As the Silver Tsunami Builds, Evan Duke and Fractional Leadership Solutions Ready Founders to Exit

Digitizing Ye Old Piano Shop

Anthony Codispoti (00:08)

Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories Podcast, where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome adversity. As you listen today, let one idea shape what you do next. My name is Anthony Codispoti, and today's guest spent four years earning a doctorate in musical arts from the University of Kentucky.

Then built a business that tells other people's companies how to survive without their owners. Along the way, he took a regional orchestra's budget and attendance up 300%. In 2016, Dr. Evan B. Duke formed Fractional Leadership Solutions to do for founder-led businesses what he had done for that orchestra board. Ten years later, in January of 2026, he launched Exit Ready Technologies.

To turn his operational framework into software. He works as a fractional COO for companies between $2 and $50 million in revenue that are three to five years from a sale using his seven operational pillars framework. But before we get into all that good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company, AddBack Benefits Agency. And you'll want to hear this because it's hurting almost every business owner See health insurance costs go up every single year.

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All right, back to our guest today, the president of Fractional Leadership Solutions, Evan Duke. Thanks for making the time to share your story today.

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (02:20)

Thank you for having me. I'm looking forward to it.

Anthony Codispoti (02:22)

So, Evan, while you were still finishing your doctorate in music, University of Kentucky, you took on the job of business and operations manager at Ye Old Piano Shop. And it sounds like maybe the operation was a bit antiquated because you spent time migrating the whole business off a manual card system onto a CRM, QuickBooks, and Google Workspaces, which is a lot of big changes for a small business.

How did you approach it? What was the first piece of that that you changed? And how soon did you start to notice some differences in the business?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (02:57)

Well really the first thing I did was migrate a lot of those records to QuickBooks. the nice thing about it is I disc as I discovered really quickly is that you know once you had all of that information in one online program, it was very easy to migrate it to another. and that's so that's where I know

Got QuickBooks set up, then I migrated things to Insightly. So really I feel like the most effective point is just really trying to identify the most efficient path for digitizing a business's operations, which in that case it was QuickBooks, and it made sense because let's get the accounting all up and running and then very easy to transition to get the CRM setup that needed to be set.

Anthony Codispoti (03:46)

So you you attacked the counting the accounting part first, you went after QuickBooks, and to digitize it, I you know, if you're manual records, it's just it's a manual process, right? It's just you gotta key everything in, am I right?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (03:59)

Yeah, and that was the hard part of it. Of course, the t technology has changed substantially from when I did that to now. I think there's probably a lot of stuff that I probably could have done differently. But at that point where we were, is that you you do what you can do. And, unfortunately there was a lot of data entry that, was manual. So this that was that was the frustrating part, unfortunately.

Anthony Codispoti (04:22)

So how would you do it differently today? What does the technology allow you to do?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (04:26)

Well, I do know, say, for example, with Insightly, one one facet, and I I'm saying Insightly not because that's necessarily the CRM that I recommend. I actually use HubSpot and I prefer how it works. But I'm gonna use Insightly just be because it was a part of this example. You are actually able to scan business cards, and I didn't try it, but I believe you could probably s scan

handwritten records and you'd basically be able to import it and then edit it. So that would probably be one thing is just trying to figure out how much could I actually scan. and it's not going to be foolproof. You might be able to get most of it. You might be able to get some of it. But the thing is you're going to be able to get a chunk of it and then, you know, get it cleaned up. So that would be the first thing I would do is thinking, is there a easier way than just manually

Typing things in if you know what

Anthony Codispoti (05:20)

So, what were some of the biggest practical differences that you noticed in the business as you started to get things digitized and moved over to QuickBooks and Sightly, Google workspace?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (05:30)

Well, the big thing I would say it was actually when I was able to use basically develop an app using App Sheet and it s really integrated nicely with both Google Sheets as well as you could download it onto the different technicians' phones. It used to be when it came to any kind of data entry, it would be since it was paper, you'd have to wait until everybody was back.

in the office and turned it in. With this, it went from, possibly being days to be able to get invoices submitted to, okay, I just got an email notification that this invoice was submitted. And within the matter of minutes, it could be input into QuickBooks and Insightly, filed away. Basically the entire process, it it was done, it was almost instantaneous. So I feel like that was the biggest impact. And as you can see,

It's a huge time savings and makes accounting that much easier.

Pushback & Building the AppSheet App

Anthony Codispoti (06:24)

Did you get any pushback from the folks at Ew Piano Shop when you wanted to do this?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (06:29)

I got some initially. like after we did the app, the owner when I this was an owner operated business, he he wanted I I designed this app so that it would work, and he's like, Okay, could we add this? And I said, I'm not sure that would be a great idea. And he kind of pushed back saying, Well, I'm the boss, I want to be able to do it. I'm like, okay, well, you could do it, but I don't know how long it's gonna be offline. so

we you could be basically in the dark for a while. and then I went on to say, well, what you're saying, it looks easy because I'm just adding a box here. The problem is what you're wanting to do in order to make it work. There's a lot of things, I guess for lack of a better word, on the back end really behind the scenes that need to be done, in order to make that one change. So it's not that not as easy. And thankfully I think it only took a few hours.

I had to do it obviously at a time when no work was being done, but you know, just really that was the big pushback and it like really fundamentally came down to not understanding how it worked.

Anthony Codispoti (07:29)

What was the app that you bo?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (07:30)

it was actually a custom app that I built with AppSheet, which it's actually AppSheet is owned by Google Workspace now. what's nice is essentially it's an app that you can create without coding. You just basically if you have, you know, a form or Google Sheet, you can basically take that sheet and then kind of build out an app for data collection. And you actually have different UIs you can create. And what

I found helpful was having a UI for those in the field and those in the office so that way you could get the right view of what was needed.

Anthony Codispoti (08:04)

Mm. Okay. So let's fast forward a little bit. because you had already spent a couple of years on the advisory council and as the historian for Foothill's Phil Harmonic. This was before they made you president in 2013. And during your time there, as we mentioned in the intro, you grew the budget and attendance three hundred percent and total performances two hundred percent over the next decade. Tell us about some of the big changes that you were making that really

drove those growth.

Growing the Foothills Philharmonic

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (08:31)

Well, some of the credit, and I need to give credit where credit is due, is the previous president of mine managed to really stabilize things because before, like during her tenure, there were some major issues that happened with the organization. So there was a bit of stabilization. I felt like when I was coming in, things had stabilized a bit. really when we started out, there were a lot of things that

we were able to find with efficiencies, for example, printing costs, and then even, you know, direct mail just addressing the way that that was done. That was a big thing. the other thing that we found, and I feel like, you know, this is kind of what I was happiest about, is finding ways to partner with other organizations in the community. you know, one of the first things we did was a Toys for Tots Drive with the concert.

And then as time went on, we added a food drive for greer community ministries. And that just kept morphing as we found other ways to, bring in other organizations. And what that did is that helped out everybody in multiple angles. It gave exposure to our audience, what this organization did, and it gave that organization exposure to what we did. And, you know, with the joint visibility on both ends, it really helped.

have a compounding effect. So I think that was the first big thing is really just trying to find ways to partner with people in the community, but then also just try to find ways to be more efficient with delivery so that way we could continually add more concerts.

Community Partnerships & Toys for Tots

Anthony Codispoti (10:06)

Were there partnership community efforts in place before you started or was this a new and where did the idea for that come from?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (10:13)

This is gonna sound rather funny, but I remember growing up, you know, I was I lived out about an hour, hour and a half outside of Baltimore. So as a huge Orioles fan. But, you know, we never were able to really get up there just because, you know, having three younger siblings, it was a little harder to get to the city. so what we actually wound up doing is we would actually go to

The local AA team that was only about 20 minutes away in the town of Bowie, the Bowie Bay Sox. And I remember every night we would go, they would have a different promotion, and it was to benefit a different organization. And I saw how, you know, what that now, obviously, you know, minor league is going to be minor league, but the reality was, you know, this minor league baseball team was able to forge so many different connections within the community.

After seeing that, I thought, well, with an orchestra, orchestras are not necessarily known for being out and about in the community. In fact, a lot of orchestras, unless you're like a major symphony orchestra where people have heard of you, you're kind of like almost like a best kept secret. So it's like, well, you know, this works well with mine relate. Why don't we try to find ways to do this and really help get established and really become more a part of this community?

Anthony Codispoti (11:27)

I like that. borrowing ideas from models that you see work when you were a kid. And so the other thing that I want to explore here, actually before before I move on, when you when you saw the effectiveness that this was having for minor league baseball, and you thought, okay, this is something I want to give a try for us at the Foothills Philharmonic, what was the first step? Who did you call

Did you have any idea what to do? Did you call somebody and ask for advice on next steps?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (11:55)

Well, really what it was was we were there was a discussion. I can't remember whose idea it was. And I feel like that that's how you can be successful, is if you're not you don't have one person saying, yeah, this is my idea, I'm owning it. Because if it's like okay, it's a com group effort, that way we don't have one person basically fighting over it. So I'm not sure whose idea it was, but some the during the course of the meeting where we're trying to figure this out.

That was where the idea of the Toys for Tots Drive came out. and really the idea is that, encourage every concert goer to bring a toy out. And, we decided, okay, let's give it a try. And then we had the Marines there. They weren't sure what to expect because, the last time they'd gone to a a drive event, I think they got about half a box. Well, we already had six boxes of toys within about the first fifteen minutes. So,

It was it was that's really how we started, and then it was a success, and then we began to realize well, we have all these other concerts. Aren't there ways we could do similar things? And not everything was successful. We would try it, and then if it didn't work, but some like the canned food drive, it it was also a big success. And with that, you know, that was actually benefiting a local organization that basically did a lot of meals on wheels work for seniors.

So so yeah, that that's kinda how it started. We just gave it a try with that idea and then we began to think, what are some other creative ways we can make this work?

Anthony Codispoti (13:18)

So why was Toys for Tots so successful right out of the gate? What were you guys doing to drive that?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (13:24)

I think the big thing was, you know, the whole idea at Christmas time. Everybody loves a Christmas concert. Now I know some organiz depending on where you're in the country, it might be a holiday concert, but it's just a festive time of year. And just the idea of, you know, come out, enjoy a concert, and by the way, just get a it doesn't have to be an elaborate toy, just bring it out. I think it's just new this really the attitude in this country where people are very

the Americans are very giving. when it comes to n supporting causes, I I can't think of another country on the planet that is as generous as a lot of Americans are. And so I feel like it was a combination of that seasonal, goodwill toward men combined with, hey, here's an opportunity to not only bring a toy, but then enjoy a fun concert. I I think that's where the magic was. And I think that's why it was such a big success.

Learning on the Job: Michael Kaiser’s Lessons

Anthony Codispoti (14:18)

So there's a lot of things you end up doing here at Foothills Philharmonic that you're doing for the first time, right? Some of it we just talked about, these partnerships, some of it's, you wrote more than 50 grant applications, you're working on donor development, venue contracts. where are you how are you developing these skills? Do you have mentors? Are you taking classes? Are you just figuring it out as you go along and stubbing your toe quite often?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (14:43)

There is a lot of all of that. I mean, I would ask questions, just you know, this was obviously before we had, you know, LLM, so I would sometimes Google it. For me, what was the most helpful and really formative was when I discovered a series of books by Michael Kaiser, who he actually served for about 30 years as executive directors for a wide range of organizations.

He was with the Kansas City Ballet for about three years. Then he was with Alvin Ailey Ballet Company up in New York. and then he was with the American Ballet Theater. Then he spent a few years trying to really get the Royal Opera House through a really kind of a bit a upgrade. The the venue needed a lot of work, so there was a lot of capital campaign work.

and then he finished up his the last half of his career at the Kennedy Center as president. And each place it was just fascinating, the stories he would have, and just the creativity and really it was the creative mind to, just try things differently. And I think, you with Alvin Ailey, he was the Clintons had them that a theater company actually participate in the inaugural and through some rather clever

negotiating, he managed to get them on a broadcast watched by about 50 million people for I think I forget exactly how long. It may have been a an hour or so, but it was just incredible exposure. that story is just astonishing. But really I think at the end of the day, his approach and his philosophy, you know, I've I've adapted some of it in my for-profit work. Just the idea of this continuous cycle is where, you know,

And that when I know when people think of cycle, they think of the business cycle, but I think of it more as an engine that actually can power business growth, where you're it's just continuous. And even though his cycle, you know, there's a bit of a nonprofit element to it, I see so many parallels in the four-profit.

Going Out on His Own

Anthony Codispoti (16:41)

So let's talk about you getting started in the for-profit world. Because in 2016, you're still running Foothills Philharmonic. You formed Evan Duke Enterprises, which becomes an umbrella for a handful of different service offerings that would unfold. What was the initial inspiration for you going out on your own, Evan? What was it you wanted to do?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (17:01)

Well, I think what it was was most people, at least, you know, when I was in college, we think, okay, the path forward is what you do is you go to college, you get a degree, and then you get a W two job. Well, when I was working on my doctorate, that was it started out the Great Recession. In fact, I've never forgotten it was within a few weeks of that first semester.

That's when I'm hearing about the financial meltdown, Bear Stearns closing, Lehman brought basically all of these organizations, they're they're just completely they're going belly up. And that's when I began to realize, you know, I'd hoped that I would go to school, get a college, get basically get what I needed to become a college professor, and then move forward. so that was kind of

what I had hoped for. But then what I began to realize was things are not going to turn out the way that I thought they were going to. So I needed to have some creativity. And while, you know, initially doing, you know, I was doing contractor type of work, I realized I need to have a more, I guess you could say, holistic solution with things. And that's kind of where I began to realize, you know, I'll just found the business that

I can use to become an umbrella for everything that I do.

Anthony Codispoti (18:16)

So Evan, you decide you want to go out on your own. You wanna you've already been doing sort of some contract work, but now you want to make it more official, more formal. What is it that you wanted to let the world know? I'm Evan Duke and I'm here to do what? What what was the business gonna be?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (18:29)

Well initially I I feel like I didn't have as much clarity as I do now. At that point, I was still doing a lot of teaching and performing, but I was also doing a lot of consulting work. And I feel like at that time, I was still a bit on the green side. and I think a one particular situation with a it's actually a performing arts organization that I I feel like if I had handled things a bit differently.

What I would have done is instead of just no trying to sit down and say, hey, I think we can do these things and make it work, what I really should have done is said, Look, you started a couple years too late. What you really should have done is you should have let's let's just postpone this if we can a couple years. I I know you may not like it. I know you may have some momentum.

Anthony Codispoti (19:16)

Sorry, postpone what specifically, Evan?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (19:18)

it was a it was a performing arts event that I want to say it was gonna be taking place in Chicago. Um I I don't

Anthony Codispoti (19:24)

Okay. And they needed more

planning time to get ready for it. Is it

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (19:28)

Yeah, and and really what it was was is a lot on the when it came to the if I remember correctly, on the fundraising side, they had they they really needed to raise enough funds because what this was is it was actually a joint endeavor with a local college. And in order to really make it easy so that we could get maximum involvement, they really would have needed about a year or two.

worth of fundraising to make sure that they could have addressed it. Because as it ended up, it was a bit of a mess financially. I I didn't stick around just because I was like, well and it sounded like they were able to do some stuff, but it wasn't nearly as good as it could have.

Anthony Codispoti (20:05)

right. So Evan, as you're getting your fractional COO business started up, how are you landing clients?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (20:11)

That is a great question. And really, there was a bit of a pivot with my business where initially I was doing a lot of work for some longer term clients, almost to the point I kinda viewed myself as a bit of a an an employee. But a few years ago, just cer there were a series of circumstances that led me to realizing, you know, I'd it'd be better for me to pivot just professionally, just give me a chance to, you know, have

more challenges, but it was really realizing this whole what was going on with the silver tsunami and just all the baby boomers who are exiting and realizing, instead of being a bit more of a generalist as a COO, let me focus more on the exit planning space and just helping business owners get their business ready. And really the partnerships that I have found the most effective are the cultivating relationships with financial advisors who work with business owners.

And investment bankers, sometimes business brokers, they they would have a really good connection. And there are a couple I talk with, but those two, along with CPAs, really form the ecosystem that I found really works well, just because we all have different pieces of the puzzle with exit planning. And if we work together, we can get a result that will be very beneficial for everybody.

Anthony Codispoti (21:28)

And so how are you forming these relationships with these referral partners?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (21:31)

A lot of is online, and you know what's also really nice and helpful is there's the one particular certification that's called the SIPA, the certified exit planning advisor. And what that is is well, anybody can be a SIPA, you I can be a SIPA, investment bankers, business brokers. The overwhelming overwhelming majority of CIPAs are financial advisors.

And a lot of the time, you know, I'm I'm always trying to connect with financial advisors on LinkedIn. And invariably the relationships kind of start because, you know, maybe not necessarily I sent a connection request, but they come across my content, or you know, they have somebody say, Hey, you you really need to talk with this guy. But a lot of it just starts with online and then we'll set up a Zoom call. And usually within the first few minutes, if it's clear that, like, yeah.

We see this problem and you know they really want to make this a part of their business, helping business owners prepare personally, that's when it's clear, okay, yeah, we have a path forward to work with each other.

Anthony Codispoti (22:32)

And what's the type of content that you're putting out there that some of these folks are finding you by?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (22:36)

What I like to do on my professional account on LinkedIn is I'll post usually at ten thirty and two each day. And it's you know, it's usually something related either to current research or you know, sometimes it's stories about, you know, cautionary tales. But really a lot of it it focuses on exit planning in some capacity.

I have with my business pages fractional leadership and exit ready technologies. it's it's basically a little bit more curated to those. and then, you know, during the basically at noon every day, you know, fractional leadership, you know, will post kind of, you know, you'll go to a different page on my site and talk a little bit more about that. And right now, basically up until the end of January, I have a midday post where

I'm basically talking about one of the areas that I work with and questions that somebody might be statements people might be saying that's okay, if you listen to them, they're actually a tell that they need this and that, the conversation needs to start.

Anthony Codispoti (23:38)

What is a tell that folks need you?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (23:40)

Well, probably the first tell would be okay, if you're working fifty to seventy hours of work per week, and your business productivity is dipping, that's a sign that, like, you know, okay, you're not only probably burning out, but we need to make some changes and restructure things. that's the first tell. Another tell is like, you know, okay.

if they say a phrase like this, well, everything is in my head or it's in Joe's head, it's not documented, you know, that's a sign because you know, hey, if you want to have something that has transferable value, you have to get everything documented. It's not necessarily just you, everybody in the business, because you know, as soon as Joe leaves the business at 5 p.m., until he gets back at 8 a.m. the next day.

That's a major risk because what happens if Joe doesn't come home? All of that information left with him for good.

The First 90 Days as Fractional COO

Anthony Codispoti (24:37)

So Evan, when somebody brings you in as their fractional COO, walk us through what happens in the first ninety days.

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (24:44)

That is a great question. Really, after the discovery process and the initial call, the first thing that we do, usually it's on the assessment meeting, which is when we're kind of walking through the proposal, is I look at what the current org chart is. Now, maybe if they don't have one, then you know obviously we gotta build one. But the big thing is we've got to identify if this owner is gonna successfully exit, who

are the current leaders and who's the best to promote to the role of CEO. We're gonna need a CFO most likely. Let's get that role figured out. Do we need a COO? Do we need a control? Basically we're just trying to figure out what the entire roster for that leadership needs to look like. And that's right at the beginning. And the reason why we do it at the beginning is because if we're let's fast forward to a couple years down the road when we take that business to market.

There's a document called a SIM, which it stands for Confidential Information Memorandum, that is going to basically tell you all the nuts and bolts of this business. And there's a section in that SIM that is going to talk about the makeup of that leadership team. Well, if we can get everybody on that leadership team as much time in their roles as possible, it's going to look that much better on the SIM because that's going to project to all buyers that.

Everybody here has been here a while. They've helped build things out. And this is a solid investment. Now that's not going to be the only thing. obviously it's a complex process of buying it. That's not gonna be that's not gonna basically resoundingly send a message that this is a solid investment, but it's a very, very positive step in the right direction.

then basically after that.

then we actually have a 90-day strategic impact plan that once we get that leadership team, we get figured out what we need, then we start trying to figure out getting everybody into those roles, but also identifying all the institutional memory and everything else we're going to need to do in order to get that business ready. So that's what that initial 90-day engagement will look like.

Anthony Codispoti (26:48)

Are you using the EOS program?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (26:50)

I use something a little similar. It's basically a lot of like what I do is similar to EOS. but you know, what I'm doing is in addition to, you know, the trying to get onto a regular cadence with scheduling, I mean I'm looking at the budget development and control process and make sure that is fully fleshed out. Looking at data and analytics, make sure we not only have the best data, but can we get as much out of analytics of that data as possible? Then, you know.

Basically, marketing, tech stack, strategic planning, institutional memory, basically I'm trying to be as thorough as possible and make sure that that business is ready. So even though it's similar to EOS, it is different.

Anthony Codispoti (27:29)

Hmm. So as part of your process, Evan, I know that you're reviewing five years of financials, contracts, and policies. What do owners usually find surprising about what you turn up in that stack?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (27:41)

It's probably along the lines of what's not there but should be there. policies, they make me non-existent. SOPs, they're non-existent. con we we would look at contracts and think, that's of course you gotta have them. You're kinda nuts to not have them, but you'd be amazed how many contracts they're basically handshake deals and they're never been formalized. So I think the biggest surprise is

is when we actually start looking at what we have and what we discover is well, there's a lot of stuff that we actually should have and work to get in place that we don't have. And it invariably comes down to the thought of well, we haven't needed it thus far. But you're going to need it if you want to move forward.

The 90-Day Test & Owner Dependency

Anthony Codispoti (28:21)

Okay, so Evan, you've also talked about the importance of running the the ninety-day test. Can the business survive

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (28:27)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (28:29)

ninety days without the owner in the building? Why is that such an important test? And then what's the fix when they fail the test?

Evan Duke, Exit Engineer (28:35)

It really needs to be a barrier exam and really for me they need to pass it at least once and that's right before we go to market because that business needs to be transferable and it can't be like okay owner included. It's not like for example, like you'll have maybe a kid's toy and I'll say batteries included. No, we need to have the business basically able to function without the owner.

and that 90 days, that's an entire quarter worth of operations. I mean, if we wanted to ultimately stress test it, you know, can it operate during the busy season without the owner? but really what it comes down to is like, okay, is this business are the key decisions able to be made? Are operations able to move forward without falling apart? invariably some businesses like when I come on.

It's not like they, fail it right away. They actually don't even really get a chance to get started just because even before we get to the first day, we begin to realize, yeah, there's just way too much owner dependency. But it is a critical test just because it exposes all of the areas that could possibly fall apart just because of that owner dependence.

Anthony Codispoti (29:48)

Evan, when you identify that there is too much owner dependency there, what's the fix?

Evan Duke (29:54)

Really the fix, and this is why getting that leadership team identified right away is so crucial, is because at that point that's when we just need to start delegating tasks. Usually it's one at a time. Of course, you know, it's possible we may be able to do, you know, since there are, you know, multiple people, it's possible we could get away with, you know, have you delegate this to this person, you delegate this to that, but that might overwhelm the owner. But the key is just finding a way to get

All the tasks delegated to somebody else. One other thing I should quickly mention when it comes to owner dependency is there's also a this is related but it's different, and that is key man dependency. And that is where you have one person in the business who they could be maybe generating 70% of the sales, or you know, operationally, if they're not there, everything falls apart.

That is another thing to keep an eye on and that that's also another thing that, by getting that leadership team built out and really getting an org chart right away, those types of things will come to the surface.

Anthony Codispoti (31:00)

Now, I understand that the way that you typically operate, Evan, is that you're usually only in the building one day a week with your clients.

Evan Duke (31:07)

Mm.

Anthony Codispoti (31:08)

So when you're there and you're overseeing things and you're following up and there's some accountability there, is it tricky to get folks to stick with the new processes, to continue that progress on those days that you're not in the building?

Evan Duke (31:21)

It can be. And really at the end of the day, this is where I know we've heard the adage it rises and falls on leadership. This is where really getting the owner on the same page and being really committed is key, just because if you can't get the stakeholder to care more than you do, then well, it really doesn't matter what you do. But circling back to that, yes, it is, and even if

Even if it's not people thinking this is stupid or whatnot, the reality is a lot of what I do it's disruptive, but it's also a transition. So the reality is just finding a way to get everybody right on track and keep on track is pivotal.

Launching Exit Ready Technologies

Anthony Codispoti (32:00)

So exit ready technologies, let's talk about this. This

Evan Duke (32:03)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (32:03)

came out of Evan Duke Enterprises in January of twenty twenty six. Where did the idea to start this come from? What what is it you wanted to do?

Evan Duke (32:11)

Well, having worked with a lot of really small, small businesses, I mean, I guess maybe we'd even call them micro businesses, you know, what I realize is a lot of what I do as a fractional, you know, there's an opportunity to really help, you know, this small this very large pool of businesses. it could be solopreneurs or it could be, you know, basically a two-man show. but at the end of the day, the reality is there are a lot of businesses.

That could benefit from what I do with fractional leadership solutions. But just because of the budget, you know, our retainer it's $6,000 a month. You know, if you have a business that is generating three or four million in revenue, okay, that's that's gonna be a an expense as you get ja as you go higher up with revenue, then okay, it becomes, you know, less and less of a an after more of an afterthought.

But if you're a business that's only generating 750K in revenue, that's almost 10% of your operating budget. So so really what this program is, it's an attempt to create SaaS applications that are budget solutions for the businesses in this area that, you know, they can actually get the help that they need. So that's really kind of where, you know.

That genesis was is realizing and I did a lot of work earlier this year working towards building out prototypes. So the while obviously we're not there ready for an MVP, at least I have a lot of stuff set up so that way I know roughly what things are going to need to look like.

Anthony Codispoti (33:47)

So let's fast forward a bit, kinda look in the crystal ball when this is ready and clients can come and start using it, what will their experience be like interacting with this software?

Evan Duke (33:58)

Really the goal is going to be just to help them, get what they need to get organized. one of the tools is it basically the operations excellence platform, which it's basically the essentially the fractional COO type of work, just trying to help them, as have a basically a virtual COO. Another big program is the virtual fractional controller, which some of it's going to be, you know, getting the books cleaned up, but a lot of it's going to be, you know.

making sure we get things standardized because one thing that's actually fairly common when it comes to cleaning up books is you'll have somebody spend year getting things years worth of transactions cleaned up. And then in a few months, hey great, we need to get everything cleaned up. And a lot again. And a lot of it it wasn't it was because while you needed to get the historical record straightened up, you needed to also make sure that you had the day to day

operations correct too. So that's that's really what that is. But really at the end of the day, it's an attempt to have an interactive program that's, you know, rather easy to figure out because again, if you're a business owner and you know you're putting in 50 to 60 hours a week, you need to have something that's rather easy and intuitive. So that's that's really kind of what the user experience emphasis is going to be on is ease of use.

Anthony Codispoti (35:16)

So walk me through a specific example here. Maybe I'm a smaller business, so I'm using something like QuickBooks or Zero. Am I coming to your tool and connecting my accounting software and there's some level of AI that's going in and reviewing those records and telling me some of the things that I should do?

Evan Duke (35:34)

That is actually it's funny you ask that. That's that's what the vision is. Now where I ham with the prototype process is we've got it set up so that the integration could be built in. but this is where having the dev team come in and and really again the emphasis on practical because I'm sure we've worked with those vi with visionaries who are like they have these incredible ideas. I mean, hey, if we can get it so that way we're able to get it.

just make it as easy as possible and actually have that element of AI. I would be all for it. But again, th and this is where, working with the dev team and making sure we're actually d able to develop something that is capable of it is going to be crucial.

Anthony Codispoti (36:17)

Gotcha. Okay, so let's think back to now let's go back to your fractional COO work, the exit planning work that you're presently doing today. How are you using AI and that workflow?

Evan Duke (36:28)

Well, that's a great question. And what I've discovered, I've had a lot of conversations with people about AI, and I feel like the benefit, especially on what I do on a day-to-day basis, is AI is a great force multiplier. If you know exactly what you're doing, you can get things streamlined. So I like a lot of the operations, the reports, you know, it's it's able to really crunch the numbers. Like, you know, if I were to get

let's say, for example, build out SOPs for a company. And I needed five, you know, forms. Ba basically I I actually have a s about three dozen assessments that I can use as needed to generate really whatever is required when it comes to institutional memory. Let's say I needed five forms. Well, I'm able to get that, collate it, and then within a matter of minutes.

Get but get basically a rough draft ready so that way we can sit down and say, okay, this is what everybody's answers were. This is what we were all able to come up with. Now comes the hard part. It's like, okay, we got all this collated. Is this in fact what it looks like, or are we missing things? Because it's getting that rough draft, I've found that's the best ext expectation with AI, because I've yet to see something AI does.

them yeah, it's a hundred percent ready. There's almost always some tweaking, but it's that eliminating that grunt work that really makes it easier for us to really, focus on conversations with people, focus on, you know, maybe we need to have a deeper discussion. So that's that's really kind of how I've been using AI and really found it to be effective is is offloading a lot of repetitive, automatable work.

Anthony Codispoti (38:07)

Yeah, that way you can have more FaceTime with the client, which is where

Evan Duke (38:10)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (38:11)

a lot of your value really comes from. And maybe,

Evan Duke (38:13)

Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (38:14)

maybe that informs the answer to my next question, which is can you envision envision a future in which the AI becomes so good that it replaces you, threatens your position, your the work that the value that you you present?

Evan Duke (38:29)

I know that there are some people who might say yes to that question. I'm gonna have to say no, and the reason why is, you know, the problem with AI is while it when it comes to hard skills, I mean, there's the potential for it to outstrip what I can do. There are really two things that I think would gonna prevent that. The first one is like, you know, okay, we may eventually get to a solution to that. And this is why I feel like AI

Really, it's not going to be able to replace any jobs. it's it it can make our us be more productive and it might actually force some roles to be combined with others. But the reality is AI it just lacks consistency. I mean, even even some of the things that I do on a day to day basis, you know, it either will make mistakes or it's it lacks consistency. So really the

AI would need to be able to get to a point where we ha it basically has a very, very the the no the amount of mistakes that it's making or inconsistencies, it's almost negligible. So there's a bit of a way there. The second

Anthony Codispoti (39:32)

Yeah.

Evan Duke (39:32)

reason, and and this is why I feel like I I I mean go so far as to say even the janitorial work, you know, even the lowest level in your company, I don't think AI is in danger of it is

AI doesn't think like you and I do. It doesn't look at a decision and be like, you know, okay, this is what we should do. It there there's subjective elements with every job that somebody does that AI completely misses. And I I've once heard somebody say AI is kind of like a two-year-old with a doctoral degree. yes, AI has some great knowledge and expertise, but the problem is it just

doesn't know how to handle really complex decisions and really decide in a human context what is the best decision. So I I feel like I'm not sure we're ever going to be able to get to that. And it can be helpful with reasoning things, but it just doesn't have the ability. And the only way you can get that is through a actual human experience. And I I just don't see that and so I feel like if anything

The takeaway should be anybody who might be listening to this question, I don't think your job is ever going to be replaced with AI. It'll be transformed somewhat and you'll probably need to learn how to use it. But the reality is AI is it it's it's gonna be a force multiplier. It's not gonna be a replacement.

Anthony Codispoti (40:53)

Well, and the way I've heard it explained from some folks is your job is less likely to be replaced by AI than it is to be replaced by somebody who's very comfortable using AI. And so

Evan Duke (41:04)

Yeah, exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (41:05)

don't fear it, embrace it, learn how to use it and leverage it to become better at what you do.

Evan Duke (41:10)

Absolutely. I agree a hundred percent there.

The Hardest Thing to Overcome

Anthony Codispoti (41:12)

Let's let's go to the hardest question, my favorite one. So folks who have listened to the show, longtime listeners, they know this is one of my favorites. Because, you know, one of the things that teaches us some of the most powerful lessons in life are going through really hard things. that just that forges our minds and our behaviors and directs them in ways that wouldn't have come about otherwise.

Evan Duke (41:34)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (41:34)

So, Evan, I wanna ask you what's one of the hardest things you've ever had to overcome?

And what did going through that teach you?

Evan Duke (41:42)

is a great question. And I feel like a few years ago there was a situation where, it it was involving a very challenging person in an organization who has really I think if anybody had looked at it, they would have been like, we need this person needs to be removed. She actually forced one person to resign. And I was trying to talk with people in the organization saying, look, we've got to and I feel like actually there are several people who actually lied to me in the process and they

They actually agreed with me, but they decided to just not follow through. But we had this meeting where I said, Look, look, look, we need to address this. Nobody wanted to address it, and I actually turned in my resignation. And, you know, I look back on that and I feel like, you know, it was it was frustrating in that situation because I looked back on it and thought, Well, you know, I did everything like

When it came to documenting things, trying to, make an airtight case, you know, just talking with everybody, just to make sure that, you know, I had the people on board with this process that and even then, you know, I'm sh I I'm have no doubt if I were to go back to those conversations, which I had them documented via email, I would look back and say, Yeah, I had the I had the people there to back me up.

I think what was really helpful with that decision, that situation is like if you go back to the second season of Star Trek The Next Generation. Yes, my wife and I are big Trekkies. There's an episode where Dada was playing 3D chess with this, I I forget who it was, but it was essentially it was this basically chess wizard. Just, you know, just unbelievable. So we we were thinking, okay, well.

Obviously the computer is going to be this being. Well, no, Data actually lost. And the entirety of the episode, I I forget what the main plot was. This was kind of like a subplot. But during the course of the episode, Data's trying to figure out what is it? Was it something wrong with his programming? Was something defective with his memory banks? And he comes to Picard towards the end of the episode and says, I'm sorry, sir, you're going to have to deactivate me. And

Picard looks at him quizzically and goes, Why? It's like, well, you know, I lost to this person in chess. It was, you know, with on only about 30 moves, and there there's just something wrong with me. And he's and that's when Picard said, Data, you can make all of the right decisions and still lose. That's life. And I think that is a very powerful lesson that, you know.

when I watched it the first time, I thought, okay, that's that's a that's a great line and really a just a great story, but it's it's a powerful lesson for anybody in life that you can make the right decisions and still lose just because of the fact that, hey, especially in the business world or in really anything else, other people, you know, in my case, I you know, it was dependent on other people being willing to make

Hard and right decisions, well, there were a lot of people who weren't willing to do that. And I think there was a lot of manipulation that was going on behind the scenes that twisted them. And even though they'd said something, I think they decide, okay, I'm going to side with this person who had really developed a reputation for being a troublemaker. But that's that's really, I think, the probably the answer to your question, and I think best takeaway.

Anthony Codispoti (45:00)

Yeah. So it sounds like there was this work situation, you're consulting, and there was somebody who was toxic and they needed to go. But they

Evan Duke (45:07)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (45:08)

were so intimidating that they, even though you had conversations with other folks who agreed, yes, this is

Evan Duke (45:14)

Mm-hmm.

Anthony Codispoti (45:14)

toxic, this needs to change, when push came to shove and this group meeting took place where everybody's supposed to speak up and sort of cast their vote and the support for you.

bringing this hard thing to the surface. They were too afraid. They'd been manipulated. Whatever had taken place behind the scenes, they didn't step up and provide that support that they had promised you. You're standing there all alone now. And you're like, all right, like nothing I can do here. I've I've I've done the things kind of like data. Like I made all the right decisions. I made the right moves. I did things in the correct way, but there are certain things that are out of my control.

This is just the situation where I need to step away from and and and not spin my wheels anymore.

Evan Duke (45:58)

Exactly.

Anthony Codispoti (45:58)

And so as you think about the work that you're doing now, Evan, what is it that you most want to be remembered for?

Evan Duke (46:04)

I think really with this business it's a matter of the impact. And I'll I'll use a story. it's actually an investment banker I do a lot of work with. He likes to cite this about how there is this CPA who worked w he worked with told him this story and that was that years ago he had a client come in and say, you know, hey, I just had received this fifty two million dollar unsolicited offer.

And I don't know about you, but I'm thinking, hey, if somebody were to offer to pay me fifty-two million dollars for my business, I'd like, hey, that that sounds like a pretty good deal. That's not what the CPA did. He didn't say you know you should take it. It's like, well, that sounds like a good offer, but I'm not sure it's a fair offer. Let me reach out to my network and get an estimate of what the value of your business is. Well, within

No short order, he came back with results saying that that business wasn't worth $52 million. It was worth $70 million. So by that simple action, he basically preserved at least $18 million in value for his client. And that's that's a tremendous impact. And really the way I look at it is the work that I'm trying to do is find ways to help that person who founded that business.

not only get maximum value from the sale, but, hey, their kids and grandkids, they might be able to pass that building where that business is for the near future and say, that's a part of the family legacy. My dad or grandfather founded it. So I think what it comes down to is it's it's more about impact, being able to say, yeah, I made a difference. And it was a difference that it it could be a multi-million dollar difference or it could be

having a business that is going to basically go on for a long time to come.

Anthony Codispoti (47:48)

Evan, before I ask my last question, I just want to do three quick things for the audience. And the first one is anybody who wants to get in touch with Evan, you're interested in his fractional COO work, maybe you want to know more about the exit planning services that he provides, go to his website, evanduke.com. It'll be in the show notes, but easy to spell and remember, evanduke.com. Also, if you're enjoying the show,

Take a moment, subscribe wherever you're listening. See, it also sends a signal that helps others discover our show. So thanks for taking a quick moment to do that. And as a reminder to all business advisors out there, your clients are bleeding money on health insurance. Do them a favor so big they'll tell their friends about it. Show them how to give their employees access to therapists, doctors, and prescription medications that counterintuitively increases.

It increases the company's net profits. These are real gains that can change how a business is valued. Learn more about this product from Bain Capital Insurance at AddBackBenefits.com. So last question for you, Evan. A year from now, what is one very specific thing that you hope to be celebrating?

Evan Duke (48:54)

That's a great question. And it's actually a c a conversation that, I've actually had with my wife. What I'm really hoping at this time to be celebrating, and really my my goal is th next summer to be able to start reaching out to a a dev shop to actually start really working towards taking the prototypes that I've designed and turning them into at least an MVP, hopefully being able to take it

the product the SaaS products for exit ready technologies, really take some major steps towards actually turning them into reality. So that's really the the goal I'm hoping to be celebrating at this time next year is that, you know, not only I've had that conversation, but I've been able to move forward. So that that's what I would like to be

Anthony Codispoti (49:36)

Love it. Evan Duke, I want to be the first to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate you

Evan Duke (49:41)

Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti (49:41)

being here.

Evan Duke (49:42)

Thank you for having me.

Anthony Codispoti (49:43)

Hey folks, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcast. Thanks for learning with us. And if one thing stood out, put that into action today.

Connect with Evan Duke:

Website: evanduke.com