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by Rob DiFranco on March 19, 2026
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At the Exit Planning Summit, leaders in the exit-planning space convene to share their passion for helping business owners build more significant companies. With their expertise, these leaders have authored numerous writings to teach, inspire, and innovate the space.
Join us from April 19-21 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee, as we showcase these must-read exit planning books.
Christopher Snider, CEPA®, Waking to Destiny
For Business Owners. By a Business Owner. Walking to Destiny is not only your essential resource for understanding what makes your business attractive and ready for transition; it is also a business owner’s handbook for rapidly growing value and ultimately unlocking the personal wealth trapped in your most significant financial asset: Your Business.
The book is also designed to bridge the gap between advisors and owners, putting them on the same page. From an advisor's perspective, the Value Acceleration Methodology™ has become the leading process for exit planning and is prominently utilized by exit planning advisors worldwide.
Tommy Breedlove, Legendary
In Legendary, Tommy Breedlove provides a playbook of simple tools and strategies anyone can use to become truly Legendary in business and in life. Created from years of research, study, and practice in the areas of self-development, mindset mastery, relationship building, and business leadership, the Legendary playbook can help business owners and advisors alike in achieving greater financial and business success, discovering their purpose, leading others with courage, conviction, and passion, and much more.
Ben Utecht, The Champion's Creed: Transform Your Culture Through The Power of Belief
Ben Utecht is a former NFL tight end with the Indianapolis Colts and Cincinnati Bengals, a Super Bowl champion, and Chief Culture Officer of True North Private Equity. In The Champion’s Creed, Ben unveils the blueprint for forging unbeatable teams in any arena. Central to this methodology is the creation of a “Culture Creed”―a dynamic manifesto that transcends typical mission statements.
The Champion’s Creed is a resource for visionaries aiming to leave an indelible mark on their industry and also provides the secrets to building a legacy of success, inspiring peak performance, and creating an organizational culture that stands the test of time.
Joe Strazzeri, CEPA, Esq., Motive
Successful families and business owners tolerate far too much angst and pain surrounding their material assets and cherished relationships. What if hope for a better way was closer than you knew to be possible?
This book is packed with uncommon insights, boots-on-the-ground exercises, and real client stories.
You will emerge from the experience with a profound exhale of relief and practical steps to make the journey from friction to ease.
George Stefanou, CEPA, CFP, Two-Comma Wealth: Investment, Tax, and Estate Strategies to Consider When Your Net Worth Exceeds a Million Dollars
In Two-Comma Wealth, financial advisor George Stefanou, a twice-recognized Forbes Best-In-State Top Next-Gen Wealth Advisor, draws on his more than fifteen years of professional experience partnering with clients to manage their wealth and investments, tax considerations, and estate strategies to help you confidently navigate the unique challenges and opportunities that come with two-comma wealth.
You’ll learn how to not only responsibly manage and navigate the complexities of wealth, but also translate it into true, lasting happiness.
Justin Goodbread, CEPA, CFP, CVGA, The Ultimate Sale: A Financially Simple Guide to Selling a Business for Maximum Profit |Your Baby's Ugly: Maximize the Value of Your Business or You'll Have Nothing to Sell
If you own a business and plan to retire one day, the sale of your business must be part of your retirement strategy. Are you like most business owners, with all of your net worth tied up in your business? If you only have a 20% chance of selling your business, that can be devastating. Even if you are lucky enough to be in the minority who do sell, will you get what you need from the sale to live the lifestyle you want to live?
Discover proven exit strategies business owners have successfully used to sell their businesses and rise above the statistics. The Ultimate Sale is your guide to navigating business sales, mergers, and buyouts, and prepares you and your business for the next chapter in your life.
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Your Baby’s Ugly helps business owners improve their businesses in eight key areas that will set them up for growth in revenue and profits today, not just for eventually selling their business. By focusing on the present as shown, owners will have more sales, more profit, and even more exit options.
Those who operate their own company, firm, or practice typically plan for everything ― except success. Too often, business owners focus only on generating an income from their operations; they fail to realize that the real payoff comes from building an enterprise that has value beyond the income they earn annually. The result is a squandered opportunity to truly achieve the American Dream.
Renee Russo, CEPA, Ready to Rise (Revised Edition): Upgrade Your System. Upgrade Your Life.
Change is inevitable, but thriving through it is a choice. In Ready to Rise, Exit Planning Institute Thought Leadership Council member Renee Russo shares her powerful personal transformation journey and offers a practical roadmap to help you elevate your energy, take charge of your circumstances, and design a life on your own terms. More than just an inspiring story, this book serves as a field guide filled with actionable insights and practical tools to help you rethink your energy management, break free from limitations, and create lasting change. With an easy-to-follow companion guide, you'll learn how to upgrade your system and enhance your life.
Mike Garrison, CEPA, Can I Borrow Your Car?: How Successful Financial Advisors Grow Their Business and Love Their Life
Referrals can be the key to a business-changing network of connections and self-generating opportunities. You just need to be the kind of person others are comfortable taking that risk with, and make sure you don’t wreck their ‘car’.
In Can I Borrow Your Car? Mike Garrison takes you through the key points of making yourself a dependable and desirable target for referrals. Learn how to focus your energies and strategies to maximum effect, build and nurture referral networks of the right contacts, and find fulfillment through changing people’s lives for the better.
Jerome Myers, MBA, CEPA, Exit to Excellence: A Journey to Your N.E.X.T. / Your N.E.X.T.?: Finding Fulfillment After Your Exit
Exit to Excellence: A Journey to Your N.E.X.T. follows the journey of James, a successful entrepreneur who, after selling his business, finds himself grappling with an unexpected void. Through his story, the book explores the Founder’s Exit Paradox, where financial success doesn’t always bring fulfillment, and reveals the emotional and psychological challenges of life after business. Using the N.E.X.T. framework—Nourish, Evaluate, eXplore, and Transcend—it provides a roadmap for founders seeking clarity, purpose, and a meaningful next chapter. Packed with insights, exercises, and real-world applications, this book is an essential guide for any founder navigating life beyond the exit.
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Embark on a transformative journey with Your N.E.X.T.: A Guide to Finding Fulfillment After Your Exit. This groundbreaking book is not just a guide; it's an adventure into the heart of what comes after a major career shift. Discover the N.E.X.T. framework (Nourish, Evaluate, eXplore, Transcend) that will inspire and guide you towards a life overflowing with purpose and passion. Whether you're stepping away from a lifetime career or transitioning out of business ownership, this book is your roadmap to a future brimming with possibilities and new horizons. Uncover the secrets to reinventing your identity, embracing change, and building a fulfilling, meaningful life. Your next chapter awaits – vibrant, rich, and full of potential. Your N.E.X.T. is more than just a book; it's the beginning of your most exciting journey yet.
Scott Bushkie, Finish Strong: Sell Your Business on Your Terms
Scott Bushkie provides sound advice and concrete steps so business owners can Finish Strong and exit their business on their own terms.
With more than two decades of insight, Scott covers everything from the importance of timing to buyer types, valuation, legacy, and lifestyle, with the ultimate goal of explaining options and providing peace of mind.
Owners can be confident in their right steps as they make what might be the largest financial transaction of their lives.
Steve Tenney, CEPA, RIA Succession Alpha
Succession planning isn’t a someday project. It’s the key to building a firm that thrives today and endures tomorrow. Steve Tenney wrote RIA Succession Alpha because too many owners delay the conversation until their options are limited and their leverage is gone. As the former CEO of a $650M RIA, a CEPA, and a strategic advisor to RIA owners, Steve has seen how succession is often treated like a one-time transaction. To the contrary, it’s a strategic process that touches all firm elements: growth, systems, people, and value- all things that help a firm be successful today. This book demystifies that process and invites owners to take control of their future, before someone else does.
Abby Donnelly, CEPA, An Insider’s Guide to Succession and Exit: 10 Powerful Principles for Transitioning Your Business
Every business owner will exit their business one day. So, what does it take to exit well?
In An Insider’s Guide to Succession and Exit: 10 Powerful Principles for Transitioning Your Business, you will unlock practical, battle-tested advice, actionable insights, real-world stories, and expert advice to help you plan a clear path forward to achieve the outcomes you want.
An Insider’s Guide is the ultimate roadmap for business owners, successors, and trusted advisors, offering a fresh perspective and insights for navigating this complex transition.
Read An Insider’s Guide to Succession and Exit
Dave Ramos, The Three Shifts - How to Develop a Differentiating Competitive Advantage
Every business school teaches that companies must develop a competitive advantage, but they don’t teach you how to do it. They have theoretical frameworks. Endless 2x2 matrices. SWOTs. Five Forces. Blue Oceans.
Those frameworks are helpful, but they don’t teach you how to develop a competitive advantage. Yet every private equity firm, venture capital firm, and serious investor uses a company’s competitive advantage as a key investment criterion.
So, creating a competitive advantage is mission-critical. It is the most important driver of company value. To address this problem, Dave Ramos developed a methodology that is both profoundly simple and incredibly effective: The Three Shifts.
Bruce Eckfeldt, CEPA, Springboard: A Strategic Guide for Founder-CEOs Planning to Exit Their Businesses
Most founders treat selling a business as a financial transaction, and research shows that 75% regret it within a year.
Springboard is a different approach to exit planning. It's a strategic guide to preparing your business, preparing yourself, and designing what comes next, so your business exit becomes a launching pad, not an ending.
Springboard walks you through the complete exit planning journey—preparing yourself, preparing your business, and designing what comes after—so selling your company becomes the beginning of something better, not the end of everything that mattered.
Related Resources
- Our Must-Reads for Exit Planning on National Read a Book Day
- 8 Exit Planning Books to Read on National Book Lovers Day
- Unlock the Full Exit Planning Summit Experience in Nashville
