Season 2, Episode 36: David Trent

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Jack Hubbard: So, as I mentioned in the introduction, Mike Tremarco, at St. Charles Bank, and Trust introduced me to David Trent, and it was wonderful, and and a great experience, and took a meeting with David down at the bank. And we're gonna talk a lot about what he does to help Ceos and entrepreneurs today, and I'm thrilled to have him on the show. Welcome, David. Good to see you.

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David Trent: Excited to be here.

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Jack Hubbard: Well, let's let's talk a little bit about your background. 1st of all, I mentioned in the introduction. You are a serial entrepreneur, and it's so interesting in your book, which we're also going to talk about. It's almost like you're a reluctant entrepreneur. I'm not sure any of us ever feel 100% sure of ourselves. But you, you really write about that in the book. But let's let's go back. Talk about where the entrepreneurial spirit started.

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David Trent: So it really started. And I talk about this in the book. When I was 24. That was kind of day. That year was day, one of me being on what I call eat what you kill. And so I've been eat what you kill since that day. And so, while I was a W. 2 employee with New York life, we were on straight commission. And so that's when I really consider my entrepreneurial career to have begun. And

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David Trent: pretty it wasn't. I was just a few months in maybe 6 months in, when I decided to hire an assistant to help me. I just wanted to grow, and a lot of the agents there at New York life, I mean, you're it's just like you don't do that when you just start out. You know you've got to bootstrap it yourself and all that. But I just had a vision and so learned all I could learn how to New York life really taught me business development. And so

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David Trent: so that that's when it started. And I can. I started my wealth management firm when I was 33. Happy to talk through how that happened. I want to be conscious of time, too. So.

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Jack Hubbard: But but let's talk about that because you are the final guest on small business month, and.

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David Trent: Okay.

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Jack Hubbard: When you started Trent capital management back in 1960 and 96,

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Jack Hubbard: you were young, you were 33. You really didn't have a lot of financial backing behind you. You really bootstrapped this talk about Trent. Capital management? Why, you started that. And then you ended up selling it after it was over a billion dollars in assets back in 2023. So talk a little bit about that period in your life.

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David Trent: So I often joked that I was naive and overconfident age of 33, which ended up being a blessing, but for the 1st 5 years were brutal because I was starting a registered investment advisor, firm fee, only wealth management and 96. That was still.

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David Trent: that wasn't. It wasn't unknown, but it wasn't near as prevalent as it is today. So if I go get a million dollar client, I'm charging them 1% a year. That's great. But I've got 2,500 a quarter of revenue coming in, so there was no way for me, and I knew this, but no way for me to go

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David Trent: sell something and and get a big check for it right? And so. But I was determined to build this recurring revenue model.

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David Trent: and so just stuck with it, and I didn't get clients near fast enough that I, in my pro forma that I thought I would, and my expenses were more so the classic entrepreneurs conundrum right that we all. It seems like a lot of entrepreneurs have. So

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David Trent: after 5 years, you know, I I got over the hump more revenue than expenses. And then we just kept growing. And it.

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David Trent: I remember thinking, man, if I can just get get enough clients to have 10 million dollars of assets under management. And then the next was, I want to get to 25 million. I just kind of kept doing that saying, How do I get here? And then how do I get to 50 million? And so

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David Trent: that's

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David Trent: that. That was the course I took. And you know, fast forward to 2021. I had 10 people and had had. We've kind of been between 8 and 10 for several years, and there was another firm that happened to be in the same building as me. And so we started talking about merging. There were 2 partners in that firm, and I didn't fully grasp this, but that really gave me the opportunity

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David Trent: to become even more owner, independent of my business. And so I sold some of my firm to those 2 guys. When I joined I remained the majority owner of the 3 of us, not not 51%. But I had the most ownership.

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David Trent: And then, and then in mid 22, I had 2 younger advisors that I had told I would sell part of my practice to, so I had another bite of the apple, then number 2, and then I really didn't have a concrete plan for this. I just knew I wanted to do it, but it started coming clear to me. I had transitioned all of my clients to other advisors in the firm, so I was mainly doing business development, and I went to my partners in 23

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David Trent: in May of 23, and said, Hey, what? What about buying the app? And you and and

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David Trent: the for me that process

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David Trent: was well, I'll stop there and see if you have questions.

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Jack Hubbard: Do.

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Jack Hubbard: And certainly one question is.

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Jack Hubbard: so you get started back in 1996. And, as you say, you didn't have the most capital. You didn't have any venture. Capital behind you. You really Bootstrap, this? I'm curious, because there are small businesses that watch this program.

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Jack Hubbard: and there are banks who have bankers that are trying to start their careers and build up their own portfolios. I'm curious. Back in 1996, before there was AI before there was the Internet before there was Linkedin. How did you build your business? What are some ways that you prospected and and got to know people.

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David Trent: Well, it's a chapter in the book it's called. I think. I can't remember the exact title of the chapter, but I talk about. Don't reinvent the wheel. And so I came across a guy. His name was Larry Washka, and he was kind enough to. I love the way he'd left Merrill Lynch after 5 years, had his own practice. He'd been at it for 8 years. He was kind of known around town. Everybody was enamored with him, and so I asked him to go to lunch, and

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David Trent: and I liked him. And and but I was like, Okay, he's there's nothing magic there. I thought, I can do this, and he was kind enough.

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David Trent: probably took him to lunch another 6 or 7 times, and

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David Trent: he was kind enough to share his recipe with me, even though I was going to be in the same market. He was so established. I think he just had a he had a real, just, kind of altruistic heart about that. So that was very kind. So it helped me to say, if he's done that, then I know I can, or at least, I say, I know I was strongly confident that I could could do the same, and so I largely used his recipe. He was doing workshops at the time during the day, and he called him

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David Trent: various things. The one I did was called how to build an all weather portfolio, and I would I would wanted to get. There's a 90Â min workshop and get potential clients in the room. But I knew that 80% of those people were not going to become clients, and so I would try to add as much value for them in that 90Â min as I could. And and knowing that hopefully, I would get

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David Trent: 20% to a 3rd of those that would would take a meeting and and some become clients. So so we started in that we I did that for 2 or 3 years at the very beginning. Obviously it didn't work like gangbusters, but it worked enough where I got some footing, you know. Got I got established enough where I said, I can figure this out. I just

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David Trent: you know the hardest part was I? You know I had a pretty big chunk of money on credit card debt at high interest, which is not smart, but you know I wanted to make it work. I was 100 owner. So that's the business development piece, and that I just I use some of the a lot of stuff I learned at New York life just

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David Trent: getting on the phone and calling and going meet people. So.

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Jack Hubbard: Well, you built your business up to a billion dollars and you eventually sold off 100% of it. You're a young man. It's 2023.

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Jack Hubbard: What are you thinking? Now, what are you gonna do.

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David Trent: I kind of had an idea. I I wanted to. I wanted to. To. I I knew I was ready for a break from wealth management. I wasn't like

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David Trent: not enjoying it. But I I just had a sense inside that I want to do something different, because if you think about it. I could have stayed there and done business development.

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David Trent: you know, maybe 2030, 40Â HA week. And I'm

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David Trent: cash and a check every every every 2 weeks, and every you know I'm getting a profit share or share share of profits paid to me. And so

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David Trent: when I'm selling, I'm giving up that recurring revenue. Now it's a lot of fun to get a big check, but I knew I would miss recurring revenue. I did not realize how much I would miss recurring revenue. And so I really didn't.

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David Trent: because I didn't need a break from being an entrepreneur. So I kind of dove right into writing my book to, I did a lot of exploration over a 12 month period. I kept a small team in place after I exited.

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David Trent: and and so 2 people besides me. And so the 3 of us kind of walk through. We want to build an exit planning practice. Do we want to build a business operating system, coach practice, and I kept coming back to moderating peer groups. So I'll be quiet a second.

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Jack Hubbard: No, that's great. I

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Jack Hubbard: so you you start Trent Premier capital. And by the way, we are going to talk a lot about this book, because one of the things I found unique about this is, it's an autobiography

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Jack Hubbard: plus. It's a roadmap to help people understand how to elevate others. And in the process elevating yourself. But go back to Trent. Premier growth. So what what are you doing now?

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David Trent: You said something that really no one has voiced that way. You said some autobiography. And what did you say? Roadmap?

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Jack Hubbard: It's a roadmap to help people help others.

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David Trent: I'm gonna I'm gonna use that because that because that that is a good description of it. So Trent premier growth.

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David Trent: is. Just.

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David Trent: I decided to call my new entity that. And pretty do a lot of things under that umbrella.

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David Trent: And so we are primary with that entity. Really, we're building out what I call CEO

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David Trent: roundtable groups. And and we're looking for companies that are 15 to

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David Trent: 200 employees, probably doing 5 million to 50 million profit.

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David Trent: And there's a founder owner, partner in that as long as they have ownership and building out these roundtable groups that meet for 4Â HA month, get in a room, and they're able to talk about and challenges, opportunities, problems, ideas that they have in a kind of a safe environment. Have people to talk to a lot of entrepreneurs a lot, or it's lonely, man, because you don't. There's stuff you can't share with

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David Trent: or won't share with just anybody, and so, unless you have a partner.

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David Trent: But even then it's good to to have another place to go out. And and it it it truly.

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David Trent: if you're in a CEO roundtable group, even after 12 months, you're going to increase the enterprise value of your company just by your acumen and probably decisions. You're gonna make over that 12 months. And if you're in a group for you know, 2 years, 5 years, 15 years that you're going to continue

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David Trent: to see results in your business. And so that really appealed to me to be able to moderate those groups, those 12 person groups. And so I thought, you know what? Why not do it in in multiple cities? And so that's we really got started on the process about 6, 8 months ago, and

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David Trent: man, I'm having a ball doing. It's a lot of fun. So.

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Jack Hubbard: I want you to get specific with me and talk about maybe what goes on in those 4Â h. But but before we do that you're out in various groups all the time, David. You know, we hear a lot of things on the media. We read things in newspapers. We talk to friends and neighbors about what's going on. What are you hearing about Ceos? From small to mid-sized businesses, about

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Jack Hubbard: their their challenges, their fears, you know where they're headed in 25.

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David Trent: You know the the

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David Trent: the big one, and this is not you know, there's a few things out there that that are challenges for business owners and things that they need to. They need to overcome that to not only increase their enterprise value.

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David Trent: but get it to where they could sell it. And what I educate people on is.

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David Trent: there's an acronym I use gear GEAR. And every 90 days as a business owner. Ask yourself, do I want to do? I want to grow? Or do I want to exit?

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David Trent: So that's the G and the E. The A and the R. Are always ready. So you want to be to me. You need to be doing one of those 2 things. Now. I did this in my wealth management career. I would coach for a little bit, and that was not a good thing

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David Trent: if if growing could mean I'm gonna grow at

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David Trent: 5% this year, you know, but pick something that even if you say I want to. You know I've worked hard. I want to take it a little easier, but still have some sort of growth objective. It could be 2%. But have something where you're trying to improve and get better. And so that's the growth part of it. If you. The cool thing is, if you get your company ready to exit.

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David Trent: then you don't have to sell it because you're at a point where you're you don't, you're it's not. It doesn't require you to be there may maybe you need to be there 10 or 20Â HA week.

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David Trent: but if you get that going and get your business there

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David Trent: where it really is, owner independent.

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David Trent: then you may look at it and say, Why would I sell this. I call it clipping a coupon, you know, from the bond world. So if I'm clipping a coupon every month, every quarter, whatever it may be.

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David Trent: you know you compare that to selling your business. Now, if you get a 20 multiple on your earnings, then you might go. I can't not do this right, but most most companies are going to sell at 3 to 5 times earnings. I was fortunate to be more in the 8 to 10 range.

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David Trent: and so.

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David Trent: owner. Independence, I think, is, that's not necessarily. That's not the environment in 25. That was a question you asked. But that's that's a repeating

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David Trent: challenge for business owners is getting getting people in place and getting the business work and run without them. And then the other issues. You, you see, our customer concentration can be an issue.

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David Trent: you know, they, a lot of companies, need. They need a they need to be professionalized right? They don't. There's a lot of things you're not doing in the in Hr. And and the Cfo function all this. So so those things. So all of those are. And that's just a few of them are things where these owners need help, and what I've tried to do in that is, ha! Have a

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David Trent: just a roster of coaches that can help my clients, and I'm not gonna say, Hey, you need to go do this. I'd say I'm gonna introduce. You see if this is a fit for you, but I think it's something that could help you get your business to the next level, so.

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Jack Hubbard: Well, you, one of the things you you are involved with in in your company is an area called Optima M and a, yeah, you talk about the gear process. What are you seeing?

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Jack Hubbard: I've heard it all over the lot that, for example, 60% of business owners over the age of 60 are considering exiting their business. What are you seeing? What's the activity around? M. And A. In this time period.

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David Trent: Well, you may have heard, or some some your listeners may have heard, the silver tsunami, and that's what you're talking about. There's just a. There's a lot of business owners that are gonna have. Everybody has to transition their business right? It may be death that causes that. But a business we transition, and that, could that could be second, Gen. Takes it over, whatever it may be. But.

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David Trent: the what what I'm seeing with with that is, is there there? That is that is happening. Okay?

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David Trent: And the the market right now,

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David Trent: is okay. But the tariffs. If you're talking about something just real recent. I think it's made some PE shops and family offices. The companies we sell are not going to be bought by another individual. Those are more main street companies. The companies we sell are going to be a family office, a

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David Trent: a private equity firm. I'll give you an example. We've got a construction firm right now, that is, on the market. They're doing about 60 million in revenue, but their margins are pretty low, as the construction industry goes, probably doing.

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David Trent: you know 4%.

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David Trent: profit margin. Is that the right number, anyway? There.

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David Trent: that that's a we're bringing buyers to the table at a 15 million dollar valuation on that company. And so in the last 3 months, it's just it's been hard to get activity on. And we really think it's because of the tariffs and just uncertainty, right?

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David Trent: And so.

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David Trent: But we've got a white paper on a company that we sold last year. It's a landscaping company. It was a 30 million dollar transaction. And this guy started mowing. You know, the classic story started mowing yards, and you know he's under 40 and had a really nice exit kept some ownership in the, you know. It stays stayed on board.

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David Trent: kept a 30% stake in the company. And and so we're we're hoping for him. He can have an even bigger buy to the apple, you know, in a few years. So.

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Jack Hubbard: Well you mentioned, and I want to start talking about the book and and the CEO roundtable, but you mentioned earnings, ratios, or multiples. If if I'm a small business and I have a business that's

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Jack Hubbard: 2 million dollars in revenue, what's an easy way to have me figure out what my business is really worth.

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David Trent: Well, in those type of businesses the phrase used called Sde sellers, discretionary earnings. And so

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David Trent: what what you'll look at in that case, let's let's say that company's doing

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David Trent: 400,000 in profit and with a business like that. Often the owners is

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David Trent: running personal things for the business, which is okay, you know, ideally, you don't want to do a lot of that. But since you're probably that business is going to sell to another individual

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David Trent: versus a, you know, PE firm or something like that. So

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David Trent: you take that 400,000, and they there's what you call add backs. So you may, if he's, you know.

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David Trent: running his car through that. You add that back in depends on what kind of salary just taking too large a salary out of the company. And what a typical salary would be! You get to add that back in. So maybe those add backs gets him to 500,000 of profit. And then it's just a simple thing of whatever space he's in. Hopefully, that's sometimes that's real definable. Sometimes it's it's a little bit of a gray area on, on! How do you compare it to be like?

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David Trent: If you're selling a house, you're getting comps right? So you're getting the same thing. You're getting comps. See what that industry is is, what level the sales are at. And so you just take that that earnings or that profit of 500,000, and if most companies in that space are selling 3 to 6 times that, so if it's on the low end, 3 times

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David Trent: 500,000 would be a million 5, and on the high end 6 times, that is, is significantly more. In that case it would be 3 million.

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David Trent: And so you try to determine that, or are you?

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David Trent: If you look at the industry, are you on the higher end of that? And that's kind of where you you try to start with. Here's where we we think we need to list your company at, you know. And so if that's 2 million dollars, you do that and start to see

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David Trent: what the market thinks, and you may have to go up on that. But if you get a lot of interested buyers you can certainly, I mean, you may have to go down on that. But if you start having a lot of interested buyers, you may figure out, hey? We may be asking too little for this, and so you get some people, maybe bidding against each other.

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Jack Hubbard: And it sounds like a big number. But if you're 45 years old and you get X, you've still got 30 years of work. And so you need to be thinking about that. It's not necessarily a game changer or a life changer totally well, speaking of life changers, though you have changed a lot of lives in the CEO Council. You have them all over the country.

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Jack Hubbard: Walk us through the CEO Council. How does this work.

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David Trent: So you had brought it earlier, and I did to the 4Â h meeting.

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David Trent: and so I'll start with the last 2Â h of every meeting we have a we have a a really cool process to process, challenges, opportunities, problems, and ideas. And from Lx Council the founder calls that calls them copies copi. So we spend that 2Â h doing that. And that format is

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David Trent: I'll give it to you kind of quickly in the interest of time, but we let the the CEO owner, founder

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David Trent: talk about what it, what? What that challenge or opportunity is. Give them about 5Â min to

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David Trent: lay it out.

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David Trent: Then we do 10Â min of questions, so I'll go around the room. You either ask a question or you pass, and if we come back to you you can ask the question interview, or if you think about it. But so we we

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David Trent: do that for 8 to 10Â min and try to exhaust all the questions. If we can no solutions during that time, then we spend the last 8 to 10Â min providing solutions. Typically, we'll write those solutions down on a on a whiteboard and then have the owner foundry come up and say he's got 10 solutions. Come up and say, here's 3 i'm gonna execute on, and then we get we have some accountability for that.

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David Trent: So that's that's the meat of the meeting. The 1st 2Â h we're spending. I'll bring in a speaker in the 1st hour. I don't want to take a lot of time with that, because we're not an all day meeting like some of these peer groups are. But you know, quick. Q. And A for that, each member.

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David Trent: So the 1st hour and a half is that speaker? I'm kind of going back, which is about the last 2Â h. Now talk about the 1st 90Â min, and so the the

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David Trent: well.

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David Trent: each end of the meeting is about 1520Â min, just with miscellaneous stuff. Then you got the 2Â h at the end. And then so Rick leaves about 90Â min. In that 90

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David Trent: each meeting. I have one of the one of the members will give a deeper dive on their company. And so you're gonna get to know over time what everybody does, and and really pretty intimately, but I like for each owner to have the opportunity to present on their business, and so that 90Â min 45 is bringing in a speaker

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David Trent: 40 and quick. Q. And A for that speaker, and then 45Â min with that member talking about their business. And so what we're doing with Saint Charles Bank and trust is they're a strategic partner. So they come in every

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David Trent: we do a lunch before 30Â min, so they'll they'll come to the lunch with the members.

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David Trent: lenders, and whoever else wants to come, and then the

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David Trent: the. But the strategic partner of the bank presents every 3rd meeting, so they they fill that speaker slot every 3rd meeting, and my goal is for them to provide a great service to existing clients, but also probably more so to help them develop new clients and so and get clients in the room. They're going to be in the bank every month for 4Â h. They're gonna get to get to know them. And so long answer.

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Jack Hubbard: Well, and it sounds like this is just a marvelous opportunity to share very private ideas. I know at our meeting rich Davis, our chairman has been with one of these groups for I think 15 years.

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David Trent: He did say 15. Yes.

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Jack Hubbard: And that's amazing. And and he would indicate that you really do get to know people. And you really do get to share a lot of different things. I'm curious

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Jack Hubbard: in rotary. For example, you only have one of this and one of this and one of this. What about competitors? Do you try to stay away from that? Or do you try to vary your industries? How does that work.

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David Trent: Yeah, for sure. You you we you know, you know you're you're not gonna have 2 Hvac guys in the room cause they're not gonna wanna to to. It's a competitor. So they're not gonna be transparent in that situation. So yes, we we do make sure we don't have conflicts in the in the room.

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Jack Hubbard: Well, I want to transition into your.

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Jack Hubbard: This is a fascinating book, and I really like it because of all the things I've mentioned before. One of the neat things about it is you suggest that it's been inspired by life events talk a little bit about what caused you to say. I got to put some of my stuff down on paper.

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David Trent: You know I've been wanting to do it for a few years, and just, you know, with in the being a business owner, it was hard to find time, and so that was one of the, you know. I started working on that pretty quickly after I exited.

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David Trent: and I've got a degree in mathematics, and I've never been a gifted writer. But I just got started, and I kind of wrote it with a math formula, if you will, I figured out I'm going to have 3

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David Trent: 3 sections in every chapter. Each chapter was going to be 2,000 to 2,500 words, and so each of those sections is 800 words. So I got I got in a routine. I remember I'd write a chapter. Take it down to my wife let have her read it

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David Trent: at the beginning. It was not very good, but we got. I got better with it, and so I got a routine for writing those chapters that way. So then I'm doing the math to say I would time myself. It's taken me 3Â h to write a chapter, you know, once I got kind of got in the groove with it, I go. Okay. I've got 25 chapters, and you can do the math. But I probably before I it was a long time, but writing for I got I probably have

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David Trent: 200 to 250Â h is what it took me, I would say, now I could write another book, I think, and probably easily, half that time, just knowing what I know and haven't done. That's the cool thing about doing a book, and is, I really am proud of this one. But I'm excited about some other ideas that I have, too. So.

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Jack Hubbard: The 3 sections, and at the end you kind of wrap everything up. You talk about entrepreneurial inspiration, family values and master teachings. You know you are a mathematician, and because of that you had to compartmentalize things, and that I think that helps in writing a book. Why did you choose to do it that way.

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David Trent: You know, I started. I just had funny stories, I'm thinking stories or people remember stories. And I had this just incredible upbringing with. And my wife says I grew up in the beaver, cleaver family, you know. I just had 3 siblings. My parents were my dad especially, but my mom, too. My dad just was a Master Encourager, and I address. I talked about that in the book, and

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David Trent: and then my parents were both very strong in their faith in the Lord. And my mom was really she was the kind of the leader on that side. And then I had an older brother who I talk about in the book who I've looked up to. I was 3 grades behind him

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David Trent: coming up, and he just set this marvelous, fantastic example where I just wanted to be like him.

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David Trent: And so all of those things combined stories from that everything from a

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David Trent: teeth brushing contest I had with my brother to. And then what was fun is? I was telling my entrepreneur story, as you said, kind of autobiography on my entrepreneurs entrepreneur story.

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David Trent: but then I was. I was tying that

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David Trent: entrepreneurial inspiration with what I called family values, and there was always a story to go with. I tried to really tie the story into my entrepreneurial story, and then the easier part of that, because I've read so much and consumed so much personal development stuff. That 3rd part about master teachers is that was pretty easy to find that. So it's like, I started with the entrepreneur piece. 800 words. And how do I? What's the family value story that goes with that? And then tying in

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David Trent: a zig ziglar story, Jim Rohn,

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David Trent: Tony Robbins, you know Earl Nightingale, the classics that it's cool now because a lot of young people have never heard of them, I said, you have got to. I know there's some modern day people that are talented at that. But those are some classics that are awesome. So.

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Jack Hubbard: Yeah, and you talk about Johnny Wooden as well. But you mentioned Zig Ziglar and I had the opportunity to hear Zig speak a number of different times, and it was fabulous. And one time in Chicago I got to him, speak, and I went up to him, and I said, How do you?

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Jack Hubbard: How do you get yourself motivated every time? Because your speeches must be real similar, he said. You know it's really interesting, he said. I've done the speech that I just gave over a thousand times.

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Jack Hubbard: Holy cow!

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Jack Hubbard: What I have to realize is that you are. It's the 1st time you're hearing it.

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Jack Hubbard: That's what inspires me is to be able to take the speech that I've done so many times and landed in in your life. Zig Ziglar appears throughout the book. What was it that Zig taught you? And why did you put him in the book so much.

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David Trent: You know he's got so many good things from from help enough other people get what they want, and you'll get what you want ultimate kind of altruism thing. That's you know. You could say that self interest in a good way, right? And so and then my all time favorite, and if any of your listeners haven't done this, you go Google

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David Trent: priming the pump by Zig Ziglar. I don't know if you remember that, but it's where he tells the story about Bernie Logic and somebody else, and they're they're at this pump pumping water, and I won't go into all the detail. But that that's probably my all time favorite Zig ziglar story that he tells. I took my son to a conference that we was for a father, son, thing that he did. That's the only time I got to see him live. And that was really special. But yeah, he's just

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David Trent: day before vacation attitude. He says. You know he goes into the story the day before vacation. You get all this stuff done. You're going on vacation, and the the lesson is, have a day before vacation every day, you know, and in terms of your productivity, and what you're doing. So.

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Jack Hubbard: Well, I got to ask you about 2 specific chapters in the book, and it's it's so fascinating that a lot of these chapters, in fact, probably most of them start with one word.

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David Trent: They actually are. They are all one word chapters.

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Jack Hubbard: It's just.

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David Trent: All right, then.

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Jack Hubbard: All 25 of them.

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David Trent: Yeah.

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Jack Hubbard: It's fascinating. And so one of the chapters has to do with selling. So let's start there. Talk about what you're seeing and teaching and talking to folks about in the CEO Council and other places that you work. What are you talking to them about around modern selling.

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David Trent: It it. You know, there's so much access to technology today.

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David Trent: That can be remarkable in what you can do with it. Now we've got AI coming along.

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David Trent: But what's never gonna go away is relationships and just being authentic.

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David Trent: And in those relationships and coming with just a servant's heart. That's

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David Trent: I think that's a can be a big challenge. And it's gonna vary from organization to organization. But, man, you gotta lead with that. Now I say that what needs to be added to that another zig ziglar thing

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David Trent: he he called it professional visiting, he said, you don't want to be a professional visitor. And so you can get caught in that trap, too, where you build great relationships. But you're you're never communicating that, you know. Here's what I do here. I think you this could benefit you. And so there's a line between that right developing that relationship. But I know plenty of people, and I'm not being mean. It's just is what it is

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David Trent: that are professional visitors. You know that network and network and network, and meet a lot of people which can be fun. But

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David Trent: you know, at the end of the day, if you're running a business or trying to do, do well for your family, you know you've got to generate revenue, and that means you got to get clients.

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Jack Hubbard: Yeah. And if you're going to generate a lot of revenue, you're going to thrive, which is one of your other chapters. And recently I had a chance to see a dear friend for many, many years. Meredith Elliott Powell, who wrote the book, thrive. It's a bestseller you wrote a chapter about thrive.

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Jack Hubbard: I'm curious. We live in some pretty uncertain times.

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Jack Hubbard: What are you telling business owners in the CEO Council as to how to thrive in this kind of economy?

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David Trent: You know the thing I the thing. What I communicate is

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David Trent: one kind of double down on what's been working, and but

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David Trent: also be aware of maybe things that that don't work anymore because of whatever it's AI, whatever it may be.

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David Trent: So don't.

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David Trent: Don't get kind of stuck in the mud with something

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David Trent: be ready to adapt. But at the same time you need to be as a business owner you've got. Have your? I keep bringing up bringing up. AI, because it's such a a.

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David Trent: you know. It's just. It's changing

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David Trent: daily, it seems like. But look for other opportunities. But don't chase something at the expense of what you're doing. It's working, and

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David Trent: I'll come back to relationships. Don't don't

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David Trent: let yourself start to discount that. So.

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Jack Hubbard: I've done a couple of interviews recently with folks that have written books about purpose. The purpose of purpose. Ron Tight was on the show recently, and the power of matter exact. Mercurio did a lot of study of this whole very powerful concept. You write chapters about purpose and profit.

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Jack Hubbard: and I'm always curious when I read in a book about those 2 things that I could think if I'm a hardened business owner. Purpose is. Soft. Profits are hard talk about how you've seen business owners blend those 2 things together for the benefit of the customer and their colleagues.

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David Trent: I'll start with a question for you. Have you read halftime by Bob Buford?

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Jack Hubbard: I have not.

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David Trent: Okay. So he he wrote it when he was 50. He I think he sold a bunch of radio stations. If I remember right, in Tyler, Texas.

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David Trent: He's 50 years old. Hit a hit, a big lick. I can't remember what it was but and so he was left thinking, What am I? What do I do now? I'm 50. You kind of alluded to this earlier. And

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David Trent: he wrote this book called Halftime about how he's living his life with purpose and and

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David Trent: all that he's doing.

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David Trent: He used a reason I bring him up. He in that book was a 2 word phrase that just I don't. It just stuck with me.

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David Trent: And the phrases or the 2 words are altruistic egoism.

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David Trent: and his lesson he gave was that you feed your ego by

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David Trent: doing good for others. And so, maybe the only way that feeding your ego, it is feeding your confidence. Your ego, are 2 different things right, but that in this case is maybe the same. But being altruistic is really, you know, it does produce dopamine and serotonin and those things. And so

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David Trent: what I like to say, and you kind of said it with purpose and profit. I like to say, Hey, I'm a fan of mixing altruistic egoism with capitalism. If you can bring those 2 together, then you've got something special. So that's

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David Trent: maybe that's not for everybody, but that that works really well for me. And I feel like I kind of keep my

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David Trent: purpose and profit both going up at the same time. So.

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Jack Hubbard: Well as I've gotten to know you, the word eclectic continues to come up. You're an entrepreneur. The CEO Council is fabulous. You do a lot of work in entrepreneurialism and consulting and mergers and acquisitions. And you've written a book, and so I'm sure you're making the most of your life, including with your family.

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Jack Hubbard: Talk about how someone might get in touch with you about gee, I'm in St. Louis, or I'm in Minneapolis or any city in America, and I'd like to talk to David about starting a CEO council in my neck of the woods. How does someone get a hold of you?

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David Trent: Well, it's I'm happy to give my the website. And maybe my cell phone's fine. 501-83-1099 one. But our website is Trent premier growth, and everything's on there to to get in touch with me. It's trentpremier growth.com

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David Trent: the Trent, Pg, Com will also connect to that website. And so

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David Trent: let's let's let's ironically, you mentioned Saint Saint Louis. I was there on a connecting flight this morning. And so if somebody like that were to call us and say, Hey, I'd be interested in, you know, taking advantage of a group. The way I can do that is, I would pre select a moderator because I can't moderate 30 groups a month, right? Because there's there's no way I can that I have the capacity myself to do that. So

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David Trent: in a city like St. Louis we would pre select a moderator, and I've got a I've got a system where I can do that, and then

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David Trent: we can build out a group for that moderator. And then we just do a revenue share with the moderator. So there's a lot of business coaches that struggle with business development. So the scalability with this model for me is, I can go in a city. We can find a moderator.

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David Trent: and then we can over a 3 month period or so. We can build out a 12 person, CEO roundtable group, and it's not easy. It's a heavy business development lift, but we're getting. We're continuing to improve at it. We haven't totally cracked the code on it, but we were pretty close on how to prospect and build out those groups. And so ultimately, I'm going to always probably run 4 to 6 groups myself. So I want to stay sharp, and I love it.

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David Trent: And then we're just gonna see how much we can grow the other side of it. So we handle all the billing and everything, and but the the moderator that's their main job is to do that, and they'll end up developing business out of that. So.

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Jack Hubbard: Well, here's something else that isn't easy, and that's being an entrepreneur today. But you are making it easier, David Trent. Thank you so much for sharing your expertise. The book is elevate others. You need to go out and buy this. It's outstanding great to see you, David. Thanks for being on the show.

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David Trent: Jack. Thank you. It was fun.

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Jack Hubbard: Okay, terrific. How was that for you?

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David Trent: It was awesome. A lot of fun. You make it easy. You're

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David Trent: appreciate your attention to detail and preparation. And

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David Trent: it was nice to have a preview of those questions, and I mean, I think we could have done it without it. But I don't think it would have been. It wouldn't have been as good, so.

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Jack Hubbard: No, it's it. It flows really. Well. So how is Saint Charles going? How are how are you doing with that.

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David Trent: Well, so I, I need to get on another call with Mike. So

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David Trent: you know, you get in an organization, and you don't know what the dynamic is. And so so Mike Wozniak was after our meetings. I had a zoom call with him. He was super nice. I shared this with Mike. He was super nice. But he basically told me I'm gonna shorten it. But he said, Hey.

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David Trent: I'm pressing my guys pretty hard right now. We've got a system that works. I think they're using your system right?

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Jack Hubbard: We are.

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David Trent: And and his his comment to me, this is where I would like. Maybe some of your guidance. He says this doesn't make sense for me to devote time to it, and he wasn't that blunt like. I said he was super nice, but but he the way he communicated to me it made sense, you know, and so so I go back to Mike

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David Trent: and just say, Hey, listen! Here's what Mike told me, I said. I can build this group out without

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David Trent: you guys providing me names. We we can go out to the market we've got, and we can find business owners to build the group out, I said.

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David Trent: I think it's better if you put a couple of bank clients in here and then give me a list. Here's here's my top 20 prospects that we would love to work with, or 30 or 40 or 50, whatever it is, and we'll reach out to them. We'd love to have some of those in the group, you know. And so

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David Trent: Mike came back and he said, Well, that's fine, he goes, I he goes. He was kind of irritated with Mike, so

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David Trent: who said, Let me talk to Mike, and I'm thinking, and and I told him which what I told you. I said, I don't

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David Trent: make sure I'm not like trying to throw him under the bus or anything, and so.

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Jack Hubbard: One sec.

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David Trent: And so so I so where you ask where we are? I just need. I had scheduled to do lunches the in 2 weeks

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David Trent: in Saint Charles, do we do these 90Â min.

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David Trent: roundtable experience lunches to prospect, for it usually takes about 6 to 10 of those to get a group built out. And so I was, gonna we're gonna try to fill 2 back to back with 1212 Ceos. And so I'm gonna call Mike and say, why don't we? Because now it's gotten delayed, I may see if he can push to mid June, so

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David Trent: which I'm fine with, and I'm I'm sure he's. I think he's eager, but he's probably like me, too. He's got plenty going on, and we're as long as we're gonna get this doing done sooner rather than later. That's fine. So

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David Trent: do do you have any guidance for me being on the board, and how I might navigate, you know, kind of the dynamic and culture there and.

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Jack Hubbard: These guys are all ex-harris guys. They know each other a thousand years rich, and Mike and Mike, so they've all known each other

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Jack Hubbard: long time.

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Jack Hubbard: I think Mike's group, Wozniak's group is going after smaller Lower Middle Market.

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David Trent: He did sell that, save that to me.

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Jack Hubbard: And Tony Abbott is probably your your guy. Mike Mike Tremarco and Tony Abbott are probably the guys that you probably should really focus and rich, because they know the businesses that are in the that upper middle market that I think would benefit Saint Charles. We've got a lot of prospects and the other nice thing about it is we've got the whole Fox Valley. So you've got you've got Elgin all the way down to Aurora

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Jack Hubbard: there, where we're where we're doing business. So I think you know Tremarco and Tony Abbott as well as rich, are probably your your best bets at this point.

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David Trent: Well, my apple pencil is not working. I'm trying to take notes.

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David Trent: All right, Tremarco.

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Jack Hubbard: Remarks Abbott, and Rich, I think those are the 3 guys that.

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David Trent: I I he did share with me that that Michael Mike was working more lower Middle Market, and so

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David Trent: Tony Abbott's 1, i probably needed to reach out to. But I want to have another conversation with Mike, and then I have not.

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David Trent: I don't. I think I reached out to rich kind of like I did with you just to do a zoom call.

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Jack Hubbard: Yeah.

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David Trent: But I hadn't heard back. But I haven't. I'll try him again. Once I had that conversation with Mike, I said, or with Wozniak. I said, I need to talk to Trimarco again before I keep going. So

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David Trent: yeah, no, yeah.

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Jack Hubbard: Well, good luck, thank you for doing this, David. It was fun. You're gonna be on May 28.th we'll get you some marketing material a couple of days before, maybe the Friday before. You're welcome to use it in any way you want, and if.

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David Trent: Yeah, we'll we'll we'll use it. So thank you, for that. Would like to help your your building your audience and or growing it should say you, Daryl. Amy was super excited that we met, and

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David Trent: ironically I was on his their podcast selling from the heart. Here.

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David Trent: I think it was. I think it was this past Friday, or maybe 2 Friday.

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Jack Hubbard: Kidding.

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David Trent: 2 Fridays ago. So they they were. They're a lot of fun. They they got a real good thing going with the 2 of them together. They do a great job. So.

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Jack Hubbard: They do. It's a good mutton, Jeff thing, and and Larry, Larry does a terrific job. His books are fabulous.

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Jack Hubbard: all right, David. Thank you again. I appreciate it.

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David Trent: Thanks. Jack. Hit hit him straight. Okay.

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Jack Hubbard: I'll try see you later.

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David Trent: Alright, bye.