This is the full transcript for Episode #327 of the Wild Business Growth podcast featuring Dori Yona – Closing Your Business, SimpleClosure Co-Founder. You can listen to the interview and learn more here. Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Dori Yona 0:00
Shutting down sucks.
Max Branstetter 0:16
Hi. How are you? Welcome back to Wild Business Growth. This is your place to hear from a wild entrepreneur every single Wednesday morning turning wild ideas into wild growth. I’m your host. Max Branstetter, founder and podcast founter. I think I put this. He in a T in there, Mr. T, founder and Podcast Producer at MaxPodcasting. You can email me at and this is episode 327, today’s guest is Dori Yona, not to be confused with Yoda, although it sounds like it may the fourth be with you, and He is the co founder and CEO of SimpleClosure, one of the most unique businesses you’ll ever hear about and one of the most unique businesses to ever be on this podcast. Simple closure is all about making it easy to shut down your business. In this episode, we talk how that works, how he created a business in the space, how he markets a business in that space, and everything from his time captaining battleships in the real world to playing battleship, the game it is Dory, Enjoyyyyyyy the showwwwww! Aaaaalrightyyyyyyy we are here with Dori Yona, co founder and CEO of SimpleClosure, the most unique podcast interview I’ve ever done on the wild Business Growth podcast, because we were talking about wild business closures and all the like, but Dori, which I just learned, is actually not short for Doriel, but long for Dor. So we can call you door as well. But Dori, thank you so much for joining. How you doing today? Good.
Dori Yona 2:01
Thanks for having me. I feel like you have to rebrand your name for the for this episode to wild business closure podcast instead of growth.
Max Branstetter 2:08
Yeah, the WBC, that’s what we’re here for. So definitely, you know, I always strive to feature guests and wild entrepreneurs, as they say, who are doing out of the box things. And this is one of the most out of the most out of the box things I’ve ever talked about, because it’s, it’s not about growing your business. It’s Quite on the contrary. So we’re gonna get to all things there, but before that. So you spent many years living in Israel, as well as fighting for, or working for, however you call it, serving for, rather, the IDF. And I saw you were a naval officer. Some really, really cool things there. But what in the world was that like? Because I’ve heard of anybody who grows up in Israel, you know, there’s kind of like the mandated service, if you will, for a few years, but seven years, I feel like is a little bit different. How did that unfold? It’s
Dori Yona 2:55
a great question. I haven’t talked about my IDF background for a while, so it’s fun to revisit that part of my career. So I was living actually. I was born in Israel, but I grew up for the most part, in the States. So I was eight months old. My family moved to the Bay Area. We grew up. I grew up there. When I was about 13, we moved back to Israel, and so I went to high school in Israel, and I ended up serving in the IDF in Israel. To your point, for those that don’t know, like, military service is mandatory in Israel, and so traditionally, it’s like a three year service for men and two year service for women. I think that’s changed a bit, and I think it’s like two and a half years for everyone today that’s kind of the mandatory service, unless you go and do some kind of special program, or go into some sort of special unit. In that case, typically, the time in which you serve is different. It could be an extra year, it could be an extra five years. It could be sometimes an extra, I don’t know, seven, eight years, and in some cases, and so I ended up going down the path of becoming a naval officer and a captain of a battleship, and eventually a captain of a platoon of ships. And so that process is about a seven and a half year process of minimum service. So I still have friends today that continued. So they’re there already for almost 20 years, and they just continue their their military career, but like at minimum, you have to do a seven and a half year service. It’s about four years of training to actually start to contribute back to the IDF into the military. So I was like four years of training, and then about a year and a half I was a captain of a battleship, and then another year and a half as a captain of platoon ships. In between, I was a bit of time an instructor at the Naval Academy. Yeah. So that ended up being seven years. And I didn’t think about it being so long, because these, usually, these programs that you go that end up being more years. They’re very, very, very tough to get into. And even if you get into them, the majority of people don’t pass training. So it’s like, kind of like, you know, the Navy SEALs or whatever, like you start a program. Am so for our program, for example, originally, originally, before we even drafted, we started, you know, there are 10s of 1000s of people that tried out for a blah, blah, blah. But eventually, the people that were drafted for this role, we started, like 110 and actually finished the training. The amount of people actually finished, I think we were like 32 that we actually finished, and so became naval officers. And so I never thought about the seven years, because I always thought I would be kicked out before the four year training ended. And then you’re like, oh shit, I actually finished this training. And and then you’re like, Okay, now I need to be an officer, and I need to be a captainship. So, you know, I never really spent time thinking about it, because I never thought I’d complete it because the odds are so low, and you just kind of, like, inertia gets to you,
Max Branstetter 5:45
so you’re taking me way back, because I’ve just always had a thing for like, you know, like, military history and, like, obviously, you know, like a lot of kids growing up, it’s like, you love war movies and all that stuff. And I totally forgot about this until you mentioned that you worked on a battleship. And I just, like, always had a thing for battleships growing up. And, like, I was in like, Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. And there was one thing we did. It was in the city of Buffalo, which a few hours from Cleveland, where I grew up. And there was, like, a sleepover at a battleship in Buffalo, and we did it. I don’t remember if it was multiple times or just one year we did it, but like, being a kid and being able to sleep over, like, in, you know, like the barracks and, like, you go to the mess hall and all that stuff. And it was really, really cool. But also it’s like, man, it’s, it’s tight quarters. Like, you, you it’s very tight quarters, yeah. But for you, like, it sounds like the training for that, especially for, like, to become a naval officer, there was, like, the ultimate weed out course, you know, it’s like, it’s like, so many people drop, like, what do you think it was that actually kept you going and got you were one of the, you know, few people basically, to actually make it to the end and actually serve and what you wanted to do? Yeah, look,
Dori Yona 6:53
it’s a very, very intense training course. And like I said, it’s in total, about four years. And I think, like, what they did really well in retrospect, IDF is, you know, it’s not just the continuous four year training, it’s, it’s broken down into subsections of, like, for six months we’re focused on this. For six months, we’re focused on that. The next six months, we’re focused on this and so and every six months, I would say there was a specialty in which they are training you on, and they also are trying to weed out certain things in those periods of time. So, for example, the first six months were very, very, very, very physical and very painful from a an ocean or water perspective, I would say, so like in the first six months, I would say, which is a lot of the weeding out, because obviously, the later they weed you out, the more they’ve invested in you. So like, a lot of the weeding outs on the first ones, but the first are just really intense from a physical perspective. It’s endless training, endless runs, endless like hikes in the mountains with weight on your shoulders, or like every morning would start with, like, 3:34am with the swim in a very, very, in very, very cold waters. Once you got out of the water, you would actually have to stand for, I think, 10 minutes while the wind was blowing, and you’re just with
Max Branstetter 8:16
Speedos. Oh, my God, that’s just cruel, yeah. Well,
Dori Yona 8:19
the goal is to make you quit, right? That is the goal. Like, the first six months, their goal is mainly to familiarize and see how can you adapt to water and water circumstances. Like, there’s people that just, like, get on on the water, they and they puke. Like, no matter what they do, like, they just get on a boat and they puke. Yeah, I’m kind of halfway there, yeah, yeah. So the first six months is, like, just to make you quit, and then the next six months are about, like, starting to understand if you have the qualifications to be a leader, because in the Navy, like the captain is by definition, a officer and a leader. And then the next six months is mainly about how much can you study in cram and like, intense levels of like study like nothing compared to anything I did high school or university. So I think they like test different aspects of it. But bottom line, I think, of like you look at every aspect that you’re tested on or that you’re trained on, I think it all leads back to the same core component that I think is true for at least the role that we did, which is, like it’s all in your head. And if you realize that, and you can cope with that, and you realize, like, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how cold it gets, no matter how tired you are, you know, we had weeks of training without sleep, like it’s all in your head. And I think that, like, even studying like you’re like, you have a test, and if you don’t pass it, like you’re kicked out, and you’re like, I cannot cram literally four books of knowledge in two weeks. Like it’s impossible. You think it’s impossible. You realize that it’s it’s actually all in your head.
Max Branstetter 9:49
Well, it might be all in your head, but one of the little anecdotes you shared there was actually all in your Speedo. So standing when you’re soaking wet, dealing with. Freezing cold wind. Shout out, George Costanza, that sounds like the biggest or little shrinkage situation ever.
So making this decision to keep powering on or close up shop and do something else actually ties swimmingly to your business now, so simple closure. Let’s get to that. And you know, as we hinted at the start, totally different than any business we’ve ever had on this podcast. So really excited to dive into kind of the total opposite of growing your business. Yeah? Like, how did you get into this? I’ll call it like an obscure space.
Dori Yona 10:39
Yeah. Don’t feel bad. Like, I get it all the time. A lot of people will ask me, like, why the fuck would you start a company that helps companies shut down, like You’re like the Grim Reaper? Yeah, I’ve heard that before. I think I more like to see us like one of the things that’s the mission of the company is not about being like the Grim Reaper, and we don’t get pleasure as a company, and like shutting down other companies like that doesn’t bring us pleasure or pride as a business and as a team. It’s actually about helping founders take this very painful process off their shoulders, giving them the peace of mind to move on to what’s next. That’s ultimately, I think, like, what drives us as a business, us as a company, our mission. So I get the stigma, like we get the stigma like the green Reaper. But I actually think if you speak to the founders that we’ve helped, it’s like we are the breath of fresh air to them in this painful process. But to answer your question, how did we start simple closure, and how do we get to where we are today? The honest truth is, because I’ve been through it and it sucks, like that’s the real, honest answer. A bit of background about myself, like post IDF, I ended up getting into the world of tech and startups, simple culture. The third company I founded, I’ve had the pleasure of selling a company. I’ve had the pleasure of shutting one down, and the process of preparing a company for shutdown was probably one of those most painful, bureaucratic, lonely, cumbersome processes. I’ve been I can think of a lot more adjectives
Max Branstetter 12:01
I was gonna say, like, man, he’s on a roll. Yeah,
Dori Yona 12:05
I’ve been through my life. No one wants to help you. You’re alone. It’s ambiguous. Your lawyer doesn’t want to help you. Your accountant doesn’t want to help you. If you have investors, they’ve written you off and moved on. Your employees hate you. No one likes you in that situation. You have so much on your plate, and you just want to make sure it’s done right. And so going through that experience myself, seeing how painful it was firsthand, that’s what sparked it in me. And then after that, I’m like, This can’t be this hard for everyone. Can it like or another thing I asked myself was, like, I’m probably the only person going through this, because if I wasn’t, there would be better solutions to doing this. Right after going through the process myself, I spent a lot of time researching the market and the space and also speaking to other founders that have been through this experience, and entrepreneurs to summarize, kind of the numbers every year in the US, maybe you did your research, but like, if you had to guess how many companies shut down every year in the US, and if you, if you did your research, then you’ll just sound smart. Now,
Max Branstetter 13:09
I did do my research, but not on that specific point, so I won’t sound smart, but I, I’m just gonna say it’s a shit ton of companies.
Dori Yona 13:16
Can you quantify what a shit ton is? What would you guess? Like 1000
Max Branstetter 13:21
metric shit ton? No. How many shut down a year? I would say it’s in the either 10s or hundreds of 1000s, probably somewhere in between. Okay,
Dori Yona 13:31
the number of businesses shut down every year in the US is between 700,000
Max Branstetter 13:34
and a million. Yeah, see, I did not do my research. Yeah, no, but you
Dori Yona 13:39
didn’t sound I’ve had people that said 5000 in a year, so at least you know you’re starting to be in the ballpark. Anyways, it’s a huge number, astronomical. There are no good solutions for it. So like, that was one eye opening stat. And like, if you think about certain industries, like SMBs and tech, like tech, 93% of startups fail. Like, statistically, like, that’s the numbers. If you look at SMBs, 80 to 90% of business shut out, shut down within the first five years, like in SMB world, those are the numbers. And then, if you ever have a chance to speak to founders or entrepreneurs that have been through the process, it’s like the most painful thing that they’ve been through, the pain points of hearing customers go through it, and hearing their challenges, combined with like realizing how big the market and opportunity is is ultimately what led us to start building simple
Max Branstetter 14:28
COVID Yeah, and I rescind my Grim Reaper analogy, that breath of fresh air is much nicer. It’s actually a breath of fresh air when you think about it from an analogy standpoint. So thank you for that. But I think often the connotation or denotation, whichever one of those is right when it comes to closing down a business, is negative. It’s like, if people hear about that, okay, something went wrong, like, there’s a reason they’re doing this. But can you shed some light on why? Like, sometimes closing down a business may. Be the right decision. I’ll
Dori Yona 15:01
talk about some of, like, the the major use cases that we see, and then I’ll talk about, in general, like, other things that I’ve learned around, like, the right time. First of all, we handle, like, there’s three main reasons, I’ll say four main reasons, which companies come to us to shut down. Number one, in no particular order, is they actually sold their company and they did an asset sale. And every case where, like, if you look at acquisitions, the majority of acquisitions that happen, there’s two types of high level acquisitions, a stock sale, where companies come and buy an entire company in the stock and the cap table and things like that. And then the second type is a asset sale, where they’re coming and buying certain assets, that’s the more popular one, especially like on the lower end of the market and and so with an asset sale, you still need to shut down the shell entity. You’re still responsible for it. That’s one moment in time in which that’s one example to come to us. Second example is we deal with a lot of like venture backed companies. Companies raise money. They’re burning cash. They can’t raise more capital. They try to raise a bridge, and they can’t, and so they have no other option. They just out of cash, and they need to shut down. So I would say that’s like the second, you know, just out of cash. The third use case is actually companies that are still operating. Sometimes they’re cash flow positive, sometimes they still have, like, money. They’ve raised hundreds of 1000s, in some cases, millions, in the bank, they decided to proactively shut down and wind up the business. And the reasons for that could be, they’ve tried multiple times, pivoting, couldn’t find product market fit, and like, just continuing to waste capital. And they’re like, we actually don’t think we can solve this problem. It could be found or dispute. It could be examples of they, especially in venture like, they raise at a certain valuation, at like peak markets, and they just can’t raise it higher valuations. And it’s not worth continuing to build the business, you know, if there’s no way to build a sustainable, long term business. So I would say, like, those are some of the examples where companies are kind of preemptively or proactively shutting down. There’s also, like, the SMB, a lot of people retire and they just shut down their business. I would say the fourth example of why we typically see companies shut down is a lot of people spin up companies pretty frequently because, like, Okay, I quit my job, or I got fired, and I’m now going to be a consultant for six months and be, you know, do something like this, and I’ll and I want to spin up an LLC for that, or I want to spin up an entity for that. Or I for that, or I have an idea for a business I want to build, and let’s just go to stripe Atlas and spin up a company. But I never actually did anything with it. And then what people realize is there’s a responsibility and liability. When you start a company and you owe taxes, and you know, if you don’t pay them, there’s penalties and fines, and a lot of them, just like, shut them down because they they’re dormant, they actually never use them or never use them properly. So I would say those are the main reasons we see. Yeah,
Max Branstetter 17:45
appreciate you organizing it into the three and then four. It’s a growing list. But yeah, there’s many way like I I’m guessing that a lot of people are like me. When you hear about a business closing, it’s most of the time, it’s like, oh, the business failed. Like, let’s bring it to a close. But yeah, it totally wasn’t thinking about, like, retirement or selling your business, or, like a part time business, anything like that. So in general, if you are an entrepreneur who has made the decision for any of those reasons or any additional reasons to bring your business to a close, what are some of the key things that you need to keep in mind and like you need to actually do so it’s gonna make your life easier going forward.
Dori Yona 18:22
So if you do decide that you’re shutting down, there are two things that, like, I like, there’s a lot of things to do. So that’s hence the business. Yes, hence why we build your business. Yes. Just give you a sense like our average shutdown on our platform has about 95 moving parts to them. So that’s just to give you, like, you know, the breadth of so. So just lay out all 95 obviously makes no sense, and that’s why we we exist. But the like, if you’re a founder and entrepreneur and you’ve made the decision to shut down, or you’re thinking about making a decision to shut down, I think there’s, like, two pieces of advice that I have constantly given founders, entrepreneurs that are going through the process. Number one is, don’t try to do it yourself. And I’m not like trying to, you know, convince you or anyone who use simple closure, like, go to a professional, a law firm, simple closure, another company, whatever you want. But like, it’s one of those things where you don’t know what. You don’t know. The amount of horror stories where I’ve heard entrepreneurs and founders getting fines and penalties months and years after technically shutting down because they didn’t do something properly, is just painful to hear. Just don’t do it yourself. That’s that’s like everyone’s advice. And then the second one I give a lot is shutting down costs money, and I’m not referring to like the fee of in this case, maybe simple closure. Working with simple closure, look like there are state taxes, there are penalties, there’s invoices that are typically owed out to vendors, there’s taxes, payroll taxes that need to be there’s a final tax return that needs to happen, like shutting down costs money. So another big piece of advice. Always give founders and operators are like, don’t get to $0 in your bank account, and then say, Okay, now I’m going to shut down, because you’re going to end up paying out of pocket. Or you could get in some like, messy waters in terms of, like, piercing the corporate veil, having personal liability and things like that. So make sure you have money set aside for a shutdown, as
Max Branstetter 20:17
we hinted at before. Of course, you’re in a very unique business, and as part of that, you have to be really unique with your marketing, because, like, you’re kind of going against the grain for, like, what many people think about when they’re starting a business, like, all they think about is the growth side of it, and you’re talking about the side that nobody wants to think about, you know, until it hits them in the face and many times. Or, you know, maybe that’s just for a different time in life, but from your standpoint, in like, the team, like, actually, like making a name for simple closure and marketing yourself within the industry, how have you been able to do that and put together a compelling message that, like, people actually pay attention to, even if it’s not exactly relevant for them in that Moment?
Dori Yona 20:59
That’s a great question. Simple closure are like mission as a company is to become, ultimately, the TurboTax of shutting down. So when we talk about, like, the 700,000 10 million companies shutting down, we want to make sure that we’ve built a platform and a company that can handle that level of volume and be the brand name for shutting down. Like, our goal is to be the brand name so if any company at any stage, at any scale decides like, hey, I need to shut down. Like, simple closure is top of mind. That’s what we’re working towards, and that’s what we’re building towards in order to accomplish that. I think we’re like, learning from a growth and marketing perspective that it’s all about two things. One, understanding that customers are going through a really painful experience right now, and being empathetic about it. Like, I think that that is something that really, really resonates in terms of our marketing messages, in terms of our motion, in terms of our branding. Like, if you go to our website, like in a lot of materials, you’ll literally see, like, one of our taglines, like, shutting down sucks. Like we’re not shying away from that. We know we’ve been through it. We’ve we’re entrepreneurs, we’re attorneys that have like, on the team, that have supported and so I think like approaching everything on the marketing side with a perspective of empathy and a perspective of understanding and a perspective of like, calling it out, like, this sucks. Like it sucks, like you’re in a low point in your company or low point in your career. This is not what you want to be dealing with. Like, we’re here to make it simple. Therefore, the name simple closure, I
Max Branstetter 22:30
was gonna say, Yeah, wheels are turning on that one, yeah. And
Dori Yona 22:33
then I think the other thing that you know from a marketing perspective is being in front of the customer at the right moment in time, right when you’re starting your company, you’re not thinking about shutting down. You just started a company. You’re excited. You raise money. When you’re hiring your first employee, you’re like, you’re not this is not what you’re thinking about. So obviously we don’t want to be marketing to those people at that moment in time. But there are moments in time in the trajectory of a business, and there’s service providers and partners that are the first line of defense when entrepreneur or business owners thinking about shutting down that they approach and it’s how do we how are we making sure that we are in those places at the right time to be in front of them, be at the right place at the right time, literally, is kind of how we think about and that’s how we kind of have been spending our marketing and growth efforts and resources being at the right place at the right time with the right message,
Max Branstetter 23:26
yeah, and sometimes the message sucks, literally. So looking back like I know at the time of this recording, like it’s still pretty early in the simple closure journey, but in addition to getting kind of like the messaging right and having that focus on empathy, what would you say has been like another big driver of the scale so far, I
Dori Yona 23:47
think we’ve had a lot of referrals, a lot of businesses is currently, again, we’re early stage, but we’re fueled by a lot of referrals. And I think that people come to us because they spoke to a founder that’s been through it, and the founder said, like, listen, they solved one of my biggest pain points. And so I think it goes back to like, building a great product that users love, building a product that solves the pain point, and building mechanisms to allow your current customers to share their experience to be able to talk about what they’re going through. I think those are involved in like levers for us.
Max Branstetter 24:29
So let’s switch gears a little bit and get to some of the Levers within you internally. We’ll call it, because there’s a couple of things that have come out through the course of this interview, I really want to dive into more. So this segment, we’ll call it, it’s inspiration and creativity. So kind of get into what drives you, and one of those things, I just really want to hear more of your perspective on what you were saying about with your, you know, with the training for the ITF, and you were talking about, kind of like the Mind over Matter thing. Yeah, you hear that a lot about how, like, the body can do so much more than you think. You know, like your mind tells you to stop early when really you can go on. And that’s how there’s people doing, like, ultra marathons and stuff like that. But from your experience, how do you get yourself to, like, keep going when you’re just like, oh my god, I would love to, you know, chill on the couch right now.
Dori Yona 25:23
I don’t get that a lot. I guess I’m the weird one. Like, like, I think to some extent, as a founder entrepreneur, you kind of have to be, like, in love with what you do, and a workaholic, and very rarely get that like, Oh, I just want to chill. I actually love working, maybe too much. My wife hates it. If you get pushed to extremes and you see that there actually no, are no barriers, and it’s to your point, like mind over matter, then I think it just becomes a way of life to something, or it’s become, for me, a way of life of like, it’s not a barrier, it’s a matter. It’s not a matter of, if it’s a matter of when it’s not a matter, you know, it’s like, it’s more of like, there’s no, there’s no boundaries, there’s, there’s nothing that’s not possible. I’m also a person that like, very much, like, there’s no such thing as No. There’s a different way to get the solution. There’s, there’s like, every no or like, I don’t, might sound cliche, but every no is one step closer to a yes. Like, I’m a big believer of that. So I don’t know. I think that that’s maybe shaped my professional career to some extent, and how I approach things and think about challenges.
Max Branstetter 26:30
Is there anything you do these days to, kind of, like, remind yourself or, like, refocus yourself on, like, okay, like, like, we can do this. Like, we’re gonna build this, we’re gonna keep going forward. I
Dori Yona 26:40
don’t think there’s like, anything that comes to mind immediately on like that I do to myself. I think more like, we’re at a stage where, you know, the team now is like 25 ish people. And I’m a big believer that like, successful companies come abound when there’s like, really good people that are like, good people build good companies. Like, like, it’s very hard to build a good company without good people. And so I constantly, like, am reminded of, like, how important like, the people are that are driving the company in the business, and how do we make sure that they’re motivated, and how do we make sure that they’re aligned? And how to make sure that like, the team understands, like, is excited about the same vision that the founders are excited about sometimes, but, but, and again, I think, like, tactically, the things that I think I’ve learned over time are, like, the more you share, the more actually, the more motivated the team gets. Like, there’s some companies that kind of like, people are in the dark, and they don’t know exactly the strategies kind of hidden and no one knows the revenue numbers. I very much side toward like, overshare like people are much smarter than you think. And when my wife always says when like people are more scared about what they don’t know than what they know, yeah, I guess we shifted the question in a different direction, but I don’t know that that’s where I went
Max Branstetter 27:59
with it. I’m scared of what could come of the next question. Yes, I don’t know. Like, I don’t know what
Dori Yona 28:04
you’re gonna ask me. If you’re gonna send me the questions in advance. I would like, yeah, cooperative. I’m kidding.
Max Branstetter 28:12
No, that’s a great answer. So can you do the alphabet backward? No, just gonna. I just want to throw a cover ball. You see why? No, I’m kidding. Yeah. The other aspect of kind of, like mental and creativity that I wanted to ask you about was I heard a story of how you, like, brainstormed and came up with what was then an initial idea for simple closure, and it involved Mexico in a whiteboard. Can you share that? Yeah, you really did your homework. Yeah, I just can’t tell you how many businesses close every year. But besides that,
Dori Yona 28:46
yeah, we had sold the last company. It was their ups and downs, but ultimately we sold the company. I wanted to get back to building. Where’s that even written out? I don’t know where you found that, but I’m interested to now know where we found that. But anyways,
Max Branstetter 29:00
I may have heard it come up in another interview somewhere, and I don’t remember how much you talked about it, but all I heard was a Mexico brainstorm. And I was like, whoa, okay, I gotta hear more about this. Yeah.
Dori Yona 29:13
So anyways, I was, I was like, ready to kind of go back to building another company. And I was passionate about it. And like, I’m like, but it look, it’s a big decision to start another company, to build an it’s like, a decision for the next, if it goes bad five years, if it goes good 10 years, like, it’s a monumental decision your career. And I, and I wanted to make sure, like, one, that that was what I wanted to do. And two, if I start another company, what? What is that other company? What am I passionate about? And passionate about? And things like that I had at the time, I think, two kids and a wife and life and everything, and so I still now have three kids, but,
Max Branstetter 29:50
yeah, I was gonna say, what? So
Dori Yona 29:53
obviously, it’s like a big decision, and I felt like I wanted to really have the opportunity to i. I think about it in a very neutral environment where I’m, like, not dealing with the day to day. I’m not sidetracked. I’m really, like, focused on this life changing decision and career defining decision and business defining decision. So I asked for permission for my wife to go to Mexico. I don’t know, just Mexico, because it was found a great resort, and it was easy and anyhow, and kind of do a retreat for myself, like it was the first company off site. It was only myself. You had the whole team there. I had the whole team there. 100% participation. I think it’s still rated the best off site to date, from all the off sites we’ve done with the company. Went to a hotel for almost a week, and literally, like, in a very neutral, vibrant environment where I had no responsibilities, pretty much, really took time to, like, think about what I want to do next, and what does that look like, and so, so that was the whole trip, and it was great. And I actually came back from that trip with, like, the decision that, okay, we’re I’m gonna build simple closure. So it’s funny, I ended up looking like a pretty nice hotel. I think, like, a week before going there they like, they had, like a concierge service. And the concierge was like, he emailed me, hey, we’re really looking forward to you coming and blah, blah, blah, is there anything we can prepare to make your stay, like, extra special? And I’m like, yes, if you can, I would love, like, a whiteboard and markers in my room when I arrived and like, that would be like, make it extra special for me. Because really, you know, as I was gonna, like, brainstorm and like chart out things and graphs and like flow charts and start to really think deep. And so that was the request I had. Flew to Mexico right at the hotel. It wasn’t waiting for me in the room. So I called, like, corn Sears, like, dude, like, there was one thing I asked for. This would be great. Like, if not, I’ll just, like, go to Walmart and buy it. Right? He’s like, no, no. Sorry, we forgot. We’re bringing it over. I literally think, like, they detached a whiteboard from, like, their internal office to to bring it to me. And and, yeah, so I had a whiteboard and a few good solid days to think and brainstorm. Yeah, that was the whiteboard story. You
Max Branstetter 32:05
nailed it. So I’m glad I could remind you. Let’s wrap things up with some rapid fire Q and A. You ready for it? Okay, let’s do it. I’m scared. Yeah, yeah, you should be. I’m scared too. I don’t even know the questions yet. Alright, first question, what from that Mexico trip? Actually? What was the best, either Mexican food or tequila? I’m not sure if you’re a tequila drinker, food or tequila. What was that? Was The BEST you had down there?
Dori Yona 32:34
Okay, so Wow, one of the best, like tacos I’ve ever, probably ever eaten my life. But I was at a very fancy resort, and, like, it was really expensive to eat anything there. And I’m like, fuck this. I don’t want to be eating like, this fancy resort, and it’s probably not that good anyways. And so I literally asked, like, I didn’t ask at first. I went on Google, and I’m like, What’s the best taco area? And there was, like this, like, 15 minute drive hole in the wall, middle of nowhere, like, and I’m at like, a fancy resort, gated community, blah, blah, blah. And so I actually, literally asked the concierge if I could use their cars to drive me there, because Ubers couldn’t get into this
Max Branstetter 33:08
concierge was coming up big for you. Yeah. So I’m sorry, literally,
Dori Yona 33:11
I’m like, in New Mexico, it’s, like, very poor part of the city, but that’s where, like, the best street food is it roll up with this, like, SUV, escalate, black car. Like, there’s barely cars there. And like, everyone’s like, looking who’s the guy pulling out of this? Like, you know, they, like, the president of Mexico is coming to eat there. And anyways, that was, like, the best meal I had there. It was like a $3 full meal with everything included. And like, so much better than anything else I eat at the hotel. Oh,
Max Branstetter 33:39
my god, yeah, tacos never get old, especially when you’re the president of Mexico. So congrats. Yeah, and they say street tacos are the best in Mexico, so you did it, right? I’m gonna have to interview this concierge, because they really hooked you up with this. Yeah? All right. Speaking of travel, well, for you, it was travel, but also living there. What’s the most, like, beautiful part of Israel you’ve ever been to, oh,
Dori Yona 34:04
I really am in love with a lot, which is the south of Israel, I think, like the ocean. There’s, like, crystal clear blue waters, coral reefs. You have the mountains, you have the desert. Like, I love that combination of, like, desert with beach. Like, it’s a very unique combination, where you don’t see in a lot of places. Imagine like putting an ocean, a beautiful ocean in Palm Springs, like doesn’t exist.
Max Branstetter 34:27
Well, speaking of a different ocean, you spent lots of time traveling between Israel and California, so some, some long flights there. Yeah, what do you I’ve asked this multiple times. But I’m always curious how people spend the time on that which, what’s like your go to advice for not getting, like, bored to death on a long flight? Well,
Dori Yona 34:49
I think there was, like, the answer to that is pre internet and flights and post internet in flights like pre internet flights like, I didn’t have a good solution. I would typically like try to stay up. Really late the night before I come, really tired, so that I sleep the majority of the flight. Yes, maybe watch a movie, read a book a bit, but like, I get antsy on those things, post internet and flights. It’s like flights have gone by so much quicker. Like you connect to the Wi Fi, and it’s like you just get the adrenaline of work and you just work a full day. Yeah, buy internet and work.
Max Branstetter 35:19
Great advice from the King of business closures. Make sure you work. Last one we mentioned battleships at the start. So we’re going to come full circle. All right. Out of 10, what would you say your score is, in terms of how good you are at, like, the game battleship, ooh,
Dori Yona 35:36
just because it’s been probably 15 years since I played it, I probably give like, I’m probably a five now, since it’s been 50, I don’t even remember the rules that’s I kind of remember what the red pins and the white pins, but I’m getting back into it. My daughter is, like, now five, and so I played with her, guess who this past weekend? Oh yeah, yeah. With all the like, caricatures, yeah, which I haven’t played in years. And so if you ask me, probably in two years, three years, when, like, my kids grow a bit more and I’ll probably be a better battleship player.
Max Branstetter 36:03
Awesome. Well, you have the professional experience there as well. So exactly. Dory, thank you so much. This has been awesome. Really, just really appreciate what you do. And I hope like me like it makes you know, listeners, viewers, like it totally changes how they think about closing down businesses. And I think it’s, as you said, a breath of fresh air, a really good service that you’re providing. So thank you so much for coming on. And I know if anybody wants to learn more about your business, they can do and if they want to connect with you online, what’s the best place to do that? Email,
Dori Yona 36:39
LinkedIn, X Twitter, I’m there. Try to be as responsive as possible. But again, like, the main thing is, you know, we’re here to help, founders and entrepreneurs, is like, if you have to, like, statistically, by the way, a lot of people tell me, I hope I never need to see you again or talk to you again my life. And then I’m like, I get it, but statistically, we’ll probably chat at some point. So so like, I say that in a way of like, we’re here to help. We’ve seen so many edge cases and use cases, and we’re here to be a sounding board. And if you just want to, like, understand what it means and how to plan for it, like we’re here to help.
Max Branstetter 37:08
Well, you kind of stole my thunder, because I always like to ask about Final Thoughts last and that was kind of like a perfect place to end it. And I’m ruining it as we speak. So I’m just going to make you say a few more words again. What’s kind of like words to live by, or just like a final thought or a quote whatever you want, just like a little piece of advice to a breath of fresh air for people to end
Dori Yona 37:28
with, yeah, going back to the last point, like, see, I see, I really screwed this up. No, good. No. Look like, we really see, like, especially if this is like, you know, if there’s a lot of entrepreneurs listening and founders and business owners listening like when you hear about a company selling and exits and all these like beautiful, amazing stories, what people don’t realize is the majority of them have failed multiple times before. Yes, once in a blue moon, there’s a Mark Zuckerberg that, out of college, started company, but most like successful companies. They failed multiple times on their path to success. And so that’s honest truth. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Like it’s currently considered a taboo topic, but we’re really trying to build break the stigma there. There’s nothing to be ashamed about. Every failure is one step closer to that success. We’re here to make that as simple as possible, so that you do reach that success that you’re looking to accomplish. Yeah, and yeah, I think that’s, that’s what I want to leave it with.
Max Branstetter 38:18
And so I’ve never done this. But FINAL THOUGHTS part three. So if you could say that again, no, I’m just kidding.
Ooh, we thank you Dori for putting up with a final thoughts hamster wheel, and for all you do to make things easy for entrepreneurs and serial entrepreneurs out there. And thank you wild listeners for tuning into another episode if you want to hear more. To hear more wild stories like this one, make sure to follow Wild Business Growth on your favorite podcast app and hit subscribe on YouTube for the video versions. YouTube is @MaxBranstetter. You can learn anything about the podcast, MaxPodcasting, the Podcasting to the Max newsletter, or yours truly at MaxPodcasting.com and until next time, Let your business Shut Down Wild…Bring on the Bongos!!
