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Episode Summary
Your dad dies at 50. You’re 24. The lawyers tell you a day later that you and your sister now own half the business each, the shares are held in trust until you turn 30, and there is no succession plan because nobody thought there needed to be one yet. That’s where Steve Harlamert started, and the story he told me is one of the most honest I’ve had on the show. We got into how he bought his sister out, how the business grew 8x, how the team of advisors his dad left behind kept the bank from pulling the line, and how Steve eventually said no to a huge offer, did an ESOP in 2014, then sold to a private equity firm only two and a half years later. The average employee walked with $110,000. 180 of them. And then we got into the part nobody talks about: Steve didn’t get invited to the closing party. He didn’t get a retirement send-off. He sat in his living room in 2017 wondering what the hell he had just done, generational wealth in the bank and no idea who he was without the seat. We talked about the seat he gave up, the succession that didn’t quite take, and the purpose problem every owner runs into the day after.
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## Top 10 Takeaways- No succession plan, even verbal, leaves the next generation flying blind on day one.
- A 50/50 family partnership with mismatched commitment levels can’t survive. One of you has to go.
- Bringing in a real advisory board the day after a sudden death can save the bank line and the business.
- Run your business like you’re going to sell it, every day, even if you never do.
- Listen to every offer that walks in the door. The conversations sharpen what you actually want.
- Culture is the CEO’s job. You are the keeper of it, and every small decision changes it.
- An ESOP without operational discipline turns “I’m an owner now” into paralysis at every decision.
- Stripping your own CEO title before the successor is built trains the team to look past your replacement.
- The acquisition that protects jobs and takes 18 months to merge builds trust the cost-cutters never get.
- Money is not the void-filler. Your purpose has to be sustaining, or year one after the sale will gut you.
Sound Bites
“It’s got to feel right. The numbers have to be right, absolutely. But it has to feel right too. I’ve got to be in it 100%. I can’t be in it 90%. I can’t be in it 95%.” (@TBD) — Steve Harlamert
“We were running the business like it was going to sell, every day. That didn’t mean squeezing every nickel. It meant assessing every aspect of the business honestly and trying to get better.” (@TBD) — Steve Harlamert
“It was popular when everybody got their checks. All of a sudden, eight people took credit for the decision. And there’s only one person that made that decision, and it’s not one of you eight.” (@TBD) — Steve Harlamert
“I didn’t even get an invite to the announcement. I’m the one that made the decision. How do you not get an invitation when you’re the one that’s going to be gone and everybody else has a job?” (@TBD) — Steve Harlamert
“The money is great and all, but it’s not everything. I had a solid year of, what the heck did I do? Why did I do it? I felt worthless. People would be looking at me and I had nothing.” (@TBD) — Steve Harlamert
“Have a purpose. But have a purpose that’s sustaining. Business owners are used to being on the move, used to making decisions. You have to keep your mind moving, or year one will eat you alive.” (@TBD) — Steve Harlamert
About This Episode
Steve Harlamert is the former CEO and owner of HRK, a Dayton-based food brokerage and grocery services company that grew under his leadership from 50 employees to a peak of 310, and 8x in revenue. He took over at 24 when his father died unexpectedly, bought his sister out at 28, grew through an acquisition in 2005, sold to an ESOP in 2014, and sold the ESOP to a private equity rollup at the end of 2016. Steve was introduced to Ryan by mutual friend Pat Hobby, his longtime CFO and right hand. This is one of the most candid exit conversations Ryan has had on the show, especially on the emotional aftermath.
Resources Mentioned
- Pat Hobby — Steve’s longtime CFO and the mutual friend who connected Steve and Ryan.
- GEXP Collaborative — Episode sponsor.
- Principles by Ray Dalio — Referenced for the “idea meritocracy” and believability-weighted decision-making.
Connections
Phase + Module:
- Module 1 — Ownership Goals — Steve’s “retire by 50” goal and the family-driven shift in priorities
- Module 7 — Leadership Team — The successor CEO decision and the seat Steve tried to step out of
- Module 8 — Executive Compensation — The ESOP as a long-term value-sharing structure
Milestones:
- Milestone 1 — Time & Role Goals — Steve’s age-50 retirement target and the family pull that moved it
- Milestone 19 — Functional Leaders — The leadership team gap that ESOP-era paralysis exposed
- Milestone 24 — Long-Term Value Plan — ESOP as the long-term incentive vehicle, and what happened when the recap came two years later
Concepts referenced:
- The Owner-Operator Trap™ — The seat Steve tried to vacate before the successor was ready
- Independence by Design™ — Money without purpose is not independence
- Normalized EBITDA — The earnings stream that made the ESOP and the PE recap possible
- Value Gap — What “the number has to be right AND it has to feel right” actually means in practice