The Signals Are Already There

What if the hardest part of transition is not the planning, but admitting to yourself that something has already started to shift? 

In this solo episode, Elizabeth Ledoux talks about the signals most owners notice long before they say them out loud. They rarely arrive as a clear decision. They show up as a low-grade restlessness, a shorter runway, less appetite for the next big risk, or a quiet gut feeling that you are not reaching as hard as you used to. Elizabeth walks through what those signals look like, what tends to happen when owners keep explaining them away, and what opens up when they finally stop. 

She shares two stories from her work. One is about an owner who kept saying not yet until a cancer diagnosis gave him six months and a sudden willingness to do the work, surfacing years of family conversations that could have happened sooner. The other is about a road-worn owner who arrived certain he wanted a fast third-party sale, until his own lawyer told him to slow down and figure out what he truly wanted. What he discovered changed the entire shape of his transition and gave him years of fulfillment on his own terms. 

Key takeaways from this episode: 

• Transition signals do not announce themselves. They show up quietly, in ways that are easy to rationalize because they feel small. 

• “I’ll deal with it when things calm down” is a loop. Things rarely calm down, and the urge to wait can itself be a signal that your runway is getting shorter. 

• A lower appetite for risk is not a flaw. As the runway shortens, many owners take smaller risks because they have less time to recover, and noticing that shift is the point. 

• The people around you carry signals too. A spouse who keeps mentioning travel, a child asking to buy in, a key employee quietly stepping up, these are information, not just interruptions. 

• Your gut instinct got you here. If it is telling you that you are not as interested in the next decade of growth, that is worth honoring. 

• This discomfort is usually not burnout. More often it means you are outgrowing your current chapter, and that can be a beautiful place to shift from when you are ready. 

Chapters in this episode:

01:30 – What doesn’t show up on a balance sheet
03:00 – What the signals actually look like
04:45 – The “I’ll deal with it when things calm down” loop
06:15 – Going through the motions and a lower appetite for risk
08:00 – Signals from the people closest to you
09:45 – Your gut instinct as data
11:30 – Story one, the owner who waited too long
15:00 – A six-month window and finally doing the work
17:30 – It’s not burnout, you’re outgrowing your chapter
19:15 – Story two, the lawyer who said slow down
22:30 – What he really wanted and the years that followed
25:00 – An invitation to notice your energy
26:45 – Honoring the signals and the Evolve program

Connect with Elizabeth Ledoux and the Transition Strategists:
Website: https://transitionstrategists.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetransitionstrategists
Elizabeth on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elizabethledoux/
Transition Strategists on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/transitionstrategists/
Transition Strategists on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@transitionstrategists

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Our Sister Show: Your Next Gen Friend
Hosted by Andrea Carpenter, Your Next Gen Friend is for the next generation stepping into leadership in family and private businesses. If you’re a successor figuring out your path, this show is for you.

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The Signals Are Already There Transcript

Elizabeth  Ledoux:
Hi everybody and welcome back to the Business Transition Roadmap. I’m Elizabeth Ledoux and I am your host today. And today we’re going to be doing a solo episode. I wanted to take this time to talk to you about something that doesn’t show up on a balance sheet and it doesn’t show up in a valuation. And most of the time it almost never makes it into an actual transition plan. What that is, is I want to talk about the signals that are already there.

That have probably maybe been there for a while and that you keep finding some reasons not to address or to look at directly.

Here’s what I’ve learned after years of working with business owners through their transitions is that most owners already know that something’s shifting long before they’re willing to say it out loud. They’re just little things that pop up in their mind or pop up in their heart, or even interactions that are not as much fun, or maybe the energy to do something just isn’t quite there.

So I want to talk about that and kind of explore that today with you and maybe come up with some thoughts about how to recognize those. give you a couple of stories about what happened with a few, ⁓ a couple different ⁓ scenarios, and give you some ideas of you know how to reflect on some of the signals that you might be having. So we’re gonna talk about what those signals actually look like.

what happens when you ignore them and what becomes possible when you decide not to explain them away.

So what do these signals actually look like? You know, transition, a business transition or an asset transition, it doesn’t announce itself with a memo. ⁓ there’s no year or age or time when a transition has to happen. it typically shows up quietly and it shows up in ways that are easy to rationalize because they’re small.

⁓ it might look, for instance, it might look like just a little restlessness, ⁓ a low-grade dissatisfaction that doesn’t quite match with what you have had on paper or what you’re doing. That everything looks fine from the outside. You know, the business hopefully it’s just running and things are going well, the numbers are still okay, but just something feels a little off to you and

You might not be able to quite name it, but it’s there. It might look like something like this. I’ll deal with it when things calm down. that is just a loop. Except we all know that never things never calm down. And if they’re calming down, likely it’s part of your energy as a transitioner or as an owner wealth creator.

Part of your energy that says this momentum is too big. And when it starts to calm down, that might be when your runway, you’re kind of thinking, hey, business is doing great, let’s just keep it on this path and keep it rolling forward. It’s all good. When the world around you, AI, what your younger generations want.

How they live their lives, all those things are changing. Your customers, some of the things that they want are changing. So let’s just keep this business status quo, potentially a signal when the world around it is moving and shifting. A signal that maybe your runway is getting shorter. It might also look like going through the motions in a business that used to energize you completely.

And you’re just not as interested anymore. ⁓ you want maybe somebody else to do that, and it’s just not a priority. Your attention has shifted or your energy. And it isn’t that you don’t care about the business because you actually do, but your appetite to potentially grow it, ⁓ maybe to take the next risk, because as you get a little bit further down the road, ⁓

What I’ve seen is that some owners continue to take big risk, but when the runway’s a little bit shorter, the risk is typically a little bit lower. You just don’t have the runway to recover like you used to. So you might not be ready to take that next next risk. ⁓ you might not have the appetite to multiply what you’ve built.

It’s just not that appetite just isn’t quite what it was in the past. So you reflect on that and you’re like, yeah, that’s okay. And it actually is okay up to a certain point. So you kind of settle into this status quo, keep it steady, and there’s nothing wrong with that on the surface, except noticing that it’s a signal. That’s all you really need to know. ⁓ look at that. Isn’t that interesting? I’m changing.

I’m changing. So it also might show up in the people close to you and a spouse, right? A spouse might be going, Hey, we’ve always talked about going and we’ve always talked about traveling. It might be grandkids who want more of your time and are kind of pulling you away. And you’re saying yes, potentially, because why not? ⁓ it could be a daughter or a son who asked directly to buy the business.

⁓ or a s a son who’s clearly interested, but they’re wanting you to do something and you’re not paying attention. You’re not actually doing something, you’re listening potentially, but there’s no action. Those aren’t just interruptions or people pulling at you, those also are signals too, or they can be. And then another thing could be your gut instinct.

typically the gut instinct is what got you here. It’s what made you so successful. And it’s guided a lot of your major decisions that you’ve made as an entrepreneur. And if you’re in business still, you know, only like five percent of businesses make it in the first five years. And then I think the statistic is only between five and ten percent make it another five years. So if you’re here and you’ve been in business for 10 years.

⁓ your gut instinct and your decision making has been pretty good along the way. So your gut instinct, it could be quietly telling you that you’re not as interested as you used to be in taking on that risk, engaging in that energy that is required to keep this thing rolling forward for maybe another decade. So

This could as a signal could be that you’re just not reaching as hard as you used to for that next chapter of growth. And that is a signal. It’s a signal. So entrepreneurs are wired, they’re just wired to push through. And again, that toughness has been part of how you built what you built, but that same toughness can become become the thing.

That kind of drowns out those signals. I’m fine. You know, everything’s fine. I’ll get my energy back. You know, we’ll just let the business keep going. It’s doing great. all of those things could be a signal. So nothing external is really wrong. Your brain says you’re fine, but something quieter, your energy, your intuition, how you feel.

Is maybe disagreeing a little bit. So here’s a story for you about waiting too long. And this sh this story, all my stories are real and true. And I like sharing it because in this example, it was somebody who waited too long, a good person who loved his family and loved his business and worked, worked his entire career on this business. ⁓

He was a client out of Canada. This was probably close to 20 years or so ago. His daughter had been managing and running the business for years. She was super smart. And it was a business that, as technology was coming on board, ⁓ it was a paper-oriented business with books. It was an education company for safety and things that were required by governments. So all of that was paper and the

Dad had done a great job of building out this company. The daughter was younger and she saw a very big future, potentially going onto the internet, making some of it ⁓ you know, virtual and not shipping paper all over the country and all over the world. she had a different vision. And she’d been running it for a long time. So she had come to him directly, and I knew her, and she came to him.

many times over, probably over a two-year period, asking to buy it. She got the banking together. She wanted it and she wanted it badly. And she knew that she could run this thing and that she could build it not only for herself and, you know, for her own accomplishment in her own life, but also could make a difference for her brother, her mother, and her father, making it

More viable into the future because that’s where this education was going. And she saw it. unbeknownst to him, his son was also interested in the business, but he didn’t know that at the time. So while all this was going on, he was living in Mexico, enjoying his life. He was not in the business day-to-day, but he was still drawing a significant check. And

It was a check that was big enough that was limiting the company from growth. that money being pulled out of the company was limiting their ability to reinvest into the technology that was required to move the company into a new era. So that was limiting there. So the signals were everywhere. The daughter was asking. the son was.

interested but he was not asking. He was actually disappearing because of no movement and no conversation. He just wasn’t even in the picture at all. He had disappeared. the business it was ready to transition. It was at a place where a younger vision was going to take it into the next era

And without it going into the next era, it would become paper only when everybody else, the competition, was moving online, and the competition likely would overtake it. And that was right there. That was a signal. And his life in Mexico told you that he’d already moved on. ⁓ in a very practical sense. He was not interested in growth, risk, development. He was interested in harvesting his money.

And living in Mexico, and he had a belief that he had earned that. He had the right to do that, which I would agree, he earned it, and he had the right to do with whatever whatever he wanted to do with that company. ⁓ but there was big tension between him and his daughter in this scenario. So here’s what happened. He kept saying no, explaining it away, not yet, we’ll figure it out someday. There’s lots of time, and then there wasn’t.

So he became seriously ill, ⁓ was diagnosed with cancer and diagnosed with basically six months to live. And in that window, he decided to do the work. He decided to do the work. We went through the roadmap process together. Him, his wife, his daughter, and his son. And in that transition, what we found ⁓ is

Amazing family communication, tears, love. And we found out that the son was interested. And we also found out how the son could integrate with his sister and how they wanted to work together in growing and developing this company. We also found out that the wife was terrified because they didn’t have enough money for her to live her life.

And be financially independent of the business. So navigated all of that, all of that fear, and their transition actually happened. The sad thing is they missed out on years of building and growing things together. and they missed out on the opportunity to not have an event force the hand. So

They transitioned the business. ⁓ the family carried forward. The mom got bought out, had plenty of money because she still ended up owning part of the business. The daughter took it over, the son came in. The daughter and the son worked well together. And great story is a few years ago they sold it and had a great liquidity event. Bad part again, the dad ⁓ was not able to be there for that part.

So this was hard. It was painful in a lot of ways. And, you know, there’s pain in the loss of someone due to an illness. It the illness and the pain got amplified because they hadn’t addressed the business transition and there had been signs. There had been signals before. So this opportunity was sitting in front of them. They could have done it sooner.

They decided not to, and the signals were there for years. People around him could see it, and his gut knew he knew it because I talked to him and he knew it. He just kept finding reasons to explain them away.

Typically, it’s not burnout. It’s that you’re outgrowing your current chapter. And it could be, you could call it burnout. That could be one of the things that you want to explain away. That it’s just you’re gonna call it, I’m just burnt out. And that could be a good explanation if you want to use that and and valid as well. But ⁓ I think just being clear about something that sometimes gets misread.

That when these signals show up, like rest restlessness or the drop in energy, or you know, you’re just going through the motions, and it doesn’t mean that something’s wrong with you. It isn’t like a weakness. And ⁓ you could call it burnout, but you know, it probably is not. ⁓ burnout could be part of it, but it’s probably not all of it. What it often is, is just outgrowing this current chapter. And sometimes

You know, if you’re being truly honest with yourself and reflecting on you as a CEO, are you the right person to take this business into its next chapter? does it need somebody else? Kind of like the story I just told you. the dad was never gonna take the business into the next chapter of back then the internet and the development of the internet and the development of online learning.

He wasn’t going to do that. But the daughter, she was the one that was going to do that. That was her burning desire, not his. So just a little reflection on that. I talked earlier about how many businesses make it five and ten years. You’ve built something remarkable. ⁓ lots of pride there. You’ve poured yourself into it and you know what that’s like. And now something in you is ready for what’s next.

Even if you don’t know what that looks like yet, there’s something in you, there’s something for you. And sometimes by you recognizing that and shifting out of the way, you make room for a next generation. And by the way, a business transition doesn’t mean you’re leaving. Many, many, many, many people will transact a little bit, help a younger person. ⁓

Create some wealth for themselves, but they also, even if you’re a parent, ⁓ you might keep some of the business for your family and your estate. That happens all the time. So

I want to go back to the idea that this discomfort isn’t necessarily a problem to solve, but it’s information. It’s like this signal or this catalyst, this signal system that’s trying to get your attention. Like, hey, open the door, right? Pay attention. And the owners that we’ve worked with who honor that, who slow down enough to actually listen to these signals, they almost always discover.

Something that they weren’t expecting. So here’s a good story about an owner slowing down. And this is one of my favorite stories. I’ve told this over and over again in my years. this is about a person who was on the road all the time. He was tired, he was ready to get out, and he’d already decided. And when I say on the road, he wasn’t like

Traveling on the road. He was engaged every day in his business on this business trail all the time. And when he came to me, he was he’d already decided I’m ready to get out. I want to get out right away. I want a third party sale. And he needed to get this done. That was what he wanted to do. He’d already talked to his lawyer.

And he wanted to get the paperwork started and start to, you know, figure out how it was going to be done and how much he was going to get. And his lawyer, she said to him, I can’t draw up any paperwork until you really know what you want. And I thought that was so interesting that the lawyer said that to him. And, you know, because a lawyer would love to draw up some great paperwork to get him started, but ⁓ he didn’t know what he wanted.

He was just ready to sell and wanted to get it done quickly. So basically, the message from his lawyer was slow down. Before I can get this agreement drafted ⁓ and help you transact the business, I think you need to figure out what you really want. So he ended up coming through the roadmap process. He arrived, as I said, saying that he wanted to sell to this third party. And as he slowed down, he realized.

The third party wasn’t going to provide what he wanted in his heart, in his mind, for his business, for his people, for his clients, for the community. So we shifted around and looked at a couple of different options. And he realized through this process that what he really wanted is to give his top two people the opportunity to buy it.

We positioned a great conversation. He spoke to each one of them. And incredibly enough, one of them surprised him and said, No way, I won’t stay after you’re gone. I’m leaving with you. But the other one said, I am so honored and I would love to take this business forward with you. And they came up with a wonderful deal.

a great strategy. He sold it to her. He worked, he achieved his goals. He worked for a while. ⁓ and when the business transacted, he was on her board, he did all kinds of wonderful things on in marketing and helping her to understand how to run the business. And when the business actually transitioned again from her to another group, she merged in with a larger organization.

⁓ that was when he decided not to work anymore. And that was about a six year period. So he had fulfillment, he achieved his goals, his clients were happy, the employees were able to keep their jobs, he helped another person create wealth around him, and all because he slowed down and he figured out what he really wanted. And I think that is so important. And that gives you.

So much confidence, living out the rest of your life, knowing that you took the time to do it right and that you made a difference. So, what I’m hoping is that this podcast has been impactful for you. And here’s what I’d like to invite you to take away from our time today.

is to notice when your energy rises and also when it drops. That’s data. Asking yourself, what is the thing I keep not letting myself think about? What am I circling around but not landing on? You don’t need to know what’s next to start honoring the signals. And you don’t need to plan to acknowledge that something is shifting. That gut instinct

It’s been with you through every risk and every pivot and every hard season. So it’s still working and it’s still talking to you. And we’ve all seen what happens when owners push past it, when they might stay in the stress too long, it might impact their health. they keep taking the check and

They keep saying not yet. When everybody else around you can see, as you know, they can see maybe it might be time for you to start to think about being that what they call crystallized knowledge and not the functional knowledge, not the one that does it all, but the one that is crystallized, that adds in all of that wisdom and all of that knowledge. And it’s a beautiful place to shift into when you’re ready.

The signals are there and they’ve always been there. It’s just paying attention as they start to shift. And the question is whether you’re willing to stop explaining them away as they happen. You may not be there yet. It might be still coming for you. So that’s what this episode is really about. It’s not about convincing you to transition, it’s about ⁓ helping you and inviting you to pay attention.

To what you already know. And not telling you when and how, but ⁓ helping you to understand that the best transitions I’ve ever been a part of didn’t start with a legal document or a financial structure. They started with an owner who finally got quiet enough to hear what they’ve been trying to get through for a long time. And that is that’s the gold.

It’s helping you to live your best life as a transitioner while you’re also helping your successor to live their best lives and the business to continue on and thrive forward with someone who loves it and cherishes it and who’s ready to take it into that next chapter. So thanks for joining me today for the Business Transition Roadmap. ⁓ if this resonated,

With you, please share it with someone who you think might be needing or wanting to hear it. And if you’re ready to start your own roadmap, we are here for you. I’d love to invite you to come and take a look at our Evolve program. It’s straightforward, it’s simple, it’s efficient. and our transition guides are incredible. They walk you through and help you to discover what your roadmap looks like, whether it’s a year or two years.

Or whether it’s ten. And ⁓ yeah, just pay attention to those signals because they’re gonna be your key to knowing when it’s time to start.

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The Business Transition Roadmap with Elizabeth Ledoux

How do communities thrive? When businesses experience healthy growth and transition. Join CEO of The Transition Strategists, Elizabeth Ledoux as she and her guests identify what makes a successful business transition roadmap. If you know you want to transition or exit your business “one day”, today is the right day to start planning. This show will give you the roadmap.

If you’ve enjoyed this podcast, you can check out other episodes here: Podcasts – The Transition Strategists