John Ratliff started a 24/7 telephone answering service in 1995….
… as the sole employee and operator 😆
Here’s what that meant:
In the early days, John would literally have to set a ringtone loud enough to wake him up in the middle of the night to answer a phone call for someone stuck at an airport trying to find a taxi.
As he said in the interview:
“I literally don’t remember much of 1997 because I was so sleep deprived.”
Despite that rocky start, John eventually grew the company to 650 employees through a series of acquisitions, and sold the company in 2012 to a strategic buyer.
I actually bumped into John on Sir Richard Branson’s Necker Island, and he shared something with me that became one of my biggest takeaways from the entire trip:
“Rembrandts in the attic.”
This ONE concept is one of the biggest levers that he’s pulled to help him go from answering phones solo to building a 650 person company…
And how he also helps his clients maximize the value of their company before the exit.
We talk about that on today’s episode along with…
- How John leveraged an insight from reading “Moneyball” to scale his company
- What he learned from watching Sir Richard Branson getting pitched really terrible business ideas
- The 3 most important characteristics entrepreneurs must have (after observing his community of coaches that collectively advise 2,500+ companies worldwide)
To say that John is incredibly wise is an understatement…
I’m 1000% confident that the stories he shares in this episode can and absolutely will change your business life if you implement it…
This is NOT one to miss.
Find Out More About John Ratliff
- John’s Website
- Chief of Staff Kristin’s email: kkopp@align5.com