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The Power Exit Podcast

The Power Exit Podcast

By: Marsh Creek Advisory
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Welcome to The Power Exit Podcast, the show that empowers business owners to confidently prepare for and profit from their ultimate exit. Hosted by John Marsh, each episode dives deep into the strategies, insights, and real-life experiences of M&A experts and veteran entrepreneurs who’ve already navigated the selling process. Whether you’re eyeing retirement, poised for a transition, or simply exploring your options, this podcast delivers actionable advice and mindset shifts to help you exit on your own terms—without leaving money or legacy on the table.Marsh Creek Advisory Economics
Episodes
  • Will AI Replace Advisors?

    Will AI Replace Advisors?
    29 Sep 2026
    “Imagine AI like a junior employee. You can trust it to do a certain amount of the work, but are you going to trust it to deliver those documents to the buyer right after? Probably not. You’re going to review that.” — Gal BarzilayIn this episode of the Power Exit Podcast, John Marsh sits down with Gal Barzilay, CEO and Co-Founder of Legacy AI, an AI-native technology platform built for business brokers and M&A advisors. She and John dig into where AI is already changing the deal process, from marketing materials and financial analysis to buyer screening, deal management, FAQs, and communication. They also get into where advisors need to be careful, why Gal thinks of AI as a junior employee rather than a replacement for expertise, and why sensitive areas such as legal documents and later-stage diligence still demand experienced human review.The conversation also looks ahead. Gal shares how she expects AI agents to become more integrated into an advisor’s day-to-day workflow, why buyers are moving faster as their own technology improves, and how that increased speed raises expectations for advisors. She and John also discuss one of the biggest mistakes firms are making with AI: becoming overwhelmed by everything it can potentially do and ultimately doing very little with it.In this episode, you'll learn:🔹 How Gal’s parents’ experience trying to sell their family business ultimately led her into the M&A industry.🔹 Where AI is already being used in the deal process, including marketing materials, financial analysis, buyer workflows, and deal management.🔹 Why Gal recommends treating AI like a junior employee whose work still needs to be reviewed by an experienced advisor.🔹 Why legal documents, LOIs, and later-stage deal work require additional caution when AI is involved.🔹 How AI’s ability to analyze financial information has improved and why Gal sees financial analysis as one of the areas with significant potential.🔹 Why Gal believes technology can make an advisor more effective without replacing the relationships, trust, and judgment at the center of M&A.🔹 How to identify the right AI use cases by starting with the biggest bottlenecks inside your own business.🔹 Why Gal recommends Claude as a tool for advisors who want to deepen how they use AI in their day-to-day work.Whether you're an M&A advisor trying to figure out where AI actually belongs in your workflow, a business owner thinking about an eventual exit, or simply trying to separate practical applications from the noise around AI, this conversation offers a grounded look at how technology is changing the deal process — and where human expertise still matters most.Connect With JohnLinkedIn – / marshcreek Connect With GalLinkedIn - / gal-barzilay 📌 Subscribe To The PowerExit™ Insights Newsletter:https://www.mcreek.com/newsletter/🌐 More resources ➝ https://www.mcreek.com/About John Marsh:John Marsh is the Founder and Managing Partner of Marsh Creek Advisors, a boutique M&A advisory firm that helps business owners navigate the sale of their companies with confidence and clarity. Since founding the firm, John has closed hundreds of millions in transactions and earned national recognition as Top Global Producer by the International Business Brokers Association and part of the Firm of the Year by M&A Source — the highest honors in the industry.Before launching Marsh Creek, John served as CFO and later General Manager of a high-growth medical device company, where he led over $300 million in M&A activity, including a $161 million sale to private equity. Earlier in his career, he worked at Ernst & Young and Frazier & Deeter, where he focused on financial reporting and audit services for both Fortune 100 companies and privately held businesses. John holds a BA from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Kennesaw State University. He lives in Sandy Springs, Georgia, with his wife and two daughters.
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    37 min
  • The Business Was Supposed To Stay In The Family. It Didn't.

    The Business Was Supposed To Stay In The Family. It Didn't.
    13 Aug 2026
    "In terms of retirement, I was much better off than I had really anticipated. I was in a good position, but I didn't realize how much better the position could be." — Mark OligerIn this episode of the Power Exit Podcast, John Marsh sits down with Mark Oliger, former owner of Garrhs, the Durango, Colorado HVAC company his family has been connected to for three generations. Mark's grandfather started the business in Phoenix in the late 1930s and moved it to Durango in the early 1950s. Mark grew up in the shop, went to vocational school for heating and air conditioning, and when the family business closed in 1983, started his own from scratch, bringing his younger brother Travis in a few years later and quietly growing it into the largest company of its kind in the region.This is a real client story, told from the seller's chair. Mark walks through the part most owners don't talk about: what happens when you're ready to step back, your children are in the business, and none of them want to own it. He and John cover the first advisor who took the business to market and couldn't get it done, the year and a half Mark spent off-market fixing his financial reporting, why that rework changed how buyers saw the company, and the grind of post-LOI diligence that Mark says he genuinely didn't see coming. They also get into the SBA rule change that nearly killed the deal mid-diligence, what closing day actually felt like, and how Mark went from 90 days full-time to nine months part-time and remote, before trading it all for months at a time cave diving in Mexico.In this episode, you'll learn:🔹 Why Mark's son and nephews were in the business but didn't want to own it and how he worked through that decision.🔹 What happened when he offered ownership to long-term employees, and why that path closed too.🔹 Why the first advisor didn't work out, and what "buyer reach" actually means in practice.🔹 The specific change Mark made to his financial reporting and why it reframed the business for buyers.🔹 Why he chose an individual buyer with hands-on industry experience over a roll-up, despite a broad range of interest.🔹 What surprised him most in diligence, including weekly work-in-progress statements he'd rarely produced in 30-plus years.🔹 How an SBA rule change on rolled equity landed mid-deal, and what it took to keep the transaction alive.🔹 The one thing he'd prepare differently: showing the buyer how the business runs without him, before they have to ask.Whether you're a founder with family in the business, weighing an internal transition, or just curious what a sale actually feels like from the seller's side, Mark's story is an honest look at the emotion, the grind, and the outcome on the other side.Connect With JohnLinkedIn – / marshcreek 🔸 Get a Complimentary Business Valuation: https://www.mcreek.com/what-is-my-bus...📌 Subscribe To The PowerExit™ Insights Newsletter:https://www.mcreek.com/newsletter/John Marsh is the Founder and Managing Partner of Marsh Creek Advisors, a boutique M&A advisory firm that helps business owners navigate the sale of their companies with confidence and clarity. Since founding the firm, John has closed hundreds of millions in transactions and earned national recognition as Top Global Producer by the International Business Brokers Association and part of the Firm of the Year by M&A Source — the highest honors in the industry.Before launching Marsh Creek, John served as CFO and later General Manager of a high-growth medical device company, where he led over $300 million in M&A activity, including a $161 million sale to private equity. Earlier in his career, he worked at Ernst & Young and Frazier & Deeter, where he focused on financial reporting and audit services for both Fortune 100 companies and privately held businesses. John holds a BA from the University of Georgia and an MBA from Kennesaw State University.
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    46 min
  • Your Company's Data Could Be On The Dark Web

    Your Company's Data Could Be On The Dark Web
    21 Jul 2026
    "You can go purchase ransomware as a service on the dark web and have it infiltrate somebody's system, lock it up, and demand a ransom payment — or sell the data on the dark web." — Will GodwinIn this episode of the Power Exit Podcast, John Marsh sits down with Will Godwin, who leads the private equity and M&A practice at Sterling Seacrest Pritchard (SSP), an Atlanta-based insurance brokerage and risk management firm. Will works on the property and casualty side of insurance diligence, transactional risk, and post-close insurance programs, primarily representing buy-side financial sponsors, family offices, and strategics.Will and John talk through why insurance is often treated as the last item on a diligence checklist even though gaps in coverage can trigger a retrade or escrow, and why cyber insurance and management liability (D&O) are now considered table stakes on virtually every deal. They cover a real-world example of a seller with over a million dollars of undisclosed audit exposure on a general liability policy, the rise of reps and warranties insurance as an alternative to a traditional 10% escrow, and what a seller's data room should include from an insurance standpoint. The conversation closes with a candid look at why so many business owners underestimate their cyber exposure and how ransomware and stolen data increasingly end up for sale on the dark web, even for companies that don't think of themselves as "tech" businesses.In this episode, you'll learn:🔹 Why insurance is usually the last thing sellers think about in diligence and why that's a mistake.🔹 What buyers actually look for beyond the policies themselves: risk management, loss control, and claims history.🔹 A real deal example involving over $1 million in undisclosed audit exposure on a general liability policy.🔹 Why cyber insurance and management liability (D&O, fiduciary, EPLI) are now standard on nearly every deal.🔹 The difference between a traditional indemnification escrow and reps and warranties insurance and why sellers increasingly prefer the latter.🔹 What should be retained and updated yearly in an insurance data room, including loss runs and equipment schedules.🔹 Why so many business owners underestimate their cyber exposure, and how stolen data and ransomware end up on the dark web.🔹 Why keeping your insurance broker informed of a pending sale, rather than keeping it quiet, can actually work in the seller's favor.Whether you're a founder preparing to sell, a buyer evaluating risk, or an advisor guiding a client through a transaction, Will's perspective is a reminder that insurance is far more than a diligence checkbox.Connect With JohnLinkedIn – / marshcreek Connect With WillLinkedIn – / willjgodwin 🔸 Get a Complimentary Business Valuation: https://www.mcreek.com/what-is-my-bus...📌 Subscribe To The PowerExit™ Insights Newsletter:https://www.mcreek.com/newsletter/🌐 More resources ➝ https://www.mcreek.com/About John Marsh:John Marsh is the Founder and Managing Partner of Marsh Creek Advisors, a boutique M&A advisory firm that helps business owners navigate the sale of their companies with confidence and clarity. Since founding the firm, John has closed hundreds of millions in transactions and earned national recognition as Top Global Producer by the International Business Brokers Association and part of the Firm of the Year by M&A Source — the highest honors in the industry.Before launching Marsh Creek, John served as CFO and later General Manager of a high-growth medical device company, where he led over $300 million in M&A activity, including a $161 million sale to private equity. Earlier in his career, he worked at Ernst & Young and Frazier & Deeter, where he focused on financial reporting and audit services for both Fortune 100 companies and privately held businesses.
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    36 min
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