Meet Mastery Partner: Amy Morin (#252)

This week marks an exciting transition for "The Maximize Business Value Podcast!" We're thrilled to announce that seasoned business owner Dave Casey is introducing a new host to the Maximize Business Value Podcast - Meet Amy Morin!

Learn more about Amy on LinkedIn and at masterypartners.com. 

Tune in weekly to hear more from Mastery Partners and to receive relevant key content on your journey to maximizing your business value!     

#maximizebusinessvalue #masterypartners #MBVPodcastHosts #businesssuccess #AmyMorin #DaveCasey

GET THE BOOKS: Don’t forget to check out Maximizing Business Value by Tom Bronson for actionable strategies on your business journey.

Learn More about Dave Casey
Dave Casey is a seasoned business owner with deep expertise in all aspects of organizational behavior and a passion for helping entrepreneurs reap the full rewards of building their companies. He understands that a truly valuable business isn’t just profitable—it’s secure, scalable, and transferable. In addition to his work with Mastery Partners, Dave actively gives back to the entrepreneurial community through leadership roles with organizations like Business Navigators, Biz Owners Ed, and Liberty Ministry. Whether advising on strategic growth or mentoring the next generation of business leaders, Dave brings clarity, integrity, and decades of real-world experience to every interaction. His mission goes beyond exit planning—he’s committed to helping owners build lasting legacies.

Learn More about Amy Morin:
Amy Morin is Amy Morin is an accomplished entrepreneur and Business Growth Coach who brings exceptional value to your network. She has an impressive background as a Certified EOS Implementer®, Outgrow Sales Advisor, and Certified Exit Planning Advisor®. What makes Amy truly remarkable is her real-world success. She co-founded and scaled a company from zero to $40 million in revenue across multiple states before executing a successful exit. Later, she purchased a struggling Montana fly-fishing resort, implemented effective systems and accountability measures, and transformed it into a profitable enterprise that she also successfully exited. 

Mastery Partners

Elevating Businesses to Achieve The Business Owner’s Dream Exit
The unfortunate reality is that for every business that comes on the market (for whatever reason), only 17% of them achieve a successful exit. You read that right. 83% of attempted business transitions never reach the closing table. Mastery Partners is on a mission to change that. We ELEVATE businesses to achieve maximum value and reach that dream exit.

Our objectives are simple - understand where the business is today, identify opportunities for dramatic improvement, and offer solutions to enhance the business, making it more marketable and valuable. And that all starts with understanding the business owner’s definition of his or her dream exit.
Mastery has developed a 4-Step Process to help business owners achieve their dreams.

STEP 1: Transition Readiness Assessment
STEP 2: Roadmap for Value Acceleration
STEP 3: Relentless Execution
STEP 4: Decision: Now that desired results are achieved, the business is ready for the next step in the journey!

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Transcript

MAXIMIZE BUSINESS VALUE PODCAST - EPISODE 252 Transcript

Tom Bronson (1s):

Welcome to the Maximize Business Value Podcast, brought to you by Mastery Partners, where our mission is to equip business owners like you to maximize your business value and achieve the exit of your dreams, whatever that means to you. With insights gained from over a hundred business transactions, we share real-world strategies, lessons, and expert advice to help you build long-term sustainable value in your business. Each episode is hosted by one of our Mastery-certified partners, their seasoned experts who've helped countless business owners navigate the complexities of growth, scaling, and building value. They bring firsthand experience, actionable insights, and a passion for helping you build a business that thrives. So, let's dive in.

Dave Casey (57s):

Hi, this is Dave Casey, and welcome to the Maximize Business Value Podcast. So this is a podcast series we have for serious entrepreneurs and business owners that are intent on adding value, maximizing the value, really, of their company, and they're passionate about that. And when we say value, it's just long-term sustaining value. It's not like an immediate type thing. So today I'm excited to introduce to you Amy Morin, who is one of our newest partners, certified partners here at Mastery Partners. So, Amy, welcome.

Amy Morin (1m 34s):

Thank you, Dave. Thanks so much. Great indirect introduction, and so happy to be here with you. 

Dave Casey (1m 39s):

Yeah, thanks for taking the time to do this. So I really want our, our viewers to get to know you a little bit. So, can you tell a little bit about your background and what got you into coaching and eventually to Mastery Partners?

Amy Morin  (1m 51s):

Yeah, yeah. So I feel like I'm a natural fit for Mastery Partners. Having been a business owner now, I haven't owned a hundred businesses like Tom Bronson, but yeah, none of us have exactly. 

Dave Casey (2m 1s):

But yeah, started a company and co-founded a large commercial construction company, or we grew it to be a large commercial construction company. And that company, we, our top line revenue was just before we sold, was around 40 million. Wow, that's wonderful. And and

Dave Casey (2m 19s):

You started from scratch? Yeah.

Dave Casey (2m 20s):

Yeah, we started from scratch. Yeah. Wow. So I'm in the zero to 40 million club. That's awesome. And, and had the opportunity to exit that business, and so we took advantage of that and, you know, as an entrepreneur, you're always looking for the next venture. And so instead of starting a company this time, we ended up purchasing a fly fishing resort in Montana. Oh. That was in need of a turnaround. And so that was a totally different project than we had been accustomed to. However, we just took the skillset that we'd built, having, you know, started a business from scratch, and applied it to that business. So

Amy Morin (2m 57s):

It's a very natural construction for fly fishing. I mean, they just go together. So

Dave Casey (3m 1s):

Do you still, well, I guess, do you still have that?

Amy Morin (3m 4s):

No, we sold that company as well.

Dave Casey (3m 7s):

Oh, no, I'm a pretty, pretty serious fly fisherman. I didn't, I'd forgotten about that aspect. Oh my gosh. Do you still have a connection?

Amy Morin (3m 16s):

So, well, we, you know, once you, once you are a fly fisherman, you know, it, it is in your blood for sure. We don't go back to that facility much, just because our life doesn't bring us back to Montana much anymore. But we've changed and do most of our fly fishing in Maine when we're there for the summer.

Dave Casey (3m 33s):

Yeah. I do mine in Vermont. 

Amy Morin (3m 36s):

Okay.

Dave Casey (3m 36s):

Because I grew up right there on the New York-Vermont border. We're getting way off topic here, but this is awesome. So, but no, I have really not fly fished in the west that much. A little bit. Oh, Arkansas. A little bit in New Mexico, but nothing like up in Colorado and Montana, and all the god's country. So that's,

Amy Morin (3m 57s):

So the big difference is the variety of fish and the size.

Amy Morin (4m 1s):

Yeah. Oh yeah. And no overhanging branches. Correct. Correct. Yeah. Fish have very small creeks, so yeah.

Dave Casey (4m 10s):

For sure. That's cool. That's so cool. So flies, so construction, fly fishing. And so you turned that around and exited that as well, then?

Amy Morin (4m 19s):

Yes. Yeah. And so that led me to where I am today. So, having exited that second company was thinking about, all right, what's the third act of my life? And I wanted to take the business knowledge that I'd gained from getting an executive MBA, owning and running these businesses, and bring all the what I felt were the challenges along those two journeys. You know, one of the reasons that led us to exit is we were just really, we kept hitting the frustration of a ceiling, of being an owner, and yet losing the freedom that we'd gotten into entrepreneurship. 

Dave Casey (4m 56s):

Yeah, I know that feeling.

Amy Morin (4m 58s):

Right? Right. We as entrepreneurs think, oh man, we're gonna have all this freedom as we grow this business. And then oftentimes what I see happen, and I experienced this in my own life, is that the business ends up taking us over and we lose a lot of those freedoms, and then our inability to relinquish some of what we've grown to ends up con holding some of that company back. So it's that freedom on both ends, right? We lose our freedom, and the company loses the freedom to continue to grow.

Amy Morin (5m 35s):

Yeah. That, you know, that's such a powerful word, freedom too. 'cause that, as you know, we had our business transition summit event in Austin yesterday, actually. And, there was one of the, one of the presenters who works for a wealth management company. And when she was giving her presentation, she used a term I hadn't heard before, but it's called Freedom Point. And that's kind of that hurdle point that's the dollar figure that you feel you need to get to, either exit your business or this is what I need to sustain me the rest of my life, or whatever they call it. The freedom point. Yeah. I thought that was such an apt term because that's Yeah.

Amy Morin (6m 16s):

At least you're not worried about financial freedom at that point, you know, and then you can concentrate on what needs to be done at the business level, maybe.

Dave Casey (6m 24s):

That's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Morin (6m 26s):

That's so now, as an EOS implementer, I get to really help business owners through that. Yeah.

Dave Casey (6m 32s):

So you have an EOS practice. I know, and then you have your coaching practice as well, right? Thrive Coaching?

Amy Morin (6m 39s):

I do, I do. So, the EOS entrepreneurial operating system really works on the operations and structure of a company and strengthening those four intangible capitals that we talk about, where 80% of the business value lies, right. And the customer capital, the human capital, the social capital, and the structural capital. So EOS strengthens those and gets you to that 80% of where that value lies. Another part of Thrive Coaching is outgrow, which is a sales process. It's a, it's a proactive sales process where I help teams create a culture of everybody who is client-facing, helps to, to share that with their clients and their customers, their current clients and customers.

Amy Morin (7m 27s):

And we just end up creating this proactive life lifecycle that's going on in a company, and then, of course, have added exit planning over the last couple of years to my practice. So that really is what encompasses Thrive coaching. 

Dave Casey (7m 50s):

I had a little background. The other thing that you bring to the table that is so important and, and, and pretty much a hundred percent of our mastery certified partners have this, that, that you've actually, you know, founded a company, built a company, and been through the exit process yourself. Yeah. So you're not just, you know, advising others on, on maybe the theoreticals of it, but you've been at the closing table with your money at risk and been through due diligence and all that. And that is such a, such a powerful experience to have, I think.

Amy Morin (8m 27s):

Yeah. It, it is, it's a different mindset when you start putting your baby, so to speak, right. On the market, the thing that you've grown, the thing that you've nurtured and cultured, and all that. Yeah. And you put it on the market for other people to start picking it apart. Yeah. It can be a very tenuous process, shall we say.

Dave Casey (8m 45s):

Yeah. It's very, a lot of long night going through that. I remember it well, so yeah. Yeah. And I had my company for over 25 years, so it was, there was a lot there. And it's funny, I I, I probably did not have as much remorse when I sold the company as I thought I've watched other people go through, and maybe, 'cause I played it out so many times in my head that it, it was, it was when I got past it, I got past it. But it was that we talk a lot with our clients, as, you know, you know, with what, what's next. You know, you gotta have a clear idea of what's next before you go through a process, I think.

Amy Morin (9m 24s):

Yeah. I highly recommend that people be pulled towards something when you're going through the process, rather than feeling like you're getting pushed out of your business. Yeah. And, so I'll share an, an intimate story if you don't mind. So when we sold our co our construction company, I was somewhat like, you, we owned that company for 22 years, and I had been pulled towards things, you know, I was being pulled towards, I was getting my, you know, wanted to get my executive MBA. And so that was a super exciting thing for me, and I was being pulled towards a lot of things that had to do with that. And then what happens after that, versus my husband really lost his identity. Yeah.

Amy Morin (10m 6s):

When we sold that company. And it took a long time for him to figure out what that was, what he looked like when he was walking down Main Street, and somebody said, Hey, what do you, you know, what do you do? Yeah. And he no longer could say, you know, I'm the owner of PM Construction, or I'm the founder, I'm the president, or whatever. Right? Yeah. He didn't have that identity anymore. And so that is a real thing. Yeah. It is. For, for people to think about.

Dave Casey (10m 35s):

And I think men in particular, too, 'cause I mean, usually you meet somebody and, hi, how are you? Then, probably the second question a man asks is, Hey, what do you do? You know, tell me about what you do. Right. You know,

Amy Morin (10m 45s):

So. Yeah.

Dave Casey (10m 47s):

And that's really hard to say. Well, I used to be in construction, you know?

Amy Morin (10m 51s):

Right. You Know?

Dave Casey (10m 52s):

Yeah. That's tough. Yeah. That is very tough. Well, you know, as I look at our Mastery Partners roster of clients, we've had both current clients and former clients, and over 60% of our client base are women-owned businesses. And it's, it really, I didn't really have run those numbers until we, we were moving over to our, our CRM platform ovo and we started entering in everybody's information. And so, you know, over, it's not by design, but why do you think that is

Amy Morin (11m 31s):

Those women come to more coaching and want some help as they start to exit or think that's what

Dave Casey (11m 37s):

It's, or improve? I think that maybe, maybe coaching just res resonates a little better. You know, certainly, I have three women clients now who are in women-owned businesses, and there are certainly strong independent women. Yeah. But they do listen well, so, yeah. Yeah.

Dave Casey (11m 59s):

And I guess I wouldn't even say that they're just more thoughtful than some of the guys I coach. So Yeah.

Amy Morin (12m 4s):

You know what's really interesting is I've been teaching a lot on the learning zone versus the performance zone. Yeah. And so I think probably this is totally theoretical at the moment, right, 'cause we have no data or research to back this up other than, you know, your data on how many women are in our program at the moment. Yeah. But when you compare the performance zone and the learning zone, the performance zone is all about we have got to perform. Right? We've got to execute, and we're just gonna grind through it, and we're gonna be gritty and get it done. And not that women don't do that, but we integrate, I think, the learning zone into that performance zone.

Amy Morin (12m 47s):

And the whole reason I'm bringing this up is that the paradox of the learning zone versus the performance zone is that in order to perform better, you've got to also mix in that learning zone, right? Yes. And so the learning zone really revolves around figuring out what skill gaps you have, what skill gaps you're missing, and how to find resources to help you fill those skill gaps to get you where you wanna go. So going back to the old analogy, years and years ago, Dave, you and I are da are, are dating ourselves here at the moment, right? But some men don't ask for directions. Right. And, but you know, as a female, I'd be like, I'm always like, can we just get directions?

Amy Morin (13m 30s):

'cause I wanna get there quicker. Yeah. Right. And my husband's like, no, we're just gonna figure it out. And now that's

Dave Casey (13m 36s):

A forced march. You're not gonna get there quicker.

Amy Morin (13m 39s):

Exactly. But so I think that women just naturally integrate their learning zone, and that's how, that's what we're seeing in our practice.

Dave Casey (13m 51s):

Yeah. I think it's, that's great to hear because you know, in, in, in my experience, and I was in a technical, you know, I had an IT services company. So when I think of learning or thought of learning, it's really, you know, technical, there's so much technical stuff happening, it changes every day now. It's all ai and there's a lot more to learn. And I don't think about learning about people and learning, you know, or how to work with people, how to get them, you know, enable people, the MO better, or even structure changes within a company. Those are things that I think, you know, we, I think I've been so focused on basically this, the tactical stuff, and, you know, we've got a new product, we've gotta get this, gotta get this rolled out to everybody and stuff.

Dave Casey (14m 40s):

And we, and some of the learning that you're talking about, went by the wayside for me, for sure. When I, when I had my company, and I've, I've actually interviewed on the podcast, a couple of HR professionals, and, you know, I would freely confess that that was the weakest thing that I did. Owning a company, I did not handle. I get along with everybody. That's great. But that doesn't mean that you're handling your HR stuff correctly. You know, so. Yeah. Yeah. And that was certainly a challenge for me. And, and, and I always just thought, I'm just gonna hire people that are at the top of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and they're self-actualized and you just kind of point 'em and they go.

Dave Casey (15m 23s):

And a few times that worked, but a lot of times it didn't. So. Yeah. 

Amy Morin (15m 29s):

Yeah. Yeah. So, Dave, I'm curious, having you say that, so what was your human capital score? Do you remember? Was that a little bit lower, and you needed to improve that as you

Dave Casey (15m 39s):

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. And I can't remember, I probably blocked it out what it was, but it was lower. Yeah. Yeah. It was, it was. And it's, and it's interesting. We, we, we, we had built such a great team, you know, with our company. When I had the company, I had employees; my top sales guy worked with us for 24 years. Nice. You know, my top technical person 13 years, and my administrator, I think 15 years. So top, top in those areas. So it was a, well, yeah. Everybody got along, everybody worked well together. And then, but we, we certainly could have done things much better.

Dave Casey (16m 20s):

So, yeah. Yeah. It's one of those things. So given what we do and, and in working with business owners and trying to do the analysis we do and the advice we give and, and, and really the coaching that we do, not everyone is, is totally open to coaching. Can you recall like maybe a difficult situation that you, that you face that, you know, it just, it just didn't work the way you wanted it to work?

Amy Morin (16m 53s):

Oh, yeah. Tho those definitely happened. Only one. Yeah, exactly. Thanks. Thank you. Yes. I think the difficult situation that's coming to mind really revolves around being able or being honest with yourself that to take your company from where you are today to where you want to go, whether it's an exit or not, right? It doesn't really matter If you've got something in your mind that says, Hey, I wanna go here and I'm, I, my baseline or where I'm at is, you know, below that at the moment, it's work. Yeah. And the companies that are not, or the individuals that are not honest with themselves about their willingness to do the work, A and B, they're willing to do it alongside somebody or even alone.

Amy Morin (17m 45s):

I mean, that's one of the things that I love about having joined Mastery is that we, we'll give you a blueprint. I mean, we'll sit with you, we'll sit next to you, we'll get you all set up, and then, then we say, we'll either help you along this journey if you want. Yeah. Or here's your blueprint and you can go, you know, do it on your own. Yeah. Most companies don't. For a reason, because they need that accountability partner. Yeah. Yeah. They need the coach. They need some advice along the way, but the companies that aren't successful are the ones that are not willing to do the hard work. And that's really the toughest conversation to have, but the most honest to have.

Dave Casey (18m 27s):

Yeah. And that's, I think it's so hard if you, you know, if you've had some success, you founded a company, you built a company, you've had some success, maybe you've got a bump in the road, or maybe you've got some, it's a change of direction. Or if it's aiming toward the exit, at some point, you know, there are changes. And I've had business owners who say, well, I, you know, I only have so much time to work on this stuff 'cause we have important stuff. We have customers to take care of. We've got a new programmer rolling out, we've got this, we've got that, and I've got a problem over here on the supplier side, and all these things. And trying to communicate to them that working for this company is probably the most important thing.

Dave Casey (19m 10s):

It might be more important than those other things. And if that light bulb doesn't go off, you know, I've seen that, that's a, that's a hard engagement. Yeah. Yeah. That's a tough one. So I'll flip that around. We'll, we'll leave that where it is. And so what? What's been the most rewarding coaching engagement that you've been in?

Amy Morin (19m 29s):

Yeah, so I, I'm gonna talk about one that I'm still involved with. So I've been working with this client for pretty close to five years. They're an EOS-run company. They've been going through a ton of changes. They are a construction company in the residential world. Oh. And so, you know, you and I are recording this in September of 2025. They've been in business for 50-plus years. Oh my. So they've had experienced interest rates of, you know, two something percent, two point whatever. And we're sitting here talking where interest rates are around eight or so high sevens high, you know, high sixes, to high sevens, maybe even close to eight.

Amy Morin (20m 11s):

And that really has affected their industry. Yeah. But to watch this team strategically work through that, and even retool reach, you know, change people on the leadership team, bring in some people from outside who have done strategic turnarounds who may not even have construction experience, and they don't need it at that point. Right. Sure. What they need is some really significant thought leaders. It's just been a delight to watch where that team has gone and where that company continues to go. Hmm.

Dave Casey (20m 46s):

And I can only imagine how EOS has helped that.

Amy Morin (20m 52s):

Oh my gosh. Yeah. Yeah,

Dave Casey (20m 53s):

Yeah. Yeah. And, I think most people who watch this podcast understand EOS, but you might take a second just to go, why, why did you jump into EOS, and why is it, why did you go to the point where I want to be an implementer for this?

Amy Morin (21m 9s):

Yeah. Well, you know, I always, I drive the best vehicles. I, I I align with the best processes, right. That there are out there, hence Mastery Partners as well. You know, we have a dialed-in value acceleration methodology. Yeah. Which is what I consider the best in the business. And so doesn't EOS. Right. So, EOS stands for the Entrepreneurial Operating System developed by Gino Wickman, 20-plus years ago. Maybe even close to 25 now. But what EOS does is that there are several operating systems out there, but EOS really is the simplest and most comprehensive one. And so, you know, we focus on six different key components.

Amy Morin (21m 51s):

Those key components are all the key components that drive a company. So getting alignment on the vision of an organization, where are we going in the future? And then making sure that everybody aligns with that vision and knows what that vision is. You know, we have a really straightforward way of making sure that we have the right people in the organization who are gonna help us get there. So we call that right. People are sitting in the right seats in the organization. We have a straightforward way of looking at the data, right? The data component is all about having a scorecard with measurables. And that scorecard should be predictive, right?

Amy Morin (22m 32s):

So you've got all these weekly data points in there, and how do you use that to predict where you're going, right? To, to have it look through the front windshield as you're driving, as opposed to being the rear view mirror. Very insightful. I've been doing nine different workshops on that recently. And, and I'm seeing a lot of light bulb moments in the room. 'cause most people use their scorecard as just, you know, Hey, it's red, let's drop it down. Let's, IDS it, let's, let's solve that issue this week of why it's red. But that's really, that's the, that's the elementary version of a scorecard. Yeah. Right. So I'm, I'm encouraging people to take and take a deeper dive on that we have a really clear process of how to get to the root cause of issues and how to, how to take those roadblocks that are, that are causing you to, to, to stay stagnant or to not break through those ceilings and get you over those hurdles.

Amy Morin (23m 30s):

We have a really simple process for documenting all the core processes in your organization. And that's your intellectual property. Yeah. Right. Which, again, most people don't see that in their organizations. They think processes hold you back. Processes are one of the ways that you gain freedom in your company. Yeah. And we have a really clear way of getting you traction, of helping you to execute on that vision of where you wanna go day in and day out. And so I really did align myself with the best of the best.

Dave Casey (24m 4s):

Yeah, that's a good choice. And you know, we've seen, definitely seen the changes since we adopted EOS, well, less than two years ago now in this company. And, but it is definitely a, a game changer. I mean, it really, particularly, I think when new folks join, it gives them a structure that, that we hadn't had before. Just onboarding was, was a lot more difficult because you're kind of, oh yeah, I forgot to tell you about this. I forgot to tell you about that. You know, that kind of stuff. So, Amy, thanks again for, for, for joining us and everything we ask everyone of our guests on this podcast.

Dave Casey (24m 45s):

So what do you feel is the most, the one thing that you can be done that, that builds the most maximize or maximizes value of the most for a business owner?

Amy Morin (25m 0s):

Sure. I would say the simplest thing to do to maximize value is de-risk. Yeah. And the most impactful would be to increase, strengthen those four intangible capitals.

Dave Casey (25m 12s):

Yes. The ones you discussed earlier. Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Morin (25m 14s):

The human capital, the social capital, the structural capital, and the structure, customer capital. Yeah. And in doing so, what's gonna happen, the outcome is, is you're gonna have a business that runs independently from the owner. Yeah. And, and that's

Dave Casey (25m 31s):

All massive. And that's a big derisk in itself. 'cause that reduces that owner dependency. Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Morin (25m 35s):

It sure does. That's

Dave Casey (25m 36s):

Wonderful. Well, excellent. Excellent. Well, again, I can't, can't thank you enough for joining us and thank you Dave. I'm gonna, I'm gonna close us with our, our, our standard closing, which is, this is the Maximized Business Value podcast. We, we do this for business owners that are serious about building long-term sustainable value in their business. We air a podcast each week. So tune in, subscribe to us, and until that time, we'll see you. We'll see you soon. I'm Dave Casey. Thank you.

Mastery Partners (26m 26s):

Thanks for joining us for another episode of the Maximize Business Value Podcast. I hope today's conversation sparked new ideas on how you can continue driving value in your business. But remember, it's not just about listening, it's about taking massive action. Visit our website masterypartners.com for more resources. Grab a copy of any of the books in the Maximize Business Value series on Amazon or via the links below. And don't hesitate to reach out if you want to know how to apply these concepts to your business. So until next time, I'm Tom Bronson, reminding you to relentlessly execute while you maximize business value.