The Freedom We All Signed Up For

The phone call that changed everything came during my daughter's dance recital.

I was sitting in a metal folding chair, watching my daughter, Navy, in her pink tutu, when my phone buzzed. The call that I hoped would change everything for me.

"The number is zero, Raleigh. I'm sorry."

Three years of 18-hour days, fifty employees counting on us, millions in personal guarantees to landlords—and the CEO I'd pitched our entertainment business to just told me Williams Entertainment Group wasn't worth a single dollar.

Ten minutes later, a second call came. The lawyer for a customer who broke his arm in one of my parks a few months earlier called and told me he was willing to accept $50,000 for his client’s “pain and suffering” for his injury.

He called me instead of our insurance company, which normally handles these types of things, because our controller let our insurance lapse by 48 hours. In that two-day gap, we had one of the worst injuries in our escape room business.

A business that was officially worth nothing and a $50,000 lawsuit that I now needed to handle.

Perfect.

From Zero to $26 Million (And Why the Numbers Don't Tell the Whole Story)

But here’s what happened next:

2018: First exit attempt - "Worth zero dollars"

2020: Met with a broker - Estimated at $10M and he wanted 10% of the deal to take it to market.
2022: Sold my business entirely on my own - 9 deals that led to a $26M final value.

But the story didn’t end there. Just six short months after my “mountaintop moment”, my wife was diagnosed with stage III breast cancer.

Suddenly, I understood why I'd been so adamant about exiting. Some invisible part of me knew a storm was coming—one where I'd need to be checking into oncology appointments instead of bank accounts.

Where I'd need to be holding my wife's hand through a double mastectomy instead of flying to check on trampoline parks.

The real question isn't what your business is worth today. It's whether you have the freedom to step away when life demands it.

The Transformation That Changes Everything

The magic wasn't the exit—it was what we built to make the exit possible.

We transformed Williams Entertainment Group from a lifestyle business that trapped its owners into a sellable asset that could thrive without us. The systems, processes, and frameworks that made this possible aren't secrets. They're learnable, repeatable strategies any entrepreneur can implement.

Over the past three years, I've refined these concepts with a small group of business owners:

One turned down a $9M acquisition offer and then an $18M offer (they also turned down). We're going back to market at $30M in 2026.
Another was about to shut down his 32-year construction business thinking that it had no value. He's closing next week at $1.7M that wouldn't have existed otherwise.
One thought they were making $2M/year because that’s what their tax accountant told them. We found out they actually make $3.5M in the eyes of a business buyer and will be able to sell for $5M more than before (they just bought a small airplane to celebrate.)

Ready to Build Your Business into an Asset?

You don't have to wait for rock bottom to start building your escape route. You don't have to stay trapped in a business that was supposed to liberate you.

The frameworks that took us from "worth zero" to $26M aren't just for entertainment businesses. They work for any entrepreneur ready to transform their company from a lifestyle business into a sellable asset.

Because the entrepreneurs who took the biggest risks deserve the biggest rewards.

Turn My Business Into Asset

To your next big move,
Raleigh “Do You” Williams
Founder of ExitOS