The Power of the Pivot: Denise Shade on Leadership and Ownership
01:01
Carrie Aguilar
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to In Her Land, where we highlight amazing women who are leaders in their fields in and around the land. I'm Carrie.
01:08
Mara Kamat
And I'm Mara. Each show we sit down with women leading with purpose. The kind of women who build, rebuild, and reimagine our communities from the ground up.
01:19
Carrie Aguilar
Today we are so excited to be joined by someone who I am such a fan of. Not because of her impressive background, we'll get to that in a second. But mostly because of her incredible spirit and the light she brings to her room. I'm excited to welcome Denise Shade to the podcast. Welcome, Denise.
01:34
Denise Shade
Thank you. I'm really happy to be here.
01:36
Carrie Aguilar
Yay.
01:37
Mara Kamat
Welcome, Denise. We're so excited to have you and it's a pleasure to get to know you, to set the stage. Denise is a corporate executive turned entrepreneur currently serving as the new owner and CEO of Audit One, a risk advisory firm specializing in the financial sector. She began her career in banking and most recently completed over 20 years at KeyBank. Congratulations.
02:00
Denise Shade
Thank you.
02:01
Mara Kamat
As the head of the foreign exchange, among other illustrious titles during her time there. So we are so fortunate and excited to have her on in her land today.
02:11
Carrie Aguilar
So let's start at the beginning. We always like to start at the beginning. Can you give us just a short overview of your career?
02:18
Denise Shade
Certainly. I started in banking originally with Star bank, which became U.S. bank. And then shortly later I joined Key. And I joined Key in the Foreign Exchange group. I was very fortunate there. Originally it was intended to be a three to five year gig because even then my intention was always to own and operate my own company.
02:41
Carrie Aguilar
Okay.
02:42
Denise Shade
And it ended up being a series of three to five year gigs.
02:46
Carrie Aguilar
Pull within Key.
02:46
Denise Shade
Absolutely within key. I would start thinking, okay, my five years is up on this. I'm ready to move to the next thing. I'm going to look at buying a company. And they would Reel me in with a new opportunity and I would think, okay, this is going to be a great leadership opportunity to build my skills for when I own and operate my own business. And that just kept happening over and over again.
03:07
Carrie Aguilar
For someone like myself who doesn't really fully know what foreign exchange means, can you just do a little TLDR synopsis?
03:15
Denise Shade
Certainly. So with foreign exchange, what we do is we're helping companies who have foreign currency exposure and help them to identify and manage that risk is essentially what we did.
03:27
Carrie Aguilar
Okay. In my head that's what I thought it was. So keep going.
03:31
Denise Shade
So that's where I started there. Eventually when I left there, I was actually running the foreign exchange department, but I also had other businesses. I ran at one point our international trade group as well. I managed our financial institutions practice, which is where we deliver banking solutions to other banks. And there were two divisions of that. There were ones where we work with smaller banks that may want to be able to offer a full range of services, but they may just not be big enough to have everything that their client might need. And then also our global relationships. So we had 1100 global bank relationships around the world. Wow. And then I also started a payments team to deliver payment solutions to technology companies. And in that business we worked very closely with SAS companies, fintech companies, anybody in the payment space.
04:22
Denise Shade
But particularly in those two areas.
04:24
Mara Kamat
That's literally what I'm doing today as the head of hr. One of the businesses that I am a fractional two people officer of is a payments business and it's in the SaaS space as well. And it's PE owned. So it's a small payments world as well. Interesting for you though, you've navigated into different spaces within KeyBank and different points in your career. Kind of had these different experiences. Can you talk to us a little bit about, like, how did you make a choice to move into different roles throughout the course of your career?
04:58
Denise Shade
Certainly so when I left there, I was leading the five lines of business at the time. No one would have actually had that job description. Like that job description doesn't exist today. But what happened was I was running foreign exchange and the foreign exchange area. At one point I had to do a turnaround for them in one of the divisions. That's before I was managing the entire business. It was a great learning experience and it ended up being very successful. I learned very early on, you surround yourself by very smart people and you empower them and then get out of their way and just let them run. And so that Turned out really well. And I picked up additional responsibilities after that, including being asked to do another business turnaround where that one was much more complex.
05:44
Denise Shade
The first one was primarily a business development play. This one involved rethinking everything about the business, from risk management to operations to client servicing. You know, in my view, we originally had it backwards. We were outsourcing the client servicing and doing some of the operations, and we flipped that. We found somebody who was really good at the operations to outsource, but brought the client servicing and the client experience back in house and then built a business development team from scratch. And we took that business and put it on a trajectory where it was growing in excess of 30% per year. So again, really smart people who just really needed a platform to do what they were really good at. And as opportunities came up, I typically kept the old responsibilities and just added on as went. And I'm really grateful.
06:33
Carrie Aguilar
You might say that you were very busy at the end.
06:35
Denise Shade
I was very busy at the end. I was very busy at the end.
06:37
Carrie Aguilar
Can I ask just another clarifying question? When you say turnaround business, I'm assuming that's a business within key.
06:45
Denise Shade
In one of the cases, it was a product that the bank wanted to continue to offer because it was really critical to middle market companies if we didn't offer that product. But it wasn't really the profit driver at the time. So the idea was if we didn't have the product, then they would go elsewhere for their core services. So this was the business that we ended up putting on this growth trajectory. In the beginning, the goal was just to make sure that it was profitable and not dragging down ROI Understood. Right. But it was absolutely quality. We had phenomenal people. We were really out punching our weight as far as what the clients were getting from an expertise and experience standpoint. And after we turned that around, were actually using it to drive new corporate business into the bank.
07:27
Carrie Aguilar
That's awesome. So you were no longer the slow guy. You were the one that was keeping pace and actually bringing everyone else along.
07:33
Denise Shade
Yeah, absolutely.
07:34
Carrie Aguilar
That's cool.
07:35
Denise Shade
It was.
07:35
Carrie Aguilar
That's amazing.
07:37
Mara Kamat
So stepping back and thinking about your time there, what are three things that you are taking away as learnings that you're integrating into your now entrepreneur journey?
07:47
Denise Shade
So I pull from what I learned at Key every single day. It's just a wealth I'm very grateful for. All of the time that was there. Probably first and foremost would be leadership. And I had the benefit to work for some amazing leaders. And I soaked it all up, for example, I had one leader who was just so incredibly good at knowing what was important to focus on. It's very easy, I think, especially in a big company, to kind of get caught up in details that in the end just don't matter. They're not going to bring benefit to a client. They're just kind of noise in the way. And he was just remarkable at identifying what was important and focusing on that. So I really learned how to just walk away from certain things that didn't matter. That was really important.
08:33
Denise Shade
The other thing is I'm in the risk management business, right? So learning how to manage risk, but not just do it from a financial institution standpoint, when you're running a company or a business, you don't want to be running away from risk. You need to be able to embrace risk in order to grow and to try new things. But you have to know how to manage it. And I learned a lot of skills while at KEY on how to manage risk, which I think is important. And tactically, I learned a lot. I was there for a long time, a lot longer than I had expected.
09:04
Carrie Aguilar
And your three to five years gig, right?
09:07
Denise Shade
It did, but like I said, it felt like a whole series of three to five year gigs and it was a great experience. But I learned so much about the contracts, about managing hr. I had some of the best HR partners and KEY was very good at that. And I learned so much from them about just how you manage people and how you deal with HR issues. I think I always have had a natural bent towards sales and business development, but I learned a lot about sales process and how to really execute on that. So I learned a lot of tactical things that I'm absolutely drawing from right now.
09:40
Mara Kamat
Thanks for sharing.
09:41
Carrie Aguilar
So I want to shift a little and also level set with everyone. So I want to talk about the power of networking. I first met you at a networking event or. Well, actually I think it was a holiday party, but it was like a networking event for an HR business. And I remember we immediately connected over shared experiences. Also a boat, because you have a boat and love your boat and you were so good at working the room. You and I had a wonderful conversation, but I'm sure you also connected with three to five other people and at the time you were looking for a business to acquire and you were very upfront about what you were doing. Can you talk a little bit about how you got so good at it?
10:25
Denise Shade
Certainly. But I have to say, when I remember that event specifically and when I walked in and I Saw you there originally. We never got to connect, but I saw you the first time at. I think it was the Ohio Tech Network, and you were on the other side of the room, and it was, like, packed, crowded. I just. I don't think there was enough time that I got over there. But I remember watching you and thinking, oh, I've got to meet that person. That's really sweet. So when I saw you at the HR event, I think we connected pretty early on in that event, so that was great.
10:55
Denise Shade
But networking, I think, is critically important, and particularly when I was looking for a business, you don't know where your opportunity is going to come from, so you need to meet as many people as you possibly can. The main part of looking for a business, I probably spent at least half, if not more than that, actually networking versus the logistics of reviewing companies and that sort of thing, particularly in the beginning.
11:21
Carrie Aguilar
Got it. Wait. I have lots of questions about this. So what I really loved about what you do, and I think that this is transferable to a lot of people who listen to the podcast, which is, you know, we have people who are between chapters who might be looking for a job or like Mara and I, who consult, and we need to obviously make sure our bread is buttered in six months. Right. What I really was very fascinated by is I think that there are people who are people person, therefore they can have a conversation. What I think you do really well is you're just very upfront with what you're doing. So much to the point of.
11:59
Carrie Aguilar
I don't know if you remember this, but at the time, my brother's godfather was selling his business, and I was like, we're gonna make this deal work. She wants a manufacturing company. It's within the numbers. Like, we're gonna make this work. We didn't. But in my head, and I don't think as someone who networks with other people, you're not as direct. Then people don't know how to help you. So I just wanted to say huge kudos to you because I think there are so many people who feel cringe, and I do sometimes, too. I'm like, I want to have a conversation with you and oh, crap. I also have to say I do sales strategy. Do you need help with sales strategy?
12:35
Denise Shade
Right.
12:35
Carrie Aguilar
I just. I love that. Where did you get that skill?
12:39
Denise Shade
I do think I had some good mentors in that area. There was a woman that I worked for named Kay Geiger, one of my first real bosses, and she was amazing.
12:47
Carrie Aguilar
Shout out to Kay.
12:48
Denise Shade
Yeah, Shout out to Kay, she actually went on to be the market president for pnc, I think, in Cincinnati. So she had a really incredible career. Recently retired and so very early on in my career she was amazing networker and involved in lots of organizations and that sort of thing. And it was just expected that's what were going to do. So she was a good role model. But I also think I love learning about people. I'm pretty curious about people and what their path is because I'm constantly learning from that as well. So that curiosity, I think is really important. I also believe that there's sometimes a fear around networking. Right. A natural. I think the reality of it is that people want to help people. Yeah, they don't know how to help sometimes.
13:33
Denise Shade
Like they don't know what it is that you might need or how they could possibly help. But the natural inclination, I think, is if someone has an opportunity to be able to help somebody with something, provide some information, provide another connection, they like doing that. So I think to do it, you just got to put yourself out there first to show up and not overthink it and just say hi to somebody and then see where the conversation goes, whether it's talking about a boat or talking about a favorite place that they like to vacation or what their career was. I think with that curiosity, you learn all sorts of things and opportunities just open up from there.
14:12
Carrie Aguilar
I love that.
14:12
Mara Kamat
So after two decades in banking, you decided to shift and go on this entrepreneurial journey. I think that takes a lot of courage because you're walking away from something that's incredibly stable. I'm guessing, I don't know. But you were on the leadership team, so there was probably bonuses, long term incentives, a salary, and now you're on this entrepreneurial journey. That's a little bit of a question mark. And you hope all works out.
14:38
Carrie Aguilar
Denise is like, it's not a question mark.
14:40
Mara Kamat
I'm successful. Well, you know, talk to me a little bit about, yeah, that experience to one, make that choice. But then two would also love to hear about your journey and how you evaluated what the right business was for you to buy and engage in.
14:57
Denise Shade
Sure. A lot of people thought I was crazy. They really did. And they told me I recognized that I had a good thing at key. I really did. It was a great position. I was in a role that I was able to positively impact people in a great way and I had a tremendous team and were performing well. So a lot of people thought it was somewhat crazy, but I view it as it was A calculated risk. A couple things. One that's important to understand is that the whole inspiration for this came when I was in grad school. So I had got my MBA from Case Western, and while I was there, I took a couple entrepreneurship classes that were taught by a professor there named Richard Osborne, who is affectionately known as the Gorilla Amazing Human Being.
15:46
Denise Shade
And he really preached about the benefits of acquiring an existing company and bringing your talents and skills to that, to take that company to the next level. Startups are great. I know. Personally, I just. He didn't have a great idea for that. But what he was describing about buying something that existed and really supporting those people, it just appealed to me. I knew from the moment that I left Case that's what I wanted to do. I mean, that seed was planted and it never left. And in fact, it just kept growing and growing. One of the organizations he founded to support that is an organization called Promise Partners. And Promise Partners is an entrepreneurship through acquisition accelerator, and it's a nonprofit. And everyone involved in the organization a volunteer, other than the administrator that we've hired to help manage the organization.
16:38
Denise Shade
And everyone in that organization is somewhere on the entrepreneurship journey. And if they're starting out, the idea is that everyone who's done it before them are there to support them and pay it forward because someone helped them to get to where they were at. So I've been involved in this organization since before I actually started at Key, and they were very.
17:01
Carrie Aguilar
Wow, so you've been a part of it for like 20 plus years?
17:03
Denise Shade
Yeah, I've been a part of it for a long time. I know I was a little slow to the table. My other Promise Partner colleagues were a.
17:10
Mara Kamat
Little faster than I was building the foundation.
17:12
Denise Shade
Yeah, 100%.
17:13
Mara Kamat
No regrets said for like, having that solid foundation that enables you to do what you do today.
17:19
Denise Shade
100%. And part of what happened was that I was sort of looking for the natural that would say, okay, now your career at Key's come to a crossroads and now is the time to leave. And that just wasn't occurring. And we just talked earlier about the fintech business that I was involved in at Key that is playing directly into what I'm doing at this company. And I did that in my last six years at Key. So I wouldn't have had all of that to pull from had I not had those last six years. For me personally, the journey I think so far has played out exactly the way it was intended and has worked out really well.
17:57
Mara Kamat
So why this business, though? You had mentioned you were evaluating manufacturing businesses and then you end up here within this business.
18:04
Carrie Aguilar
Because me, I know nothing about the process. So I think I had lunch with you nine months later and you're like, I haven't found a business yet. In my head I'm like, what's the big deal? Just find the business and make the. And you went through, you were like, well, it's because of this or this. And it's just such a process.
18:19
Denise Shade
Well, and there's data on that.
18:20
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
18:20
Denise Shade
So the data says that it takes an average of just about two years in order to find a business.
18:25
Carrie Aguilar
That's what you told me too. You're like, don't worry, I'm not behind it's two years.
18:29
Denise Shade
But I also think there were a couple things that helped me and helped me take the step confidently. There were definitely nights where I woke up and said, oh God, what am I doing? But for the most part I think I educated myself and those tools to educate yourself are out there. One is promise. So I had all of these successful people that went ahead of me through their journeys. It's very clear what best practices are when you're looking for a company and how to do it and who to connect with. To a certain extent, everyone's looking for their own thing, but what makes sense to look for that's clear. And so I had a good guide from that. There's also a little bit you can even learn from some.
19:06
Denise Shade
There's some books and some studies that have been published about this sort of thing too. So I had a pretty clear roadmap and I'm a firm believer in data for one and two, learning from everyone else's experiences as well. I knew I was going to make plenty of mistakes on my own, but I didn't want to make mistakes that I could have learned about ahead of time and avoided. So I talked about to everyone I possibly could about their journey and what they did, what worked, what didn't work. So I think when I got into it and I looked at hundreds of companies, I mean you and I were kind of talking through some of that. There were probably four that I would say, okay, this is the company. And the first three didn't work out. I think I wasn't happy about it.
19:50
Denise Shade
Definitely was a moment of frustration, but I could stay confident in that. My path is still on track compared to all the people who came ahead of me. Does that make sense?
20:00
Mara Kamat
Yeah. But like, how did you do that? Right. Because we have this self doubt and these things in our heads, like, oh, My gosh, I'm gonna buy this business. And then all of a sudden you're like, ugh, another one fell through. It didn't work out. How did you keep a proactive, forward looking positive mindset to get you to where you are today?
20:18
Denise Shade
Yeah, so we're seeing people who had also had deals that they got to the last minute. I mean, the day they're supposed to sign the papers and the deal falls apart. Right. And we had a deal right before we got the audit one. There was a deal that I thought for certain this is it. And we got pretty far in the process. And it fell apart just before the holidays. They say the guidance is that you've got to keep looking for a deal even while you're in it under LOI and you're closing a deal. I haven't figured that out yet because I think when you're under LOI and you're in due diligence, you can kind of keep your network going in the background.
20:54
Denise Shade
But to actually be trying to work multiple deals at the same time when you're really only going to do one at that time is nearly impossible. And it also felt disingenuous. I didn't want to be stringing others along when someone else could be looking at that deal. If my intent was to do one, that was further down the pike. So I just couldn't do that. So when the deal ended, I didn't have a pipeline of the next deal right behind it. And so you have to give yourself grace and courtesy. Right. And I just took the holidays. There were two weeks. It was middle of December when that happened. And I said, I'm just gonna start again in January. And on January 15th that year, it was 2025. We had a blizzard that day in Cleveland.
21:38
Denise Shade
I was driving on 480, going to a networking event at the Aviator, one of Reese's events. And it was a blizzard. And at 6pm and there were no cars. There's always cars on 480 at 6pm but nobody was outside because it was a blizzard. And I thought, what am I doing? But I went to the event and I walked in the door, and instead of in business clothes, everybody looked like a ski chalet. You know, everyone was in their winter wear. And I walked in, and there was one of the first people I met when I started the search was standing there holding a cocktail, and I didn't even have my coat off yet. And he said, hey, I'm working on this company. I can't tell you anything about it because My firm's working on it, but I'll connect you with the investment banker.
22:22
Denise Shade
And that ended up being audit one.
22:24
Carrie Aguilar
That's amazing.
22:25
Denise Shade
Yep.
22:26
Carrie Aguilar
Can you go into a quick 45 or 122nd overview of the finance side of buying?
22:34
Denise Shade
Sure.
22:35
Carrie Aguilar
Because I think in my head, okay, so Denise had a bunch of money hanging out in a bank, so I need a bunch of money to buy a company. Can you just demystify that a little bit?
22:46
Denise Shade
Sure. To be clear, I didn't come from a family of entrepreneurs or even a family of business people. My family, they were mostly academics, lawyers, intellectuals. But there wasn't really an example that I grew up with from that standpoint. I didn't have a trust fund or anything like that to pull from. I did save capital as I was working. I was specifically putting money aside for this and to support myself and my family while I was looking for the search. So a couple things. I had enough capital that if I wanted to do a smaller deal, I could have done that deal by myself.
23:21
Carrie Aguilar
Okay.
23:21
Denise Shade
Okay. But I also recognized you were swimming in cash. No, he's not swimming in cash. With using tools that are out there, like SBA and some resources, you can buy a business for a shockingly small amount of money. There are lots of reasons not to buy a business. One of them is not because you don't have the money. There is actually a lot of capital out there looking for good buyers to invest in.
23:44
Carrie Aguilar
That's really interesting.
23:45
Denise Shade
There is a stunning amount of capital. But you have to be credible. You have to position yourself well because they're investing in you. At that point, the business is secondary. They're first investing in you. So you need to be credible, but the money is out there. I knew that. I also wanted to buy something that was larger, beyond what I would have been able to do by myself. Because I wanted a platform that was scalable.
24:07
Carrie Aguilar
Yeah.
24:08
Denise Shade
So I needed to find partners that were like minded, that were willing and wanting to do this with me.
24:16
Carrie Aguilar
Okay.
24:16
Denise Shade
And I ended up with a great team of people.
24:20
Carrie Aguilar
The first is you make the decision. The second is you squirrel away some cash, potentially. The third is you look for other people who are like you, who want to purchase a business and you just get a team of investors is what I'm hearing.
24:34
Denise Shade
Yes. And so, full disclosure, when I first left key, the capital stack was not 100% defined. And I'll have mentors that will tell you. If I had to give you any advice on how your search went, the one thing I would have done is have had that better defined. But I had people who knew me, who had been watching my career for a long time and who said, I will invest. That's cool in what you find. Now what that meant is that $10,000 or is that 10 figures? That all needed to be clarified for sure. But I had people who were supporting me and they weren't friends and family. I mean, these were professional contacts.
25:09
Carrie Aguilar
That's awesome.
25:09
Denise Shade
You know, people I had either met through promise or I'd met through my career, that sort of thing, who really believed in what I was doing. I set up a board immediately of adv. I think one of the things you need to do is you have to be brutally honest about what your strengths are and what you bring to the table. And I knew that I could operate a business, but I had never bought a company like this. I'd been involved in M and A at Key before, but that's different. And you're talking about giant deals. I mean, these are small companies. In order to have credibility on the street, if I wanted to buy a big enough deal that was going to be able to be scalable, I was going to have to get through the gatekeepers.
25:46
Denise Shade
And the gatekeepers in those deals are investment bankers and brokers, traditionally. Right. And there's lots of other players that play in the space. But you're talking about people that want to make sure that if they're going to introduce you to their clients, that you're going to be able to actually follow through. And I needed that credibility kind of street cred. And so my partners I think combined probably close to 70 some deals they had under their belt. And so to be able to go to those folks and say, yes, we can do it and here's our track record gives me instant credibility.
26:18
Mara Kamat
How many partners do you have in the business and how did you evaluate that model of how much do you own versus others as you were making those decisions?
26:27
Denise Shade
Certainly well, I really genuinely have an amazing team of partners and it's really important that you find people that are like minded. So as I said, I was looking for gaps. So the partners I selected could fill in areas were very complementary. Actually. It wasn't well defined when I first started the search. But as we looked at the first search deal and were working through it, I remember this one call, we hung up the phone and I'm thinking, I'm not sure I want to do the deal, but I definitely want to do a deal with these people. Because that felt really good. It felt really good. How complimentary were, and we each brought something different to the table. And I would say that about every single one of my partners brings something unique to the situation.
27:09
Denise Shade
But collectively, we have all of our bases covered. But the one thing that we are 100% in lockstep on is our value. There's no difference in our values across the board. And I think that part is really important.
27:21
Mara Kamat
I think in the corporate world or like the world that we live in, there are times where I see on leadership teams, like there's one person that doesn't totally align. Right. Or maybe doesn't have the same values as others. Have you had that experience and how have you navigated that? And what advice can you give to our listeners if they're navigating situations like that?
27:42
Denise Shade
Sure. Values are tricky. Right? Because that's, I think, the foundational and key core to everything. Fortunately, in this situation, we're completely aligned, and we knew each other for a long time. But knowing somebody from a distance and being in an organization together, even sitting on a board together, is different than we're all in together, and our families are in, our finances are in. We're in, and it's different. And so that came, I think, over time. So in this particular situation, I haven't had to deal with that disconnect. I have seen others do that. There's definitely been other times during my career where you have somebody that's not aligned. Right. And I think you have to evaluate the specific circumstances of that. Is it something where you're going to be able to come together as a working relationship or sometimes you have to.
28:36
Denise Shade
To part ways? Right. Either you or them, or you find something else. You've got to be able to make those decisions.
28:45
Mara Kamat
Yeah. Thank you.
28:47
Carrie Aguilar
So you've done this thing where you purchased this business. You're now the CEO, Correct? Correct. What advice would you give other women who are potentially interested in doing the same or similar?
28:59
Denise Shade
Sure. If you're interested, call me because I'd be happy to talk. I truly believe in paying it forward. And so many people helped. I mean, I was able to conduct this search, I think, calmly, because I had so much information going into it. And again, not that there weren't moments. My husband will confirm for you that there were. There were definitely moments. But for the most part, I think I got through it fairly well. So if someone's interested in doing it, the guidance is there. Promise Partners is full of mentors, and CASE now has a program that is for the community that helps also for people that are interested in acquiring businesses. There are a very distinct roadmap of people who do this successfully. I think the statistics on that are people who launch a search and who follow.
29:47
Denise Shade
It's like a 71% chance of success in acquiring a business.
29:51
Carrie Aguilar
Oh, wow.
29:52
Denise Shade
And the other thing that was somewhat reassuring to me is what happens to the 29% of people who don't acquire a business. And it turns out that through the networking that they do in the search, that those 29% typically end up in another place, but in a really good place. And I'm not making this up. You can pull the data. Stanford actually publishes data. You can go online and Google Stanford search fund and it'll come up with two documents. One is a primer on how to do this. Just download it for free. And the second one is statistics that they publish every two years on people who launch these searches. What the best practices are, who's successful, who's not successful, what the outcomes are. It's pretty interesting data.
30:35
Mara Kamat
With that being said, I'm curious. We talk a lot on this podcast about families as well and how that piece plays into navigating the career and everything else. You referenced your husband for a moment. So what was his perspective of you on this journey and what was his role in your endeavor?
30:56
Carrie Aguilar
Sure.
30:56
Denise Shade
I think one of the most important decisions you make in your life is who you choose as your partner. I really do. It informs everything. Right. And I absolutely nailed that decision. So I do. I have an amazing husband. Everyone who knows him will confirm that. I'm not sure how I got so lucky, but he has supported me every bit of the way. And it's my thing, it's not his, but he supports me a thousand percent in it. The other thing is you're talking about family. So at the time, my son, I think, was 13, and were at a school function and there was a break in the function where they were serving cookies and snacks and stuff.
31:35
Denise Shade
So I was talking to one of the Promise leaders, who's actually one of my partners now, and he was also supporting me all along the way. And he was talking about, okay, so when are you leaving Key and when are we gonna get this business acquisition thing going? So were in the corner talking about it, and afterwards on the way home, my son said, oh, why were you talking to my friend's dad? And I said, well, because I'm thinking about leaving Key to go acquire my business. And he's like, that's really cool. So when your 13 year old thinks that what you're doing is really cool. That in itself was enough motivation to say, okay, I have to do this. That's amazing. And one other thing I'll say on that is that when we did the deal, they're older now. My kids range.
32:18
Denise Shade
So I have a freshman in college, and I've got one that just graduated grad school. I kept them involved in the search the entire time. When we did this deal, one by one, I sat with them and talked to them about the structure and how they work. I never had the benefit of anyone sharing that with me. And I put it all out. Like, they saw the numbers, they understand how the math works. They understand how financing works. And when we closed on the deal, I brought them to the closing so that they could participate in that, because it really. It impacts the entire family.
32:48
Mara Kamat
It is. Yeah. I mean, my husband owns his own business, and it's a family business. He'll come home and he'll be like, I own the business, Mar. I understand that. But it does. It impacts every part of your life. And it's a beautiful thing to bring your kids into that and to give them that insight and knowledge and to share the experience, the ownership that they'll feel for your business and the experience, whether they have it or not, that's such an amazing gift to give them. And they probably don't even realize it at this point yet. Maybe the one in graduate school does. But as they continue to get older and they're in the business world, if they choose for that, certainly it starts to build that foundation and open their eyes.
33:25
Denise Shade
I think so. I think they're paying attention for certain. But there are definitely restaurants in town that have the paper. You know, the paper tablecloths or the paper over the tablecloth used to be yours truly.
33:36
Carrie Aguilar
It doesn't anymore.
33:38
Denise Shade
But, you know, a crayon and scribbling out, well, here's how you do a 1 million EBITDA deal. You know, writing it down on paper, whether it's for them or someone else who's asking. I love mentoring anybody who wants to be mentored, but particularly women, because what really helped me is when someone showed that to me, when someone wrote it out and said, here's how you structure a deal. And I'm like, oh, that makes perfect sense. And really laid the foundation for me feeling confident to be able to walk away.
34:07
Carrie Aguilar
So you're nine months in. Before we wrap up, I do want to understand. How's it going?
34:12
Denise Shade
It's going great. There's definitely been challenges along the way, but I expected that.
34:17
Carrie Aguilar
It's a remote business.
34:18
Denise Shade
So I have 59 employees. Oh, wow.
34:20
Carrie Aguilar
Okay.
34:20
Denise Shade
All over the United States, all remote. Okay. I do see a lot of them frequently because we're either on clients site, meeting with clients or conferences. And we just had our annual meeting where we had everyone together in one location. Yes, it has been exciting. What's been really neat is how excited the employees are for what we're building and what we're doing. Because our vision is to set the standard for internal audit and financial institutions in the United States. They're excited to be part of that and that's been a lot of fun.
34:53
Carrie Aguilar
That's awesome. Well, we always ask two questions when we finish up these conversations. The first is, what's bringing you joy right now?
35:02
Denise Shade
Definitely my kids, because they're at these great ages right where they are. They're really independent. You're interacting with them as young adults and they're just. They're achieving great things and very leveraging skills that I never had or my husband doesn't have. You're sort of like, where did you come by this? But it's exciting and fun to watch and having them involved in the business, that's cool.
35:26
Mara Kamat
If you could go back and give your younger self a piece of advice, what would it be?
35:30
Denise Shade
I had to make sure to stop and enjoy the different experiences along the way, especially the people that you're connecting with. From a practical standpoint, when I wish I had earlier on connected on LinkedIn with more people. I met hundreds and hundreds of people in different areas early when LinkedIn first came out, and I was a little slow to get onto that. And even if there were people that I wasn't going to see for a couple more years, I just wish that I knew what they were doing now. I wish I was connected to them. So when we talked about networking earlier, I think it's when you don't overthink the networking when you're in an event, just talk to people.
36:12
Denise Shade
But a great second connection is then link and them send them a message that says it was great to meet you at wherever it was. Because that message will still be there two years from now when you don't remember where you met. And that's all it takes. It doesn't have to be complicated.
36:27
Carrie Aguilar
That's wonderful. Thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your wisdom in the incredible work that you're doing to help bolster females purchasing businesses, which I think is totally badass.
36:40
Denise Shade
Well, thank you very much. I really love what you're doing here. Thank you. I appreciate being part of it. Thank you.
36:47
Mara Kamat
Thank you for tuning in to In Her Land. If you love this conversation, please share it with a friend, leave us a review and keep following along@inherland.com where we highlight more incredible women making an impact. Until next time.
