She Woke Up One Morning and Knew She Had to Buy A $50M Company

Sean Weisbrot: What's one of the hardest things you've done in business to date?

Stacie Shifflett: oh gosh, me. hardest things I've done in business. Uh, probably acquiring a $50 million running the acquisition of a $50 million software company without experience. Um,

Sean Weisbrot: Why was it hard?

Stacie Shifflett: why was it hard? You know, it wasn't so hard, the hard part. Um. know, because I could figure out the pieces and the parts and what I needed to do to pull all that together. it wasn't difficult for me to keep the vision and keep going. Right. And with full confidence that we could make it happen. Um, the hardest part was the other people that, you know, didn't think it would happen or, know, I got called a few names along the way. Um. And I think, I think after I did that acquisition and we had a, uh, an investor by the company and of course I got, uh, you know, a sweat equity, a, you know, a percentage of the company when they flipped it in five years in a, a nice employment contract. And, um, I did leave in five years when they flipped the company. So I think the most difficult part of that for me was. I'm a little different. I'm self-taught. I don't have a college degree. I've had some, uh, I have a, a very capable brain and work ethic, and I certainly had some good mentors along the way. But the first meeting, um, they pulled in a CEO, uh, because I didn't, hadn't run a company of that size, nor did the partner that had some things that I thought were needed like an MBA and. Some connections, uh, in order to do this deal. Uh, we didn't get the, you know, didn't get the C-level position. But anyway, the first meeting

Sean Weisbrot: Okay.

Stacie Shifflett: sat down at the conference room table and he had his chart out, and my name wasn't on it. Um, the guy that I pulled into the deal that I asked to join me, his name was on it. So he is, I'm looking and I'm like, well, this is great, but where's where am I? And he looked at me and said, well, I, I don't know what to do with you. You know, you don't have a college degree and you're different. And, and, you know, I looked at him and I said, well. I know what you need to do with me, right? First of all, you wouldn't be here if it wasn't for me because all of this was my idea. And secondly, I have a contract. Right. I have an employment contract that says exactly where I go on your organization chart, exactly what I'm gonna be doing and what all the terms are. And I got up and walked out of the room. Uh, the partner that I had pulled in, followed me out, said, oh, you can't talk to him that way. I said, why? He said, well, he's our new boss. And I said, well, I don't look at it that same way. Right. And by the way, had he done that to you, I would've stood up for you and you didn't say a word. Um, long story short, I did get my position that I had a, you know, a legal contract for. Um, and, uh, things went great for quite a while, but when they flipped the company in five years, I got out. so I think the, I think maybe the harder thing might be making the decision to, to leave, right? Sometimes the harder thing is to say no than it is to say yes, or the harder thing is to speak up for yourself, uh, than it is to just go with the flow.

Sean Weisbrot: Why do you think the CEO was trying to screw with you, even though you had the, the, the contract and everything set?

Stacie Shifflett: You know, he placed, I learned over the years of the value that he placed on formal education and credentials. Um, I did not have formal EV education or those formal credentials, um, but I was a subject matter expert in that technology space, which was federal government procurement and acquisition. And, um, he's probably one of the most egotistical people I've ever met in my life.

Sean Weisbrot: Sounds like he doesn't have the right skills to be the CEO of a company like that.

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah. Well, he, he was for a while. You know, he, he, um, to think if he, I guess he was, even when I left, perhaps. Um, and of course when I made the decision to not, uh, stay on the management team, you know, I said, no, I'm, I'm out. Gimme my money. Um. course, then they were like, oh no, we have to have a cohesive team. You know, look at the opportunity you're gonna miss, and we have, have to have a co, a cohesive management team throughout this next acquisition and, uh, purchase of the company, and that's how we want to do it. And I was like, well, you know, you maybe should have thought about that sooner. and I did. I took my money and left.

Sean Weisbrot: So you mean they, they didn't make you feel good and that's why you said, I don't wanna stay.

Stacie Shifflett: they, um. For the first few years, they let me do my thing, and I did my thing really, really well. I, I can't tell you how many millions of dollars of winning, you know, proposals that I wrote for them. Um, I would demo, I was their pinch hitter. So we'd have these, it was very complex work. Um. My role was to grow the services department, which I did exponentially. I don't remember how many consultants I had working for me at one time. Um, but I grew that team. And so what we did was we sold pro procurement automation software, um, which automated all the federal government procurement contracting and acquisition processes.

Sean Weisbrot: Hmm.

Stacie Shifflett: we integrated our software with the government wide, you know, the agency wide. Financial management system. So I was the one that went in and organ, well, I'd write the proposal, I would organize the project, plans, the project, go in, the team, get everybody started, do all the business process, re-engineering, for them to transition to the new system. And then once everything was running smoothly, I left to go do the next project. If they ever had any problem projects, they also. Pulled me into those to fix it. So that's kind of what I did. at one point, at about, maybe about three and a half years into my five years, um, they approached me in a, in a meeting setting, uh, one day. And, you know, we're all in the conference room and they said, oh, well, we decided we're gonna be a software company and not offer any services anymore. So the good things that you're doing over there, I need you to fire half your staff. And

Sean Weisbrot: Okay.

Stacie Shifflett: mm, I I don't, I don't know about that. Right? You, I, I'm not gonna discuss, give me whatever. But I'm not having this discussion and I'm not agreeing or disagreeing right now because this is huge. I mean, it was such a change. Um, I do not believe that they forfeited all of their services. In the end. They didn't forfeit the services, um, before I left because people stayed, um. It was, it was interesting, you know, I remember getting up and walking out of that room and the same gentleman, you know, harshly grabbed my arm and said, you know, ah, you can't walk outta here. Um, and that is the only time, that is the only time I turned around. I actually punched him. I punched him in the arm and said, don't you ever touch me again. So, um, yeah, what started out as one of the best things that ever, you know, my best professional accomplishment, 'cause that was pretty huge. I did all that without investing a dollar of my own money as well. And I performed well for the company and the company grew with me there. Um, didn't end so well, but, um, I didn't. Fault of the pressure. I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything. Uh, I had made a decision that was in alignment for me and that's what's important, that it's in alignment for me. And I left.

Sean Weisbrot: So walk me through how you led the acquisition of the company but then didn't end up as like the CEO or the chairman. Why did you have to be under somebody?

Stacie Shifflett: because. neither myself nor the gentleman that I pulled in to do the deal with me that I worked with who had some, um, mergers and AC an MBA and some mergers and acquisition contacts. Uh, neither of us had run a company of that size. And that's

Sean Weisbrot: not try?

Stacie Shifflett: uh, you know, I don't know why they didn't try. They, they didn't ask us that. Right. So, um,

Sean Weisbrot: You should have said, I'm acquiring this company and I'm gonna, I wanna run it. And they go, you don't have the experience. You go, well, I could do it better than any of you.

Stacie Shifflett: in all honesty, I'm very, very good on the services and the implementation side, like very, very, very good. Um, the software side, I'm not a software developer, so you know, there was that whole side of the house. I didn't mind that so much because I was in my, um, in my sweet spot and doing what I love to do and, and growing. The portion of the company that I did run, which was a substantial portion, you know, the half of the house was software and the other half was, um, was services

Sean Weisbrot: But you still had to, but you still had to like serve this man who didn't tr didn't really look highly upon you.

Stacie Shifflett: I said, they, they, they really just kind of ignored me and let me do my thing for about three and a half years. So

Sean Weisbrot: Okay, well that works then.

Stacie Shifflett: that was okay.

Sean Weisbrot: Okay.

Stacie Shifflett: yeah, and I've, you know, so that's just kind of what it was.

Sean Weisbrot: And so what made you have the idea that you wanted to acquire a company?

Stacie Shifflett: Well, I was in that space. I actually had worked for and with that company, um, over the years. I, I, I wasn't working for or with them at that time. So I lean heavily into my intuition and I have no idea. I woke up one morning and I thought to myself, I, I need to buy that company. Not having any idea what something like that would cost, what the process was. I mean, zero experience, zero. Um. Knowledge about it at all. Um, what I did know was my ability to perform in that space. I knew the company, I knew the software, I knew the people, and, um, I knew that the owners were all octogenarians at that point except for one. So I called the one that I knew the best and said, Hey, gonna buy this company. What do you think about that? He said, well, we've, oddly, we just made the decision to sell and we listed it with the broker. So they gave me the broker's name and, and, uh, we went, right? Putting all of the, um, assets together, the, the decks, you know, the pitch decks, the presentation decks. we got all of that together and then we started pitching the deals to investors. know, all, all came to the d dc area, and everybody that saw it was so impressed. They wanted in. So we got to choose. Uh, which, which team we wanted to work with, and that's what we did. Took nine

Sean Weisbrot: So, so if you had, let's say, been working with people who weren't the owners, you know, you were working externally with this company, you didn't have a relationship with those people, do you think that deal would've ever happened?

Stacie Shifflett: You know, I don't, I don't know. Um, I've, I've just off the top of my head, I'm gonna say probably no, because I was so intimately involved and, and knew the space. And mostly I don't think it would have occurred to me. Um, but what did occur to me when I woke up one morning was call him and, and, and ask about buying the company. And it, it was a very powerful, um, idea. And I didn't back away from it. Right? I didn't tell myself, oh, that's ridiculous. You can't do that. You don't have the money to do that. You don't have the experience to do that. Um, you know, what are you thinking, Stacy? This is crazy. I, I didn't tell myself any of that. I felt, um, felt called to it and I felt that it was meant to happen, and it did happen.

Sean Weisbrot: About. Three or four months ago, I, I kind of woke up one day and I was like, you know, I should look online and see if there's a company that I can acquire. And I looked around and I found this one and I just couldn't stop thinking about it. And I can't remember now what they did. I didn't buy them, but they wanted like $4 million. For the company. And I told my wife about it and she's like, are you crazy? You've never run a company? You know, with that many people. With that many, like, because I had done a consulting business, right? So it's much more like a smaller team and less customers. You're working with less people and you're charging, you know. Really high amounts of money where this is like, the price point is much lower, and so you've got like thousands and or tens of thousands of customers paying a small amount of money on a recurring basis. And so like anything could happen, right? Google could change their, their search algorithm and you could lose half your customers the next month. Like who knows? So she's like, that's insane. You've never run a company like this. Like you just don't know how to run it. You shouldn't be buying it. This is insane. Just focus on what you're doing. Like, don't get distracted. And like, I kept looking at it, but the, the thing that was holding me back from going further was. It was like Empire Flippers or, uh, one of these, one of these platforms, and they charge like $900 a year to be able to see the information of the company that's selling themself. And I was like, I just don't know if I wanna pay $900 to see if I wanna buy a company. And I guess when I wasn't willing to pay that price, it was like, well, you probably shouldn't buy the company if you're not willing to pay $900 to take a peak.

Stacie Shifflett: See, we didn't really have to, we didn't have to do that because once they, once the broker took us as, you know, once, once he realized then that was serious. Um. You know, you, you're allowed to do your due diligence, right? So there are things that we were allowed to look at, um, during that process. Um, so that's, you know, that maybe took a little bit of that away from me. But I did have such an intimate knowledge of the company. But at, at the time, you know, of course I didn't have any knowledge whatsoever inside into their financial performance or anything. But I knew it was good. I mean, they'd been around for a long time. It had. It had been through, I actually had, have worked, I guess it had two different owners, well, three different owners. It's had many more since. Um, but all the time that I worked, I, I had a relationship with that company through three different owners. The original owner, the partnership that bought them, the ones that ended up, that I ended up doing the acquisition from, and then of course we acquired it so.

Sean Weisbrot: So you were mentioning earlier that you've had a few mentors that have really helped you.

Stacie Shifflett: Mm-hmm.

Sean Weisbrot: What is the most important thing that you've learned from them?

Stacie Shifflett: Well, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm self-taught, as I said, so if, if I go way back. You know, I, I was, when I was in school, I was in the hospitality industry, which is a really nice way of saying I was tendon bar and wait and tables right back in the seventies. It wasn't really as respected of a career, um, as it as it is today. Um, so I had gotten married in 1983. divorced now, but I had gotten married in 1983, so I thought, well. I should probably get a, you know, a quote, real job with better hours. So I wasn't working nights and weekends. Uh, so it was difficult at first to get a job, but I think, you know, the long run is, you know, I'll give that as an example. So I went to work. Actually, the only reason I got a job, because it's not easy when you've been bartending to switch to an office job, right? There's people like, oh, so, uh uh, a woman from my mother's church. It offered me a position and I was doing just some light bookkeeping and learning the word processor and whatnot. Um, but she would train me on things. But the thing is, you know, I have a lot of confidence, and it's not an arrogant confidence. It's, it's more like I can learn, adapt, and excel at whatever I'm excited about and choose to do. I'm not excited about it or choose to do it, forget it. I'm not interested.

Sean Weisbrot: I am like that as well.

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah, so, um, it was a very small eight, a firm, and she kept losing people. So every time she lost somebody, which was happening relatively quickly. And there was some family that worked there and there was some family tragedy as well. know, I stepped into a new role, so within about a year of working for her, um. I, you know, she's, she was a very impactful mentor for me, but in about a year, I literally single-handedly, I had a tech team to put the machines together, but I literally rolled out the first IBM PC desktops to the entire Department of Health and Human Services. So I created all of the training courses. You know, back in the day it was what Lotus 1, 2, 3 and Word perfect and, you know, Ms.

Sean Weisbrot: Right.

Stacie Shifflett: and all that stuff. Um, and, you know, helped, uh, helped all of the employees at the agency integrate use of those desktop PCs. In their daily work routines, which was really interesting because the women who had worked their way up from the typing pool, um, you know, that's back in the day you had the typing pool and the administrative, you know, you didn't do your own typing, you know, somebody else did it. they had worked their way up, to them the computers was three steps back because they had to do their own, you know, their own writing at the keyboard and their own spreadsheets and those kinds of things. That was my first. My first foray into, um, you know, business process, re-engineering and change management, when I didn't even know what those terms meant.

Sean Weisbrot: Right, because those people, you, you have to convince them to do their own tasks now rather than have someone else do those tasks. Because all of those people would now have their own computers and so they should all be doing their own tasks now. 'cause it'd be faster than having someone else do it for.

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah, and there still were some administrative pools. Of course, they didn't go away right away, so, you know, if you had your, if you had whatever document you were working on, you know, in a draft, you could still hand it over to the administrative to, you know, polish it into a finished document. Um, but my, look how far we've come since then,

Sean Weisbrot: Yeah,

Stacie Shifflett: of crazy.

Sean Weisbrot: so you're. You were definitely very lucky to be in a position to have this woman empower you to, I guess, learn every part of the business. 'cause she like this other guy. I guess there wasn't a specific job for you. So she's like, well, why don't you do this now? Why don't you do this now? I need your help with this. And you're just like, yeah, I'll learn everything.

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah, and I had other people like that. I mean, that's how I learned, you know, federal procurement and you know, somebody, you know, writing proposals and doing implementation and training on products and writing user manuals if something needed to be done. I generally volunteered and I had people that nurtured me through, um, through learning that. But the other critical piece of that is me, right? It's what I brought as well I performed. Um, and.

Sean Weisbrot: also rare.

Stacie Shifflett: And Well, thank you. And it's, you know, it's, um, you know, it's a relationship, right? That we supported each other, they supported me learning and I fully supported, um, their goals in their portion of the business. You know, whichever, whatever business that was, because I worked in, in quite a few over the years, you know, so that I achieved my goals and they achieved theirs.

Sean Weisbrot: Yeah,

Stacie Shifflett: collaboration.

Sean Weisbrot: It's one thing to be supported and to support someone back, it's another to actually be able to efficiently execute on that support,

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah.

Sean Weisbrot: which is, which was where my compliment came in, because it's

Stacie Shifflett: you.

Sean Weisbrot: shockingly rare when people don't execute.

Stacie Shifflett: Thank you. I've always executed.

Sean Weisbrot: Yeah. I mean,

Stacie Shifflett: It's kind of

Sean Weisbrot: we spoke about,

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah.

Sean Weisbrot: we spoke about that before we started recording. And when you're like, oh, damn, like you've thought about like a bunch of these little things. Like I was raised to think like that. You know, it's not, I didn't choose that. I was raised that way, and it's who I am now, and it's, it's baffling to me that people aren't like that.

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah, I'm gonna ex, I'm gonna suspect that you have, um, a very, an based on our conversations, a very analytical. Mind, like mind where you very quickly can just kind of assess all the pieces and, and parts and permutations and. You know, how it needs to work and where the system might get broken. I'm very systems oriented. I'm very rules based. Um, just generally I'm, you know, a, a, a, a great project manager, a really good systems analyst, uh, just naturally guess had those skills but develop, you know, I worked to develop them too, so, um.

Sean Weisbrot: I think the hardest part is managing the people because I, I think I'm good at a lot of those things, but I also think it's. Hard when I tend to put my own standards for myself on other people, and if they don't execute as efficiently as I do, it bothers me because they're moving too slow. But then sometimes having conversations with people about things. I can see that they're processing before I've even gone on to the next topic. Like I, I'm, my brain is processing much faster than them, and so it's hard for me to communicate with people sometimes because they're just not thinking as fast as I am, and it's not their fault I have a DHD. So that's just how my brain has always worked, and I've just learned to accept that and appreciate that. I can think so fast, but then it's, it's hard. And I used to get into arguments with my ex-wife because she, like, English wasn't her first language either, and her English was very good, but I would speak, you know, she was like, it felt like you were waiting for me to finish talking. So you could say the thing that you've been wanting to say. So it's like you said your thing. I'm now talking, but you've already gone past you, you've assumed what I'm gonna say. And you are ready to, to respond to the things that I'm saying right now because you've already mapped out in your head what you think I'm going to say. And you, you're ready to respond, but it's like you're not listening to me

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah. Listening is a skill. It's a, it's an acquired skill, of course. Yes.

Sean Weisbrot: and, and I've been doing the podcast since then. So I've spent almost six years listening to other people for a living.

Stacie Shifflett: Yes.

Sean Weisbrot: And, and now my current wife,

Stacie Shifflett: that, uh, quality. Yes.

Sean Weisbrot: I, I'm working on it. I like to think I've learned, and my wife, my, my current wife doesn't complain about it, so I think I'm getting better at it. What's something that when you were younger, nobody taught you that you had to learn for yourself that you wish someone would've told you?

Stacie Shifflett: you know, I don't, I don't think anything, I mean, off the top of my head, I really don't because I have had, since I've been little. Such a strong value of self-actualization that I wanna figure it out by myself. I want to do it, you know, I'll ask for help if I need it. Um, I want to feel the experience. I wanna have the experience because if I don't have that ex, having that experience helps me grow whatever that experience might be. Um, and, um. You know, I mean, I'm trying to think. I mean, I can, I can remember when I was little, like maybe five years old and you know, my mom trying to me in ways and, you know, they were very active in church and you know, I think she, this is something that, you know, something about how we should be behaving or what we should be doing. And, and I remember putting my hand on her hip 'cause she told this story also for years and years. And I looked at her and I said, you know, the main thing is having peace of mind if you've got peace of mind. You're all set, right? Peace of mind, peace in your heart. So I think I'm doing all right, mom, because I, I'm okay, you know, with what I was doing and that's kind of how I lived. You know, that's kind of how I lived my life. I think. and I have actually come to the conclusion, uh, and later in adult life that peace of mind is our greatest personal asset. Um, knowledge is the prerequisite, but it's not just acquiring the knowledge it is implementing and embodying. You know, you've really gotta understand it and embody it have that become part of you. I don't, I don't really have any regrets. I, when I was younger, I would've. F know, for a while there I thought, oh, I wish I'd gotten my MBA. Um, and at one point I did think about going back to school, but when I sat down and, and looked at the practical realities of that, I was in a, in, I was married at the time. It was early in my marriage. I was working full time. When I calculated the hours and looked at it, I was like, part-time, it's gonna take me five years to get a degree. that would

Sean Weisbrot: Yep.

Stacie Shifflett: be your, you know, your basic bachelor's degree. And I will have so much practical experience in those five years. I'm gonna

Sean Weisbrot: It's not even worth it.

Stacie Shifflett: so I just didn't do it.

Sean Weisbrot: Yeah. I had originally sought to get a master's degree in psychology and I took the uh, entrance exams. The, the GRE and I was like 10 points away from being accepted to, from getting a score that University of Florida would accept and, or maybe it was like 30, I dunno, whatever it was. And so I did it again and then I was like 20 points away or, or 10 points away. I was like, I'm not doing this a third time screw master's program. I don't wanna sit and listen to people's problems all day anyways. I'm gonna go to China and teach English.

Stacie Shifflett: and what an experience that was. I bet, right?

Sean Weisbrot: It made me the man I am today.

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah.

Sean Weisbrot: change it for the world. I wish more people would go and travel.

Stacie Shifflett: Oh it

Sean Weisbrot: I think that's the, that's the way to embody Spirit is through learning from other people.

Stacie Shifflett: and, and other,

Sean Weisbrot: I.

Stacie Shifflett: other customs And you, you learn so, so much and see so, so much traveling that we don't, I'm in the United States and we don't necessarily see a lot of that just here if we're confined to this area. Um,

Sean Weisbrot: Yeah, and the vast ma of vast majority of Americans don't have a passport, and a lot of those people don't, can't even tell you where the US is on a map.

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah.

Sean Weisbrot: Fortunately

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah. Yeah, I have had the opportunity to travel a lot and I, I love it. And, and

Sean Weisbrot: and.

Stacie Shifflett: I like to, you know, I like to kind of immerse myself in the culture a little bit too. Right. So, you know, I appreciate the, and the experiences and, um,

Sean Weisbrot: I could see you running with the bulls.

Stacie Shifflett: Yeah, yeah. Uh, when I was younger, maybe.

Sean Weisbrot: Yeah, true. Yeah. My, my cousin and her husband were talking about going to run with the bulls. He, he's talking about it. They're already coming to Spain in a few months and she's like, I hope he doesn't do that. Let me make sure his, his life insurance is good. I'm like, I don't, I go, if he gets killed by a bull, chances are they'll rule it as suicide and not pay you. So just, it's better off not to worry about the life insurance at this point.

Stacie Shifflett: That's funny.

Sean Weisbrot: So what is one piece of advice that you think younger generations desperately need to hear?

Stacie Shifflett: You know, get to know yourself. Know yourself, know what you're currently experiencing, know what you want to be experiencing, you know, know the outcomes that you are striving for. And work toward them. But I think that, you know, we go through these different periods, right? Like, I, I didn't know, I was just growing my career. I didn't, I didn't have some grand plan I do it, um, a bit naturally anyway, but you know. You can't, if you don't know yourself, and if you don't have any idea of where you want to go and, and, and I like to put that in terms of what you want to be experiencing in life, then how can you make any decision? Right? And I think I guess it's a long roundabout way of saying be sure that you evaluate your life regularly. So that you ensure that you are having the experiences and taking it in the direction that you wish to go. We, we monitor so many things regularly. Our checkbooks are, you know, our bank balances, we step on the scale, we get the world changed in the car, but we're not taught to do that with our lives. And I, and I think the younger that. I think when we start that, when we're younger, rather than having these realizations and, and not really getting to know ourself till we're older, you know, what our strengths are, what our values are. awareness. Oh my god, awareness is so critical, right? That's, that's the baseline of everything, uh, being present. so I, I think those things, I, I can't really boil it down to a word. I'm not sure if I described it in a very eloquent way, but it.

Sean Weisbrot: All right.