Ep 550 The One Phrase That Can Ruin a $10 Million Business Sale

**Colin Morgan** (0:00)
Hi there, and welcome back to another edition of Built to Sell Radio, the podcast designed to help you punch above your weight in a negotiation to sell your company. I'm the executive producer Colin Morgan. Now, most entrepreneurs spend years planning for the sale of their business.
However, few spend any time planning for what comes next. Today's guest is Jo Swann, a strategic psychotherapist who helps founders navigate the emotional side of selling. After building wealth in the IT industry and retiring to an oceanfront apartment, Jo found herself in an unexpected existential crisis. And in this conversation with John Warlow, Jo shares the phrase that predicts a painful exit, why many founders experienced a post-exit crash, and how to separate true purpose from ego disguised as contribution. Without further ado, here is Jo Swann. Enjoy.

**John Warrillow** (1:01)
Jo Swann, welcome to Built to Sell Radio.

**Jo Swann** (1:03)
Thank you very much, thanks for having me.

**John Warrillow** (1:05)
You are a guru in helping high performers figure out their next chapter. And I am so thrilled to have you on the show because our listeners, of course, are about to go through this incredible change in life, where they have been building and growing and achieving for, in many cases, years, if not decades. And if they get what they want, like the dog that catches the cars, they say they're going to get all the money, or at least enough money to think about what they want to go do next.
Yet your research and your clinical work would suggest that they may want to do some thinking even in advance of exiting their company. So walk me through some of your thoughts around this. How did you come to this realization that there was this potential trough that business owners go through after an exit?

**Jo Swann** (2:02)
Yeah, good question. I think I was probably patient zero, maybe.
I learned the unteachable lesson that money, fame, fortune, it doesn't actually make you happy.

**John Warrillow** (2:17)
Did it happen to you? Did you get rich and famous for some reason?

**Jo Swann** (2:21)
Well, I didn't sell a company, but I did find myself in a position where I had enough money, and I had a lot of time, and I went through some major transitions in life.
I mean, that's probably a whole other podcast, but I did find myself in a position where I had achieved the dream, I had achieved the vision, and then, yeah, I just went into an existential crisis. What now? So, I think that I learned the unteachable lesson first, and this was back in my late thirties. So, gosh, yeah, 15, 16 years ago.

**John Warrillow** (3:04)
Was this through like an inheritance of some sort or a divorce?

**Jo Swann** (3:07)
No, no, it was too hard work.

**John Warrillow** (3:09)
Okay. So, you built up your own...

**Jo Swann** (3:11)
Yeah.

**John Warrillow** (3:12)
But you didn't sell it, you're just making money along the way and you're banking it all.

**Jo Swann** (3:15)
Yeah. I was in the IT industry in the nineties. There was a lot of money, and I did have shares, and then we moved out here to Borneo, to Malaysia, and we got our ocean-fronted high-rise apartment, and then it was like, right, now what? So, yeah, so I think, and at that time in the late nineties, there really wasn't a lot of help, and there certainly weren't really people like me around that you could jump on a Zoom call and pull your heart out to, and ask yourself those existential questions of life, and learn about mind. So, yeah, patient zero. And then I worked it out for myself. I actually studied psychology at university in the nineties.
And, yeah, then I thought, more people, there are more people like me. There are a lot of people like me. And it kind of went from there. So, yeah, and then I re-qualified as a licensed strategic psychotherapist. And I've had a deep interest in the psyche mind. And so I qualified as a clinical hypnotherapist, so I could really learn about the subconscious mind.
Yeah, and then I started to talk to people. I'm a very curious person. I'm...

**John Warrillow** (4:44)
As am I. And so... Okay, so walk me through this. So you've now seen this clinically.
You've experienced firsthand, but you've also seen it clinically. You've written about it.
What do people have to get prepared for in advance? Let's imagine I'm an entrepreneur. I've had this business for 20 years, and I've lived well along the way, but not something spectacular. And I'm about to get a check for $10 million. All my fears are going to go away, and I'm excited to cash that check. What am I missing? What am I setting myself up for? Show me how the movie ends.