DealQuest 299 - Solocast 67 - Edited Audio
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Corey Kupfer: [00:00:00] Hello, DealQuest listeners. I am amazed sitting here knowing that we are approaching, I believe, I'm not sure, but I believe this is going to probably be episode 299, on the chart. I think that's what I saw, which means that we are imminently at episode 300, which is kind of crazy.
We're 300 episodes in, five and a half, six years into this thing. Yeah, we do one a week and then we've done a couple of, you know, special series where we've done more than one a week. So, we are coming on six years on this thing, the threaded episodes that we've gone from, like I always say, like, I don't know, 50 or 60 listeners in the beginning per episode building up to 10, 20, 30, 35, 000 plus listens a month on this thing.
You know, it's really up to one top 1 percent on listen notes, in terms of rage. So there's two things I want to do on the, on this solo cast episode. One is just again, to acknowledge all of you as listeners, as guests, as [00:01:00] people have consumed our content, whether it's, even, in the, blog or show notes or, social posts, versions of the content we put out that come from, this podcast.
And, I also will honestly take a little liberty here, as we approach 300 episodes, I think, you know, anybody who's listened to any of the podcasts, I know we have some folks who've been religious listeners since the beginning, some who've joined us more, recently, know that we don't promote, a lot, I mean, I promote the guests, obviously, you know, I want them, they're coming on, they're giving their time.
I want you to know what they're up to, but we don't spend a lot of time promoting my businesses. We don't accept advertising. We're at the point where we have enough following and listenership that I could have advertising and get paid to have advertising the podcast. I've chosen not to do that.
We don't say the podcast is sponsored by Kupfer, you know, PLLC law firm. Just cause I usually, I really want to just give value, create content and serve. My listeners, that's all it's set up to say. I am going to take a liberty on this one. Because we're coming to [00:02:00] the 300th episode and we don't normally do that.
I just want to talk about, our evolution, the firm, more of what we do and, you know, what I do sometimes on the speaking side. I mean, you guys get a feel for it. And I did have, my partner, Brian being come on, talking about substance. He, when he joined me, but, people have been honestly asking, for updates and saying, Hey, Corey, some people are trying to encourage me to promote myself more, we're not going to be doing that regularly, but I want to take this time just to give you all an update and give you all the, those of you who don't know us as well.
To understand what we do in terms of the core businesses. So I have a Kupfer, period, PLLC. So Kupfer period is the brand now. Used to be Kupfer Associates, but since Brian Megan has joined me as my partner, and I'm not the only owner of the firm. The only principal, the only person who drives business, you know, we wanted to get that away from that branding of Ant Associates, but yet I'm fortunate enough to have built a brand under the Comfort brand, in the deal space, in the investment advisor RAA space, [00:03:00] in certain niches, especially, and then, you know, generally people know us.
So, we evolved the branding. We continue to grow. We have, recently hired another senior associate, in addition to not only Brian, but then, but the health council relationships that Brian has brought with him as well. We have the New York and the Denver office. You, most of the listeners know, I actually personally spend a lot of my time in my place in Southern California, working remotely from there, in addition to the place I have, you know, in New York.
And you know, our client base is. Entrepreneurs, anybody's looking to grow a business, that's ideal. People say, what's your ideal size? You know what? We work with very big companies, looking to grow, some of the serial acquirers in various industries. We work with small companies who are doing deals and contracts and that's another thing.
You know, there's two things we've really gotten very, very known for. And it's, and listen, I'll give you some inside baseball. I think the smart folks, like if you try to promote yourself as a generalist, then you're almost, you know, nothing. And people do, they use terms like full [00:04:00] service and, comprehensive or whatever.
And you know, I think if you really understand, marketing, that's usually a mistake. Right. And there is a lot that we do. It doesn't mean that we don't do these other things. It just means that we focus on marketing. And our reputation and building our authority, marketing and brand on more limited areas, and that's our ideal work and what we're looking to drive.
But that is a lot of ancillary stuff we do around this. So what are the two big areas? One. Is deals. Okay. And that as any listener, those are the podcasts that includes M& A and joint ventures, strategic alliances, and, investment deals and online affiliate deals, you name it, right?
All the types of deals. So we are dealers and we have been dealers and all my entire team, all has extensive experience in the deal space, but we also do basic corporate work. You know, we form entities, we do operating agreements, shelves, agreements, employment agreements. All kinds of contractual work, strategic work, deal with employee issues, not like employment discrimination and that kind of stuff.
We [00:05:00] refer that out, but just general, you know, questions around, dealing with employees and things like that. And then any kind of basic contract, master service agreements, subcontractor agreements, client agreements of any kind, customer agreements. So any kind of contract strategy, negotiating advice, any entity structuring, equity structuring, capital structuring, those agreements amongst owners, all of that stuff, we do.
And then we also have, think about anything ancillary that a business owner needs, right? You know, when not the attorneys to call, although by the way, you can call us and we'll refer you. We have a great network. If your kid gets busted for POD, or you have a landlord tenant issue, or, God forbid somebody in your family has to file bankruptcy, you know, we have referrals and all that.
But, the stuff that's ancillary to our corporate, entrepreneurial, and growing clients, like, for example, leasing. We do leases throughout the space, all over the country. Intellectual property work, mainly trademark. We don't do any patent work, we refer that out. That out, but we have, very strong trademark capacity, [00:06:00] super strong tax capacity.
Most of you have dealt with us. No, we have, you know, I always say I would put our tax capacity up against any big firm. And the reason we have that is because there's a firm whose model it is, right. All, probably a big firm, sophisticated tax folks whose model it is to be the outsource tax department for smaller and medium sized firms like mine, the unusual ones like mine that do very sophisticated work for smaller firms.
So we have. Full tax capability. We do, so the trademark stuff, the tax stuff, the real estate, right. Stuff, all of the corporate stuff, all of the deal stuff. And then, you know, some other, a few other ancillary things. So beyond the one niche in general, across industries that we really focus on it, we do a huge amount on is the deal side, right, M and A, et cetera.
We also do the, all that general corporate work and advice and strategy. Then we have as many, you know, this niche in the registered investment advisor space where we do all of that same work, right? For the corporate structuring, the contract work, et cetera, [00:07:00] through the M& A and other deal work. But we also are one of the leading firms in the country that works with what they call breakaway brokers.
So it's teams that manage money that are at Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, you name it, any of the big wire houses, banks, private banks, insurance companies, trust companies who want to become entrepreneurs, set up their own independent investment advisory firms to become independent RAs regulated by the SEC.
And be entrepreneurs and set something up with their own vision. And that's been a huge, anybody who knows it knows that's been a huge, growing area, the independent advisor movement has grown, infrastructure ecosystem has been built, private equity has come in, especially in the last five plus years.
And we do a huge amount of M& A in that space because of the PE firms, both on the sell side and the buy side, but we also just have this niche where we represent these folks at everything they need outside of regulatory compliance. We refer to that, we have great relationships with regulatory compliance firms, but we're very unusual in that space in that, there's pretty much [00:08:00] nobody else who has the kind of RIA, meaning hundreds and hundreds of financial advisors, investment advisors, RIA firms that we work with.
Who has the kind of, corporate business deal tax chops that we have. Most of the other firms that have worked with that many firms are really regulatory compliance firms with some ancillary capability. So it's positioned us really well. Okay. So, growing businesses across industries, deals, contracts, advice.
That's what we do on a law firm side. Then I have this, another company that's a speaking training and consulting company where we, you know, we do trainings, workshops around negotiating and around deals. On the last SolarCast I did, I talked about these workshops that I did in Singapore, for Ash Butto's organization on there's a deal for that, on the mindset of a dealmaker and figure and hot seats around there's a deal for that.
And, you know, I'm getting a lot of interest in bringing me into, to speak in various organizations to do that. And then I do negotiating trainings is the other big thing. I do these half day workshops that are on my authentic negotiating [00:09:00] approach, which is a very different approach. And I've got my book, Authentic Negotiating Book, That goes along with that, that, you can get anywhere.
Okay. So, because, I value the listeners. I don't spend a lot of time normally talking about this. I just want to give you value and give you content. And by the way, frankly, I'm going to be honest with you. It's not just, so I think that's the best way, anybody can promote themselves to provide value, to people not to talk themselves about what they do.
But, you know, we have so many new listeners, and we have listeners, in the beginning, listeners were people who know me anyway, and now we have thousands and thousands and thousands of listeners who may not know anything about us and, you know, I am, like I said, taking the liberty to just, share more specifically about, us, and we have clients all over the U.
S., we have foreign clients as well, especially, U. S. entities with foreign, relationships, and Brian, my partner Brian, for example, is a member of IELTS Global, which is an international organization. Of attorneys. We have connections through entrepreneurs organization around the world with attorneys.
So we have a [00:10:00] phenomenal network of attorneys, that we can use when we're working with, let's say us clients with foreign offices. And then we work with a lot of foreign companies that are looking to do business in the U S. And with our tax capability, which is not only super strong on the M& A and deal side, but also it's not only domestic, but also as international capabilities, we really, you know, we really can help, firms like that.
So listen. If we can help you or anybody that, you know, we'd be happy to speak to them. We'd love your, if you've gotten value from this podcast, and value from the other content that we put out. You know, we'd love you to think of us when, when there's an opportunity for you or others in your circles.
And, again, we will go back to providing value without, advertisement soon. But I just want to let you know, what we do. If you have any questions about our services. You know, the website for, for the law firm is cupferlaw.com, K-U-P-E-F-E-R-L-A-W.com. There's also co kupfer.com, which is technically my speaking, training and workshop side.
But you can get to the book, you can find [00:11:00] this. That's where the podcast, . Information is housed and the podcast is on all the players, as I think, you know, and also you can link back to the law firm from there. So hopefully, I will make this one request for you to go check out, if you've gotten value from the podcast, go check out, my companies, check out my people.
I am so proud of my team. I love them. Many have been with me for a long time. Others will be with me for a long time. We've joined more recently. And we only continue to grow because of all the support we've gotten from you, including many of the listeners and many of the guests that we've had on this podcast.
And this podcast has definitely kept us top of mind with folks, which has been phenomenal. So I want to open the way I closed, which is to say just deep, deep gratitude and appreciation for every single listener, for every single guest we've had for everybody who's, you know, even considered.
But referring us or, even referring us as one of the options, of a few choices, we're fortunate to [00:12:00] get, you know, very good referrals and therefore end up working with the far majority of clients who are referred to us. And that's only because of the relationships we build with people, the trust we build with folks.
And, I really believe that giving value. Is one of the biggest ways that you can give, you know, create that trust in folks. And that's one of the reasons I do this podcast. In addition to the fact that I just, I hope it comes across that people tell me it comes across. I just love deals. I love talking about deals and I love interviewing people.
I love talking, you know, finding out people's stories, what has them motivated, what makes them tick, what has them grow their businesses, what has them have that. Dealmaker mindset. So, listen, as we approach 300 episodes, I'm not planning on stopping. You know, one of the things I've said to folks early on, you know, this thing called pod fame, where, you know, the full majority of, podcasts don't even last 15 episodes.
And I always say that I'm never going to be a 12 episode guy. I was always a zero episode or hundreds of episode guy, [00:13:00] meaning I'm the kind of guy that studies a model and I either do it or I don't do it. Well, I don't see an end in sight, right? So, let's just say as we come to the end of our first 300 episodes, here's to the next 300 episodes and then probably the next 300 episodes after that.
Thank you folks. Have a great week. See you next week with a phenomenal guest interview.
