We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Townsend Russell. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Townsend below.

Townsend, appreciate you joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

At age 33 I had, glowing on the screen of my laptop, an offer to buy my businesses. All 3 that I had started from scratch with no loans, partners, or investors. Just an idea, an uncountable quantity of hours, and determination to make it work. At 33 I was married for 13 years, had 3 kids, a couple of retirement accounts, a paid-off home, and I was genuinely talented at my businesses.

Hard work was in my blood. I had my own lawn-mowing business as a kid. I sometimes wonder what I could have turned those into if I hadn’t had to move so often. I worked in landscaping and construction in my teenage years in the hot Florida sun, as a redhead mind you. Summers were spent resurrecting an overgrown family farm. Sweat and grit were normal. Satisfaction came at the end of the day exhausted but realizing how much was accomplished.

When you start a business from scratch, much less 3, and sell them for enough to retire by the age of 33 the next step is obvious. If you can start things from scratch and make them successful when you broke just imagine what you can do with some coin in your pocket. Start a new business, build, grow, and repeat. Go from millionaire to deca-millionaire, to centi-millionaire. When you love business and have the talent the decision is easy….

Unless….you look at your kids’ ages 3,6,9 and wonder what they need more. Do they need a bigger house, membership privileges at the club, private schools, vacations that belong on Instagram, designer clothes, and awesome cars when they turn 16?

Or do they just need more time with dad? More time as a family? More time playing board games and eating as a family? More hikes and long walks chatting about…. well anything.

It could be costly. Unrealized investment potential. Consuming cash to fund a lifestyle. The volatility of investments that are not as controllable as a small business. Maybe the family will tear each other apart if we spend a lot of time together. Maybe the marriage can’t handle that much time together. Maybe Ill go crazy without employees and customers and the up and down cycles of business.

With all that I was learning about the importance of dads in the family. The tremendous positive impact on every member of the family when dad spends more time with them. The positive outcomes in nearly all measurable units of life. The chance to create endless memories with my kids and wife seemed like less and less of a risk.

When I would start each business I would laughingly tell my wife, “Hey, worst case, were in our 20s and broke but we went down swinging. At least we won’t live with the regret of what if.” This felt the same. Worst case we burn a bunch of money, our investments tank, and we are in our 30’s starting over with a boatload of memories and a great story about how we tried to jam 5 people into a sardine can with wheels and travel the country.

Nearly 3 years later. 75,000 miles, 40+ states, 160+ campsites, countless cities, and a ton of national parks, and restaurants, I say the risk was worth it. We are closer than ever. We have experiences no one can ever take away. And though our investments have indeed tanked lately we have done a good enough job managing our portfolio that we are knocked down but not out!

Townsend, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

100% Dad is a platform that provides encouragement and wisdom for dads. It started from a binder I made for our businesses. I crafted an If I Die binder that detailed how to run the business if I died. That way my wife could take over and keep the family provided for until she hired a manager or sold it. It helped me create clarity for the business so much that I thought If I could replace Townsend the Business owner Maybe I could replace Townsend the Dad as well.

So 100% Dad started as a collection of notes and letters to my boys in the event that I died, I wanted them to have some wisdom from Dads. I did not want other family members and friends saying “this is what your dad would have wanted/thought”. I had turned these notes into a book and realized the book was terrible. So when we sold our businesses I decided to start putting out oneliners from the book on Instagram. It did well and we have over 40K followers on instagram.

We have a great following of dads and I love the sheer volume of messages I get about how dads are improving and making changes to be a more involved dad.

We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.

We had 3 businesses that would tie into each other. We had a coffee distribution company, a vending machine company, and a contracting company that fulfilled contracts for business services. We warehoused equipment and products and provided sales, transport, and service on those goods. We were acquired by a major 20 billion dollar-a-year player in the industry.

I think the thought of negotiating with these massive corporate guys with floors of attorneys, accountants, and industry experts was pretty intimidating. They do these all the time and they know exactly what they are doing.

I think we had a great advantage in the fact that we were not desperate to sell. The business was debt free, growing, profitable and we were genuinely good at our craft. So if the number and terms were not good we would just say no and continue to run the businesses.

When it came time to negotiate we looked at the realities. We had numbers. They would verify the numbers. We had clients and inventories that would be verified so negotiating wasn’t about lying or putting on a show. It was about showing reality.

Our reality was that we were operating in a geographic area where they had a gap. Filling in that void would be attractive for them. They had never taken a customer from us but we had gained a few from them so I was a pain point that could be removed. We had the type of customers they liked, with potential for growth in those customers in ways we could not like billing consolidations and running cafeterias and food service. And we were small enough to absorb into their existing operations so we were an add to revenue and profit but not overhead and expenses.

On the other side of the coin, we had realities. We had cash and a good business but we were at a point that would require significant expansion. Our warehouse was full, our trucks were running, and our employees were busy. Continued growth would mean a bigger warehouse, another truck, more equipment, and more employees, And to make that jump we would need to push more sales to keep those new people, trucks, and equipment busy which meant more money out. So the timing felt right to get out and pursue this 100% Dad thing.

The biggest variable for me was will the customers be taken care of. I didn’t want this to be a painful transition where everyone hates Townsend for selling. I wanted them taken care of. So I made that known in our negotiations and we created a deal where I could stay involved and there would be accountability if the customers were not taken care of during the transition.

So summarize all that into a few helpful points. Build the best business for you. If that is valuable to someone else then that’s great and you can sell on your own terms. If not then you still have a business that’s good for you!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Entreleadership by Dave Ramsey was one that helped me reframe how to think about the business and the people in the business. Encouraging the debt-free business and the psychology of motivating and keeping employees. Driving Force by Peter Shultz was one that I go back to as far as the order of importance of the business. Customers, Employees, Product. Great products are pointless if there are no customers. If there are no customers how can you be good to your employees? Then the classices Like Good to Great. Purple cow. Monk and the Merchant is a fun little one to read. Autobiographies of business legends are a personal favorite for me. One book will not do it for any of us. It’s the continual reading of different styles and personalities that will inspire and create ideas to implement.

Contact Info:

• Website: 100dad.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/100dad/
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• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/townsend-russell-100dad
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/the100dad
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/100dad