NCEOC - ESOP Interview with Bernie Mann of Mann Media Inc

hi i'm bernie mann i grew up in brooklyn before it was cool and went to delphi university in garden city long island for my ba in radio and television throughout my growing up years i had always wanted to be involved in radio and so i got my degree in that and then went to harvard business school i was offered a chance to be a part owner of a magazine half the staff has been with me over 10 years many of the people who are in leadership roles have been with me almost since i bought it 24 25 years ago over the years we have been so fortunate in finding these incredible people who have come to work for us and i feel a sense of value that has been created by these wonderful people who come to work here every day because those are my assets and i laugh about saying that in this business my assets leave at five o'clock every day so in trying to figure out what is the best next step for my business next step for me personally well the people who had interest in buying the magazine quite frankly were people that i was not very impressed with and i didn't think it was fair to say that these wonderful people who have worked for me for anywhere from 10 years to 24 years to say let me show you who your new owner is he's a jackass but meanwhile he paid me a lot of money so i kept thinking what what's the next step how do what is my exit and then i had a friend who had started telling me that he was in the process of doing an esop i said what's that and he explained it to me of what it meant the process would took us 14 months and that's one of the reasons why i think people hesitate before they get involved in an esop they're concerned about the length of time it takes they're concerned about the cost if i would have taken the money from some of these interested buyers who i didn't like that would be instantaneous i would get my money i would say goodbye but here's the heartbreaking part for me i have these wonderful people who work here and so i sell the magazine and then i give everybody 250 and a handshake and thank them for their hard work i don't think that's right i don't think when people have given you their heart and soul and have worked on something with nothing but energy and caring and passion that you reward them with a minimum amount of money and a thank you so my enthusiasm for getting involved in the esop was as much for the joy and pleasure and satisfaction that will come when i know these people who are working here and have done such a good job and have built up this company i didn't do it and so now they own it and that to me is the great satisfaction of the esop now i'm not going to be around when they start cashing out and they start getting these wonderful checks but another part of the esop that was very important to me is that i like what i'm doing and i feel i'm making a contribution and i didn't want to sell and then walk out the door and be done i'm not ready to retire i like what i'm doing i don't have something that i'd rather do more of and so by having an esop that provided me with this chance to continue to work continue to make a contribution and also to be able to say to these wonderful people who have done such a good job for me you're going to get something when you get ready to retire i'm not a something something gigantic something you couldn't save for if you tried people say to me well now that you have an esop if there's paper on the floor does somebody bend down and pick it up i said no because they've always done that we've always had passionate people who care about what they're doing and care about this company and have treated it like their own and aren't those the people you want to reward aren't those the people who you want to say you've treated this like your own and now it is your own