When you think of five years from now, 2031, as crazy as that sounds, what do you think business brokers are going to need to do to be, I would usually say survive, but let's say succeed,

right? in 2031? Well, I think number one, they're going to have to be uber tech savvy.

Now, they may not necessarily have to have everything in place, but the sellers are going to expect them to be tech savvy.

I think they also have, when I say tech savvy, automating some of their parts of the business.

AI, I don't believe if a broker does their job, AI is not going to take away a business broker's job any more so than it's going to take away a plumber's job.

It'll take a real estate agent's job away.

That I'm willing to bet on because respectfully, they don't do a whole lot.

so let's talk about the um so uh When what are you excited about the rest of 2026 going into 2027, like after the career that you've had and what you've built and what you focused on and like, you know, the deals you have going on, but like, what is Richard Parker excited about in the coming in the coming year?

Talk about business that you were dealing with, kind of your... your entry into the world of M&A.

Okay, so I got into this as a buyer, and I was working for a company.

I was making very good living.

I was 23 years old at the time that I started working for this company.

I worked there for six years, and then as I was approaching my 30s, I made a bonehead move.

I had about $90,000 to my name, and I pissed away $60,000 in the stock market.

My first kid was on the way, and I was 29.

It's like if it's simple enough, yes, if it's a root canal probably not right like probably not somebody and it's and it's like where do you see us because you have a ton of experience is where is this also that business owner who's always figured it out and they feel empowered that this is just another thing they can just overcome and handle themselves

Um, how much have you dug into the life and work of your ancestor, 19th century abolitionist, the Reverend Theodore Parker?

Well, um, I haven't dug a whole lot.

Genealogy is not a interest of mine particularly, but, uh, uh, I've had some aunts and great aunts and things like that.

There, there al- there are always one or two women who are good at collecting old family Bibles, and a couple of them have been members of the Daughters of the American Revolution, and that sort of thing.

So that's the information that I've got.

And, um, you know, I'm a direct descendant of Theodore.

He didn't have children himself, so I'm a great-great-great nephew of Theodore Parker, um, and, uh, have always been touched by his story.

Oh, that's interesting.

How did you first get involved in the world of business brokerage?

I had been buying, um, I'd been, and we'll touch upon it later.

Maybe I'd been buying a number of businesses.

Um, and I sold one of my companies in Canada.

I grew up in Montreal.

I was living in Montreal.

I think we mentioned earlier, you're going to visit Toronto.

I got, I got involved in buying businesses cause

How did you first get involved in the world of business brokerage?

I had been buying, um, I'd been, and we'll touch upon it later.

Maybe I'd been buying a number of businesses.

Um, and I sold one of my companies in Canada.

I grew up in Montreal.

I was living in Montreal.

I think we mentioned earlier, you're going to visit Toronto.

I got, I got involved in buying businesses cause

terrific and you brought up history and not having a lot of history curious though what would you say has changed the most in space underwriting over the last three to five years maybe what hasn't changed as much as people might think

we always used to say no history but then falcon 9 came along and i checked this morning and falcon 9's launched 656 times with about three failures So we really do, if someone does come in today and say, I need launch vehicle flight only on a Falcon 9, so I'm only covering it from intentional ignition up until separation of my satellite, just covering the launch, I know what my rate is for Falcon 9.

That's probably the easiest quote that we can put out at the moment.

It doesn't require really any underwriting at all because the Falcon 9 not only has this incredible track record, but even 650 events.

The Falcon 9 has been evolving over that time.

Originally, it wasn't landing the first stage.

It didn't have the landing legs, all of these things.

How can an existing insurance claim professional get hired into a space insurance carrier is a question we have.

I was thinking, because your mission very much recently has been moving your vehicles from... emission vehicles diesel to zero emission vehicles and you're doing that in an award-winning fashion we'll come on to that later but richard how are you helping top speed in this this element of their mission their transport element of their mission

Well, I think, I mean, obviously I work for Webfleet.

We know, hopefully a lot of this audience will know Webfleet because we've been helping with the EV Cafe now as sponsors for quite some time.

So we go through that rigmarole, but I think what has been really nice, we've always taught you guys and us in the past, all these theories about we do this and that, and we'll actually top speed at taking the stuff we do both getting the data out at a central level and the fleet manager level, but actually really working with the drivers as well and using the technology at the coalface with the drivers to help them actually achieve what Steve wants them to do as a business and move their goods around successfully.

I guess we'll get into maybe some of that later if it's drawn out in the case study.

But yeah, it's one of those things that you start at one place and then you evolve and they've changed it and they've taken the going, OK, well, what about this? What about that? And that's why I wanted to bring them into this podcast today, because it is when partnerships and we always talk about collaboration and collaboration can sometimes be around the people supplying in the ecosystem.

But this is partnership customer to supplier, and it's really sort of been working really well.

And sort of pulled it out and thought, shut the boot and went back a few hours later and literally had a crystal mountain in the boot.