Brad is an attorney, entrepreneur, and business strategist who specializes in the transfer of family and closely-held businesses. He is also a former board member of Catalyst Connection.

Brad began his professional career by becoming a CPA and working for the international accounting firm now known as EY. From there, Brad became an entrepreneurial strategic business adviser and a business lawyer representing every aspect of the closely-held business.

Standout Quotes:

• "Writing is the highest form of thinking" - [Brad]
• "It's not that there's a particular process but you pick a process" - [Brad]
• "The longer you wait, the fewer the options you have, with respect to succession planning" - [Brad]
• "You can't do strategic planning unless you understand the company's culture" - [Brad]
• "It is incredible how many times people think they know what they have, and they don't" - [Brad]
• "Conflict is good, it gets things out" - [Brad]
• "All progress begins with honesty" - [Brad]
• "Most people overestimate what they can do in a year, they underestimate what they can do in ten" - [Brad]
• "If you want to improve something, measure it, if you want to improve something exponentially, measure it and have a report on it" - [Brad]
• "Succession planning is a form of strategic planning" - [Brad]
• "For things to stay the same, things must change" - [Brad]
• "I try to tell that next gen, 'your job is to increase the value and to maintain the values' " - [Brad]

Key Takeaways:

• Bradley is the author of the Amazon bestseller "The Succession Solution" and his firm, 'The Succession Coach' works with business owners to create and execute their succession plans. Brad is now an entrepreneurial strategic business adviser and a business lawyer representing closely-held businesses.
• Brad had started as a CPA with the goal to reduce taxes, and later he went on to go to law school. He realized he was helping but not solving the problem so he merged strategic planning with Estate and Succession planning which formed the Succession Solution.
• Initially, his goal was to simply put down the strategy so he could convince himself that it was feasible, however, he realized someone else could also benefit from reading it. This was how he went ahead to write his book, The Succession Solution.
• After starting a business that had made losses for two years, Brad employed strategic planning and the difference was clear; the business bounced back.
• There are 3 types of succession; Succession of Knowledge, Management, and Ownership. It is unlikely to be able to ensure the succession of management and ownership without the transfer of knowledge. However, more often than not. Succession involves the transfer of ownership with closely held business owners.
• The Succession Solution: Brad usually starts by discussing with the significant stakeholders to understand what is on the ground before getting fully involved. He also ensures the family is willing to cooperate and gets commitment upfront.
• The 6 stages of the succession plan: The first stage is the Purpose stage; identifying the basic values, the vision, and the "Why?". Next is the Discovery stage; understanding where they are before starting. The third step is the Challenge; to identify their strengths, opportunities, and most importantly, the obstacles. Most of the time what people want to get from the 6 steps is certainty because uncertainty creates anxiety.
• Brad emphasizes that conflict is good however, how that conflict is managed is critical. Communication and trust are the reason most companies fail.
• The fourth stage of the succession plan is the Mission stage. This is where the group sets milestones and creates strategies to overcome the obstacles previously identified. The Annual stage is next, and here the group decides steps that need to be taken within the next 12 months, to get closer to the milestones already set. The last stage is the Quarterly Review stage where the question is "what do we do in the next 90 days to get closer to the objective for the Annual stage?"
• The conversation of succession planning is a function of the board, hence, while members of the younger generation can have a personal conversation with their parents as the business leaders, it is fundamentally expected that the board is well suited to answer these questions. It is also helpful to talk to the professionals.
• Giving purpose to the outgoing generation of leaders in the family business is highly essential as it is a part of their transition. A good step is to create a family council for them to transition into, allowing them to offer more insight particularly on the culture and values of the business. The family office and council would also need succession planning.
• Succession planning is a form of strategic planning, as such, families should consider commencing strategic planning right after planning for succession.
• "The job of the incoming generation is to increase the value and to maintain the values" it is the job of the senior leadership to educate the upcoming leaders on the values of the business.
• Lack of planning for succession can ultimately lead to a closure of the business or loss of key employees due to uncertainty.
• Listeners who want to know how to get started with succession planning are encouraged to educate themselves first; Brad's book, "The Succession Solution" is a good resource. With adequate knowledge, they can also discuss with professionals.
• Brad's letter to his children: Never stop reading; if you want to improve yourself, read books.

Episode Timeline:

• [00:49] Introducing today's guest, Bradley J Franc.
• [01:53] Brad shares his backstory.
• [04:25] What inspired you to write your book, "The Succession Story"?
• [05:52] Discussing the importance and role of Strategic Planning.
• [09:10] At what point do you typically get involved in the business?
• [10:50] The Succession Solution (6 stages of the succession plan)
• [26:10] How can the upcoming generation approach the conversation of succession planning with the leader in the business?
  
• [32:13] Do you also create succession plans for the family council?
• [36:04] Consequences of poor succession planning.
• [40:21] What do you suggest as a first step in succession planning?
• [42:00] Brad's letter to his children.

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Special Guest: Bradley J Franc .

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• The Succession Solution — Bradly J. Franc (“Brad”), is the creator and author of the Amazon best-selling book entitled The Succession Solution: The Strategic Guide to Business Transition.

Standout Quotes:

• "The path to helping families is not in having the right answers for them, but it's about having the right questions for them" - [Dave]
• "Clients know if you're genuinely curious about their lives, or you're genuinely trying to get into a transaction with them" - [Dave]
• "What is your ambitious pursuit, what is it that wakes you up in the morning that you want to chase?" - [Dave]
• "Ultimately if we can stay grateful, entitlement can't sneak in… gratitude and entitlements are incompatible roommates" - [Dave]
• "One of the bigger challenges that families of wealth have is creating a rising generation with ownership mentality" - [Dave]
• "Most of the family wealth that we see lost is due to breakdown in relationships, not poor investment planning" - [Mike]
• "Fair does not mean equal" - [Mike]
• "You either define what it means to be wealthy or you will be defined by your wealth by others" - [Dave]
• "One of the biggest mistakes advisors make is discounting the spouse or not involving the spouse early; they're the ones that are going to nudge the process forward" - [Dave]
• "Your worth is not measured in dollars and cents" - [Dave]

Key Takeaways:

• Dave is the Director of the Global Family Business Institute at the Drucker School of Management. He is the author of "The Family Business Whisperer". His personal mission is to preserve families and perpetuate businesses.
• After selecting Family Business Management as an elective to finish his Masters, Dave realized that several nonfinancial issues were keeping families from making good decisions and this piqued his interest.
• Dave worked for a few years with a broker/dealer till he decided to focus more on working with the families directly. He later worked on his own in Family business consulting while creating a Family Business Program at the University of Nebraska.
• Asking Inspired Questions: What question are we going to ask that will get the person storytelling so we can learn what they care about? This idea was inspired by the effort he had put into the questions he asked his kids to understand them better. Dave describes the framework for Inspired Questions: Avoid yes/no questions; ask open-ended questions that lead people to tell a story. Secondly, don't ask questions you know the answer to. Lastly, ask questions that don't have a right or wrong answer. Having genuine curiosity is much more important than just seeing the interaction as a transaction.
• Although not from a wealthy family, Dave had learned some dynamics of wealth from his family, watching and understanding their actions in regards to finances.
• Dave encourages his kids to have an ownership mindset and not limit themselves, even while keeping the values of a good honest job. What is your ambitious pursuit? If we focus too much on giving the best to our children, we may only pass on valuables rather than values.
• Raising children amid wealth (The 3Gs): Gratitude, Goals, and Grit are tools Dave recommends. Gratitude prevents a sense of entitlement. Having goals helps kids translate lessons learned as they grow while having a worthy pursuit more valuable than money. Grit involves knowing how to say No to your kids, when yes is always an option. How do you bail your kids out when they have trouble?
• Driven by his motivation to have as large an impact as possible in the world, Dave wrote his book titled "The Family Business Whisperer", targeted at both families and their advisers.
• Families often don't train the next generation to become owners because we don't want them to fail while we're watching. However, part of this training can be done by co-investing with kids to meet some of their smaller needs. Additionally, building a working shared ownership mentality among kids can be difficult but is necessary, so it helps to start with small shared decisions.
• It is important to start to see wealth in the different forms it takes, from money to values and now, wellbeing. Parents need to define what it means to be wealthy, particularly understanding the different dimensions there are to wealth as it would be a mistake to simply focus on financial wealth. If we can get people to budget time and resources to develop other forms of capital in the family, it would improve the relationship with financial wealth. Half the battle is just showing up, making out the time to focus on the family, even though it is usually messy in the beginning.
• Mothers of Influence: Often a patriarch is spearheading the family business, however, it is necessary to recognize those who played a support role. These groups of people are often the story keepers of the family business, and ultimately their perspective of the business determines the kind of story passed on to the kids, which affects the mindset of the kids towards the business. Advisors often make the mistake to discount the spouse; no better person is as motivated in pushing the process than the mothers that are fully invested in their kids.
• Determining the role of spouses in inheriting a family business can be very tricky, however, it helps to put in perspective what the goal is, regarding the spouses.
• Families should first identify their hopes and goals concerning the family assets, after which the technical expertise can be invited to achieve those goals. Unfortunately, most families always start by inviting technical expertise to manage the asset before realizing the goals of the family members vary significantly.
• The first step to successfully managing multigenerational wealth is to find someone that will ask the tough questions to identify the hopes and fears of family members.
• Dave's goal at the Drucker school is also to have a global impact, using principles attached to management that align with the methods already employed by the school. It also provides a noncommercial environment to bring families together to be vulnerable and learn together; particularly the rising generation of family business leaders.
• From Dave to his kids: Your worth is not measured in dollars and cents. Happiness is found in ambitiously pursuing worthwhile goals, and that has nothing to do with money either.
  

Episode Timeline:

• [00:50] About today's guest, Dave Specht.
• [01:40] Dave shares his backstory.
• [08:15] Asking Inspired Questions.
• [15:13] How has your understanding of family dynamics played out in your family?
• [18:21] How to appropriately raise children amidst wealth.
• [22:42] The inspiration for Dave's book, 'The Family Business Whisperer'.
• [24:55] Ownership vs Stewardship
• [34:42] Did you introduce this idea of passing down different forms of wealth asides from money?
• [39:18] Mothers of Influence.
• [43:10] Discussing identity as it relates to multigenerational family business and wealth.
• [48:00] How can a family new to substantial wealth start working towards multigenerational success?
• [50:00] What do you hope to achieve at the Drucker School?
• [52:00] Dave's message to his kids.

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Special Guest: Dave Specht.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• The Family Business Whisperer — Dave is the author of, "The Family Business Whisperer." Prior to joining the Drucker School Dave helped lead a Family Dynamics team at one of the largest Private Banks in the United States where he trained over 2,500 advisors.
• Drucker School Global Family Business Institute — Dave Specht is the Director of the Global Family Business Institute at The Drucker School of Management.
• Dave Specht — Dave Specht currently serve as the Director of the Global Family Business Institute at The Drucker School of Management. He is an ambassador for the family-owned business and write, deliver keynote speeches and develop programs on topics related to family business. He is the author of, "The Family Business Whisperer" and have a consulting firm called, "Advising Generations."

Standout Quotes:

• "Something that's happening industry-wide or at least in the US is the concept that being a corporate trustee is a different business than the asset management side of wealth management" - [Frazer]
• "Most of the trust planning is articulating a move at the minimum from Gen 1 to Gen 2" - [Frazer]
• "I view the Trust and the planning around the Trust to be an outgrowth, when done correctly, of a solid communication structure that has been developed within the family" - [Frazer]
• "What the family bank approach is offering to families is a way for them to pass on their intellectual capital...to their human capital, the next generation by having them apply for the financial capital" - [Mike]
• "If the kids see what's important to the other kids early, and attach a dollar manifestation around that, I think that you're building the context so you have fewer blow-ups later on" - [Frazer]
• "I think the most important thing anyone can have in their lifestyle is the ability to be comfortable in their own skin" - [Frazer]

Key Takeaways:

• Frazer shares his background and experiences so far, from college to working in politics, after which he decided to study law and gained exposure while working in different firms. His career started down the path of wealth management when he worked with a Trust company.
• He is also the author of the book "Wealth Actually" and the host of a podcast that discusses topics related to finance and wealth management even though that was not the initial plan for the podcast.
• Pendleton Square Trust is an administrative Trust company that fulfills the function in a Trustee role aimed at helping families get access to good Tennessee jurisdiction.
• 3 main Functions of a Trustee: First is the administrative function which includes safeguarding and reporting on assets, paying the taxes. The Second is the distribution of the asset to beneficiaries. The third function is the investment management of the asset which is excluded at Pendleton, Frazer believes most places don't do everything well.
• A trustee does not have to be a corporation, it can be an individual acting as a trustee with the ability to perform all 3 key functions, however, it may be difficult to find one person who is great at all functions.
• A lot of families would prefer to have more control, and a private trust company allows them to control the aspects they're comfortable with and outsource the rest.
• There is a possible conflict where corporate trustees who also provide asset management services invariably provide their asset management services.
• The most common customer for the company is a US family that is either actively transferring wealth from the first generation to the second generation or generally has a multi-generational approach.
• For those families that have taken their hands off the wheel in terms of managing the wealth, the Trust company operates more like a family office but for those still actively engaged in the continuation of the business, that business becomes the real center of the family office.
• One of the real destroyers of wealth is bad communication amongst the family, this leads to conflict, which leads to litigation and litigation is expensive
• There's a lot of good work that needs to be done ahead of building the structures so that you're not only setting something up that takes care of the money for the family, you're also getting the family ready for the money.
• Family or Shared Philanthropy is one of the tools that helps to work with families as it gets the family members to express their interests and helps them work together while considering the needs of each other.
• The Vacation Fund Concept: This is another tool, and the idea is to have the kids make a joint decision around the investment of money by getting them to plan the vacation based on a particular amount available. It helps identify which kids have aptitude and interest, the aggressive or conservative ones, and other responses exhibited by the kids towards the task. Summarily the kids get involved in financial planning and learn critical points related to it.
• The idea of a Family Bank is putting structure around the request of money for projects so that it forces preparedness in front of real people who have to make a decision. Learning that persuasion is important helps the next generation to deal with the real world.
• It also provides an opportunity to combat the situation of assets growing linearly being overtaken by liabilities growing geometrically, as more opportunities explored can increase the growth of assets.
• There's a big difference between Operational succession and Ownership Succession of a family business, the difference in roles may mean some people get paid more but this needs to be discussed earlier on before the transition period.
• From Frazer to his kids: I think the most important thing anyone can have in their lifestyle is the ability to be comfortable in their skin. The concept of trying to please other people's sense of success is a difficult road because you're never going to please everyone all the time, more so you will be running from things that could be your path to success. o
• Run your own race, be comfortable in your own skin.

Episode Timeline:

• [00:46] Introducing today's guest, Frazer Rice, Regional Director for Pendleton Square Trust Company.
• [07:26] About Pendleton Square Trust Company and Wealth Management.
• [08:46] The 3 main functions of a Trustee.
• [11:21] In the US, do families have to appoint a company to act as Trustee in an administrative capacity.
• [12:16] The concept of a Private Trust Company.
• [18:54] Who would you say is your most common customer?
• [28:02] Frazer shares tools used when working with families.
• [32:51] The Vacation Fund Concept.
• [38:40] Frazer's insight on a Family Bank.
• [47:57] Frazer's letter to his kids

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Special Guest: Frazer Rice.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• FrazerRice — Frazer Rice is a leading private wealth manager, with fifteen years' experience advising millionaire and billionaire families on finances, including fiduciary and estate matters.
• Wealth, Actually — Frazer Rice is the author and podcast host of "Wealth, Actually" The book centers on decision-making for wealthy families
• Pendleton Square | Trust Company — Frazer Rice is a Regional Director for Pendleton Square Trust Company.

She has rightly observed that while work is where we spend the majority of our time, much of it is spent wishing we were somewhere else, doing something else. Divorcing meaning from our work too often leaves us blindly trudging through a mediocre life using money as the miserly arbiter of success in matters of soul and meaning. It leads to an endless chase for more, hoping to outsmart death and desperately prove that our life somehow mattered. Even worse, when work is how we define ourselves and we are faced with job loss or impending retirement, it can seem terrifying.

What happens when your old answer to the question “What Do You Do?” no longer fits? If you thought you are what you do, and suddenly you don’t do it anymore, do you not exist?

Standout Quotes:

• "Every family's dynamic is slightly different and always the same" - [Denise]
• "So as fear starts to escalate, our thinking is disrupted" - [Denise]
• "The best transitions happen 5 years before someone is ready" - [Denise]
• "The reality is that every owner will exit their business, voluntarily or involuntarily... so you will either transition to someone or you will leave your business with it being unprepared" - [Denise]
• "if we look at mortality issues, often the more mortality resistance that someone has , the higher the likelihood is that they will also be avoiding succession planning"
• One of the questions I start early on with an owner is ''what does work provide for you, beyond the money?... where will you get those needs met outside the business?" - [Denise]
• "Succession happens at all different ages" - [Denise]
• "Are we simply creating roles in the business so family members have work to do, as opposed to are they the right people in the business?" - [Denise]
• "Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and gorgeous at the end" - [Mike]
• "Transparency always works, it is always better" - [Denise]
• "The arc of the journey for an owner is the same, whether we're talking about a $50000 hair salon or 500 million-dollar company, the arc of transition that's happening for someone is the same"
• "Transition will happen no matter what, so the question is 'what kind of transition do you want to have as a business owner?'"
• "Success is often determined by how prepared you are rather than just letting it be" - [Mike]
• "Our legacy comes from our daily actions, it is not just the amount of money that we leave behind or the money that we have accumulated" - [Denise]
• "We can often get completely spun up on what our number is, the number is not the number in the bank account, the number is the number of memories that we have left behind because that is truly how we will be remembered" - [Denise]

Key Takeaways:

• Denise started as a mental health professional and then moved into practicing Law where she started her firm but sold because she lost interest in the business. This prompted her to start a road trip till she was invited to help build a friend's business before the sale, an experience that kick-started her work of helping owners transition during the sale of their businesses. It also inspired her book, "The Seller's Journey".
• Using the analogy of a fist, Denise likens the fear center in the brain, 'the Amygdala' to the thumb of the hand, pointing out that while the other fingers could restrict the thumb's movements the same way the frontal cortex can restrict the Amygdala, excessive pressure from the thumb or the Amygdala, in this case, can break free of the restraint, leaving the fear to roam free. This explains the chaotic nature exhibited by people, typical of family dynamics.
• Another description using the hand involves the 5 ways through which fear shows up, the 5 fingers are used to represent them; Fight Flight Freeze Fawn, and Submit. Individually, there are often 2 or 3 of them that function more as natural go-to responses when facing fear, anger, or stress.
• The anchor, Wave, and Island styles of attachment: An Anchor attachment is someone who can tolerate too close or too far. An Island attachment is the type of person who pulls away or isolates themselves when things get rough. A wave attachment describes a person who reacts to disruption by continually checking on others.
• It is necessary to identify needs that are met by the business beyond the money because there is concern about how these needs will be met outside the business, and this could often form the basis for the continuous attachment to the business.
• Addressing the handling of messy parts of the conversation, Denise emphasizes the importance of honesty and transparency in allaying the fears that may misguide people's actions in the family.
• The 'O-MY' syndrome (One More Year) occurs where a seller repeatedly creates reasons to delay their exit from the business whenever they get closer to the agreed time of sale. This is a signal that something else is going on, a different existential crisis and there are needs to be met.
• The moment that you cease to exist is when the last person who has a story to tell about you passes.
• Money matters, but it's not the only thing that matters.
• There will always be a story that is told about you, the question is "is it the story that you would like to have told about you?"
• From Denise to her kids: The way you will know that you were loved was by how you were held and how you were cared for, not by what I left you.

Episode Timeline:

• [00:49] Meet today's guest, "Denise Logan" a.k.a 'the Seller Whisperer'.
• [01:45] An overview of the journey to becoming "the Seller Whisperer".
• [08:52] Denise's 'fist' analogy in describing the role of fear in the brain.
• [11:30] The 5 Appearances of Fear.
• [14:10] The anchor, Wave, and Island styles of attachment.
• [18:10] Do families typically find you when a transition is already underway or as they're contemplating a transition or an exit?
• [33:23] How do you handle the messy aspects of the discussion?
• [45:30] How often do sellers get caught up on a particular figure that they will only sell at?
• [50:39] Discussing the success of transitions generally.
• [01:00:56] A letter from Denise

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Special Guest: Denise Logan.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Denise Logan | Speaker, Author, Consultant — Weaving together her background as a lawyer, social worker and business owner has enabled Denise Logan to deftly guide hundreds of business owners and their professional teams as they navigate the complex emotional journey of selling their business and letting go into their own version of what’s next.
• New Book: "The Seller’s Journey" | Denise Logan — A new book by Denise Logan Fewer than 30% of all businesses for sale successfully transition to a new owner and those that do typically take more than nine agonizing months filled with uncertainty. The longer a sale process takes, the more stressful it becomes for the owner & the deal team and the lower the probability of success.

I was fortunate enough to preview his new book which was released last month, titled Life Profitability. In Life Profitability, Adii provides you with a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognising your values, and understanding your impact. An enriched life and successful business are not mutually exclusive. In fact, this book will provide you with the first steps in building a business that is more sustainable with increased options for you, your employees, and your family.

Standout Quotes:

• "The biggest burden I felt was that transition from wealth generation to wealth maintenance" - [Adii]
• "I think in any kind of business partner relationships, as long as everyone is aligned towards the same goal, then everything is hunky-dory, and as soon as someone is not aligned with your process then everything is not hunky-dory" - [Adii]
• "Whatever I do, it should be that truest expression of self" - [Adii]
• "There are multiple things that pull us into different directions on a daily basis but having an awareness of when that happens... that's Mindfulness" - [Adii]
• "I truly believe in transparency for the kids" - [Adii]
• "The family office should serve as a leg up for the trustees and that's the kids, right? it's not a handout" - [Adii]
• "Neither the family office or any of our individual lives should be so rigid like we're constantly trying to fit into a single recipe" - [Adii]
• "The cost of anything we do in life is just Life" - [Adii]
• "I don't care if they miss 99% of it, even if they become 1% of the context of this conversation" - [Adii]
• "The way I think about legacy is, if I were to die tomorrow, the goal would be to have left my kids or anyone who cares enough breadcrumbs about who I really was" - [Adii]

Key Takeaways:

• A major transition point for Adii was moving from wealth generation to wealth maintenance.
• With little information on how to run a family office, he was able to get started by asking questions and got propelled into motion when the law firm got the right people around him to explain the process.
• Adii describes his value system: How can I wake up every single morning and spend my time manifesting the truest expression and version of myself in anything that I do?
• An ideal day for Adii is "being present".
• Adii explains that the main reason he went back into entrepreneurship was he wanted to create again, he was enthusiastic about building a team, and those are his higher values for now.
• While admitting that his kids have a great life especially from the financial perspective, he is concerned not to bring up spoilt kids who can't be individuals with their purpose.
• Adii describes the strategies he uses to help build his kids to become individuals with a backbone: Transparency, which involves letting the kids be fully aware and involved with the ongoings in the family office, as well as the concept of Gratitude.
• The family office should always prioritize business ideas from the trustees.
• Expounding on the concept of 'Paying a Life Dividend': A business that's not just financially profitable but profits your whole life. Adi discusses the relevance of having assets that mean more than their financial value to the family, which is selected by stress testing, effective communication, and evolution.
• It is important to sequence things, rather than doing two things at once and have none getting your full attention.
• Every single minute of our day, we only have finite attention, time, and energy to do anything, so the decision to anything is costing us life.
• Unfortunately, mainstream media has created a narrow definition of success that serves barely 0.1% of the world, but there is a much wider and diverse definition of success for the rest of us, and it is our responsibility to define it.
• To Adii's Children: Do the work, continue learning towards discovering who you are, and figure out how to manifest that in most of the things you do in life.

Episode Timeline:

• [00:49] About today's guest, Adii Pienaar, describing his origin story and path to First-generation wealth.
• [08:26] What does a family office mean to you, and how did you know what to do when you set out to do this for the first time?
• [11:19] How have you and your understanding of value systems evolved?
• [13:59] Adii describes his picture of an ideal day.
• [16:13] His motivation for diving into entrepreneurship for the 3rd time.
• [19:20] How have you explored this concept of multi-generational wealth or the family office?
• [29:50] 'Paying a Life Dividend'
• [37:34] Adii recounts a significant failure with the lessons learned.
• [40:15] About Adii's book: "Life Profitability"
• [49:12] What was the motivation for writing and publishing a book?
• [53:00] How else do you document your history within your family for the next generation to discover?
• [54:40] Adii's letter to his children.

For more episodes go to
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Adii Pienaar.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Adii Pienaar - Personal Website — Adii Pienaar is the founder of three technology companies, two of which he’s exited so far to create first generation wealth for his family
• CM Commerce: Email automation for ecommerce stores — Adii Pienaar is the founder of Conversio
• WooCommerce - Sell Online With The eCommerce Platform for WordPress — Adii was co-founder of WooThemes/WooCommerce
• Life Profitability: The New Measure of Entrepreneurial Success by Adii Pienaar | Amazon — In Life Profitability, Adii provides you with a new perspective for becoming self-aware, recognising your values, and understanding your impact

Mitzi likes nothing better than to share insider tips for successful family businesses. Her family of origin (the one that started the Sheraton Hotels) began with the family business, Henderson Estate Company, in 1840, and her Perdue family started in 1920 in the poultry business. These two families have a combined tradition of 276 years of staying together as a family.

Standout Quotes:

• "The odds of a family business lasting 100 years are 1 in 1000" - [Mitzi]
• "The families who put a lot of effort into designing their cultures are the ones that survive, the ones that let things happen as they may, that rarely supports keeping the family business together over the generations" - [Mitzi]
• "70% of family businesses won't make it to the next generation, so if you want your family to last, put a lot of intentionality into letting the family members know from the youngest age that they're part of something bigger than themselves" - [Mitzi]
• "The biggest reason families don't last is family quarrels" - [Mitzi]
• "So a big piece of advice I'd have for every family is, deal with the problems, get them out, come to a resolution but don't go the press, don't go to adversarial lawyers" - [Mitzi]
• "We're measured by what you can give, not what you can get" - [Mitzi]
• "I don't think you can be happy if you're not part of something bigger than yourself...
• If you want to be happy, think what you can do for somebody else, if you really want to be miserable, think what's owed to you" - [Mitzi]
• "In general, your family will be better functioning the more it knows its stories" - [Mitzi]
• "If your children turn out right, nothing else matters, if your children turn out wrong, nothing else matters" - [Mitzi]

Key Takeaways:

• Mitzi is a part of two multi-generational business families, each of which has lasted for over 100years and over 5 generations.
• Mitzi explains that a lot of conscious effort was put into strengthening the families over the years, noting in particular one of the strategies being the "Service to the Family" award.
• Every single family that exists has a culture, but is it a culture that came about by accident or by design?
• It is critical to be intentional about designing and maintaining family culture as it plays a major role in the success of a family business over generations, rather than just allowing things to happen as they may.
• People need a lot of guidance to be steered away from selfishness, and that takes intentionality.
• Separating Ownership and Control helps create a perspective of the family as an entity bigger than any one person, and consequently gives a better understanding of the role of stewardship.
• Mitzi explains her innovative idea to inculcate the family values in family members, right from childhood.
• Noting the importance of knowing how to handle family quarrels, Mitzi strongly emphasizes avoiding the press or lawyers but rather encourages outspokenness within the family.
• Three ways that a family can intentionally stay together: Family Newsletters, Family Reunions, and Philanthropy.
• Mitzi highlights the positive effects of connecting with both present and past members of the family on the well-being, physically and mentally, of the family.
• As a personal preference, Mitzi would rather use books as a means to archive family history compared to other forms of technology, as it may be difficult to access the archive in the future if the technology used to archive it is outdated by that time.
• Mitzi recommends entering a new family with humility, observing them, noting what gains you points and what doesn't, also pointing out that while the two families had very different values, the values were very compatible.
• Mitzi's letter to her kids: Be generous, be kind, be honest, work hard but be a good steward.

Episode Timeline:

• [00:49] Introducing Mitzi Perdue, to discuss actionable advice on how her family has maintained their businesses and family dynamics for generations.
• [02:28] Mitzi shares the origin stories of both business families she is a part of.
• [04:46] What generation are you in each of these families and what generation are these families up to?
• [10:08] Every family has a culture.
• [13:22] About the family values and how they are inculcated with other members of the family.
• [25:53]How big was the business when it went from family control to external control?
• [34:02] How has the endowment grown to keep up with the growing size of the family?
• [35:34] The 'What It Means To Be Us' book.
• [38:35] Do you have a process or value system around how you keep records for the family?
• [52:50] How was the process of assimilating two different value systems upon joining another family and what differences did you observe?
• [57:15] Is there a constitution for the family?
• [01:00:43] A letter from Mitzi to her children.

For more episodes go to
BusinessOfFamily.net

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If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Mitzi Perdue.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Mitzi Perdue — Mitzi Perdue is a Businesswoman, speaker, writer, Founder of the Sheraton Hotel chain
• International Hotels & Resorts | Sheraton Hotels & Resorts — Mitzi perdue's father founded the Sheraton Hotel Chain
• How to Communicate Values to Children — Book by Mitzi Perdue
• How to Make Your Family Business Last — Book by Mitzi Perdue
• How to Keep Your Family Connected: Templates, Techniques and Resources for Strengthening Your Legacy - Book by Mitzi Perdue
• Home Page | PERDUE® Chicken
• Frank Perdue - Wikipedia
• TOUGH MAN, TENDER CHICKEN: Business and Life Lessons From Frank Perdue - Book by Mitzi Perdue — This is the story of how Frank Perdue built his chicken and grain company from a father and son operation to an international company that today employs 19,000 people and sells to more than 100 countries.

A serial social enterprise entrepreneur, co-owner of the WNBA Seattle Storm, and a writer, Ginny continues to look for ways to expand the footprint of women's professional sports in the U.S.

Standout Quotes:

• "The way that people really become good at something and grow wealth is by concentration" - [Ginny]
• "There are gifts hidden in tough times" - [Ginny]
• "You should keep doing something only as long as you're learning and growing" - [Ginny]
• "For any family that's lucky enough to have financial wealth you've got to think about whether you are going to insist that people get along, and at what price" - [Ginny]
• "The biggest thing that's probably shifted is recognizing what we really want, which is adult relationships with our adult children" - [Ginny]
• "If you want to see change in the world, well, you've got to invest, cos nothing's going to happen if you're not going to invest" - [Ginny]
• "What's really most important to most people is Human Connection... and if you really want to be connected, you've got to deal with the stuff that's the toughest" - [Ginny]

Key Takeaways:

• After making many mistakes starting a nonprofit, Ginny set up a business that helps start-up nonprofits avoid similar mistakes and achieve their goals.
• Early in her career, she had goals that were not related to working in the family business.
• Having a financial cushion had benefits, like the freedom to work without being tied to a focus on amassing wealth, although it came with less attention from their father.
• When the time came for a transition of the family business, she knew she had to step up to the responsibility placed on her despite her lack of knowledge or passion in the family business.
• There has to be a lot of very direct conversations if you want to be in business with your siblings.
• Ginny clearly explains that she has no passion for the investment business, but got involved, for the love of family, the financial security, and the business relationships that come with it.
• Having an investment office rather than a family office with bells and whistles was geared at equipping her kids to be independent, self-sufficient, and capable human beings.
• Honesty has been hugely instrumental in navigating the family dynamics in Ginny's family, she also had to understand the importance of having adult relationships with her adult children.
• When things go wrong, that's when you have to figure it out and it's also when you find out the relationships that are solid.
• The importance of dealing with difficult family relationships: it's so easy when life is good to think everything is fine but as soon as life gets hard if you haven't dealt with challenges and learned how to disagree and resolve differences, you're not going to make it through the hardest parts of life.

Episode Timeline:

• [00:49] Meet Ginny Gilder; sharing her personal and professional background.
• [01:34] Her family history and the origin of the family business
• [08:20] How Ginny got into the investment business.
• [22:50] What was your father's position when you started your nonprofit organization?
• [29:00] Ginny describes how the family dynamics affected the transition of the business to her generation.
• [30:42] What would you say that you've learned from the separation of roles between family and business?
• [33:22] What is the family business structure going forward?
• [40:05] How do you differentiate your investment office from a family office?
• [41:20] About Gilder Office for Growth
• [48:56] How do you navigate through your family dynamics in the world of wealth?
• [53:15] Tell us about what you're most passionate about in terms of one of the businesses that you own today.
• [01:00:40] Ginny's letter to her kids

*For more episodes go to *
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Ginny Gilder.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Seattle Storm — Ginny Gilder is the co-owner of the WNBA Seattle Storm
• Gilder Office For Growth — Ginny Gilder is the CEO & Founder of Gilder Office for Growth

George grew up as a child of family business owners and has run several Isaac multigenerational family businesses as a CEO and board member. More recently, he is the founder and president of GAI Capital Ltd., a family business consulting firm and the author of a newly released book titled Your Business, Your Family, Your Legacy: Building a Multigenerational Family Business That Lasts

Standout Quotes:

• "I realized that some of the things I did in running our family business and what a lot of people are doing today are not best practices"
• "I used to think that the goal was to get everybody in the family to stay in the family business and figure out a way to make them live happily ever after... My goal now is to understand the real needs of each family member and see if they fit within what the family business is going to be about"
• "The majority can rule and figure out what they want to do but you need to deal with the minority issues... so that you can satisfy their needs"
• "The most important to me of the whole thing is just being certain that your ownership group is aligned"
• "There are times when you should sell your family business"
• "Shareholder returns are much different than business returns... Figuring out how you provide real-life shareholder returns is an important step that many of us don't recognize"
• "Money is not everything by any means"

Key Takeaways:

• Although George had gotten involved in the family business at a very early age and had planned to join fully after school, he decided to go out and get outside experience first.
• George notes that the Authoritarian leadership style of his father, although a good leader, made for a rather weak management team generally.
• The 2 conceptual parts to George's 9-step succession planning roadmap: Family Transition Planning and Business Transition Planning.
• George explains that formerly his goal would be to make everyone stay in the family business and be happy, but now he tries to understand the individual needs of each family member, to see if they fit into the family business as a whole.
• It is necessary to revisit the topic of people's needs and be sure the business is aligned with taking care of these needs because those needs change over time.
• The 2 Basic components of selling the family business: the financial side and the personal side.
• Headwinds that perpetuate a multi-generational family wealth: FIST ( Family units, Inflation, Spending rate, Taxes)
• George shares some insight from the book "Everybody matters", describing how attention to the little things can go a long way in making workers satisfied
• Think about what you want your legacy to be; are you aligning yourself with that legacy?
• Be Curious and Have Empathy

Episode Timeline:

• [00:49] A short overview of George's background and the Isaac family business
• [05:12] George is the 3rd generation of the family business
• [05:28] What sort of product lines is the business in?
• [06:22] How did your story evolve into the family advisory work?
• [09:44] About the A 9-step succession planning roadmap from George's book
• [17:16] George highlights implications to consider in selling a family business
• [23:37] The Family Business Wealth Evaporation Trap
• [33:05] F.I.S.T
• [36:51] Is it possible to maintain wealth at a reasonable level even though the family grows at a compound rate as the generations go on?
• [39:47] George shares his opinion about children inheriting wealth.
• [41:51] George recommends the book "Everybody Matters" by Bob Chapman
• [44:31] From George to his kids

*For more episodes go to *
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: George Isaac.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• George Isaac - Management Consulting, Family Business Consulting, Corporate Board Membership — George Isaac is the founder and president of GAI Capital Ltd.
• Book: Your Business, Your Family, Your Legacy: Building a Multigenerational Family Business That Lasts - George A. Isaac — 5-star "Amazon's #1 New Release" Rated Book Whether you are an experienced family business or family office executive, board member, owner, or next-generation family member, George Isaac has written the definitive handbook on the challenges of managing a multi-generational family enterprise.
• Ten Critical Initiatives for Family Business Longevity - Tharawat Magazine — Your family business is your best vehicle for generating income, preserving wealth and serving the needs of your stakeholders. Yet, sustaining family enterprises for the next generation is a continuous challenge, with the majority not surviving.
• Family Business Pandemic Cash Flow Survival Strategies - Family Business Magazine

Paul leads young adult retreats, focusing on authentic relationships, navigating change, and leadership development. He also coaches young adults seeking clarity on their life purpose, mission, and vision, and guides them to take full responsibility for their lives.

Jim’s work has led him to write three books and an audio series based on high achievers’ yearnings for identity, meaning, and connection. He has been married 44 years and enjoys enriching relationships with his wife, their three adult children, and a granddaughter.

Jim and Paul work extensively with Young Presidents’ Organization and Family Business Network Families Worldwide. The last dozen years they have also guided several S.E. Asian families in their quest to establish enduring principles across multiple generations.

Standout Quotes:

• "One of the major issues of families of wealth is they make the mistake of insulating the kids from the realities of living outside of the wealth bubble" - [Jim Warner]
• "Without being able to experience pain, you cheat people out of the ability to experience joy; I'd like to think of pain and joy as opposite sides of the same coin and if you mute one, you're gonna mute the other" - [Jim Warner]
• "If we want our young adult children to step into their sense of destiny, are we modeling that ourselves?" - [Jim Warner]
• "If you've worked with one family, you've worked with one family" - [Jim and Paul Warner]
• "Introduce a common language within the family so that we can play in these intentional spaces, to stretch towards each other." [Paul Warner]
• "Harmony is impossible without the willingness to go into painful discussions" - [Jim Warner]
• "If you choose not to discuss the Elephant in the room, you forfeit the right to complain" - [Jim Warner]
• "When all parties are willing to play ball, when all parties are willing to take responsibility, we'll often say "right now this family has 600% responsibility" each of you takes 100% responsibility for what is within your control." [Paul Warner]
• "Love is unconditional, relationships are not" - [Jim Warner]

Key Takeaways:

• Jim explains the need to distinguish supporting and protecting, from enabling, because oftentimes families blur those lines.
• Mike and Jim agree that being insulated from the rest of the world does not necessarily protect wealthy children but may do more harm than good.
• Governance structures are secondary to parental modeling of core values.
• Rather than jumping right into getting the kid fit for succession, the key thing a parent should ask is "How do I help my young adult find their own passion in life?"
• Jim highlights 3 key steps to balancing being a nurturing parent while not enabling children: Active listening, Allowing children to face disappointment, and Guiding them to take responsibility for their lives.
• Many professionals who go into a family environment have a relatively small toolbox; if all you've got is a hammer, the whole world looks like a nail.
• Harmony is about truth-telling, it's not about being nice to one another
• Jim stresses that the goal of discussing the painful topics (the elephant in the room) is the potential of having an authentic family relationship as opposed to a transactional family relationship
• If a sense of self-awareness is instilled into children, then when they're adults you can have mature transformational discussions as a family, but without it, the children may never grow up.
• The components of the "Trust" that sets elders apart: Credibility, Reliability, Honesty, Vulnerability and Adaptability.
• There are two ways life happens; life can happen to me where I'm the victim, or life can happen by me where I'm a creator and I create my own options
• Life is a journey and the important things take time; part of that journey will be your individual discovery and deeper understanding and connection with yourself.
• Don't change, I love you just the way you are

Episode Timeline:

• [00:50] Mike briefly introduces both Jim and Paul Warner, and they share some of their background stories
• [04:45] Paul describes the impact of his father in his eventual choice of profession
• [07:22] What are some of the challenges that you've seen for parents raising motivated and happy children amidst wealth?
• [13:47] What role do you think formal governance structures play in shaping strong family values and bonds?
• [17:05] Paul's definition of the rising generation, describing the common dynamic between them and the older generation.
• [20:25] How do you help people identify their own path and whether or not they're fit for succession?
• [22:46] How Paul got into the family business
• [28:02] Jim describes how a parent can be welcoming and nurturing without enabling the children
• [29:55] The approach to working with different families
• [33:45] 13 guidelines for authentic interactions in any environment
• [39:10] Discussing the "Elephant in the room"
• [51:37] What sets an elder apart with respect to the ability to influence the success of a family?
• [01:00:06] From Paul to his kids
• [01:01:07]From Jim to his kids

For more episodes go to
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guests: Jim Warner and Paul Warner.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Jim Warner — Jim Warner is an entrepreneur, author, and transitions expert. During the 1980s and early 1990s, he founded, grew, ran, and eventually sold an international software company.
• Paul Warner — Paul is a seasoned facilitator and coach in professional, personal, and social sectors. He specializes in creating environments for small groups to openly share, build trust, establish deeper authentic connections, and navigate difficult topics through experiential retreats and tailored workshop trainings.
• Click here for specific tools for Enhancing Family Dynamics — (as referenced in the podcast)
• Book: Facing Pain - Embracing Love - by Warner, Jim — Our highly competitive society drives us to be the best and accumulate the most. Yet, as we earn more recognition and wealth, the less we seem to enjoy our lives. In our quiet moments, many of us sense a vague unease and admit that something important is missing. Facing Pain - Embracing Love uses a unique geographic metaphor to guide you out of that discontent and into the joy and richness of authentic living.
• Book: The Drama-Free Office (a.k.a. The Drama-Free Family) by Klemp, Kaley & Warner, Jim — In The Drama-Free Office, authors Jim Warner and Kaley Klemp interweave humorous and relatable case studies with the key skills you'll need for managing office and family saboteurs--be they subordinates, coworkers, boss, parent, child, in-law or other relatives. You will see your coworkers, family members (and yourself) in this entertaining and practical blueprint for addressing the dramatic behaviors that cripple so many teams and families.
• Book: 13 Guidelines for Effective Teams by Klemp, Kaley — Good communication is at the heart of every successful team and family. 13 Guidelines for Effective Teams gives each individual within an organization or family the power to create the most reliable environment for effective communication. Used by an entire team or family, the stage is set for breakthrough creativity and authentic relationships. Team and family facilitator, Kaley Warner Klemp, has compiled these powerful principles into a concise pocket manual, making effective team or family communication accessible in virtually any work environment.
• Book: Aspirations of Greatness by Warner, Jim — AoG introduces several models for navigating the treacherous rapids of midlife, with principles that apply to anyone who feels lost, lonely, or unloved. The book is a blueprint for positive change and offers uplifting, practical guidelines for living out your innate genius with gratitude, wisdom and serenity.
• Audio Series: When Having It All Isn’t Enough by Warner, Jim — This 12-part audio series identifies the issues, dilemmas, and emotions faced by an emerging generation of successful, but unfulfilled, professionals. These “winners with heart” appear to have it all, yet yearn for purpose, connection, and inner peace, along with a renewed energy and aliveness. They have attained affluence and power, but confess to feeling little sense of mission, meaning, or connection in their lives.

In his new book DISRUPTIVE SUCCESSOR, Jonathan offers a proven framework and playbook for unwinding this knot, scaling up your business or planning your exit.

Standout Quotes:

• "Perhaps all multi-generational businesses should have a family constitution, while we're naming secretaries and treasurers... why not name a historian?" – [Jonathan Goldhill]
• "There's no evil to money... it's the absence of instilling good values as to what the significance of that money means" – [Jonathan Goldhill]
• "There's a requirement of the older generation that if they're going to leave money to a younger generation that they provide some guardrails around it" – [Jonathan Goldhill]
• 96% of all business in the US are under a million dollars in revenue, and 64% of the GDP in the US is coming from family businesses. – [Jonathan Goldhill]
• "It takes time for one generation to let go and release and enjoy what they've built, and trust the next generation to grow it bigger and do it safely" – [Jonathan Goldhill]
• "I'm not in the business of family coaching, I'm in the families doing business coaching" – [Jonathan Goldhill]
• The hardest part I think of running businesses is managing the people and getting the right people in your company. – [Jonathan Goldhill]
• "There's a time for family, a time for business, and then there's time for the family business or the business of family where they overlap in between" – [Mike Boyd]
• "Life is hard work and if you're not working on yourself then nobody else is going to" – [Jonathan Goldhill]

Key Takeaways:

• One of the downsides of being wealthy is that wealthy people can be very busy at the expense of spending time with children
• Jonathan emphasizes the importance of a family business archive as he explains he does not know exactly how his grandfather's family business was shut down.
• The blessing and curse of setting up a trust fund: there's lots of misinterpretation of younger generations when they inherit that wealth
• There's a requirement of the older generation that if they're going to leave money to a younger generation that they provide some guardrails around it.
• Jonathan explains that there is a generational gap with unspoken conversations between generations, and the families he knows had the best transitions communicated as peers.
• Business coaching is not about hitting a mass number of people, it's about the business of the family.
• If you're not having important conversations, then you're not building a healthy business.
• Hard work isn't always in the form of just long hours and physical toil, it comes from commitment and dedication to improve oneself and be better.

Episode Timeline:

• [00:48] Introducing Jonathan Goldhill who shares some history of his grandfather's family business.
• [08:09] How exactly did the business end?
• [11:57] Jonathan describes one of his attempts at starting a new business and the challenges that effectively impeded the success of the business
• [16:08] The impact of wealth on Jonathan growing up
• [21:40] How did you take this formative experience from your own family to help other business families through their situations?
• [32:50] Who typically engages you; is it more of the successor generation or the boomers who have built the family business and are looking to hand over?
• [34:55] About Jonathan's book: "The Disruptive Successor"
• [41:10] The role of the different cultures in the family business
• [44:50] Defining "Family"
• [48:00] A letter from Jonathan to his kids

*For more episodes go to *
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Jonathan Goldhill.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Goldhill Group | Certified Scaling Up Coach | Business Adviser — Connect with Jonathan
• Book: Disruptive Successor: A Guide for Driving Growth in Your Family Business — Get Jonathan's new book on Amazon
• Book Website: Disruptive Successor — If you genuinely are a Disruptive Successor, you’ll have a different vision from that of your forebears.

Jim is the author of Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations and co-author with Dennis Jaffe, PhD of Cross Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations, offering ground-breaking explanations of how individuals and families can adjust to wealth effectively.

Standout Quotes:

• "At the affluent and perhaps high net worth level, it's not that families leave wealth, it's that wealth gets distributed" – Dr. Jim Grubman
• "People come to wealth without preparation for how they're going to sustain it in their family and that's really why it is so difficult for families" – Dr. Jim Grubman
• "Most people just focus on the money and they forget adaptation" – Dr. Jim Grubman
• “Everybody wants to get to the land of wealth but they don't realize what is going to be like once they get there and what their life is going to be like, the new problems that they're going to have and the adjustments in identity” – Dr. Jim Grubman
• “Many inheritors are really disenfranchised citizens of the land of wealth, people think they have money but they really don't, it's in trust, tied up in partnerships... they don't control most of the wealth that is associated with them” – Dr. Jim Grubman
• "Don't chase happiness; Happiness is a result, it's not a goal" – Dr. Jim Grubman

Key Takeaways:

• Cross-cultural adaptation is much harder than people anticipate when they make the journey to wealth
• In trying to adapt to a new environment, 2 dimensions make the greatest difference: the degree to which people hold on to or let go of connection to where they came from, and the degree to which they take on or resist getting involved with the new culture
• Many of the things that are necessary for the business of family are completely unknown to the people coming to wealth.
• Many inheritors are really disenfranchised citizens of the land of wealth, they don't control most of the wealth that is associated with them.
• The 3 main cultural prototypes: HFD Dignity culture/individualist culture (the West) Face culture/harmony culture (East/Asia) Honor culture (across several countries)
• The natives of global wealth get transformed into the 4th culture; a hybrid blending where they have roots in Honor or Harmony culture with strong influences from individualists and understand the struggle that their families have gone through cross-culturally
• Is the 4th culture the destination for all of these different cultures?
• One of the most difficult transitions for families is to move from a strong focus on the individual to understanding how much you have to build skills, processes, and structures for the interdependence of significant wealth. Honor and Harmony culture are much more prepared to understand interdependence.
• The 3 main questions on adaptation; What from our background still serves us that we can keep? What from our background no longer serves us that we need to let go of? What from our new circumstances do we need to take on for the journey ahead?
• Chase purpose; happiness comes from a fulfilled life

Episode Timeline:

• [00:48] Mike introduces Dr. Jim Grubman and describes some of his work
• [01:54] Dr. Jim narrates the history behind his involvement in Family wealth psychology
• [04:16] The concepts of 'Coming to wealth' and 'Coming from wealth'
• [10:19] The contrast between statistics that 80% of the wealth is created in the current generation and the amount of family wealth that is lost from generation to generation; where is all the wealth going?
• [16:09] How do immigrants to wealth acquire the mental template to transition into the new culture?
• [19:03] The known strategies that people go through in trying to adapt to a new environment.
• [20:56] What individuals go through in making the journey to wealth
• [26:08] Do the models and strategies for wealth preservation differ for those native to wealth compared to those coming to wealth?
• [29:10] The main types of cultures as categorized in the book 'Cross Cultures'
• [44:39] Jim's recommendation for G1s or wealth creators starting a healthy transition to G2
• [47:00] Are there new trends emerging?
• [50:16] Jim's letter to his kids

For more episodes go to
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Jim Grubman PhD.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Bio | James Grubman
• Book: Strangers in Paradise: How Families Adapt to Wealth Across Generations: Grubman Ph.D., James
• Book: Cross Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations: Jaffe PhD, Dennis T., Grubman PhD, James — Jim is the co-author with Dennis Jaffe, PhD of Cross Cultures: How Global Families Negotiate Change Across Generations

Her maternal grandfather, veterinarian Dr. William Ballard, was one of North America’s greatest dynamic wealth creators. Her father, Frank A. Griffiths, FCA, built a highly successful sports and media empire. Emily herself, along with her brother Arthur and their partners, has been the co-owner of a National Hockey League (NHL) team, the Vancouver Canucks; a National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise, the Vancouver Grizzlies; and a state-of-the-art-arena.

Emily’s professional training, expertise and unique first-hand experience have given her a deep understanding of the benefits of clear, considered wealth and family-business transition planning.

Today, she is passionate about providing guidance to individuals and families for the effective multigenerational management of family wealth and family businesses.

Emily is the author of two excellent books, Build Your Family Bank and Your Business, Your Family, Their Future, which look closely at the core causes of wealth erosion and failed transition plans and offers a set of strategies for building successful wealth transition plans that will benefit many generations.

Standout Quotes:

• "A legacy lifestyle to me is really anything where anyone is enjoying an affluent life based on someone else's earnings"
• "Earning a voice at the table is critically important as the families get larger because not everybody is necessarily around the table making decisions for the family bank but the family council may be elected members to represent different parts of the families"
• "Life is the reflection of the Choices that you make between your Birth and your Death (life is the C between the B and the D)"
• "The choices that you make are going to be a reflection of the decisions that you make, and if you really want to make the best decisions, think about swapping judgment for curiosity"
• “Curiosity can open your eyes to a world of unlimited imagination and infinite possibilities”

Key Takeaways:

• The process of creating the family wealth was infused into the family DNA added in each generation.
• The issue in a legacy lifestyle is enjoying a lifestyle that someone else is earning the funds to afford you, the cautionary note is to watch for the creep of entitlement issues.
• The traditional approach to wealth transition planning including tax deferment and trust funds fail 70% of the time.
• As long as your human and intellectual components are still strong, the Family bank will keep standing.
• Reasons why 70% of families at each generation fail at wealth transition include a breakdown of communication and trust (60%), the unpreparedness of heirs (25%), lack of shared vision (12%), and failure of professionals (3%).
• Earning a voice at the table is critically important as the families get larger.
• Family bank is not a legal term, it's a philosophical term; it's whatever the family defines it to be.
• 5 reasons to put a Trust in place in Canada: Control, Creditor Protection, Privacy, Probate and Tax.
• Research shows that within 7 years lottery winnings are usually gone which is the same with inheritances.
• If you want to make the best decisions, swap judgment for curiosity

Episode Timeline:

• [00:49] An overview of some of Emily's work.
• [02:20] How the initial family wealth was created and sustained through the different generations as part of the family DNA.
• [05:20] Emily explains the clear distinction between Ownership and Management.
• [05:31] Her contribution to the Family DNA of wealth creation is the Role of Stewardship.
• [08:26] The event leading up to the ownership of the Hockey team reflected a sense of commitment to the community.
• [10:30] Emily narrates the experiences that inspired her career choice of a Family Enterprise Adviser.
• [15:35] The legacy lifestyle defined, with examples from Emily's childhood.
• [19:26] The value of work and its role in Family wealth creation.
• [21:11] The concept of a Family Bank is most appropriate for anyone doing succession or wealth transition planning.
• [22:05] The Foundation and Components of the Family bank approach.
• [27:04] Reasons why 70% of families at each generation fail at wealth transitions.
• [39:00] The value and role of tools like trust structures and tax mitigation strategies in the managing multi-generational wealth.
• [45:07] The similarities between inheritances and lottery wins.
• [53:52] Re-Formatting is a change of investment choice and a Redistribution of wealth to philanthropy are not considered a failure of to transition.
• [55:29] A few surprises from her sons influencing the family bank.
• [01:01:14] Emily's letter to her children.

For more episodes go to
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Emily Griffiths-Hamilton.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Build Your Family Bank | A Winning Vision for Multigenerational Wealth — Fresh & Accessible Guides to Successful Wealth Transition
• Volunteer Role | The Nature Trust of British Columbia — The Nature Trust of British Columbia took on the daunting task of protecting the natural riches of the province by building a treasury of wild natural areas to conserve iconic and important species at risk.
• Book: Your Business, Your Family, Their Future: How to Ensure Your Family Enterprise Thrives for Generations eBook: Griffiths-Hamilton, Emily — Through extensive research and personal and professional experience as a member of and advisor to family enterprises, Griffiths-Hamilton has developed an unconventional approach that looks beyond narrow business considerations to focus on the critical aspect of every family enterprise—the “family factor.”
• Book: Build Your Family Bank: A Winning Vision for Multigenerational Wealth eBook: Griffiths-Hamilton, Emily — Why do 70 percent of wealth transition plans fail? This is the question that Emily Griffiths-Hamilton sets out to answer in Build Your Family Bank, a book that looks closely at the core causes of wealth erosion and failed transition plans and offers a set of strategies for building successful wealth transition plans that will benefit many generations.

Covie is the author of a two-book series based on interviews that highlight success stories of family wealth: the first, Raised Healthy, Wealthy & Wise (2014), focuses on raising children to be grounded and successful adults amid wealth, and the second, Aged Healthy, Wealthy & Wise (2017), focuses on designing a vibrant and purposeful later life and legacy.

Episode Timeline

• [1:52] How Covie got into family wealth advisory
• [6:12] Ideal clients and what clients are seeking when they come to Ballentine Partners
• [9:00] Looking at the bigger picture when looking at client’s needs and investments
• [13:20] Increased percentage of uptake in trust built client relationships
• [16:18] Patterns when creating investment and wealth management plans
• [19:58] The primary sources of initial wealth for first generation families that Covie sees
• [20:58] Why more money can actually make parenting harder
• [25:34] Next generation success being driven by successes in life and self-motivation
• [27:38] Finding the balance to give children fulfilling lives of meaning
• [33:33] Focusing on the communication of values when discussing shared assets
• [38:12] Inheritor’s guilt for advantages they received and how to counteract that
• [41:55] Covie’s advice to a driven entrepreneur who inspired to be the founding generation
• [45:10] The four success factors Covie believes all successful next generation members share
• [47:50] The role Covie plays in helping families in philanthropic legacy and impact projects
• [55:12] Covie’s belief in wishing for our children to have the confidence to handle the struggles of life

Standout Quotes

• "You do need to have a pretty good degree of self-awareness and being able to look in the mirror as a parent to understand how you might need to evaluate and potentially change your own behavior relative to a child, in order to allow that child to become independent and financially self-sufficient." – Covie Edwards-Pitt [15:12]
• "If you have very little money, it's very challenging. Then as you get more money it gets easier, and as you get more money it becomes harder again. I definitely see that to be the case. I think the reason is, having money, having an abundance of resources essentially, more than you would need, has a way of complicating every single parenting interaction with your child in a way that, to no fault of the parents, might essentially deprive the child of a lesson that they would have learned by default if their family have had less” – Covie Edwards-Pitt [21:31]
• "Content, productive, driven by their inner sense of motivation, grounded, satisfied, passionate in their career choice. That sort of list of characteristics was evident to me because I recognize it all the time in the next gens." – Covie Edwards-Pitt [26:19]
• "Fulfilling lives have as part of them, struggle. Something that the person can think back on as something they have overcome in their life that gives them a sense of pride." – Covie Edwards-Pitt [28:45]
• "Communication is key. Communicating the values and the framework that are driving parent's decisions in a clear, transparent way is very important. I coach my clients to try to think about, what are the types of things we'd like to support? What are the types of things that we would like to help children with, when they reach those milestones in their lives? – Covie Edwards-Pitt [34:39]
• "The most important advice I would give is to say... that your child, when they look in the mirror as an adult... When they ask themselves do I have this job or do I have this responsibility or title because of my name or because of my effort? They can answer, my effort." – Covie Edwards-Pitt [42:09]

Key Takeaways

• Think of a client relationship and services provided as a much larger conversation about the client and what they hope to achieve as a whole
• The ways to recognize patterns when creating investment and wealth management plans for ultra high net worth families
• Ways in which parents with substantial means can still raise well-rounded children
• How success in the next generation can be different as it is more about the inner sense of motivation and satisfaction
• Why it’s important to allow children to struggle to attain a fulfilling and contented life
• The communication involved when managing shared family assets
• Inheritors will often find a true sense of purpose when they develop their own sense of contribution and passion in life
• Having family constitutions and clear frameworks for inheritor’s to truly feel they deserve their position
• Covie’s four success factors she has found all successful next generation members share

For more episodes go to
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Coventry (Covie) Edwards-Pitt.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• Wealth Management | Ballentine Partners — Ballentine Partners is a client-centric investment and wealth management firm dedicated to integrity and independence.
• Book: Raised Healthy, Wealthy & Wise: Lessons from successful and grounded inheritors on how they got that way — At a certain level of wealth, money makes parenting harder, not easier. Raised Healthy, Wealthy & Wise breaks new ground in the field of raising children amid wealth by hearing the success stories: real-life children raised with wealth now grown into happy, healthy, and productive adults.
• Book: Aged Healthy, Wealthy & Wise: Lessons from vibrant and inspiring elders on how they designed their later lives — There is much about aging that we can't control. But there is much more that we can. Nationally recognized wealth advisor Coventry Edwards-Pitt applies the success-story format of her highly acclaimed first book, "Raised Healthy, Wealthy & Wise" (2014), to one of today's most pressing issues: how to age well--given our increased longevity--and ensure that our later years have a positive rather than negative impact on our families.

Jim Sheils developed the Family Board Meeting process out of necessity for his own family and hopes to help business owners bridge the gaps between themselves and their loved ones.

Standout Quotes

• “I look at my family as my most important clients, investors, and key team members.” – Jim Sheils [8:43]
• “If people hear nothing else today Mike, I mean nothing else, just know that the potency and power of one-on-one time is irreplaceable. It separates the parts to strengthen the whole, it takes away sibling rivalry, it puts the magnifying glass on the relationship in a positive way.” – Jim Sheils [12:01]
• “There is no substitute for quality time and communication.” – Jim Sheils [21:03]
• “What I’ve told my kids is our wealth is tied to certain core values. I will give you opportunities that I did not have. I will help set up those things, but I won’t do the push-ups for you.” – Jim Sheils [21:47]
• “Probably one of the worst things to ever happen to businesses and entrepreneurship, is to try to force a child to go into the family business.” – Jim Sheils [32:00]
• “I think it’s important for my children to remember they have certain gifts and talents that they will be able to detect that they’ll intuitively feel a pull for. I want them to have the courage, comfort, and support to go for it.” – Jim Sheils [40:24]

Key Takeaways

• Understanding the “great entrepreneurial lie” and how to begin living in the now
• How irreplaceable the power and potency of one-on-one time is for strengthening your family connections
• Tips for making sure you are not “half-in parenting” as you work from home
• Understanding the challenges that come with successful succession in multi-generational family businesses
• The importance of setting core values and guidelines to reach success

Episode Timeline

• [1:31] How a major life shift can change your values and awareness on life
• [2:46] The great entrepreneurial lie and the importance of focusing on your family
• [4:26] Jim’s focus on his children’s education
• [6:07] Personal development, financial intelligence, and relationship skills for the next generation
• [8:30] Jim’s family board meeting concept
• [10:35] A solution that is simple but has key fundamental action steps
• [11:54] The three guiding principles Jim has for his family board meetings
• [15:05] Some success stories families have had using the family board meeting method
• [20:15] The third-generation rule and providing proper stewardship
• [21:34] Jim’s outlook on his children inheriting his wealth
• [24:17] Half-in parenting while working from home
• [28:12] The failures that set Jim up for success
• [31:05] Strife and family breakdowns in the succession of multi-generational businesses
• [37:17] 18 Summers and the desire to form lifelong child-parent connections
• [40:06] Jim’s focus on encouraging his children’s own gifts and talents

For more episodes go to
BusinessOfFamily.net

Sign up for The Business of Family Newsletter at https://www.businessoffamily.net/newsletter

Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeBoyd

If you feel it's appropriate, I'd so appreciate you taking 30 seconds to Leave a Review on iTunes, I receive a notification of each review. Thank you!

Special Guest: Jim Sheils.

Sponsored By:

• The Business of Family Newsletter: The newsletter compliments the podcast with subscriber-only articles, bonus content and a great list of book recommendations.

Links:

• The Family Board Meeting: Is Business Success Hurting Your Family? — Already implemented by thousands around the world, the Board Meetings Strategy is yielding great returns for families. You too can begin connecting, deepening and strengthening the relationship with your most important asset-your children. Using this simple strategy, busy entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals have been re grounded in balance between professional and home life.
• 18 Summers — You Only Have 18 Summers With Your Children… How Will You Make Them Count?
• Jim Sheils Website