Straight out of college, I found myself walking into a Wall Street brokerage office in Newport Beach. I only had one suit, no appointment, and no guarantee anyone would even see me. But I had a clear vision of what I wanted to do. I’d already passed my Series 7 and had spent years studying personal finance.
I wasn’t just looking for a job; I was looking for a role that didn’t quite exist yet in the way I envisioned it. When I sat down with the branch manager, I laid out about ten specific things I felt ‘called to do’.
He kept looking at a piece of paper on his L-shaped desk, and I thought he wasn’t paying attention. Turns out, he was holding the job description for a brand-new position the company was creating in New York.
I had just described it point-for-point. “This clearly is meant for you,” he told me. “Can you be in New York in 3 weeks?” That was 1983, and I became the financial planner for the Newport Beach office, one of the first in the company. It was the start of a career defined by seeing the connections nobody else would.
Whole Picture
My “macro view of business” really started to take shape early on. I realized that professionals, especially lawyers and accountants, tend to be very siloed. They specialize in their niche, which is great for deep expertise, but it means a business owner often has to navigate a fragmented landscape.
Accountants are over here, attorneys are over there, and even within law, you have estate planning attorneys, tax attorneys, litigation specialists. They all work in their own ‘silos within the silo’, as I like to say.
As a business grows, it encounters new problems, new opportunities, and new risks that none of these specialists see in their entirety. My goal has always been to be the one who sees that whole picture, the macro application of how I see the business world, understanding who’s doing what, when they’re needed, and how they fit into the larger trajectory of a business owner’s life.
Early Lessons
I grew up around entrepreneurs, namely my grandfather and uncles. I had an inside view of that world. My first real entrepreneurial venture was in college. I was a track athlete in the dorms, and I noticed there were no vending machines.
So, I started buying leftover baked goods from the campus cafeteria for two cents a piece and selling them to hungry athletes for fifty cents. My margins were huge, and for about six months, I was “living pretty high.”
Eventually, the campus authorities found out and decided to open their own vending operations, effectively shutting me down. But it was clear then that the entrepreneurial bug was alive inside me.
Law School
After my stint on Wall Street and starting my own financial planning firm, I hit a wall. I was working with business owners, and I realized I didn’t have a deep enough understanding of things like business tax or estate planning.
More importantly, lawyers at the time had ‘zero respect’ for financial planners. They didn’t understand what we did, and I couldn’t blame them. So, I did what seemed logical: “I just realized that I needed to go to law school myself, so I cut out the problem of the lawyer.”
Becoming a lawyer immediately gave me credibility across the board and a deeper insight into the legal issues business owners face.
Exit Planning
My legal practice lasted 30 years, but about 14 years ago, I found my true calling in exit planning. I met a lawyer from Denver, John Brown, who was talking about exit planning at a conference with 600 other attorneys. Nobody else went up to talk to him.
But for me, it was an immediate “kindred spirit” moment. “He’s the first person in my whole career that I thought, this guy understands exactly what I’m trying to do.” We worked together for a decade, and he mentored me.
I encouraged him to create the BEI exit planning credential, which is a rigorous program. I eventually moved back to North Carolina, slowly shut down my law practice, and started what is now Build, Prove, Sell. I wanted independence and to avoid the conflict rules of the legal industry.
With exit planning, I can be in the room with all the professionals (lawyers, accountants, M&A firms) and ensure everyone is working together for the client’s best interests, without the silos.
Owner's Problem
At Build, Prove, Sell, we focus on “pre-M&A” work. We want a company to be run in such a way that it’s always ready for a sale or transition, whether to an outside buyer or the next generation.
We get the company, and the family, ready. That means getting ahead of tax planning, estate issues, and family dynamics. One blue-collar company we worked with was valued at $2.69 million when we started. The owner was doing all the bidding himself, working 60-plus hours a week, and was completely worn out.
I told him directly, “You are the problem.” His back end was well-designed and could handle more volume, but he couldn’t get enough bids out the door. It took us six months to convince him to bring in a process engineer to redesign his bid system.
His wife, who was doing the accounting, became our greatest advocate, recognizing that we were looking out for their family’s future. Once he finally agreed, we moved him from 60 hours a week to 15-20, the business exploded, and we sold it four years later for $14 million.
We also “prettied up the plant,” changed the accounting system to be M&A ready, and brought in new accountants and lawyers. We essentially redesigned everything except the back end of that business.
Strategic Buyers
One of my “pet peeves” is selling to private equity (PE) firms. “I want my M&A firm to do the best it can for me instead of selling over and over again to the same group of PE firms because um I don’t want any sort of regular deals going on.”
While PE firms have their place, I prefer to work with firms that lean into selling to strategic buyers. Strategic buyers often pay a much higher multiple because they can leverage what’s special about your business, like that redesigned front-end bidding system, across their existing operations.
The company that bought our blue-collar client, for instance, paid double the industry multiple because they wanted that front-end design to apply across their 29 other companies. It’s about finding the best fit and maximizing value, not just putting a floor under the bidding process.
Family Legacy
Beyond the business, I’m deeply committed to the family. My daughter, Ellen, has been working alongside me for 12 years. She’s a macro planner, like me, with a CFP, and she’s a great public speaker. We work as a team for our clients, bringing both our perspectives to the table.
This experience has definitely informed my approach to family legacy for our clients. “I don’t want the family to have to go out and look for everybody go to their corner and come out fighting.”
Life isn’t always smooth sailing. I’ve faced significant challenges, including a difficult split with a former partner that cost me a lot of money, and then my wife’s severe health issues five years ago that affected her autonomic nervous system.
For months, she was largely bedridden, and I was caring for her while running my businesses. It was terrifying and isolating. During that time, I leaned heavily on my faith. I’m a Christian, and it’s the most important part of my life.
I had been praying for fellowship, and one Friday night, I showed my wife a lawyer’s website, saying I wanted to meet him because he had the “guts to have his Christianity on his website.” The next morning, at 9 AM, that very lawyer was at my front door. I didn’t know him, and there’s no solicitation in my neighborhood.
He took two steps back when I called him by name. He was there to invite me to a Bible study. It was a crazy, undeniable answer to prayer, and that fellowship has been incredibly important to me ever since.
Ultimately, what I want to be remembered for is helping my clients thrive—in their businesses, their lives, and their relationships. I want them to reach a place where they can transition or sell their business, leaving a strong financial and family legacy.
Part of that means helping them learn how to live with money, not letting it define them. It’s a big arc, this macro thing I talk about, and I’m not trying to do it all, but I am trying to make sure it all happens. I want “them to live their legacy, not just leave one.”
I genuinely love what I do, and I have no intention of retiring as long as I can keep delivering value. If you’re a business owner looking to build a saleable company, maximize its value, and ensure your family’s future is secure, let's talk. You can find more about our approach at buildprovesell.com and longfamilyoffice.com.
Listen Now
You can listen to the full episode of my interview with Anthony Codispoti on The Inspired News Podcast here:
