Advertise on podcast: Smart Business Dealmakers: The Middle-Market M&A Podcast

Business owners preparing for a company sale are often focused entirely on the transaction itself. While maximizing the headline price is the intuitive goal, it means very little without a strategy to maximize the wealth that follows.   Fulton Private Bank's Michael Shore, a Senior Wealth Planner, and Jon Adams, a Wealth Advisor, dive into the critical mechanics of pre-sale planning. They discuss why waiting until the wire transfer hits to call a wealth adviser is a costly mistake, how to conduct a wealth gap analysis to ensure post-sale liquidity can actually sustain a seller's desired lifestyle, and how to evaluate complex deal terms like earn-outs and rollover equity from a risk-preservation standpoint.

As the Co-Founder and now Chairman Emeritus of Michigan-based Emagine Entertainment, Paul Glantz championed an evolution that turned a single, 265-seat theater in 1989 into the 10th largest theater operator in North America with more than 1,000 employees. Paul balanced responsibilities as a CFO, and eventually CEO, of Proctor Financial while growing his burgeoning theater enterprise, raising investment capital from more than 100 private angel investors. During the height of the pandemic when theater's across the country went dark, he acquired four competing theaters while personally guaranteeing $55 million in debt. In late 2025, Paul sold Emagine to European theater operator Kinepolis. Joined by Rick Hampson, President of Old National Bank as well as Paul's banker and friend, we talk with Paul about his entrepreneurial journey, his transition out of the role of final decision-maker for the business, and how character has been central to his success.

In a deal, the gap between a signed Letter of Intent and a successful integration is paved with complexity and nuance. In the middle market, the big picture strategy is rarely what kills a deal — it's the mechanical friction of working capital, the structure of earnouts and the human element of post-close management.  Greg McGuire, Senior Manager of Transaction Advisory Services at Louis Plung & Co., dives deep into the technical traps that can erode deal value. He discusses why a standard 12-month average for net working capital might actually be penalizing your business, the art of the earnout, the often-undervalued roles that cause the most integration friction, how to stress-test for post-close cash injections during diligence, and the "smoking guns" in financial data that signal a deal is headed south.

Every deal lives or dies by the people at the top. While financial diligence sets the price, leadership diligence is crucial to unlocking deal value. Craig McCall, president of MCG Human Capital Solutions and a corporate psychologist joins the pod to talk about how aligning talent and culture better ensures sustainable enterprise value. From spotting the leadership red flags that erode value post-close to mastering the first 90-day moves of a high-performing integration, Craig explores how to deploy the human solutions that turn an investment thesis into a reality.

Well before she co-authored the book, The Sixth Level, Rachel Wallis Andreasson helped her family's business, Wallis Companies, with two major acquisitions that doubled its headcount. She created and implemented processes that dramatically reduced turnover and increased post-deal success. The principal of the Sixth Level Collaborative and Wallis Companies Shareholder has taken those lessons and turned them into strategies and techniques leaders can use to support sustainable and profitable organizations. On the podcast, she talks about her leadership journey, her M&A experience, and how principles such as connection and care are foundational to creating a workplace culture that no one wants to leave.

Dr. Brian Dooreck is a board-certified physician specializing in gastroenterology and hepatology who leads Executive Health Navigation. The firm helps high-net-worth individuals and those in the c-suite ensure they and their family have unmatched accessibility, support and navigation to the best doctors — in the U.S. and around the world. In this conversation, Dr. Doorick talks about what it is that he saw throughout his career that led him to launch the business, why integrated health planning is a must for family offices and wealth managers, and what CEOs tend to ignore about their health and what should they do about it.

Negotiating mistakes in M&A, on either side of a deal, can strip value and hamstring the opportunity for long-term post-deal success. So, avoiding the most common mistakes at critical junctures is immensely important.  Bill McComas, co-founder of the law firm Jensen & McComas, drops by to talk about the top M&A negotiating mistakes from both the buy and sell side, what they can do to a deal, and how to avoid them.

For most business owners, the first time they sell their company is often the last. With only one chance to maximize the value that will be leveraged during life after business, it's important to get it right. Mark Jensen, a member at Jensen & McComas, offers an overview of the arc of an M&A deal — from assembling the deal team to the day of close. He offers tips on what to do and what not to do, and how to deal with the emotional issues that come with selling what is often a life's work.

For business owners thinking about their exit, the choice often seems limited to selling to a competitor or to a private equity firm. But there's a third option, ESOPs, that secures their legacy and rewards the very people who helped build the company. Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld's Andy Rudolph, Marc Hirschfield and David Dalesandro take a deep dive into Employee Stock Ownership Plans to break down how this unique succession path works — from the powerful tax advantages to the mechanics of financing the deal. They also explore the founder's role after the sale and the keys to building a thriving ownership culture long after a transition.

Regardless of what uncertainty exists in the market or from where it originates, deals continue to get done. However, doing deals during more turbulent times takes some strategic maneuvering. Riveron's Alex Shahidi, Transaction Services Leader, Jeff Bernstein, Equity Capital Markets Leader, and Ryan Gamble, Tax Advisory Leader, explore the current deal environment, and the factors affecting public and private dealmaking. They talk tariffs, capital and debt markets, legislative changes affecting tax, IPO, SPACs and other factors that affect the execution of M&A deals in uncertain times.

It was supposed to be a great year for M&A in the government contracting sector. New SBA rules were expected to drive GovCon sellers to market as they raced to beat the rules' implementation. But then the Department of Government Efficiency happened, which sought to cut government budgets, something that threatened to negatively affected many GovCon businesses since, as the name implies, government contracts are key to their value. Helping to identify the trends that are pulling GovCon businesses in two extreme directions, Wright Lewis, a Partner at Dunlap Bennett & Ludwig, stops by the Smart Business Dealmakers Podcast to talk about the factors weighing most heavily on M&A in the sector.

At this year's Baltimore Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, an expert panel provided actionable insights to mitigate risks and maximize opportunities for both growth and divestiture in an increasingly complex time of tax policies and tariffs. Paragon Biosciences' Peter Buzy, Evergreen Advisors Capital's Stephen Prichett and First National Bank's David Valentiner and Mac Tisdale headlined the panel, moderated by First National Bank's Mac Tisdale.

Perhaps the worst thing a business owner can do ahead of the sale of their company is not be prepared. Not only could that crater the returns the owner was hoping to get for what is often their life's work, it could nuke a sale entirely. Fortunately, attorney James Hipolit has advice for those who've never sold before. In this podcast, the M&A partner with Troutman Pepper Locke covers the basics, from first steps to pre-diligence to common pitfalls, offering advice to get first-time sellers off to a strong start.

One area of complexity in a buy-side M&A transaction is commercial insurance. Given all the potential liabilities, hidden risks, industry-specific needs and coverage gaps, knowing what to look for during due diligence is critical to maximizing post-deal value. On this episode, Brian Stovsky, senior vice president and practice leader for the Oswald Companies and Unison Risk Advisors Mergers & Acquisitions Practice, and Joe Curtis, vice president and director of benefits for Michigan at Oswald Companies, talk about buyer pre-and post-close M&A due diligence considerations of commercial insurance for risk management.

At the 2025 Dallas Smart Business Dealmakers Conference, Zenwork Founder & CEO Sanjeev Singh shared the entrepreneurial journey that led to a nine-figure private equity minority investment. From launching Zenwork with his wife to scaling the business and bringing on a PE partner, Sanjeev discusses the challenges, pivotal moments and strategies that fueled Zenwork's growth.