Passion, Purpose, And Potential

Auto-generated from the episode audio and lightly cleaned up. Expect the odd misheard word.

1. 0:02
   Wes Mathews

   This is the unfiltered truth about entrepreneurship. Raw, no BS, no sugarcoating. Welcome to Entrepreneur Intel. I'm your host, Wes Mathews. Each episode, we'll learn from experienced founders and uncover the top 5% learnings that led to their success in all things personal, family and business. This show is sponsored by Stealth Consulting, delivering clear marketing strategies, ROI and no surprises. So I'm super excited today. It's amazing that I get to sit here and interview some really cool people, but I'm really excited to have you on today. But at first, I'm going to introduce our guest today.

   He is a talented entrepreneur whose first company, Lumen Legal, was successfully exited in 2020. He is a two-time recipient of the Inc. 500 Award. And I want to stress 500, not 5,500. Huge deal. That's a big deal. So author of the books, Unbound and Legal Visionaries, co-founder of Living Liver Foundation and the Global School of Entrepreneurship. He is also the former global, former global chair of EO organization, which has been a huge part of my life. He's entrepreneurial, entrepreneur emeritus at the Edward Lowe Foundation at Michigan.

   That's another great story. Welcome, Dave Galbenski.

2. 1:24
   David Galbenski

   Oh, man. I'm so honored to be on, Wes. And thank you for bringing your energy to a podcast to share, you know, entrepreneurial stories, right? Although I've seen a lot of your sessions, man, and there's some cool entrepreneurs.

3. 1:36
   Wes Mathews

   So, man, I'm honored to be on, baby. So I can't wait to hear you. You're one of the coolest one, right? I always talk about top 5%, bottom 5%. Like you're definitely my top 5%. I mean, there's so many other things that I could go on and on about you. But I got to start by asking, I asked this question to everybody before we get going. You know, you've been an entrepreneur, you've been doing this for about 31 years. You know, what's the most important lesson you've learned thus far?

4. 2:00
   David Galbenski

   Yeah, wow. That's a great question, right? And I think about it. You know, I started being an entrepreneur when I was, you know, 24 years old, right? You know, fresh out of law school, figuring out, you know, I'm gonna be an entrepreneur, right? And so when I think about that trajectory of a journey, I always think kind of in, you know, rules of three, right? Because that's what we remember. And so I'm big into acronyms, because I can't keep everything in my head all the time.

   So I'm going to give it in three P's that I've learned along the way. The first is, if I can align my passion with a purpose, and I can put that in the place of most potential, I've increased my odds of success in whatever I do, right? But I think it's ultra critical to entrepreneurial success, whether it's in a for profit enterprise, or some of the stuff I'm doing now and not for profit through the living liver, is putting it through that filter, right? Because we have finite time for us to make an impact in our own entrepreneurial journey and in our lives.

   So I'm putting that filter together to say, what am I, you know, passionate about? What is it? How does it align with my purpose inside that entity that I'm creating, and then be very intentional about where am I placing myself in the place of most potential. And if I align those three things, I've increased the odds of success, impact. And of course, if I'm running, you know, an entrepreneurial enterprise, creating enterprise value, community impact, employee engagement. And so that's the filters that I've learned along the way.

   Didn't have it nailed when I was 24 years old, in my mom and dad's basement launching a company with 2000 bucks, right? But that's what I've learned in that journey.

5. 3:48
   Wes Mathews

   So passion, purpose, placement, yeah, love it. We probably just save people like 20 years of banging their head against the wall. So talk a little bit about that. So I'm assuming that Lumen legal, was that the first company? Did you start this in your mid 20s? Or was that your first crack at entrepreneurship? Yeah, and then probably like most entrepreneurs, right? I was shoveling snow.

6. 4:07
   David Galbenski

   I was doing all kinds of stuff on the side as a kid, little gigs selling t shirts at college, right? But the first formal enterprise was Lumen legal. And in my, my passion there, right, I went to law school, undergrad business, but I really didn't have a passion for practicing law less. I did it, I got a law degree, but I realized I was probably going to be a B plus to C plus lawyer, right? And that's just what I aspire to be. So I really started to say, how could I use my legal training aligned around a purpose.

   And I love the concept of, which became Lumen legal is we allowed people to engage in the legal services industry in the way that they want it, maybe less than full time was one of our offerings. So we allowed someone to have a different lifestyle. So my purpose was, I was allowing a lawyer to engage in the legal services industry in something different than an all or nothing proposition, which in the nineties was what law was, you were either all in, or you weren't able to.

   And at that time, there was a significant transition, Wes, in the composition of law school classes, it had turned about 5050 gender wise, right? And it wasn't a gender play. But then some of our lawyers wanted to, when they were assuming child room responsibilities, whether it was a male or female, wanted less than full time and legal. It didn't exist. So Lumen became a purpose for us to provide those career opportunities for lawyers, whether male or female, that were assuming child room responsibilities to engage in law, make a living.

   So it's early on this fractional, you know, enterprise that has emerged over time. So that was my purpose. My passion was entrepreneurship, because I realized I love creating enterprises. And so what I then decided to do is, where's the place the most potential? Well, it was inside an industry, like legal, that was very backward looking, very regulated, wasn't changing. I'm like, I'm going to put myself there and make a difference. And that's when I started to learn those lessons of passion, purpose, place the most potential that allowed us to scale that company over time.

7. 6:25
   Wes Mathews

   And how taboo was that in the 90s, right? I mean, you have like, I'm just assuming, right, putting on my like regular normal hat. There's like this path of attorneys, but you're like, No, I'm gonna go this way. And you're talking the 90s. Yes. What you're doing super disrodded. How many naysayers, how many people thought you were just absolutely nuts? And they thought it was crazy.

8. 6:44
   David Galbenski

   They thought it was crazy. They're like, you know, what kind of lawyer would want to work part time, the quality must be horrible. You know, what are you going to do? Right? So it's overcoming all of those objections. And what was amazing, right, is what we see today, fast forward 30 years, right? You know, when you're like, that's just normally accepted. So we were blazing a trail, educating people, evangelizing it. But what we had was talented, committed lawyers that delivered results, we wouldn't have been successful, other than the lawyers we were able to recruit that said, I'm going to make this work.

   And they worked their tails off to convince others. So they were then blazing the trails for the lawyers today, which I love, as the outcome is, they can work whenever, wherever, however, create value for their family and create value for the enterprise they're working for. And again, we've seen it across every discipline, we were just focused in legal, and there are lots of other people blazing the trail with us. But it was neat to be able to create those opportunities for others, as well as create an enterprise that had economic value along the way.

9. 7:50
   Wes Mathews

   So was, was it always part of your vision to exit that company? I mean, exiting in 2020, was that always part of the original idea? Or that just sort of naturally happened? Yeah, no, that's a great question.

10. 8:00
    David Galbenski

    So I'll kind of give you my philosophy on building companies that I learned over time is, I think there's always when you're running a company, whether it's 10, 15, 20 years, there are external economic cycles that will provide opportunities for you to exit, right? It just happens, it's going to go up and down, capital is going to be available, the economic waves are going to be different, consolidation is going to happen over time. And what I realized is there were usually waves of three to seven years when there might be a time for us to sell our organization, right?

    So first, 10, 12, 15 years, we had offers to come in, they never were not the right things. We're like, no, it's not the time. But I started to realize that there were cycles, levels of interest, level out. So then as we started to get along the way, I had one intersecting thought that gave me clarity about now is the time to consider exiting and building that enterprise value. And that was an external health issue that I'm free to talk about, which resulted in a living liver foundation, which I began to suffer from a rare auto immune disease, that I knew at some point, whether it was a year, a decade or several decades, I would need a liver transplant to stay alive.

    So we got very clear of a time horizon that we needed to exit and we knew we had a probably a couple cycles. But what we wanted to do is be very intentional, that when that economic cycle hit us, that we had an enterprise that we felt we could get within 80 percent of, if you will, maximum valuation, you're never going to exit at the peak. But you're like, here's the number we could take it to market and exit. And it just so happened as we were moving through that phase, we put in place a five year plan in 2016.

    And then we said in this timeline, we hope to be able to have the economic winds line up and sell the company. And we did not knowing that there'd be a pandemic that interceded, but we were in an industry luckily, because I've had so many peers that were in an industry that was so negatively impacted. And I don't take that for granted. We were in a technology enabled industry that allowed us to maintain value and get that sale done in the teeth of a pandemic at the same price we had got under LOI on.

11. 10:20
    Wes Mathews

    Wow. So I want to put on pin in that. Definitely want to unpack that. But the last question I have around Lumen is, Inc. 5000, a lot of associates I know and EO members and entrepreneurs get on the Inc. 5000. The Inc. 500, like that's a that's a big deal. I'm not discounting any award about Inc. 5000, but the Inc. 500 to me like that, that is a serious award. Like, what did that mean to you? What was that process like?

12. 10:46
    David Galbenski

    Yeah, that's great. I mean, so we go through a mix of emotions, right? When I launched the company, I set targets and one of them was to get on the 500. So we earned it two years in a row in the early 2000s. And it was a target. We're like, we're going to grow rapidly. That's what we're going to do. We're going to put our mark out there. And we did. And we achieved it two years in a row. So the feeling was one of accomplishment.

    One of we set out in the goal. We did it. Exhilarating ride. Fast growth, I realized, is like being on one of the craziest roller coaster rides in the world, right? Because you're outstripping your own leadership capacity. We're outstripping our ability to generate the quality that we wanted. And quite frankly, the biggest risk into that level of growth is we outstripped our cash capacity, right? So we literally by growing that way, actually put our company at risk because I didn't understand at that time, which I now know is there's there's a rate, I don't know exactly what it is, but there's a rate where you put your company more at risk than you should to chase growth.

    And now I know that I want to always be cognizant of what that is, because when you go through those growth periods, you then keep it's intoxicating, let's keep growing. And you're not really realizing, oh my gosh, I'm giving more risk, because I'm not back filling capital, etc. So that was the greatest learning of risk, because then we started to take on more risk. I then pivoted two years later to go global with an outsourced model from India, because that was the next hottest thing. So we were doing lawyers in the United States.

    So then I got this hubris of like, I'm an 8500. Let's go global, baby. Let's get some, you know, relationships in India, I traveled to India extensively vetted partners, we get rolling. And then you're like, managing a global enterprise? Whoa, I don't have the infrastructure. And it's 12 and a half hours difference, because India is on a half hour difference to the US, but in certain areas, like, what did I just do? And at that point, made some significant investments rebranding, you know, doing all kinds of stuff that literally, in 2006, a couple years after we had done that, we're like, we're in some significant financial distress that was caused by the growth and the ambition that then caused us to go lesson learned, let's figure this out.

    And so those things to unpack for your listeners, right is growth is awesome. If you're chasing revenue, which is the ink 5500, be cognizant that Casperin is there. And even though we're having the success feeling good, it's a roller coaster ride fraught with increased risk, know that going in great goal, but understand those are some of the downsides of that really cool award that I felt very proud of.

13. 13:40
    Wes Mathews

    No, that's really cool. And like the first thing that jumps out to me in my mind, for whatever reason, is we're talking about 2006. And I think that's when the iPhone came out. So like, yeah, email, fast machines, I mean, we're talking a completely different world. Yes. At that size and scale, like it kind of, it's hard to kind of think about like that size and scale without the type of technology we have. Yes. And as, as you're doing all this, is this while you're the global chair of this huge organization with over 10,000 entrepreneurs globally?

    Yeah, what a ride.

14. 14:11
    David Galbenski

    What a ride. So I joined the EO board, the Entrepreneurs Organization Global Board in 2006. Right. So, you know, I'd done the local chapter level for your listeners that know you run a local chapter. So I'm in Detroit. So I did forum chair, membership president went on the global and then joined the global board. So I had a three year term, which culminated being chair in 2008 and 2009. The Great Recession. How cool. I'm traveling the globe 20 some odd years during the global Great Recession, trying to run a fast growth business.

    Right. So amazing leadership opportunity learned a ton. Right. But certainly then you're into that next phase of uniqueness. Right. And again, since we're talking about entrepreneurial journey west 2008 and nine. Wow. Massive Great Recession impacted every business. Right. It impacted mine. Two of our customers in Detroit were two of the largest automakers, General Motors and Chrysler at the time, obviously a different name today, Chrysler after mergers. We were a legal staffing and outsourcing company as an entrepreneur. When you're in that business, you're in essence advancing credit in the form of wages advanced and you get paid 90 to 120 days later for all the lawyers we had out on assignment with them.

    Well, for those of you know, Chrysler and General Motors went bankrupt in 2008 and 2009. And they were two significant customers that we were creditors to. But we were unsecured creditors. And you know what they do with unsecured creditors when you go into bankruptcy. You don't get your bills paid. So we had advanced literally hundreds of thousands and it might even have been more than a million dollars. I try to blank that out. That went unpaid that we already paid our lawyers for that we never got paid for.

    So you think about the economic impact that we then were going through at that time, quite stunning that literally, you know, we were in a significant scenario where we're like, wow, we just lost a ton of money, not through our own fault that we got to then build on. And so it's just interesting time. So I share that is just the risk we take on as entrepreneurs that we're not even aware of. We're advancing money to the world's largest corporations by taking on the risk. It's a conundrum I'll never understand, but interesting.

    It's how we run our businesses.

15. 16:40
    Wes Mathews

    Kind of reminds me of like at the end of the day, you're really not in control of anything. I think as entrepreneurs, you talk about cycles, right? You know, when you feel like you're on top of the mountain and boom, you know, things happen. You had a health, you have a health issue as two biggest customers, you know. So thinking about that, like, and then in lieu of that, so a couple of questions I have around that, you wrote a couple of books somewhere throughout that process, which I want to touch on.

    But the one question I don't want to forget, it's do it, you know, to me, you're like, you're such an inspirational guy. You're supermotive. Like you are a true entrepreneur. Do you have any regrets or anything? Like you sold your company. So much of you is probably in that company. Like we're about what, four years since then? Well, it's going to be crazy. I think it's been four years since the pandemic, but just want to get your perspective on that because I think the insight as an entrepreneur, people get offers, you know,

16. 17:31
    David Galbenski

    when to sell, sell your baby, but time the cycle, like love to hear your share on that. Yeah. So I'll give you two or three things that I learned during that sales journey. One is when I get, when I got it, we got approached during that economic cycle or that cycle that we're looking to sell by single buyer. And we then ended up going through a portion of sale with them and then stop doing it because we're like, it's not the right match. And then we're like, why would we sell our company that we built over 20 some odd years to someone that knocked on our door without putting together a competitive bid.

    So that would have been, if we would have gone through with that sale and the terms they were offering, which were decent terms, I'm sure I would have had regrets. Okay. So I lay that out because sometimes that's often what happens with us as entrepreneurs. Someone knocks on our door, seems like a great fit. It could turn out perfectly. For us, it wouldn't have been the right outcome. And then we went through a, you know, signed an LOI, went through due diligence and then quickly said, this doesn't make sense.

    And we're able to pull out. Then we went through an investment banking process, courted 40 buyers, narrowed it down to 15 that had, you know, interest down to six or seven that made quasi offers. And then three that we brought in his management team. And between the terms that we signed for the single buyer to the transaction terms that we signed on, it was a 50% premium in purchase price by simply going through that process. Now, some of it was because we continued to grow and we got a little bit of valuation there, but most of it was because of the competitive bid process.

    So that is the one learning. So we would have had regret if we would have just sold to the single individual. Then I'll pivot to the emotional aspect of it. That's the financial side, right? Awesome. The emotional side is always one of how do I take care of our people ensuring that when we do make the transaction, that we feel comfortable with what our roles are and what we're going to do post-exa. And so there to me is some of the issues that we go through psychologically, loss, grief, going through all those problems.

    And the question is how quickly we go through those. As a quick start entrepreneur, my wife and I ran the business. I probably went through those stages quicker than Lynn. And she may have grieved that a little bit more. Neither one is right nor wrong, but it's going to be an emotional journey of going through that grieving process.

17. 20:13
    Wes Mathews

    Yeah. You bring up a good point that I forgot to ask.

18. 20:16
    David Galbenski

    Working with your spouse, did you work with Lynn the entire time through Loom and legal or? Yeah, great question, Wes. So I founded the business with another lawyer in 1993, Mark Adams, who remained a small minority owner all the way through exit. Incredible business partner, lawyer, amazing individual. But I ran the enterprise. He was always a silent partner. I ran the enterprise through 2011, 2012, when Lynn joined the organization after 15 years of working in Fortune 500 companies, worked at Procter and Gamble in Cincinnati in brand management and then at General Motors.

    And then we realized the way we were going to really unlock enterprise value. We got very conversant with EOS terminology, visionary integrator. I was the visionary. Lynn is one of the most amazing integrators. And we started to realize when we saw that terminology, Wes, that that was the ability that if we could get on the same page, bring our skill sets together inside our family enterprise, as opposed to we're working in corporate America, kind of double down on the risk, running our own business, we would make that happen.

    So it's joined in, you know, 2011, 2012. And then we went on that eight year run, where we got very clear on EOS, put together that strategic going to exit and she unlocked the value. That's clear. Yeah. And that pairing it to me is ultimately so critical, or I may have the visionary stuff, but just like Roy and Walt Disney, if the two together creates so much amazing impact. So the lesson I tell every entrepreneur is find that integrated, whether it's your spouse, whether it's a good friend, whether you don't know them, they unlock the value for us visionaries.

19. 22:10
    Wes Mathews

    Yeah. And that concepts from EOS, good book to look at is traction, what kind of goes in deep about visionary graders. As soon as I learned that changed my actual perspective, changed our business, my partnership with my partner, it was like, oh, we now kind of understand both and can put ourselves and give us labels, which completely changed our life. So tell the company in 2020 now, do you kind of bloat through COVID or like, how do you like, how do you get inspired now? You're part of, you know, living liver foundation.

    How do you segue from that event of the sale within COVID and into the next kind of phase?

20. 22:48
    David Galbenski

    Yeah. So I'll fill in some of the details for the listeners, right? It was probably one of the most intense periods of time West in 2018, 2019. Right. So in 2019, I went on what's known as the transplant list, which means my liver had started to fail to the point where I might need a transplant to stay alive. Right. So three things happened in a period of time. You know, transplant list that I knew I was going to get a transplant. We were selling the company and COVID hit, right?

    So one of the most intense periods of times we went through. So I had a transplant surgery, November 25th, 2019, literally three or four months before the pandemic truly hit. We were in the midst of our due diligence process. The beauty of transplant, right, is I could work remotely. I moved through that process, right, was still contributing, you know, to the organization as I was recovering, but that was all happening simultaneously, right? So amazing period of time, lots of lessons learned there. And when you think about it, so we exited July 2020, we signed our LOI on March 16th, 2020.

    And in the state of Michigan, I know you got a global broadcast, state of Michigan was when a lot of those restrictions were going into place the next day. You know, hey, we're going into shutdown mode. Here's what's happening. We signed the LOI the day before that happened and then went through the due diligence process and closed on July 20th, one month beyond what they thought at the same terms and transaction price. Very fortunate. So we then of course transitioned as employees to the acquiring company for about eight months.

    It was an open ended position. We chose to leave after eight months as employees still maintain some shareholding in the ongoing enterprise that is still growing and scaling. And then we said, what's next? And so that was then when we started to sort out what was next. And I use the same filter that I talked about passion, purpose, place the most potential. And for me, that passion and purpose was thanks to the generosity of my brother-in-law Mark, who gave me a portion of his liver. Yes, you can give a portion of your liver when you're alive to save the life of someone else.

    It regenerates in both of us to full size, save my life, full size liver. He continues to go on in his life, full size liver. And then I said, passion and purpose, my purpose is I'm alive to pay the gift of life forward. My passion will be honoring Mark and every living donor that is an angel on earth, a hero. And I'm going to put myself in the place of most potential, which was in this case, launching the Living Liver Foundation with Lynn and paying that forward.

    So now we're about three things, honoring living donors, educating the public about the power and possibilities of living organ donation and inspiring others to do the same with one goal. The vision is clear for us. By 2038, we will have eliminated the wait list for kidney and liver in the United States, if not the world for things that we can control and humans can help us live by giving a living organ donation of a kidney or liver. So that's our goal, zero, so that the 17 people a day in the United States, and it's a global problem that die waiting for a deceased organ.

    So you align those three things and we're having a blast. We launched that in on February 14th, Valentine's Day 2020. It was actually the day that I was listed on the transplant list in 2019, February 14. So there was some significance to it.

21. 26:46
    Wes Mathews

    Well, I'm excited for you. I love the date because I know what happens with you when you put goals out there, you tend to hit them. Though super excited to kind of watch your journey there. So like, what is that, you know, for part of my ignorance, like I know organs sometimes have to be a match. I mean, is it any liver can go to any recipient or like talk about a question selfless gift of your brother-in-law, like talk, I guess a two part question that but then like, how does that make you feel like, you know, coming out of that?

22. 27:18
    David Galbenski

    Yeah, amazing. So I'll start with the feeling first, right? Because that's what we do as entrepreneurs and EOers, right? The feeling is I have never West been more connected to an individual than my brother-in-law in ways I can't describe, right? Because he's a part of me, you know, I had my transplant from the from the Motor City, I had my transplant, Henry Ford Health, right? So one of the founders of the automotive company founded an amazing healthcare system where they have a great transplant Institute. And so I often say my brother-in-law's last name is Divus.

    My last name is Gelbensky. So I say, here's what happens. I'm Gelbensky, powered by Divus, and I'm serviced and tuned up by Henry Ford Health. Because what that means is I'm connected to him. We're connected to the healthcare system that makes all of this possible. So I've never felt love. I've never felt more vulnerable. I've never felt more connected than having that experience of a living organ donation, right? And people ask me, Wes, if you could wave a magic wand and make your diagnosis go away from 2013 and this journey that you've been on for 11 years, healthcare journey and make it go away, would you do it?

    And I answer emphatically, no. Because I was meant to go on that journey. And I'm living in extra innings over time, whatever your special analogy is, with a great trajectory over decades because of what Mark gave to me. It's my obligation to pay that forward. And I wouldn't change it because it's shaped who I am today. And I'm meant here to align my passion and purpose in the place of most potential, which in one area is our Living Liver Foundation. And we're having a blast doing it again, just a riff on that passion purpose.

    I've loved baseball, Wes, since I've been seven years old, and I walked into my first stadium, right? And so what we're doing is living donor awareness games, where we honor, educate, and inspire. And so we've got a neat event coming up here in the near term, where we're going to do three living donor baseball games at the Major League level in 24 hours. The Atlanta Braves, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Philadelphia Phillies will bring out amazing stories. They'll throw out the first pitch from a living donor to a recipient.

    Great visual metaphor, right? They're both alive, dispels the myth that you got to be a deceased organ donor. They're throwing the first pitch. They're active and healthy, right? And so we're using that platform of my passion to deliver my purpose and where we're putting ourselves in the place of most potential in a Major League Baseball part, with tens of thousands of people there to spread the word about that. So again, using those three things and whatever we do, it amplifies what we're trying to do. So those are the things that I'll stitch together in terms of how I feel connected, how the foundation is then connected to my passion and purpose and what I'm trying to pay forward.

23. 30:21
    Wes Mathews

    That's really cool. I mean, there's so much here, but I just love how entrepreneurs, it's just how the entrepreneurial brain works. Like, does it ever go off? What do you do to relax? Or like, how do you just take it all in? And yeah, you just have such a cool, like, you're just on and you go. And yeah, really awesome stuff that you know, boy, how do you like, as a successful guy, I mean, you're, you're one of the most successful people I've ever met in my life.

24. 30:48
    David Galbenski

    How do you, how do you take dave time, you know? Yeah, that's a great point. So I have other passions, right? So I love golf, I love running. And running is my sacred space, right? Because I think that's where I do my meditation, right? So for me, it's running and taking time to try to stay as physically fit as possible to, you know, honor number one, my living donor, but giving that mental health space. So I try to do that, right? As much as I can is to stay fit and keep my mental health there together.

    And that's probably what I do the most of is just give some time there. And then, you know, enjoy golf, enjoy running, enjoy time with family and try to manage that and build a life by design. Do I do it perfectly? No, you know, sometimes I'll get out of whack and Lynn will have to say, dude, you're taking out a lot of stuff, man, your visionary stuff, you gotta you gotta stop filling the bucket, baby. And so she's my soulmate and person that really knows, hey, this is when you got to dial it back a little bit.

    So I think we always need someone in our lives that can tell us the truth of when we may get our visionary a little bit too much leaning into it. And we got to dial it back. And so I'm grateful that I have someone like that in my life that I love and respect and has the ability to go, Dave, you're a little bit, you're a little bit getting out on your skis a little bit, pull it back a little bit. And we, I think we all need that.

25. 32:06
    Wes Mathews

    What's really cool for me, like doing the podcast, I've had the opportunity to like, I've really discovered a lot of entrepreneurs and like their passion and their nonprofit projects, which I really didn't know. I had the opportunity to talking to Chris Lambert, he's doing a lot in Detroit. I just had a Maggie Varney from Wigs for Kids. Awesome. Out of us, St. Clair, and now I have you on and I got to ask, like, what's a good ask or how can anybody support, help deliver living, you know, the foundation?

    I'm really interested there.

26. 32:39
    David Galbenski

    Yeah, I mean, for us right now, it's, you know, we're all about just spreading awareness. I mean, obviously if they want to donate, great, but that's not why we do it. It's about spreading awareness around the fact that you can save a life today for kidney and liver, right? And just spreading that knowledge is huge to us because all we're trying to do in telling stories, Wes, we know storytelling is the key currency, right? If we can tell stories of heroes that are stepping forward, that may inspire someone to think about it.

    The minute we plant a seed and they think about it, it becomes a possibility. And that's all we want is because we know there are heroes out there that go, I could do that. I'm fit. I'll find a match whether it, you know, and again, you'd ask the question, how do you have a match? You know, on the liver side, you got a blood type match, you got to have an anatomical match of the size of liver and how it hooks up. And you got to go through a battery, a test, and then they make sure it all fits together.

    But people could do it. So the best way is just the number one, be aware that you can donate a kidney and a liver, find stories that you can tell, and then ponder it. Is that what you think you could do for someone else? Because we're seeing a lot of heroes stepping forward in doing it. And it's the most amazing gift people give. And here's what we find out when we talk to living donors, Wes, they say it's actually changed them for the better. They're actually grateful that they went through it.

    Their mental health is better. Their outlook on life is better. Their physical fitness is better. They're all of that because they train to become a living donor. And they're like, I can't believe it. This is amazing. It enhances their life, which is what I'll call that unintended, beautiful consequence of their gift, not expecting anything in return. But that's the universe giving back to them in them going, wow, I feel great because I did it. And that's almost universal for living donors. That's what they say. They report a higher level of life satisfaction because of what they did.

27. 34:41
    Wes Mathews

    Yeah, I mean, to me, it seems like as you're talking about this, I'm racking my brain. Like I've never really heard of the concept in front of me out of all the content of media I see. I don't really see anything. I'm super excited on your mission and excited to watch you get there along the way. But I also before we read, I want to talk a little bit about GSCA. Yeah, because I, it's for me, again, I think it may be listeners maybe to the podcast.

    Yeah, a very unconventional route, right? So all my friends went away to four year schools. They all had really fancy degrees and their parents are like, you need to be a doctor and a lawyer. And I kind of went down this like path and the path of like four or five years for community college. And I kind of always knew I'd be an entrepreneur, a lot of naysayers. But I think what you're doing on GSCA is really amazing. I'd love for you to share the passion there.

28. 35:31
    David Galbenski

    Oh, man, I love to again, lies, passion, purpose, places, most potential, right, right along with living liver. So what we're doing there with the Global School of Entrepreneurship, it's disruptive, digital, MBA education that's accredited, man. And here's the deal. It's by entrepreneurs, for entrepreneurs, with entrepreneurs. So it doesn't get any better than that, man. It's pure peerness. And what we're doing is we are able to deliver in a 18 month to two year experience an accredited MBA in a cohort model of eight to 10 other peer entrepreneurs in a live lecture series that checks all the boxes of accredited MBA.

    So someone is getting exposure to the same type of concepts, the same type of learning styles as anyone that would go to any other digital MBA program or on campus program. But we're doing it with other entrepreneurs in a small cohort that we view it as what we call catalytic learning. We're feeding that content in that then the entrepreneurs get to discuss how does it apply to their business? So theory catalyzes their discussion, how do we apply it to an entrepreneurial enterprise? And we do it in a way that an entrepreneur can conserve, consume it.

    It's online. So they can do it when they're running 60, 70 hours a week, they're doing it with other entrepreneurs. So they're getting their juice from other entrepreneurs in a nice small cohort. And we stretch it out over an 18 to 24 month period, kind of one class a month. There's homework pre homework post. It's pass fail, doesn't matter, learn the content, demonstrate proficiency, doesn't matter are you A, B or C. And we do it in what's known as the Oxford tutorial model, which is you discuss it, and then you reflect on it to demonstrate your proficiency.

    13 classes that fit all the categories of an MBA from leadership to marketing to accounting to finance, but in an entrepreneurial way. And then the last third after those 13 classes, is called a capstone. And you get to work on something that's relevant to your business, which is the last third or 30 credits of the business independently, or bring in your peers, or work with your leadership team to develop something that's critical for the business, or maybe you're launching a new enterprise. And then you can build that capstone.

    I'll give an example. One of our first graduates was building a new real estate development business. And he was going to need a replicable sales process. So his capstone was developing the sales playbook. All of it. So he spent his last 30 credits demonstrating proficiency. And how do you sell? Right? What do you do? And he put it in a playbook that then when he was going to hand off to a sales team and scale his company. So those are the very practical ways that we've redesigned it.

    And we sit on a very disruptive university platform called wolf W O L F University. And they have raised tons of VC money. They're disrupting the entire education industry. And they've got some of the most amount of students that they're delivering through their platform. And global school of entrepreneurship sits on top of it. And we derive that curriculum. We've got all the regulatory and compliance handle. And you walk out of there with an accredited MBA akin to any brand name, because it's accredited Europe in the US.

    And then it opens up West all these cool opportunities. And one for a lot of entrepreneurs West is the ability to take that MBA and gain entrance back to a traditional academia, to teach an entrepreneurship class at community college or otherwise.

29. 39:28
    Wes Mathews

    Yeah, I love it. Right. Because again, I took me like four or five years to get through community college. So goes to my next question, which is what's the prerequisite? I mean, like I've been an entrepreneur for 15 years. I've thought about going back to like, but I got to get my back. I got to do all these things. And there's all this red tape. Like, what are the requirements for an entrepreneur to go through this program?

30. 39:50
    David Galbenski

    Yeah, great. So what's interesting is there in an accreditation process, there's the ability for someone to demonstrate proficiency if they've been in an entrepreneurial enterprise or leadership position for seven years that they could enter our MBA program without an undergrad undergraduate degree. And that's anywhere, right? I mean, that's just not our enterprise. So if you're running an entrepreneurial enterprise, and you've been seven years, that can count for your undergraduate degree to gain admission to an MBA program. And so we can people can enter that way.

    Of course, the traditional way, if they have an undergrad, they flow right in. But that's a unique thing for a certain subset of entrepreneurs that are attracted to our program because we're able to take the school of hard knocks seven years run in an enterprise and go, that's equivalent to earning an undergraduate degree to get you into the MBA program. So that's a unique way to get in. And then I'll talk a little bit less about what we'll call our, our avatars, right? The people that are seeking it, that are entrepreneurs and why they're seeking an MBA program, like we're delivering.

    And that is we hit on it, someone that is highly successful as an entrepreneur, hasn't completed undergrad, but wants that advanced degree. That's one area. The second is, I think we all suffer from it, to a certain extent, imposter syndrome. We may not have the external credentials as someone else. And boy, wouldn't it be great to have that MBA after our name to show, Hey, we know we're a good business person, right? So we see that as well. And then there's this, this man, you know what, I really want for my own personal fulfillment, for whatever reason, to demonstrate that I can achieve something academically, because maybe a lot of entrepreneurs just never liked traditional academia, but boy, they would love to know that I can succeed if the academic institution was designed for how I learned and how I get together and how I show up.

    Because what we know is traditional academia is designed for a certain type of learner to succeed there. And a lot of times that doesn't overlap with the personality of entrepreneurs. So instead of adapting the entrepreneur to an academic enterprise, we're adopting what you do is the academic institution to the entrepreneur. And that's the secret sauce to address those. And that's why we're excited about bringing it to entrepreneurs.

31. 42:21
    Wes Mathews

    Now, I'm super excited as I think about it, I just remember back and like, I knew I was a visionary and everybody else is an integrator. Like if you're good at school and you're smart, you're an integrator. But the disruptive, the class clowns, the ones that are like, we don't know about that one.

32. 42:37
    David Galbenski

    Like, we don't know about that Mathews guy, man. He seems really bright, but he's caused a lot of problems in our class.

33. 42:44
    Wes Mathews

    And yeah, I got touched on the last thing too. And you have so much here, which is awesome. Like, what is the entrepreneur emeritus at Edward Lowe Foundation? Like, what does that mean to you?

34. 42:53
    David Galbenski

    Yeah, well, it's another give back, right? I've gone on the journey. How can I share my experience with the next generation of entrepreneurs? That's the goal of that title that sounds fancy. It's just me giving back. And they gave me a fancy title because I've been there done it right. But the Edward Lowe Foundation is based in Michigan. It's kind of one of the best kept secrets for second stage companies, which means companies that are between 1 million and 50 million, 10 employees and 99 employees, that sweet spot where a lot of us entrepreneurs reside.

    And it's a great story. Edward Lowe of the Edward Lowe Foundation invented kitty litter, a whole industry in 1947. He came up with clay as an absorbent. When people used to use saw dust and cats were living outdoors. He said there's got to be a better way because people would bring saw dust in their boxes in the house. Cats would track around sawdust and like this is crazy. He came up with an absorbent clay, found it. Then he went barn storming around the country, drop it off bags of clay as he said it.

    And then of course he innovated, made it happen, built it to an amazing enterprise, sold it to a major pet care company. And then he donated the vast majority of wealth to form the Edward Lowe Foundation to help second stage entrepreneurs. And so I'll go out there, facilitate retreats. They've got a suite of programming to help second stage entrepreneurs. And it's a fun resource, but the guy invented kitty litter. What a story. And he's given it back to help other entrepreneurs be with other entrepreneurs.

35. 44:24
    Wes Mathews

    What a great story. Well, Dave, thank you so much. I am so honored to have you here. The main things that seek out living liver and GSCA. Anybody listening wants to reach out to you. How can people connect with you?

36. 44:39
    David Galbenski

    Yeah, so I'm on all the social media platforms, you know, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. If they want to hit an email, last name's [email removed]. Reach out. Love the connect, man. It's awesome to be with other entrepreneurs. And thanks for the great work you're doing, man. Thanks for having me on. I'm going to listen to your podcast down forever more, man, because you get great guests on. And I hope everyone else that's seeing this hit subscribe because this needs to get out there. Not my session, but who else you got going out there?

    They need to see who you got coming on because you got rock stars coming on. I know giving your network. Awesome, man. Well, hey,

37. 45:19
    Wes Mathews

    Dave, thanks again, man. I appreciate it. Thank you. We'll see you later. This has been another episode of Entrepreneur Intel. Thank you for joining us for show notes. For other episodes, please visit us at entrepreneur Intel dot com. Until next time.