Chris Burkell has been a scout in the Marine Corps LAR community for 17 years. He has deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, fought for training opportunities that never came through, and watched the Marines he most respected walk out the door one by one.

In this episode of Better Questions, Kevin sits down with Chris for an honest ground level conversation about what is actually breaking the Corps. Retention, toxic leadership, training culture, the I and I staff problem, and the uncomfortable truth that the institution has a habit of losing its best people while keeping the ones who should have been shown the door years ago.

Chris is not a policy guy or a think tank analyst. He is someone who has lived this for nearly two decades and still believes enough in the organization to go back to school, commission, and try to be part of the change from the inside.

If you have served, are currently serving, or just want an honest conversation about leadership and institutional culture, this one is worth your time.

Kevin Hohe has taken 60 calls from private equity firms wanting to buy Complete Fence. He's turned every one of them down.

In this episode of Better Questions, Kevin sits down with an advisor from FMI to get a real education on ESOPs — employee stock ownership plans — and whether selling equity to his own people makes more sense than selling to outside investors.

They cover the full mechanics of how an ESOP works, the tax advantages that can make it more lucrative than a private equity sale, governance and board structure post transaction, and what it actually means for the people on the ground when their company becomes employee owned.

Kevin is 36, doesn't need the money, and is asking the one question that actually matters to him: what do I owe the people who helped build this thing?

If you run a trades business or any small to mid size company and you've ever wondered what your exit options actually look like, or whether you even want one, this is the episode to listen to.

Zach Nol runs a Paintless Dent Repair business in Minnesota. Two months ago he was a solo technician doing every job himself and losing momentum fast. Today he has an integrator, an executive admin, 30 body shop relationships in progress, and a ten year target of $50 million.

This episode of Better Questions is a real working session between Kevin and one of his coaching clients. They cover the structure of the PDR industry, whether Zach needs his own body shop to hit his growth goals, how private equity consolidation is reshaping the automotive trades, and what relationship selling actually looks like when you're building from scratch.

If you've ever felt stuck between staying small and going big, this conversation will hit different.

Connect with Zach ⤵️

IG: https://www.instagram.com/dent_details_mn/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/zachary.knoll.3/
Web: https://www.dentdetails.com/paint-protection-film-on-your-chevy

Watch the full interview on YouTube

https://youtu.be/1uZAgoPAkJ8