Bonus Episode, with Jeannie Keen

Jason Cutter: Foreign.

Narrator: You have found the Business Broker Growth show with your host, Jason Cutter. This is the podcast for brokers who are ready to stop hoping for deals and start growing their pipeline. Our goal is to bring you strategies, stories, and insights that will be a catalyst to move you quickly from transactional deal makers to trusted advisors. Time for business Broker Growth.

Jason Cutter: Hey, everybody. Jason here. I'm back with Jeannie Keene from Sun Belt Business Brokers of Roanoke and Lynchburg, Virginia. Did I get that right?

Jeannie Keene: That's long. But you got it 100%, yes.

Jason Cutter: So here we are after show. This is, uh, theoretically, I learned this years ago. This is where, like the. This is after the main recording. The lights are off, the cameras are off, and so we just have a casual conversation and see what actually happens behind the scenes. But obviously the lights are still on and the cameras are still on, and so we're still recording. So it is there and it's not there. Um, how was the first part? I always love to start with this question and ask, you know, because it's kind of a lot. We covered a lot of things and we went for just under an hour. So how was that on your end?

Jeannie Keene: I love any opportunity I have to help other brokers or inform sellers. So it was amazing. It totally did not feel like an hour went by. I think, um, the passion that you have for drawing good information from your guest and the passion that we have about educating other people about what we do just really, really came across. Hopefully it did to folks listening in.

Jason Cutter: I'm sure it did. I. I take lots of notes. There's lots of things that you said that other brokers haven't, or you have your own way of doing it, which is why it's fascinating and fun. And I love this. And, you know, and. And again, this is where there's, you know, uh, uh, always an unlimited availability of being successful in a business because everyone has a different way to do it, right? Uh, let's say you want to start a roofing business, right? There's already other roofers in the market. Like, if you have a new, better way to do it, then do it right, because there's always enough business. And that's what I love about these conversations. And, and anyone that knows me too, is I'm not a controversial person. Like, I'm not about, you know, causing controversy. I probably should do more of that in my content. I'm sometimes too passive and nice. I should just be a little more edgy. So I don't have a show where it's like all right, this is a hard hitting thing and I'm going to push you and we're going to have a debate. I'd rather just give you some, some easy questions that just draw you know, fun, valuable content and conversations.

Jeannie Keene: Me too people.

Jason Cutter: So uh, if anyone's coming to my shows like hoping for some like battle back and forth, it's just you're probably not here in the after show anyway. But uh, if you are here, let's dive into these. And here's what's fun is you were prepared, you were ready for the other parts. Listen to episodes. Here we are in the after show. You're not quite sure what's going to happen next which is so fun because I'm put you, I'm going to keep you on your toes instead of letting you prepare. So the, the first question is if you think about business brokerage intermediary as an industry in five years, so now 2031, what do you think it will take for brokers to survive not just not thrive, not excel, but survive in five years from now?

Jeannie Keene: I think we have to have used AI to our advantage in ways that we talked about earlier by streamlining systems and processes in way to increase your efficiency. And I think for brokers who are not comfortable or willing to do that and there's even consultants out, uh, there's AI consultants now that you can hire that can come into your practice and help you set these up if it's not something that you're comfortable doing. But I do worry that they're going to be left behind. The brokers who are involved in been constantly educating themselves are also going to rise to the top if they're a member of like for us it's the Carolina, Virginia Business Brokers Association. I'm um, involved in the chapter of female business brokers that they have. Mike has been on the board several times. We attend every International Business Brokers association conference. I think we've been to everyone every year, uh, since we opened our office. There's so much education that's happening in those venues and if you're not in those rooms, you're going to be missing out if you're not picking up the phone and calling other brokers, asking them questions about hey, it looks like you really have this or do you have this questionnaire that you'd be willing to share with me. I have never once pick up the phone and called a broker, whether they're in the Sun Belt Network or outside of the Sun Belt Network and ask them for something that they haven't provided. I feel like we're willing to share. There's so many businesses on the market coming to market, should be on the market, that there's. It would be unlikely we'd have too many business brokers. Uh, you know, the stat that I said earlier that we all should know is 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day. 40% of them own businesses, and $10 trillion in assets will change hands over the next 10 years. So there's plenty of businesses to sell. We just have to educate the right people, and then we have to be on our game as well. And we, at least in this office, we never stop learning. There's multiple webinars happening with every staff member every week. If we. Sometimes we're leading them, sometimes we're listening to them. But educating yourself on what's happening in the industry is critical.

Jason Cutter: Yeah. And I, And I think in the, in the, in what you said, there's three main takeaways. I said one is the education. So learning, taking in information. The second part, which is actually what you led with, which is the using the AI and the technology to your advantage, and the efficiency. Right. In this era where I could grab my phone in between our recordings and order something that I would expect to come pretty soon, whether it's food or now even Amazon, in a couple of hours, like, with that kind of technology at hand, why not make things efficient and effective? Again, like we talked about in the main episode, where what's left is the human interactions, it's the relationship building, it's the. It's the handling all of the emotions and everything that happens. And then the other part, which I love, is that, you know, other brokers calling them, learning from them, like, specifically from them, not just like they did a webinar, but like calling them up. Um, and where partially, I think, just because there's not enough brokers, everyone knows, like, there is no scarcity and there's really no competition, like, at a big enough level. Uh, but I also think, you know, there's enough great people out there who got into business brokerage and have that abundance mindset where they're happy to help.

Jeannie Keene: Yeah. And I think that's probably why they've risen to the top, is because they are altruistic and they are willing to help others. So, um, you know, I think it's that level of, um, being not relational, it's not the right word, but being willing to help out people who maybe don't have as much wisdom and experience as you do, maybe they're just starting out and I think what is the all ships rise, you know, whatever that saying is.

Jason Cutter: Rising tide lifts all ships.

Jeannie Keene: Yes, that's it. Yeah, I think it's that mentality.

Jason Cutter: Well, and I gotta wonder too, because the way you put it makes me think, and I know that other guests have said this as well, is that because there's no, it's not a profession, which I know triggers some people, but it's not like there's no certification, there's no course, there's no licensing, there's no uh, malpractice insurance for a business broker specifically. Right. Like this 17 states the real estate license, but not. Which means the only way to learn this business is pretty much by getting a mentor or learning it through the school of hard knocks. And so somebody helped everybody make it to where they are as a business broker. And I feel like the general trend is those people just pay it forward because they know what it was like to be new and somebody mentored them so they want to mentor others.

Jeannie Keene: Yeah, I think so too. And you know, it's not um, it's not a straight line from here, here to there. Some of it is just real life experience, you know, because you don't know what you don't know. Just like someone selling their business, they don't know what they don't know. And um, you know, sometimes as baby brokers, we don't know what we don't know either. And we make a lot of mistakes. In the beginning. I do think there's some advantage to having a seasoned broke on your side. Someone who's kind of gone through some of those bumps in the road and they've gotten more streamlined processes in place. But yeah, we all had to start somewhere.

Jason Cutter: That's it. Um, you know, and that somewhere wasn't going to school and sitting down in a room and learning a trade and then passing a test and then like going to work somewhere as apprentice. It's, it's, it's really a different non linear path like you said. So the next question is about technology. So generally the question I would ask is what's the number one tech shift coming to M and A, a business brokerage? You've already mentioned AI. You talked about some of the systems and processes. Is there anything outside of those maybe obvious things that you see coming, uh, as a shift to business brokerage as an industry?

Jeannie Keene: I think those are the big ones. I, uh, think AI is going to continue to grow and transform in ways that we probably don't understand at this point. But there's platforms that I didn't talk about earlier. Uh, it used to take me literally days to do a good sim, from the time of the seller interview when I was clickety clacking their answers onto my questionnaire. And then I was trying to use my own brain cells to tell the story of that business in a Word document and make it flow in a way that made sense. It literally took me days. And then I would have to go find, I'd have to go to unsplash to try to find some pics to put in the sim. And now, um, once we get the seller interview complete and we, so we do that by video. So there's a few ways that brokers can streamline their process. We have a zoom video. So we can just take the transcript of that seller interview that I follow along in my questionnaire, take that transcript, have that summarized using technology, take that summary and put that into Gamma. And within 30 minutes of hanging up the phone for my seller interview, I have the most amazing PowerPoint presentation. I couldn't have done that even with unlimited time. Not to say that it would have taken me days to do it. I couldn't have done it with unlimited time to make it look that good. So for example, um, we have a distillery listed for sale. So in all of the photos that were generated for this PowerPoint you might have, you know, somebody shaking hands or somebody sitting at a desk looking at financials. But in the background you can vaguely see maybe there's bottles of bourbon or like, what, um, how do I have all of this in 30 minutes? Yeah, so yeah, the streamline that's available with use of AI is kind of mind boggling. And so we have to be using that to our advantage. And that might mean going out to, of course we should all have a CRM. Like if you don't have a CRM these days, I don't know how you're doing business. Um, and you also need some automations around managing buyers. But back in the day when we first started, I picked up the phone and called every single buyer lead that came in and I'd be sitting at my desk and they would be so slow to come in and I would be so excited to have a buyer lead. And now it's like ding, ding, ding, ding. You know, the buyer leads are just coming in non stop because everybody's, like I said earlier, selling a course on how to buy a business with no money down, which is never going to happen. But there's more and more people understanding the Advantages of buying an already established cash flowing business as opposed to trying to start their own.

Jason Cutter: Yeah, yeah, it's, it's interesting to think of that and, and again as the theme we've talked about many times is where can you use AI and technology to do the things that would normally take you a whole lot of time to do manually, that it can do faster and either to a certain point where you can just take it the last mile. Right. Or it's going to do a better, prettier version that you can then just make sure it's accurate and do what you need to do. And you know, like, for me, I have been making PowerPoint slide presentations for a really long time. I was talking to my team about that last week. Like how long, like when I made my first PowerPoint presentation was um, a really long time ago. And uh, I can make functional, effective slides, but they are terrible from a design standpoint. I just don't have a design mindset. Um, so like to have the tools, either my team or the AI to help clean it up. Like why, why not? Um, and then again leaving more time to do what you do best. So um, next, next question here. So when you look back on last year, 2025, uh, what was the big lesson you took from that? When you look back,

Jeannie Keene: it was um, and we talked about this earlier too, but really making an effort to get the right people doing the right thing. So that frees us up to do the things we really should be doing and working on the business in a way that puts us in connection with and in front of and building relationships with the folks in our community. And I don't just mean the Chamber of commerce and I don't just mean your local CPA and your local wealth advisors. It's bigger than that. It's supporting your community, supporting your business owners. I take business cards with me everywhere I go. I was in Mexico last October and in the hotel breakfast met someone who ran a family holding company in Miami and she referred a business to us that was uh, an amazing listing. So always be talking to people. You never know who might be the next great relationship that um, is going to lead you to the next thing. I had a call this morning from someone who is a new consultant in my area and he wanted to talk about a business that had something like $60,000 in annual revenue. And they were thinking they were just going to close the doors in June. And I was like, that doesn't really meet our listing criteria. But let me see if I can figure out Whether there's a way that I can help you. Like, is there somebody that I can connect you with? Let me talk, um, to our junior broker, see if he thinks that maybe he can sell a book of business. You know, is there real estate? Like, I just hate telling people we can't help them. So I do. Like, even if we don't list a business for sale, if it's not a sellable business for whatever reason, I've generated a whole list of. But here's some other resources. Go talk to these consultants. Go to the sbdc. They can help you. Go to the SCORE office. They can help you. So I'm a real connector, and there's a lot of other connectors out there. And once y' all get together, I had a call with, um, this was a couple months ago, someone from the sbsd, the Small Business Supplier Diversity Network. And she was just one of those folks that popped up on my LinkedIn page saying, hey, do you know this person? And I thought, well, I don't know her, but I need to get to know her. And so I didn't even have time to address it at the moment. But I made myself a note, I sent it to my inbox. I did something and it sat there for a while and finally I had time and I reached out and said, I think we should have a call. So we had a zoom. She's, um, a connector. I'm a connector. Now we're going to do this three part webinar. And she's like, you know what? I'll host it, I'll market it. I'll push it out to every local department of economic development. I'll send it out to every chamber of commerce and all of Southwest Virginia. Let's develop the content together. Because I think what you have to say is valuable. And that just came from some random person that I didn't know that I thought maybe I should get to know and tell them what we do. So there's no shortage for opportunities to talk to people and help other people.

Jason Cutter: If you're listening to this and thinking, I want this level of authority, I just don't have the time to build it. That's exactly what business broker growth does for you. Most brokers know that they need consistent content, better positioning and real digital visibility. They just don't have the bandwidth to create it or the systems to keep it going. And that's what we build for you, the content engine. The visibility strategy and authority signals, everything you need that we've talked about here. So if you Want this impact without adding another full time job to your play? Go to businessbrokergrowth.com to learn more about what it would look like for your business. Now back to the episode. And what's interesting is the question I asked is what's the lesson you took, you know, got from last year? What was most important? And it was about getting the right people in the right seats, which freed

Jeannie Keene: me up to do all those other things.

Jason Cutter: Correct. Because if you're in the business too much instead of on the business and you're in the weeds too much and you're in the tasks and the processes or you're, you're constantly thinking in the business and then you're on that trip to Mexico and you're, you're in those, like your brain is in that mode instead of like I'm, um, trusting that part's being run by the team or by this person. So let me just focus on being present enough to have conversations because that's a big deal if you're constantly thinking about it like, you know, you're not being present. And if you're not present, what are you missing in those opportunities? If you're just on LinkedIn grinding away and you're not like, wait a second, that's an interesting thing. Like, let me explore that. What do you miss?

Jeannie Keene: And so, and if you love what you do, I think it comes across to people. If you have that true, genuine, you know, you're not coming at it from a place of how much commission can I make off of this person or this referral source. But if I think it comes across to people that you talk to, if you just have a genuine desire to help people, to get the messaging out there, to get in front of business owners, to help your local sepa, uh, I think that comes across.

Jason Cutter: All right, so let's talk about this year. So right now it's basically, we're four months into 2026 when we're recording this. What are you most excited about this year that's different than in the past?

Jeannie Keene: Well, first, I can't believe it's May soon. We'll be halfway through the year. I think this year. Well, my goal, and it's another thing that I have on my whiteboard, is to get into rooms where my dreams are other people's reality. So my goal is to keep doing more of this, to try to get the messaging out on a broader scale. And that's what kind of occurred to me. It's like I'm trying to talk to one seller at A time on the phone and help them understand the urgency around beginning to prepare their business for sale now versus six months from now or a year from now. Now is the time to start. Yesterday was the time to start. Today is the next best time to start. Um, so I can do that one phone call at a time, or I can try to maximize that in a way that uses other platforms like this one or like creation of content, creation of our own webinars and podcast and things internally and guests, hosting guest, um, spots where we can. That's kind of what I'm trying to do more of this year.

Jason Cutter: Got it. I, I love that to get into rooms where your dreams are other people's reality and then also the scale and then, you know, it's, it's always interesting too when you, you get into a different room where somebody is a different approach, solved something or they're, they're doing something different and you're just like. Then you look at and go, yeah, that makes, makes total sense. Like you can, can see it. They can see the matrix and it's like, okay, how do I see the matrix? And then what can I do? And how do I, you know, create more scale at what I'm, um, trying to do as a way of doing

Jeannie Keene: things and platforms where I could send this, you know, recording of this podcast or recording of a webinar, and we can take shorts and we can take clips and we can take sound bites and try to push that out to a broader audience rather than one phone call at a time.

Jason Cutter: That's it. So on that note, the final question here in the after show segment is that, uh, from a marketing perspective, if you had a magic wand and you could just wave a magic wand to have one marketing content type thing done automatically, don't have to do it ever again, what would you put in that bucket? Which I feel like it's gonna be tough for you because I know you like doing a lot of this stuff, but what's that one thing? You're just like, this would be amazing if I just didn't have to do this again.

Jeannie Keene: Uh, I mean, just all of the content creation. We have an amazing marketing intern. But, um, because I'm kind of a big picture, you know, I'm 40,000ft and I have all of these ideas and all the things I want to do, it's sometimes hard for me to prioritize those. So I'm even struggling with your question because it is hard for me to prioritize them. But I tell you what else is on my whiteboard, Mike. Um, and I would like to undertake writing a book at some point. So if I could just wave a wand and that would be done, that would be fantastic.

Jason Cutter: As somebody who has written a, uh, long format hardcover book as the first one, any advice? And have written some smaller format books, uh, yes. That's an amazing magic wand to definitely do just, just, just to have it done. We can talk about it offline. Um, you know, it's, it's one of those things, and this is the biggest thing for you and for anyone else listening is that if you want to write a book, book, uh, you know, kind of like what I told you offline, there's, there's no podcast police. You can do whatever you want as a podcast. Also with books, there's no book police, especially in the world of self publishing. So you can do what you want. And so the format, the length, the style like this, it's just very free flowing versus what it used to be. What I would say is the biggest thing is you got to make sure it is a burn and not an itch. So if it's an itch and I want to write a book someday, it's never going to happen. And once you start, it's going to get hard, it's going to be unfun, so you're not going to, to finish it if it's a burn. Like when I wrote my first book, I was like, I'm doing this, I don't care. Even while I'm working full time, I'm going to knock this out. And I wrote every day and it was easy. Um, but if it's not a burn, it's not going to happen. And you can get help. There's, you know, this, I, I, there's lots of ways to do that. But if it's something that you really want to get out there, that's the tipping point to where it just becomes like, easier. So until then, I'll work on the magic wand part to just write it for you.

Jeannie Keene: Yes, that's great advice. Thank you for that.

Jason Cutter: Yeah.

Jeannie Keene: And I hear it. Like I really hear it. And I think that's why we haven't pulled the trigger on it. Maybe it's just an itch.

Jason Cutter: Yeah. And, and you know, in, in my line of work and what I've done, especially podcasts and books and even speaking and things in the past, a lot of people, it's like, oh, I've thought about a podcast. Oh, I've thought about book. Oh, I've thought about Speaking. I've thought about this and that it's like, okay, when you know. You know, like, you're just gonna get it done. You're gonna. You're gonna crash through walls, and you'll just make sure you. You do it versus, like, it's. It would be a nice to have versus, ah, like, I'm going to do this. Um, which is always that moment when that moment happens, because it will. Like, when it's meant to be. Then you're like, okay, now's the time. Just gonna. Just gonna get this thing done.

Jeannie Keene: So maybe rather than an itch, we'll call it a spark. It's a spark that's gonna grow into the. The burn.

Jason Cutter: Yeah. It's like, okay, there's that spark. How do you nurture it? Uh, and then would also say for. For people listening and for you, since we brought this up and it's the after show, so we can do whatever we want is, um. It's also about having a system and a process. So one of the biggest things for me when I wrote my first book is I actually had somebody who I had a part of the team, and he coached me through it and gave me the structure. So I didn't have to think about the structure. I just had to think about what was in my head and getting it out. Because a lot of the paralysis that happens, especially even with writing or books, uh, with podcasts, is there's so many things to it. You have no idea, right? It's almost like selling a business. Like, I have no idea how this whole process works. You just don't do it. And if you've seen it or you've done it, or you have a coach, in this case, like a business broker, then it's like, oh, it's easy for them because they can see it, right? They can see the whole process. They can.

Jeannie Keene: This is my opportunity to plug you, right? Because somebody like me is like, I want to do all the things Jason I want. I need content, I need podcasts, I need webinars, and I'm going to write a book. And, um, and then. So someone like you could come in, right? And then say, well, here's how you need to prioritize your thinking.

Jason Cutter: It is what we do and why we do it. I know there's a lot of great people out there who just don't know the vehicle or how to do those part. And one of the biggest things I love doing is with our clients is I basically say, you're the talent. I just want you to do what you do best and show up and share things and then don't worry about the mechanics of anything else, uh, as much as possible. Um, it's just fun and everybody has their own, their part, uh, to play in this. So. Yeah, well, thank you for that, that unexpected kind of plug redirect activity. Um, now from your side, all of your links will be in the show notes. If anyone got this far in the after show and you haven't checked out part one, if you're like my mom, where she likes to read the last page of the book or the last chapter of a mystery book so she knows who did it, so there's no surprises. Uh, make sure you go back and check out part one. Um, because there was so much in that hour of conversation, so many things that Jeann, uh, said that was great. Um, but we'll have all your links in the show notes, the website, the LinkedIn, the link tree, your email, uh, and depending on the webinar series you have come out, we can update the show notes. People can find that as well.

Jeannie Keene: Thank you.

Jason Cutter: Uh, Jeannie, thank you for being here. For more in the after show, uh, for sharing even more stuff. I got even more notes. I'm running out of space in my, my card here that I take notes on. So thank you for all of this. I appreciate it and for you, for the audience.

Jeannie Keene: It's been my pleasure.

Jason Cutter: Thank you for the opportunity and everyone tuning in. Thank you for being here. Hopefully you had a good time here on the after show. I know I did. I'm pretty sure Jeanne did. We had a great conversation. And until next time, stop hoping for deals and start growing your pipeline.

Narrator: Thanks for tuning in to the Business Broker Growth show hosted by Jason Cutter. If today's episode helped you think differently about how to build your pipeline and grow your business, share it with another broker broker who's ready to make the shift from hoping for listings to engineering them. Join us again for the next episode of the Business Broker Growth show, where brokers become trusted advisors.