You've fought hard for your business. Growth was earned, not given. Maybe you've scaled, maybe you've sold, but who have you become in the process? This isn't another podcast obsessing over multiples and deal structure. We get to the heart of what you're actually going through. Hosted by Kory Mitchell, CEO of Iconic Founders, we sit down with blue-collar business owners who've built something real, businesses like HVAC, landscaping, pest control, construction. These are honest conversations about the challenges, the lessons, and the moments that changed everything. Because the real story isn't just how you got here, it's about the lessons along the way. About the Host, Kory Mitchell: Kory Mitchell is the host of The Turn and the founder of Iconic Founders Group. He's lived the founder's journey, building a small regional specialty contracting business with his family into a national ($200m)brand and navigating two transactions, including a 9-figure exit. With 25+ years in the specialty contracting industry, Kory learned how personal and high-stakes the decision to sell can be. Now he guides founder-led companies through legacy-preserving transactions and serves as a board member for several large national specialty trades businesses, bringing an operator's perspective to strategic growth. About Iconic Founders: Iconic Founders Group provides expert guidance for blue-collar industry founders ready to grow and sell their businesses while preserving legacy. We work with founder-led businesses doing $3M–$20M in profit across specialty contracting and trades, including HVAC, plumbing, electrical, landscaping, pest control, roofing, concrete, environmental services, tree services, excavation, asphalt paving, restoration, and more. Whether you're seeking liquidity, finding a partner to scale, or protecting the team and culture that made you great, Kory and the Iconic Team serves as a trusted advisor throughout the entire process, from readiness to strategic buyer alignment, all the way to a proud and well-earned close. Learn more at www.iconicfounders.com. Built Something Great? We Want to Hear Your Story. Whether you're in the thick of scaling, contemplating an exit, or reflecting on lessons learned, we'd love to connect. Visit us at www.iconicfounders.com and subscribe to The Turn wherever you get your podcasts.
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The Turn: Blue Collar to Billions
$500k in Profit. His Dad Said Stop. But He Kept Going.
Aug 18, 202630 min
Being a penny-pincher works on day one, but it will inevitably choke your operations as you scale. In a landscape where well-funded competitors are constantly trying to poach your best people, knowing how to properly structure compensation and upgrade infrastructure is the difference between stalling out and breaking through. We sit down with Cory Brymer to dissect how he bootstrapped a technology infrastructure company from minimum-wage beginnings into a $50 million operation. We get into the actual mechanics of out-punching your weight class against entrenched industry veterans. The conversation covers the friction of migrating away from basic accounting tools toward robust ERP systems, the specific math behind structuring phantom stock plans to keep high performers, and the stealth tactics required to secure major contracts without alerting the competition. Cory shares his foundational philosophy that calculating the true hourly value of your own time is the ultimate trigger for transitioning from a solo bootstrapper to an executive who pays a premium for A-level talent. The path to these operational milestones was not paved with easy capital. Cory opens up about the devastating firsthand experience of watching a family member's business slide into bankruptcy and personal financial ruin. You will walk away with a stark understanding of the emotional toll of rebuilding from zero, the operational limitations of working 14-hour days to save a few dollars on overhead, and a framework for maintaining firm boundaries during complex compensation negotiations. If you care about retaining elite employees, scaling past early growth plateaus, and navigating the complexities of commercial project bidding, you will get a lot from this. Please subscribe to the channel and share this conversation with a fellow founder in the built environment. What is the most expensive mistake you've made when trying to save money on your early operations? Running a blue-collar business? Wondering how to think about value or selling? Iconic Founders Group helps founders like you explore what's next. If you're doing over $2M in profit, check us out at iconicfounders.com or send us a message at theturn@iconicfounders.com. Iconic Links: • Learn More: www.iconicfounders.com • Connect: theturn@iconicfounders.com
The Warehouse Lease Details Most Owners Never Think to Fix Before Selling
Aug 11, 202641 min
Selling a business isn't just about a clean balance sheet; sometimes, the dirt sitting underneath your warehouse dictates the terms of the deal. With private equity pouring unprecedented capital into the blue-collar sector, understanding how to strategically position both your operations and your real estate has never been more critical for founders. We sit down with an industrial commercial real estate expert to break down the heavy collision between legacy property ownership, family business dynamics, and modern company acquisitions. We get into the exact mechanics of what makes a trades business attractive to institutional buyers right now, moving past the hype. The conversation covers total addressable market, the importance of recurring revenue, and why capital allocators are pivoting away from heavily overbought sectors like HVAC. A major shift in perspective comes when we unpack why buyers actually prefer to lock in long-term, fair-market leases during an acquisition rather than buying the building, strictly to protect their own future exit valuations by normalizing EBITDA. The hardest part of transacting isn't always the negotiation table, but the environmental red tape that can quietly kill a buyout before it begins. We discuss the heavy burden of historical liabilities, the current surge in industrial subleases as struggling companies fold, and the real cost of trying to grow a business without strategic financial guidance early on. You will walk away with a clear framework for deciding whether to hold your real estate forever as a cash-flowing asset or restructure it to maximize the final sale price of your operating company. If you care about business acquisitions, commercial property management, and maximizing your eventual exit strategy, you’ll get a lot from this. Please make sure to subscribe and share this episode with another founder currently building in the trenches. What is the one operational bottleneck you need to fix before you would confidently put your company on the market? Running a blue-collar business? Wondering how to think about value or selling? Iconic Founders Group helps founders like you explore what's next. If you're doing over $2M in profit, check us out at iconicfounders.com or send us a message at theturn@iconicfounders.com. Iconic Links: • Learn More: www.iconicfounders.com • Connect: theturn@iconicfounders.com
Fired From the Family Business, Then He Built the Exit on Purpose
Aug 4, 202643 minS1
Tying your entire personal identity to a company is the fastest way to lose yourself when the business is gone. In a market where founders are constantly chasing the next revenue milestone, knowing when and exactly how to walk away is a rare, necessary skill. We talk with Jonathan Sherrill about his journey from getting fired by a private equity firm to bootstrapping a manufacturing business built strictly for a strategic exit. We get into the tactical realities of preparing a company for acquisition. We cover the necessity of eliminating founder risk, deploying an ERP system early, and executing a rigorous quality of earnings audit before ever going to market. We also break down the process of building out a confidential information memorandum that actually attracts serious buyers. The core takeaway is his operating philosophy: if you cannot hand the business over to department heads and disappear for three months, you do not have a sellable asset. The reality of selling a business often involves intense isolation and a sudden loss of purpose once the deal closes. Getting walked out the side door of a company you helped scale to nearly $40 million takes a massive mental toll, and surviving a strict three-year non-compete requires severe geographic and professional pivots. You will walk away from this conversation with a clear framework for systemizing your daily operations and a stark warning about navigating the psychological void that follows a clean break from your life's work. If you care about structuring an exit, systemizing manufacturing operations, and prioritizing family over endless scale, you’ll get a lot from this. Please make sure to Subscribe and Share this episode with a fellow founder navigating their own growth phase. What operational bottleneck is currently keeping your business entirely dependent on you? Running a blue-collar business? Wondering how to think about value or selling? Iconic Founders Group helps founders like you explore what's next. If you're doing over $2M in profit, check us out at iconicfounders.com or send us a message at theturn@iconicfounders.com. Iconic Links: • Learn More: www.iconicfounders.com • Connect: theturn@iconicfounders.com
$40M to $90M Twice: His Secret Was Making Himself Replaceable
Jul 28, 202638 minS1
Stagnation is the silent killer of middle-market businesses. Scaling past the $40 million revenue mark requires a fundamental shift in infrastructure and leadership mindset that most owners simply miss until it is too late. Greg Hirsch joins the show to share his expertise in buying mid-sized companies, breaking through their growth barriers, and engineering highly profitable exits. We sit down to break down the exact playbook for achieving twenty percent organic growth year over year without burning out your staff. We cover the shift from reactive hiring to proactive capacity building, the necessity of ripping out legacy HR and finance architecture, and the strategic advantage of joining a health care captive. Greg shares his operational secret sauce, which focuses heavily on optimizing the universal seventy-five percent of business infrastructure so that his team can completely dominate their twenty-five percent industry niche. The hardest part of rapid growth is managing the organizational fatigue that sets in when pushing continuous improvement. Cutting the checks to upgrade technology and back-office operations requires serious conviction, and learning to get out of your own management team's way is often a painful transition for hands-on owners. You will walk away from this conversation with a clear framework for building transferability into your daily operations and a roadmap for turning your key operators into bankable buyers. If you care about middle-market acquisitions, operational scaling, and management buyouts, you’ll get a lot from this. Please hit the like button, subscribe to the channel, and share this episode with a fellow founder. What is the biggest infrastructure bottleneck holding your team back from scaling right now? Running a blue-collar business? Wondering how to think about value or selling? Iconic Founders Group helps founders like you explore what's next. If you're doing over $2M in profit, check us out at iconicfounders.com or send us a message at theturn@iconicfounders.com. Iconic Links: • Learn More: www.iconicfounders.com • Connect: theturn@iconicfounders.com
They Didn't Buy His Customers. They Bought His Culture.
Jul 7, 202631 minS0
<p>Phil Cooper joined the family pest control business in 1984. He got handed the title of commission-only door-to-door salesman, and went to work. His brother wanted nothing to do with pest control — he hated the pesticides, hated the smell, wanted to be a scientist. Phil restructured the company so his brother could come back as an entomologist instead. That decision became the thing that eventually attracted Terminix.</p><p>Phil's dad gave him an ultimatum at graduation: prove yourself by 30, or the business stays his. Six months before Phil's 30th birthday, his dad transferred the stock — gifted it outright. No purc...
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