Going Beyond the Deal

If this was useful, the letter goes further: one short insider note each week on what I'm seeing in live deals right now. It's free, it's two minutes, and replies come straight to me. Join at thejmichael.com/letter. How do you keep a business alive for 100 years without losing what made it great? Josh Sanders is the fourth generation to lead Sea Breeze, the beverage company his great-grandfather started in 1925, delivering seltzer door to door in New Jersey. Today it makes syrups and runs beverage programs for restaurants and bars across New York and New Jersey. The products changed completely. The values never did. Josh and Michael get into why so many family businesses fall apart by the third generation, how Sea Breeze keeps reinventing itself without losing its identity, and the three-word creed behind every decision: be consistent, be ethical, be nice. Josh also opens up on succession with his own teenagers and why independence beats any short-term win. If you are building something you hope outlives you, this one is a blueprint for protecting what matters while changing everything else. Listen now. Timestamped Highlights 02:13 The one thing that never changed in 100 years, even as everything else did 03:45 From backbreaking seltzer deliveries to a full manufacturing floor 08:41 Where the three-word family creed came from, and why it still runs the company 09:03 Why the third generation usually breaks the family business, from a banker who sees it firsthand 12:39 How to grow a company without the scope creep that sinks it 14:12 The service habit Josh and Michael both say wins customers for life 15:25 The expensive promise Sea Breeze keeps 365 days a year, even on Christmas 17:17 How a 100-year-old company survived 2020 when its main customers shut down 19:14 Why staying independent beats chasing the next quarterly number 21:09 How to prepare your kids to take over without forcing it on them 24:47 The million-dollar question: the small decision that changed Josh’s whole life Mentioned Resources Sea Breeze Bosco TJX stores (TJ Maxx, Marshalls, HomeGoods) Six Sigma Green Belt About the Guest Josh Sanders is the president of Sea Breeze and the fourth generation of his family to lead the company. Founded in 1925 by his great-grandfather Barnett Sanders, Sea Breeze began as a door-to-door seltzer delivery business in New Jersey and grew into a full beverage program partner, manufacturing syrups and servicing dispensing equipment for restaurants, bars, clubs, and healthcare facilities across New York and New Jersey. Josh joined the business at 26 and has led alongside his father, the company’s chairman, for more than 20 years. 🔗 LinkedIn | Website Contact Seabreeze: 1-800-SEABREEZE (800-732-2733), or syrups.com. Important Links Feel Fully Alive: The 5 Dimensions of Vitality gives you the framework to thrive. Get your copy here. Stay Ahead in Business: Michael shares strategies to boost your financial decisions. Read his latest blog. Grow Your Wealth: Book a call with DBD Investment Bank. Going Beyond the Deal is an original podcast brought to you by J. Michael Fischer Jr. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

If this was useful, the letter goes further: one short insider note each week on what I'm seeing in live deals right now. It's free, it's two minutes, and replies come straight to me. Join at thejmichael.com/letter. What if the thing people fall in love with is the first thing to disappear when a business grows? Tom Selementi went from washing dishes at a bagel shop at 16 to scaling brands like Le Pain Quotidien, The Little Beet, and Bluestone Lane. In 2025, he became CEO of Spread Bagelry, the Philadelphia brand built on Montreal-style, wood-fired bagels boiled in honey water, and his job is to grow it without losing what people love. Tom calls himself a culinary romantic and an operational realist. With J. Michael Fischer Jr., he unpacks what breaks first when a craft business scales, why “our problem is people” is the excuse he bans, how to hold one standard across every shop, and why same-store sales growth beats growth at all costs. If you run or advise a business people love, this is the operator’s view most owners get too late. The craft is the brand. Listen now. Timestamped Highlights [01:13] – The hardest problem in business nobody talks about: growth that quietly erases what people loved [06:35] – The 35 cents a burnt bagel cost him, and the lesson that stuck for life [07:50] – Culinary romantic, operational realist: the tension inside every great food brand [09:22] – Why a single bagel convinced him to bet his career on Spread [09:54] – The corners every chain cuts to hit scale, and the three Spread refuses to [11:28] – The Jersey Mike’s blueprint: a $7 billion sandwich and the corner they never cut [14:01] – What actually breaks first when a craft business starts to scale [14:35] – The one excuse he bans the day he walks in the door [16:32] – Baseline expectation vs a great experience, and why owners confuse the two [19:54] – Welfare, food stamps, and the story he tells every hourly employee [22:22] – Stewardship and legacy: how he earned the right to carry a brand forward [25:48] – Growth at all costs vs great shops in great neighborhoods [28:30] – Ranked 690 out of 690, and the mentor who bet on him anyway Mentioned Resources Spread Bagelry Le Pain Quotidien (LPQ) The Little Beet Bluestone Lane Carmine’s and Alicart Restaurant Group Jersey Mike’s Cava PopUp Bagels Toast Rutgers University Red Lobster Havana Central Ess-a-Bagel About the Guest Tom Selementi is the CEO of Spread Bagelry, the Philadelphia-based brand known for Montreal-style, hand-rolled, wood-fired bagels boiled in honey water. A New Jersey native and Rutgers University graduate, he started in the business washing dishes at a bagel bakery at 16 and went on to help lead and scale premium food brands, including Carmine’s and Alicart Restaurant Group, Le Pain Quotidien, The Little Beet, and Bluestone Lane, where he helped open 22 locations. He describes himself as a culinary romantic and an operational realist, and since becoming CEO in 2025, he has led a turnaround built on hospitality, operational discipline, and an uncompromising commitment to craft. 🔗 LinkedIn | Website Important Links Feel Fully Alive: The 5 Dimensions of Vitality gives you the framework to thrive. Get your copy here. Stay Ahead in Business: Michael shares strategies to boost your financial decisions. Read his latest blog. Grow Your Wealth: Book a call with DBD Investment Bank. Going Beyond the Deal is an original podcast brought to you by J. Michael Fischer Jr. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

If this was useful, the letter goes further: one short insider note each week on what I'm seeing in live deals right now. It's free, it's two minutes, and replies come straight to me. Join at thejmichael.com/letter. What if the biggest number you can announce is not the one you get to keep? Two founders sold their companies the same year, one for $50 million and one for $30 million, and the one who sold for less kept more in the bank. In this solo episode, J. Michael Fischer Jr., Managing Director at DBD Investment Bank, explains how that happens and why the headline number is not the deal. Michael breaks down what comes off the top before a dollar reaches your account: cash versus paper, debt, fees, the working capital peg, escrow, and the one that matters most, taxes. Structure beats the headline, and the best time to act is long before a buyer shows up. If a sale is anywhere on your horizon, this is the work most owners do too late. You don’t deposit a valuation. You deposit what survives. Listen now. Timestamped Highlights [01:12] – Two founders, two exits, and why the one who sold for less kept more [01:45] – The headline number is not the deal, and what actually is [02:48] – Cash versus paper, and why $50 million is rarely $50 million [03:28] – The first question to ask before you celebrate any offer [04:08] – The working capital peg almost no founder sees coming [04:47] – Escrow, holdbacks, and the insurance move that frees up your cash [05:33] – Why structure matters more than the number on the front page [06:21] – The tax trap that can hit the same dollars twice [07:01] – Exactly where the $30 million founder won the exit [09:34] – Why almost every lever is easier to pull before a deal exists [10:20] – The allies to assemble, and the part most owners get wrong [11:45] – The one question to sit with today if a sale is anywhere ahead Important Links Feel Fully Alive: The 5 Dimensions of Vitality gives you the framework to thrive. Get your copy here. Stay Ahead in Business: Michael shares strategies to boost your financial decisions. Read his latest blog. Grow Your Wealth: Book a call with DBD Investment Bank. Going Beyond the Deal is an original podcast brought to you by J. Michael Fischer Jr. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

If this was useful, the letter goes further: one short insider note each week on what I'm seeing in live deals right now. It's free, it's two minutes, and replies come straight to me. Join at thejmichael.com/letter. What if the fee you never read is quietly draining your profit? J. Michael Fischer Jr. sits down with Eric Cohen, founder and CEO of Merchant Advocate, built to sit on the business owner's side and cut credit card processing fees without switching processors. Eric came up inside the industry, saw how the fees really work, then switched sides. They break down what a merchant statement really says, who actually makes the money, the hidden line items like non-PCI fees and rate creep buried where no one reads, and why one overlooked charge can cost a seller hundreds of thousands at exit. Every unnecessary fee flows straight to EBITDA and multiplies when the business sells. If you take credit cards, you are probably leaving money on the table and cannot see it. This is the value hiding inside your business long before any transaction happens. Listen now. Timestamped Highlights [01:28] – The statement sitting in your inbox that quietly eats your profit and your exit value [04:52] – How needing a credit card machine turned into a residual income business [07:56] – The overnight rate hike almost no business owner ever notices [09:34] – A consumer advocate exists, so why was there never a merchant advocate? [11:08] – Why no one is really watching your rates, and what that lets processors do [15:19] – Who actually makes the money when you swipe a card, and it is not who you think [18:23] – Why a merchant statement is your cell phone bill times fifty [20:06] – The unanswered survey that can quietly cost you half a million at sale [23:42] – The surcharge scheme where the extra one percent disappears [27:38] – The data entry mistake that cost one company two million dollars a year [29:31] – Why merchant fees can swing a business sale by millions [29:55] – The savings a private equity buyer hopes you never find first [38:01] – The small moment that flipped his entire business philosophy Mentioned Resources Visa Mastercard American Express Discover Better Business Bureau Credit Card Competition Act Durbin Amendment ChatGPT Claude About the Guest Eric Cohen is the founder and CEO of Merchant Advocate, a firm he started in 2006 to sit on the business owner's side of the table and lower credit card processing costs without forcing a switch in processors. He came up inside the merchant services industry as an independent sales organization, then flipped sides to represent the merchant, negotiate against existing processors, and monitor statements month after month for hidden fees and rate creep. Merchant Advocate has saved clients over 300 million dollars in excess fees. A Pepperdine MBA based in New Jersey, Eric runs the company alongside his wife Danielle, who serves as chief operating officer. 🔗 LinkedIn | Website Important Links Feel Fully Alive: The 5 Dimensions of Vitality gives you the framework to thrive. Get your copy here. Stay Ahead in Business: Michael shares strategies to boost your financial decisions. Read his latest blog. Grow Your Wealth: Book a call with DBD Investment Bank. Going Beyond the Deal is an original podcast brought to you by J. Michael Fischer Jr. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.

If this was useful, the letter goes further: one short insider note each week on what I'm seeing in live deals right now. It's free, it's two minutes, and replies come straight to me. Join at thejmichael.com/letter. What if the fix for a life-or-death problem was small enough to fit in the tiny pocket of your jeans? Jessica Walsh has a severe allergy, the kind where the wrong exposure becomes an emergency. Prescribed a bulky EpiPen, she taped it to her arm just to go running. Rather than live with it, the founder and CEO of Rx Bandz built a better one. She sits down with J. Michael Fischer Jr. to trace how one problem became MiniJect, an auto-injector half the size of a traditional one, then a platform the U.S. military is backing to deliver medications from pain relief to treatments that stop bleeding. She cut open her own EpiPen to see inside, built a team of specialists, and learned to stop talking and listen to patients. If you have ever learned to live with a problem, don't miss this. Listen now. Timestamped Highlights [03:48] – The bee sting that started it all, and the line that turned a patient into a founder [04:50] – Before any of this, she built wireless networks where there was nothing [05:48] – The leap most people never make: leaving a funded job with an amazing budget [07:23] – Why she works on this like her life depends on it, because it does [08:02] – The calls from mothers, and the story that makes this bigger than one person [09:15] – What happened when the military asked, what else can you deliver [10:03] – MiniJect explained like you are the patient: cap off, press, done in under half a second [11:18] – Why it did not stop at epinephrine, and the IV drug they moved to one injection [13:12] – Drone warfare, no medic, and doing drug math under fire in night vision goggles [14:30] – Built to survive Special Forces and a kid's backpack, military-grade protection for families [16:40] – The DIY moment: putting her own auto-injector in a vise and cutting it open [17:11] – From napkin sketch to a manufacturable device, and the New Jersey partners who made it real [19:46] – The New Jersey funding program she could not believe was real [23:23] – The million-dollar question: the pivot that only happened when she stopped talking and listened Mentioned Resources EpiPen Bechtel Weiss-Aug Ascendia Prince Sterilization Services BD (Becton Dickinson) Medtronic BioNJ New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA), Innovation Evergreen Fund About the Guest Jessica Walsh is the founder and CEO of Rx Bandz, a biotech developing the next generation of patient-centric auto-injectors to deliver a wide range of injectable medications. After a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting left her carrying a bulky EpiPen, she set out to build a better solution and created MiniJect, an ultra-compact auto-injector less than half the size of a traditional one. Before founding Rx Bandz, she built wireless telecommunications infrastructure with Bechtel, work that taught her to move into new territory and navigate the regulatory hurdles and milestones a hard build demands. Today her platform is designed to serve patients, EMS, and the U.S. military. 🔗 LinkedIn | Website Important Links Feel Fully Alive: The 5 Dimensions of Vitality gives you the framework to thrive. Get your copy here. Stay Ahead in Business: Michael shares strategies to boost your financial decisions. Read his latest blog. Grow Your Wealth: Book a call with DBD Investment Bank. Going Beyond the Deal is an original podcast brought to you by J. Michael Fischer Jr. Production and editing by Podcast Your Brand.