Nate and Dana Are Back in Action

Dana Robinson [00:00:00]:
Thing that you and I realized is like everyone except a few kind of shark tanky venture capital plays, almost everyone else was like, I did this thing at a job. I mastered it. I went on my own. I did it for other people. I built an agency or business around it. And now look. And then I sold that company, and now I have lots of choices and agency and freedom to do whatever I want to do. And whatever that story is after they’ve cashed out is not as interesting to me as the journey from a job to the business to the exit.

Nate Broughton [00:00:34]:
Exit Plan is a podcast for business owners and those who want to be business owners. I’m always in search of the lesser.

Dana Robinson [00:00:42]:
Known stories of entrepreneurship.

Nate Broughton [00:00:44]:
In the Exit Plan podcast, you’ll hear stories from startup to sale and hear from the professionals who help business owners achieve their exit. Hosted by me, author and private equity manager Dana Robinson, along with my co hosts and guests, you’ll hear real stories, tips, and tools that will help you plan for the exit you want, whether you are still working at a day job or running a business. Let’s get started with this episode of the Exit Plan podcast.

Dana Robinson [00:01:15]:
Hey, everybody, it’s Dana Robinson and Nathaniel Broughton. And if you’ve had this podcast pop into your podcast feed, it’s the opt out life, guys. Nate, it’s been a few years since we have podcasted and we’re bringing it back, and this is a little bit of reskinning, reviving, rebranding, but hopefully still appealing to the audience that followed us pre Covid and kind of into that first year of COVID But, man, we’ve done a lot in our lives individually in the last couple of years and thought it’d be kind of fun to catch up on the listeners who found this popping up on their podcast feed. What we’ve been up to, and I’m just going to ask you, man, you’re looking ripped. So I know there’s one thing you did a lot of during COVID and that was workout.

Nate Broughton [00:02:12]:
Is that what you’re saying, Dana?

Dana Robinson [00:02:13]:
Yeah, I think I remember you immediately ordering a whole bunch of gym equipment because you’re like, can’t go to the gym.

Nate Broughton [00:02:25]:
This is true, man. I had to do that. That was the first thing I did, and it was life changing because I realized I could just do it all at home. So insert your thing from COVID that you figured out you didn’t have to do the way you used to, and that was one of the daily repetitions that was able to do at home. Although part of the reason I’m dressed this way is I just got back from going to the regular gym again. So you slip in and out, look at the stuff, and it’s not as crowded as it used to be. So I like that. I think a lot of things in life, there’s a new tent to them after going through that, and a better tent, so maybe we can talk about some of that stuff.

Nate Broughton [00:03:04]:
But, yes.

Dana Robinson [00:03:05]:
Yeah. In what ways do you think that your life changed for the better or the pivots, the things that you’re like? We went completely different directions in terms of the things that occupied our time, and I admire yours. What are the lessons that you come out with?

Nate Broughton [00:03:29]:
I don’t know. We might have to weave our way to the lessons themselves, but I think some of the things that changed were, one, we stopped going to the office as much. I mean, we never really had to go to the office, but there was certainly more like, we had that hang session sort of set up with the old studio, which was in an office where some of our friends were. And just the routine of going there every day was something that got kind of flipped. It was funny because, actually, when Covid hit, in the first six or nine months of it, me and two other people were still going into that office constantly. So it took me a while to break away from it. But, yeah, that’s one big thing. I think it got a little bit away from, like, oh, try to get the office by a certain amount of time, and then you’re there for a certain amount of time, and you got to get all the things done you want get done to making it work here at home or remote, and working more in spurts, which probably fits some sort of opt out life approach to things.

Nate Broughton [00:04:18]:
Right? Like go to the gym in the middle of day and figure out another time to sprint on work things, which I could think I kind of always wanted to do, but for some reason, I was a little bit more stuck in that go work out real early and then get there and be there all day and get all the things done you need to get done. So I’m a little bit more like flexi time, and whether that. I don’t think it happened overnight, but I think through the process of the last three and a half Hellman almost four years, it’s kind of become more natural to do it that way, to work in spurts and change locations. And I think I’m probably happier for it, for sure.

Dana Robinson [00:04:54]:
Yeah, I remember the early on, you were like, you know what? I can’t go hang out in a hotel lobby, which is a thing as your brand. Hang out a hotel lobby as a. Maybe get some work done. Maybe just chill out and change perspective. You started renting Airbnbs because they were suddenly widely available and cheap and just like, going, take the family and just go someplace with a yard and a pool and just stretch out and you got work done when work needed to get done. Right?

Nate Broughton [00:05:29]:
Right. Yeah, I think that was part of it. I love that little hack, too. That was a beautiful time, both on the Airbnb side, like, early on, because it was like, you’re not allowed to leave your house at all. And it’s like, well, I don’t want to be stuck in my house sucks, but I want to go to a big house that’s got property in a pool and things. And that one. That first one we ran into Temecula, I don’t think I left the grounds for a week, but I was sprinting up and down the driveway, and there were fruit orchards and stuff attached to it. And it was absurdly cheap.

Nate Broughton [00:05:59]:
Right. Usually, like $1,000 a night, and it was like $150 a night.

Dana Robinson [00:06:03]:
Right.

Nate Broughton [00:06:04]:
That was great. And that probably was the first smack in the face of, like, oh, life can kind of be a version of this a little bit more than it was. And the hotels were like that, too. Like, some of the privately owned ones here, like, the logitory pines was open the whole time, which was awesome. So we stayed there.

Dana Robinson [00:06:21]:
And it lets you kind of choose a place that was fun for the family and kind of lifestyle wise, the work presented itself as it does for you, and you kind of just processed it and managed it. However, whenever.

Nate Broughton [00:06:37]:
Yeah. Continued on for whatever reason that’s been able to work for me. I think a lot of people that have regular jobs are doing it that way more than they used to, obviously. Right.

Dana Robinson [00:06:50]:
Yeah.

Nate Broughton [00:06:52]:
So I don’t think it’s unique just to my situation at all. You’ve been on an interesting journey yourself and kind of landed in that same sort of space. As far as, like, working, I mean, you were always kind of bopping around, but you had an office still, too, right?

Dana Robinson [00:07:08]:
I had three at one point, maybe even more, because right during COVID I bought a property management company and then was shopping for another one and then tried to buy a plumbing company. And that led to me, in fact, just working for a plumbing company that was private equity backed and then bought another management company to roll into the first one. As I exited the plumbing company and HVAC company sold the combined rolled up property management companies, and that year. So a year ago, I was just getting out of the law office. I sold my practice to Kayla. I was just getting out of the property management office. My office with you expired. Right.

Dana Robinson [00:07:50]:
We actually still sort of have a desk in Gabe’s office. I see the opt out license plate sits there, and I can tell you’ve never been there. There’s dust on the desk.

Nate Broughton [00:08:00]:
Yeah.

Dana Robinson [00:08:02]:
I definitely had a lot of obligations during COVID and it wasn’t really until the end of COVID I guess, last year, where I finally kind of wrapped up the property management roll up, HVAC and plumbing business and got myself out of every obligation, go to an office, and right now I’m in the basement, I guess you’d call it. It’s a sound treated audio video studio where we produce some of the LinkedIn learning videos. Sweet sale. Well, the fact that you put yourself in this position could have freed you up to do just about anything you wanted to do. And the thing that you’re doing the most, besides kind of living your version of the dream, is your kids have turned into, like, baseball super players. Right. To be at this place in life where you not only are not a guy working at an office where you’re not around your kids, but you’re, like, part of this journey that they’re on, where they’re doing something that I never thought kids could get into a sport like that. I always thought it was the parent that was, like, driving them.

Nate Broughton [00:09:15]:
Yes. I mean, you’re definitely right that it’s kind of become more of a thing to put it lightly. I’m sure I talk about it every single time. I was having lunch with somebody over right by the old office last week, and I don’t think we brought it up to, like, 45 minutes in, but I was like, man, I had to bring it up at some point just because it dominates the schedule more than anything else. Yeah, it’s been really cool to be a part of. I think the part to talk about is how I’m able to do it and how I’m enjoying doing it because I’m able to put so much time into it. There are some other dads or parents on the team that are maybe a little bit older, typically, than where I’m at that seem to have a little bit more time to be there at the 03:00 practices or to add all the games or to go out and play catch and to take their kids at all the extra stuff. Like today, my son is going to speed school, which he does, like once a week, and that’s at 330, and we got to leave at like 255 to get up there.

Nate Broughton [00:10:14]:
And at the same time, I bring my computer and my phone, and so we get the time in the car up there to be a part of it. And then I can sit there and glance at him as he does it. But then it’s also one of the most productive hours of my day because that one’s actually kind of quiet and a little less social than the actual practices where there’s more parents. So you find ways to kind of, I guess, work around it and still make it work. And I definitely feel very lucky to be able to put the time in like that. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think I used to be more selfish with schedule or set up things in a certain way so I could go to a hotel lobby or go travel, and we still do those things, too, but right now it’s more about creating the optionality to be able to go to all those things with the kids, no matter what it is. And that’s usually like an early to late afternoon thing, and you pick your spots on when you can get things done as well around it.

Nate Broughton [00:11:09]:
I should tell this little anecdote. Last night, we were, like, laying in bed with my older son, and he was talking about how some kids at his school go to an after school thing till 07:00 at night. He’s like, you know, I could go to that thing till seven every day. And I’m like, yeah, man, but think about all the time we’ve spent together between the hours of 230 or three in the afternoon and 07:00 p.m. In the last nine years. I’m like, that’s our whole life together, dude. That would suck if you had to go do that. I know some people have to do that, and I don’t want to say it that way, but those are every memory I have, and everything that we do together is in those moments.

Nate Broughton [00:11:43]:
So I feel lucky to be able to take advantage of that. And it was funny that he brought that up.

Dana Robinson [00:11:48]:
It’s the same story we’ve told for years. You didn’t have a $10 million, $50 million exit where you’re just like, you don’t have trust fund. You have a house that’s rational in proportion to your needs, and you’ve chosen not to need a vast estate that you probably could have bought if you wanted to throw yourself into work and business, right? So you’re choosing the life that you’re living, and that’s giving you all that freedom, and you can’t ever get that back with your kids, right?

Nate Broughton [00:12:22]:
Right. Yeah, dude, totally. I get a lot of random things about business and like, oh, do you want to invest in this thing or go do this thing? And I’m a lot more picky on the things that I choose to do, and the real reason is to protect that time. Right. I’ve optimized enough to where I can make enough money to pay for the stuff I want to do. I’ve got the time that I want, and I’m going to ride that wave until this season of life, I guess, changes, which it inevitably will. And then maybe I’ll get back more into business and go after the estate thing. But for now, I’m chilling.

Nate Broughton [00:12:55]:
I’m good.

Dana Robinson [00:12:56]:
Yeah, it’s funny you say that, because I’m doing private equity stuff now, which means we’re buying businesses. You’re the first person that I approached when I finished up with the HVAC and plumbing. I was like, what are we doing? What are we buying? Let’s do this. I’ve got great affirmations from how to run this playbook. And you were like, yeah, I can invest a little, but I’m not going to put my time into that. And a year later we’re having this conversation. I have for this past year, from the private equity standpoint, have accomplished some things that I can talk about, but I’ve worked ten hour days, many days, and not been paid for it. So you made the right choice.

Dana Robinson [00:13:43]:
From the standpoint of lifestyle is I’m at a stage where my daughter’s been out of the house a long time, and all I would do is go watch your kids play baseball. And that’s probably at some point someone will tell me I’m creepy for watching other kids play baseball.

Nate Broughton [00:13:58]:
Exactly. Yeah, it’s cool. Especially in the context of the opt out. We’re always in these different seasons of lives personally and where we’re at now versus where we were then, but we’re always still deliberately kind of choosing what we want to go after and why. I think it’s really interesting. You’re all in and part of a group that’s taken a pretty big swing, and I think it’s going to pay off. But you and I both know what it takes to get there, and it’s what you just said, right? So I don’t even care if I have a great idea or people I love that are going after a thing at a certain time. It’s got to be the right time personally as well, to not be upset that you got to do those ten hour days, because that’s what it takes.

Nate Broughton [00:14:39]:
That’s okay.

Dana Robinson [00:14:40]:
Yeah. It’s funny because a lot of people who are our friends, the guys that are on that original kind of opt out video we had where we had a party and just sort of had people say a lot of our approach to what we talk about, our philosophy of life isn’t just ours, right? We’ve embraced it around a kind of cult of, you know, I said, well, I’m working for a private equity backed plumbing and HVAC roll up, and I’m flying to Austin every Monday and flying back for the weekend and recovering. And they’re like, you are not opted out, my friend. You are all in. And my response was, absolutely. I mean, it’s not an indictment to not be opted out, right? In fact, the economics were long term decisions for me to do that. It wasn’t like I was getting paid better than being a lawyer. It was that I wanted the experience, and I really needed the flexibility I had from developing the lifestyle that we tell people how to live, where I could go, like, okay, I can afford to take a hit financially and work my ass off for someone else for a period of time to learn all the things that I need to learn in order to run this playbook for myself and for my investors.

Dana Robinson [00:15:54]:
So, yeah, I was all in and opted in and working my ass off, and it was all fine. I mean, it’s a cycle I don’t want to repeat in the sense of stepping into the shoes of operator and working for somebody else again. But it was a fair trade for the economics and the learning. So the thing you and I kind of, when we were toward the end of opt out in terms of wrapping up the podcast, we had, like, a pretty strong epiphany that most of the entrepreneurs that we interviewed that were successful learned what they did at a job. Right? You and I were like, wait a minute. You’re like, I’m a professional marketer, and I learned that from working for people who paid me to learn that and build all those relationships. So your network, your knowledge, your expertise all got driven into you at someone else’s expense. And for you, it was a matter of investing the time and really embracing it as not just a job.

Dana Robinson [00:16:54]:
Right. And that made your first company’s partners millions of dollars, and it made your second company partners tens of millions or hundreds of millions, whatever. They’re still chugging along, right? But for you, the thing that, you and I realized, is like everyone except a few kind of shark tanky venture capital plays. Almost everyone else was like, I did this thing at a job. I mastered it. I went on my own. I did it for other people. I built an agency or business around it.

Dana Robinson [00:17:26]:
And now, look. And then I sold that company. And now I have lots of choices and agency and freedom to do whatever I want to do. And whatever that story is after they’ve cashed out is not as interesting to me as the journey from a job to the business to the exit. Right?

Nate Broughton [00:17:44]:
Dana Robinson here. Quick plug for my book, the king’s Fly swatter.

Dana Robinson [00:17:47]:
You can see it here behind me. If you’re watching this, I’ve got it in my hand. It’s a beautiful hardcover book, printed to make it giftable, something that you can share with a family member buy as a gift.

Nate Broughton [00:18:00]:
So this latest book, it’s a fable.

Dana Robinson [00:18:02]:
About a person who has a really crappy job.

Nate Broughton [00:18:05]:
Let’s just start there. This is a book that most people can relate to because we’ve all had crappy jobs.

Dana Robinson [00:18:11]:
This is the story of Ubar, a.

Nate Broughton [00:18:13]:
Servant in the court of a babylonian king who masters his boring, monotonous job and then learns to listen to the king, hearing him rule the kingdom while quietly swatting flies behind the king. Eventually, Ubar becomes the wisest and most successful man in the kingdom. The story is fun, and it’s easy to read, but it’s not mythology. It’s my story. And as I shared the idea with colleagues and friends, I learned that it was their story. And guess what? It’s your story. If you’re at a job of any kind, one that you love, one that you hate, one that’s just enough to get by, this little book gives fresh perspective on how to leverage that job to get you something greater than a paycheck. The lessons in this parable are entrepreneurial lessons, but not what you might think from the current entrepreneurial zeitgeist.

Nate Broughton [00:19:09]:
If you or someone you know are looking for a real pathway to entrepreneurship, here’s the secret. Your job is the way out of your job. It’s counterintuitive, but once you see how it works, you can’t unsee it. Learn the way of the fly swatter.

Dana Robinson [00:19:26]:
From the parable of Ubar and from.

Nate Broughton [00:19:29]:
The stories I share from my 30 year business journey. You can get a free copy of the King’s Fly Swatter by going to danabrobinson.com.

Nate Broughton [00:19:37]:
But yeah, in the time since we’ve last podcasted together in this forum, you’ve went out and redone that exact playbook for yourself. We know this works. I’ve done it in the past. I’m going to go do it again. It’s like eating the dog food or whatever. And I would do it too. One of the things I looked at doing during COVID was going and working with permanent equity, with bshore to help them find deals. And it was not going to be too different from what you did.

Nate Broughton [00:20:09]:
It was a little less operational and more like deal searching. But I think it points to the fact that we really believe it and that you’re on another path and journey to now using it. You’re like in phase three of five, I guess, of what you’ve been doing the last couple of years. And that’s probably where I would start again too. If and when the time comes, I probably do the exact same sort of thing that you’re doing. I want to get into this thing. I know enough about it to be dangerous. But I can’t go start my own fund tomorrow.

Nate Broughton [00:20:37]:
What relationships can I leverage to go off and help someone else do it? Make a little bit of money on the way along the way, even though it’s not going to make me rich now. That’s really cool. Really cool.

Dana Robinson [00:20:48]:
Yeah. I think as one of our investors, you’re kind of on the inside. So you’re seeing what’s it like to establish a private equity company, raise a fund, have lps and become managers of someone else’s money and to then use that to acquire assets. And in our case, those assets are property services businesses, loosely call it the trades, the blue collar businesses. In the last year, we raised a fund and acquired a couple of landscape maintenance companies. And we have what the industry calls a roll up underway where we are trying to acquire more kind of retiring owners, landscape maintenance companies, and professionalize those. We have a c suite of operators that have done it. And as the asset managers, kind of our job to find those deals, get our management team that runs the business running their playbook, and to grow that business to a certain point.

Dana Robinson [00:21:53]:
And then it has more value and it either throws off cash for our investors or we sell it to a larger private equity fund that might be aggregating a much bigger landscape maintenance company across the country. And then we hope to do that in other verticals. And you and I have been in and around the space for 15 years, but I did have to go get a job in order to really get the inside view right. And I needed more than just the lawyer’s seat. I needed to run a business and integrate it. That means you take over a business that’s literally like in a barn when you buy it, and then you paste that business to the primary platform with the. It’s. It was delightful because I was not the first.

Dana Robinson [00:22:43]:
We had like six, five branches, I think, when I did the Austin branch. And so there was a playbook to run. And I got to do that from boots on the ground, muddy boots in the barn. Through the process of replacing myself with a permanent operator and taking all that knowledge gives me a lot more confidence with the landscape business that we’re rolling up when we get in a year or two, down to what’s the next business that we’re going to apply our acumen to. I’ll probably not get out of the blue collar service business, because now I’m several companies deep in experience as an operator, which makes me a better kind of advisor, fund manager, steward of other people’s money. Once your boys are too cool for you and you’ve got more time, you’re sitting there as an investor in a fund, watching the machinery go, and you’ll be in a perfect position to step in and say, okay, now roll up your sleeves and become the Padawan, I guess, of sorts, to get that last piece of the puzzle in so that you’re the guy that’s capable of doing all that stuff.

Nate Broughton [00:24:04]:
Yeah. Well, I hope the opportunity is there when the time comes, and it’s been really cool to ride along a little bit. And you guys are doing this legit at a level that I haven’t seen. You’re kind of starting on second or third base as far as funds go, although that’s more of like a relative scale than anything. But I’ve seen a lot of scrappy entrepreneurial search fundies. Even permanent equity started, and it’s a little bit larger now, but even my more direct experience was them as a smaller group. Links equity had a lot of businesses, but ultimately I probably only raised about the same amount of money you guys have raised now, even though they’re around for ten years. So it’s really cool to see it done with mature diligence and deliberateness, especially with the whole group that you have together.

Nate Broughton [00:24:53]:
You guys are all really freaking smart and come from different little backgrounds and experiences, so I’m a big fan, I’m excited, and it’s cool to see it done this way because there’s a bunch of different ways to do it.

Dana Robinson [00:25:04]:
Thank you. It’s a little daunting, but also we’ve all been through so many entrepreneurial experiences. If you list even dumb little things that you spent a little time on, I’ve probably been involved with 30 things and they’re exhausting when they don’t go well. And I didn’t need another one of those right. I didn’t need another scrappy startup. I’m happy to invest in the right scrappy startups, as I know we have those deals come across our desks, but we really wanted to step in as professionals and enter a new ecosystem, earn a seat at a new table. It’s not a very welcoming table. I mean, private equity is.

Dana Robinson [00:25:49]:
There’s some high barriers to entry, and I think the industry wants to keep it that way. So it’s pretty hard to be, actually. It’s funny you see us as incredibly official, formal, because all the legal, when we attend trade shows, this is a very Ivy League kind of NBA world of people with all the same suits and Gabe and I in this environment, guys that sort of have alternative views of things and kind of, I guess like the subversiveness of guys with tattoos.

Nate Broughton [00:26:28]:
That are Janx, you got the tattoo quotient. You’ve won that one. Yeah, when I join. I’m just catching up with you, baby. I’ve got like 14 now.

Dana Robinson [00:26:37]:
A couple of other things for people who are listening. Keep your eye out for more interviews. I’m going to revisit some of the great interviews that we’ve had in the past, like Alex Martinez, Corey Werner, people, and catch up with them. I actually want to catch up with Jack Haldrup. Remember, Dr. Squatch was on our show and we’re like, you wanted to sell soap. And then that company sold for some enormous sum of money. So if anyone knows how to get a hold of Jack, I don’t think he’s still answering his Dr.

Dana Robinson [00:27:07]:
Squatch email that we used to communicate with. I’d love to get the story, but we’ll bring some of those back. We’re going to rebrand. One of the plans that Nate and I originally had was to rebrand the whole podcast exit plan. Kind of the idea is interviewing people who’ve been through an exit, focusing on what did they do to get there and optimize for that exit. I think the cycle that you’ve been through, Nate, of being part of buying companies for links, being part of vetting and bringing deals to permanent equity and all of your experience, we have a sense of what do you need to do to prepare a business to sell private equity and what should you be looking for, and how do you play that game the right way? And so I want guests that have got that, and I want our listeners to hear that. Because if you’re just beginning your journey, why not start learning what that outcome needs to be early on? And if you’re already on that journey, you’re an entrepreneur, then this is definitely tribe. It’s people that you want to be hearing and hear their journey and learn from.

Dana Robinson [00:28:13]:
And then you and I are talking about bringing back the one thing that actually made us a couple of dollars. Could be beach camp, right?

Nate Broughton [00:28:20]:
Yeah.

Dana Robinson [00:28:21]:
The event, funnest thing, the event. We got, like, 35 or 40 entrepreneurs together, charged a small fee, had a couple of sponsors, and had, like, two days of food and meetings. And it was delightful.

Nate Broughton [00:28:33]:
They had testimonials from that, man. I mean, that and just the local parties, too. Every single time I see somebody, they’re like, you remember that thing that you had that you brought that guy and I talked to him. Change me, man. Totally good, dude. That’s why we do it. That’s why we do it.

Dana Robinson [00:28:49]:
Absolutely. So, spring 2024. Nate and Dana opt out now. Exit plan, beach camp. We’re looking for mostly people that have got operating businesses with some call it 5 million plus in revenue, and want to learn from people that are saying, here are the things, the knobs and levers that you need to move to sell the private equity. We’ll have a panel of private equity fund managers, sort of agnostic to industry, but people who basically are trying to figure out, how do I prepare for an eventual exit? And obviously, if you make your business better while you still own it, you get to keep the money, right? A lot of people are like, what do I have to do to make my business sellable? And I was just looking at a panel in Vegas on landscape maintenance, and the guy up there with this 100 million dollar landscape business is like, build it to make money for you, and someone else will appreciate that when they buy it, right? So it’s not like you’re learning some secret handshake. It’s best practices and things that they ought to be doing, even if you don’t plan to sell your company to private equity anytime soon. But the private equity kind of class of service providers, accounting, finance, I guess those are the same thing, but there’s this sort of different advisory around accounting and finance and preparing to present kind of the books people need.

Dana Robinson [00:30:14]:
I want to know if you’re listening to this, if you’re interested in attending that. I’ve got a couple of people that are working for me now that filter the emails. It’s hello@danabrobinson.com. If you want to come to beach camp, I want to know a little more about you, and they’ll send that to me personally and Nate and I’ll talk about it and get our invite list put together. And what’s the future going to hold for Nathaniel Broughton? What’s 2024 got on the horizon?

Nate Broughton [00:30:46]:
Probably a lot of the same. At least I hope so. I like this little run that I’m on. So I got a nice little bit of projects I’m working on with cool people still doing stuff digital marketing wise and web dev and email. And I like what I’ve got. I like the amount of things I’m working on. So I’m just going to hopefully keep most of those going for the next year or two as is, just have the kids age up into another level of baseball and school and hopefully travel a little bit more next year. You mentioned the baseball stuff, like we did kind of deliberately not go to Europe this summer and try to keep the schedule open so we could participate a bit more in some of those things.

Nate Broughton [00:31:28]:
And it was a great experience and it worked out exactly the way we wanted it to. But I also want to continue to try to strike a little bit of balance on that side. So we’ve got a few trips planned for next year currently, and we’ll try to find the right way to work them into the competitive baseball schedule of Southern California. The endless know. It’s the turkey tournament, the December season, the Santa Claus tournament, the new year’s tournament. This is not what I remember doing on Thanksgiving when I was nine years old, waking up early the next day and going to baseball. But my parents also didn’t take me to the racetracks on Thanksgiving, which we’re doing, too, so it’s a little bit different.

Dana Robinson [00:32:10]:
Well, look, thanks for the catch up and for our listeners. Hopefully you enjoy the new feed. With the exit plan theme and the interviews that are coming forward, Nate will pop on. I’m not making him obligated to join every time, but he’s always invited to co host with me and the shameless self promotion. Get on my newsletter now instead of the opt out, we’re just running the newsletter off from danarobinson.com. Get on that and we’ll give you some free resources. And of course, when you go to my homepage, there’s a link flashing at the top to get on the pre order for my book, the King’s Fly Swatter, where you get some bonuses, including the book from that one. So, Nate, my brother, Nate, bro, thank you for taking some time.

Dana Robinson [00:33:02]:
And to our former opt out podcast audience, we love you, and we’re stoked to be back.

Nate Broughton [00:33:10]:
Thank you, always a pleasure.

Dana Robinson [00:33:12]:
Thanks for joining me on this episode of the Exit Plan podcast. I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to hit me up with questions or comments by emailing me at hello@danrobinson.com or leave comments and questions by calling 858-252-7785 call 858-252-7785 and leave a message.