to say it doesn't have to be this way. You don't have to be in servitude to this identity or this business and have it be toil. fact, scripture says that his burden is light. His burden is light, guys.
Deb Meyer (30:18.636)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (30:40.424)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (30:42.507)
But yet we as business owners, feel so heavy because we're trying to carry it. And so now I get to say, Hey, friends, I've been there 30 years. I'm as bullheaded as they come, but it doesn't have to be this way. Whenever you want true freedom, which is what we're all after ultimately, or freedom in Christ, more freedom in religion, more freedom in our politics, more freedom in everything we do. If we want true freedom, it's a matter of simple say, okay, God, here's your business. Just help me, help me have, me do it. Serve this company, serve my team, serve my community, serve my charities the best way possible. It's a different mindset.
Deb Meyer (30:49.568)
Hehehehe
Deb Meyer (31:05.322)
Mm-hmm.
Justin Goodbread (31:12.289)
Yeah, that I now have the privilege of coaching business owners and it is fun. It's fun watching them release and also watching the success, whatever that definition would mean to each individual person come because of that ultimately ultimate surrender to this calling that God has for
Deb Meyer (31:28.822)
Mm-hmm. Beautifully said. So I think, I know we're going a little bit over time, but I really just want to ask one final question around this because even if you're not a business owner, share this episode with a business owner. But I do think it's important to talk about success stories too. Like we talked about some of the problems and the issues. Who's an example of someone that you've seen successfully exit that's in that 4 %?
Justin Goodbread (31:58.328)
Yeah. So I have a friend of mine and he's my frazzled Frank. I have this avatar and I teach business owners how to, how to focus it on one person, how to focus it on one person. can have ultimate growth and let's get this gentleman. We call him frazzled Frank. Second generation business owner in the mountains of West Virginia. He has spent his life, life in heavy equipment, just working, working his fingers to the bones. One day we're turkey hunting on top of mountain and we're trying to call some turkeys in.
And he ends up talking, which is you don't do that when you're turkey hunting. And he says three words. says, Justin, I'm broke 40 year business owner and millions of dollars worth of equipment down below that we can see throughout the mountain. We can see his little yard down below us. And in that moment, he realized that the lifestyle that he was living, the lifestyle, his family and his grandkids have got accustomed to. He wasn't going to maintain it. He said, Justin, I'm broke. I'm going to have to sell everything and radically change my life. My body's tiring out. I don't know how to do this.
Deb Meyer (32:46.86)
you
Justin Goodbread (32:54.117)
And through a period of short period of time, we begin talking about exit planning and how you can actually plan your exit and how you can actually make sure the asset grows and how you can do so without being tired or without having to like, you know, work four times as hard. Now fast forward through all this toil, cause growing a business is hard. That's not going to be, there's no, it's not a, you know, pulling punches on that one is hard. Just like my wife, you know, homeschooling the kids is hard. Life is hard.
The scripture of the man is born a woman a few days and full of trouble. So life is hard. In that four year timeframe, we worked together and we watched his business not grow. Didn't grow. He ultimately didn't sell his company, He didn't have to. We built it in such a way that after four years, he chose not to sell his company. And it came down to one thing. He reached decamillionaire status. He was able to scale rapidly in terms of revenue. We showed him how to
maneuver the business around and he was able to save up enough assets to where he can provide his lifestyle. And he came down and he said that we had a buyer. had somebody who was going to pay him lots of money, eight figures for his company. And he said, Justin, I just, I don't feel good about it. And we, I went every way possible trying to help him look through some money. came in says, not about the money. It's about the reputation that my family has in this community. And if, if this buyer were to come in, take our business, they can hear our testimony.
So he ultimately chose not to sell. To me, that is the ultimate success story. He didn't have to sell. He put himself in a position allowed his personal and family values dictate his outcome. We closed the business down. We gave more money than he's ever dreamt of possible to his charity. And today he is happy. We talk weekly. He's just, I'm living my dream. It's unbelievable. That is the power of exit planning.
Deb Meyer (34:38.604)
So.
That's awesome. What a great closing note. So could you share if listeners are interested in learning more about you or some of the services you provide, where can people find you on
Justin Goodbread (34:52.429)
Absolutely. So we have a podcast as well. Um, it's called the deck of millionaire decoded. There's 600 or some odd episodes on it. Um, several books you can purchase online or Amazon. Just Google my name. I'm the only Justin Goodbred in the world. You can find me on any social media channel, but if you want to learn more about what we do day in, day out and help business owners, you can go to JustinGoodbred.com. My website has all of our information around my coaching, how I speak. Uh, I love speaking in churches. I love speaking. I love, love, love getting on stage and trying to impact people's lives. It is a passion of mine.
In fact, that's what I love doing more now than anything else. So you can find all that at JustinGibbert.com.
Deb Meyer (35:26.988)
Well, thank you so much for joining us. This is a wonderful episode.
Justin Goodbread (35:31.073)
Thanks for having me, Deb.
Deb Meyer
Don't go anywhere yet. This is our new format, and I just want to tack on some thoughts to the recording here with Justin Goodbread. Man, he is such a wealth of information and such a cool guy, right? I really enjoyed learning from him back in the CEPA training in 2020, but also just love having him on the podcast so he could share some real words of wisdom in a very straightforward way.
I just love Justin and his personality. for those of you who listened through the full episode and interview there, I do want to highlight, we talked a little bit about homeschooling in the beginning and the importance that Faith plays in his role. That was just to appeal to a broader audience of parents, right? But if you are a small business owner as well, or you know a small business owner and want to pass this episode along to them, I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into some of the small business stuff that we didn't get as much time to spend on just because we were going down some rabbit holes with homeschooling, some of the other stuff. So with the small business stuff, I do encourage you to listen to Beyond Budget's episode 16. It's called Maximizing Your Business Exit, Retirement Planning for Small Business Owners. And that's a solo episode I recorded several months ago. It was actually back in May of 2024, right after I did the exit planning summit in Florida that year.
And I share a lot of my takeaways about business exit planning. For those of you who own small businesses and haven't heard of this, it's really that preparation for saying, I know there's some value in this business beyond just the revenue I'm normally generating for my own lifestyle. And the way Justin works, Justin Goodbread, he works with people who are trying very...
large exits, being a real consultant and partner to them. He has a niche specifically in the financial advisory space. But if you don't fall into that category, maybe you're a smaller business and you're not expecting an eight figure exit like he's catering to. There are a lot of really great tools in episode 16 of Beyond Budgets that apply to small business owners, even if the revenue level is significantly lower.
I do again, encourage you to listen to that episode and some of the highlights from that, just the importance of having an exit planning team, not necessarily just working with one advisor, but really having the CPA, the financial planner, and maybe that person is the same, but having multiple people in the room, the attorney, all thinking creatively and strategically about your exit. Then we even talk a little bit about life after exit and some of the common concerns that can happen, especially when you wrap your identity in the business. It can be very painful and Justin alleged to this in today's episode. It can be very painful to let that business go and you do feel a sense of regret. So again, one of the things that both he and I going into this exit planning realm is we don't want people to end up really upset and depressed after they sell their business.
You want people to have that thriving exit and then live their life in a really full, powerful way afterwards. So those are some of the important things that, again, I encourage you to listen back to that episode because it's exclusively focused on exit planning. One of the other episodes worth pointing out was with a different advisor who assists with exits and that's exit or I'm sorry, episode 27 called Breaking Free from Work-Centered identity with Jerome Myers. So even though we have a close last name, we are not related, but he does exit planning as well and he has a cool framework. So you can listen to his episode. And again, he just comes at it from a slightly different perspective than Justin Goodbred. But I do think it's important for small business owners to have a couple of different resources to listen to and be able to dive even deeper because
Both of those gentlemen, Jerome Myers and Justin Goodbread today, they both have their own exit planning focused podcasts. So that's all they delve into in their podcasts. Whereas Beyond Budgets is gonna have some business exit planning sprinkling here and there and that value acceleration of the business, but we're not gonna be exclusively focused on the small business side. We're really focused on helping parents more broadly.
Again, those are two resources that you could listen to for a little bit more explanation or insight. And then, like I said, they both have excellent resources on their websites and platforms that you could take advantage of if you're interested in diving in even further. And then one other resource I want to mention is just on Worthy Nest, my RAA's website. We do have in the services section the business value acceleration.
And there's some resources there as well you could look at. And we're likely going to be doing a group cohort for service-based business owners in the fall. So if you want to be part of that cohort or get more details, go there as the starting point and you'll be directed to the right place. OK, so my encouragement, if you are a small business owner, as Justin alluded to in the episode, it's that you
think strategically not only about exit planning as it pertains to the finances, but also really preparing yourself for the future, just like any person who's about ready to retire a long career would do. So really understanding what is your next stage of life going to look like? How are you going to fill the day? What kind of contribution are you going to be making that isn't related to the business that you once owned?
You know, some people are ready for that financial part of the equation, but they're not ready emotionally. Or in some situations, you know, people might be personally ready and really need that additional liquidity event, but the business isn't quite ready. So the resources that I mentioned on Worthy Nest, those are going to be more directed towards, you know, helping on all three levels.
But my focus is more on the financial preparedness of that business transaction. Whereas, you people like Justin or Jerome might go more into the, the personal, how are you going to be ready for this next endeavor and really crafting that lifestyle of your dreams? one of the other things that I think is worth mentioning, I recently read a study about buying happiness and I was pretty surprised by some of the findings, but
Uh, you know, lot of people think, okay, if I'm earning more money, I'm automatically going to be happy. And while that's true to a certain level, uh, the level of happiness can also be dictated by how you're spending that money. So there was a study done not too long ago where, uh, the participants were each given $10,000 and they had to spend that $10,000.
within the matter of three weeks. They were required. They couldn't have anything left. And the results of the study, they went across different age, socioeconomic spheres, and what they found, like the top five categories that created the most happiness, one was donating to a charitable cause. It was important near and dear to that person's heart. Another was excruciating.
experiences. So creating experiences in this case because you're a parent, creating experiences for your family to make wonderful memories. Another one was investing in self-care. So maybe getting like a gym membership or massages or whatever it is that helps you show up in a better way to the people around you. I think the fourth one was education.
And that was again, focused on perhaps taking classes yourself to better your education, but it might've also been helping someone else with their education. But either situation you're, you're investing in that learning, that ongoing learning. And then the fifth was just gifting it to someone else. So not necessarily a charitable organization, but just seeing someone in need and helping meet that need. So.
Those are five kind of considerations that as you think about your next, it is important to see how those dollars could be used in a positive way. And hopefully in those five categories, you could really find some point of connection where it would feel really exciting to be able to do one or a combination of those items. Okay. I hope this was a good episode for you, and I would love some feedback on the new format where we have that interview first and then a couple of my thoughts after the interview. So please feel free to drop me a line at info@worthynest.com. Thanks!