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All right.

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We made it.

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Welcome everyone.

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So even though no one is probably asking how we started, I think it's important that we

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share our origin story here today, just to get things kicked off on the right foot, so

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to speak.

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So James, correct me if I'm wrong, but we were in Atlanta.

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It was a long day in the car.

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I forget where we were driving from and to, but we were doing some work together and we

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were talking about a lot of different things in the car that day.

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Our business, some of our clients' businesses, some trials and tribulations that we were

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having, they were having.

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And from the back seat, I believe it was the gentleman who is now known as Producer Matt.

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He was just Matt at the time, but Producer Matt planted the idea that maybe we should

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start a podcast.

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Is that right, James?

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Am I remembering that right?

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Yeah, exactly.

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And, you know, I think we latched onto that idea primarily because it was something that

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we had kind of toyed around with for the last couple of years.

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You know, I've seen obviously that channel or that medium growing in popularity.

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We've had a lot of banter back and forth over the years, worked together for about five

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years now, and we thought it would be a good idea.

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So who knows?

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Maybe we'll get no listeners.

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We may be the only people to ever hear this first recording, but we'll see where we go

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from there.

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And I'm glad Matt gave us the suggestion and I'm glad that we're giving it a shot, right?

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So welcome everyone.

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And James, out of curiosity, how much time did it take you to buy the equipment we needed

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for this podcast recording?

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Well, to buy was quite quick.

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The copious amounts of research and toiling was the thing that really took the longest.

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But about 14 clicks and three shipments later, we got it all in.

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Here we are.

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Excellent.

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It's also important to share with folks that I think coming up with the name was probably

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the hardest part.

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I was pretty dead set on the first name that I came up with.

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And for those of you who don't know, James and I, we share a lot in common, work-wise,

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personal-wise.

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We're both recently turned 40.

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And the idea that I had was that we should call the podcast Middle Aged in the Middle

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Market because I thought it reflected where we were in our lives.

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I think our wives voted that down.

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Was that correct?

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Yeah.

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And we felt like maybe Growing EBITDA was a little bit more relevant to what it was that

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we were trying to convey expertise in.

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So here we are, Growing EBITDA.

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We're running with that until somebody tells us that we can't.

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So here we go.

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So let's talk for a minute, James, about what this is.

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What are we trying to do here?

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The Growing EBITDA podcast, we're trying to unlock management and technology insights

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or share management and technology insights in the middle market, right?

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Where we spend the vast majority of our time and have spent the vast majority of our careers.

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We're going to cover a range of topics, all focused on growing EBITDA in middle market

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companies.

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For those of you who are less familiar with what EBITDA means, we're going to cover that.

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But the key takeaway there with the name should just be, we're trying to grow businesses,

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right?

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We're trying to grow profitable businesses under control.

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And hopefully our listeners will gain some knowledge from whatever it is that we end

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up sharing with them over time.

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And hopefully we'll get some guests to join us so we can actually have some experts on

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the line.

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I think that's probably a first step in the right direction.

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And we get some actually smart people on here.

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Definitely.

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So looking forward to that.

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What we're going to talk about, digital and tech.

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Obviously, James, where you spend a lot of your time, operations management and operations

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efficiency, something near and dear to our hearts at TriVista.

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We'll talk a little bit more about TriVista in a few minutes.

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And private equity, which is increasingly a hot topic in the middle market.

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And then last but not least, like we talked about, we're going to have some experts on

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who are going to share their career stories and hopefully some insights and some knowledge

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and best practices that they've learned growing their respective companies.

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Really excited.

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So what do you think?

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Introduce ourselves a little bit.

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Sure.

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Hopefully people are still listening.

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Who knows if they make it to this point.

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Hopefully your bio won't bore them too much.

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But give it a shot.

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Tell us who you are.

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Yeah.

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So James Bandy.

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I've been at TriVista for five years, but prior to that began my career owning my own

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business, starting out really kind of growing my own EBITDA from scratch and experiencing

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that.

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So I got to live and learn in that.

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And then I went in to go work at corporate organizations throughout North and South America

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and then did some work in Europe for a while as well.

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I really focused on the operational side of IT and then e-commerce and digital transformation.

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And I joined TriVista about five years ago to launch a digital and technology practice.

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And Mike, now I help companies get more other technology investments.

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Yeah.

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And you guys have been doing a great, great job with that.

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Been one of the fastest, the fastest growing part of our business since you joined.

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So we're excited to have you.

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I'm pumped to be here with you.

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And I've learned a lot from you about technology and I'm sure everybody else will too.

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So I'm Mike McSweeney, also a partner at TriVista.

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My background, considerably different than yours.

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I started working for a large Fortune 300 business, large industrial conglomerate.

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Fairly early on in my career though, I had an opportunity to start TriVista with some

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of our other partners and spent a lot of my career building an advisory business where

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I ultimately transitioned about five or six years ago to running an investment business

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called TriVista Capital.

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We'll talk about that a little bit more later.

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My background really is in the private equity ecosystem, fairly deep in operations, but

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consider myself really an expert in private equity and M&A.

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Also have a strong background in sales and marketing.

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So very different yet hopefully for our listeners, complementary skill sets.

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We'll get the banter going here pretty soon too, once we get through this first episode.

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So who is TriVista?

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Well, we're a leading operations and technology consulting firm.

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We help middle market companies streamline their processes, enhance productivity and achieve

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sustainable growth.

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We do a lot of work in the mid-market.

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We do a lot of work in the private equity ecosystem.

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That's where we started and that's where we're still very active today.

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Although we do a lot of work outside of that realm as well.

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Who is TriVista Capital?

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I mentioned earlier, I run TriVista Capital.

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That's the strategic co-investment affiliate of TriVista Consulting.

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In that business, we align TriVista's broader interests with those of some of our private

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equity clients.

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So I spend most of my time collaborating with those clients on co-investments and helping

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to grow and improve the value of some of those entities.

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So not dissimilar from the work that the consulting group does just in a slightly different capacity,

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more of a complementary capacity.

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So what are our goals with this podcast, James?

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My opinion, hopefully provide some valuable insights to folks, help them make some informed

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decisions, drive their own growth, maximize their own companies, EBITDA, and who knows,

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maybe create kind of a community where business leaders can learn from other industry experts

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and share their experiences.

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We're trying for bi-weekly aspirational goal.

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I think we can do it.

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You think we can do it?

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100%.

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I think we can do that.

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Episode format is going to change a little bit probably from episode to episode, do some

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interviews, do some topical focused episodes, and who knows what this will evolve into.

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So don't miss out on the upcoming ones.

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Subscribe on wherever it is that you even listen to podcasts.

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I'm still learning about the podcast game.

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I use Spotify.

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Apparently, Apple has their own podcast thing.

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I'm sure there's like 15 more.

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James probably knows all of them.

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And follow us on Travis's LinkedIn for updates and other content we might post there.

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And we want this to be informative and also engaging.

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So if you're an audience member, you have topics that you want us to address, give us

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a shout.

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Email, drop us a DM as the kids would say.

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There, James, you like that?

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Yeah.

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And thanks for tuning into our first episode.

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If you're listening to this, know that you're listener number one.

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And we're hopefully going to get 10 or 12 over the next couple of years.

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We'll see.

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We'll see how we go.

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Thanks everyone.

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Bye bye.