Meet Your Guide
Hi - I'm Samson, a former commodities broker, sales/marketing professional, strategist, recovering C-level executive & entrepreneur.
Once upon a time, I was completely unfulfilled in my career & hesitant to walk away from a $200k + salary & equity in a company that I helped build from the ground up.
But truth be told, I was dying inside. Why? Because I am an entrepreneur. Now I get to be the Host of Pain to Profit$, the Principal CEO of Growth Vue Capital a Private Equity Platform focused on buying/investing in commercial real estate, growth stage companies, and privately held, mature businesses whose operators who looking to exit the day-to-day, and the CEO of ClearlyAcquired.com a technology-driven Business Brokerage & Marketplace for lower middle market, Trades Businesses, doing between $1M-$50M in Topline revenue.
Every day I get to write my own story, and my only hope is that you will develop the knowledge, attitude, skills, and habits, by way of our content, so that you can have the confidence to finally bet on yourself.
For the Love of Skateboarding.
I was born and raised in Los Angeles California on a heavy dose of punk rock music, skateboarding, and sports; and for as long as I can remember I was walking to my own drum beat. When I was in 4th grade I started homeschooling because my parents felt I could get a much better education, and I would say they were right! Homeschooling taught me how to be resourceful, efficient, a self-starter, an independent thinker, and have personal accountability.
Because I loved to skateboard, I was highly motivated to get my schooling done early every day.
Each morning as the sun cracked the horizon I would get started on schoolwork, while most kids were still in bed.
My sole purpose in life was to skate as much as possible. Some days I would complete two or three days' worth of work so that I could skate from Thursday - Sunday. Needless to say, I quickly realized the value of controlling my own time and over the years I grew to hate the clock-in and clock-out culture of doing business.
If my project, work, or check list were done, then I wanted to be free to do as I damn well please.
As a result, I make for a terrible employee, but a great boss. Performance and goals are at the root of my leadership style and as a result, I have a team of intrapreneurs whom I trust implicitly.
My first exposure to entrepreneurship came the day after I graduated from the University of Colorado with a degree in Human Physiology. Like most new grads, with degrees in Science, I did the logical thing and became a Futures and Commodities broker. But after sleeping with a laptop next to my bed for 3 years and waking up at 1:00 am to watch the coffee market open, I decided it was time for a change. So I started on the path to becoming a Financial Planner. Needless to say, that did work out. Mainly because I was presented with an opportunity to join a startup marketing agency. Over the next 9 years, we scaled that company to over $100M in revenue, went through two acquisitions, and rounded out a team of close to 600 employees...What a ride!
That said, it became evident that I like to control my own destiny, and hanging on for a liquidity event that may not ever happen is like waiting to die. So I pulled the ejection handle and went head first into growing my portfolio of companies. That said, I had spent 5 years prior to making the transition positioning my life and my businesses so that I could make it as smooth as possible. Yup...You read that right! Five (5) years of grinding put me and my family in a position to make the transition. Truth be told, if I was a single man without kids, I would have done it much differently -I would have taken the leap 6 years earlier. But to whom much is given much is expected, so I took the long road.
There is Never a Right Time for Anything.
The right time to start a business, the right time to quit your job, the right time to get married, the right time to have kids, etc.
The only thing that matters is your willingness to figure it out.
If you are here, then you are likely humble, hungry, smart, gritty, competitive, and have extreme personal accountability.
Maybe you want to buy a business but don't know where to start. Or perhaps you have an idea you want to turn into a business, or your business is stuck & you need a breakthrough. You may already own a business, and you are considering selling in order to move to your next adventure. Either way, you are in the right place. Pain to Profit$ is all about walking alongside entrepreneurs they start, buy, build or sell their business.
Welcome to the tribe!
Best,
Samson