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by Colleen Kowalski on March 17, 2022
Power Sessions offer the Exit Planning Summit attendees the opportunity to hear presenters challenge the status quo and offer new ideas to professional advisors. In the past, exit planning was seen as a transactional service: an advisor helping an owner sell their business. Our community of advisors, industry experts, and business owners have challenged that idea and have since grown exit planning, and advisory practices in general, to a more transformational experience.
These Power Sessions are similar to a TED Talk and provide the audience with a thought-provoking, inspiring, and motivational experience that transforms the way we think and provides actionable education and insights.
Summit attendees will hear from experts who represent Experiences, People, and Innovation. Three elements are needed to be a top advisor in the exit planning space.
One of these experts is Linda Ruffenach, who will speak to the Experiences and Innovation categories.
Meet Linda Ruffenach
Linda’s purpose is to use her gifts, experience, and knowledge to guide current and future business owners to maximize their potential. Her 20+ years of C-suite level experience growing a $100 million business, enables her to relate to the challenges business owners face every day. She founded Execuity Value Advisors and Whisky Chicks in the same year. Both companies embrace the idea that knowledge and experience breed confidence. Linda is a skilled facilitator and has developed a systematic approach for measuring and improving the value of a business. More importantly, she knows how to turn strategy into results. Be sure to check out her podcast, “Wealth Empowerment State of Mind” and her book, How to Be a Bourbon Badass.
About Linda’s Session
People no longer buy products and services – they are seeking experiences. Discover how to create memorable encounters that will help you stand out and create stronger connections.
In addition to building a thriving business advisory practice, Linda started a group called Whisky Chicks. It is all about making learning about whisky fun and approachable. She has designed 100’s of experiences. Each one is unique based upon the audience and designed to create memorable moments.
Today, she combines her passion for helping businesses thrive with her talent for engagement to create lead-generating opportunities for her and her strategic business partners.
Join her as she shares simple, yet effective, ways to get people excited about your events. Discover how to create win-win situations even with what may be seen as “competition”. Everything from identifying your target audience, engaging with influencers, to aligning and linking your offering to unexpected experiences.
Join her as she shares simple, yet effective, ways to get people excited about your events. Discover how to create win-win situations even with what may be seen as “competition”. Everything from identifying your target audience, engaging with influencers, to aligning and linking your offering to unexpected experiences.
In this session, Summit attendees will:
- Knowledge & experience breeds confidence and how that relates to exit planning
- Importance of knowing your target audience and identifying influencers
- Striking strategic alliances and win-win situations
- Everything speaks – creating memorable experiences
Your Power Session is all about innovation and creating unique experiences for people. How does creating unique experiences benefit advisors?
Linda: The whole exit planning process can be very intimidating. Many have never really heard or thought about the process until it is almost too late. Even if they know it is something they need to do, they may avoid it because they do not understand it or do not know where to begin.
By creating interesting and different ways to engage business owners and demonstrating the importance of exit planning in a meaningful way, business owners are more likely to ask questions, reach out for guidance about how they get started on their journey.
One of my favorite quotes from Walt Disney is “Everything speaks.” Make a good first impression with a memorable moment. From the second a potential prospect begins to interact with you and your company, it conveys something about your brand and the experience they can expect.
The secret to good brand building is understanding your customer, what is important to them, and where they are on their journey. You must think about their wants, needs, and fears. Create customer personas and then design an experience around what they want versus what you want.
Your book, How to Be a Bourbon Badass highlights how lives can be changed through “bourbon badass” confidence. How does this relate to the professional advisor?
Linda: The whole premise of being a Bourbon Badass comes from the idea that knowledge and experience breed confidence, and once you have that confidence it is much easier to embrace your inner badass and feel empowered.
This same concept can transcend into providing business owners with the education, insight, and guidance so they feel more confident in their decisions to increase the value of their business and to transition their business. Most owners do not have the knowledge and experience to sell their business and that is why they need someone who is certified and can guide them through the process.
What is the key takeaway you want Summit attendees to gain from your session?
Linda: How to create experiences, either one on one or in a group, that provide business owners with the information they need in an approachable and informative way. The ultimate goal is to get them to the place where the owner feels confident and secure in making one of the most important decisions of their lives without regret. To get started, you have to meet them where they are.
How would you define a successful leader?
Linda: Simply put, a humble leader is a successful leader.
What mindset shift do advisors need to have in order to innovate?
Linda: Business owners don’t know what they don’t know. They do not always speak or understand the language of exit planning and if you are too confident, your client may not ask the questions they should ask because they are intimidated.
Advisors need to pause and remember that the experience of transitioning a business is new for most business owners. It is uncharted territory with a whole lot riding on doing it right. Take the time to educate and inform and build up the confidence of the owner so they make the right decision for themselves.
What advice do you have for women looking to start their own business?
Linda: This is for every business owner. Know and understand how you are going to make money. Find a good tax advisor. If you are going to take on a partner recognize it is just like a marriage, communication and trust is the most important thing. Be clear in what you want and don’t want and ask the same of them and always keep the end in mind even from the beginning.
How do you utilize your position to empower women and champion equality in the business world?
Linda: I take all I have learned over the years to create experiences that make learning about different topics fun, approachable, and useful. It can be everything from leading a bourbon tasting to walking through business financials. If you remove the intimidation factor, people are more likely to ask questions and be more engaged in the learning process.
I recently launched a new event series called “Women, Wealth, Whiskey, and Wine” where we drive the conversation about money over cocktails. Women oversee 80% of disposable income, yet more than 75% are not comfortable investing and 56% of married women leave investment and long-term financial planning decisions to their husbands. Women on average have $0.32 in savings for every $1 a man has saved, for African American women it is $0.06. One of the main drivers is that we as women do not talk about money enough. Just like bourbon, we may find it too intimidating or fall victim to the social norms we have created in our minds from past experiences or how we were raised.
We all know business owners can be the worst at saving for retirement, relying on the value of their business to fund their retirement. When you combine that with the fact that women tend to have less money in savings, delegate responsibility for financial planning, and do not actively manage their taxes, more education is needed to build confidence and wealth empowerment. Check out my podcast as well Wealth Empowerment State of Mind
How have you acted as a mentor for young women?
Linda: I love working with aspiring female leaders and entrepreneurs. I do this through my role as Executive in Residence for the Forcht Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Louisville where I can teach and mentor undergraduate and graduate students.
I also find myself in the unique position of supporting many women business owners on their business transition journey.
Other than your session, what are you most looking forward to at this year’s Exit Planning Summit?
Linda: Networking and meeting other CEPAs and finding ways we can collectively inform, educate, and empower business owners so they are prepared to transition their business under their terms.
The 2022 Exit Planning Summit
We are excited to welcome hundreds of Certified Exit Planning Advisors Sunday, May 1 – Tuesday, May 3, 2022, to Scottsdale, Arizona for a conference where top advisors, their teams, and business owners come to build deep relationships, share unique experiences, and uncover innovative solutions for their business.
The Exit Planning Summit is the coming together of the CEPA Community. The best CEPAs from around the world collaborate with their supporting partners and colleagues that are all helping business owners to create more significant companies. CEPAs will develop new or further current relationships, learn best practices, and advance themselves as advisors. Advisors will leave the Exit Planning Summit not only galvanized to accelerate their practice but with the tools and connections to do so.
Learn more about the Exit Planning Summit and register to reserve your spot today!
Register for the Exit Planning Summit!
