Peter Lohmann's Podcast
00:47:30 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:47:30] S1: Not [00:47:30] S0: for how they process payments. So that was, yeah, that was a little bit of a roadblock from my side and and caused some delay. But that was really kind of the, you know, giving over control and being... I still have access to... Because I'm project managing, I still have access to the buyer system. So I can still see what's happening, but I can't do anything about it. Mhmm. It's the... You know, outside of communicate my concerns, like, don't have control. It's not my business anymore. And I think the feelings for me would be different if the... If one, I didn't grow the business from zero. So I did no acquisitions to get to where my size by the time I exited. So I did no acquisitions. I built every relationship one on one with every customer. I didn't have a BDM doing that, you know. So I had... I only had one meltdown in the in the entire process of the transition. Like, [00:48:38] S1: you only melted down one time is what you're saying? [00:48:40] S0: I only melted down one time. Yeah. Yep. And, you know, not in the professional setting, just in, the I don't... I can't... I'm... I feel helpless. You know what I mean? Because I can't do I can't do anything. Like, how I would normally handle stuff is not what's happening. And everyone else is gonna run their business how they run their business. But it's like, I built this thing from zero. It became my baby. And even though I'm a logical, rational person, I built every relationship I had with every contractor and every owner. [00:49:10] S1: Yeah.
00:49:10 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:49:10] S1: Yeah. [00:49:10] S0: That's personal. So to hand that hand those relationships... Yeah. That that was personal. If I would have been a different size or I built my business based on acquisitions and I didn't have those personal connections to clients, completely different story. I I would have been less emotional. Yeah. Exactly. I would have been less emotional about that about that process and how it went. You know? Obviously, I don't want... I want our clients to be happy. Yeah. And I want that for me, and I want that for the buyer, and I want that for the client. Right? You... That's what you want when you do a sale. But I'm also... It's not like I'm going into... I mean, I joked with you with you guys about going into retirement, which we all knew was a a total joke. But if I was selling to be like, I'm completely out. I'm done. Fully done. I'm leaving the industry, and I'm going to sit on a beach. I probably wouldn't have had those feelings, but I'm not. And I'm still maintaining those client relationships and still trying to help them grow their portfolios, which would be a benefit to the buyer because we'd scale, you know Sure. Those doors. So it was more personal. So letting go of that control or feeling... Not even letting go of the control. I had no choice but to let go of the control. Like, that was completely... That's what I signed up for, to let go of the control. But I think the feeling of helplessness that when something was going awry, I had no control over the fix. I could basically give my personal opinion, but it's not my business to run.
00:49:10 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
[00:49:10] S0: That's personal. So to hand that hand those relationships... Yeah. That that was personal. If I would have been a different size or I built my business based on acquisitions and I didn't have those personal connections to clients, completely different story. I I would have been less emotional. Yeah. Exactly. I would have been less emotional about that about that process and how it went. You know? Obviously, I don't want... I want our clients to be happy. Yeah. And I want that for me, and I want that for the buyer, and I want that for the client. Right? You... That's what you want when you do a sale. But I'm also... It's not like I'm going into... I mean, I joked with you with you guys about going into retirement, which we all knew was a a total joke. But if I was selling to be like, I'm completely out. I'm done. Fully done. I'm leaving the industry, and I'm going to sit on a beach. I probably wouldn't have had those feelings, but I'm not. And I'm still maintaining those client relationships and still trying to help them grow their portfolios, which would be a benefit to the buyer because we'd scale, you know Sure. Those doors. So it was more personal. So letting go of that control or feeling... Not even letting go of the control. I had no choice but to let go of the control. Like, that was completely... That's what I signed up for, to let go of the control. But I think the feeling of helplessness that when something was going awry, I had no control over the fix. I could basically give my personal opinion, but it's not my business to run. [00:50:47] S1: Yeah.
00:50:48 · Bri Leichliter
[00:50:48] S0: And I... You can't expect somebody to, you know, take your advice on everything. And I think the other thing is, like, when you sell a business, you only know what you know from the buyer in the couple of meetings that you've had getting to know them in their business. What is reality might be completely different than that. You know? That and and that part of it, you don't wanna have regrets on who you sell to, of course, and I don't have any regrets on the sales process. But I do wish that I would have learned more about how their operations functioned. I think we would have been able to do handoffs better. We would have been able to kind of prep a little bit more. And I feel like, you know, I built... I'm very process oriented. I built all of my processes and instructions out in LeadSimple. I've been with LeadSimple since 2022. And that structure for my team was huge. And I'm in a situation where some of what I've put together or a lot of what I built is kind of feels like it's going to waste because those systems are no longer used or at least they're not used right now. So that was a little bit soul crushing, to be honest, because I... That was, like, the part of the building. Right? I got to a certain point, I got the outcome that I wanted, and that's great. But I don't want all the hard work I put in along the way to just... You know, it was for something, but I kinda want it to live on. You know what I mean? I spent all that time doing it. I want it I want to be able to continue to, you know, have that available and whatever. So so that that was a difficult part for me. I do think, you know, everybody's different in what they're gonna be attached to and what they're not. You know, I wasn't in such a bad head space where I needed it to be gone, you know, for major mental health reasons. I mean, sure, I was stressed and felt like I couldn't shut off, but I think that's any business owner in general is gonna feel that no matter what kind of business you're in. And I do remember when I was talking to my boyfriend, Jake, about selling the business, and we were talking about the price. And I I said to him, I said, what price is... You know, what do you think? And he's like, zero. You could sell it for zero, and I'd be happy. He's like, because it's not worth your mental health.
00:53:14 · Bri Leichliter, Peter Lohmann
And, you know, and that's when you know you found a great partner, of course. And and then I was like, you're out of your mind. Like, I'm never gonna give it away. But, you know, it was... It it... He obviously saw the the toll that the business had on, you know, my mental health in general. And I I don't think we talk about that enough in the industry and in small business as a whole, how difficult it is and how lonely it feels too. I didn't have a business partner, so I was making decisions on my own. And thankfully, I have a great, you know, friend circle that is in the business, and that's super helpful. But there are a lot of people who don't. So Only there was a lot [00:53:57] S1: community of people.
00:53:57 · Peter Lohmann, Bri Leichliter
[00:53:57] S1: community of people. [00:53:59] S0: If only one existed. Imagine that. But... Yeah. I mean... And it's true because I did pick up... I mean, Peter's obviously referencing Crane there. But I did pick up the phone, and I called a couple of Crane members along the way and to talk through things because I had that support system that understood my challenges. And I've called other PMs that are non Crane that I know have done acquisitions. There is... There's a company in Denver that I've met at broker owner and am still friends with, and they treat acquisitions like they're the most fragile thing on the planet. And they put so much time and effort into the people in the transition that I'm like, man, I'm a little bit jealous of that. Mhmm. Right? Like, they they take so much care of the staff that's coming in, the owner that's exiting, you know, like, they take transitions and make them six months because they wanna do it right. So, you know, thinking of that... Those kinds of things, I think, is Yeah. What I kind of reflect on at this point.