[Top Giver & PE Series] Mastering M&A Networking and Deal-Making With Lou Sokolovskiy

​Lou Sokolovskiy is the Founder and CEO of Opus Connect, a premier networking and deal-making community for private equity and M&A professionals. He is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in private equity transactions. Additionally, Lou serves as a Venture Partner at Operate and a Principal at Genero Capital Partners. His expertise spans operations management, strategic partnerships, and new business development.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [03:57] Lou Sokolovskiy discusses the origin of Opus Connect and what it does
• [07:40] Key qualities Opus Connect looks for in new members
• [11:09] The importance of member referrals in building a curated community
• [12:08] Lou’s 12+1 step framework for effective business development
• [20:43] How SWOT helps identify and prioritize high-impact activities
• [27:47] How Lou’s network led to a real estate deal opportunity
• [29:41] How investing approach evolved with life changes
• [32:47] Common mistakes companies make when preparing for a sale
• [38:41] How Lou’s immigrant experience shaped his drive and entrepreneurial mindset

In this episode…

Building a meaningful network that leads to real deal flow can be overwhelming, especially in industries like private equity and M&A, where everyone seems to know someone — and access matters. But how do you create a community beyond surface-level connections and drive business growth?

Lou Sokolovskiy, a seasoned entrepreneur and investor with expertise in business development and deal sourcing, breaks down what it takes to build and sustain a high-value network. He shares his 12+1 business development framework, emphasizing the importance of starting with your “why” and conducting a personal SWOT analysis to identify your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. He also discusses the critical role of being a proactive giver, why curated communities outperform open networks, and how aligning with the right people can unlock strategic opportunities you can’t reach individually.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz interviews Lou Sokolovskiy, Founder and CEO of Opus Connect, about the art of meaningful relationship-building in the M&A space. Lou explains how he created a thriving professional network from scratch, shares why proactive generosity leads to better business, and explores personal development strategies. He also dives into actionable deal flow tips, investment strategy evolution, and preparing a company for sale.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Lou Sokolovskiy on LinkedIn
• Opus Connect

Special Mention(s):

• Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek
• Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant
• Now, Discover Your Strengths: The revolutionary Gallup program that shows you how to develop your unique talents and strengths by Gallup
• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change by Stephen R. Covey

Related episode(s):

• “[Top Agency Series] Most Valuable Advice When Selling Your Agency With Todd Taskey of Potomac Business Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Working with Donald Trump and the Impact of Winning The Apprentice with Kelly Perdew of Moonshots Capital” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Athlete Entrepreneur Series] Becoming an Athlete in Business with Tracy Deforge, Shawn Springs, and Donte Whitner” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable Moments:

• “The most important characteristics to join our community — you need to be interested to be part.”
• “It’s not that we’re not different. It’s who we don’t let in. We curate very strictly.”
• “Do your personal SWOT and try to do it twice a year.”
• “Some people really, really enjoy giving — some people need to break through to that. It’s like working out.”
• “Once you move physical spaces, you’re more open to move out of your comfort zone again and again.”

Action Steps:

1. Perform a personal SWOT analysis twice a year: Understanding your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats helps focus on high-impact areas and track growth.
2. Build a curated professional network: Surrounding yourself with like-minded, value-driven individuals increases the quality and effectiveness of your opportunities.
3. Lead with proactive giving: Offering value without expecting immediate returns builds trust and leads to deeper, more meaningful connections.
4. Partner with people who complement your weaknesses: Working with those who bring strengths you lack creates more balanced and successful collaborations.
5. Start preparing to sell your business years in advance: Early preparation ensures your company is attractive, stable, and well-positioned for a profitable exit.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:00

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here founder of inspiredinsider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Lou Sokolovskiy and you can check him out at opus.com. Lou, before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out since this is, you know, really in the M&A space and the connection space. There’s a really good episode I did with Todd Taskey. That’s how Lou and I actually met. So big thank you to Todd. Todd actually helps pair agencies with private equity. And he has a Second Bite Podcast which we run and second bite because, you know, when the owners sell, sometimes when they sell the private equity, when the private equity sells again, they make more on the second bite than the first. So that was a great episode on the, you know, the valuation space, M&A space, digital agency space. There’s another one. Kelly Perdue of Moonshots Capital. We talked about — he talked about working with Donald Trump. He actually won The Apprentice. And so on the episode, he talked about the impact of winning The Apprentice. And it was a really interesting episode. 

Also, Tracy Deforge, CEO and co-founder of Players Impact Players impact is a platform for current and former professional athletes looking to preserve and build wealth through private market investment opportunities, which, you know, Tracy should definitely talk to you, Lew, in your group because she’d be a cool person. And that was a great episode as well. She actually brought a couple people from Players Impact who are professional athletes on the episode, and we talked about some of the deals they were working on. So check those out and more on insider.com. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. Rise25. We help businesses give to and connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that in two ways. One, we help companies launch and run a podcast. We’re an easy button to do that. We do the strategy, accountability and the full execution and production. Number two, we’re an easy button for your company’s corporate gifting. So we make gifting and staying top of mind to your clients, partners and prospects simple and seamless. And for me, Lou, I always like it to be affordable because I like to send things to people every few months for years, right? 

And I also like to send food because I like receiving food. So we call ourselves kind of the magic elves that run in the background and make it easy for a company to help build relationships, whether it’s, you know, running their podcast or gifting. And that’s really the number one thing in my life over the past decade, I found no better way to give to my relationships than to profile them and share with the world what they’re working on the podcast and sending them delicious treats in the mail so you can go to rise25.com or email us at support at rise25.com. I am super excited to introduce Lou Sokolovskiy. He’s a serial entrepreneur and investor. He has a focus on real estate and private equity. He started Opus Connect, which he has built into one of the most engaged M&A communities. They have facilitated over 100 deals for its members, maybe more as we’re counting. They even have an aspect of Opus Connect called Deal Connect, where they provide curated matchmaking so professionals can drive even more meaningful business opportunities and strategic partnerships, which results in more deal flow and resources. So Lou, thanks for joining me.

Lou Sokolovskiy: 03:36

Thank you Jeremy. Great to be here. And thank you, Todd, for introducing us. It’s been a great relationship that we started really recently but really appreciate it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 03:45

Yeah, I love it. And I want to just start with Opus Connect. Talk to people about opus. Opus Connect and what you do. And as you’re doing that, I’m going to pull up the website.

Lou Sokolovskiy: 03:57

Thank you. Opus was unintended consequence of me trying to network a little bit better. A little bit more thoughtfully and productively. It was a member of a number of good organizations, but I was finding myself. Wasting a lot of time. And I never wrote a business plan. And yeah, the website looks good now, but never wrote a business plan. The first five years of business, we didn’t have a website at all. I really started figuring out that out of people in me, that most of these events I really want to network with top 5%, maybe ten, and I started inviting this top 5% of people I would meet to my breakfast meetings, and after a couple of months they became quite popular. People, what do you call this group? I’m like, I don’t know, it’s just breakfast at my office.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:55

People start breakfast with Lou that I’m going to rename the website. Right.

Lou Sokolovskiy: 04:58

But it was not breakfast. It was Lou, because I actually was not in the center of attention. I really helped to facilitate meaningful relationship between attendees, and people started getting on the wait list. And I’m like, okay, I need to at least give it a name. So I want to thank my dear friend Mark Geller, who during a long hike, came up with a name of Opus. It’s not my credit and it was really the best piece of music usually, but in this case of my business development effort put all together into one. And we officially launched in November of 2009. We celebrated last November 15th years being 15 years old, and it continued for a while. You know, just no website just sent out in events. 

And then we started getting bigger and bigger and began hiring people. Now we produce a little over 350 events a year. Still focus on that lower middle market, middle market M&A world. We have a number of now CEOs that engage with our community. But it’s really private equity private lenders, mezzanine investors, investment bankers, everyone involved in the small mid-size M&A deal. And the you know people ask why your network is different. I’m like, it’s not we’re not different. It’s who we don’t let in. We curate and there’s a lot of great candidates that we rejected, you know, that were great but not great for our network. We don’t let too many service providers in which, you know, get bombarded with, you know, other organizations really have overwhelming amount of service providers. We curate that a lot more strictly. And yeah, it’s my baby. I love it. 

You know, and it’s my passion. Is that most the. Does it provide the highest rate of return on my time? Economically not. But in terms of my enjoyment in my life. It’s absolutely my baby and it’s where my heart is.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:01

You know, I know that you have homeless Connect. You also are always doing different deals as well as an investor entrepreneur. You have a separate site for that general, you know, capital partners. But I do want to talk about, you know, and this is this is I love how these things kind of birth out of your own need. Right? I mean, you are finding deals. I mean, you’re just as much a user as Opus Connect as everyone else, and that’s why you created it to find deals as an investor. But talk about who is a fit for the community. You mentioned a couple types of groups for Opus Connect.

Lou Sokolovskiy: 07:40

The most important characteristics to join our community You need to be interested to be part of the community number one, and enjoy giving to others. Proactively giving to others while you are a deal maker so you shouldn’t be. You know this is a fine combination that’s sometimes hard to find a perfect candidate. 

And you know, most of our members are a lot more proactively helping others than many other organizations because we’re a smaller group. Everyone knows everyone. But it’s more characteristic than a job title. That’s a lot more critical. And yes, you do need to be successful and you need to be do deals that everyone else does, but it comes secondary.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:31

What I want to talk about that because that’s something I look for in my network. Always looking to curate amazing givers. Right. And Adam Grant’s give-and-take book. You know those there’s take, you know, if anyone hasn’t listened to it or read it, it’s great. You know, givers, takers and matchers. And I’m always looking for givers because I feel like I default to that. Like I always want to help. And so other people, I want more of those people in my network. How do you vet for that when you’re when you’re talking to someone in your network? Because it’s hard. I think at first.

Lou Sokolovskiy: 09:07

I wish I had a secret question. You know, there are certain questions we do during interviews that you find out about a lot. You know, about intellectual curiosity. You know what book they read about what they enjoy. I wish I had a magic one. I don’t, and sometimes we do make mistakes and occasionally we don’t renew memberships. You know, we hate doing it, really hate doing it. But it happens. You know, it usually happens once a year every other year. Somebody’s not image the great people who still respect them for their professional achievement. But maybe, you know, it’s like the more enjoy taking than giving and that happens. 

You know, it just. We hope our community is more of inspiration for people to bring that side. And we’re not perfect, by the way. We’re not perfect far away. It’s something that I’m proactively try to encourage people to do. You know some people better than others. Some people really, really enjoy giving. Like Jeremy. It sounds like you do. You know, naturally that you need to force themselves and some people need to be more break through that. And it’s like working out 5:00 in the morning. You just you don’t enjoy it, but you do it because you have to. Right? You know, you know, that’s fine.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:28

I start to enjoy it over time. But in the, in the first, you know, first five months maybe not so much. But you know, it’s interesting. So maybe there are certain questions that you ask just to get to know the person deeper. right? It could be what they read, you know, kind of the, you know, the questions you’re asking. You’re gleaning it. That kind of goes, go ahead.

Lou Sokolovskiy: 10:48

Also, who recommended them? You know, most of our members get recommended. Yes. People reach out to us and they’re welcome to apply. But also we really love when our members invite members, you know, prospective members. That’s definitely creates that level of readiness that I cannot do over the call.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 11:09

You know, one thing I want to talk to you about, and I know you discuss a lot. There’s the resources you could check out Opus Connect. Com and there’s resources. And specifically on the business development side you have a 12-step. We’ll call it plus one. You’ve added a step to the business development piece. 

So I’d love to hear some of the most important pieces from a business development side, I do want to say you introduced me to Brian Franco Go up. And Brian was awesome. Meritage partners, and he was like, Lou is a master at business development. He’s like, just one thing Lou taught me, allowed me. And he walked through like a deal that he got because of one of the things that you talked about. Right. So talk about maybe a couple of the main steps or concepts that you find important in business development.

Lou Sokolovskiy: 12:08

Business development. You know, it’s funny that a lot of people come and if they’re lawyers or CPAs, they’re like, oh, you went to business school. So, you know, business development, there is no business school that teaches you about business development. There’s definitely no law school that teaches you about business development. So it was always curious, and I think it was came from. From a need because a few times in my career I changed industries, not even jobs. I change industries from technology to M&A, and I was forced. 

I was in a situation where I had quite a bit disadvantage compared to most of the peers, because I didn’t have that depth of network. So I network a lot more and did not know what I was doing most of the time. And probably now I still don’t know everything, but, you know, a little bit more productive than 20 years ago. But one thing that I did at that time, for example, I just kept business cards of everyone and put them in the outlook, which was very advanced, you know, huge advantage, you know, now I still have business cards with people that I met 20 years ago, but that was kind of what I did. And then like how I do it, how you be better, how do I add value? Because I my. biggest challenge was I couldn’t ask people for favors. So how do I do a favor? Maybe it will come back to me or not. So that proactive giving was like kind of designed in my networking. 

And I started really analyzing it, you know, steps by step. What works, what doesn’t, how does it not work? And eventually I started coaching people on doing it. And I enjoyed it tremendously. It was not more scalable business model, but opus was born from that because as I was helping lawyers and CPAs and others to be better in that, it really helped me to become even better as well and build Opus Connect, but with other business development. You mentioned 12 plus one because one is not all steps. It’s really admire Simon Sinek and his book Start with Why. You know, I recommend everyone, everyone that even if you do business development, you’re in business. You have a job, you have a career, you don’t have a job. You need to read that book. It’s like one of the musts. And because we our 12 step program is really good in how. But you need to find your why before you do it. And you don’t. Again don’t want to take credit for Simon’s work that he did phenomenal. Don’t want to copy it in any way form. Just follow that. Start with that. How? 

It’s pretty easy. Once you find a passion, why do you want to do it? The how becomes a lot easier. We can help. There’s a lot of amazing resources. Most people can figure out what they can do themselves if they really, really focus on it. Most people don’t have that. Not the discipline. But you know, we don’t have time and even our businesses, that’s why we get consultants. So we step in, we help out one of the simplest and the highest rate of return exercises, even though it’s not the first one. Do your personal SWOT and try to do it twice a year. A personal SWOT. SWOT analysis. If you’re not familiar, is most people have done it for their businesses. Very few people actually were surprised to do it for as a person, but do it as a person so your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We suggest our clients and members to do it in a few different settings. So you do one. Spend 30-40 minutes an hour. Write down all four, 3 to 5 points to all of them. 

There is instruction on our website how to do it. It’s very easy. There is. There is an article. If you go to business development there should be a SWOT analysis somewhere. Please use it. You’ll also hear go. Yeah. Also feel free to reach out to me Lou at. If you have a question. If it’s quick, I’ll try to answer very quickly. But do this analysis and do it twice. Oh, do it in a few settings. I’m sorry to put aside. Wait three, 4 or 5 days, maybe even a week. Come back and do it for another 30 or 40 minutes, maybe even an hour. If you have the luxury of doing it for the third time, you’ll be surprised. Do it for the third time and then look at it and then rate it. What is low cost? High benefit? What is high cost? Low benefit? And obviously you can figure out where you need to focus. Apply that 80 over 20 rule or whatever rule you want to apply. 

You will not be able to address all of them at the same time, but figure out 3 to 4 things, 2 to 3 things. Maybe even better that you really want to focus for next 6 to 12 months to fix, address, improve, leverage, whatever the situation is. If you’re a great writer, Write at one article. If you you’re a little bit messy and don’t keep database of your contacts higher part time assistant or offshore to help you to scan the cards, navigate it, update it a lot. Most of the things are fixable. Some of them are not in control. Those are threats. For example, it’s like, you know, recession is coming. Great. You can buy insurance, but you cannot stop the recession. Weakness is something that you’re actually more of a control and you can fix the situation. Like, I am not a good writer. I don’t enjoy writing, I enjoy being creative, but I don’t enjoy writing, so I occasionally get help. I write the core people help me to perfect it. That’s how we find generates one of the highest rate of returns. 

Of course, you do need to get up. All, ideally all pieces in place because, you know, having perfect engine and having really lousy transmission, you’re not going to get far. This is the engine. It will help you even if you don’t have a perfect transmission will help you. But try to do all the 12 steps. We’ve done it with our clients. We have seen people do it themselves. Most people don’t have enough discipline to do it themselves, but we had amazing experience with one of our members two and a half years ago, which really encouraged us to take on clients to do it, where after one one-hour workshop, one of our members came back a month later. He like almost double, almost double our deal flow within a month and I followed the steps. 

He mentioned which step he followed and it was just phenomenal. When we do it with our clients, where we kind of hold their hand and really help them navigate and take 6 to 12 months to do it. The result was seeing some of the people you know, Jeremy. They increase the deal flow 2.2 times, which really helps, you know, if you’re in high profit margin business like investment banking, private equity, that generates million dollars’ worth of transaction value.

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