Bob Lafon is a wireless/mobility professional and thought leader of nearly 35 years. He is a co-founder of Mobile Disrupt, which is happening this year at the Fontainbleu Miami Beach July 8-9, 2025. It is the foremost gathering for professionals in the Mobility sector. Attendees span from mobility to enterprise experts, including resellers, brokers, electronic recyclers, and mobility professionals who are actively engaged across the secondary phone market. The event provides a unique opportunity for industry professionals to collaborate on best practices, enhance procurement opportunities, and discuss the latest trends shaping the industry.

John Shegerian: Do you have a suggestion for a Rockstar Impact Podcast guest, go to impactpodcast.com and just click “be a guest” to recommend someone today. This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity-focused hardware destruction company in the United States, and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com. This episode of the Impact Podcast is brought to you by Closed Loop Partners. Closed Loop Partners is a leading circular economy investor in the United States with an extensive network of Fortune 500 corporate investors, family offices, institutional investors, industry experts and impact partners. Closed loops platform spans the arc of capital from venture capital to private equity, bridging gaps and fostering synergies to scale the circular economy. To find Closed Loop Partners, please go to www.closedlooppartners.com.

John: Welcome to another edition of The Impact Podcast. This is a special edition, I’ve got with us today, our good friend Bob Lafon. He’s the co-founder and managing director of Capital Growth Partners, and also the partner and co-founder of Mobile Disrupt. Welcome Bob to the Impact Podcast.

Bob Lafon: Thank you, John. It’s great to be here.

John: It’s great to be together again today. I’m sitting in rainy Fresno, California. You’re in Pittsburgh today.

Bob: Yes, but I’m in rainy Pittsburgh, where it’s 55 degrees.

John: Oh, nice. Nice. Listen, before we get talking about all the important things that you’re doing in your journey at Capital Growth Partners and also at Mobile Disrupt and way beyond, I’d love you to share a little bit about your origin story. Where’d you grow up, Bob, and how’d you get on this important journey that you’re on?

Bob: Oh thank you for that question. It’s been an interesting journey. I’m going to go back quite a ways since I’m ’62, going on ’63. Born and raised here in the Pittsburgh area. By the time I was age 2, I was diagnosed with asthma. Asthma at the time was an incurable condition, and not only that, but it was an untreatable condition. The only thing they could do was put you into what they called an oxygen tent to pump fresh oxygen in, give you clear liquids in the hopes that it would pass. There was no medication or treatments in the early 1960s for that condition. My parents tell me that there were 3 different times where I was literally pronounced dead and the sheet was pulled over my head. And my family physician, who was an asthmatic himself, would not give up on me. And even though others were saying, “He’s gone. He’s gone. He’s gone,” he just wouldn’t give up, wouldn’t give up, wouldn’t give up, and brought me back, 3 different times.

John: Wow.

Bob: And the reason I tell that story is, a lot of my early life’s experiences are what drove me to becoming who I am today. A lot of people have a so-called hard or tragic life story. I don’t want to position mine as hard or tragic. It was what it was, and it helped with the shaping and development of my character, my ambitions, and the work that I’ve tried to do over the course of time where yes, I’m doing what I do to make money, but I’m also trying to genuinely help people and impact their lives in any way I can, so that I feel as though I’m giving back and helping them improve the quality of their lives and helping them fulfill their dreams along the way. So, I know a lot of that, those early years, informative years stuck with me, to this day and age, and it’ll stick with me for the rest of my life because it helped give me an early perspective on the importance of life and the things that are important in life, which is more than just making money.

John: Now Bob, we’re the same age. I’m 62, again, just like you, so I have the exact same memory of how as Asthma was characterized in our youth. How did you overcome your asthmatic condition? And you’re a strapping big guy. We’ve been together before. We’ve been on stage before together. You seem unbelievably healthy and fit, and more than full of life for guys our age. We know guys our age are starting to really back off their travel demands or their physical schedules. You characterize as have legendary road warrior schedule, which I know is unbelievably physically demanding. So, how in your youth did you overcome it, and then use this to your advantage in terms of your attitude of moving forward and never giving up?

Bob: There were 2 people who were very instrumental in that. The first was my own father, who was, he himself an immigrant, but he did become a citizen. He served in World War II in the United States Marine Corps. And he grew up without a father, so what he knew about manhood, fatherhood, he took away from his experiences in the Marine Corps. So, I grew up with a no nonsense, no excuses father, who didn’t want to hear… My mother babied me. My mother babied me because she always felt bad that I was sick. My father, on the other hand, didn’t want me to give into the illness, so he pushed me hard. He pushed me to be strong. He pushed me to become a fighter. The other individual was the doctor I mentioned before. Dr. Milton Tall, the gentleman who’s saved my life on 3 separate occasions. He himself was an asthmatic and he, I would say, somewhat experimented on himself to figure out what worked and what didn’t work in helping asthmatics improve their condition. And somewhere along the way he determined that exercise, even though it was difficult for an asthmatic to exercise, could actually help build the lungs to a point where there was enough strength to resist attacks and get to a point that you are less dependent on medication because you would strengthen your lungs, your cardiovascular system, and your body, and that strengthening better equipped you to be able to handle the propensity to attacks from dust, allergies, pollen, or exercise itself. So, early on, I’d say maybe by the time I was 9 or 10 years old, he talked to my parents about getting me swimming lessons. And they said, “We don’t think he can hold his breath.” And he said, “No, it’s not about how far he can swim or how long he can stand or water. It’s about getting him to a point where his lungs aren’t underdeveloped, where his musculature is not underdeveloped, and where his body is physically strong enough to fight back the asthmatic inclinations and resist the attacks, and be less dependent on medication.” He said, “I’ve become a big swimmer and a big racquetball player, and I’ve noticed that I’m having fewer and fewer asthmatic attacks, and the ones I am having are more minor, and I’m not as dependent on medication.” It took me a year. I was so underdeveloped from a musculature perspective and from a longer perspective. It took me a year to be able to swim from one end of the pool to the other end of the pool. So not even a full lap, but just from one end to the other. My lungs were that underdeveloped and my body was that underdeveloped. I was just this tall stick skinny kid who had no strength whatsoever. So that was the starting point. And I continued from there, got involved in other athletics by the time I was 13 or 14 years old. Since you and I are the same age, you’re old enough to remember this nautilus facility [crosstalk] of the specific [inaudible].

John: Of course.

Bob: For those of us who are older, we know that, but the rest of you Google it, it’s Nautilus, N-A-U-T-I-L-U-S, I believe.

John: Right.

Bob: It was a form of exercise equipment, and so my doctor recommended I start doing that as well to develop my musculature. So, the swimming was continuing to help me strengthen my lungs and my cardiovascular system, but he wanted to see me put on some additional size and strength. So, I started training at Nautilus and the owner of that Nautilus was also the exercise physiologist and head trainer for the University of Pittsburgh. So, this gentleman was working with the athletes at the collegiate level, and he was the one who was personally training me in this fitness center. So it progressed from there eventually into free weights, French lift, and eventually into even starting to play sports. I got involved in cross country and football, baseball, and wound up by my junior senior years playing fairly high levels. I qualified for a junior Olympic baseball program. I was a starter in my football team. I had also gotten involved in martial arts and was becoming pretty good at that, and by the time I was 19 years old, qualified to be an alternate for the U.S. Olympic team and a Taekwondo competition for the AAU, which was the Amateur Athletic Union. So, those people in those events are a lot of where it started. I continue that now because I value the strength. I value the ability to just function as normal. Yes, I may be in my early 60s, but I’m still one of the stronger guys in the gym. I can now work most of the young guys in the gym. And it’s actually funny because I’ve gotten to know some of them, and I’ll dog them from time to time, and do a little trash talking and say, “How can I out uplift you? I’m older than your father.” And they get a kick out and they just shake their heads, but it’s about quality of life at this stage for me.

John: It’s true.

Bob: I don’t want to be—too many of my friends that are in that 55 to 65 age range, they look like they’re pregnant with twins, and they’ll call and say, “Hey, can you help me come move a dresser?” And I’ll just come and move the thing by myself? It’s I don’t need any help. I’ll just pick it up and move it myself. I just refuse to give in. I can’t stop aging, but I can slow it.

John: That’s true.

Bob: And again I value having the strength, the mobility, and the energy to be able to do whatever I want. So, my plan is to continue doing this. So, I start every day in a gym, wherever I’m at. I’ll be in Las Vegas next week for the Reverse Logistics Association event. While I’m out there, I’ll wake up early because of the time difference, 3-hour time difference. So, I will probably wake up between 4:00 and 4:30 every day. And knowing I can’t go back to sleep, I’ll just go to the gym and get my workout in, go have breakfast, and then just ease into the day from there. So, it’s just a part of my lifestyle, healthier eating and exercise so that I can stay strong and healthy, and be able to live whatever lifestyle I want to.

John: Where do you end up going to university?

Bob: 2 years at the University of Pittsburgh.

John: Got it.

Bob: I became a little disenchanted, no offense to Pitt, but this was a growing trend. At the time, a lot of the professors, especially in business, they’d gone to high school, college, graduate school, got their advanced degrees, tried the workplace for a brief period of time, and then ultimately went back to the academic environment where they became professors. So, excuse me, that first 2 years, I had a father who was very successful in business. And I had professors who had never worked in business or had very little experience teaching me things that didn’t line up with the experiences I was seeing through my father. I’m a pragmatist, and I was a pragmatist at an early age. So, I became a little disenchanted with that and thought, this really isn’t worth paying for. If I’m not going to learn things that I can apply just to get a credential so somebody will hire me. I don’t have an interest. So, I dropped out, joined the Marine Corps, spent 4 years in the United States Marine Corps, which was an amazing experience because I learned so much about self-determination. For example, if you’re my commanding officer and you give me an order, I don’t have a choice but to go complete the order. Now you may prescribe the methodology, but if I try your methodology and it doesn’t work, my only option is to improvise, adapt, and overcome, and that’s the expectation. So, there’s no room for it can’t be done. There’s just room for find a way and get it done. And that’s one of the things that has been enormously helpful in my life and my career, is I just don’t believe in can’t. I don’t. I believe in the Ben Franklin ideology that, if I tried something 100 times and it failed 100 times, I just found 100 ways it didn’t work. That doesn’t mean it can’t be done. So, that sense of purpose and determination and being undeterred, those are all things that have been incredibly helpful in helping me to become the Bob Lafon that I am today.

John: Bob, was it easier for you than your peers when you went into the Marines because you were raised by a Marine?

Bob: Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely, because my father was having me do bed inspections when I was 5 years old. He’d flipped the quarter high in the air.

John: I love you dad.

Bob: Bob’s high enough off the bed. He’d tear the bed apart and make me do it again.

John: [crosstalk] You’re shining your…

Bob: I was shinning my own shoes by the time I was 6, and ironing my clothes Saturday night before we’d get up and go to church on Sunday morning.

John: I love it.

John: So, that was always there, the expectation that I always had chores to do. And he told meat 13 that if I wanted to drive, I was going to have to have money to buy a car, pay for insurance and gas because I wouldn’t be driving his car. So, I started doing odd jobs and looking to make money at age 13 and save every single penny of that so I could buy a car, pay for the insurance, and have gas money. So, yes, it was like growing up in a permanent bootcamp to a degree, but again, enormously helpful.

John: Right. How was…

Bob: At the time growing up because I saw my [inaudible] not having anywhere near that level of pressure and responsibility or expectation set on them. But being able to look backwards, I absolutely can see the value.

John: That’s a wonderful view to have the wisdom of retrospection now, so you’re able to say, man, my dad did a great job and he did. He did the best with what he had and it really set me up with great skills and discipline, which is all you could say about a parent really.

Bob: Oh, that’s true because look, would I’ve liked him to be a little bit more nurturing, a little bit more vocal in terms of praising me or acknowledging things I had done, or saying he was pro? I heard those things much later in his life, but I did get to hear them. And so in that sense, I might have changed a few ways that he parented me, but by and large, I can’t complain because again he was instrumental in laying a firm foundation upon which I’ve been able to build a very successful life.

John: That’s so great. For our listeners and viewers who have just joined us, we’ve got Bob Lafon with us. He’s the co-founder and managing partner of Capital Growth Partners. He’s also the partner and co-founder of Mobile Disrupt. To find Bob and his colleagues, please go to www.capitalgrowthpartners.net, or mobiledisrupt.com. Both of those websites will be in our short notes, so you don’t have to write anything down if you’re driving or in the gym or whatever you’re doing right now. Bob, talk a little bit about what you did after you got out of the Marines.

Bob: I landed a job with a local telephone company, and once again get Google-handy here because some of these names aren’t going to resonate with you. I went to work for a local telephone company called Bell of Pennsylvania. They provided telephone service to businesses and residents within their geographic serving area. So, I had a job in customer service, progressed from there into a sales role where I was selling services they called CustoPack and CustoFlex that essentially did the same work that, that a modern telephone [inaudible] of that era would do. So, it was the same feature set, but not everybody had modern telephone systems in their offices yet. So for those who didn’t have the more expensive business telephone systems, I was on the phone trying to sell them on these features at the phone company could provide them, for a monthly fee. Somewhere along the way, I saw a job posting for a new division that was being spun up called Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems. Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems eventually became one of the 7 companies that merged to become the company we know today as Verizon. So, early on, I applied, I got the job, and half motivation, to be honest with you and having it was I just thought it would be so cool to have a phone in my car, all right?

John: Those were big when we were young, huh?

Bob: Oh heck yes. Heck yes. Yes, I just thought that would be the coolest thing in the world, is that I have a nice car and have a phone in the car.

John: So awesome.

Bob: But fell in love with the job, fell in love with the industry and that’s really where it started. It was that place in here. Here’s a funny one you’ll appreciate. My sales quota at the time was to sell 5 phones a month, and that’s because we could only sell to corporations, not private individuals. The phones had to be physically installed in the vehicle, so you had to be without your vehicle for 4 hours.

John: Wow.

Bob: The phones were $1,000 and up. The installation was $175. The price plans were $99 a month. No free airtime, no free long distance. You just paid for everything, and the service sucked because Western Pennsylvania is very hilly terrain and the networks were new. They hadn’t been able to engineer to overcome some of the drop zones. So, you could tell who was on Bell Atlantic Mobile systems and who was on CellularOne, who eventually was acquired by AT&T based on where people were pulled off to the side of the road on their car phones. If it was on the up slope of Banksville Road coming out of the Fort Pit tunnels, it was a Bell Atlantic Mobile system subscriber. If it was on the other side of the hill and they were pulled over on their phone, they were on CellularOne.

John: Love it.

Bob: Yes.

John: Bob, in 2014 you founded Capital Growth Partners. Talk a little bit about the founding of Capital Growth Partners. What was your original mission? How’s the last 11 years gone and where is Capital Growth Partners now, and its trajectory?

Bob: I’ll roll back just a little bit prior to that because it’s relevant to this [inaudible] story.

John: Sure.

Bob: I had become an employee and eventually a minority partner in a firm called Freedom Wireless.

John: Oh, sure.

Bob: [inaudible] Freedom Wireless started out as a dealer for CellularOne. And then the process started switching over to Verizon, as Verizon was gaining market share and improving their network. And when I came on, we had 19 stores with about 6 million in top line revenue. So, I made a deal with the owner of the company. I was referred to him by friends of mine from Verizon. They said, “This guy’s got a lot of potential, but he really needs someone who understands this space from a carrier perspective. And we think that carrier perspective that you bring, because I’d already worked for the carriers before, would really help him take this to the next level.” So, I made a deal that I’d come on for the first 6 months as just his general manager, and if that went well, he was happy and I was happy, he’d offer me the opportunity to write a cheque and buy in and be a minority partner in the business. So, that’s what wound up happening. He had 90%, I had 10%, and I functioned as a senior vice president. Everything and everybody rolled up to me with the exception of his wife and his cousin who was our chief financial officer. So, I was running most of the business on a day-to-day basis, and we scaled that from 19 stores with 6 million in revenue to 111 stores with 123 million in revenue and over 400 employees.

John: Wow.

Bob: Now after the launch of the iPhone on Verizon, which we were hoping was going to be the same home run for us, as it was with AT&T, it wasn’t. We didn’t have people who lined up outside our doors to buy the product. It was a Passé. Everybody who wanted one went to AT&T and got one. So, it was a total non-event for Verizon. It was not the game changer we thought it would be. The subsidies because a lot of people don’t realize that phones in that day were subsidized heavily. We paid $649 for the original iPhone, and we were selling it for $1.99. So, we were using our commissions from the activation of the phones on carrier’s network to buy down those devices, and then keep what little was left over. So, when we realized that the overwhelming majority of subscribers were going to want to upgrade to an iPhone, and we had really low margins on it. It became a very unattractive business at that point. Plus there was parity in the market from the perspective that there was many people with phones coming into just upgrade them as there were new subscribers coming in to switch over from another carrier. So, the business had changed it as it matured. Our margins were through the floor. It just wasn’t as attractive as it had been at one point in time. And Darren Rogers, who was the majority partner, happened to just meet a gentleman from Ironman. He was the chairman of a publicly-traded Irish holding company. And that company had an ambition to come into the U.S, buy up a bunch of successful Verizon agents, and ultimately become the largest Verizon agent in the United States. They started talking. He introduced me to him. We hit it off well. And about 6 months later, finally put together a deal for him to acquire the organization. So, he acquired it. I stayed on for 6 months. Darren stayed on for 6 months. I very quickly realized this gentleman had the wrong mindset about it. We were the Verizon retailer or agent of the year for 9 consecutive years. We were not their biggest, but we were by far their best.

John: Wow.

Bob: We crushed all of their KPIs. We were selling Blackberries in our stores before the Verizon corporate stores were, and on a percentage basis, we outperformed most of the corporate stores because we built a sales culture. We weren’t retailers, our competitors were retailers. They just hired kids who could say, “Hi, can I help you and ring people up?” In order to work for us, you had to have sold cars or insurance or jewelry or some other product that involved you having at least some of your income come from commission and having to meet a monthly quota in order to keep your job. So, we created the sales culture. We taught people how to chase the compensation plan, which they did, and provided some nice contest and incentives and other rewards. We had a great relationship with RIM, the company that made the Blackberry device. All of our employees then carried them. We seeded out, so every one of us got free Blackberry devices every time a new device came out. The same executive kits they were sending to the executives at Verizon, we were getting ourselves for our staff. They put together contests just for us. We had amazing support from them at that point of time, and that was also the most lucrative thing we could sell for the carrier because they used to give you an additional compensation spiff on selling data plans to attach to the voice plans.

John: Wow.

Bob: So, it was incredibly lucrative. We all made a ton of money [inaudible]. In 2002, I believe it was, my top sales rep made $88,000 selling phones out of a kiosk in a mall.

John: Wow.

Bob: Think about that. That’s 23 years ago. $88,000. Think about what that would be in today’s economy.

John: A lot of money.

Bob: Yes, exactly. So we even had, and people from Verizon, when they would become aware of that, would want to come to work for us because while they got bigger salaries, our comp plan was much more attractive; much more lucrative if you were a good salesperson. So, having achieved all of that, we were very successful, but this gentleman immediately looked at it through the eyes of a finance person and said, “Oh, this commission payouts are too much.” And I said, “How can you say that when this company’s wildly profitable?” He said, “This doesn’t need to be this way. We can hire kids like, Best Buy kids, who love technology, and we put them in a shirt that has the Verizon logo on it, and the product sells itself.” I said, “You’re a 100% wrong about that.” I said, “I’m the guy that built this so I can tell you factually speaking, you’re wrong. Your assertions are wrong.” And they said, “There’s no basis, in fact for your viewpoint.” Ultimately I left, he did his own thing. He tanked it, he rented into the ground, and they went from 111 stores to 35. Those 35 were then sold to Vitra Wireless, and that was just what was left of those stores. So, from there I went on to become what I refer to as a solo practitioner. I branded myself as the industry weapon. I even had the hammer of Thor on the front of my business card as part of my logo. I just did a lot of work at the time for other dealers, for prepaid companies, for some small second-tier, third-tier OEMs. I spoke at some trade shows and it was fine, I made nice living doing it. I fell into the used space back in 2015 with a company out of Chicago that was looking for some help in scaling the business. So, I learned a lot about buying the used devices, great up-level repairs and the resale of that product. Learned a lot about the insurance side because they were doing a lot of work with the big insurance companies at that point in time, providing them with replacement devices so that people who had filed an insurance claim could get a device to replace the one that they had lost, stolen, or broken beyond economical repair. So, really learned a lot in that engagement. And then from there I had an opportunity to work with a few other companies in that space. And I think it was 2018, I met a company you would be familiar with Dynamic Lifecycle Innovations.

John: Sure.

Bob: Miles and Kurt, a couple of fantastic guys. I think the world of them, they’ve built such an amazing culture in that organization, and are just a great company in every form and way you can measure a good organization. I still think very highly of them to this day. A friend of mine was on board as a director of one of their divisions, and I approached him and said, “I noticed you guys don’t have any kind of mobility program. Do you know if there’s an appetite for one? I’d love to come in as a consultant and help you build one.” And he said, “Funny thing is we don’t, and we’ve talked about it, but we haven’t pulled a trigger. And part of that is we just don’t understand it. It looks the same as processing laptops, desktops, routers, and servers, but there’s obviously an entirely separate market of buyers, grading scales, et cetera. So we’ve stayed away from it for now.” He said, “But I can socialize it internally for you.” I said, “Yes.” So, he talked with the executive team. They had an interest. I went out and met with them and we started talking long-term. They engaged with me, and eventually made me an employee in the organization, which I thought would be great because I was old enough that I thought this could be my last stop. And worked for a company with an incredible culture the likes of, which I’d never seen before. I thought this could be a good ride, but over the course of time, I came to realize that my ambitions exceeded theirs, and what I wanted to do was maybe outside their comfort zone. One of those conversations would be, it’s not no forever, it’s just no for now. After having enough of those along the way, I came to the conclusion that, I was a square peg in a round hole. A bigger hammer wasn’t the solution. I wasn’t going to be in a position to do what I wanted to do that I felt would work from previous experience. It wasn’t my company, it wasn’t my money, so it was to that place that the only thing left to do is to move on. We had a very cordial separation, and I told him, I said, “Don’t hesitate to reach out at any point in time, which they have on a few occasions looking for some knowledge or expertise or a relationship connection to someone who might be able to help on a given project.” But moving on from there. And one of the things I recognized along the way is I was attending trade shows on their behalf. There was not no show that was doing anything in the used mobile space. There also, were a lot of companies I encountered along the way that I recognize they had serious deficiencies in their business operations. In other words, you do all the strategic work for your organization. You are evaluating companies that ERI might want to acquire. You wouldn’t have acquired any of these companies because they had nothing to buy. They were totally transactional. They were getting on auction sites and they were buying phones, maybe test WIP and gradeat the most, and then reselling them to other people. So what was there to buy?

John: No WIP, no longstanding contracts.

Bob: You couldn’t even offer them a multiple of EBITDA because, in a lot of cases, they were running at break even because they were running a lifestyle business where they paid themselves very well. They showed no margin, no profitability. And part of that was tax avoidance, of course. So, they had no patented technology, no processes, nothing unique, no contracts, no recurring revenues. So, it got me to thinking, and I approached a friend of mine, I said, “Hey, listen, excuse me, I know your business has kind of waned over the years. Lot of your guys aged out and it’s just you now, correct?” He said, “Yes, it’s just me.” He said, “And I just mostly play with mergers and acquisitions and helping fund some early stage companies or startups.” I said, “Okay.” I said, “Why don’t I buy in with you? I’ll grow the consulting side of the business and I’m sure we’ll come across opportunities we can kick over the fence to you, where you can work on helping fund those deals or do the exit planning on those deals or help arrange a merger with another organization that makes sense for them in that organization.” He said, “That’s great.” So that’s really where it was started. That’s where it was born.

John: Got it.

Bob: A few months into it, I saw that someone I knew casually. He had posted on LinkedIn he was looking for his next adventure. Knowing his background—this is a gentleman named Tony Andrews. Tony was probably number 3 or number 4, executive with Radio Shack for about 8 or 9 years, and oversaw over 14,000 retail locations, negotiated deals directly with carriers, and EOMs, ran a big operation. And I thought, oh, wow, yes, this is a guy that would be great to work with. So, I reached out to him, told him what I was getting into. I said, “What do you think?” He said, “Let’s meet. Let’s talk. Let’s see.” I had already started working on Mobile Disrupt with Robert Tokarchyk from the ITAS Summit and RazorERP on putting together a conference because I’d never done one before. It made sense that I worked with somebody who put on a show that I actually liked. I liked his format. [crosstalk] and he spend [inaudible].

John: Knew the space. Knew the space.

Bob: Yes. And I was the expert that knew the space, so it worked out well. And so, I took on the responsibility of recruiting sponsors, exhibitors, and speakers. And Robert put all the infrastructure in place to make the show happen. And that’s still to what we do to this day with show number 4 coming up this summer.

John: The show, look for number 4 coming up this summer’s in July 8th and 9th at the Fountain Blue Miami Beach Hotel. And it’s going to be a big event. It’s going to be a big event. How many people are you expecting this year?

Bob: 1,300 to 1,400, which will be our largest event so far.

John: Isn’t that the biggest mobility conference in the world?

Bob: In the used mobile space exclusively, probably.

John: Yes.

Bob: In some of the others that are wireless or mobile or cellular-related, not even close. NEO Mobile World Congress, for example, just put up one of the largest trade shows in the world. GI Tech Switch has an element of that built in is much bigger. I honestly don’t have an ambition to ever see it become that size because to be honest with you, I haven’t been on the show floor for Mobile World Congress or CES in over a decade, and you know why? The shows are too big. You waste too much time trying to find people’s booth or trying to find where you’re supposed to meet with them, and it’s just not as productive. So, for years I’ve been doing what a lot of people do: I get a hotel suite, I arrange meetings. We have meetings in the suite. I arrange a dinner or two to catch up with the people I couldn’t meet during the day, then I leave town, and it’s highly productive.

John: Right. Because [inaudible].

Bob: I don’t want to see my show become that.

John: Yes, good point. Good point. And there’ll be a link to mobiledisrupt.com in our show notes for people who want to attend. I’ll beattending. Our company will beattending. I think it’s one of the greatest events of the year when it comes to our industry. So, I think you’ve done an amazing job there.

Bob: Thank you.

John: Go back to Capital Growth Partners. Where are you in the growth trajectory today, now that you’re 11 or so years in at Capital Growth Partners?

Bob: Oh, actually, we’ll be 4 years old in June.

John: Oh, okay.

Bob: We rebranded about a year into it.

John: Got it.

Bob: We went from my buddy, Steve, John, and myself, and then Tony a few months later to, there are 13 of us now. And we offer business development, business turnaround, executive coaching, organizational development, exit planning are all part of what we do. We recently had another element with the gentleman I introduced you to at the ITAD Seminar last year, Rich Bulger? Rich came from the carrier environment with Verizon where he ran sales, ran districts, and ultimately was asked to develop a reverse logistics channel and program for Verizon, which he did, and even developed their initial trade in program. So, Rich has tremendous expertise and experience in reverse logistics. He’s even done work for little while for Cisco, and right now he’s in demand by Fortune 100 companies saying, “Hey, we don’t understand RL. It’s a losing proposition for us. We’re writing off a lot of disposal every year. We’d like to figure out how we can turn this around and turn it into a profit center.” So Rich is doing a ton of work in that area and he’s brought in a couple of his associates from that space in Victoria DRC, and Dr. Peter Evans, who’s an MIT PhD who has a real passion for circularity. Rich also wrote a book called Going Circular that has done very well. And so, that part of the business has grown so much. We might even consider starting a secondary business that’s devoted just to RL and circularity while we continue to focus on more of the traditional business side of advisory.

John: Understood.

Bob: So, we’ve engaged in quite a few projects over the past 4 years, pretty diverse too: Anything from the simple things like repair, buff and polish type of services, to we have a highly innovative packaging company out of Montreal, Canada that we do work with. We have another interesting project with a company called Sky Peak who has solved data compression on the carrier networks. So, normally an event like this, if it was broadcast on television, would be sent out at 1080p. 1080p doesn’t work well on a cell phone, which is why you get pauses, delays, and it’s just not always a great experience when it comes to streaming content. Their technology solves that by right-sizing the data so that it fits the device it’s being sent to. So, 480p works really well on a mobile device. So, it’ll take that content, shrink it down from 1080p to 480p, and send it through to the device streaming like you’ve never seen before. It’s going to save the carriers a ton of money. We’ve also been talking to a lot of the mobile virtual network operators, or MVNOs for those in the audience that aren’t familiar with the term, because the MVNO’s single biggest expense from the carriers is data. They’re buying data from the carriers. Voice is a commodities so they can get that sheet. Data’s the big cost, so this can reduce their data expense to 50, 60, maybe even 70% in some instances, if they have a lot of data streaming from their subscribers. So that’s… Another company you may be familiar with Itochu—big Japanese holding company that owns over 400 companies around the world and $40 billion in revenue. We did a market research project for them that wrapped up earlier this year. So, it’s been pretty diverse, the type of work we’ve done in the organizations that we’ve donate for. We’re still probably best known in the mobile and iTouch space mobile above everything else, I think. But with Rich, Dr. Evans and Victoria on the team now, we’re always starting to get a lot of traction in the areas of reverse logistics and circularity.

John: I think those are two huge trends that are going to continue to drive a lot of demand because I think, they’re non politicized. The generational shift that we’re going under right now from the linear economy to the circular economy is undeniable. And it’s a non-political issue. It’s the right thing to do, whereas all these other terms have become highly politicized and become ridiculous sized. Although they’re important for organizations to survive and to thrive, the circular one to me is really the landmark trademark of really what the future looks like.

Bob: Sure. When you think about it, and I don’t think element would be political at all. I think most people recognize that the more we can do to keep products out of landfills, especially electronics, that’s a win.

John: 100%.

Bob: So, what’s the best way to do that? Circularity, keep it for use, right?

John: 100%.

Bob: So, whether it’s parts harvesting that’s used to Frankenstein a device back together, or whether it’s selling an intact device as a certified, like new product or both…

John: Or, I’m going to give you the third, commoditizing the products.

Bob: Yes.

John: Commoditizing them the right way and creating them into the right types of scrap that can get resold and literally go from a zero waste recycling facility to all the smelters and go back into the circular economy. So, between the 3 of those, it’s complete, the suite.

Bob: For sure. And we all know from the media that’s out there that there’s a concern about the precious earth minerals that can be extracted and used, and all of that has been really largely brought in from Taiwan. So, hey, let’s harvest that and reuse them. Let’s not throw it away. They’re there, they’ve already been used once. Let’s use them again, and again and again, until they can’t be used anymore.

John: That’s right. Bob, you wear a lot of hats. I know you’re a public speaker in high demand, so talk about how do you juggle your life and your schedule between Mobile Disrupt, which is itself could be a full-time job times 5, Capital Growth Partners, and then your speaking events and your massive and heavy travel demands.

Bob: Part of that, to be honest with you, is I have a personal assistant named Donna who is remarkable.

John: Shout out to Donna.

Bob: Shout out to her.

John: We all need a Donna. I have a Linda. You have a Donna?

Bob: Yes. Donna has made my life more than tolerable. She’s changed it completely. I tell anybody who wants to talk to me, Donna. Don’t text me. Don’t call me. Don’t email me—Donna. Donna manages my calendar and she’ll find a place to put you on and so I just have to show up. I just look every day and say, “What am I supposed to be doing? Where am I supposed to beat?”

John: That’s good?

Bob: That, in of itself has been a game changer. Also, being able to hand things off that need to get done, but from the standpoint of knowing, okay, I’m the founder of 3 different businesses. I’m probably the most expensive person on payroll so to speak. So, what’s the best use of my time? Is the best use of my time working on documents? No. Is the best use of my time sending an NDA to somebody prior to a call? No. Is the best use of my time organizing all our files on SharePoint? No. So, being able to hand off a lot of those responsibilities to Donna that are important and need to be done, but are not the best use of my time from the perspective of monetizing my time for the organization, that’s been a game changer. And the other part of that too is, there are 13 of us in the firm. There are 8 of us that are actually partners who’ve made a capital investment. Now, Tony, Andrew, and I are the majority shareholders and the co-founders, but the other 6 people have written checks to become partners and shareholders in the business as well. So, we’ve all looked at our individual skillsets and said, how can we take on some defined roles and responsibilities? Because if we worked in a corporation, you’d have a CEO, a COO, CFO, whatever, right?

John: An org chart. An org chart.

Bob: Exactly. So, we identified roles and responsibilities and so I’m less engaged these days than I used to be in projects. I still have a few client projects I’m working on, but I’m spending more and more time as the Chief Revenue Officer for a lack of a better term. So, I do a lot of hunting. So, because I have a brand that’s well established and I have a face that’s well known and recognized, it’s not as hard for me to be able to go uncover some opportunities to bring in new clients. So, that’s part of what I’m trying to do, is focus that a little bit more. So, there’s still a lot of travel, but a lot of it is just fundamental time management, making sure I don’t overbook myself, don’t over schedule myself. Everything I do is scheduled, so anything I’m going to work on is on my calendar. Even my workouts are on my calendar. Everything is planned and on my calendar. If I don’t do it that way, things will fall through the cracks. I will overcommit and I’ll be an absolute train wreck.

John: Bob, at 62, you and I get to have the benefit of wisdom and experience of mistakes made and victories one. We have a large audience around the world after doing this show for 17 years of high school students, college students, undergrad, grad students; people just trying to jumpstart their career, but also realizing times have changed. And there’s a lot of people now that look at you and want to be like you. When I say, be like you; not only make a nice paycheck to pay the bills, we all have to buy groceries and put gas in the car, and at least keep the lights on in the house, also not only make a paycheck, but make an impact. What words of wisdom can you give to the next generation that’s up and coming that want to be the next Bob Lafon, that sees themselves in you, and really want to do really cool work like you’re doing, that not only just is about the old Gordon Gecko breed is good, but is more for the greater good now?

Bob: I would say be missional about it. What I mean by that is, I don’t look at the work I do just in light of the paycheck or even personal gratification. I look at it from the standpoint of saying, I’m older than the vast majority of the people out there in my circle. If I go to Mobile Disrupt, if 1,300 people are there, I’m going to be older than about 98% of the people in the room, and that’s just a fact, and that’s okay.

John: You and me, both.

Bob: Exactly. So, what do I have to share with those people? Being missional is, for me, about making an impact. I can think of one client scenario where the gentleman was, at the time he talked to me, he was 65 years old, and we were meeting for breakfast and he came over and he said, “Hey, I just wanted to share some good news with you.” I said, “Oh, what’s that?” He said, “Just bought my first house.” And of course I’m like, eyes are banging. I’m shocked. I’m thinking, oh my God, this poor guy’s just buying his first houseat 65 when other people were normally retiring. He said, “No, it’s okay. I didn’t just buy any house. I bought the home of my dreams. And you had a large part in doing that, because what you’ve done to help revolutionize our business, improve sales, all of that has contributed to me being in a position to be able to do that.” And he said, “So, thank you,” and shook my hand, and I said, “Wow.” So having opportunities to impact people’s lives like that; that’s meaningful. And I want to do as much of that as I possibly can. And what’s been wonderful is, we have a philosophy internally. I won’t say it the way that we usually say, which is we don’t work with blank holes.

John: I like it.

Bob: You can fill that in on your…

John: I love it. That’s great.

Bob: We’re very selective about who we work with. We only want to work with good people. We only want to work on projects that we believe in our heart of hearts, we will absolutely help them be successful because unlike a lot of consultancies, as an advisory firm, we come in, do a deep two-day discovery, present the summary of findings and then our recommendations, and if the client wants to move forward with us, we work side by side with them on the execution of those strategies to help ensure successful outcomes. So, rather than doing what a lot of the big firms do, where they send in the the 28-year-olds with the MBAs to do a lot of the research and then dump the data in your lap after the fact, and you have to figure out what to do with it, we’re a results-driven organization. We even structure our compensation that way, where we charge lower retainers, but we build in success fees so that when we hit the KPIs, the client needs us to hit to justify the engagement. They benefit from it, but so do we. And they’re paying out of their profits. They’re not paying out of working capital.

John: I like it.

Bob: So, it’s really rewarding. So, to that younger person, let’s say, find work that you can feel good about, where you feel like, “Hey, I’m making a difference.” This is almost like working for a nonprofit, almost, okay? And the reason I say almost is, hey, if you feel called to doing nonprofit work, go do it, but if you don’t understand that you can still do work that makes you feel good about your life choices, where you can still impact people positively and still contribute to the larger world and society around you, and on a good paycheck at the same time. You can do both. It doesn’t have to be an either or. You don’t have to retreat to a nonprofit, or church, or ministry or something to be able to make a difference in the world. You can do both. You can integrate your values into your work, right?

John: I love that. That’s great advice, Bob, because when we were kids, it was one or the other, like you just said. And like you said, there’s a blend now and there’s a happy mix that really works.

Bob: Sure.

John: I think that’s wonderful and great advice. For our listeners and viewers to find Bob Lafon, please go to either www.capitalgrowthpartners.net or mobiledisrupt.com. Bob, thank you for not only spending 50 minutes or so with us today. You’re always welcome back of course, on the Impact podcast, and I just want to say thank you though for making the world a better place.

Bob: John, thank you for the opportunity to tell my story. I greatly appreciate it. I’m looking forward to being able to flip the script and reverse you on my stageat Mobile Disrupt, which I hope everybody will show up for this year because, I had a chance to do this with John at the ITAD Summit. It was the most highly-rated session of the show. So, hopefully we’ll get to do this again for the Mobile Disrupt audience, and I’m looking forward to seeing you there.

John: July 8th and 9th in Miami. I’ll be there with you, Bob, and I’m looking forward to it, and so will our whole team from ERI.

Bob: I [inaudible].

John: So, thank you very much inviting us and including us. We’re very grateful.

Bob: My pleasure.

John: This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by Engage. Engage is a digital booking platform revolutionizing the talent booking industry with thousands of athletes, celebrities, entrepreneurs, and business leaders, Engage is the go-to spot for booking talent, for speeches, custom experiences, live streams, and much more. For more information on Engage or to book talent today, visit letsengage.com. This edition of The Impact Podcast is brought to you by ERI. ERI has a mission to protect people, the planet and your privacy, and is the largest fully integrated IT and electronics asset disposition provider and cybersecurity focused hardware destruction company in the United States and maybe even the world. For more information on how ERI can help your business properly dispose of outdated electronic hardware devices, please visit eridirect.com.