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Can the path to financial freedom be paved with boring businesses?
In this episode, Andrew sits down with Codie Sanchez, a founder, entrepreneur, and investor who’s redefining success in the business world.
Codie is the founder and CEO of Contrarian Thinking, a digital education company with over 7 million followers, and Main Street Hold Co, a small business holding company. She’s also the driving force behind Contrarian Thinking Capital, a firm investing in companies that support small business growth.
With a background in finance and a keen eye for unconventional opportunities, Codie has built a diverse portfolio of “boring” businesses that generate impressive returns. Her approach challenges the traditional startup narrative, focusing instead on profitable, established industries that are often overlooked by tech-focused investors.
In this conversation, Codie shares her journey from working in private equity to becoming a champion for Main Street entrepreneurship. She discusses the power of “boring” businesses, the importance of deal clarity, and why she believes ownership is under attack in the U.S. Codie also offers insights from her upcoming book, “Main Street Millionaire,” which promises to be an MBA-level guide to mergers and acquisitions for everyday entrepreneurs.
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Maybe you’re itching to start your own venture. Or perhaps you’re an investor looking to expand your portfolio. Codie’s insights will surely steer you towards success. Tune in for a powerful conversation that unpacks the secrets of what it takes to win in business.
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00:00 - Intro
00:42 - Catching Up With Codie
5:01 - Codie’s Entrepreneurial Journey
8:51 - Why Boring Businesses Are Great
13:23 - What Businesses Do You Buy?
16:07 - How to Tell If Your Businesses Ideas Are Good
18:37 - Weird But Profitable Businesses
21:24 - Businesses AI Will Disrupt
23:33 - Integrating Tech In Businesses
25:15 - White Collar Workers Shifting to Blue Collar Jobs
30:57 - Fame’s Impact on Codie’s Life
36:00 - Codie’s Goals For the Future
37:51 - Dealing Tough Days
41:53 - Codie’s Book
43:48 - Codie’s Product Recommendations
47:38 - People Codie Finds Interesting
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Twitter/X: @Codie_Sanchez
‍Instagram: @codiesanchez
‍Tiktok: @realcodiesanchez
‍Youtube: @CodieSanchezCT
‍Website: https://www.codiesanchez.com/
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I think the biggest lie we were ever told was that a unicorn looks like a tech VC-backed startup where you don't make money from 3 to 5 to seven years you have to sleep on your basement to start it you have to pour everything into it and at the end you might get your face on the cover of Forbes I can understand why that's a beautiful story for Hollywood but for most people it's a miserable existence when you're small and you don't have a lot of money to invest and you think that that's bad it's not it's actually great I buy realities not dreams they have to be profitable businesses I don't do turnarounds and I want to be able to explain the business to my grandmother and if I can't do those four things I'm going to pass how's it going Cody what are you up to today I have a day that would be your nightmare which is too many meetings too much going on and this is the highlight of it so I'm excited to be here for this at least right on I feel you I'm doing a book launch and I'm doing these podcasts almost every single day so I'm living the life of Cody Sanchez in a way how have things been since I saw you in Austin things still totally crazy yeah there you know it's self-inflicted right so I think one of the things I loved about our chat was you basically said all right I can kind of see in your future I've been where you are and I'm a few years older than you I got a few more commas to my name and I can see what's going to happen in the next year and like report back see if that was true and I think you were right it essentially running all these businesses is a lot especially if anything goes wrong with your team
so on one of our teams we had a big issue with the guy running one of the portfolio companies which means my last three weeks were like nightmare ville but you know it comes in cycles and now it feels slightly more bearable yeah I did a CEO hiring master class on MFM I said like be careful what you wish for because I think that everybody fantasizes about managing CEOs and investing passively instead of operating businesses but the problem is that as soon as you scale past about five businesses suddenly you have five direct reports you know you got five CEOs to manage and at any given time you got to fire someone you got to hire someone new you got to negotiate a comp package you got to get involved in a problem and it's just more problems as you scale so I definitely feel you what are you experiencing on that front yeah I remember there was this one quote like somebody was interviewing Tony Robbins and they said Tony how do you stay calm amid the storm because you know he has a portfolio worth billions and he said well I just realized that at any moment right now talking to you there have already been three critical mistakes made inside of my company and the moment that I realize that that's true is the moment that I have to let go because what am I going to do be stressed about it every single moment this is one of the tough parts about a portfolio right like I call it Sauron's eye so basically if you're a nerd like I am and you like Lord of the Rings when I have my eye on a business in particular the business runs pretty well
