Breaking 100

Evan Pawloski and Charles Pass
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Less than 1% of businesses ever reach 100 employees. This show is about the ones who do. Hosted by Evan Pawloski and Charles Pass of Michigan 401k Advisors and Michigan Retirement Advisors, Breaking 100 features honest conversations with business owners and entrepreneurs who've scaled past 100 employees, and some who chose not to. We dig into the real challenges of growing a small business: hiring, leadership, company culture, cash flow, employee benefits, and the decisions that keep owners up at night. Evan built a business past 100 employees and watched it fall apart. Charlie grew his wealth management practice past $100 million in assets. Between them, they've worked with hundreds of companies on 401k plans, retirement planning, and building generational wealth. Now they're sitting down with the business owners doing it themselves. Whether you're scaling a company, running an owner-only operation, or planning your exit, these are the stories nobody puts on a slide deck. New episodes weekly.

Episodes

  1. 5d ago

    Marine: 42,000 Veteran Nonprofits Aren't Talking To Each Other | Joe Forlines

    Do you have a purpose, or just a busy calendar? Marine veteran Joe Forlines walked away from the top of the finance industry to answer that question, and what he found will save you decades of running on empty. Joe Forlines is the President and Founder of Team Honor, a Michigan nonprofit supporting Gold and Blue Star families and veterans. A Marine Corps veteran of Desert Storm, he spent nearly 30 years in financial services at firms including Merrill Lynch, UBS, and Principal before leaving the industry to care for his dying father. Since 2017 he has coached Navy Seals, Green Berets, and Recon Marines through The Honor Foundation as they make the jump to civilian life. In this episode, he explains: 🡒 The Micro Purpose Trap: why a good career, a loving family, and a full calendar can keep the car moving while you quietly run out of fuel. 🡒 The Last Reading: the note his great grandmother left inside a military Bible, and the page it opened to on the morning his father died. 🡒 The Two Things: the only qualities Joe tells terrified Navy Seals they need to get hired, proven by a man whose associate's degree kept landing him jobs that required a bachelor's. 🡒 The $10,000 Bike He Sent Back: the decision that made one donor say Joe was the only person who ever cared about his money, and the machine his friends built instead. 🡒 The 42,000 Problem: why America's veteran nonprofits aren't talking to each other, and the plan that started with 12 strangers flying into a Kansas boardroom to admit their weaknesses. Chapters 0:00 Welcome and how Team Honor began 6:35 Micro purposes and the internal compass 8:00 Captain Phillips and a chaplain found 30 years later 13:06 Leaving finance to care for his father 19:09 The Bible reading on his father's last day 27:37 The 42,000 veteran nonprofit problem 31:15 Twelve nonprofits in a Kansas boardroom 48:40 Dickey and the trike built for dignity 58:56 Coachable and trainable, his advice for veterans 1:05:28 Team Honor five years from now Connect with Joe https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-forlines-iv-4511726/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-honor-foundation ~~~ This podcast is sponsored by Michigan Retirement Advisors. https://miretire.com/ Prefer to listen? https://pod.link/6812062863

  2. Oct 14

    Growth Mode Means Choosing To Be Poor | Cameron Elrod

    Cam Elrod runs a dental group with 140 employees across 11 locations, plus DDSmatch Michigan, where he helps dentists sell and transition their practices. He's never advertised either business. He spent 22 years in corporate dental distribution before his family of entrepreneurs pushed him out of the nest. Then he built something private equity couldn't: a co-op model that pools private dentists so they can compete with corporate dentistry without losing their culture. This episode is a masterclass in buying, building, and exiting a practice. Here’s some of what was covered: → The five year window: Start planning your exit five years out. → The death plan: A practice loses about half its value every month after an owner dies so leave your spouse a plan in place. → Advice for buyers: Banks want proof of liquidity, so save the cash and track your production. → The real estate trap: Money deployed into practices outperforms money locked in a building. → Retention through equity: Cameron’s dentists earn ownership every year they stay. Chapters 00:00 Welcome and meet Cameron Elrod 01:26 Building the dental group private equity can't touch 03:15 Keeping 140 employees happy across 11 locations 09:45 Bullied out of corporate America at the Thanksgiving table 13:26 The five year window every dentist ignores 19:17 What happens when a dentist dies without a plan 23:13 Advice for young buyers: save cash, don't pay down debt 31:04 Paying dentists in equity so they never leave 35:38 Choosing growth means choosing to be poor 43:36 Why Cam rents the building instead of buying it Connect with Cameron https://www.linkedin.com/in/cameronelrod/ https://www.instagram.com/ddsmatchmichigan/ https://michigan.ddsmatch.com/ ~~~ This podcast is sponsored by Michigan Retirement Advisors. https://miretire.com/ Prefer to listen? https://pod.link/6812062863

  3. Sep 30

    Your Best Employee Is One Bad Day From Leaving | Jack Leavy

    Most business owners insure the trucks, the buildings, and the cyber risk without blinking. Almost none of them insure the people who make the place run. Jack Leavy has spent 30 years designing executive benefit plans. The main takeaway: you can promise a key employee real money for staying and skip most of the rules that make 401ks so rigid. Here’s what you'll learn: → How non-qualified plans work and why they sit outside the 401k rules → The stay bonus. If they stay five years, they get paid. If they leave, you owe nothing. → Why 10 to 15% of someone's pay is the number that changes behavior → Deferring income at your highest tax rate and taking it at your lowest → The math on losing a key employee: 3 to 4 times their pay if the seat sits empty a year → Why your buy-sell agreement is only as good as your last valuation Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:00 Why a retirement plan can protect a business 5:00 What keeps owners up at night 7:55 The dealership that dropped its match 15:40 The five alarm fire and the $100,000 promise 21:20 Save till it hurts. The ski jacket rule. 28:15 The real cost of losing a key employee 34:35 The fine print. Three risks to know. 39:40 Financing your own exit 45:10 Keep it simple, valuations, and Tommy Boy ~~~ This podcast is sponsored by Michigan Retirement Advisors. https://miretire.com/ Prefer to listen? https://pod.link/6812062863

  4. Sep 14

    The Truth About Generational Wealth | Evan Pawloski and Charles Pass

    Less than 1% of businesses ever reach 100 employees. We built The Breaking 100 Podcast to discuss what it takes to actually accomplish that massive feat. My (Evan) first company was a valet business: a golf course, a restaurant, then a hospital system, which grew to over 100 employees and every problem that comes with them. The partnership didn't survive it, and the ending wasn't amicable. That failure taught me more than the growth did. In 2010 a business partner and I started Michigan 401k Advisors with zero clients... Today it's over 120 401k plans. Charlie came here from England with a suitcase and a scholarship, went independent, and crossed $100 million in assets. He manages $150 million for 180 families now. In this episode of The Breaking 100 Podcast, we covered: → How a valet company grew past 100 employees and why it fell apart → What separates a good 401k plan from a great one → Why the Rockefellers stayed wealthy and the Vanderbilts didn't → The one guarantee Charlie makes to every single client → The emotional math behind retiring, or deciding not to Every owner who's crossed 100 has a story about what it almost cost them. Those stories are the reason this show exists. Chapters 0:00 Why we started Breaking 100 4:25 Evan's story, from parking cars to 120 retirement plans 11:57 What makes a 401k plan actually great 16:17 Charlie's road from England to Bloomfield Hills 23:53 Investment manager or wealth manager 29:38 The one guarantee: you will lose money 34:58 Why nobody's met their 401k advisor 51:04 What a 401k says about your company 1:00:44 The two questions every owner should ask 1:05:35 Emotional math and what wealth really means ~~~ This podcast is sponsored by Michigan Retirement Advisors. https://miretire.com/

  • 4 Episodes

About

Less than 1% of businesses ever reach 100 employees. This show is about the ones who do. Hosted by Evan Pawloski and Charles Pass of Michigan 401k Advisors and Michigan Retirement Advisors, Breaking 100 features honest conversations with business owners and entrepreneurs who've scaled past 100 employees, and some who chose not to. We dig into the real challenges of growing a small business: hiring, leadership, company culture, cash flow, employee benefits, and the decisions that keep owners up at night. Evan built a business past 100 employees and watched it fall apart. Charlie grew his wealth management practice past $100 million in assets. Between them, they've worked with hundreds of companies on 401k plans, retirement planning, and building generational wealth. Now they're sitting down with the business owners doing it themselves. Whether you're scaling a company, running an owner-only operation, or planning your exit, these are the stories nobody puts on a slide deck. New episodes weekly.

Information

  • Creator
    Evan Pawloski and Charles Pass
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Breaking 100