With only 90 days on the clock, every “perfect” deal fell apart in due diligence, and the American dream started to look like a one-way ticket back to France.

We sit down with Steve Payet to unpack what that kind of risk really feels like, and what happens when it doesn't unfold the way you think it will. We talk through the E2 visa route, the pressure of buying a business under a deadline, and the hard-earned lessons that come from reviewing financials that do not match reality. If you care about entrepreneurship, business acquisition, and building a company worth owning, Steve’s story is a reminder that preparation and hard work matters, but relationships can change everything.

A local introduction, three phone calls, and a deal that gets his family established, plus the reality of running a marine business. Steve shares how he learned the language, the operations, and even the mechanics, along with the scary moment a health crisis forced him to rethink what growth is costing. We also get into smart decisions that helped the company scale.

If you’re building toward a real exit, dreaming about moving countries, or trying to buy a business the right way, press play, then subscribe, share this with an entrepreneur who needs it, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Most people are trained to “stay in your lane, play it safe, get a job. Matt Kerr was told to accept a life of broken cars, blue lunch tickets and fixing transmissions in the snow—so at eight years old he decided he’d pay other people to fix his stuff instead. From there he built the biggest paper route in East Toledo, scaled up as a teenage drug dealer, then turned the same skills into a multi‑million‑dollar pool business and a Florida boat club.

In this conversation, he breaks down the real playbook for escaping the hood: using shame as fuel, working double the hours of everyone else, forcing himself into impossible situations (like cashing a $7,000 check for a job he didn’t know how to do yet), and then finding A‑players through suppliers and back‑channels. You’ll learn why most entrepreneurs quit inches before gold, how to spot the one opportunity that can feed your family all winter, and what it actually feels like to lose your house, your businesses and your marriage—and still find a way to start again.