Independence by Design™

Ryan Tansom

Independence by Design™ is a framework to help owner-operators get out of the weeds and lead from the boardroom. I built it because I lived this trap. In 2009, I joined my dad in our $21M family business. We turned it around and sold it for eight figures in 2014 — enough to pay off debt, cover taxes, let my dad retire, and leave me with a chunk of cash at 27. But the sale gutted our team, systems, and identity. It looked like a win, but it didn’t feel like freedom. I bawled in the driveway. After 450+ interviews, thousands of owners, and multiple ventures, I saw the real issue: we didn’t know the difference between being owners and operators. Our goals weren’t aligned. And we had no framework to guide us. That’s why I built iBD — to help owners avoid regret, reclaim their time, grow real equity value, and build a business that gives them freedom — whether they stay, scale, or sell. This show is the one I wish I had.

  1. 30 APR

    #491: Bud Martin | The Lower Middle Market M&A Gap Nobody Talks About

    Watch on YouTube "I want the seller to level with me. I don't want to be his priest or pastor, but I want honesty, and I don't want any surprises down the road." - Bud Martin,     Bud Martin once watched a son kill his parents' deal by telling every buyer tour the company would never make it without him. I told Bud I was 27 when we sold our family business — and I knew I could have done the same thing. I almost did. That story is the human core under every M&A advisory conversation we don't talk about enough. Bud Martin runs controlled auctions for businesses in the $1M-$3M EBITDA range — a no man's land for owners. Too complex for brokers. Too small for the big banks. We get into what a real sell-side process actually looks like at this level, why most lower middle market deals are cash-at-closing strategic bolt-ons (not earnouts), the family dynamic that kills more deals than bad numbers ever will, and the philosophical question I keep coming back to: build a cash-flow business that gives you choices, or chase a third-party strategic deal that maximizes cash at closing. Both work. They're just not the same.  Top 10 Takeaways  The $1M-$3M EBITDA range is no man's land — too complex for brokers, too small for the big banks, and most owners get the worst sell-side representation right when they need the best.  A controlled auction is non-negotiable — multiple bidders keep buyers honest, drive pace, and protect your leverage; day 92 close is the goal, day 180 is a red flag.  Most lower middle market deals are cash at closing because strategic buyers write checks from the balance sheet — no banks involved, faster closes, cleaner deal structures.  Earnouts in this segment are shifting from financial metrics to integration milestones — one of Bud's current deals is 95% cash, 5% tied to a six-month CRM integration.  The family dynamic kills more deals than bad numbers — if your partners aren't on the same page before you call a banker, the deal is already dead.  Build a cash-flow business and you have choices — ESOP, internal transfer, third-party, PE — but if you go straight to a strategic buyer, cash at closing goes through the roof and the cultural trade-offs come with it.  The buyer who already knows your industry isn't the best buyer — the aligned-industry buyer who wants to be in your space is, because that's where 2+2 = 5 or 6.  A $3M revenue fire safety business landed a $5 billion publicly-traded buyer because the industry was consolidating and Bud reached out to everyone — including the companies that looked too big.  Bud gives sellers a conservative valuation so they're surprised on the upside — if the seller isn't in the same area code on number, he walks away from the engagement.  Geopolitical risk lands on the deal table — a strategic buyer pulled out of one of Bud's deals in February because the Iran situation spooked their backlog and changed the math.  Bud Martin is the founder of M&A Connect, a lower middle market M&A advisory firm based in the Chicago area. William (Bud) Martin has over 20 years of M&A experience. Prior to founding M&A Connect, he was with a highly regarded Midwestern M&A firm and was the leading broker by revenue and transactions closed during his seven years there. Bud has been the lead advisor on dozens of middle market transactions and is a current board member of Dynamic Rubber Inc. near Chicago. Before M&A, Bud owned a contract manufacturer of precision-machined components serving OEMs in aerospace, automotive, and business machine industries. He started his career as a runner on the Chicago Board of Trade and traded options on the...

    48 min
  2. 26 MAR

    #486: Pete Walker | Your Business Built This Community. What Happens to It When You're Gone?

    Most owners plan their transition around money. Pete Walker thinks that's why so many of them end up with regret.    Watch on YouTube Pete grew up on a 100-acre potato farm in a community of 90 people in Prince Edward Island. When his dad shut the farm down, 15 neighbors lost their seasonal jobs, local businesses lost a customer, and the tax base shrank. That story is now playing out across thousands of communities in the U.S. and Canada as owner-operators approach retirement without a plan. Pete spent 14 years at TD Bank, served in Canadian government economic development, and now runs Boughton Riverview Consulting, where he helps owners figure out what they actually want before a crisis forces a binary choice. We got into his "story of you" framework, why employee ownership is gaining traction in Canada, and how to normalize the hardest conversation most owners will ever have.    Top 10 Takeaways  If you don't decide what happens to your business, someone else will. And you probably won't like their version.  The false choice between maximizing sale price and preserving legacy is eating owners alive. If you plan early enough, it doesn't have to be binary.  Pete asks every owner one question: "What is the story of you that you're trying to create?" Most have never been asked. Their eyes bug out because they don't have an answer.  When Pete's dad shut the family farm, 15 neighbors lost their jobs, local businesses lost a customer, and the tax base shrank. That's what happens when a business leaves a community without a plan. Multiply that by thousands of retiring owners across the U.S. and Canada.  Employee ownership isn't charity. It's a strong economic case. 8-12% more productive. More resilient in downturns. Faster loan paybacks. Employees retire with roughly twice the wealth.  Private equity isn't evil, but the incentive structure is baked in. Shorter hold periods, higher leverage, and a built-in need to sell create a fundamentally different game than employee ownership.  Canada just launched an Employee Ownership Trust with a $10M capital gains tax exemption for sellers. But the incentive sunsets at the end of 2026 if it doesn't get made permanent.  The advisory ecosystem is broken for the lower middle market. Fees have tripled. Minimums have gone up. The $2-3M EBITDA company with 120 employees can barely get anyone to return their calls.  Most owners conflate cash flow and wealth. Separating the two, and understanding how time connects them, is the first step toward making a confident decision instead of a panicked one.  If you or your advisor even hint at projecting a decision onto the owner, it won't work. It's their story. Your job is to help them write it.    Pete Walker is the principal consultant at Boughton Riverview Consulting and a board member of Employee Ownership Canada. He is a Certified Exit Planning Advisor (CEPA) who helps business owners figure out what they actually want from their transition before they get pushed into a decision by a crisis or an unsolicited offer. Pete grew up on a 100-acre potato and cattle farm in St. George's, Prince Edward Island, a community of 90 people, where his family had been on the same land since the 1800s. He attended Yale University (BA) and Ivey Business School (MBA, Honours). His career spans three acts: political advisor for Atlantic Canadian economic development, 14 years as an executive at TD Bank in Canada, and now business transition planning and employee ownership advocacy. He is passionate about keeping businesses locally owned, operated, and thriving in their communities through the generational transiti...

    1hr 27min
  3. 5 MAR

    #483: Cyndi Gave | Stop Guessing If Your People Can Think

    How do you grow your leadership team when you can't afford a full C-suite, your best people are buried in tactical work, and you have no idea whether they can actually think strategically? Cyndi runs The Metis Group and has spent 30 years turning fuzzy leadership development into something tangible and measurable. Watch on YouTube In our first conversation, she walked us through her Job Scorecard, a tool that quantifies what a role actually requires instead of hiding behind vague job descriptions. Once you know what the job is, how do you know whether the person in it has the cognitive horsepower to own outcomes, not just execute tasks? We unpacked the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test, the TriMetrix assessment, and why most behavioral assessments (DISC, Culture Index, Predictive Index) only tell you half the story. If you're trying to figure out whether to elevate your controller into a CFO, promote your best salesperson into a sales leader, or just understand why your team keeps waiting for you to tell them what to do — this episode is a roadmap. Top 10 Takeaways If you can't afford an off-the-shelf C-suite, then stop trying to buy one. Elevate internal talent instead of chasing expensive fractional magic bullets. The Job Scorecard is the foundation — quantify the role before you evaluate the person. Every leadership role needs separate buckets for oversight and talent management. Outsource the tactical to create space for strategic development. A 5-year valuation goal is non-negotiable; without it, your leaders are flying blind. The Watson-Glaser test quantifies critical thinking, and a raw score of 28+ is the magic number. Behavioral assessments tell you how someone communicates — not whether they can think. Strategic thinking has atrophied across all generations — and COVID made it worse. If someone says, "Just tell me what to do," that's a red flag — not a work style.   Cyndi Gave is the founder of The Metis Group, a behavior-expert consultancy focused on getting the right people in the right seats — and getting extraordinary performance out of them. Celebrating 30 years in business in March 2025, Cyndi is a self-described "recovering HR person" who built her practice around tangible, process-driven tools that entrepreneurs actually have the patience to implement. Her specialties include the Job Scorecard, the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test, and the TriMetrix assessment — a three-part diagnostic that measures behaviors (DISC), motivators, and the Hartman Value Profile. Previously based in Michigan, Cyndi now operates out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and hosts a monthly leadership podcast through The Metis Group. Chapters: (00:00) Introduction of Cyndi Gave and the leadership development challenge (02:18) The Metis Group: 30 years making leadership tangible and measurable (07:37) The demographic cliff and why internal talent development can't wait (17:06) Can't afford a full C-suite? Stop trying to buy one (29:00) Job scorecard: quantify the role before you evaluate the person (44:00) Elevate internal talent: outsource tactical to make space for strategic (47:00) "Just tell me what to do" is a red flag, not a work style (01:00:41) Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Test and the magic score of 28 (01:11:34) TriMetrix: behaviors, motivators, and the Hartman Value Profile (01:20:55) Why using only one assessment...

    1hr 35min
  4. 12 FEB

    #480: Kim Clark | What a CRO Does to Create Predictable Revenue

    “Most companies don’t have a revenue engine; they have a collection of tactics.” - Kim Clark  Watch on YouTube   This episode is about helping owners understand why revenue feels so frustrating and chaotic—and what actually has to exist for it to become predictable. Kim Clark walks through what a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) really does, not as a title, but as an owner-level responsibility for designing and governing the entire revenue system end-to-end.     We break down why revenue silos form across sales, marketing, and leadership, how that fragmentation destroys forecasting and cash flow clarity, and how Kim’s CRO framework and nine core modules give owners a concrete picture of what “good” looks like so revenue stops being a guessing game and starts supporting real ownership goals.  Top 10 Takeaways  Revenue feels chaotic when no one owns it end-to-end.  A CRO is responsible for designing the revenue system, not just driving sales activity.  Predictable revenue is created through structure and constraints, not hustle or volume.  Most revenue silos exist because accountability is split across functions instead of unified.  Without a clearly defined ICP, every downstream metric becomes noisy and misleading.  Marketing spend becomes wasteful when it isn’t tied to pipeline math and unit economics.  Forecasting fails when assumptions aren’t explicit and owned by one accountable leader.  Growth without economic clarity often increases stress instead of creating freedom.  Owners don’t need to run revenue, but they must understand what “good” looks like to govern it.  When revenue is designed properly, decision-making shifts from reactive to intentional.     Kim Clark is a sales and marketing strategist who helped scale ITR Economics from a founder-led advisory firm to a professionally managed company that exited at eight figures. As head of sales and marketing, she built the firm’s first CRM, content strategy, and inbound engine—moving the company from personality-based selling to a system built on data, automation, and strategic execution. Today, she works with business owners to build marketing engines that align with their strategy, team, and long-term cash flow goals—so they can grow without chaos and delegate without losing visibility. Her frameworks are directly aligned with the "Maximize Growth" track inside the Build a Valuable Business module of the iBD™ Magic Model.    Chapters:     (00:00) Why revenue feels chaotic when no one owns it end-to-end  (03:00) Designing the revenue system: architecture, journey, and predictability over campaigns  (05:10) Breaking silos: unified accountability across sales, marketing, and operations  (09:15) Womb to tomb, service level agreements, eliminating blame between sales and marketing  (17:17) Marketing spend guardrails: tying budget to pipeline math and profitability  (24:20) Building systems that support structure and constraints, not just hustle  (28:55) Defining ICP and winning position: without clarity, all metrics become noise  (40:02) Systems & Forecasting with explicit assumptions: one accountable leader owns the numbers  (47:00) CRO, COO, CFO priorities: understanding constraints to avoid chaotic growth  (54:13) Growth without economic clarity increases stress instead of creating freedom  (58:13) Owner education as governance: spotting bad advice and wasteful spending    Resources:  Kim Clark LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com...

    1hr 5min
  5. 22 JAN

    #477: William “Bill” Cowan | Buying a Business Is Easy. Living With It Is Hard.

    This conversation with Bill Cowan is a full arc—from career operator to business owner to successful exit to peer group chair—and it surfaces the real lessons most owners only learn the hard way. Watch on YouTube Bill shares what it was like to spend six years searching for the right business, why anxiety pushed him into compromises he wouldn’t make again, and how owning a company fundamentally changed how he thinks about leadership, risk, and decision-making. We unpack why passion for the work itself matters more than spreadsheets alone, why building for exit from day one sharpens every decision, and how clarity beats perfection every time. We also go deep into the mechanics most owners never see: buyer psychology, deal structures, seller financing, earn-outs, trust-based transactions, and how real exits actually get done in the lower middle market. This isn’t theory—it’s lived experience, with the scars and wisdom to prove it. William “Bill” Cowan is a Vistage Chair and former business owner with a diverse career spanning veterinary medicine, medical devices, higher education leadership, and entrepreneurship. After buying, growing, and successfully exiting an organic lawn care business, Bill now works closely with owner-operators as a peer group facilitator, bringing rare empathy and practical insight shaped by firsthand ownership experience. Top 10 Takeaways Anxiety can create urgency, but it can also cloud judgment and push owners into compromises they later regret. You should enjoy the work of the business itself, not just the idea of ownership or the eventual exit. Building for exit from day one creates better decisions, stronger teams, and a more valuable company. Passion is not optional—it directly impacts stress, energy, leadership effectiveness, and longevity. A timely imperfect decision is often better than a perfect decision made too late. Understanding how buyers think changes how you run the business long before you ever sell. Documented processes, owner independence, and a capable team are core value drivers—not “nice to haves.” Most lower-middle-market exits require creative deal structures, trust, and flexibility—not just cash. Owner experience creates empathy that cannot be learned any other way. Tenacity matters more than getting every decision “right”—you influence outcomes more than you think. Chapters: (00:00) Introduction to Bill Cowan and his business ownership (02:43) Career path from veterinarian to medical devices to education leadership (07:40) Six-year search for right business reveals complexity of buying (16:00) Compromising on B2C instead of B2B despite original acquisition criteria (27:00) Growing business threefold while intentionally restraining further growth (36:00) Critical lesson learned: passion for actual work matters more than expected (42:00) Building for exit from day one shaped every business decision (49:00) Exit structure required trust-based deal with performance-based terms (57:28) Transition to Vistage Chair applies hard-earned ownership experience (01:05:00) Making timely imperfect decisions beats perfect decisions made late Resources: William Cowan LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamcowan-dvm/ Ryan Tansom Website h...

    1hr 14min
  6. 15 JAN

    #476: Tom Shipley | Why Most Owners Get Stuck at $1–$2M EBITDA (and How to Break Through)

    This conversation with Tom Shipley goes far beyond “growth” or “M&A tactics.” It’s about understanding the real game of ownership — how value is actually created, how capital really works, and why most owners unknowingly trap themselves by optimizing the wrong things.  Watch on YouTube We start by reframing business as a finite game of time, energy, and capital. Tom shares how his background in Special Forces shaped his approach to leadership, resourcefulness, and decision-making — and how those principles carried into building, acquiring, and ultimately selling businesses.  From there, we go deep into the mechanics most owners never truly understand: valuation, EBITDA vs. cash flow, multiple expansion, acquisition strategy, and deal structure. Tom breaks down how value is created before the exit, why fundamentals matter more than hype, and how acquisitions can create real wealth — or destroy it — depending on how they’re done.  We end with one of the most important insights in the episode: the “valley of despair” facing owners with $1–$2M EBITDA, and Tom’s merge-to-exit model designed to help founders escape it by building scale, optionality, and alignment before they sell.  Tom Shipley is a serial entrepreneur and M&A expert with 20+ years scaling brands to $2B+ in sales via D2C, Amazon, and retail giants like Costco and Ulta. A "lone soldier" in Israel's elite IDF Unit 669, he bootstrapped Atlantic Coast Brands to $100M (exited 2021), raised $100M for Foundry (e-com aggregator), and founded AVA Acquisitions for digital agencies. Now, via Deal Boardroom and bi-annual DealCon Summit, he empowers founders to acquire, scale, and exit—often with $0 down. Host of Deal Playbook podcast, Shipley splits time between Austin and Tel Aviv, mentoring hyper-growth via Shipley Capital.  Top 10 Takeaways  Ownership is a finite game — time, energy, and capital are limited, so priorities must be chosen deliberately.  Great leaders optimize for resourcefulness, not resources, especially when conditions get constrained.  EBITDA and cash flow serve different purposes: cash is survival, EBITDA is valuation.  Revenue growth without fundamentals often destroys value instead of creating it.  Valuation is ultimately about confidence in future cash flows, not past performance.  Multiple expansion is one of the most powerful — and misunderstood — wealth creation tools in business.  Acquisitions create value only when they are strategically complementary, not just additive.  Poor integration turns acquisitions into “Frankenstein” businesses that collapse under complexity.  Most $1–$2M EBITDA owners are stuck in a no-man’s land where selling doesn’t deliver real freedom.  Merging before exiting can dramatically increase the probability, multiple, and outcome of a successful sale.    Chapters:   (00:00) Introduction of Tom Shipley and discussion of acquisition strategies  (02:37) Finite resources require prioritizing impact, adventure, and resourcefulness  (07:10) Writing your own epic novel with five-year chapters  (09:40) Buying businesses without cash using creative deal structures  (12:16) Special Forces lessons on resourcefulness, tenacity, and team leadership  (21:30) Valuation fundamentals and confidence in future cash flows  (35:00) Multiple expansion and compounding value through strategic acquisitions  (43:32) Strategic fit and avoiding Frankenstein rollups in acquisitions  (55:13) Integration work upfront generates cash flow versus Frankenstein EBITDA  (58:36) Where to find Tom Shipley and inf...

    1 hr
  7. 8 JAN

    #475: Matt Paulson | $50M & 20 Employees; Designing a Business You Never Want to Sell

    Matt is the founder of MarketBeat, a financial media company he’s built quietly over 19 years into a ~$50M/year business with around 20 employees — and what makes this episode special isn’t just the scale, it’s how he’s designed the business and his life around it. We talked about focus, attention, hiring, valuation discipline, resisting hype cycles, and why keeping the business can often be the most profitable move an owner can make.  Watch on YouTube We also unpacked the realities most people never see: what it actually takes to build leverage without blowing up the mothership, how to think clearly about valuation and selling, how AI really fits into the future of work, and what happens after you cross financial independence. This episode is about designing ownership — not chasing exits, headlines, or noise.  Matt Paulson is the founder of MarketBeat, a financial media company he’s grown over 19 years into a ~$50M annual business. He also runs Homegrown Capital, a Midwest-focused venture firm with ~$40M under management. Known for his disciplined approach to growth, valuation, and hiring, Matt focuses on building durable businesses, developing high-caliber teams, and designing work around a meaningful life beyond the balance sheet.  Top 10 Takeaways  Focus works when the owner owns the few things they are uniquely great at and delegates everything else.  Over-optimizing a healthy business often does more damage than thoughtful restraint.  The best businesses allow safe experimentation without risking the core cash-flow engine.  Most owners misunderstand valuation because they confuse effort, emotion, and market reality.  Selling a business is often driven by burnout, not strategy — and that distinction matters.  Financial freedom changes decision-making more than most people expect.  AI will reward operators who understand fundamentals, not replace them.  Strong teams are built by upgrading competence only when the business is ready for it.  The most valuable skills in the future are the ones that can’t be automated.  The “good old days” aren’t behind you — they’re happening right now if you’ve designed the margins to see them.    Chapters:   (00:00) Matt Paulson and his unexpected consulting success   (08:34) Managing attention, avoiding distractions, and setting boundaries with community involvement  (11:31) Overcoming FOMO and learning to say no to opportunities  (14:59) Delegating what you don't want to do and building systems  (19:58) Hiring great people and making MarketBeat a premier employer brand  (26:07) Homegrown Capital's venture investment thesis and evaluating startups  (37:41) Why Matt turned down acquisition offers and chose to keep MarketBeat  (40:24) Managing wealth, teaching kids about money, and charitable giving  (54:11) Being authentic versus content creation and avoiding labels in business  (59:10) Setting goals, living in the present, and thinking about succession planning  (1:08:14) Email marketing expertise and managing six million subscribers at scale    Resources:  https://www.marketbeat.com/  Matt Paulson LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewpaulson/  Ryan Tansom Website https://ryantansom.com/

    1hr 10min
  8. 25/12/2025

    #473: John Bartlett | What Selling a Business Really Looks Like

    Most owners don’t wake up wanting to sell their business. They wake up tired, overloaded, and unsure how much longer they can keep doing everything themselves. In this conversation, John Bartlett and I start by unpacking that reality — the moment when success on paper doesn’t feel like freedom, and selling starts to feel like the only option.  Watch on YouTube From there, we zoom out and talk about what’s really going on beneath the surface: phantom wealth, misunderstood cash flow, and why many owners don’t actually see the full set of options available to them. We talk about how value is created, what actually drives multiples, and why clarity around cash flow and owner dependency changes everything.  Only after that foundation is set do we walk through the real process of selling a company — what actually happens when you go to market, how deals are structured, how long it takes, where owners get surprised, and why the headline price is often the least important part of the transaction. This episode is about helping you see the whole landscape clearly — so whether you build, transition, or sell, you’re making an intentional decision instead of reacting out of exhaustion.    John Bartlett is the founder of Brentwood Growth, where he helps owner-operators navigate valuation, growth, and M&A decisions with clarity and realism. A former serial entrepreneur, John grew and sold multiple businesses before becoming an advisor to lower middle-market owners. His work focuses on turning companies into durable assets—whether that means scaling, de-risking, or exiting on aligned terms.  Top 10 Takeaways   Most owners don’t want to sell their business — they want relief from carrying everything themselves.  Phantom wealth is common: businesses look valuable on paper but don’t produce real freedom or liquidity.  Enterprise value is driven by adjusted EBITDA and the confidence buyers have in future cash flow.  Owner dependency is one of the biggest value killers, even in otherwise strong businesses.  Selling is not a moment — it’s a long, demanding process that reshapes the owner’s life for months or years.  Deal structure (taxes, earn-outs, rollover equity, timing) often matters more than the headline price.  Most owners dramatically underestimate how long a real M&A process takes and how consuming it is.  Buyers pay for predictability, not potential, and confidence in cash flow determines the multiple.  Owners who wait until burnout have fewer options and less leverage than they realize.  The best outcomes happen when owners understand their options early and choose intentionally, not reactively.  Chapters:   (00:00) Making a meaningful difference in business owners' lives and transitions  (06:08) Three categories of sellers: burned out, transitioning, and scaling  (10:40) Life as jigsaw puzzle: balancing financial and lifestyle goals  (25:45) What owners really want is work-life balance and control  (36:10) Valuation process: determining current worth and future potential value  (46:10) Valuation fundamentals: adjusted EBITDA and multiple determine enterprise value  (01:01:40) Complete M&A process timeline from teaser to final offers  (01:10:10) Marathon hydration analogy: plan your exit before you're exhausted  (01:14:00) Quality of earnings: the detailed due diligence cavity search  (01:26:20) Critical difference between gross sale proceeds and after-tax reality  (01:28:33) Lock business down within twelve months of planned sale    Res...

    1hr 29min

Trailer

About

Independence by Design™ is a framework to help owner-operators get out of the weeds and lead from the boardroom. I built it because I lived this trap. In 2009, I joined my dad in our $21M family business. We turned it around and sold it for eight figures in 2014 — enough to pay off debt, cover taxes, let my dad retire, and leave me with a chunk of cash at 27. But the sale gutted our team, systems, and identity. It looked like a win, but it didn’t feel like freedom. I bawled in the driveway. After 450+ interviews, thousands of owners, and multiple ventures, I saw the real issue: we didn’t know the difference between being owners and operators. Our goals weren’t aligned. And we had no framework to guide us. That’s why I built iBD — to help owners avoid regret, reclaim their time, grow real equity value, and build a business that gives them freedom — whether they stay, scale, or sell. This show is the one I wish I had.

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