Ep. 300 — Ryan, Pat & Matt: What I've Learned About Intentional Growth After 300 Interviews

6 min read

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Episode Summary

Six years in, 300 weeks in a row, and the same pattern keeps showing up in almost every owner I sit across from. Revenue is fine. The team is decent. The bank account has cash in it. And yet there’s this nagging feeling that you’re grinding without making real progress toward whatever it is you actually want. You can’t quite name the gap, but you can feel it on Sunday night. Your CPA does taxes. Your banker manages the line. Your peer group is great, but they don’t see your full picture. Nobody is sitting next to you connecting your ownership goals to the cash the business actually produces. For episode 300, I sat down with my Arkona partners, Pat Hobby and Matt Buskirk, to mark the milestone and reset the format. We got into the three things every owner wants (create wealth, enjoy work, make an impact), why so many owners feel stuck even when the business is growing, what an actual CFO does that a controller or CPA cannot, and why viewing your business as a financial asset is the shift that finally connects point A to point B. Real stories from Matt’s 16 acquisitions in 18 months. Real talk about the deals that fell apart over the color of a logo, not the money.

Top 10 Takeaways

  1. Three things every owner wants: create wealth, enjoy work, make an impact. When one is missing, you lay awake.
  2. If you can’t define point B, every decision is made in a vacuum and progress is impossible to measure.
  3. Most owners run their company off the balance in their personal checking account. That is not a financial system.
  4. Your business is the largest asset you own. View it as a financial asset, not as a job you happen to own.
  5. Reducing risk is what grows value. Sustainable, predictable, and transferable cash flow is the whole game.
  6. A great CFO is a trusted partner who sees the 360-degree view, not a controller who closes the books.
  7. Most deals do not fall apart over money. They fall apart over the name on the door, the color, the legacy.
  8. Education shifts mindset, but mindset alone is not enough. You need a guide to install the systems.
  9. Viewing the company through a buyer’s lens makes you a better owner today, whether you ever sell or not.
  10. Be intentional with purpose. Have a goal, know what it takes to get there, then build the plan.

Sound Bites

“You kind of have to have a goal, clearly stated what that goal is. And then what it’s going to take to get there. The intentionality comes in, I’m going to build that plan to get there.” (@TBD) — Matt Buskirk

“What comes to mind is the phrase, with purpose, be intentional. To be intentional about something is a mindset. It’s not just an activity you go through.” (@TBD) — Pat Hobby

“The value of a business is based on its cash flow, its expected future cash flow. And the more sustainable, predictable, and transferable it is, the more value it has.” (@TBD) — Pat Hobby

“If you’re going to view your ownership in your company, not your job but your ownership in your company, as a financial asset, you got to tie it to the finances. There’s no way around it.” (@TBD) — Pat Hobby

“If you don’t plug in point B, nothing happens. Are we biking, flying, driving, taking the bus? Is it going to take one day or two weeks? What’s our budget?” (@TBD) — Ryan Tansom

“This entire business isn’t run on a spreadsheet. We’re going to go do this because it’s the right thing to do for the customer or the associates.” (@TBD) — Matt Buskirk

About This Episode

A milestone episode marking 300 weeks in a row of the show. Ryan sits down with his Arkona partners, Pat Hobby and Matt Buskirk, to reflect on what the team has learned working with hundreds of business owners and to introduce a new format built around themed mini-series. Pat is a longtime fractional CFO who has spent decades inside owner-led businesses. Matt is a former Fortune 500 executive who came up through operations and leadership, ran the company Pat was CFO of, sold it to an ESOP, and then to a private equity-backed competitor before joining Arkona in 2021. Together they unpack the three things every owner wants, the role of a true CFO, and the mindset shift that turns a job into an asset.

Resources Mentioned

  • Finish Big by Bo Burlingham — The book that set Ryan’s entire trajectory in motion back in 2015.
  • Demand-Side Selling — The book Ryan and Pat read together that anchored the team on the word “progress.”
  • Traction by Gino Wickman — Referenced for EOS and the “hitting the ceiling” concept.
  • The 10 Disciplines (Gino Wickman & Rob Dube) — Mentioned as the upcoming framework Ryan is featuring next.
  • Arkona Fractional CFO Services — The service Ryan and team built to integrate into management teams as the strategic financial partner.

Connections

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