Reclaiming Your Hue: A Podcast for Women Rediscovering Themselves in Motherhood & Entrepreneurship

Ep. 73 with Leah Berend | Owner, Marrin Investment

• Kelly Kirk • Season 1 • Episode 73

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Building A Table Of Your Own

What if private equity felt human, transparent, and unapologetically values‑driven? Kelly sits down with Leah, founder of Marrin Investment Partners, to unpack how she left the C‑suite, launched her own firm, and raised capital while raising two young kids—without sacrificing dignity or clarity. Leah explains private equity in plain English, then gets specific about buying companies deal by deal, structuring returns, and why she treats culture as a value driver on par with technology and operations.

You’ll hear how a paperweight question—What would you do if you knew you could not fail?—nudged a 20‑year plan into a one‑year leap, and how coaching helped her push past fear with a simple mantra: do it scared. Leah shares the realities behind the boardroom door: low‑trust environments, high‑stakes negotiations, and why radical transparency eases tension and accelerates deals. She breaks down her criteria—think EBITDA ranges, moats, customer concentration, leadership depth—and shows how a 50‑50 board composition can happen when you build your own table instead of waiting for a seat at someone else’s.

This is also a candid look at motherhood and ambition. Leah talks about the nanny who keeps the family rhythm steady, pancake mornings that anchor connection, and the five quiet minutes that sometimes count as self‑care. With a historic wave of baby boomer owners preparing to sell, she outlines the opportunity ahead and why leading with empathy can still deliver strong returns. If you’re curious about private equity, company acquisitions, or navigating entrepreneurship with young kids—and want a playbook that blends heart with hard numbers—this conversation will stick with you.

Enjoy the episode, then subscribe, share it with a friend who needs a push to “do it scared,” and leave a quick review to help more listeners find the show.

Connect with Leah:

Contact the Host, Kelly Kirk:

  • Email: info.ryh7@gmail.com

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Credits:

  • Editor: Joseph Kirk
  • Music: Kristofer Tanke


Thanks for listening & cheers to Reclaiming Your Hue!

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome everybody to Reclaiming Your Hue, where we are dedicated to empowering women to embrace and amplify their inherent brilliance. Our mission is to inspire mothers and entrepreneurs to unlock their full potential and radiate their true selves. I'm your host, Kelly Kirk, and each week my goal is to bring to you glorious guests as well as solo episodes. So let's dive in. Good afternoon, Leah. Hello, Kelly. So good to be here. I am so happy that you're here finally. And by the way, I had to catch myself because normally the podcast interviews are happening in the mornings. So I'm like, make sure you say good afternoon. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. So I'm so happy that you're here. And um, let's go ahead and dive in. Awesome. I always like to start off with catching the listeners up to speed with how it is that the two of us know one another. So do you remember who introduced us?

unknown:

No. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh so I know that Jennifer Miller was on your podcast, who is a very dear friend of mine.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Is that who introduced us initially? Oh.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

But then we know so many other people in common who've also been on your podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

It's so true. But she will do a shout out to Jennifer Miller because she was the initial introduction. And now it's totally escaping me how I even got introduced to Jennifer. I don't even know. That's so interesting because she is not here locally.

SPEAKER_00:

No, yeah. Yeah. And it's so, it's so funny that somebody all the way in Ohio, hi Jen, would would introduce us. And here we are.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I know. And here we are. So that is how we know one another. And it from there, it really has blossomed into something quite tremendous, in my humble opinion. Um, you helped push the needle forward for the podcast anniversary event that I put on a few months ago. And it was amazing. It was absolutely incredible. And I was so honored to have you be not only a part of that and in sponsorship for that, but to be there and then to like honor the fact that it was because of our conversation. Yeah. Initially about just having you on the podcast and then these bigger visions that I had above and beyond the podcast for this community of Montpreneurs. And you were like, how cool would it be to get all of these women in one room? And I was like, funny that you mentioned that, Leah. This is something I've been thinking about tinkering about. And you were like, well, let's do it. You're like, do it. I'm like, okay. So what I initially thought was going to be like later on in 2025, I ended up bumping it up to the middle part of the year of 2025 and actually having it be a part of the like honoring the anniversary of the podcast start. And I'm like, it's so incredible.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I have this paperweight on my desk that my husband gave me as a gift. And it says, What would you do if you knew you could not fail? And I look at that and it inspires a lot of what I do. And so I need a paperweight for that.

SPEAKER_01:

I need that like in front of my face all the time. Seriously.

SPEAKER_00:

Literally, it has to be in front of your face all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

That it that has inspired me to go and get something similar.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, and you have it, right? It's surrounding yourself with those reminders because we um our inner dialogue often blocks us from those inspiring messages. And so the more we can keep them in front of our faces, the better.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. Speaking of inner dialogue, that is something that comes up quite frequently on this podcast. And so let's table that because I'd love for you to share with the listeners first, and then we can continue to dive into that. What came first for you? Was it motherhood or was it entrepreneurship?

SPEAKER_00:

I was uh a very young career gal and very, very, very motivated in my career. And in my 20s, I would always tell people, I'm never gonna have kids. Um the funny part is that um I was always kind of an entrepreneur in in the way that I called myself because I would see a meet a need in an organization that I worked in, and I would meet it and I would find different ways to do it, and it never mattered what my job description was, I would always go above and beyond. So I was an entrepreneur in a company, so I was an entrepreneur.

SPEAKER_01:

Um I love that. Thank you for that explanation too, because I was gonna ask, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um, and so that was always something in my heart, but um I think that having kids has deepened my resolve to um even more so be an example to them and show them um how how the world should look at you, how the world should interact with you, and you get to set those terms. And that was after having kids when I realized, okay, I I have to jump, I have to do this on my own.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, let's let's um share the in-between of that sandwich, right? So you were a career woman. What was the inspiration for you to make a pivot into entrepreneurship? Was there a specific um for for some gals who have been on the podcast, there's a very like resound moment where they're like, I can't keep doing this anymore? And then sometimes it's kind of the slow edge. So I'm curious what that looked like on your on your end.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um, and you know, it comes with a a preface in that in kind of what I do, right? I'm an investor. I I uh founded a private equity firm. Um that you know couldn't have come without the career experiences that I had. And I had the privilege of working for some amazing people. Um and I had so I started uh kind of toward that goal um about 10 years into my career. Uh I worked for an alternative investment due diligence firm. When I first joined, I didn't know what an alternative investment was, and I didn't know what due diligence was.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so let's let's pump the brakes for just a second. In layman's terms, can you explain for us average girlies that don't have a real nice pulse on what it is you're speaking to? Can you put it in the layman's terms?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So we would do research on investments that were not traded on the stock market. That's all. It's anything not on the stock market.

SPEAKER_01:

And then in layman's terms for what you do now.

SPEAKER_00:

We invest in companies. Okay. And we we buy companies outright from um investors or from business owners.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. We'll dive into that more.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll do a buildup because it's so cool. It's so, so cool. And nuanced, very nuanced. Um so I had this idea once I was at the alternative investment due diligence firm, what a mouth mouthful. I would see the fund managers who were in charge of putting these big investments together, uh, their backgrounds, what they were doing. And I got this idea in my little head. What if that was me? If that guy can do it, maybe I can do it. And it was just this little seed that just stuck there. I mean, nothing, nothing going. I was like, okay, well, that's interesting.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00:

Good. I'm just gonna, you know, do my thing and be a chief administrative officer. And that's the, you know, I really thought that being in the C-suite was like all that in a bag of chips. Like I was so excited to just be in the C-suite. Um, and then uh they that company went through an ownership change, and uh I was able to jump to um a firm represented on the board of the company that was sold. So somebody um who was on the on the board, really, he was there as a favor to a buddy. I don't think he had even been invested in the company. He was just kind of guiding guiding them through the ownership transition.

SPEAKER_04:

Sure.

SPEAKER_00:

And I went to him because I had been reporting the financials um and in the in the board meetings. And I went to him and I said, Well, I don't love this new situation. What should I do? And he said, Well, come work for me. And and and what a privilege it was. Um, I was the chief financial and chief administrative officer of a private equity firm here in Minneapolis. Um, and I just got this incredible um opportunity uh not only to stand up some some different functions and things that I was good at, but get exposure to really direct investing into companies and what that looked like. Um, and it was just an amazing privilege. And that little seed uh in my head that I had put there before in the company, uh, before that, it was like, okay, well, wow, maybe 20 years from now, I could do my own private equity firm. And that was just, you know, set aside. And it wasn't necessarily my own firm, but maybe I could be kind of leading the deals on this. Yeah. Um, and I truly uh was more, you know, just focused on building out that organization. And it was just kind of a dream that I set aside. Um, and then through a series of different events and talking to people and realizing the resources out there, um, and then talking to Dr. Brenda Brummond and having her coach me. Um, I realized, oh my goodness, 20 years from now, it doesn't have to be 20. It could maybe be five, it could maybe be one. And then sure enough, um, I jumped off uh the deep end.

SPEAKER_01:

It was not 20 years. Matter of fact, it wasn't even five years, right? That's right. Yeah. I love it. I love it. And um, real quick, let's just um share with the listeners Brenda who you're speaking to is somebody who I got introduced to just yesterday. And I had to tell you about it because I knew that you had that connection as well. But could you share with the listeners the importance of Brenda in all of this, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And um, so before Brenda, I had met with an industrial organizational psychologist because I knew that there were things that I was doing in my career that just needed to change. And um, so that was uh Dr. Abigail, and I'm blanking on her last name right now, um, but she was phenomenal. So I had gone to that, and then I realized like I had never really invested in personal coaching or even therapy or anything like that. Um, I have a very like independent can do mentality, and it has kind of stunted me in some ways.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That you don't always realize. Um, and so after after meeting with Dr. Abigail, and she's a straight shooter, and to the point I was like, okay, well, I know I need more guidance. I can't do this alone. Um, and then I was introduced to Dr. Brenda. Um, and I, you know, coach, she's still uh my coach right now, and how incredible that has been to just awakening to my inner self and who I really am. Amazing. Yeah, I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I would really like to dive into the meat and potatoes, so to speak, of getting your footings of starting up the business. Because I think that it's I do think that there's important relevance to the listeners who are maybe in this beginner phase of wanting to start a business and to hear from different perspectives, right? Because one size does not fit all in terms of how you get started and what your process looks like. But let's speak to what your process did look like and perhaps maybe something you would have done differently in that process as well. That's a loaded question, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03:

It is.

SPEAKER_01:

It is because I can imagine it it in deciding that you're gonna do something with private equity, there's different nuances that go along with that versus somebody like myself that is like, I I want to expand upon a community, I'm gonna start an LLC, right? And like, and then I I'll figure it out from there. I mean, obviously there's circumstances like that for in your case, but above and beyond that, it probably looked a little different.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, you know, it it didn't look too different than that in that I knew I wanted to start something and I had uh started a little business before and failed miserably. It was like it was like this little cleaning product thing. And I'm I am not a uh retail product type person and had no experience doing that. So it was this like I I believe that you should absolutely capitalize on on failures and learn from them. And I just love I love the opportunity to innovate. Um, and and I just got this really good um start in seeing different entrepreneurs. Networking was a huge uh trajectory um directing direction setter for me, right? Because when you network, you start to learn what other people are doing and what other companies are thinking. And, you know, um that piece of the puzzle was exactly what I needed to be able to really quickly test out ideas. Um, there's this really great book, and it's called The Mom Test. And so for people who are thinking about yeah, starting their businesses, it's not just about a business idea that you get approval for, but you know, your mom loves it because she loves you, kind of a thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Um it's really about market testing. Yeah, I gotta write it down. Oh, yeah, it's it's a great book. Um, it's really about market testing your business ideas. And I had lots of different options in front of me. I mean, I have uh a CPA, so I'm um an accountant trained and master's in organizational leadership, and and so to me it was like, okay, well, do I just start my own accounting thing? Um, and I just had that little seed in my head that said, go bigger, you know? And so I did.

SPEAKER_01:

I think I know who was speaking to you and that this little seed, but um keep going. Yeah, keep going because this is really fruitful.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um, and so tested a lot of ideas through kind of just different conversations, and I think the right conversations were put in place for me to be able to realize that what my really big dream was, that was that little seed that had grown and grown and grown, was the business plan. And I was trying to avoid it at first. I was trying to play small. And um I finally, you know, just had the realization like, no, I have something bigger to do.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, okay. Did you do a like a formal business plan for yourself? You seem like the type of person that would do that.

SPEAKER_00:

But I could be wrong. Um you're almost forced to, yeah, as a an entrepreneur. And it may not be written down and it may not be in a in a investment deck, you know, or something like that. But at some the the process of refining the message has has made me, you know, do that. I don't, I don't think it started out um it didn't start out much different than how I'm living it out right now.

SPEAKER_01:

Fascinating.

SPEAKER_00:

Because the the general ideas of gosh, how do I create an investment where people can get a great return on their investment, great return on their money, and lives out my values, lives out treating people with dignity and respect, and uh runs a business that with transparency and um a good ethos, right? So living that out has not been hard because it was what I what was in my heart.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I think this would be a really ideal time to share what the name of your business is. And then I would love for you to also share how you landed on your core values for the business, also. That's good.

SPEAKER_00:

Um my business is called Marin Investment Partners. I named the business after my grandma, it's her maiden name. Um, so many private equity firms out there, just because I've been in the industry, a lot of them are like named after rocks or rivers or trees or something like that. Really? Yes. Um great river capital, riverside, yeah, granite, you know, all great names, all great firms. Yeah, but um lots of trees, lots of rivers, lots of streams. And I just my focus is on people. And so why wouldn't I want and and the the funny thing is, and I was thinking about this the other day, um my parents had six kids. I was the sixth of the six kids, and uh my mom had us all at home very crunchy granola upbringing, which is awesome. Way to go, mom.

SPEAKER_01:

By the way, I was just out for a friend's birthday, and a vast majority of the ladies that were there were stay-at-home moms. Yes, and shout out to the Psalms of the world because you deserve many hand claps. But they one of them was like, Yeah, I'm a little crunchy, and I was like, what does that mean? I had never heard of that. Granola. I'd heard of granola, but I was like, what does crunchy mean? Now I know.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, crunchy granola. We were we were all born at home, not in a hospital. Okay. That kind of crunchy granola. Oh my gosh. My mom made her own granola. I love it.

SPEAKER_01:

This is just that's the cherry on top of the cake for me. Scalding. Um gosh, I don't even know how I got on that point.

unknown:

I don't know either.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, we were talking about the name of the business and um, so so six kids, crunchy granola family, all born at home.

SPEAKER_00:

My mom was convinced that I would be a boy. She was convinced that she was carrying a boy when she was pregnant. She even made a yellow blanket because she was somewhat certain that she was gonna have a boy and not a pink blanket for a girl, right? Um, anyway, so I was supposed to be named David Marin. And my dad would always bring that up because he loved the name Marin, because that was his grandma's maiden name. So intrinsically, I've always loved the name Marin.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh when I married my husband, I was like, oh, wouldn't it be fun to have a child named Marin? Yeah. But my last name, married name, is Baron. So I would have had a Marin Baron. Yeah. And that didn't work.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So I've I've had this name in my heart. And and Grandma Ruthie lived in southwest Minneapolis. She never learned to drive. Uh, she had a very privileged upbringing. She grew up with a chauffeur. Um, and her life was very cush in a lot of ways. However, um, later on in her life, she went through a lot of hardship. And uh, she had seven kids and all throughout and was a stay-at-home mom to seven kids, which is a huge job in and of itself. Um, but she lived her life with dignity and grace. And you would never know that the the horrible things that she went through in her life. And um I appreciated her elegance and her grace throughout all of that. And so that's how I want to live my life, and that's how I want to conduct business with a lot of elegance and grace and not getting fancy about things, but just how how do you treat people with that dignity and and yeah, appreciating everybody's intrinsic grace and elegance that they can they can bring to the table.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so let's fold in the core values. Yeah. Because I heard a lot of really phenomenal words dignity, grace, people, person, just uh and and an a bit of an elevation to how you approach it. It's not it's not super like over the top by any stretch of the imagination. But there when you want to treat people with dignity and grace, that puts you a cut above the rest. In my opinion. Yeah. Because I that's not typically the case. Frankly, I could maybe that's just my opinion. And I I think coming from a different um career path where it was very transactional, that to to now see a different side of like how you can provide service and provide it through dignity and grace. I mean that I would we wouldn't use those words in our real estate business, but yeah. Okay, so the core values for you for Marin Investment. Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_00:

A lot of it has to do with my wonderful parents and how they raised me. Um, a lot of just principled um upbringing and learning about life through those those um lenses. Um what really guides me is um my dad. Uh he passed away in 2017 uh from cancer. He was a furniture salesman. And he had probably 500 people at his funeral because he was so well loved. Because um he brought so much joy to his day, and that's not an easy thing to do when you have six mouths to eight mouths to feed at home, right? Six kids, a wife who stays at home, uh, a furniture, you know, sales job where things can be up, down, and in between. Um, but he um his example of working so hard for the family of his just I mean, he would he would whistle throughout the furniture store. You always knew where he was. He was the best. Um but that was the kind of like tone that was set for me growing up. And I feel so privileged because um so many people don't realize the effect they have on others. And I think my dad really understood his role as the leader, uh leader um in his workplace, in his home, in his community, in his church. And um so much of that dictated. Um and and he was a man of deep, deep faith. And so I think that just really um set the tone for for me growing up that there is a very high standard to which somebody can elevate themselves through the way that they act and through the way that they treat other people and the way they see themselves. And he was a prime example of that. Um and so it's not necessarily that I have a list of 10 core values that I have, um, but it's more of just like, well, how would how would my dad treat them?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I love this so much. That is so incredible. Okay, I love that story. I love it. It's just so it's so sweet and just so simple. Really, and I love that you just do this reflection onto all right, how would my husband or my husband, pardon me?

SPEAKER_00:

My husband's also great.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll get to that too. How would my father have led in this circumstance? And and that's that's really quite simple. So that's amazing. When did you officially like take off with Marin Investments? What year was it?

SPEAKER_00:

Last year, February of 2024.

SPEAKER_01:

Was it? Oh my gosh. So then you had had all of your children by that point, yes, right? And how many do you have?

SPEAKER_00:

I have two. Two? So my son was born in 2020 and my daughter was born in late 2021. So they're about 20 months apart. Yeah. Oh my word. Two COVID babies.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, oh my word. Yeah. And so they're, I mean, they're both still relatively young, and you're you're harmonizing this alongside starting a business as well. We're gonna dive in. Here we go. Here we go. Okay, so it the world of investments, it it for somebody like myself, I look at that and feel like, wow, it's it's intimidating. It's really intimidating. And correct me if I'm wrong, but is there more men in that world than there is than there are women?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Do you know the percentage?

SPEAKER_00:

If you don't, like I'm putting you on the spot right now, but no, I don't know the percentages, but to give you a flavor for the the world of investment and raising capital, which is you know, basically people investing in you. Um, and this is a venture capital statistic, but I would I would bet that it's probably even worse in private equity, uh, that 3% of all the capital raised goes towards women or people of color or you know, any kind of diversity. So um we're clumped in there uh and it's pretty, pretty low.

SPEAKER_01:

All right. So not only are you starting a business within the past year, but then also you're not even getting your feet wet anymore. Like you're in, you're in the deep end now with the sharks. You're you're also in in a uh an industry that's primarily men, yeah, too. Yeah. I think of a lot of the uh women financial advisors that I've had on or wealth advisors, especially in that in that you know, particular landscape. It's I mean, still to this day, it's vastly men versus women. So let's talk about you. I'm giggling because I am like wow, there's a lot to unpack here. So you've got two kiddos under five, and you've started a business where you're outnumbered. And what are the ways that you have sort of um elevated through that, for lack of better words?

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know if you're gonna like this answer, um, or the or our listeners, but um. Look, the statistics are what they are. It's not great if you're trying to work your way up in a private equity firm as a female. It's not great. There's a lot of junior associates that are women. I think the future is gonna change how many women are in private equity. But I built my own table.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I didn't get a seat at the table, so I built my own table.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, I love this. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And so uh whether there are men or not in private equity now, to me, it's like great, good for them. Um, they have advantages in certain respects, and I have advantages in certain respects.

SPEAKER_02:

Totally.

SPEAKER_00:

And um, we balance each other and it's awesome. Our our board for the most recent acquisition we did is 50% men, 50% women. I didn't even try, it just happened naturally. Um yeah, it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Actually, I'm sorry. No, it's three women, two men. Never mind, majority woman. Sorry, guys. Um, but the thing with with private equity is that you're as a as a managing partner of a private equity firm, you're in the driver's seat. And so you set the tone for how an investment is going to go. And if you live to a higher standard and you live to values, all of a sudden the deals that used to drain you because of the games that would be played or the lies that would be told are now you move you remove all of that. Yeah. And you have these transparent, wonderful deals where you're building trust and you're building relationship with people. And yes, things get really, really hard because there's negotiation, there's feelings at at play, there's economics at play, there's control at play. Um, so it is very, very difficult. But when you remove all the games, a lot of the time it works out a lot better than it used to.

SPEAKER_01:

I remember when we had our phone conversation, and you mentioned that this was something that was highly important to you was that transparency piece when when in negotiations of uh acquisitions or um, you know, what whatever the circumstance at hand is, you were like transparency is of utmost importance in all of this. And then everything else can kind of fall um behind it, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we live in such a low trust environment. So low trust. I mean, our our culture does not take people for face value, right? Um and so at Marin, we make sure that we are doing our financial due diligence, our legal due diligence, insurance, everything, technology, people. We're looking at and scrutinizing every level of this business. And it's it's a lot for a business seller, somebody who's ready to sell their business, who will only do it once in their whole life, yeah, to have somebody come in and the kimono is open, right? I mean, we know everything that has gone on in your business. For us to say, to try to manipulate or lie or deceive or not be a hundred percent transparent about our own process and what it's going to look like. It how is that gonna go?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right? It's like lying to your spouse on your honeymoon. How's that gonna go?

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right.

SPEAKER_00:

It's it's a marriage. Like business relationships are a marriage, and and Jennifer Miller actually, shout out to Jennifer again. She used to say signing a contract with someone is not just like binding yourselves over a piece of paper. It's like a it's like a a a bond on a lot of different levels. And so that transparency is so very important in like, hey, like just in terms of the pace of the deal, how you doing? Right. Because if you're not feeling good about a term in our in our legal documents, like let's talk about it. We don't have to walk away from a deal just because you didn't like one term.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And so there's things like that. There are other, like totally uh, you know, uh other stories where I can say, yep, I walked away from that deal because that did not feel right or that was not the right, that was not the right setup, that was not the right deal for me. Um fair enough. But when there's like a a trust built and a a vision alignment and mission alignment and great business story, all that kind of stuff, let's work together, let's collaborate. And and that takes transparency.

SPEAKER_01:

100%. Okay. How are you doing this with two littles under five right now? What does the landscape of that look like for the Baron family?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we've had a lot of conversations about that. Um, I think it's gonna ebb and flow right now. We have this amazing nanny uh who we're so grateful for. She is in our home every day. Um, and it's a total game changer. Um, we did the Montessori school drop-off every day, and it was really just oh my goodness, unsustainable. And um, you know, we've talked several times about this just between my husband and I, because he has a very steady job that he loves. He's been there nine years and doesn't have any intentional leaving. Um, but I mean, it's it's that situation where if you have two career people in your family both driving hard in different directions, it's totally unsustainable.

SPEAKER_01:

And so that's how we've we've managed and shout out to the nannies of the world supporting families.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank goodness for you.

SPEAKER_01:

Seriously. So, how long have you had her or him on board? I shouldn't assume.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, um, we've had Clarissa for three years with our with our family.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So then are you are you pretty regimented with your schedule and your routines? Um, because I have to think that there's you know, part of the reason that the nanny is in place is so that you can get into your flows too as Leah. Because Leah is Leah, but then Leah is mom and Leah is business owner and has wears all of these hats. So I have to imagine that um you know the the decision behind bringing on a nanny was because you wanted to be able to get into a rhythm and a flow.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

A different kind of rhythm and flow.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I mean, there was no way that I could have done this without the support. Um I would say that my husband is super regimented, my nanny is super regimented, the kids have a great schedule, and my life is chaos.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, tell us more about this.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, it's entrepreneurship, right? I mean, who entrepreneur is gonna be like, yes, I have two hours of flow time every day, and then I go into my structured meetings. No. Uh uh.

SPEAKER_01:

So did it did the schedule with your nanny particularly, did that shift when you decided to go full on with Marin Investments and and say goodbye to more of that corporate setting? Um, or did it stay the same?

SPEAKER_00:

It stayed the same. And you know, luckily I take the kit, I take the kids in the morning. I'm I'm kind of like, I'm the pancake mom. Like I will make pancakes for my kids every single morning, and I love that time with them. Um, and then my husband has been so great about being flexible at night when I'm at a networking event or something like that. I do try to limit it as much as I can, but it's hard when you're trying to grow a business. Um and I travel and and so that throws a wrench in things, right? I'm not always there to be pancake mom. Um, but I I just treasure that time so much. And so I really try to protect it as much as I can. But yeah, you know, my husbands and and kids will often say, like, mom, can you put down your phone or can you put down your computer?

SPEAKER_01:

And it's like, yeah, and sister those friendly reminders.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly. We all need those. And and you know, you gotta pull yourself out and say, Okay, I'm gonna, I'm gonna block this time. Otherwise, it doesn't happen.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah. It's pretty interesting, especially when you are so aligned with what it is that you're doing in your business. You want to be able to pour into that, but also understand the tug and pull on the other end with family too and the kiddos primarily. It's like, okay, I think these are primitive, these are like pretty incredible years for them, especially these younger years. And I love that you're like what's important to me right now in this season of life is that I am there in the mornings and that as much as humanly possible, given the travel schedules, to make them breakfast and send them off to school. And like that's your time with them. What does time for Leah look like? Uh the beauty of just having audio is that the listeners cannot see facial expressions. But I'll let I'll let your words explain the facial expression that I just saw.

SPEAKER_00:

The silence is golden as well, right? Ooh.

SPEAKER_01:

I am I am curious though, because it looks different for for everybody, first and foremost. But second of all, most of the time we gravitate towards like self-care is a manicure, a pedicure, going to the spa, getting a massage, but there's so many other ways where we as females can provide that self-care for ourselves. And so uh you're shaking your head like, okay, I let's talk through this.

SPEAKER_00:

Self-care can just be looking out the window and breathing for like five minutes.

SPEAKER_01:

That is incredible.

SPEAKER_00:

Sometimes that's it, that's all you get. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

It's incredible. It really is because there was somebody else who I had on on the podcast that had mentioned um sometimes I just need to go out into my car for 15, 20 minutes because it's just like nobody can disrupt me. And I piggybacked off that and I said, sometimes when I get home, I'll sit in my car for an extra five minutes. Sometimes you can tell if if a car is pulled into the into the garage, but most of the time no. Yeah. So I was like five minutes, 10 minutes, 15, 20 minutes just to be able to have a little bit of peace and calm. Yeah. Can really do the body good.

SPEAKER_00:

And um, I was I was guest speaking at a university and talking a little bit about what I did, and one of the students uh raised their hand and was like, what you're saying about your schedule sounds unsustainable.

SPEAKER_01:

Fascinating.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like, Thank you, 18-year-old. Yeah, but I I responded by saying yes to an outsider, it would probably seem unsustainable, but it's amazing when you are just crazy about what you do, how easy it is to just absolutely throw everything you have at it.

SPEAKER_01:

It's so true.

SPEAKER_00:

And so I do have to, I mean, I'm like the kind of person who needs to be reminded to eat lunch that bad. She's that girl. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

She's that girl.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and and if I didn't have that type of personality, I probably wouldn't be doing what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01:

It's you're just in a very different work landscape.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Than than say myself, where I'm hosting a podcast, working in real estate with my husband, and have the flexibility to be able to come home and make myself lunch. Exactly. Because our office is five minutes down the road.

SPEAKER_00:

That sounds nice.

SPEAKER_01:

So, you know, it's we've created a very cushy environment for ourselves, Leah. Um, and I realized how privileged we are to be able to do that, right? Because that is not always the case for other people who are navigating into the world of entrepreneurship from a corporate position. There's also a lot of undoing, peeling back the onion layers of what you had been doing in a corporate setting versus when you transition into entrepreneurship and understanding the beauty of flexibility in your schedule, but also understanding the the negative byproduct of having flexibility in your schedule, too.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, exactly. Exactly. Um I would say too, it depends on you know, the season that the different businesses that we invest in are are at.

SPEAKER_01:

Sure. Can you give an example?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So a business that is going through, you know, still kind of residual supply chain issues and hasn't come out of the woods in some some of that respect and has faced challenging financial times, that is a very different day-to-day business than a professional services firm that has only grown, right? And so the story behind what's going on and and whether it's a distressed investment uh where a business can be in distress and you can invest in it and then still have to climb your way out, and it's probably a lot more work. Um that's different than a professional services firm that's only ever seen growth and has had an amazing trajectory and is only going to keep growing.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Yeah. And I'm sure too, and maybe this is exactly what you're speaking to. So just, you know, let me know if that is the case. But in those different seasons, it probably provides seasonality for you too, and how you spend time with your family and how you how you have um time for yourself as an individual as well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, right? Yep, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh okay. These like I I am so fascinated with in terms of having a year under a little over a year and peak under your under your belt. Um, let's talk through the peaks and valleys so far. Let's start with valleys.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh man. Um there have been a lot. Um, I cannot say it's been just like this rosy thing that everything's gone perfect. Um, there've been some really hard decisions, um, some unexpected things that have come up, whether it's in the business or just market environment, um, that have just kind of drown you for a little bit, right? I mean, um, so it hasn't it hasn't been easy. Um, and then raising capital on some of these deals has been really hard because it was a muscle that I had not used before. It was a new thing for me to really raise capital uh for for three acquisitions that we've done now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And man, art is each business unique and special in its own way and commands a different story and commands a different uh investor for each one. And so you're almost starting fresh because we're not, uh just to clarify, we're not a fund. So we don't raise capital and then buy businesses. We find a business, raise the capital for it, find a business, raise the capital for it. So we're a lot we're lean and mean in that respect.

SPEAKER_03:

Incredible.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh we don't charge our investors like this management fee on our on their money uh while we're kind of deploying capital. It's just we find the business, we put the money right into it, and then we go on and kind of do it again. So um it's it's harder to do that because you don't have the luxury of being able to just sign a document that you're gonna buy a business and then write the check.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Um, so from start to finish, um, average timeline for a business acquisition? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that differs so much. Um it can be very quick. Um a lot of the time, though, you're wanting to build the relationship, some kind of rapport, some kind of understanding about the business in a more long-term way. Um we buy businesses through a series of different avenues. Sometimes it's direct to the seller, and then sometimes it's brokered through a through an investment banker or a business broker.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um and so it depends on that timeline because if somebody is like brokering the deal, they want to, you know, move it along. Yeah. Uh, whereas a direct business relationship with somebody who's thinking about selling their business could take years, right? Sure. Of just building the relationship over time and chatting and you know, kind of shooting, shooting around ideas. Um, so it depends on the business. Um we can close on a business in as as little as 60 days, okay, depending on the size, depending on the scope, all that kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Okay, so I want to talk about raising the capital. You've spoken to this a few times now. That's particularly different than a lot of what I've talked about with other entrepreneurs on this podcast. I would love to hear because you had mentioned too, Leah, that this was relatively new, a new pathway for you in terms of how you were operating your business. So, what has that looked like for you? Like how you approached the the building of that, raising the capital to acquire these businesses.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So um forgive me too, because I'm very naive to these processes. And so it's uh purely out of curiosity on my end, but I I can venture to think that a lot of the listeners are either they're scratching their heads going, I don't understand, or they are following along and probably are eager to learn more too.

SPEAKER_00:

Raising capital, um, so so just to clarify, so I had been familiar with that process. We um when I was at my former employer, we would look at a lot of investment opportunities. And so I was very familiar with other people raising capital for things.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And then um my background, even from there, was okay, just getting more comfortable with how people go about raising uh equity and debt for their for their businesses. Um, and so I kind of knew the principles around it, but I had never gone out with an opportunity and raised capital myself. And so it took, um, I have a partner, uh, Tim Olsen, who I brought on. He's our Ridge Nations partner. Um, so he will help me find deals, we'll vet them together, um, and then sit on the board. Um he has a lot of relationships as well. And so through our network, it was, you know, just kind of the first three. Um each one was so unique in that respect. Where it was, it's just I'll go back for a second. You know how my dad sold furniture, he was a sales guy, he was really good at it. Yeah, my whole career, I was trying to avoid sales. I was trying to avoid that process. I was scared to death of putting myself out there and being rejected. I st I studied accounting, right? Because I was like, I would just want a nine to five job. Like, don't put me in front of people all the while I'm doing theater and like loving podcasting and all this kind of fun stuff. But sure enough, I was just scared. Um my whole theme for the first year of being an entrepreneur was just do it scared. Yeah. Um, and so I did. And and so um, you know, the when you're raising capital for a business or your own business, you have to have as much science as you have art. And it's both sides of your brain. It's the analytical part about what are the margins for this business? What's the return that I think that I can get out of this business? What, what is the economic um, you know, what are the economics of the deal? Uh, how are we structuring this? All the analytical stuff that you need in the the left brain stuff. Yeah, but then you need the right brain stuff, you need the creativity, you need the compelling story, you need the marketing and making it look good. Yeah. Everything. And private equity, uh, when people ask me about like what is it that you do? Everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And but this is also the world of entrepreneurship. Yeah, exactly. Like anytime I mean, I had a another interview, very rare that I have two interviews in one day. Um, but the interview that I had this morning, uh, this is the wall she's bumping into right now is the marketing aspect of it because she has grown everything over the last few years organically. Yeah. What a blessing. Amazing. By the way. Everything has been organic, but now that she has brought people on to the business, she's like, I have mouths to feed at my own house, but I have mouths to feed. Yeah. Right. And so, so, like, how do we get this word out? And then also she's bumping into I wish I would have known about you sooner, circumstances and responses from individuals. And so it's kind of twofold for her where she's like, marketing is so important, and it's just an avenue that I otherwise haven't had to like exercise. She's a physician, she's a physician, she hasn't had to do anything with business because the healthcare system took care of that for her initially. So it's just it the world of entrepreneurship is just incredible, unique, scary. Leah says, do things scared. Yeah. And that couldn't be more true in every single like pocket of what it looks like to build a business.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And at the same time, though, you know, the unique thing for um Marin is that I had the privilege of knowing what it looked like, you know, and and not everybody does. And so when I can go in with a capital raise and say, yep, we do financial due diligence, we do legal due diligence, we we have all of the vetting criteria, we, you know, filter it through our our ideal criteria, and we have a you know, a set of parameters that we're looking for and be really, really clear on those. It really has helped the the process of getting official um quickly and and being able to keep the pace, right, with another private equity firm who would be doing something else. And it's it's really affirming because I've gone in and I've talked to professionals who work in and around the private equity world, and they're like, Yeah, you're legit. Like, really? Because I've only been doing this for like a year and a half, man.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, but to your point about how you had all again, referencing the the interview I had this morning, she had mentioned, and I know that this is the case for you too, all of the leading factors of what she did here in that moment of time, and what she did here in that season of life, and what she did here in residency, all of that has built her up for this entrepreneurial role that she's in now. And you you brought that up earlier in our interview. Like, I've I've got the experience. It was just taking the lid off of myself and going, I can I can home run this too. Like I can do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. And and understanding that um the the cool part of entrepreneurship and of getting into something where you are uniquely suited, uh, you have those moments of thinking, wow, everything in my life has been pointing me to this.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a miracle.

SPEAKER_01:

It is. I have two more follow-up questions, and then we're gonna start to land the plane. I can't believe it because we've covered a lot of ground in less than an hour, and I'm impressed because normally these interviews go longer. But who knows? We might have we'll see. How do you feel like in in taking the leap into entrepreneurship, taking the lid off as I just mentioned? How that is modeling for your children at home.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it's so fun. I call them my assistants. Um they I the beautiful part about how we're setting up our life is you know, the nanny can come with us and and I can bring my kids with on business trips. You know what a kind of like blessing and privilege that is? Um, I love to teach them about this stuff. I would love it if they worked in my business one day.

SPEAKER_01:

I think legacy. Totally. We talk a lot about legacy in this house and how we're, you know, we're and I just recently came on board to the real estate side of things. This was only this past September, but I feel like all right, we're 50-50, let's go. We're building, right? And we've got three kiddos. One of them has to probably think, like, maybe I'll want to take over this book of business at some point or another. Maybe who knows? But it's so cool to be able to model and to show them. And and on the other side of that too, it's like, how do we model for them how we are harmonizing that for ourselves too? Right. I know that you're like not will, but sometimes you have to experience those speed bumps in like that's a boundary I don't want to cross anymore, right? Like, okay, I I've I've had my family tell me, like, hey, could you be here in the moment? And I'm speaking to myself, by the way. Like, I have had that moment where my husband's like, here, here, here, like, be here right now. And I'm like, I'm just emailing one of my guests. What is the big deal? And then I remind myself, like, did it need to happen in that moment? For me personally, probably not. Sometimes you have to hit those speed bumps or hit that that boundary and go, all right, I I don't think I want to continue to move in that direction anymore. And you pivot.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And you pivot.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so that was one of my questions was the modeling aspect of it. And now I totally am drawing a blank on what my other question was. But I have another question to replace it. So the pod. Itself is called Reclaiming Your Hue. And I think when we spoke on the phone, I mentioned the whole story behind like why I started this podcast, which was I I lost a sense of myself when I had my daughter and was still balancing that with the mortgage pipeline and the mortgage business. And I was like, how are other women doing this? And I came across a social media post. I don't remember where which platform it was on, but it was a flaming like a picture of a flamingo. And and it the story told about how when flamingos have their babies, right, they lose all of their coloring and then they regain the color back and so on and so forth. And I thought that is how I feel. That's how I feel. I feel like I have lost the essence and the coloring of who I am, the soul of who I am. And I'm starting to slowly regain it back, but it's not there. It's not that vibrant, that once vibrant pink color that it used to be. Interestingly enough, it's a different shade of pink now and even better. And I love it so much, but I'm curious what this has looked like for you. Whether and and I don't always want to go with just the theme of like this podcast and motherhood and entrepreneurship, and if it happened during the transition into entrepreneurship, maybe it happened sooner for you. Is this the case?

SPEAKER_00:

It it was difficult. Um, you know, with with having kids. I was fortunate in that it happened at a time where the whole world was on maternity leave with me during COVID.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true.

SPEAKER_00:

So I was very privileged in that respect that the world kind of hushed and I was able to focus on like, okay, I'm a mom now.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And and there's been definitely challenges to that in terms of like, okay, who am I now? What are my hobbies? Hobbies question mark. Do I have any?

SPEAKER_03:

Um, do you have any? I really like to bake. You knew I was gonna ask.

SPEAKER_00:

I really like to bake with my kids. It's like the most fun thing ever. Yes. So don't mind the mess. No, not at all. Not at all. Um, we have a lot of fun, and and I think those those meal times are just really special to me. Um but goodness, seeing the joy in my kids' face, like just in especially through this age when they're young and just amazed by everything, it's been so fun to experience life a second time, right? Through their eyes. Um and it's immensely hard because, you know, the the freedom that I have because I have a nanny and a really supportive husband. Um, I can go on business trips or I can go to a business dinner. I don't take that lightly because I understand that other people are bearing the burden of having to be, you know, the responsible adult in the room taking care of the kids, right? And so it's one of those things where it's like that balance of driving forward and making connections and driving the business forward, but then also realizing like, wow, how how precious life is and how fleeting it is because now my son is like tall and not a baby anymore, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I know. Is your son the oldest? Yes, yeah, okay, yeah. I I mean, I completely empathize to that in with you about Maddie's growth and the growth spurt. And I'm like, I had a moment the other day where I was like, you're not a baby anymore, like you're a full-fledged little girl because she's talking like stringing words together into sentences, and she's two and a half years old, and I'm like, this is wild. This is wild. Like every morning waking up and having her go like say a sentence to me, and I'm like, Did you just say that? And like so clearly, it's it's to your point, fleeting. Like time, time goes by so quickly, but then sometimes it goes by very slowly slowly as well. So um Leah, what is my problem? Forgetting okay, I I remember it now. So, because I've had I have like all of these questions that are floating around, and then I also have like the baseline questions that I send over, right? Those are just my guiding posts. And I all all of a sudden I'm like, what about this? What about this? What about this? So this is something that I had been thinking about earlier that I'd I'd love for you to shed light on, which is what is like your niche for the business? Like, who's your ideal avatar?

SPEAKER_00:

Goodness. Um, it it comes through a lot of different uh uh aspects of of what we do because we're an investment firm, so we are um kind of the middleman in a in a very crass term, meaning we invest money into these companies, money that isn't always our own, sometimes it is. And and so it's you're beholden to the mandate that you've basically set. Like you're the one who's like, okay, this is what we're going to do. We think we can do this with this business. We raise the capital and then we put it into the purchase of a company.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And so you have a lot of different people that you're dealing with in order to get that done.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So I would say that our target business has about two million in earnings. Um, that's EBITDA.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, or earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortization. That's what that stands for. Mouthful. I know amortization. But rest of it. Got it. So net income plus adding back some things, right? Okay. Basically. Yeah. Um, and so generally we're looking at businesses between two and ten million of eBITDA. Sometimes we'll go smaller in that respect because we find an opportunity, right? That's the fun part. Um, and and we get to invest kind of through that criteria. So we invest in manufacturing companies, distribution companies, B2B companies. We have a med spa that we are um invested in. Um, and so through that lens, we're um we're building out the team and the community around that business to make sure that it thrives. So we put a board in place with really tenured executives who who can strategically help that organization in some way. Uh, we're then working with service providers, a lot of lawyers, a lot of accountants, a lot of, you know, a lot of resources around how do we make this business, whether it's employee benefits or um goodness, software or just sky's the limit in terms of the operating uh rolladex that you have to have in order to make sure that your business has all the resources that it needs to thrive. Um, and then it's the investors, right? So we have people who have come alongside of us and said, hey, I think that the value that you put on employee culture is the way of the future, and I'm gonna invest with you. We don't take that lightly because um you could be investing in the stock market and getting a pretty predictable return. And while no investment has a guarantee of success, you have some of it is risky and some of it is not risky, right? I mean, you can de-risk a lot. Um, when you are investing with an emerging manager, which is what my title would be in the investment world, yeah, who's just starting out and just proving a track record, you have to see that your money is going to get a return, right? And so there's a lot of pressure in that respect. But then also, you know, we're building out that community around that business that we are de-risking our investment because of that.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Fascinating. So it really there isn't any specific, like because you have so many cooks in the kitchen, so to speak. Especially at this point, because you're 18 months into the business. Time will tell, though. Oh, yeah. Time will tell what you start to gravitate towards versus what you start to lean away from.

SPEAKER_00:

I would say, too, our niche and what makes us different than any other private equity firm is the value that we put on the employee culture and how important employees are to businesses and making that a priority and making sure that that doesn't get lost in the process.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And so that's really what our niche is. And then when it comes to the businesses that we invest in, yeah, it can be a manufacturing firm with a great financial trajectory, but not a really healthy culture. And we see value in taking that and saying, okay, how do we enhance the employee culture? Just like we would take a firm and say, how do we enhance the technology? Yeah, how do we enhance the operations? It's just, it's just one value driver of very many that we can add in our portfolio of investments.

SPEAKER_01:

How do you determine there's an evaluation process? And are there specific buckets that you look at for these businesses where you go, I I like to think, okay, I'm gonna back up. In terms of us as people, we have like a wellness wheel, right? Like we and and what we try to focus on is how do we create the wheel that's moving and in motion to be as balanced as possible, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'm gonna shift that over into this world of investing. What are those areas that you look at and evaluate in order to understand like what do we need to focus on?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I love that question. I actually have a course that I've built out and I don't have it live right now, but it's called How to Think Like an Executive. And it goes into 10 different aspects of value creation. Um, you'll hear this a lot in like investing lingo where it's like you're talking about a moat, like a moat around a business is like how easy it is to replicate and start your own business. That's exactly like that, right? So we look at a moat, right? Okay. Meaning um, you know, how easy it is for new competitors to come into the space, um, how easy is it is it to get started? Obviously, that's a lot different for a manufacturing firm than it is for a professional services firm, right? If you just wanted to start a staffing firm one day, you just go out and do that. You might want to prove out a track record, a little bit of some solid staffing placements. But other than that, there's not a lot of barriers to entry. Yeah. And so that's valued a different way than a manufacturer that has put five million dollars into equipment for their business, right? Because no Joe Blow can just go start that unless they have five million plus dollars, right? And so, or 50, which is probably more realistic. So there's moat. Um, I mean, every aspect of a business, marketing, sales, people, technology, technology mentioned, um their profitability. Yeah. Um, if they have a clear management team, or if the organizational chart is more of an idea than a written-down thing. Um, so whether it's a small business versus a medium-sized business, a medium-sized business is is de-risked, quote unquote, because it is bigger, because it makes more revenue. Um, so there's things like that that you you dive into. So it really is all encompassing of what are the different aspects of the business, even even down to intellectual property. Do they have any patents? Do they have anything that differentiates them where they have a niche or some kind of specialty? Do they have one customer? And if that customer goes away, there goes the business, or do they have many customers, right? So you're looking at all sorts of different metrics.

SPEAKER_01:

Interesting. Okay. I'm glad that I asked that question. Um, okay. What does the future of Marin investments look like? Like put your CEO hat on and tell me what is the ideal picture of where Marin Investment is going.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I love it. I love that question. And I have a big smile on my face as you ask me that because I know it's big. Um we're just getting started. We're we're here for a while. I got a nice long trajectory in front of me. Uh, should my health keep up, right? Yes. Um, and I'm I'm so thrilled at the amazing lineup of operating partners in our pipeline. And I am so excited about the companies that we have in our pipeline that are coming. Um, and the investors that we're talking to. Um, wow. Um, this is a crazy time in history. The baby boomer generation is selling businesses, and businesses are changing hands at a record amount that's probably not going to be seen for quite a few decades.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So it's a crazy time. And one of the reasons why I started Marin Investment when I did, because I realized this can't wait 20 years. Oh, the opportunities now.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. That what an incredible foresight to have and just to see what's coming down and to have that understanding and that knowledge. And I I did hear this somewhere else, and it wasn't too long ago. I want to say maybe, maybe it was even when we talked on the phone. Maybe that's where I'm recollecting this conversation from. Um, but how cool to understand that that was part of the decision making to do what you're doing. And then also that there's this pipeline that's continuing to build up and build out. So I'm excited to from a year a year from now to see what is happening with Marin investments. It's so cool. We're gonna start to land the plane. Do respect your time too, because I know that we're gonna have to get out of here pretty quickly. What is a piece of advice that you would give a younger version of yourself, a younger Marin, knowing all that you know today?

SPEAKER_00:

I think uh one thing that's coming to mind, and it's not that I didn't know this, but it's the weight of it that uh with great power comes great responsibility. And I think um quite humbly, I say, because I've been humbled through this process, that investing in privately held companies is sure, you could call it sexy, private equity is a sexy term, right? Um man will it grow you, and same with entrepreneurship, but I I feel like with with um the investment world, I've met a lot of hardened people in the investment world, and I didn't really know why because I'm an optimist, yeah, and I like to smile and I like joy. Um but there's a lot of really hard things that go on behind boardroom doors and a lot of weight and a lot of pressure. And man, I just it has given me such an empathy and such a sense for people who have taken the entrepreneurial entrepreneurial journey or the business leadership journey and have have wanted more for themselves and have landed themselves in businesses and now they're at the helm. And it's humbling because you don't always do it right.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and you want to so badly, right? Yep. And it's so easy. One word can ruin your reputation.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. Very interesting. You mentioned I loved how you phrased that with uh great power, great power, great responsibility. And I think of God and the circumstance with the great power and the great responsibility that he has over all of us. What has faith looked at? I this is this was the question that I had been wanting to ask, and and then was like, oh, I have that question to kind of piggyback off. But I can't not ask that question in this interview. So I would love to hear from you because what you just spoke to with hardened hearts, that's challenging, right? Especially I I hear you, I see you as also somewhat of an eternal optimist and very hopeful um person. When you come across people like that, it's tough. But there is a way to kind of enter in. And so I'm I'm curious how you've been able to do that, but then how has faith played a role in what you're doing with American investment?

SPEAKER_00:

It's everything, it's everything. Um, I I have never uh raised my hands or cried so much in church because it's it's living it out. Oh my goodness, have have I been through the firestorm of testing, right? And it's hard, and you are leaning on grace and and faith and and understanding like you can only do so much. And um wow, I mean, the lessons around turning the other cheek around um that I mean every every proverb I grew up hearing. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's it's been it's been I couldn't do what I'm doing without that.

SPEAKER_01:

It's something that you and I bonded over in our phone call too. I just, I have to say, that conversation lit me up in such a different way. Of course, I mentioned and the listeners know this now, like you were you were instrumental in the pushing the needle forward for that event. But I was like, Leah is so cool. Like, she's so cool, and I want to be her friend, and I want to be like her when I grow up too. But we had such an an incredible conversation around our faith and what that looks like for us each respectively, and I'm so glad that I asked too how that plays a role in what you're doing. So thank you for sharing that. What's a piece of advice you would give a woman? You know, interestingly enough, because you're really in the thick of this right now, but somebody who's who's in that zero to two year mark of their business, and um you you have I would love to hear a piece of advice you'd like to give them that you wish you had had when you first started.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's such a good question. And I don't know that I know the answer to it because every entrepreneurial journey is so unique, right? Some people start out a business because they already have five customers lined up and they're ready to go, and it's easy, right? And they just go from being a, you know, W-2 employee to having their own business and it goes great. Um, others you make decisions and then you realize the consequences of those decisions, and you've done everything you can to try to set yourself up for success, and the one thing, you know, tips you over the edge. So um, man, I think I think surrounding yourself with good advice, and and I I sought to do that a lot, um, and not letting yourself be in an echo chamber of everybody's gonna think that your idea is great because they love you already, right? Yeah. And it's that's not market testing. Um that's good.

SPEAKER_01:

That's so good. Okay, so I heard you loud and clear. Don't put yourself in an echo chamber. Ooh, I love it. All right, who would be a good connection for you?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, wow. Um, somebody's uncle who hasn't sold his business yet and probably should be because he needs to retire and he and he doesn't have a clear succession plan. We're always looking to speak with business owners who are ready to make that jump. Okay, and and maybe really care about their employee base and just want somebody who is gonna tell them tell it to them straight and try to try to make a deal work. Um, and it's it's not, you know, not every business is built for private equity, but the ones that are, um it's it's amazing to be able to create value while living out your values. And that's what I seek to do every day. And I'm so lucky that I I have the opportunities that I have to do that.

SPEAKER_01:

Love it. I might have a good connection for you, by the way. It's not the uncle, it's somebody who might know the uncle though. Okay. How can our listeners get connected to Leah and um learn more about Marin Investment?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I have so many resources. Okay, so Marininvestment.com is our website. Uh, my podcast is called The Future of Private Equity. Uh, so listen to that.

SPEAKER_01:

No, you had a podcast. When did this happen?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh my gosh, it's just um, I've had it for a while. Um, I had an earlier version when I was at my former private equity firm, and now I have uh the future of private equity. That's why the people of private equity turned into the future of private equity. Um and um yeah, so so listen to that because it gives you really good resources and insights into that world. It's really opaque for a lot of people and they don't understand it all the time. Yeah. Um, and so it's just I try to bring the veil back a little bit and just kind of show who are the players, who's involved in this, what, what does this mean? So it's it's growing. I mean, there's 8,000 different private equity firms in the in the United States, and I mean that's more than the public companies that are out there.

SPEAKER_01:

Fascinating statistics.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So it's a very prevalent piece of how businesses operate and and are owned. And so it's it's really worth it to take a look, especially if you're an entrepreneur and you think that one day you'll want to get something for your business.

SPEAKER_01:

Beautiful. Awesome. Okay, so um, website and then the podcast anywhere else. I just want to make sure that I I'm dropping all of that into the show notes.

SPEAKER_00:

I do a lot on LinkedIn. Come connect with me on LinkedIn. I would love to connect um Leah Baron. Um yeah, would love to connect with you on there.

SPEAKER_01:

Beautiful. Leah, I will make sure to have that in the show notes so they can click on it directly to go to your LinkedIn website, the website, and your podcast as well. So how can they find like can they access that off of all podcast platforms?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, wonderful. Leah, such a pleasure. I feel privileged to have had the opportunity. I'm glad that we were able to nail down a date to get you here to even if it meant the afternoon. Here we are. And we we did it. And so I'm so grateful that our paths have crossed to have the opportunity for listeners to hear your story and um learn a little bit from you as well.

SPEAKER_00:

It was my my honor and privilege. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

I hope you have a great day. Thank you. Thanks. Thanks for listening. And if you enjoyed this episode and know of any inspiring mamas who are powerhouse entrepreneurs, please help connect them with myself and the show. It would mean so much if you would help spread this message, mission, and vision for other mompreneurs. It takes 30 seconds to rate and review, then share this episode with your friends. Until the next episode, cheers to reclaiming your hue!

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Kelly Kirk

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