Building GenNx360 Capital Partners with Ron Blaylock

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down building GenNX360 Capital Partners and to drop these value bombs I brought to Ron Blaylock and to EO Fire Studios. Ronald is founder of GenNX 360 Capital Partners and former head of Blaylock & Company, leading over$150 billion in transactions and serving on major corporate and nonprofit boards, including Pfizer and Carnegie Hall. And today we talk about early founder challenges, overlooked opportunities, scaling to$2 billion, evolving leadership, and oh, so much more.

0:39John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Ron and our sponsors. Fire Nation, if you have a high ticket offer and need more quality leads, Nexus Install is designed for you. We'll book you 8 to 20 qualified calls each month, then train you to run the system yourself. Email my team at john at eofire.com to learn more and see if Nexus is the right fit for you. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.

1:14John Lee Dumas:Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com. Ron, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Fire it up. Let's go. Yo! Let's do this. In the house of John. Hey, so I would say, John, people, you need a little luck in being successful. And people will say, well, they disagree. Well, I think, you know, successful people make a lot of their luck. But, you know, sometimes the ball just, you know, needs to bounce your way, even with hard, hard work and focus and great acumen and skills, EQ, IQ, a little luck really helps people become successful or more successful.

2:24That's one of the things I would say, John.

2:26John Lee Dumas:Well, I love luck. For me, luck is where effort means opportunity. So if you're putting in the efforts day after day, you're showing up consistently, opportunity is going to come at some point. We don't know when. Is it one day, one month, one year, 10 years? And then guess what? People are going to be like, oh my God, Ron was so lucky. He's like, no, dude, I've been showing up. I've been showing up. I've been putting the effort. Here's the luck. But Ron, I want to talk about going from Wall Street to founder. I mean, what prompted your transition from Wall Street to founding Gen NX 360? Specifically, what was the gap that you saw in the market that made you take that leap?

3:06Specifically, it was the gap I saw in private equity firms that were more about financial engineering, which is, you know, very effective, but they lacked a real operating team and an operating know-how to really operate businesses and expand them, expand their margins, their profit margins, put in best operational practice, be it KPIs or OKRs. And that's where I saw the opportunity where you could really accelerate earnings and deliver great returns for your investors if you could combine that financial engineer with the operating muscle of real executives who know how to operate businesses as well.

3:57John.

3:58John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about those early founder challenges though, because in the early days, Ron, you had some challenges and they tested you. So tell us about maybe one or two of those challenges and how they ended up shaping your personal leadership style. Great question, because we did have a lot of challenges and sometimes, you know, we'd get very focused on Pacific deal and what we thought we could do to drive that investment. But at times we could be inflexible, John, in terms of how we would approach that investment or approach that in market. And that was expensive because you have to learn to pivot and change is inevitable.

4:46And that doesn't mean that the business model can't endure change, which you have to be nimble and flexible enough to read the tea leaves and say, you know, well, those plays aren't working. So let's go run these plays for this particular business and how we can grow revenues quicker, increase profits quicker. and we were not nearly as adaptable and flexible in those early years as we've grown to become over the last 10, 15 years, John.

5:22John Lee Dumas:So, Ron, I don't want you to spill any company secrets or say something you're not supposed to do, but give me as just detailed as possible just one of those big early failures you had that maybe even looked in the mirror and you're just like, Ron, I'm not going to make it. I'm not going to make it. Tell me about one of those stories that really tested your mettle. Because I mean, listen, you bounce back before, you'll bounce back again. But what was one of those moments where you were really down on your luck? We made an investment in a business that produced rigs for the oil and gas industry, rigs for drilling.

6:01And they had these mobile rigs that were supposed to be able to move around and be more flexible for the operators, for the drillers. And that business just struggled. And when we underwrote the deal initially, we thought it had a very good product, but that product wasn't moving. The drillers didn't think it had the strength, endurance, or the practicality to really, And these were big$6,$5 million drilling rigs, mobile rigs. And we just kept trying and kept trying, changing this, but it was just going nowhere. And we finally had to concede that what we had underwritten about the deal had flaws in it, that this product wasn't going to be as acceptable to the operators in the field, that it was too expensive of a product and that the executives that we had in the business weren't being realistic about the demand for this product.

7:16And we put money in it and put more money in it. And finally, you know, that was just a bad, bad situation. that was a gut check where we had to really admit failure and own up to some of our diligence and underwriting mistakes. And that didn't work out well at all. And that was a hard gut check. But we got better. We learned from that. As painful as it was, it was extremely painful. but we got better and more careful in our underwriting and looking at second and third and fourth consequences, particularly of some high cap X spending kind of products.

8:06John Lee Dumas:Ron, I want to talk about overlooked opportunities because I mean, industrial and business services, they're not always flashy. I mean, let's be honest. A lot of people think they're just downright boring. So what makes them such attractive opportunities that other people often miss. Straight down the middle, boring, particularly in the B2B side. So take a generator service company, a commercial generator, not a residential, you know, generators, but commercial generators that would support a hospital or library or a football stadium, you know, because, for example, in a football stadium, if the escalators go down because the electricity goes out and there's no backup generator, that game is going to the fan experience is going to be a nightmare so when one would look at that business okay I'm just servicing these generators making sure that they're functioning and there's a maintenance contract and if you think about them what gets overlooked a lot of times is that that's a very standard maintenance business of servicing these generators but you could bring a lot of technology to that business, like simply taking the people who work, the crews, the technician, where you can give them an iPad.

9:26And this was even before AI, you know, really blew up in the last four years or so, where it was just basic data where the service technician, he could put in, here's the generator, Generac-103 model. here's the typical failures or constraints or problems with that particular model. And we gave them iPads. We gave them, you know, it wasn't that complicated, but just with those iPads in the field being able to do diagnostics or what's the likely problem, we got, you know, 40 % more productivity out of those technicians. So if they were doing 10 jobs a week, they were doing 14 jobs a week. So all of a sudden, wow, they had more fun.

10:21It was easier for them. They felt more engaged. The customers, the solutions were quicker in and out of places, and everybody won. And the technicians made more money because they were more productive. We could pay them more money. We made more money, and the clients were happier because the time, the services were shorter. So that's where they get overlooked sometimes. and what you can do with these mundane, sort of everyday businesses, be it from a go-to-market, from a service, from an IT standpoint. So that's, you know, really cool. We love that.

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14:09John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Ron, we're back. And I want to talk about scaling to 2 billion because you helped scale PAG from a$100 million investment to 2 billion. That's Billy with a capital Bitcoin B. Let's go. What gave you the conviction to go all in, Ron? You got to have a total addressable market that's big enough to grow. And you're still only going to have, you know, call it 3 % share. If you look at big TAMs where you can really, they've got tailwinds and structural tailwinds around like PAG where you're servicing and maintaining aircraft and aircraft stuff breaks on planes and they need repairs and it's a growing market.

15:05So when you look at that, you say, wow, if I've got the right management team and we can get more capability, service more parts of the aircraft, then, you know, the sky's the limit. and that's where you start with a thesis that says, yeah, hell yeah, this thing has got all this big market and if we only gain 2 % share, we're at a$2 billion valuation or 3 % share. And you see that opportunity and you see that you can do things where we were growing at twice the rate the market For seven years, where the market might have been growing at a 6 % CAGR, we were growing at a 14 % CAGR because of our service, our capability set, and our use of what I call frictionless experience for these operators who manage all these fleets and need to repair these aircraft on the ground that, as you said, on runways and there's a maintenance.

16:19uh issue you know it's expensive to keep that plane on the ground we found a way where we could service people quickly uh efficiently get that part in repair it uh and that's why we were growing the market at double uh the market a little more and at the same time we were increasing margins uh because we had more capabilities more turnaround times faster turnaround times and but the big thing of scaling okay i gave you the business fundamentals but it all takes leadership it all takes people who you know get things done my coach would have said a different way but people get things done um and can lead and can drive the troops um and keep people very focused and we were able to uh identify great leadership um the ceo david mass but the people that he were able to attract that we put in to support him grog's team coached him up be involved in and let the athletes play uh with the right leadership that's how you scale And you have to know that with the right infrastructure, with the right people.

17:41But it starts with a business model that's capable of taking share in a big market.

17:49John Lee Dumas:So Ron, I want to talk about evolving leadership because it's something that you've done really well. So as a firm has grown, how has your personal leadership style evolved, especially when it comes to empowering the next generation? It's always there. Leadership evolution is always there. No different. You got to always be learning, always growing, always evolving. With leadership, it's a must to look at yourself, look how you can evolve as a leader, learn, admit your mistakes, but stay bold and daring. You know, with the right risk tolerance, but bold and daring. And a lot of it is inspiring people, the younger folks, to believe of the possibilities, you know, of what great looks like.

18:51And encourage them to think about great. Think about the art of the possible. The, you know, let's catch it off the top of the backboard and dunk. You know, let's really do something that's fabulous and really monumental. So I think a big part is getting the younger generation to set high expectations for themselves and for things that they work on and things where they have some agency about to set, you know, it's not a dream and something far-fetched, but it's like here is a stretch goal or stretch, you know, new product category. And what I say is, you know, nothing great ever happens with good expectations.

19:58You've got to have great expectations, okay? And it's about lifting an organization or a team of folks to really, you know, have a mindset of, oh, hell, we're getting to the finals every year. We're going to win this product category or we're going to outgrow the market by 3x when they told us we'd only outgrow it by 2x. So is those kind of things setting the expectation of what really great can be and instilling a culture and a mindset around that, I think is very important as a leader.

20:37John Lee Dumas:Ron, I want to end with a bang by talking about enduring value. I mean, for founders that are listening and Fire Nation is built on founders, entrepreneurs, small business owners. What's your advice on building businesses that are not just successful? Because we can build a successful business, but businesses that are truly enduring and of high value. You look at the stakeholders. And if you're saying enduring value, enduring value means that, you know, all the stakeholders are winning. The employees, the shareholders, and the customers. If I can make all of them feel so empowered and that we're delivering, and all those folks are winning, and I'm thinking about all of them every day when I wake up, when I go to bed, but really short-term and long-term, that I'm making decisions that will endure for all three of those stakeholders, okay?

21:52That I'm not short-term sighted. If a customer needs me to show up at 3 in the morning, you know, I'm going to be there. If I didn't deliver on a lead time delivery, not only am I going to compensate him or her for that, make up for that, but I'm going to give them something even more. employees. I'm going to make sure they're getting the right training, right development, that, you know, they get the right vacation and benefits and they have a sense of empowerment and that, that you, what they do matters. And as a culture of what they do matter. And then the shareholders performance, being really transparent with shareholders or, or investors.

22:49and looking for their real input and valuing their input. And not just a FaceTime kind of way, but in a respectful, caring manner. So if you do all those things with those three stakeholders,

23:06that'll lead to enduring value.

23:09John Lee Dumas:Ron, you've dropped tons of value bombs today. Thank you for doing that. I mean, if people are listening right now, they're like, I want to connect with Ron or I want to learn more about what Ron has going on. And of course, his company, what is your call to action for our listeners today? Call to action is just continue to be, you know, daring, you know, measured. Okay. Risk-taking. We all entrepreneurs are risk-taking, but measured risks, but just be daring and think bigger, Think bigger. Think big, big, big. How can we go? Just keep that daring attitude that got you going from day one. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

23:54John Lee Dumas:You've been hanging out with RB and JLD today. So keep up that heat. And for links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Ron in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up and we'll give you a link to what Ron has going on with his company, social media handles, all that jazz. And Ron, I want to say thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Great. Thank you. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Ron for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world.

24:33John Lee Dumas:If yes, we are now accepting applications for EO Fire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest, not vest, and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Fire Nation, if you have a high ticket offer and need more quality leads, Nexus Install is designed for you. We'll book you eight to 20 qualified calls each month, then train you to run the system yourself. Email my team at john at eofire.com to learn more and see if Nexus is the right fit for you. If you are building a real business, you need real infrastructure. High Level gives you website hosting, funnels, email marketing, automation, calendar booking, payments, and course hosting all on one platform, plus award-winning 24-7 support.

25:14John Lee Dumas:Get a 30-day free trial and my full bonus stack that includes a 15-minute private call with me and much more at highlevelfire.com. Highlevelfire.com.

25:29Thank you.