Business Growth Through Acquisition | Greg Williams

Business Growth Through Acquisition 
Greg Williams 

How Greg Williams turned Acrisure into a $5B FinTech powerhouse through acquisitions, technology, and relationship-driven growth. 

Topics Covered: 
• Scaling a business through strategic acquisitions 
• Leveraging technology to serve small businesses 
• Building relationships that fuel growth 

What does it take to turn a traditional industry into a $5-billion global powerhouse? In this episode, Greg Williams shares how he built Acrisure into one of the fastest-growing companies in the world, by rethinking acquisitions, focusing relentlessly on relationships, and recognizing opportunities others overlooked. 

Greg Williams is the founder and CEO of Acrisure, a global FinTech company that has completed more than 900 acquisitions since 2013, employs over 19,000 people, and generates more than $5 billion in revenue. Under Greg’s leadership, Acrisure has evolved from a regional insurance brokerage into a technology-driven financial services platform serving millions of clients worldwide. 

In this conversation, Greg talks about building Acrisure from a lifestyle business into a global FinTech leader. He shares the strategic thinking behind Acrisure’s unique acquisition model that allowed founders to monetize their businesses without losing their identity or leadership. 

He discusses the importance of securing capital, understanding market fragmentation, and cultivating trusted relationships that fuel long-term growth. As Acrisure shifts from acquisition-driven expansion to technology-enabled organic growth, Greg offers insights into the future of FinTech, the evolving needs of small business clients, and the mindset required to build something truly enduring. 

In this episode, you’ll learn: 

• Why Acrisure’s differentiated M&A model allowed founders to monetize their businesses without losing control 
• How strategic capital deployment fueled more than 900 acquisitions and rapid global expansion 
• Why the future of Acrisure lies in technology, data, and meeting the evolving needs of small business clients 

“While the world didn’t necessarily need another insurance broker, the industry did. And it had to have an M&A model that was differentiated.” 
— Greg Williams 

Acrisure: https://www.acrisure.com 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

While the world didn't necessarily need another insurance broker, the industry did, and it had to have an MA model that was differentiated, and so we're able to build something that's now been copied many times.

SPEAKER_01 0:11

What it really takes to build a $5 billion company from the ground up isn't just vision and capital. It's the relentless pursuit of alignment, relationships, and an unwavering commitment that transforms both business and life. Today I'm joined by Aquistur founder and CEO Greg Williams. And in this episode, Greg shares behind-the-scenes insights into his journey of building one of the fastest-growing companies in America through over 900 acquisitions since 2013. I'm your host, Chris Allen. And if you're building, scaling, or leading through MA-driven growth, this episode's for you. Greg, welcome to the Entrepreneur Studio. Great to be here.

SPEAKER_03 0:57

Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Glad to have you. You know, uh AcroSture uh is a fintech company that has, you know, really over 900 acquisitions since 2013. It's a 19,000-person and growing company in multiple countries, doing over 5 billion in revenue. So, like you gotta tell me, what gave you the vision for building this company?

SPEAKER_03 1:17

Well, you know what? Uh I got introduced to the opportunity uh in uh 2004. And it was uh when it was presented to me uh by my co-founder, uh uh Rick Norris, when uh when it was presented, it was my initial reaction is the world doesn't need another insurance broker. I'm not sure if this is a good idea. Yeah. And uh the more I you know thought about it, the more it was discussed. It was really a situation where um I wanted to spend some time analyzing and understanding the opportunity because the financial fundamentals were so, you know, so so sound and frankly kind of compelling and exciting. When I say that, it's a business with high recurring revenue, nice profit margins, low capex requirements. So financially, it was kind of an interesting opportunity. What did it mean and what did it represent in terms of market and how fragmented is the market and and all of that, uh, I didn't have any understanding of. Uh quickly ascertained that because there's a lot of information out there. After understanding that, uh started looking at, okay, who's achieved some scale and some size and how did they do that? And uh you look at organic growth, you know, it's uh call it you know mid-single digits. You know, you didn't get uh, you know, the large-scale companies didn't get where they did because of organic growth. They got there through MA. And so uh so there was a compelling opportunity for that reason, a highly fragmented industry, compelling financial fundamentals, uh a competitive subset, if uh if I can say this without uh being uh demeaning in any way. But I looked at those who were building and scaling and growing, and I really felt like we could compete with them and offer uh the marketplace an opportunity and an alternative that would be pretty attractive. And so really what I came away with, while the industry or the world didn't necessarily s necessarily need another insurance broker, the industry did. And and it would had to have an M ⁇ A model that was differentiated. Uh, it was one of those situations where what differentiated us also made sense from a business standpoint. And so we were able to build something that's now been copied many times in terms of uh buying and not rebranding and leaving businesses intact, not only brand, but leadership and not changing how people are paid. Uh basically the stability of the business post-acquisition was something that we focused on heavily in the very beginning. And uh believe it or not, in uh you know, in the early days, uh it was a heavy buy, rebrand, change leadership, change compensation models for sales professionals and the like. And uh and it introduced a lot of uh chaos into a business that's uh otherwise very predictable. Yeah, it was producing. And so anyway, so it was uh we became known for if you wanted to monetize some of the interest or some of the value you'd created over the years. We were known as the party, look, I can go monetize this value without having my life turned upside down, without creating chaos and disruption inside my business. And frankly, right down to the relationship I'm gonna have with my employees that have helped me build this business, all of those things really were untouched and uh and uh and respected and celebrated and embraced. And uh again, believe it or not, you look back, that actually differentiated us. And so we kind of as a lifestyle business, you know, from 2005 to 2012, bought 26 companies in Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. Uh I went from knocking on doors to my phone was ringing to say, hey, we've heard what you did with you know these folks and we know them and they're very happy they did a deal with you. And so 2013 was the kind of the catalyst in terms of uh when you say what changed from the early days to to to really scaling this. I went from knocking on doors to my phone was ringing kind of off the hook. And so that was the universe speaking to me a little bit about uh, hey, there's an opportunity here that's bigger than what you thought it was, maybe you should go go pursue it. So that's uh that's kind of how it all got started.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Give us a quick profile of who these business owners and what the sort of type of business that they were running, just real quick for people who aren't familiar with insurance.

SPEAKER_03 5:30

Yeah, in the early days, it was property and casualty uh insurance brokers and uh in employee benefit to some specialty in in terms of insurance brokers, um and in terms of a profile. And as we scaled and grow in and grew and started, you know, kind of stitching product and services and clients together, uh, we got this you know unbelievable growth that came out of all of that. And as you started getting you know better sensitivity and better insight into client needs and things of that nature, and and uh and what we could now, if we're gonna invest money, what could we add to the mix in terms of talent and and specialty uh marketplace dynamics and so forth in terms of industry, uh covering industry, uh certain industries, et cetera. As we were doing all that, uh you know, you get that that kind of expansion, wild expansion that uh I mean I think about this in in July of 2013 we were at 38 million of revenue. So a little over 12 years ago, um, you know, 38 million to 5,900,000 plus acquisitions uh in 24 countries. Uh, because you know, if you look at we didn't spend a penny, not a dollar, and it's no exaggeration, no embellishment, not a dollar on marketing until 2022. And so in terms of the brand, the acquisition, and all of that, it was that model that started in 2005 up till 2022 was still being deployed. That strategy was still being deployed.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

Yeah, so you know, all the horsepower was in the in the acquisition. I the amount of like acquisitions per week, thinking about 900, it would that is staggering. It's staggering the amount of, and if you've never been through that, right? Uh talk about uh talk about the art of a deal. Give us kind of the stages of how a deal goes, how long it takes. Because I really think people need to understand the size and scale of 900 acquisitions, buying companies, 900 of them in a in a 12-year period, right? So help help us understand a little bit about like what's the art of the deal, what are the stages of a deal, right? Uh and and things like that so that people kind of get an get an idea of what this thing looked like for you guys.

SPEAKER_03 7:36

Well, I think first and foremost, it kind of goes back to that uh the compelling financials that I uh the fundamentals and the and the financials uh around the business that are so compelling. And when I say that, uh uh in order to do this kind of scale in terms of MA, uh you have to attract capital first and foremost.

SPEAKER_02 7:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 7:54

And so you can go sell an idea uh about it, you know, anything. Um, but uh you know, if it's not uh found to be as equally as compelling as you think it is, capital is not going to, you know, invest in it. Yep. So we had uh you know a 250 year, uh it's 300 plus years in terms of the industry. Um in this country, it's 200, almost 250 years. And so um you had an industry that was tried and true, you know, proven, uh high recurring revenue, all of those things that had the components and elements that it that an investor and uh in investors and lenders both liked. So that uh that that starts with you know focus on something if you're gonna go build it uh that the the world is uh is figured out as uh is a safe haven or a place that you can invest capital with some degree of predictability and in uh and safety. Um and so that it starts with that. But uh then you you know kind of pivot into you know what what's the fragmentation. I talked about that. I think in uh 2005, when I first started looking at it, there was something like 35,000 insurance brokers in the in the U.S. alone. Uh fast forward all I mean, tens of thousands of deals that have been done. We've almost we've almost done it, we've almost done a thousand ourselves. Uh there's still 25,000 uh if you you know fast forward 20 years later. So it's still a very highly fragmented. Now it's changed shape. I mean, it used to be uh, you know, not very many deals, kind of a pyramid shape, if you will, very few large deals, and then you know kind of cascaded down from that uh in terms of the shape of the industry size and scale and what that looked like in terms of shape. It's now got an hourglass uh kind of look to it, to where there's significantly more scaled businesses. The compression and all the MA has taken place in the middle, and so that's now compressed, and then uh where there's been rejuvenation and regeneration and so forth, it tend to be in the smaller where people have left larger firms and started their own, hung their own shingle and started their own shop. There's now that's where the you know kind of the opportunity exists in the much smaller marketplace. And so when you look at all of that, uh this industry had of those those kinds of dynamics, uh attractive to capital, highly fragmented, uh people that had really not gone out and differentiated themselves in a way that uh was was going to be sought after in terms of high degrees of enthusiasm. I used to say, uh I wouldn't say it uh to the extent uh I did then, but I used to say, you know, uh an MA traction uh transaction in the insurance brokerage space was a good day for the owner in terms of the seller, uh, the entrepreneur that owned a business, and that he or she put some money in their pocket. It was not necessarily a good day for the business or the people that worked in the business. And that's kind of changed as time, and I think we had a little bit to to uh to do with that changing that dynamic, is that uh focusing on this highly fragmented business that had you know entrepreneurs that for the most part were looking to monetize, for the most part, looking to monetize but not sell and retire, um, that's opportunity as well that I think that we took advantage of, and others are still taking advantage of to this day.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

That's awesome. So if you were to write one big check for all 900, how much money has been spent to buy all these companies?

SPEAKER_03 11:19

Well, we've got uh, you know what, Chris, that's a great question. I should know the uh the exact dollar amount off the top, but it it's somewhere around $14.5 billion that uh that we've raised to go build this business. So when people say, hey, what you've done, it looks pretty easy and you know it's it's a lot of work. Well, you first got to go raise $14.5 billion. Uh be smart in how you're deploying that capital because you know unwise investments get discovered by investors and lenders pretty quickly in terms of if you're not deploying capital the way that you should. Uh prioritizing what you're looking for, the criteria that you have in doing MA. And I would uh implore anybody if they're going to deploy an MA strategy in anything, have some defined criteria of what's a fit and what's not a fit, and be very disciplined about when it doesn't fit inside that box, you know, know enough to walk away. And there's a few other things that you gotta kind of you know quickly say, we're walking away when when it doesn't have these dynamics as well. So uh so all of that kind of kind of can kind of comes into play as the doing a scale M ⁇ A opportunity um with any kind of uh you know significance to it, uh it's uh those those things are all important.

SPEAKER_01 12:33

Yeah. So it seemed like uh if I were to just describe it simply, um you were building two capabilities at the company. The first capability was this sort of acquisition, you know, MA engine. And then the second capability is this deep knowledge of insurance. Right. And so talk to us a little bit about, and you guys are just flying all over the country, you know, raising capital and then figuring out how to deploy it in sort of these meaningful, predictable uh, you know, types of businesses. The second capability of this depth in insurance, right? Uh starting off the property in casualty and and you know, uh employee benefits and subsurety, the that sort of footprint has has grown uh and evolved, right? So talk to us about that point of evolution where now you've got sort of the MA engine going and you've got other opportunities that are adjacent that you're like, I think it makes sense to start you know expanding this other capability, which is the type of business that we're running.

SPEAKER_03 13:33

Yeah. Well, a couple things uh that are important in there that uh you you're as you're talking and asking questions, uh, you know, you know, nostalgic moments and things are yeah, are are uh coming to mind. Uh but when you look at uh you could you keep just doing this, you know, buy, raise money by, buy, buy, and not connect all of these pieces and parts. Um could you, sure, is there massive missed opportunity in that? Yes. And so uh as we were doing all of this, and and and and I've said many lessons learned throughout the building of the business. One of them is uh the the significance and the power of aligned interest. Um you know, it's you know, relationships matter, alignment matters, high character people matters. And and when you have you've placed an emphasis on those things first and foremost, and have a business strategy that you're building where you know to the outside world, this looked like we were just buying, you know, yeah, I think it was 2015, 56 companies, in 2016 it was 64 companies, 2017 went up to 92 companies, and from 18 to 22, we were never less than 100 in any given year.

SPEAKER_02 14:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:46

And so the outside world is like, wow, this is you know, kind of uh unimaginable, unimaginable growth, maybe even viewed it as, gosh, is this reckless? And the reality is uh approaching now, I think it's a little over 90% of every MA deal we've done has been on a referral from an existing partner. Oh, wow. And so this wasn't, you know, we're out talking to a bunch of people we don't know. This is uh prospecting. It's not investor bank, investment banker roadshow, and and you know, in in uh uh bake-offs, and you know, here's 12 companies bidding for one, and you just happen to bid the most and you got it, and and all that. This was we were getting introduced to opportunity by our partners back to that alignment and relationship. We're getting introduced to opportunities by our partners um that they knew well. Uh we, you know, were very transparent about the criteria we were looking for in terms of financial metrics, leadership metrics, cultural expectations. We had a no-assholes rule and just says, hey guys, if I I don't care how good the business is, if the person that's leading it's a jerk, I don't want them. Yeah. And so so we had those kinds of things, and so our partners, I mean, you kind of like-minded people know, you know, who looks like them and who, you know, culturally has their same uh, you know, in integrity standards and expectations and so forth. So our partners uh are, you know, you said, you know, who's the hero in this story and and all that? It's it's frankly the partners that as they became part of Aquisure understood that look, some of the expectations is yes, just keep growing your business. Some of the expectations are introduced to introduce us to those that you know. And and so when you look at that, uh, I mean, I used to have bankers all the time would say, and uh investors loved it, bankers would ask about ask ask questions about rating agencies the same, where uh they they'd say, uh, you know, how do you do a hundred deals a year? I said, uh that's part of the right question. The real right question is how many deals are we looking at a year? Because a hundred sounds like a lot, but when you realize we're talking and meeting literally with over a thousand a year, wow, suddenly a hundred deals a year is not all that, you know, it's not like we're just out recklessly buying stuff to buy stuff. We're literally looking at a thousand companies a year in those heydays uh where we're doing a hundred deals a year. We were looking at a thousand opportunities. So the our hit rate, close rate, whatever you want to refer to it, was literally about 10%.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:21

Uh one of every 10 buzz of businesses we looked at, we actually acquired. So, so the the the kind of the the the unsung hero in all of this is our partners aligning around what we're trying to do and build, uh, understanding as shareholders in particular that as we achieved that scale, uh, you know, it was going to be you know something that was you know value creating to them. Uh we had the ability to go out and raise money. They understood that. Um they didn't understand how we did it, but they understood that we knew how to do it. And so that it was kind of that symbiotic relationship that existed between partners. So you know, we'll do what we're really good at, you do what you're really good at, and in the middle will be some magic. And so that's kind of how this whole thing came together and and uh how you got that kind of scale and did those kind of that number of deals. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:07

So, you know, just to kind of uh help uh you know set the stage for where you're where you are today. Uh you've got this uh acquisition engine uh that I would say at the point of starting to introduce technology probably started to slow down. You weren't doing a hundred deals a year. Um and so you've got the deploying of the technology. So there's this uh the way that the company is growing changed dramatically. Right well rather than just through MA, right? Uh it's it had to grow organically. And you know, the larger that you get, the harder that that becomes. And I think that there was an uh an inflection point that you know really had to think through, okay, what what do we really need to need to commit to uh you know, to investors and uh figure out sort of what the end game you know is for this this company. Tell me a little bit about like the headwinds uh and a little bit of the challenges of the organic growth game at the size uh that Aquicire, you know, is today but was at that point.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

Yeah, you know what? I think uh all of these discussions are best uh uh started when you start uh thinking about clients first. And so when you look at the composition of our clients, 7% of every business in America is acquis is an Aquasure client as we see here today. Uh 98% of those clients have a hundred employees and less. And so when you think about a business that has a profile, a hundred employees and less, the needs they have are significant. It's yes, insurance, it's payroll, uh cybersecurity, it's uh you know uh tax, wealth management. On and on the list goes of other things that uh that that uh the product and services and payment processing, truly the list goes on and on. And so uh so it's not tough to discern that those are the needs. Yeah. Because you know you know that they're buying them. What's a little bit more involved is uh okay, they have those needs, but would do they do they prefer to work with 12 different vendors to get all those needs satisfied, or would they really like to work with one trusted party if there was one trusted party? And that's the biggest thing I think that we've that we've uh learned and and understand about our clients and and why the pivot to fintech and using technology and the the broad product and service offering and organic growth is uh we understand our clients, I think, better than most, uh willing to invest, uh evidenced by the billion-dollar plus investment we've made in the payroll space, uh, willing to invest in the things we know our clients want and need. Uh they have spoken. We do know that uh you know 86% of them do would like to get all of these product and services from one source if they could. Uh they're just not a viable option right now to do that. So when you start looking at all that, you have a company that's grown explosively, 48% component growth for 12 years, uh, you know, mostly MA. Now you got to organically grow it. Um the product isn't unlikely to be 48%. So it's not gonna be, it's not gonna be, it's not even unlikely, it's not gonna be 48%. So uh can you get to a business of this scale, even that uh that's high single digits? The answer is you can. And we absolutely should when you look at the product and service uh offering that we are bringing to a client is more than if you said insurance brokers, I mean, we've got more to sell than what they have. Um we have a client base that's perfectly suited to buy what we're selling. And so when we sat down with this broader, you know, view of the world and said fintech is really what you know it's not just a a name or a label, it's what we in fact have to go be in in uh in in uh and have all of the things that you'd expect a fintech to have. Part of that Growth. And so if you look at if you're going to produce that kind of growth, so say high single digits to low double digits growth, uh organically, the product and service offering has to expand. We have a perfect client base in order which to expand that. And the total addressable market, when you really look at what we can become as a company relative to saying an insurance broker, I mean the TAM of a financial services business versus an insurance broker is about a hundred times the size in terms of a financial services, global financial services business versus a global insurance broker, it's 100x the TAM. And so am I saying we're going to be a hundred times the size of an insurance broker? No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying the opportunity to grow significantly different and better and more expansive and uh and prolific uh as compared to say if you just stayed in the insurance broker's lane. So is this the pivot to fintech, uh the pivot to a broader product and service offering, does it make sense uh for all stakeholders? It absolutely does. Um and even if that was true uh and you had the wrong client base, while that might be true, if you get the wrong client base, you got you got misalignment. We got perfect symmetry in that we have this belief in this opportunity with a client base who's asking for us to kind of fill the gap. And so uh so that's the the growth. Yes, it's got to be more organic uh than and gonna be more organic uh in terms of uh the growth of the business going forward. That's a muscle we can still flex. It's uh opportunity we have. Our partners are still referring um in abundance, uh, you know, compelling MA opportunities around the globe. And you know, some people ask how in the world you get to 24 countries? Because uh, you know, for me, 12 a little over 12 years ago, we were in three states. Um three states is now all 50 states and 24 countries, and I go back to that alignment and those partners and so forth is that uh all of that you know geographic spread, if you will, is uh has come through word of mouth. It really isn't because we've decided to, you know, I I did intentionally go to the UK in 2017, met uh who's still on our exec team today, Graham Millwater, and uh at the time Beach and Associates, which was an was a reinsurance broker. Um not everybody understood the logic of investing in reinsurance, but uh but it's something that uh strategically strategically is very important to us as we sit here to this day. And uh and so uh I went uh with uh the introduction by one of our bankers uh that said, look, I want to start looking internationally. You know, you're an international global bank. Do you have relationships in the insurance base uh across the pond? And so uh he gave me eight names to talk to. One of them was Graham Millwater and Beech and Associates. And I didn't necessarily go over there to acquire anybody, just went over there to learn about the marketplace and understand, but just uh met uh Graham and that team and you know, kind of the rest of his history. So I met them in 17. We did the deal in 2018, they were 40 million of revenue when we bought them. They're 200 million uh today. Uh, you know, what is it, uh, six, seven years later? Uh all organic. 40 million to 200 million. So they've grown 5x. And and so all to say, stitching this together that we have from the outside looking in maybe looked uh fast and maybe reckless, but it was uh very intentional strategically. Uh there was a purpose behind all of it. Um it's very, very acutely aware of capital that we had raised and making sure we're putting that capital to the best use uh to grow the business and invest in things like technology that was gonna you know kind of seed the future for us as well. So that's kind of how it all is you know stitched together. And but uh to your you know long-winded answer to a short question, organic growth does have to be kind of the thing you become known for.

SPEAKER_02 26:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:07

You can build a business inorganically through MA, but if you're gonna sustain and have something that lasts you know 50 years in the future, you got to organically be able to grow.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Absolutely. The big thing is you found a way to acquire customer bases and then expand it into the fintech space to be able to do that. And now the next capability that's really got to be um uh sort of the volume's gotta get turned up on is how to sell more products and services to that acquisition model, not just acquiring companies, but acquiring customer bases. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

So that's huge. Well, one of the things uh uh I I've talked about this again, it's kind of lost in the the magic of numbers. When you hear 38 billion, 38 million to 5 billion and all that, you know, the 48% component growth for 12 years and so forth, people do tend to focus on revenue and EBDA. The reality is, and I've been saying this for you know seven, eight years now, is yeah, yeah, we're acquiring revenue in EBDA, yes, but we're also acquiring data, information, and clients. And now as you think about uh you know, 7% of every business in America, 98% of them have employees and less, we've got a client base that um that you know, yes, we bought revenue in EBDA with those businesses we acquired, but those clients that were part of that, um, to say it's overlooked, it it sounds uh, you know, uh, no, I mean it can't be that you know the number of clients you're acquiring every time you do an acquisition, people you know, of course, focus on they don't. And and so I'm just sitting here watching the number of clients, knowing the data and information that we're getting with all of that, those clients uh in each transaction, someday was going to be more valuable maybe than you know some of the transactions that we did uh in in terms of a like-for-like comparison. So uh so we are sitting on massive amounts of information about the marketplace, massive amounts of data about clients, um using AI and technology to start uh kind of how how do you put all this together and and uh identify your greatest opportunities, propensity rank them so you can be efficient in how you go after things. All that's you know part of what's been done and and again, why the fintech narrative is spot on. Yeah, it's good.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

Well, we've talked about a lot of things today. Um I got one question that uh has that that's been on my mind since uh you know we first started talking about doing the podcast. And it's basically if you were to talk to your 13, 14-year-old self right now, what would you say to him?

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Uh something that uh that I had to learn as well. And I I've actually, this is actually one of the questions that uh the easiest question, one of the easiest questions you've you've asked. Um and uh and the reason I say that is I've given what I'm about to say that would be advice to my 13 or 14-year-old self. I've given this advice to 13 and 14-year-olds, and and uh I've been fortunate enough that I've had friends and others reach out and said, Hey, would you spend time with my kid? And, you know, whether it's a lunch or whatever, and talk to him, not about behaviors or anything else, just about how to think about a career and how to think about you know opportunity and so forth. So uh uh I I I actually do that and I enjoy doing that because you always learn something about the person you're talking to as well. But my uh my counsel advice to them isn't uh anything about you know emotional success or anything of that nature. That if you're ambitious in any way, whatever that ambition means, uh you know, for me it was business success. But whatever your ambitions are, you know, find people that uh have achieved extraordinary things. Not you know, someone from your neighborhood, um, unless you live in a really unique neighborhood. Yeah, yes. Um but find someone who's achieved extraordinary success and don't necessarily emulate what they did or or necessarily what they do, you know, you know, line of business or things of that nature. Emulate how they think. I frankly have always done this. I didn't even know I was doing it. But uh you know, you get people who you know they're envious or jealous of somebody's success. I am the opposite. Uh I'll celebrate your success, I'll celebrate somebody else's success more than I'll celebrate my own. Uh it's just a cool thing to see, you know, uh what it takes to succeed, and people either figure it out and do it, or they get lucky, whatever the case may be. It's usually not that. It's uh it's very, very, very seldom that. And so the advice is you know, find very, very successful people in whatever your field or interest that you have and emulate how they think. And uh and I have found that uh to be something uh that's kind of changed my life in terms of what uh is the art of the possible. Um and I and you know, people say, you know, have you had mentors? And I wouldn't say I've had uh mentors, I've had influencers. And it's people that, as I went and said, hey, I'd love to come spend time with you, and this is the one of the other other reason I uh uh the advice I give people is that you think that ultra successful person won't spend time with you. The vast majority of them will. Um you ask them for a lunch, you ask them for a dinner, you ask them for 20 minutes uh you know in their office. Um I've yet to have anybody say no to people. I'd say, look, if I were you, I'd go talk to them and I can tee it up, but it'll be more, it'll mean more to them if you actually approach them yourself. And it's not something that I tee up. So I coach them to go do it. I advise them to go do it. And to a person, the ones that have done it, they've come back, oh, wow, I I I learned something. And and so again, it's a not not go, you know, chase their dreams or chase their life. Just get into how they think because you know the those folks that have been ultra successful just think differently than most people do. And and some of it's they think different, some of it they have a higher level of sacrifice and commitment and and all of that, and and maybe risk tolerance and other things that come into that. But but that's the the advice that I'd give myself, and I've found myself giving them you know similar advice to 13 to 25 year olds, yeah, yeah. Frankly.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Well, uh, you know, uh one of the other things that I think would be really interesting that as you were talking about, you know, whether because you you were like, hey, my success that I had chose was business success. What would you say to an entrepreneur uh that's gonna go make their first acquisition?

SPEAKER_03 33:08

Uh go go into it with your eyes wide open. But first and foremost, um, and again, depending on if you're buying a widget factory, relationships don't matter. In the vast majority of things that you're gonna invest in, people are part of the equation. And uh in the in you know, in prioritizing those people and investing time in terms of the relationships you have with them, um that's gonna come back in and pay you know multiple, multiple, multiples uh over. And when you say, you know, how does that all manifest itself at Aquiciere? I'll just go back to 90 plus percent of the acquisitions we've done come on referral from an existing partner. Uh so whatever it is that we did in terms of how we treated them as a partner, or if we told them we're gonna do something, we did it. If we said we weren't gonna do something, we didn't. All of those things manifest itself in someone saying, you know what, I I'm actually gonna take a friend, or maybe it's a uh a competitor, but it's a friendly competitor. Uh I'm gonna advise them to join, kind of come join the family. And now, was there some selfish motive and they're a shareholder? Sure. Um, but at the end of the day, um our partners, that that that relationship building and investing in that. Um I I'd tell if you're gonna do MA, you know, think about that at the the first and foremost, because even if you're buying, I'll say, you know, the the widget factory that has no employees, someone's important to that equation. There's a group of people that are important to that equation. So figure that out. Uh the people side of it is uh is something I'd prioritize. The integrity of people, the quality of character, all of those things uh come to bear. And so the money side, in terms of having the money to go do it, will follow uh compelling you know, business thoughts, ideas, et cetera. Um and and the alignment with high quality, high character people, money will follow because it'll also recognize the same qualities. Yeah, and so those are the things that uh if you're thinking about it, regardless of industry, prioritize some of those things more than uh than uh than matter. And then obviously strategic relevance and you know, as an industry, you know, obsolete or not, you know, all that stuff comes into play. But if you check all those boxes, the people side and the skills associated with that and the integrity and the quality, everybody wants to be around good people and money, uh partners, etc.

SPEAKER_01 35:40

Well, for the guy that only has one speed, let's go. What's next for Greg Williams?

SPEAKER_03 35:45

Keep building. Uh we got to keep building this business. Uh, you know, I get asked all the time, what inning are we in? And using a using a baseball analogy, I mean, honestly, uh, we're in the third inning. Uh we have we have a long way to go. That's awesome. Um, and so you know, keep doing the things that we're doing, do them better, do them more efficiently, lean into technology, all of those things are are part of that. I have other things that uh that that I want to do before I'm dead and dead and gone, and and you know, not to be morbid, but before I'm gone. Um and when I say that, uh businesses and things that that I think have opportunity that that I'll seed and do things off to the side, uh, that I'll do that are uh you know interesting, kind of personally of interest. But first and foremost, it's uh take what's been done and all the the tremendous work by a lot of people and uh recognize that we're in the third inning. We got a long way to go.

SPEAKER_01 36:42

Well, Greg Williams, thanks for uh coming all the way out here, for spending time with me and time with us and sharing all of the things that you did. I appreciate you uh getting super personal and helping us, you know, really see some things about you that I don't know if uh a lot of people, you know, get get that kind of window uh into your life or into uh, you know, uh people at your caliber. Um but thank you so much for coming. It was awesome to have you.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

Chris, thank you. It's great to be here and nice job on your part. Oh, thanks, man. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

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