Value Factory Podcast

OneAccord

Welcome to The Value Factory Podcast, powered by OneAccord, where we decode the secrets to building substantial, lasting enterprise value for your business. If you’re a business owner, CEO, or leader of a privately held company striving for sustainable growth, navigating complex transitions, or aiming to maximize your company’s worth, this is your essential resource. Hosted by the seasoned operators at OneAccord, The Value Factory delves into the practical strategies and real-world insights needed to transform your organization. Each episode tackles critical challenges faced by leaders in manufacturing, distribution, professional services, and beyond. We explore the power of robust Strategic Planning & Execution through frameworks like our OASYS Business Operating System, designed to instill clarity and discipline in your operations. Discover how Fractional and Interim C-Suite leadership – bringing in experienced CEOs, COOs, CROs, and CIOs/CTOs – can fill crucial leadership gaps, drive change, and execute on critical initiatives, often starting with our comprehensive Client Success Plan diagnostic. Tune in for expert discussions on scaling your business, achieving operational excellence, and preparing for significant milestones such as succession planning, financial exits, or turnaround strategies. We’ll share actionable advice on everything from Business Enablement – including vital sales training and leadership development – to strategic Talent Acquisition to build high-performance teams. The Value Factory isn’t about theoretical concepts; it’s about sharing wisdom from the trenches. Our OneAccord team has ”sat in your seat” and understands the journey of owner-operated businesses. We believe in ”Building Value. Built on Values,” and this podcast is an extension of that commitment, designed to help you unlock your company’s full potential, boost revenue growth, improve profitability, and create a more resilient and valuable enterprise. Join us on The Value Factory Podcast to gain the knowledge and inspiration you need to make your business more valuable, today and for the future. Visit oneaccord.co to learn more about how our team can help you build enterprise value that lasts.

  1. Sep 14 ·  Video

    You Did Everything Right to Sell. Now Comes the Part Nobody Warns You About.

    You lowered the owner dependency. You fixed the customer concentration. You grew. So the offer comes in where you expected — right? John Martinka has spent 25+ years on the other side of that moment. He's Co-Founder of Nokomis Advisory Services in Kirkland, Washington, a sell-side M&A firm working the lower end of the lower middle market — deals he puts at "five to fifteen, twenty million is our sweet spot" on earnings of "about say one or so until about three." He's written five books, he's known as The Escape Artist, and he's back on the Value Factory to pick up where he and Nick Anderson left off. On the sale itself, John is blunt about what sellers still get wrong: "And for the seller to think, well, I'm gonna sell my business for 15, 20, 25, or whatever million and just get a check at closing — no note, no earnout, no rollover, nothing besides cash — they're mistaken." … "Or they're gonna sell it for less." — John Martinka On tying an earnout to EBITDA: "It shouldn't be the measure. Because it's easy to manipulate." — John Martinka On who is actually responsible when a seller gets blindsided by deal structure: "If the attorney and the intermediary do a good job of educating, if they're surprised it's because they have their ears closed." — John Martinka And on the 90-day transition period nobody finishes: "I was so glad he wasn't coming in on day ninety-one." — John Martinka, on a buyer who wanted the seller to stay a full year Nick brings the other half: what it actually looks like to retrofit a 26-year-old consulting firm into an AI-native one, and whether buyers are paying for it. "Zero to eighty is transformational. Eighty to a hundred is marginal." — Nick Anderson "I've given my agent a name and her name is Sarah. And Sarah is my SEO agent." … "I have five digital employees for less than a thousand bucks a month." — Nick Anderson "We will save a hundred thousand dollars in operating expense by way of not having to pay for a human to do something that quite frankly humans loathe, which is creating a slide deck." — Nick Anderson "If the business doesn't have, like, underlying fundamentals around their go-to-market, their sales strategy — you bolt AI onto it, it'll never work." — Nick Anderson And John's counterweight: "You also have to watch out what it tells you. And make sure it's feasible." — John Martinka Guest: John Martinka, Co-Founder, Nokomis Advisory Services — https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmartinka · https://nokomisadvisory.com Host: Nick Anderson, CEO, OneAccord — https://oneaccord.co CHAPTERS 0:00 "They're mistaken" — the line that opens the show 0:14 Value Factory intro 0:42 John Martinka is back — and this time we go past the prep work 1:33 What Nokomis Advisory actually does at the low end of the lower middle market 2:27 The sweet spot: $5–15M deals, $1–3M of earnings, five books 3:51 The law of diminishing returns on getting "sale ready" 4:10 "Zero to eighty is transformational. Eighty to a hundred is marginal." 5:41 90 days of transition support — and why owners leave sooner 6:23 "I was so glad he wasn't coming in on day ninety-one" 6:52 Eight-figure deals: earnouts, rollover equity, the second bite of the apple 8:00 Why an earnout measured on EBITDA is "easy to manipulate" 9:10 If the deal structure surprises you, whose fault is that? 10:05 "No note, no earnout, no rollover… they're mistaken" 10:15 The private equity logjam, the COVID bump, and a B2C deal that stalled 12:05 Feeding frenzy: pent-up capital, cheap SBA debt, and variable rates 14:36 Does deploying AI actually create enterprise value — or just look like it? 15:08 Retrofitting a 26-year-old firm to become AI native 17:35 Meet Sarah, Nick's SEO agent 19:09 And Donna, the chief-of-staff agent who runs the growth report 19:26 Clay web intent: knowing which owner visited your site yesterday 24:23 The November 9–10 hands-on AI workshop 25:30 ICP first — "AI exacerbates what their personality is" 31:25 AI in a restaurant: real-time margin calls on tonight's specials 33:41 AI in construction: estimates, subs, and the insurance audit 35:51 The SaaS that wins is the SaaS built for agents 37:58 Where the ROI actually showed up: expense, not revenue 42:51 Where to find John Martinka

  2. Sep 7

    The Value Factory Podcast | Episode 78 - Michael Ellison

    Most owners reach for AI to trim costs. Michael Ellison is using it to change what his company is fundamentally worth. Mike is President and CEO of Corporate Insight, a competitive intelligence firm his father founded in 1992 and that Mike joined in 1997, now a roughly 100-person operation in New York City serving financial and healthcare institutions. On this episode of the Value Factory Podcast, host Andrew Ballard asks him what convinced him the business had to change, and what he thinks the bigger prize actually is. His answer starts with a promise to his team: "I am not about leveraging AI to lay off half the staff. But what I want to be able to do is leverage AI to make a 100-person firm do the capabilities of a 200-person firm." Mike saw the threat early. In a professional services business, he says, "that knowledge work is gonna get eaten by AI", so the firm moved before it was forced to. For years its research was manual: analysts working through client websites page by page. Now Corporate Insight is building "digital twins" of those analysts, and the deliverable itself is changing shape. The core insight is about where the value actually sits: "The knowledge was locked in a PDF." "I don't want the PDF to be the initial data architecture. I want it to be the end result of what's already in the system." That shift, from producing documents to producing queryable data, is what changes the economics. It opens up on-demand reports, MCP access for clients who want to plug the firm's data into their own stacks, and dashboards. It also changes who the firm can serve: instead of only Fortune 500 engagements, Mike asks whether you can "do something profitably at a $50,000 or $25,000 price point." He's blunt that none of it moves the number on its own: "Multiple is still all gonna come down to EBITDA." The most striking part of the strategy is that he's deliberately building his own competitor: "I don't want to be disrupted blindly by this. So I'm trying to set up a digital twin that is potentially a competitor." He also makes the case for prototypes over strategy decks, "you can prototype things at a cost and speed that was not remotely possible three years ago", and for keeping the company human while it automates: "I think the culture is the business in many ways." "I also don't want to become a faceless machine." "And I will always have humans in the loop." Also in this episode: Mike's work as co-chair of the Financial Literacy Committee at the SPARK Institute and with FinEd50, why Claude is the firm's main model, and the maritime history publishing imprint and relaunched magazine Ships and Scale he says he "couldn't have done pre-AI." Guest: Michael Ellison, LinkedIn (two L's in Ellison), corporateinsight.com CHAPTERS 0:00 Cold open 0:12 Intro 0:40 Welcome - who is Mike Ellison 3:22 The SPARK Institute and financial literacy 4:40 FinEd50 and state-level financial literacy 5:42 Why the business had to change now 8:32 From page-by-page analysts to digital twins 9:44 Not layoffs: a 100-person firm with 200-person capability 10:59 From documents to queryable data 13:17 How AI changes the math on capacity and margin 16:16 Why a prototype beats a strategy deck 18:43 Did you build your own AI agent? 19:50 Where the pushback comes from 20:34 Building a digital twin designed to disrupt us 23:39 Is AI raising your multiple, or just cutting expenses? 25:29 The wow factors 27:07 Culture, and not becoming a faceless machine 28:10 The maritime history imprint 30:14 How to reach Mike 31:01 Close

  3. Sep 4

    The Value Factory Podcast | Episode 77 - Sel Watts

    Payroll is the biggest line item on the P&L. So what is it returning? That is the question Sel Watts builds her entire practice around. On this episode of The Value Factory Podcast, host Andrew Ballard talks with Sel Watts, founder of wattsnext PX, a culture architecture firm for founder-led professional services businesses across the US and Australia, about "return on person," and why the number almost nobody calculates is the one that now matters most. In Sel's words: "In professional services firms, the product has been the people." "And so we say it's gross revenue divided by payroll." "We can now have someone who maybe is a hundred thousand dollars a year and they could actually be giving a return of five hundred thousand dollars a year." On why a weak return is almost never a people problem: "Telling people exactly what success looks like and then giving them the resources and the opportunity to deliver on that. Sounds very simple." On annual performance reviews: "Don't even talk to me about annual performance reviews. That just drives me insane that you would do a review of someone once a year." And the line that gives this episode its edge: "So I would say don't be trying to do your people stuff internally. Because you're really the worst person to do it. I'm not allowed to be in the first round interviews in our business. Like I'm not, I'm banned." Connect with Sel Watts: sel@wattsnextgroup.com The Value Factory Podcast is presented by OneAccord, a national consulting firm headquartered in Kirkland, Washington.

  4. Sep 3

    The Value Factory Podcast | Episode 76 - Jesse Kreun

    Nick Anderson gave Jesse Kreun one job: make OneAccord, a 26-year-old professional services firm, AI native by January 1, 2027. This episode is the unglamorous conversation nobody films: not prompts and demos, but file architecture, metadata, SharePoint lists, CRM columns, and the change management required to get 25 people to actually put the data in. "I have asked you to get OneAccord to this place of AI nativity. Make us AI native by January 1, 2027." (Nick) "For decades, we've just been filing stuff in the old folder system... you started putting things in folders, organizing in subfolders, and kind of had your own system created." (Jesse) Nick is blunt about his own habits: "Let's be honest, man. I save everything to my desktop and then I put it in a folder later... my file nomenclature, my file architecture, my folder architecture, it's horrendous." They get concrete fast. On the other side of the podcast studio wall is a storage room full of banker boxes and manila folders, and Nick's point is that OneAccord's SharePoint looks exactly the same. Jesse walks through what metadata actually is, why a single "city, state, zip" column kills your ability to report, and why automation has to come before AI. Then it gets uncomfortable: "Every online fitness influencer from 2020 to 2023 is now an AI expert, and they're all pitching a $997 AI audit for your small business to have this conversation that we just had right here. Newsflash: nobody's ready. Just saved you a thousand bucks." (Nick) They talk real numbers. A Fortune 100 data cleanup runs "three hundred, five hundred, eight hundred thousand dollars." OneAccord is running about $3,500 a month in AI applications and token spend, and six months in Nick tallies the whole bet at roughly $75,000, while admitting the honest answer on ROI: "Is there an R on this I yet? ... The answer's no, right? I mean, not yet." Nick's resolution is the most useful idea in the episode: "I can't go back and not eat the ice cream... but I can make the decision today to not eat ice cream tomorrow." Don't spend $500K cleaning up 26 years of history, just do it right from today forward. The back half is the part most AI conversations skip entirely: adoption. Jesse and Nick work through ADKAR and SCARF, why "make someone aware" isn't awareness, and why status, certainty and autonomy are what actually stop a team from using the tools you built. "You have built beautiful systems. But if nobody uses them, they're worthless." (Nick) Also in this one: letting Claude loose on 20 years of SharePoint and surfacing client testimonials nobody knew existed; running the sales pipeline through Claude and not liking the answer; conversational intelligence that turns every recorded call into coaching; why chasing unqualified deals is the expensive habit; and the "say the exact words back" rule Nick borrows from marriage coaching and applies to clients. Guest: Jesse Kreun Host: Nick Anderson, CEO of OneAccord. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:41 Welcome to the Value Factory 01:09 The mandate: make us AI native by January 1, 2027 01:59 26 years of folders, why legacy filing breaks AI 02:56 Letting Claude loose on SharePoint 03:50 "Talk to me like we've been friends since fifth grade" 04:47 What metadata actually is 06:08 The banker boxes on the other side of the wall 08:07 Why it matters: automation comes before AI 10:04 Nobody's tracking the data, including the top sellers 10:42 "Diagnose me": where the problem really starts 12:00 Addresses, columns, and why granularity pays 14:35 Start with the end in mind 15:59 Everyone knows the answer, so why doesn't anyone do it? 16:56 Make it easy: pop-up fields and required data 17:26 Sell the vacation, not the plane 18:49 What clean data actually unlocks 19:44 The 767 engagements Nick can't count 21:14 Conversational intelligence: recording every call 23:38 This isn't Otter or Read AI 25:03 "Only 132 people will watch this": sharing the secret sauce 25:41 The sales coach in your pocket 27:52 Say the exact words back, the marriage-coach rule 29:47 Where it goes wrong: becoming the ChatGPT yes-man 30:15 A quarter century of experience as the filter 32:07 Chasing the wrong deals, AI as the objective screen 33:05 The 25-to-100-million ideal client, and the tractor vs. the shovel 33:59 Turning Claude loose on the sales pipeline 35:26 The $997 AI audit: newsflash, nobody's ready 36:23 Medallion architecture and what Fortune 100 data cleanup costs 37:03 What's the real investment? The intern experiment 38:38 Is there an ROI yet? The honest answer 39:45 Collective 54, the one firm that can point to returns 40:13 $3,500 a month in tokens, and "I've been doing sit-ups for five days" 40:43 Don't fix the past, fix everything going forward 41:33 If the architecture changes in six months, why sign up? 42:59 Seven steps down to one: the change-management win 43:29 ADKAR and SCARF: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability 46:43 Beautiful systems that nobody uses are worthless 47:17 SharePoint lists, document libraries, and self-updating SOPs 49:39 Databases that point at each other 51:31 What changes when the call auto-populates the CRM 52:44 The living organization: agents that revise your SOPs 54:33 How real is this, and how far away? 56:00 Six months in: tallying the actual bill OneAccord helps founders and owners of $25M+ companies increase enterprise value ahead of transition. oneaccordpartners.com

  5. Aug 28

    The Value Factory Podcast | Episode 75 - Ansh Nanda

    Nick Anderson runs OneAccord, a 25-year-old consulting firm that leads lower-middle-market companies (manufacturers, trades, professional services doing $25M+) through transition and growth. In January 2026 he stopped being an AI cynic and started building agents. Today three of them work in his company: Donna, his digital chief of staff, who has a OneAccord email, a Microsoft 365 license and a seat on the org chart; Harper, who runs marketing, content and video; and Grace, who writes code. Ansh Nanda, founder of Chorus.com, sits down with Nick to get the unfiltered version: what it actually cost, what broke, what he still won't hand to an agent, and why the answer to almost every "AI readiness audit" in America is the same. In this conversation: Why Nick went from ChatGPT early adopter (around user number 500,000) to full cynic: the charlatans, the hallucinations, the AI pitch decks that were "presented to me as if it was like diamonds, but it wasn't." "Every fitness influencer from 2022 is now an AI expert consultant, and they want to do an AI readiness audit for 2,500 bucks. I know the answer to the audit... The answer to the audit is you're not ready. Your data is messy. Get your data together." The unglamorous prerequisite nobody sells you: OneAccord had no live SOP document when Nick took over a 23-year-old company. Three years of writing down every decision produced the 150-page SOP that made the first agent possible. The Copilot Studio reality check: four weeks at 20 hours a week to get an MVP agent that could produce OneAccord's standard 50-to-80-slide consulting deliverable, and it was "maybe, maybe okay." "By January 2027, my org chart is going to have agents alongside humans." He said that on a podcast a year early. His answer now: "We are there." What it costs: under $2,000 a month in tokens for all three agents. A paid-ads build he priced at roughly $20,000 from an agency. Two cents to post a piece of content. The delegation rule: "I don't ever exclusively delegate to an agent... it's the agent doing 80% of the work, but the human is responsible for that 20% that is the judgment, that is the taste. Taste really matters." The A-Team: all three agents in one iMessage group chat, each on a different model, arguing out a Meta/LinkedIn/Google retargeting campaign like a marketing committee. Rapid fire: lose your best employee for a year, or lose AI for a year? Nick's answer is not the one you expect: "AI cannot produce revenue for us. Can't close sales. Not yet." Budgeting AI like payroll: an $80K minimum-wage exempt employee in Washington costs about $100K a year fully loaded, or $8,000 a month. "I can easily 10X output with $8,000 of token spend... and we're nowhere near that right now." And the long view: "By the end of 2027... the agents that we build will be able to deliver the knowledge that we offer better, faster, cheaper than we can as human individuals." Guest host: Ansh Nanda, founder of Chorus.com. Host: Nick Anderson, CEO of OneAccord. Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:56 Welcome to the Value Factory 01:21 Banker at 17, CEO at 25 years in: who Nick is 02:44 What OneAccord actually does, the lower middle market 07:16 First contact with AI: user ~500,000 on ChatGPT 08:32 From curious to cynical: charlatans, hallucinations, data risk 11:14 "Every fitness influencer from 2022 is now an AI expert consultant" 11:52 January 2026: the demo that changed his mind 15:23 "I'm building agents": Copilot Studio and weekly Innovation Day 16:58 The 150-page SOP nobody wanted to write 18:22 Four weeks, 20 hours a week, one "maybe okay" MVP 19:32 "By January 2027 my org chart has agents alongside humans" 20:43 OpenClaw, Gemini, and why a terminal was a wall 27:23 Meet the agents: Donna, Harper, Grace 28:33 What three agents actually cost per month 30:37 The A-Team: three agents planning a paid ads campaign in iMessage 32:28 Harper builds the campaign, and why nothing ships without review 36:34 A $20,000 agency quote vs. under $2,000 in tokens 37:19 Agent in the loop: 80% of the work, 20% judgment and taste 39:23 Two cents per post: the unit economics of an action 42:58 10X productivity, and the hidden cost of learning 44:23 Rolling agents out to the team 47:39 Agents for clients: the "change agent" 48:49 "Better, faster, cheaper" by the end of 2027 54:54 Rapid fire: lose your best employee, or lose AI? 55:33 Four kids and the future of work 56:29 Budgeting AI like payroll: $8,000 a month 58:17 Close OneAccord helps founders and owners of $25M+ companies increase enterprise value ahead of transition. oneaccordpartners.com

  6. Aug 6

    The Value Factory Podcast | Episode 74 - Sergiu Simmel

    Every business has an operating system. The question is whether it's helping your company grow or holding it back. In this episode of the Value Factory Podcast, host Andrew Ballard sits down with business operating system expert Sergiu Simmel to discuss how the right systems create stronger leadership, better execution, and greater enterprise value. They also explore why AI can't fix broken processes and what leaders should look for as their businesses grow. Learn more about building a scalable business at oneaccord.co.

  7. Aug 6

    The Value Factory Podcast | Episode 73 - Ben Morley

    What if the biggest obstacle to growing your business is you? In this episode of the Value Factory Podcast, host Andrew Ballard sits down with executive coach, retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel, and bestselling author Ben Morley to explore the connection between personal transformation and enterprise value. They discuss owner dependency, leadership, process documentation, and why the strongest businesses are built to thrive beyond their founders. Discover practical insights for building a more scalable, transferable business at oneaccord.co.

  8. Aug 6

    The Value Factory Podcast | Episode 72 - Joseph Thompson

    Why do so many strategic plans fail to deliver results? In this episode of the Value Factory Podcast, host Andrew Ballard sits down with Joseph Thompson, CEO of Target Tech and former Army officer, to explore why execution is often the missing link between strategy and success. They discuss the difference between urgent and important work, how CEOs can create lasting enterprise value, and why accountability and operating cadence matter more than another planning session. Learn practical insights for building a stronger, more valuable business at oneaccord.co.

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About

Welcome to The Value Factory Podcast, powered by OneAccord, where we decode the secrets to building substantial, lasting enterprise value for your business. If you’re a business owner, CEO, or leader of a privately held company striving for sustainable growth, navigating complex transitions, or aiming to maximize your company’s worth, this is your essential resource. Hosted by the seasoned operators at OneAccord, The Value Factory delves into the practical strategies and real-world insights needed to transform your organization. Each episode tackles critical challenges faced by leaders in manufacturing, distribution, professional services, and beyond. We explore the power of robust Strategic Planning & Execution through frameworks like our OASYS Business Operating System, designed to instill clarity and discipline in your operations. Discover how Fractional and Interim C-Suite leadership – bringing in experienced CEOs, COOs, CROs, and CIOs/CTOs – can fill crucial leadership gaps, drive change, and execute on critical initiatives, often starting with our comprehensive Client Success Plan diagnostic. Tune in for expert discussions on scaling your business, achieving operational excellence, and preparing for significant milestones such as succession planning, financial exits, or turnaround strategies. We’ll share actionable advice on everything from Business Enablement – including vital sales training and leadership development – to strategic Talent Acquisition to build high-performance teams. The Value Factory isn’t about theoretical concepts; it’s about sharing wisdom from the trenches. Our OneAccord team has ”sat in your seat” and understands the journey of owner-operated businesses. We believe in ”Building Value. Built on Values,” and this podcast is an extension of that commitment, designed to help you unlock your company’s full potential, boost revenue growth, improve profitability, and create a more resilient and valuable enterprise. Join us on The Value Factory Podcast to gain the knowledge and inspiration you need to make your business more valuable, today and for the future. Visit oneaccord.co to learn more about how our team can help you build enterprise value that lasts.

Information

  • Creator
    OneAccord
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    81
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2025 All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Value Factory Podcast