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PODCAST

The Deal Podcast

Welcome to a podcast that goes beyond the headlines to reveal the human and financial side of building enterprise value. Hosted by M&A advisor and executive producer Joshua Wilson, this is The Deal Podcast, brought to you by FA Mergers. We"re your front-row seat to the strategies shaping today"s lower- and middle-market, from the family-run business to the multi-million-dollar portfolio.Too often, the world of mergers and acquisitions is seen as a complex, numbers-driven game. We believe it"s

business management

All Episodes

61:05

From Exit to Endowment: Building a Legacy That...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/10/05

What happens to everything you've built after you sell — and after you're gone? Two Catholic foundation leaders share how owners turn a lifetime of work into a legacy that lasts.In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA, Managing Partner at FA Mergers, sit down with Monica Zuschlag, Board Chairman, and Margaret Trahan, Executive Director, of the Catholic Legacy Foundation of Acadiana. Monica shares the calling that led her to help launch

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46:25

Relationships Are the Product: How an Engineering...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/09/28

Landing a two-year contract felt like a win. Aaron Travasos saw a deadline: "We have one to two years to replace this customer."In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA, Managing Partner of FA Mergers, sit down with Aaron Travasos, P.E., Principal at Gregory Consulting and Controls in Lafayette, Louisiana. Aaron left a steady engineering career during the COVID slowdown to join a partner's firm, and together they grew it into a team

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59:50

Building Toward an Acquisition From Day One with...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/09/21

She built her app with one end in mind from day one: get acquired. And she did it while owning 100% of the company and raising two kids under two.In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-hosts Scott Shea and Jeremy Beyt sit down with Kelly Hebert, VP of Design & Media at Robert Hebert Media and co-founder of Project Dryve, a navigation app built to solve the messy, real-world problem of finding food and stops along a route. Recorded at ThreeSixtyEight in Baton Rouge, Kelly

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54:44

What Every Founder Gets Wrong About Building With AI...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/09/14

He built Lego-verifying software with his daughter and an AI chief of staff named Carl who texts his wife. Justin Obney has strong opinions about what founders keep getting wrong.In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Justin Obney, CEO of Obney AI, for a candid conversation on how business owners should actually think about artificial intelligence. Recorded in Baton Rouge at ThreeSixtyEight, the discussion cuts past the hype to a simpler frame:

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72:07

The Deal Behind Sports Betting, NIL, Revenue Sharing,...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/09/07

33 years behind the microphone in Baton Rouge — and a master class on how college sports quietly became one of the biggest deal-making machines in America.In this episode of The Deal Podcast, hosts Joshua Wilson and Scott Shea sit down with Charles Hanagriff — veteran sports broadcaster, co-host of "Live at Lunch" on 104.5 ESPN, and the voice of Eagle 98.1 Gameday for over two decades — recorded on the Baton Rouge Podcast Tour. Charles unpacks how sports betting, NIL, revenue sharing, and

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57:12

Where Allocators and Dealmakers Actually Meet with...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/08/31

He got told no 2,000 times before Wall Street said yes. Rip Reeves cold-called his way off a borrowed New York City phone book — and four decades later runs the company whose magazine first taught him the business. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, recorded on the Baton Rouge Podcast Tour, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Rip Reeves, CEO of Institutional Investor and former CIO of AEGIS Insurance Services. Rip walks through how global capital actually moves — the all...

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43:03

From Folding Towels for Nick Saban to Owning a Bank...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/08/24

He cashed out everything during the pandemic — left a guaranteed paycheck to raise $30M and buy a bank that didn't exist yet. Five years later, it's quadrupled. In this episode, recorded live in Baton Rouge on our Louisiana Podcast Tour, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Scott Gaudin, President & CEO of Currency Bank. Scott traces his path from folding towels and parking cars under Nick Saban at LSU to acquiring a community bank charter and building it into a $260M ...

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66:42

Playing Offense or Defense With Your Company's Value...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/08/17

Should you grow your business or protect it? The answer depends on one number — and most owners don't know theirs. In this episode, Joshua Wilson and co-hosts Scott Shea (FA Mergers) and Jeremy Beyt (CEO, ThreeSixtyEight) sit down with Ben Vance, CPA, Director at Faulk & Winkler, who brings nearly 20 years in business valuation, transaction advisory, and family office work. Ben unpacks the difference between "playing offense" and "playing defense" with enterprise value, why the legacy bil...

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68:13

We're Not a Construction Company, We're a People...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/08/10

He built a national construction firm out of a town of fewer than 1,000 people — then sold it without feeling like he sold out. In this episode, Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Lenny Lemoine, founder of LEMOINE, the Louisiana services company he and his brother Tim grew from a family lumberyard into a 1,500-person leader in building, infrastructure, and disaster response. Lenny walks through decades of building enterprise value: the early hard-bid years, the choice to drop...

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44:49

The Hidden Asset Smart PE Firms Protect at All Costs...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/08/03

What separates the PE firms that build lasting companies from the ones that destroy them? Jeff Koonce says it comes down to one asset that never shows up cleanly on a balance sheet. Jeffrey Koonce is a Partner at Bernhard Capital Partners, a Baton Rouge-based services and infrastructure-focused private equity firm with more than $6 billion in AUM. A recovering CPA and former tax attorney at Phelps Dunbar, Jeff joined BCP as General Counsel and has been part of the firm's growth from its first...

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64:14

The Family Office Playbook for Lower Middle Market...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/07/27

Erik Billet and Jude David built a family office that's done 12 acquisitions in five years — without outside investors, without a fund clock, and without ever planning to flip a single company. In this episode, Erik Billet, CFO of Kin Capital Partners and CEO of Stately Doors and Windows, joins Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA, Managing Partner at FA Mergers, to walk through how a two-man partnership grew into a multifamily office acquiring lower middle market businesses. E...

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43:33

Stuck in the Founder Trap? How to Free Yourself From...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/07/20

What happens when a buyer looks at your business and says, "The owner is too involved — we can't pluck him out"? That's the moment your exit value collapses. And it's the moment Jeff Martin has spent a career helping founders avoid. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA and Managing Partner at FA Mergers, sit down with Jeff Martin — serial entrepreneur, four-time exiter, and founder of Company Growth Academy. Jeff shares hard-won lessons ...

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60:53

From Ministry to Real Estate: Lessons From a Career...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/07/13

He spent over two decades as a full-time Catholic minister. Then four kids, a tight bank account, and a global pandemic forced a pivot that would reshape everything. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA and Managing Partner at FA Mergers, sit down with John Ray Perkins, a top-producing Realtor with Keller Williams Realty of Acadiana in Lafayette, Louisiana. After 20+ years in youth and parish ministry at St. Peter's in Carencro and St. P...

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46:47

Scaling a Law Firm Without Losing the Mission with...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/07/06

What does it take to scale a plaintiff's law firm to 17 attorneys across three offices — without losing the mission, the culture, or your sanity? Blake David has done it, and he's still trying cases. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson sits down with Blake R. David, founding partner of Broussard, David & Moroux in Lafayette, Louisiana, alongside co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA, Managing Partner at FA Mergers — and Blake's younger brother. Blake is one of the most deco...

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42:05

How Founders Use Community Foundations to Protect...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/06/29

What if the smartest move before your liquidity event isn't talking to your banker — it's talking to a community foundation? In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Missy Andrade, President & CEO of the Community Foundation of Acadiana (CFA), to unpack one of the most overlooked tools in middle market dealmaking: the community foundation. Missy leads a 26-year-old organization stewarding more than $253 million in assets across roughly 1...

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53:06

Eat What You Kill: The Bet-On-Yourself Model — Mark...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/06/22

Mark Weber made $12,000 his first year in business. He never hired an employee. Three decades later, he's built a portfolio across life insurance, real estate, and mortgage lending — all on strategic partnerships and commission-only hustle. Mark Weber is a serial entrepreneur, inventor, and CEO of Mark Weber Enterprises — a multi-layered company spanning real estate, investments, insurance, and mortgage lending. In this episode, Mark sits down with host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, M...

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60:42

Mergers and Acquisitions in the Nonprofit World

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/06/15

What if the smartest growth strategy in your community wasn't being run by a private equity firm — it was being run by a charity? Kim Boudreaux and Sarah Clement of Catholic Charities of Acadiana have spent the last two decades quietly executing one of the most disciplined nonprofit roll-up strategies in Louisiana — growing from a $1.2M agency with 23 employees into a $15M, 90-person, 14-organization platform serving eight civil parishes. In this episode, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude D...

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50:55

From Career to Calling: Inside Family Missions...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/06/08

What if the Lord interrupted your career at the peak of the American dream? Saul Keeton walked away from 25 years in commercial real estate. Kevin Granger left nursing and music behind. Both said yes to something bigger. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson sits down with Saul Keeton and Kevin Granger of Family Missions Company — the largest lay Catholic foreign missionary organization in the world — alongside co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA and Managing Partner at FA Merg...

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64:05

From Law to the Priesthood: Discerning the Call with...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/06/01

What does it actually take to walk away from a thriving career at the top of your game — and how do you do it without leaving wreckage behind? In this special episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Jude David, JD, DCL, MBA — Managing Partner at FA Mergers — sit down with Father Jim Brady, JCL, Pastor of St. Pius X Catholic Church in Lafayette, Louisiana. Before entering the priesthood, Father Brady spent eleven years building a regional law practice as a litigation partne...

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64:56

The Opportunity Machine: Powering Louisiana's Startup...

The Deal Podcast ·

2026/05/25

What happens when a former musician with degrees in graphic design and public relations becomes the executive director of one of Louisiana's most important startup engines? You get Destin Ortego — and a playbook that's helped founders raise $116M in venture capital and drive over $2 billion in economic impact since 2018. In this episode of The Deal Podcast, host Joshua Wilson and co-host Scott Shea sit down with Destin Ortego, Executive Director of Opportunity Machine, the Lafayette-based non...

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93 results

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