WIN
Business is a battle, and we came here to WIN!
Carrie and Ian Richardson are partners and serial entrepreneurs who specialize in strategic growth and exit planning for SMBs.
Every week, we ask business owners and leaders two important questions:
"What's Important Now?"
"How are you winning?"
Created by entrepreneurs who love strategy, sales and strategic selling, we interview business owners and sales leaders at all stages of growth across multiple industries.
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Take away actionable ideas that you can use to help you scale and/or sell your business.
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WIN
Craig Fulton from Evergreen - WIN by Making Lasting Memories
In this episode of The WIN Podcast, host Carrie Richardson interviews Craig Fulton, M&A Advisor at Evergreen Services Group, about how to maximize your experience at industry events like PAX8 Beyond.
Craig offers thoughtful advice on preparing for large conferences, engaging meaningfully with other attendees, and creating experiences that leave lasting impressions. Drawing on his own journey from technician to M&A advisor, he shares both strategic insights and personal anecdotes — from spontaneous road trips to fly fishing outings — that highlight the power of authentic relationship-building.
Key discussion points include:
- Smart planning for large events
- How to build trust and relationships in the MSP community
- Making sponsorships stand out through memorable experiences
- The value of casual, evening conversations for real business insights
Also mentioned is the Women in Leadership panel featuring Sydney Hockett, taking place the Sunday before the event kicks off.
Contact Craig: cfulton@evergreensgservicesgroup.com
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Carrie Richardson and Ian Richardson host the WIN Podcast - What's Important Now?
Serial entrepreneurs, life partners and business partners, they have successfully exited from multiple businesses (IT, call center, real estate, marketing) and they help other business owners create their own versions of success.
Ian is certified in Eagle Center For Leadership Making A Difference, Paterson StratOp, and LifePlan.
Carrie has helped create and execute successful outbound sales strategies for over 1200 technology-focused businesses including MSPs, manufacturers, distributors and SaaS firms.
Learn more at www.foxcrowgroup.com
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Hi, good afternoon everybody. My name is Carrie Richardson and this is The WIN Podcast. With me today is Craig Fulton, an m and a advisor for Evergreen. Craig, how are you doing today?
I'm doing great, Carrie. Thanks for having me. Excited to, join you on this and looking forward to catching up with PAX 8's event.
Carrie Richardson:Yeah, I'm excited about that. It's our first major event sponsorship. It's gonna be a good time.
Craig Fulton:I've been telling people PAX eight beyond is the event of the year. It's a great experience, it's a great venue, incredible content, great sponsors like yourself. So yeah, it's gonna be a good time.
Carrie Richardson:Yeah, I didn't go last year. But I was there for the inaugural event, which I think we nicknamed Rob Rae Con at the time. And I heard that last year was great.
Craig Fulton:I'm telling you, it was, and being someone that ran some of the bigger events in this industry, I'll give'em credit. It was the best event I've ever been to. The Gaylord Rockies incredible venue. I love that foyer and just the look and feel of it. But they were able to transform that space to feel like you were in a Pax eight environment. The way they do it with the gaming and the signage and then the keynote and the light display and the vibe is very important, right? It really sets the tone for networking and learning and having a good time. Yeah, that was my favorite event and I'm sure will be again
Carrie Richardson:Their content team is extraordinary. Yeah. Everything they produce looks amazing. I really appreciate the level of detail that goes into everything they produce.
Craig Fulton:We all know what we're doing these events, but it doesn't really feel like you're being sold to constantly when you're there. It really has that community vibe to it.
Carrie Richardson:I'm really excited to be interviewing a lot of people who've been at the previous events and who can shed some light on how to prepare for an event this big. If you don't spend a little time planning your agenda before the event, there are things that you will probably miss. So how do you prepare for an event of this size as an attendee? And then how do you prepare when you have engagements or sponsorships to handle?
Craig Fulton:As an attendee, and I've been to many of these even when I was a technician before the career path I took. Always look through the agenda, find the sessions that are important and are gonna align your goals. Sadly, I know a lot of people go to events, it's oh, it's a break from the office and I'm going to hang out. I was guilty of doing that early on, and then one time I said, I'm gonna get intentional about learning something here and bringing it back and making some change. Especially when I would sit through some of the operational stuff like I wanna learn. How are people delivering managed services and making money? This is 15 years ago. It was like, how are you gonna make the change from ad hoc hourly billing to this thing? And that's the power of doing this. And they've got some great content there. They've got C-level operations that runs the PAX eight Academy delivering this content. These are people that have worked in IT service businesses and have grown them and they're sharing this material Look at the agenda, map out which sessions you want to join. Hey, look, let's be realistic. Don't try and cram a full day of sessions. You're gonna burn yourself out by the end of the day. You're just gonna be like, I'm done. Make sure you build some time to take some breaks in there. And you'll see when you get there there's plenty of opportunity to relax and decompress between sessions. I love the video game part. Drinks and food and I recommend anybody go over to that foyer, do you wanna see some of the best networking with that view or the Rockies? People gather around down there, there's fire pits all over the place. I road trip a lot with my kids. And we have this rule stay off the interstate. Start a conversation with a stranger every day. I do the same thing at these events. I stay off the interstate, I stay out of it, and I start a conversation with someone. And I know that's hard, but my opening line is always, Hey, where you from? Because people, oh, I'm from Lansing, Michigan. Oh man, we got a school here. And then boom, conversation's going. That's the power of these events. Now, for me, we're not sponsoring this event, but we love to go and meet with business owners. Yes, ultimately we wanna acquire businesses, but we know that takes trust. This whole community's built on trust. The businesses are built on trust with their clients. So obviously yes, the acquirer we need to build trust. We would love to have a conversation. About 90 days out, we start reaching out to people we know and, Hey, you're gonna be at this event. We'd love to meet up, like I'm going fly fishing with a couple people I know in the Rockies before the event, get to meet up with my good buddy, Joe Heddy. We plan that out and then I just walk around and talk to people in the hallways and I go to some sessions that are relevant to what I do, so I can see what are people talking about right now? What's important? Like obviously super interested in ai, right? Because I just keep seeing people talk AI and I'm like what are you doing?
Carrie Richardson:So mostly I'm swearing at AI lately. It seems to change what it's allowed to do or capable of doing. the thing that it did for me yesterday, flawlessly-today, it's here are three sentences instead of the normal podcast transcript that I would edit for you.
Craig Fulton:Yeah. I know it man. Everybody makes fun of me.'cause I, I'm on repeat with this, but my knock on AI is why are we having it do the highly intellectual things? Like why can't this thing do my laundry?
Carrie Richardson:It probably can. But they're gonna collect data on what your underwear looks like. And how often do you wash it?
Craig Fulton:I would say this for someone sponsoring or or you're a vendor attending, make memories for people. Look, I know steak dinners are nice and everything, but that's not a memory. Make a memory. The fly fishing one, I know we were talking about the cars. One time I knew someone- really wanted to drive a Porsche 9-11 I rented one on Turo, we went for a ride, and he brings it up all the time, make memories, do something different. Go off road like, this is the path most traveled, least traveled, I would say just go off road.
Carrie Richardson:You mentioned, you're coming in the day before to go fly fishing. You're not taking a day off of the conference to go. So that's an important differentiator I think.
Craig Fulton:Yeah that, that is a really good point. I try and keep everything there when I'm in these moments and I want to create a memory, if I come up with a wild idea, I'm like, Hey, do you guys wanna do this? You wanna go do the Coors Brewery tour? Let's go. Make memories for people. That to me is always key. And I know you've been great at doing that. I've seen you at events like the cigar clubs and the bourbon stuff. You're getting people together and you're creating memories. And I love to see it. I love to see it.
Carrie Richardson:Eventually everyone comes up to the patio. you're welcome to have one from the magic humidor. But you're going to have to sit here for an hour and talk to me.
Craig Fulton:Yeah. I, I, and I love the evenings. That's when good conversation happens, right? People are unwinding. Their guards down, had a couple of drinks. Yeah. And that's when you get the real stories. This is when I've had MSP owners tell me, man, struggling to make payroll. I'm like, oh wait, what's going on? Yeah man, these invoices and this, I got this going on. People aren't telling you this. That ain't in the morning over breakfast. Okay, we're not ready. If you want the good conversations after dinner, sitting around a fire, enjoying a cigar with Carrie that truly is where the great conversations happen.
Carrie Richardson:I didn't used to believe that when we first started sponsoring events. I was very much if they don't wanna talk to me at eight o'clock at night, they're not gonna want to talk to me at 11 o'clock at night. There's no need for me to be out at midnight anywhere. Tracy and I divided the days up'cause I didn't wanna stay out late and I don't drink, so I really don't wanna go and have to go hard until two in the morning entertaining a group of people at a nightclub somewhere. But Tracy was always like, alright, I'll do that part. And I'll be up for the breakfast, I wanna make the rounds at the tables. What are you guys gonna learn today? What sessions are you going to. What did you like about yesterday? And I feel like the people that are up at 6:00 AM are trying to solve problems.
Craig Fulton:Yeah.
Carrie Richardson:The people that are out at 2:00 AM are just gonna make them.
Craig Fulton:I've been guilty of this former, It's in my DNA, like that's when I come alive. Unfortunately.
Carrie Richardson:You're a night owl.
Craig Fulton:Yeah. Last year at IT Nation, I I tried to bring a mariachi band back, like we were out at dinner and I'm like, this man is great. And we're like, can you come to this event? And they said, seven songs,$400. I'm like, we're in. And then I remembered we better check with the hotel. ConnectWise had the whole venue and I thought, oh man, they wouldn't even let me bring a 12 pack of beer in there. I doubt a mariachi band's gonna, is gonna fly. So maybe this PAX eight event. Be at the foyer because you could see Fulton's Mariachi band playing down there.
Carrie Richardson:It'll be playing right next to cork's. Race car
Craig Fulton:right in the middle. My whole plan is like if I see someone that doesn't look like they're having a good time, I'm just gonna point and the band will go over and surround them and just start playing you.
Carrie Richardson:Oh yeah. People loves that. I really hope this happens. I hope you've already planned it and paid for it. We'll see and it's going to happen.
Craig Fulton:Maybe I like to surprise people, so we'll see. You can
Carrie Richardson:definitely send the mariachi band my way. I would. Okay. Send it over to our booth, like a Pied Piper of mariachi.
Craig Fulton:Where is your booth in the expo hall?
Carrie Richardson:That's an excellent question, and if I had thought about it, I would've looked that up before we spoke. Probably on the roof because we signed up last.
Craig Fulton:I'll find it. We don't have a booth, but I'll be there. If people wanna meet with me you can find me on LinkedIn. My email address is c Fulton at evergreen sg services group.com. Sydney Hockett will be there, VP of m and a. We'll have our team of m and a professionals there. Sarah Ahman, Reid, we're even bringing some of our investment team.'cause I think they're getting a little jealous. You guys have a lot of fun at these conferences. I'm like, there's a lot of work too. Why don't you come and check it out?
Carrie Richardson:So y'all just lucky the floor didn't collapse during ludicrous last year,
Craig Fulton:I had to leave because I get real hypervigilant about things like that. This is what news, floor collapses. I'm like, yep, I'm out. I'm out. I'll wait outside.
Carrie Richardson:You see the Gaylord getting ready for the conference is reinforcing the floors and the ceilings and you mentioned Sydney Hockett would be on a panel? Do you know what day and time that panel is at?
Craig Fulton:Yeah. On Sunday before the event kicks off, they do a women in leadership panel, and Sydney will be there sharing her stories. She's an incredible person. I met her two and a half years ago and I thought, oh boy, this is the future of managed services here. Has completed more m and a deals than some whole companies. I think she's up to 50. Knows the industry, knows the people is, can make connections, build relationships. Go check it out. And then we may have a surprise guest. Co-founder and m and a partner, Ramsey Hoping he'll make it he's a great person to talk to. Laughs a lot a smiley guy. It always stuns people. Down to Earth guy. I think we get that. Oh, you're a private equity, or, no, we're a holding company, but you're like investment people. We're like, wait a minute, you fun people. It's so yeah, if anybody wants to chat with us email me. I sit here staring at Outlook. Let's go.
Carrie Richardson:Alright. Any final best pieces of advice for maximizing your time at Pax eight Beyond or another conference that size.
Craig Fulton:Don't make this about just time away from the office and getting a break. Take advantage of this. It's rare I have friends in other industries and family and when I describe what we have, they're like, whoa, you guys share that level of information with each other? I'm like, yeah, man, I wish I had that in, in my world. So don't. Don't pass up that opportunity when you're there. Meet with people. I'm trying to tell people, calm down with the m and a frenzy. You don't need to sell your business. But let's talk about how you can add value to it. Like simple things like, hey, control your vendor costs, and if you're a seven x business, that could be 300,000 in your pocket one day. Let's talk about that. Let. You don't need to sell right now. Have conversations with people, learn what others are doing. You'll probably have a big golden nugget takeaway that'll change things. Gotta do it. You gotta get outta your comfort zone. And if you're afraid to get outta your comfort zone, find me, find Carrie and find
Carrie Richardson:Craig's Mariachi band.
Craig Fulton:We'll make it fun. I think people know I have a hard time staying serious for too long. But we'll have a good time doing it, so looking forward to it.
Carrie Richardson:All right. I'll look forward to seeing you there. Thanks for joining us today.
Craig Fulton:Alright, thanks.
