Podcast Summary: Action Academy | Millionaire Mentorship For Your Life & Business

Episode: STEAL This Off-Market Deal Finding Strategy To 3X Your Small Businesses Deal Flow

Host: Brian Luebben
Guest: Cody (systems/processes & multi-business owner), with contributions from community members
Date: February 26, 2026

Main Theme and Purpose

This episode delivers a comprehensive, tactical look at scaling your deal flow and acquisition opportunities in small business—focusing especially on creative, off-market deal-finding strategies. Brian and guest Cody break down both high-level frameworks and in-the-trenches, step-by-step instructions for finding, vetting, and acquiring businesses outside crowded "on-market" channels. The episode is a candid roundtable recorded live inside the Action Academy community, providing a real-world, highly actionable playbook for anyone serious about replacing high-income jobs with true entrepreneurial freedom.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Identifying the Core Bottleneck in Small Business Acquisition

• Major constraint for most community members: Quality deal flow. Sourcing enough viable deals, especially amidst tighter SBA terms (higher rates, more scrutiny).
• Brian’s approach: “I feel theoretically like the bottleneck is deal flow. Is that correct or not correct?” (02:11)
• Members confirm: On-market listings are picked over fast, many are owner-operator businesses that don’t fit criteria, and underwriting standards are stricter.

Deal Flow: On-Market vs. Off-Market

• On-Market:
  • Platforms like BizBuySell are crowded and competitive.
  • Many buyers, multiple LOIs, “hundred other fricking people already submitted an loi” (05:55).
• Off-Market:
  • The real opportunity is in off-market, direct-to-owner outreach.
  • “What I’m going to talk about more so is proprietary deal searching” (06:44).

Proprietary Off-Market Sourcing Strategy (Cody’s Playbook)

Tech Stack & Workflow

Timestamps: 08:22–16:30

• Tools Used:
  • Apollo: For bulk business and contact data extraction.
  • Spokeo: Skip-tracing for owner contact info.
  • GoHighLevel: Subaccounts with “dummy emails” used for cold, personalized outreach.
  • Google Maps Scraper or Seamless.ai: For lower-cost, DIY alternatives (22:20, 21:41).
• Process:
  1. Build a hyper-targeted list by SIC/NAICS, geography, and business type.
  2. Clean and enrich data—personal email, owner’s mobile, not just general business info.
  3. Set up personalized outreach with “real-feeling” sender accounts (e.g., photos of family, location references).
  4. Drip simple, non-corporate emails/SMS to owners—play up being a genuine person, not a faceless PE firm.
  5. Upon response, a team member pre-qualifies before passing to Cody for deeper vetting.
• Real Example:
  • Used this approach to vet an accounting firm owner doing $1.5m/year who was ready for a slow transition (13:40–16:00).

Why it Works

• COMPETITION: “Your competition on these off market deals… are these private equity, like super stuffy firms… We’re taking the personal approach.” (12:27)
• RESEARCH: Even quick research on their business/website goes a long way in building rapport.
• QUALIFY FAST: “My entire intent: disqualify him or myself as the buyer, not waste time in four meetings” (16:20).
• EDUCATE OWNERS: Guide them through the steps (NDA, financials, LOI, diligence, close) — most off-market sellers are first-timers.

Notable Quotes

• “We’re trying to buy an accounting firm. So I’m not trying to be like, ‘I’m trying to buy a hundred of these things.’ Like, I’m trying to make it very personable…” — Cody (12:27)
• “If you do a million dollars in profit, maybe you’ll do like a 5x, 6x multiple. But if you do $5 million in profit, you’re looking at like an 8x or a 9x multiple.” — Brian (58:43)

Structuring Outreach: Expensive vs. Affordable Methods

• If you have a budget: Use Apollo, Spokeo, automated email/SMS campaigns, VA support, CRM with dummy domains to protect your sender reputation.
• On a tighter budget: Use tools like Google Maps Scraper, export to spreadsheets, pair with affordable skip-tracing, process more manually or with a low-cost VA.
• Key Advice: “Don’t overthink perfect tools. The biggest thing is not to overthink… All you need is this: a way to get the information…” (22:20)

Scripting and Interacting with Sellers: Personal > Formal

• Broker Outreach: More professional; demonstrate credibility—brokers deal with a flood of buyers.
• Direct Owner Outreach: Lean into personal narrative, photos, connection stories, family, local roots.
  • “Be professional with brokers, personal with direct is probably the best way to condense his entire section…” (25:38)

Structuring Offers: The “Three-Tiered” Approach

Timestamps: 29:24–33:58

• Never submit only one offer. Three standard variations:
  1. Mostly cash up front, smaller holdback/earnout: For sellers who need liquidity.
  2. Hybrid (SBA + cash + seller note): Balances risk/reward for both sides.
  3. Seller carry, higher price: Incentivizes financing flexibility (“as long as DSCR is still healthy”).
• “I never do a hundred percent cash up front on any deal.” — Cody (31:34)
• Use anchoring: Whatever offer you want the seller to take, make that the “no-brainer” (anchor/decoy method, reference Hormozi’s pricing strategy).

Niche vs. Industry-Agnostic Acquisitions

Timestamps: 35:55–40:18

• Niche-Down: Go deep into one sector (e.g., accounting, plumbing, cleaning); better for highly systematized outreach and industry research, easier for roll-ups.
• Industry-Agnostic: Open to any strong business meeting financial criteria; harder to run direct owner campaigns, but can find overlooked gems.
• Cody’s advice after years in various businesses: Choose recurring-revenue, needs-based, low-capex, easier-geography businesses to “stack the deck in your favor.”
• “Why make life harder than it needs to be?” — Cody (37:27)
• “Know what game you’re playing.” — Brian (39:50)

Real-World Underwriting and Making Quick Decisions

Timestamps: 46:25–54:09

• Back-of-Napkin Underwriting: For competitive, fast-moving deals. Assume surface numbers are accurate, submit strong LOI, and adjust in diligence.
• Forensic Underwriting: Go deep only after locking up a deal or if relationship allows (esp. off-market, less competitive).
• Critical learning: Always expect things will go 15–20% worse than stated; structure earnouts or clawbacks when customer concentration risk exists.
• “You don’t know what type of crazy you’re dealing with until you have a drink at the bar.” (49:48)

Scaling, Exit, and Enterprise Value

Timestamps: 58:43–64:03

• Cash Flow vs. Enterprise Value:
  • Level 1: Buy for cash flow — lifestyle, freedom, $100–300k/yr.
  • Level 2: Buy for aggregation & strategic roll-up, scaling to $1m–$5m+ EBITDA for much larger multiples and life-changing exits.
• Cody’s formula: Acquire 400k–800k EBITDA businesses at low multiples, roll up to $4m, sell at 8x.

Emerging Tools & Community Wisdom

Timestamps: 54:51–57:52

• Members share tools like Get Cohesive: Automated outreach that consolidates scraping, list-building, outreach, inbox management (no manual building or multiple VAs required).
• Key benefit: Systems setup is pain now, payoff later; if you hate manual processes, pay for all-in-one solutions.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Off-Market Personalization:
  “We grew up in Mesa, Arizona, we're starting a family… We want to buy an accounting firm… taking the personal approach.” — Cody (11:15)
• On Seller Selection:
  “I want to disqualify him or disqualify myself from being the buyer. That's my entire intent. I don't want to waste time…” — Cody (16:20)
• On Offers:
  “Whatever offer you want them to take, you just make it like the no-brainer offer in your offer stack…” — Brian (33:58)
• On Competition with Private Equity:
  “You're not going to win… Strategic buyers can pay 5, 6, 7 times because they’re rolling it into their existing infrastructure.” — Cody (65:50)
• On Scaling up for Exit:
  “Once we get to $4 million in EBITDA, then it’s to sell for an eight times multiple to… be a meal for [larger buyers].” — Cody (62:28)
• On Picking Your Game:
  “At the end of the day it’s just like you gotta know what game you’re playing. And so it’s like whenever you’re buying any of these companies, you have to buy with the end in mind.” — Brian (64:03)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Intro & Framing the Episode – 00:02–01:17
• Identifying Deal Flow Issues – 02:13–03:24
• On-Market vs. Off-Market Pros & Cons – 05:55–08:22
• Cody’s Off-Market Playbook – 08:22–16:30
• Crafting Direct Owner Outreach – 12:25–16:02
• Offer Structuring Strategies – 29:24–33:58
• Niche vs. Industry-Agnostic Strategies – 35:55–40:18
• Quick vs. Deep Underwriting – 46:25–54:09
• Scaling Up and Entering the Roll-up/Game of Multiples – 58:43–64:03
• Tools/Automation, Community Share – 54:51–57:52

Final Thoughts / Takeaways

• Off-market, personalized, and systematized deal-finding is the #1 lever for more and better small business acquisitions.
• Build systems (or use new AI tools) to automate sourcing, outreach, and qualification—manual hustle works but is less scalable.
• Be personal with sellers, professional with brokers.
• Always structure multiple offers, anchor your preferred deal, and expect/plan for diligence to force financial/structural adjustments.
• Know what game you’re playing: aim for cash flow or for enterprise value, never both by accident.
• Community learning is massive: share tools, scripts, and lessons to lift the overall quality and speed of execution.

Follow-Up:

• To connect with Cody or discuss business dev roles, reach out via Instagram (posted at the end).
• Action Academy is revamping its SBA program and aiming for half a billion in acquisitions this year.