Ever catch yourself wondering, "What is my business worth—like, the real number, not the cocktail-party guess?"

If your business represents the majority of your net worth (and for most CEOs, it does), not knowing your true valuation is risky. You could be planning an exit, thinking about succession, considering a partnership change, or even just trying to make smarter growth decisions—but without a real valuation framework, you're basically relying on back-of-the-napkin math. In this episode, you'll get a clear, CEO-friendly breakdown of how valuations actually work and what drives value up (or quietly drags it down).

You'll walk away with:

• A practical understanding of the real valuation methods (market comps, public peer multiples, discounted cash flow, and when asset-based valuation applies) so you can stop guessing and start thinking like an investor.

• A sharper perspective on what increases or decreases your company's value—especially risk factors like customer concentration, shaky financials, key-person dependency, and unreliable forecasts.

• A clearer playbook for "valuation readiness" so you can improve value before a buyer, a partner, or the IRS forces the question.

Press play now and steal the same valuation lens buyers use—so you can protect your wealth, reduce risk, and increase what your business is worth before the next big decision hits.

Check out:

• 0:03:10 — The 3 main ways your business is valued (market comps, public peer multiples, and discounted cash flow—plus why valuation is forward-looking).

• 00:10:55 — How to value intangible assets like patents and trademarks (including the "relief from royalty" method that's surprisingly practical).

• 00:22:40 — The biggest value drivers you can actually control (clean financials, forecasting confidence, reducing key-person risk, and de-risking the business for buyers).

About Dave Bookbinder

Dave Bookbinder is a corporate finance executive with a focus on business and intangible asset valuation. Known as a collaborative consultant, Dave has served thousands of client companies of all sizes and industries.

Dave has conducted valuations of the securities and intangible assets of public and private companies for various purposes including acquisition, divestiture, financial reporting, stock-based compensation, fairness and solvency opinions, reorganizations, recapitalizations, estate planning, S-Corp. conversion, exit strategy, and succession planning.

Have you ever bailed on a "seat at the table" moment because imposter syndrome convinced you you didn't belong?

This episode is basically a reality check for that spiral. If you've ever walked into a room of bigger titles, bigger experience, bigger confidence—and immediately started listing all the reasons you're "not enough," Megan Reilly's story will feel uncomfortably familiar (in the best way). She breaks down what imposter syndrome costs you, how to stop self-eliminating, and how to stay in the game long enough to actually grow—whether you're building a company, scaling a team, or just trying to lead without burning yourself out.

• A simple way to quiet imposter syndrome when you feel outmatched—so you stay in the room and find your value instead of fleeing.

• A scrappy growth mindset you can copy (no perfect plan required): how momentum, feedback, and "green lights" can guide your next move.

• A healthier approach to scaling in real life by recognizing seasons—so you can build something meaningful without feeling like you're failing at everything else.

Press play and borrow Megan's mindset reset for imposter syndrome—so the next time you get the opportunity, you take the seat and don't look back.

Check out:

• 10:00 – The imposter syndrome turning point
  Megan tells the D1 basketball walk-on story and the moment she quit—then reframes it into her core lesson: why imposter syndrome makes you walk away from rooms you've already earned entry into.

• 25:00 – From "side gig" to real business
  The shift from teaching dance as a flexible college job to realizing, "Wait, this actually works," and how trusting momentum (not a formal plan) led to massive growth.

• 50:00 – Scaling, seasons, and not doing it all at once
  A candid conversation about building a 70-location franchise while raising kids—and why recognizing life seasons is critical to sustainable leadership and sanity.

About Megan Reilly

Megan Reilly started as an entrepreneur at age 19 and over the last two decades has built an international franchise, received multiple offers on Shark Tank, started a top 12 podcast, and ignited crowds all around the country as a keynote speaker.

Megan is the creator and host of one of the Top 12 Parenting Podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Who Is Your Momma Podcast, where she speaks to the mothers of some of the world's most successful, CEOs, athletes, and entertainers. Megan speaks to organizations all across the country, sharing the lessons she has learned from more than 20 years as a thriving entrepreneur.

What if the expertise that makes your company valuable today could be replicated—or even surpassed—by AI within a year?

If you're running or leading a business, you're already feeling the pressure: AI disruption is moving faster than your operating model can adapt. This episode helps you understand why the ground is shifting so quickly, what it means for the expertise inside your organization, and how you can stay ahead instead of getting blindsided by competitors who adopt AI more strategically and more rapidly.

You'll walk away with clarity on:

• How AI is lowering the cost of expertise—and what that means for your competitive advantage.

• A practical way to rethink your business and operating model so you can adopt AI at an exponential pace, not a linear one.

• How to help your team embrace AI without fear by understanding new working modes like centaurs, cyborgs, and self-automators.

Hit play now to learn the specific mindset and moves CEOs are using to turn AI disruption into a strategic edge.

Check out:

This is where Karim explains the surprising path from crowdsourcing and NASA experiments to machine-learning breakthroughs—and why those early signals showed him AI would reshape business, not just technology.

A must-hear moment. Karim explains why AI isn't just another tool—it fundamentally changes what expertise means within a company — and why CEOs need to view their business as a "bundle of expertise" being rewired.

This section introduces centaurs, cyborgs, and self-automators—and what these modes reveal about adoption, resistance, identity, and where value will come from as AI accelerates.

About Dr. Karim Lakhani

Karim R. Lakhani is the Dorothy & Michael Hintze Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He specializes in technology management, innovation, digital transformation and artificial intelligence (AI). His innovation-related research is centered around his role as the founder and co-director of the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard and as the principal investigator of the NASA Tournament Laboratory. Karim is known for his original scholarship on open source communities and innovation contests and has pioneered the use of field experiments to help solve innovation-related challenges while simultaneously generating rigorous research in partnership with organizations like NASA, Harvard Medical School, The Broad Institute, TopCoder, The Linux Foundation and various private organizations. His digital transformation research investigates the role of analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) in reshaping business and operating models. This research is complemented through his leadership as co-founder and chair of the The Digital, Data, and Design (D^3) Institute at Harvard and as co-founder and co-chair of the Harvard Business Analytics Program, a university-wide online program transforming mid-career executives into data-savvy leaders.