Episodes

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...

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 concier...

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...

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 ha...

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...

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...

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 ...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

Mike Tarantino, President and CEO of the Iberia Industrial Development Foundation, on how to land a major manufacturing deal — the playbook behind Iberia Parish winning First Solar's $1.4B, 2.3M sq ft advanced manufacturing facility over 15+ competing communities, plus the site selector ecosystem, public-private partnerships, and the business retention work that makes a community a magnet for capital.

Steven Pivnik on four exits from the same company — licensing software to IBM and Microsoft, surviving fraud and two missed payrolls, the KPI discipline that built the second act, and bringing in a CEO for the $4B sale. Now an exit advisor at Acresis and coach at The CEO Project.

Bryan McGehee of Gatr Coolers on building a viral consumer brand from a Thibodaux, Louisiana camper — the marketing playbook, strategic partnerships, and the real cost of manufacturing in oil country.

Dominic Dupré of Tule Creek Capital on going from operator to investor — surviving the 2014 oil bust, turning around the family crude hauling division, and what disqualifies most SMB sellers.

Yarin Gaon of Fractional Partners on growth by subtraction for founders — why scaling addition kills EBITDA, how to attribute overhead by revenue stream, and what PE does post-close.

George Boudreaux and Nathan Rath on finding a business partner to grow Pelican Roofing from $9M to $19M — partnership structure, hard decisions, and why they avoided PE.

Kenny and Stacy Maggard of Azalea Health Services on building a business with your spouse — founding a senior mental health company, the management service agreement model, and what makes co-founder marriages work.

Mayor-President Monique Boulet on running government like a business — the $200M Johnson Street project, sewer policy that saved a developer $600K, and reorganizing 2,000 employees.

Taylor Davis on the buy-sell agreement for business owners — what happens when partnerships dissolve, why most high-income earners are underprotected, and the question every owner avoids.