Interview with Joe Valley: The Story of Joe Valley from Quiet Light & Free Copy of The Exitpreneur’s Best Seller

Interview with Joe Valley: The Story of Joe Valley from Quiet Light & Free Copy of The Exitpreneur’s Best Seller.mp4

Tomer [00:00:00] So let’s welcome Joe Valley from Quiet light he’s an adviser and partner. One of the biggest firms that help interpreters with exits. He also wrote this amazing book called Exit Burners definitely recommend you get a copy. I’m almost done with it, and once I’m done, pretty sure I’m going to give five-star reviews on that book. Really amazing helping sellers and especially sellers, but everyone with whether it’s the content website says anything that you’re maybe thinking to sell or even not selling, it’s a great book to prepare, maybe to a future sale.

But I’m really interested to learn about Joe, about this story, about his background and how you know, it’s like to share it with our viewers so they can really learn from this. Welcome, Joe. How are you today?

Joe Valley [00:00:51] I’m good, Tomer. Thanks for having me on, I appreciate it.

Tomer [00:00:54] Yeah, of course. So why don’t you start by telling who you are, where you are from, where you grew up? What is your background, how did you get into quiet life?

Joe Valley [00:01:09] It’s a lot of information, that sort of stuff, but how much time do we have? Sure, man, I am self-employed have been since 1997, where I’m from, originally from Maine, but I live in North Carolina now in Davidson, North Carolina. It’s just a little too cold during the wintertime. But I grew up there, and spent the first 40 years of my life there. I 100 percent self-employed since 1997. Hundred percent online entrepreneurs. In 2005, I took what was a radio and television infomercial product to 100 percent online 2005.

And I took it through. The best of the worst of the economy came out the other side of the Great Recession. Tired, worn out, ready to move on, emotionally toast. And I thought. When they woke up and I decided I can I thought I can sell this thing. Let me find out, and I reached out to three online business brokers and only three at the time. Two of them were kind of icky car salesmen, type people.

Sorry, car salesmen. You know, the stigma brokers have them too. So but they were just trying to get their hooks into me for a commission. They didn’t care about me or my business. And then my third conversation,

Tomer [00:02:25] You actually start with something to sell by hearing it from someone. Or How would be say?

Joe Valley [00:02:31] No, I just woke up one day and thought it just kind of dawned on me. It wasn’t a common thing that you could sell an online business back then or, you know, any type of nonbrick and mortar type business. I had a couple of agencies before that, a product marketing company before that. And you know, the agency Tomer, the media buying agency that I launched in 1997, was definitely a sellable asset.

And at one point, incredibly valuable, we’re talking millions of dollars just as a multiple of revenue. It just never occurred to me that I could sell that because it was JVI Media, Joe Valley, and corporate media. And it was me, and it just never occurred to me that I could sell that.

But it’s sellable. It’s a little harder to sell because I had, you know, the brand and reputation tied around me and we could have transitioned that out to somebody else. They could have taken over my client base, taken over my staff. Instead of doing that, I just got tired of it.

And so I shifted my focus to something else, which is what happens often with entrepreneurs. We get, you know, that shiny object syndrome or you know that what I tell my wife is if I can do that regardless of what it is, it’s a joke in our family now building bookcases to you know, putting tile, none of which I can do well, right? I can do my business well, but all that other stuff, I really can’t do that. And that’s what happens with entrepreneurs.

So I just let it fade away. I got tired of doing it instead of selling it later on in life with the eCommerce business. It just dawned on me that I could, even though it wasn’t well known. And so that third conversation was with a guy named Mark Daoust, who’s the original founder of Quiet Light. And he was just helpful. A nice guy reviewed. My P&Ls, had a couple of calls with me, and eventually, I listed and sold my business through quiet light.

Not because Mike got his hooks into me for a commission, actually told me, or he told me to go away. He said, Joe look, man, your business growing like crazy. The last three months, way up over last year, so early 2010 versus 2009, so much better because the economy was coming back. People are not as afraid anymore.

And he said, if you wait another six months, you are going to make X amount more. I was like, He’s telling me to go away. It’s in my best interest to actually wait. And you know what? Ultimately, it’s in his too, because when I sell for more, he would make more. So it was a great experience I sold through quietly listed in 2010.

Tomer [00:05:03] The radio infomercial?

Joe Valley [00:05:05] No, no. This was my 100 percent online business. It was a digestive wellness center. Nutritional supplements offer digestive health.

Tomer [00:05:13] Oh, so you had your own eCommerce store for supplements and you saw that in e-commerce.

Joe Valley [00:05:19] It was an e-commerce business. Hundred percent.

Tomer [00:05:21] Yeah, the warehouse, you would cheap all the stuff or you other like dropshipping kind of models?

Joe Valley [00:05:26] No, it was my own brand. I had three people that shift all my products. They had customer service, people that worked remotely for me back then in 2010, and I have lived in a few different locations while operating it. So it was just like everything is today, but it was 2010. The difference is that the values were different. It wasn’t as common to sell on a business with literally, you know, no physical assets.

I had some inventory, but that was about it. But it worked. You know, I worked with Jason, who was the original advisor at Quiet Jason Yellow. It’s still with the team. We had it listed for less than 30 days and it was under offer and we sold in early, I’m sorry, early sold in November, early November 2010.

I took pretty much all of 2011 off and then joined the team quite late in 2012 or early 2012. And so I was the second advisor. Jason was still there, no one else. Originally, Twilight was formed where Mark would hire people, train them, how to be business brokers, teach them entrepreneurship, and then go out to be brokers.

Jason had this idea that entrepreneurs in the online space should be the brokers entrepreneurs turned advisors, as we call them now, and he was the first. I was the second. Amanda was the third. And now we’ve got a total of 15 advisors that are entrepreneurs that have been there. They’ve built, bought or sold their own online businesses, and now they’re helping.

Other entrepreneurs understand the value of what they have, what levers to push and pull to increase its value and eventually help them with an exit of their business as well.

Tomer [00:07:09] Yeah, yeah, I mean, quite light. It’s a pretty famous name when you hear about selling businesses. So I would before doing Amazon, I was, you know, having a jewelry business and I would also buy and sell websites on Flipper. So but always the bigger deals and you would get them pretty much and you know, all your content, websites and such. But I want to take a little more about how you got into e-commerce, how did how you started your first business? So the first business in 1997, you were you mentioned that you were self-employed. That’s the first business was online to or it’s just that?

Joe Valley [00:07:49] now that was it was an agency, a media buying agency. So all of my clients were remote. I didn’t have an I had an office, but you know, they didn’t come in for the first year because I actually worked out of my home for the now, probably for the first six months. Yes, I had a website for that business, but I wasn’t selling products online, so I built a $50 website called JD Media, but nobody ever went to it.

The second in 1998. In early 1998, I launched my first products for my product marketing company. And right away, we built a website for that. I didn’t promote the product online, though. Tomer, I bought the radio because this is what I knew. I bought radio advertisements at the end of each ad. There was a call to action, right? We all know what that is, right?

But in this case, it was an 800 number. So the ad was 40 seconds, 42 seconds, and then the last 18 seconds was a call to action. You know, if you want to if you’re this, that the other thing purist that is perfect for you. Call one 800 555, you know that kind of thing. I’ve released most of them, too.

So that turned into digestive wellness. And originally it was actually just a colon cleansing product. Try to supplement for colon cleansing. We did down the radio, we did a TV infomercial and then I went 100 percent online.

And once we went online, we turned it into a digestive wellness center where we had probiotics, liver support products, multivitamins, things of that nature, everything for your total digestive wellness. We did build a website for that originally when it was a TV infomercial, but then when I decided to go 100 percent online, I hired a developer that was the website developer for a business called Women to Women. Women and then To women.com.

It’s out of Maine and David was that. I mean, I lived in Maine at the time, women to women. At that time, back in 2005, they were doing three or four hundred thousand dollars a month in recurring revenue. They’re still in business today, so I’m sure they’re doing three or four million a month in recurring revenue now.

So David really knew what he was doing. So we built a complete digestive wellness resource center. And by the time I sold the business in 2010, I was still spending about $40000 a month on paid ads through Google AdWords. But most of the traffic was actually coming from organic traffic because we wrote good quality content every month. And, you know, over the course of five years, Google doing whatever.

Tomer [00:10:18] I think you mentioned is in the book that your developer, you make sure that you bring high-quality content. And yeah, it sounds simple, but it requires consistency and, you know, just doing really high-quality stuff. That’s very cool about that now. Back then, you mentioned recurring payments with that business. I know will jump more now to quiet light.

But businesses that have high recurring payments that obviously would use a lot of risks for the buyer because it’s the kind of guaranteed money that comes every month. Is that something that is true? Like buyers look like giving the higher multiples approaching these businesses differently?

Joe Valley [00:11:00] Yes. So it’s more valuable. So you want to know what percentage of your total monthly revenue is from recurring revenue. You want to know how that recurring revenue is changing as a percentage of total revenue, right? Last year at this time was 18 percent of your total revenue recurring, and this year it’s actually 24 percent.

So you’re seeing a growth in that recurring revenue. And then ultimately the lifetime value of a customer. Right. So I would calculate that maybe the lifetime value of a customer was three hundred and thirty dollars. My average ticket is $110 per month. Then that would mean the lifetime value was three months.

So if I know my lifetime value is three hundred thirty dollars and I know my product cost and I want to earn, you know, 30 percent margins, then I’ve got roughly $220 to spend to acquire that new customer. And then with that, I know I’m going to make another ninety-nine hundred dollars.

So those three things are data. Right, and you’ve got to have access to that and analyze it and study it so that when you are selling a business that has recurring revenue, you’ve got the metrics to show all those things and then really instill confidence in buyers that your business is valuable, mostly because you’ve got a really strong recurring revenue base and that keeps growing month over month. That kind of thing is going to get them excited.

If you’ve just started, you know, selling on Amazon, you’ve got recurring revenue. Forget what it’s called on Amazon. What is it called? When you’ve got the recurring revenue.

Tomer [00:12:36] Subscribe and save the program.

Joe Valley [00:12:37] Subscribe and save. So a couple of years ago, the data on subscribe and save was terrible. It’s getting much, much better. So now if it’s an Amazon business and you’ve got subscribe and save you should be able to pull that data and share it with your advisor or with your buyer, if you’re selling direct, it’s getting better today than it was two years ago.

But it’s critically important. I think when you’re selling a business to have that data, whether it’s a recurring revenue business or anything or anything else, you’ve got to have good quality data or clear financials in many, many ways, metrics and financials on the business to get the most value for it.

Tomer [00:13:12] 100 percent. And I think that, you know, a lot of times, you know, you hear that. But the one great thing, even if you’re not planning to sell to prepare your business for sale is that you discover all of these exciting things that could help you grow your business.

So whether that’s like the lifetime value of a customer, once you know how much you actually customers spend or what is the value of each customer’s, you know how much you can pay to acquire it, then you can in some cases, be much more than your competitors.

Maybe they didn’t do this analysis or they’re not really aware of all the numbers, and I was surprised to see how many sellers and stores don’t even know those things. You know, they don’t really check and they don’t know how much really they can spend to acquire a new customer.

So I think it’s always good to be prepared, do those stuff. And even with, you know, SOPs and stuff, you know, people think that SOPs are good only when you sell them, but their supplies are great. Let’s say tomorrow one of your key employees live and hand an SOP to a new member and they just learn it. And it’s very easy to, you know, shift other people in your business to do the same tasks.

Joe Valley [00:14:23] I agree a million percent on the SOPs. Let me just say it here loud and clear. It’s not only right for you to understand how to operate your business better and your staff and if an employee goes away. But it instills confidence in buyers that when they take over the business and you’re on vacation, they’ve got some SOPs that when they take over the business, they that, you know, there’s a training and transition period for the first 30 to 90 days.

And if you get sick or are available, they’ve got those SOPs to fall back on. It instills confidence in them. It builds trust with them. And when you build trust and confidence, it increases the value of your business and the multiple will go up or you’re going to get a better deal structure, meaning all cash versus, you know, a big earnout or seller note as well.

Tomer [00:15:11] Yeah, yeah. So we know with Amazon businesses, it’s pretty crazy out there. And I know that you did a couple of deals. I was in the rhodium event and one of the stories was by a lady that sold her amazon business. I’m really trying to bring someone out here in the job and she’s pretty busy, but it was a really incredible story.

And you see what people can, you know, people that never really had an idea that they’re going to sell their business starting just an Amazon business of the side gig, really having their life changed because of those demand for those businesses. What do you see lately? Where do you think that trend will go in 2022, all of that.

Joe Valley [00:15:58] in terms of valuations? Yeah. I’ll touch on where value values were a few years ago versus now and then a little prediction makes me come back to that because that woman that you’re talking about spoke at rhodium. Her name is Sumana, and she’s, you know, the classic American success story, right?

She’s her parents are native from India. She’s they moved here. She’s the first generation to be born here in the United States, and she was a bank branch manager at Bank of America, and she bought an online business with an SBA loan. She bought it from somebody else, and it was a board game that she bought.

Tomer [00:16:38] She bought zero knowledge of Amazon or e-commerce.

Joe Valley [00:16:42] Exactly none. None at all. And it was pre-pandemic. And the person that was selling it could have used your advice because they just kept running out of inventory and it really hurt the value of the business while Simona bought it.

She made sure she never ran out of inventory she bought it with SBA loan never ran out of inventory to grow incredibly, grow incredibly in 2020 and into early 2021, and she got an email from one of these Amazon FBA aggregators telling her that they’d like to buy the business and got on a call with her analyzed analyst and told her that, you know, they’re very good at what they do.

And they were, and they are incredibly charming. They’re well-funded, they’re likable, good-looking, all those things that make them dangerous. And they told someone, I’ve got your business, we’re going to offer you 2.2 million-plus inventory. She bought it for an awful lot less than that to 2.2 million-plus inventory. And this is the best offer you’re going to get. This is what we do. You have a hero skill, which was true. You’re on Amazon only. That was true given all the reasons why it wasn’t worth more, and she just being so skeptical and so smart, said, I don’t know. Sounds too good to be true.

And, you know, at the same time, I think it’s worth more. And she ended up connecting with Chuck here on the team acquired like Chuck, took on the listing gave you the real true share some data. Chuck ended up getting seven offers on the business and sold it for 5.5 million-plus inventory. A bit of a success story there in terms of making sure you’re creating a competitive environment when you sell your business and also using somebody’s expertise like Chuck’s. So valuations we’re talking about think so.

Tomer [00:18:32] She invested two hundred thousand from her own pocket in a year and a half later for 5.5. So this is amazing. This is kind of.

Joe Valley [00:18:41] What she had to pay off the seller note or the SBA loan. I don’t know the exact number, what it was, but she doesn’t. She lives about a half-hour from me and we had lunch a few months ago and she just purchased, you know, an $80000 Mercedes.

So she’s doing good. There’s an awful lot of money in her pocket, and she’s bought a couple of businesses since because she wants to do it again. She is, you know, what I would call a serial exit preneur because she understands the value in the exit and is going to keep doing it. OK. You asked me some questions about valuations where they are today versus recently. And then you go, Are we talking about online in general or FBA businesses or are we talking?

Tomer [00:19:22] You know, FBA is something that our viewers? Yeah, more. Yeah, good.

Joe Valley [00:19:27] You know, focusing. Perfect. So if you go back a few years ago when we’d list in FBA business and I call on FBA business, you know, any business that’s got 80 percent of its revenue coming from Amazon buyers, look at that as pretty much an FBA business.

So a few years ago, maybe 2017 18, we would list those at 2.74 as a maximum, almost regardless of the size, because buyers were very skeptical about buying FBA businesses. And so with all due 2.74, because it would round out the 2.7 and one-to-one commerce came along and started this idea of being an aggregator of FBA businesses, they failed and they ended up selling Ogoja.

But it started to, you know, spark the fire for three SEO and boosted elevated perch, all these other folks. And because now there’s so much interest in buying FBA businesses and those aggregators have really put it on, you know, front page, they’re smart, they’re well-educated, they’re they’ve raised billions of dollars. So therefore FBA business buying must be OK.

And the multiples have gone up. Individual buyers are paying more. And the aggregators are paying more in 2021. The total number of offers we got on every listing was 3.7 offers on every listing that we had. 3.7 offers, right? It’s like being offered a letter of intent 3.7 times.

Tomer [00:20:55] That’s fraught or it’s. That’s a lot normal. That’s abundant. Websites will get much less.

Joe Valley [00:21:01] The 3.7 is for everything e-commerce, FBA content, space agencies. If we focus just in on FBA, it pops up to four and a half, four and a half offers on every listing. Sixty-two percent of the listings sold at or over the asking price. So when it goes to that over asking price, the multiples keep getting pushed up. We sold content, a pet-related business that only had two hundred ten thousand dollars in discretionary earnings.

And by the way, when I say this, folks, this is the exception rather than the rule. It had recurring revenue, and they sold direct to the big online pet company, and they thought they sold in bulk via 7.1 multiple of two hundred and seven thousand two hundred ten thousand dollars. Discretion earnings crazy multiples.

But the multiples have pushed up. You know what might have been a 2.7 for multiple three or four years ago is probably now in that three and a half to the four-time range. But every business is different and therefore every business gets a different valuation. The larger the business is, the lower the risk, the lower the risk, the higher the multiple.

If it’s 18 months versus 36, that 18-month-old business might not have as high a multiple as that thirty-six-month-old business because this one’s more established and is lower risk or risk, Harvey. It’s funny when buyers first jump into this space, they say things like, Yeah, I just want to. I want to minimize my risk and buy something small initially. Well, that’s actually much riskier because that’s small, younger, less established business is higher risk.

So they’re actually doing the opposite of what they say they want to do. Now, as far as multiples go, in my prediction for 2022, I do think they’re going to continue to climb a little bit. Right.

I think that what may end up happening and what I hope happens for the sellers, especially FBA sellers that are getting hit up by aggregators and choose to go ahead and sell directly to the aggregators. What they may end up with is what’s called an equity role. Are you familiar with that?

No equity well is not r-o-l-e its r-o-l-l, which means that if I’m buying your FBA brand Tomer, I’m going to make you an offer of, let’s say I’m going to buy 60 percent of it and you’re going to roll 40 percent equity into the new code that I’m going to operate.

So I established a new company that would move your brand into it, and you own 40 percent of the newco. You only got paid for 60 percent of your business. Let’s say it was listed at six million dollars. You got six hundred thousand. Now it’s in the newco. But if I’m an aggregator.

And I have, you know, twenty-five FBA brands. It’s not worth three to four times, it’s worth eight to ten times. So let’s just go. I bought yours three times minus now.

Tomer [00:23:54] If they go public, right?

Joe Valley [00:23:56] Yeah. And someday they will go public It’d be worth it more. But hopefully, they’ll go public and not implode. So let’s say I buy it from you at a three-time multiple and then it goes into my portfolio. It immediately gets a bump in value to nine times.

So you’re 400000 is much higher now. Let’s say that. Yeah, it’s much higher now. It’s not even 40 percent of that company that was worth a million dollars, but now it’s worth nine million. So you are for your 40 percent equity role is really four times the 40 percent of the nine million or three-point six million.

Tomer [00:24:36] And maybe they can pay higher multiples because it reduces their risks because if you still own 40 percent, you have high interest in keeping that business.

Joe Valley [00:24:44] Yeah, yeah. And what’s your role? You become an advisor only you don’t have an active role in the business. You may want to develop more new products for them, things of that nature because it’s just going to boost the value of the business. It all depends upon who they are. But I think I think multiples will go up a little bit more. Right. There are still a lot of new players in the space. And I think that day the offers may get a little bit more creative as well.

But I’ll tell you what is happening crystal clear. What is happening is that the larger companies like brass and boosted, they’re getting compliance people on board. And so when they buy an FBA brand, they’re really investigating the safety and efficacy of that brand. So if you’re in the supplement space, if you’re in the kid space, those things, you know, there are things you have to do. People are putting it in their mouths. If it’s in the child’s space, that kid probably puts it in their mouth as well.

So it has to be tested and safe by U.S. standards. If it’s a US brand, so those things are going to definitely come into play. I’ve already seen it with a couple of deals, you know, in the $20 million range with some of these larger aggregators that we’re buying it, and then they really dig into that compliance component of it during due diligence.

So if you plan on selling your business, I’d suggest that you have a call with an advisor or just really focus on, you know, the risks of your business in that regard. You get a step outside of it and you go, Yeah, it’s fine. It’s fine, it’s fine. And you know, it’s fine. But the buyer is putting down 1, 10, $20 million and they’re going to they have to make sure it’s fine, especially if they’re spending other people’s money.

Tomer [00:26:23] Yeah, 100 percent. That’s what I actually did this year. I paid, you know, a compliance expert to review my products to tell me what I’m missing. I was really missing things I never really thought that I should put like the packaging to certificates to importing like so many things that they didn’t know they have to really comply with.

And I’m really happy that they did it because now I’m pretty sure that, you know, I’m going to sell my business. Actually, we’re going to the market today or tomorrow. And, you know, I’m pretty confident that, you know, I won’t have as many surprises as if I wouldn’t do that. So, you know, yeah, totally agree. Regardless, if you sell or not, you know, you would for yourself, your business, something that you should do.

Joe Valley [00:27:07] Definitely, if you’ve got a better business, and let’s be straight here, everybody is going to exit their business at some time, whether it’s a sale, whether they just get tired of it and move on or they’re married or they’ve got a partner, which they don’t end up wanting to work with and don’t like, or you’re going to die. Right. Everybody is going to exit at some time.

You’ve built this base that generates revenue and discretionary earnings. It might not be generating a lot of cash flow because it’s growing like crazy. And the way you get paid off is with an exit. Don’t do what I did. And just let it fade as I did with JVI. Again, that was worth multiple millions at one time and I just got tired of it and I moved on stupid, you know, don’t do that. Be smart about it.

And, you know, set a goal. Look, I want to sell my business for a million dollars out of subtract zeros, you know, in the third quarter of 2023 and then put a feeling to it. And when I do, I’ll be out of debt, can spend more time with my family on that RV trip. Whatever it might be, all of those things matter. And then you can reverse engineer a path to that goal by firming up your current value. See how close you are, how far you are from it.

Tomer [00:28:14] Yeah. And then in addition to quiet I mean, part of quite light is that you have a very cool podcast. I was actually the episode of you interviewing me last week was up today and I put a link. I shared it with my audience, so we wanted to welcome to listen to that. That’s about Walmart’s very exciting, the future of it and DFS.

And you know, I wanted to touch base with you. What was the strategy? And how you look, you know, what is the strategy with the podcast, what you guys are learning from it, and what is your approach for the future with the podcast?

Joe Valley [00:28:52] Yeah, the podcast, you know, initially we saw it. We want people to know us better. Right? Because when they listen to us on the podcast, they feel like they know us and they are more comfortable working with us. That was the initial strategy in this thought. But the reality, you know, that happens and it’s important.

But the reality is the podcast is just simply a great networking tool, right? I had you on our podcast, right? You got exposed to my audience, and now I’m getting exposed to yours. And now we know each other. Next time I’m down on the coast of Florida, I think the east coast of Florida, we’re going to hook up. We’re going to grab some dinner or whatever, you know, talk about a business that the podcasting just opens up doors to relationships that can help build your business, your personal brand, your reputation.

And it’s just an incredible networking tool, in my opinion, and you learn an awful lot. Look, when you talk about what you do when you’re trying to teach others, the more you talk about it, the more refined you feel your presentation will be, and the more you’ll have to understand your own business. Right?

If I am talking about exiting the business, I really need to know everything about exiting businesses. And just the more you talk about it, the more you can convey that and help people and instill confidence in them. But it’s a great networking tool more than anything else.

Tomer [00:30:11] Yes. Yes. And I think, you know, it’s kind of a must to network with other people, especially in your business. But for FBA sellers, you know, a lot of them kind of doing it in trenches that they’re kind of focused on what they do.

And I think and I always say that you know, network with other sellers that work with other people, you never really know how they can help you always try to offer value to other people. But what are some other ways that you would recommend to people to network to do? They should go to events. They should really, you know, then maybe masterminds or groups. What are your tips for better networking? You would say,

Joe Valley [00:30:55] Yeah, I think to start with simple stuff and that is a few Facebook groups and get comfortable and don’t go in there just asking for stuff, go in there and see what people are posting and offer some advice. Help other people. That’s the key way to be successful in Facebook groups and mastermind groups events. If they’re oriented around the mastermind group, I think are really good to go to.

You know, the big one for Amazon has always been the prosper show out in Vegas every march. I’m not sure how much value you get from going from booth to booth to booth, but you get value by meeting up with other Amazon sellers, going to parties that quiet label flow, or whoever it might be. I think that’s the value in that is in being with people one on one and in person. You can do the same thing with Facebook groups. Same thing with the mastermind groups as well more the mastermind groups.

When you go and join a paying mastermind group first, you have to qualify for it, right? If it’s just, you know, spend $99 a month and everybody can join, it’s not going to be a very high-quality mastermind. So you’re going to have to be doing a certain amount of revenue to join some of them.

And in some cases, like Ezra Firestone’s blue-ribbon mastermind, I think there’s an upfront joining fee as well. But then you get a really tight-knit small community that have all signed non-disclosure agreements to talk openly about what they’re doing, what they need, and how to help everybody else. You could post something about sourcing from Thailand, and somebody in the group has probably done it, and we’ll give you some connections and things of that nature.

So I think I think there’s a certain graduated level to it. I would, you know, Facebook groups personal events when you can go to them, smaller meetups, right?

So if you ever have one down in Florida, I think it’s great to go to smaller events like that. The smaller ones are my favorite. I don’t like the big events where there are a thousand people because you can’t talk to all eight thousand people. I’m good with, you know, I went to one in October. There were twenty-seven of us. I thought that was amazing. It’s the best event I’ve ever been to because you make deeper connections. So I think that you can go to smaller events. That’s the best one. And then the paying masterminds, I think, are great too.

Tomer [00:33:12] Yeah, I couldn’t agree more than you. I mean that I went for the first time to the rodeo event last year. That’s a great one. Right. Right after that, I went to a bigger Amazon event and it was, you know, so much different because, yeah, you have more sellers, more people, but you can’t really choose who you talk with and maybe you can come across someone random minutes. It takes all your time, but there’s not really, you know, is not that high quality like a smaller group.

So, yeah, I think the thing that I’m. Also, my favorites are the smaller ones, those that you can, you know, high-quality people that you know, they’re abetting them and they check what is their background, the numbers, it’s a higher chance of you, you know, growing and becoming elbowing each other. Mm-Hmm.

Joe Valley [00:33:57] Yeah, totally agree.

Tomer [00:33:58] All right. It was a pleasure to meet you here and to learn more about you, about your story, about what you guys do about the future of acquisitions in the FBA game. And you know, it was really exciting for me to learn that, and I’m sure for the viewers as well. So thank you for that. And for anyone who wants to learn more about quiet light, listen to the podcast or check the YouTube channel. We’ll put links to the description, but how they can get in touch with you guys.

Joe Valley [00:34:27] One of the first things I want to do, Tomer for your audiences is give a free digital copy of the book you hold up. It’s a real book. Three hundred or so pages for them.

Tomer [00:34:38] Yeah, this

Joe Valley [00:34:39] And endorsed thereby Gino Wickman and Ezra Firestone like Jack Ness, I had Bollyky. All of these names are really well known in the online world. So if people want to get the digital version of it, your audience only if they can go to https://exitpreneur.io/sourcing-monster/, they’ll be able to get a free copy, a digital copy of the book if they like paperback or hardcover as we have those. I’ll put a link in there that they can buy them as well.

But not my business partner hates digital books. He was in his hand, and then I’d suggest, you know, if you set those goals that I talked about, you could need a reverse engineer path to them and figure out what the current value of your business is, just like I did back in early 2010. That way, I knew how close or how far I was, so I’d get acquired Lycos and click the valuation button, and one of the advisors will reach out to you within 24 business hours of completing that form.

Tomer [00:35:36] Yeah, I remember, you know, Chuck was reviewing my numbers and gave me really amazing tips, even though, you know, it was really finalized to do it with you guys. You know, I will always be appreciating what he did, and they opened the tips.

Joe Valley [00:35:52] And how much did Chuck charge you for that moment? So zero, right? Yeah, the valuations are free. It’s a funny thing. You know, my mentor guy named Walter when I was explaining the business model to him is like Joe. It sounds like you’re giving everything away for free and just kind of hoping they work with you.

That’s it, Walter. That’s exactly it. We’re going to educate. We’re going to teach. We’re going to help help help. And eventually, we’ll win their business now. You didn’t list your business. You didn’t need to, but you’ve learned about quietly your talent. Quite like a story. You know, holding my book up. You’ve got me on your podcast.

So it’s a lot of it does work very well, but it is free folks. So there’s nobody going to try to get their hooks into you for a commission. We’re going to learn about your business, see if it’s a good fit for us, for you. And there’s no free until you eventually listed business and actually sell it. And then and only then would we earn a fee where success based advisors

Tomer [00:36:48] 100% Yeah. It doesn’t cost you anything, and they’re always coming up with value, which is it’s awesome and we need more people and companies and brands to do that. That’s what I try to do as well.

And yeah, thank you again for offering this will put a link to the digital copy, which is it’s an amazing book. Only by reading it, do you learn a ton of things, even myself, which I’m really focused on that last year. Just really knowing all these details add back all this stuff. I learned really so many things wrong with notes and was much more prepared. So thank you again, Joe. And Happy New Year!

Joe Valley [00:37:22] My pleasure. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it.

Tomer [00:37:24] Yep. Now Please, my friends, do me a favor and share these videos with other people that might benefit from this video. It will help me grow the channel, and I will really appreciate it, and I’ll see you in the next video. Thank you very much for watching.