Family Money Podcast Season 1 Highlights and Recap with Brandon Laws
In this season one finale, Rick Thomas brings on Family Money Podcast producer, Brandon Laws, to recap season one and highlight key segments from each episode.
Highlights:
03:11 - Recap of Your Relationship with Money
11:18 - Recap of the K-Curve Case Study with Aaron Crowley
16:04 - Recap of the K-Curve Case Study with Gary Mortensen
19:18 - Recap of the K-Curve Case Study with Branco Culo
21:55 - Recap of the K-Curve Case Study with Chylese Austin
24:56 - Recap of the interview with Taylor Gentry
About the Guest Brandon Laws
Brandon Laws is a Senior Director of Marketing & Product at Xenium HR and runs a contract marketing firm Brandon Laws Marketing. Brandon hosts the podcastTransform Your Workplace and helps produce the Family Money Podcast with Rick Thomas.
Transcript:
DISCLAIMER: This transcript is automatically generated by Descript. Please excuse any errors.
Rick Thomas: [00:00:00] Hey, everybody. I trust that the fall is going well. And in spite of COVID surges and supply chain, snafus a successful finish to the year is in sight for you and the business. I can tell you, I'm definitely looking forward to some decompression time, both to reflect on this past year and among other things begin strategizing on where I'd like to take the podcast for season two.
So to get some help on putting a bow on season one, I cannot think of anyone more suited to help than Brandon Laws from Brandon Laws Marketing. You may recall that Brandon is the man behind the scenes on The Family Money Podcast and has been masterful at taking the raw recordings I've thrown his way and artfully knitting them into a competent narrative.
I enjoyed this conversation with Brandon and I'm certain, you will find the summary interesting as well. So enjoy the wrap-up stay tuned for the launch of season two early next year. And with that. On with the show.
All right, Brandon. Good to see you this morning.
Brandon Laws: it's [00:01:00] good to see you too.
Rick Thomas: It's good to be seen.
So, as I mentioned it in, into, in the introduction this is a retrospective of season one. You should be excited because I am.
Brandon Laws: I am really excited to talk about it. I mean, I got to be in the backend editing and sort of producing some of these. So I closely paid attention to some, you know, what your guests said. And a lot of it's pretty inspiring. They had a lot of interesting things to say,
Rick Thomas: Yeah. In spite of, in spite of my fledgling delivery the guests kind of shown through,
Brandon Laws: Well, that's the whole point of, you know, when you're a podcast host, your goal is to set them up so they shine. And I thought, I thought you asked really good questions specifically when you got to like the K-curve case studies, which we'll talk about,
Rick Thomas: Yeah.
Brandon Laws: a really good job of allowing them to tell their story.
I thought that was really cool.
Rick Thomas: Good. Glad to hear that. I mean, my, my, my goal is to get out of the way and what's the old saying is. [00:02:00] Be
Brandon Laws: Yeah.
Rick Thomas: guide the side, not to say Sage on the stage to that end, you know, just looking back over the episodes. And there were, I think, seven of them total, ones that really stood out for me fell into three categories.
The first one was kind of more of the money and finance focus. My sister Yolanda your relationship with money. And that's actually the first episode that we posted. And I mean, one. one is so, rich,
Brandon Laws: Was going to use the same word. It was
in a sense that like, people have been uncomfortable talking about money forever and you guys dove into the psychology of it. And I love that. In fact, you guys even mentioned the book, the Psychology of Money, and I ended up buying it right on the heels of that and read it.
and loved Yes.
actually
Rick Thomas: need to through it.
Brandon Laws: It's an easy read, man.
Rick Thomas: Well, you know, my whole approach to business books I rarely read them cover to cover, [00:03:00] but I will scan chapters. And then I'll read chapters that look really interesting to me. I know there's good stuff I probably miss, but my attention span, there's some books that I just, I just grind to a,
Brandon Laws: fortunately with that book, you don't really need to read it, cover to cover because the way it's laid out, it's almost like a bunch of blog posts within a book. And each chapter is a little different
Rick Thomas: I I'm curious. What, What, what was your takeaway from that book? we'll talk about that, that
Brandon Laws: Ooh, biggest takeaway. People are irrational when it comes to money, like emotions get into it. And I think that's, I mean, that's really the idea behind it is, you know, there's, there is this psychological nature of how we deal with money and it's fitting that your episode with Yolanda is called your relationship with money, because I think people's relationship with money generally is not good.
There's a lot of greed and things that go into it. And it's, it's a [00:04:00] tool, man. It allows you to do things in your life that you couldn't or make investments in businesses and things like that. And I just think most people have a really sour relationship with money and
Rick Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. it's
Brandon Laws: it's a good one.
Rick Thomas: to your point w the thing I really loved about this episode with the. And in particular, and by the way as we had talked about before, we're, we're going to play a clip.
I'm curious, is it more likely that our peer generation would be the ones driving to have this conversation or would it be the parents or what, what, anything that you've observed
Yolanda Christianson: I wouldn't pin it to any particular generation, but more to say the ease of the conversation I think has come with each coming generation. Because other things are being talked about more openly than they used to be say 50 years ago, right? I mean, we can look at our own headlines to see how [00:05:00] conversations have changed and what they would have been. I think that the comfort of future generations talking about money has everything to do with how the family talks about any topic. So it's going to be contextual to the family's ability to have conversations about what is authoritarian versus collaborative.
So if you have a parent structure, which was more likely early generations back, right, to be more about command and control. This is how you do it. This is the only way you do it. This is what our family stands for. And you either fit in that system or you don't.
particular clip that Yolanda talks about is, is about the generational differences in how they look at money and how those differences show up and how they approach even the conversation
Brandon Laws: Yeah.
Yolanda Christianson: Obviously I'm coming at it from family business perspective. I see this all the time [00:06:00] in, you know, the few of my clients are multi-generational family businesses and how they deal with topics and it may not be directly about money but it's always about money. It's just cloaked in some other issue. And as Yolanda talks about, when it's talking about money, it's not always about money, ultimately at the core, that's about power and control and
Brandon Laws: Yes.
Rick Thomas: our relationship with that.
Brandon Laws: She has a line that I thought was so powerful. She says, it's going to be contextual to the family's ability to have conversations about what is authoritarian versus collaborative. And I think that's where the generations maybe have gotten a lot better about being collaborative. But I think probably in the years past, let's say you had a family business, it is very authoritarian.
It's like I've owned the business. I have the power and control everybody else can, you know,
Rick Thomas: Yeah,[00:07:00]
Brandon Laws: just do what I say.
Rick Thomas: Exactly.
Brandon Laws: And I think it's changed. I think the conversations have gotten a little bit better about money. Would you agree with that?
Rick Thomas: Oh, for sure. For sure. And, and this is one of the reasons Yolanda will be back next season.
Brandon Laws: Yeah, she's really smart.
Rick Thomas: I, I want to take another swipe at this really go after this, this particular aspect that we're talking about. I suspect, and I don't have data to back this up, and I'd to a little bit of research before we queue up this podcast again her.
I suspect that this generational difference, what we're dealing with greater than at any other time, at least in let's say our American history experience because really we're coming off a generation, the baby boom generation that was, it was a wild party. I mean, the spending was just unbelievable.[00:08:00]
And, and, and now we've got the debt to, to prove it. And we've got all this dysfunctional stuff going on and families, and really lost its moring and in many respects about the power and importance of money and how to appropriately steward that.
Brandon Laws: And I, and I think that's a good history lesson for some of these generations that will be leading some of these organizations moving forward. If they're going to take over and we got, let's say a generation X, a millennial, maybe taken over a family business, they will see and learn from that boomer generation.
If they were spending like it's the wild west. And not stewards of proper spending and things like that. I think they're going to learn from that and hopefully make the right business decisions going forward about how to invest in and spend their money.
Rick Thomas: For sure, for sure. Anyways, excited to have her back on, on, on the podcast. And again, take, take another swipe at that.
The second [00:09:00] kind of category. This is the biggest one. Was the K curve case studies that we'd been doing. Again, the K curve we should post the link to that original article.
But it, it, it just describes the three or four widely, dramatically different paths that businesses took you know, being faced with the pandemic. What's interesting about these four business owners that I interviewed, so, Aaron Crowley from Crowley's granite, Gary Mortinson from the Stoller Wine Group, Chylese from Lark and Fir, and then Branco Culo from Express Employment Professionals. He is our lone he's up in Edmonton. There's a common thread that links these, but let me just
Brandon Laws: they all came out on top?
Rick Thomas: They all somehow survived.
Because I know plenty of people that didn't, and, and, you know, thinking about next season, if, if I had an ideal client or guest on the podcast, I would love to interview somebody [00:10:00] that didn't make it.
Brandon Laws: Yeah, there's a lot to learn from people being vulnerable about the choices they made or the circumstances or whatever. And I think that would be really compelling
if you can get somebody to do it.
Rick Thomas: to keep the K curve case studies going, but I think I want to explore a little bit of the dark side of those that didn't make it and what their story was. I have a particular person, as I mentioned to you in mind, I'm not sure they'll be willing to do it, but we'll see.
So that hopefully for next season, but just kind of recapping Crowley's Granite, they do manufacturing installation of countertops in residential commercial And this particular clip, he not only talks about. What a lot of people did, which was pivot to virtual with zoom.
It's it's interesting. I was just in a conversation earlier today with another client about this, about innovation. And we're talking about the binary [00:11:00] mindset and a binary mindset when it comes to implementing some new change is that we do, or we don't. And if we do that, the only measure of success is that it succeeds.
And unfortunately that is such a reductive, process, as opposed to let's give it a try. Maybe it fails, but there's something out of that, that we will have learned. And I'm certain that in the process of learning how to do these zoom sales presentations, you haven't stopped. Like it's like, well, here we could do this differently.
We can do that differently. That's what innovation is all about.
Aaron Crowley: Yeah, well, what's funny. We, sales meetings were things I just. to ask me, what's the one meeting that I'm going to try and find a way out of it was sales meetings. It just is like, it's just a topic. I just, you got it. Keep talking about it. You got to always return to [00:12:00] the fundamentals. You just can't not talk about it.
Cause you got to fill the schedule. But that was the one meeting. I would, it was number one, it was hard. Cause people doing appointments and stuff, you know, and then, well, do we not have it because she's in the show, a customer walked into the showroom and now, you know, we got one of our sales reps engaged in this conversation.
The tendency would be there. We'll just, let's just, we'll just wait for tomorrow. Let everybody know. We're not doing a sales meeting today. Now we do our sales meetings over zoom. Partially because we still got three people that are still working remotely, but even people that are in the office now, we all are checking in over zoom.
And so our consistency on those sales meetings has again and the value to that you cannot deny the results improve when you're focusing on it. And so that's another unanticipated benefit of this technology that it's allowed us to communicate more effectively and more consistently.
Rick Thomas: so they utilize that to do their sales and what was really interesting is not only did it [00:13:00] work, it worked as good or better then what they're doing before. So this wasn't just a temporary thing
Brandon Laws: isn't It switched to like a new normal for them. It's part of their new operations.
Rick Thomas: And th that's fascinating.
Brandon Laws: What was cool about that too, is I think that idea to switch to zoom didn't the salesperson come to them and say, Hey, we should try to utilize zoom.
Otherwise you're giving up. Otherwise you're giving up plenty of opportunities
that you would have otherwise had
in-person only.
Rick Thomas: Yeah, it was his, his salesperson that was saying, Hey man, can do this. And he didn't talk about this, but I think it's a great illustration leaders to know when to get out of the way. when people are pushing innovation and pushing, you know, let's try new things and sometimes let's fail fast.
Is knowing when to say, okay, let's give it a try. Great story there.
Brandon Laws: I was going to say, [00:14:00] I think I texted you after I edited that podcast. And I was like, this story is amazing. Aaron is so articulate and he's got a great radio podcast voice for one, just articulate. Great storyteller, smart businessman.
And that was a really compelling story like, so if people are listening to this and haven't listened to that episode, I highly recommend, I think I listened to it three times.
That's how much I liked it.
Rick Thomas: I, yeah, Aaron Aaron's great friend also. I've known him. We actually met he's a professional speaker and,
Brandon Laws: sense.
Rick Thomas: at a speaking conference back in 2007 and, and he's, he's a compelling person, compelling businessman. He will also be back. And I'm excited about this in that he has since sold.
Crowley's Granite cause he's got a couple of other businesses going and we're, we're gonna do a joint podcast cause he has a podcast also. We're going to do a joint podcast about that whole exit process [00:15:00] and the emotional swings of selling a business. He had had Crowley's for almost 20 years.
So, and just what that process is like, I I'm really looking forward to that one. So, so teasing that for, for season two as well.
The next one that comes to mind is, is Gary Mortenson. So with the Stoller Wine Group, and Gary is just a fascinating guy. This is the one where I biffed it on the audio because his, his internet was dropping out and man, it just, oh, it just, it was painful for me to listen to the replay on that one.
But it's still worth a listen because he is a fascinating guy, great military historian brings so much of that into leadership and the stories he tells, but it's fascinating to hear him talk about this great trifecta that the winery faced this last which they were having low yields.
And certainly seeing beginning to see the, the effects of climate change and [00:16:00] drought and what that does to, to harvest They were certainly dealing with the pandemic and that obliterated a good portion of their sales channel. Mainly what they called pour by the glass, the restaurant channel, well as the, on premise tasting room.
And then wildfires which we were having becoming, you know, more and more prevalent in the Northwest what that's done to the 2020 harvest. And of what is still being kind of worked out. And, and that just a great little clip, but a great one to listen to.
Gary Mortensen: so you're you've got, COVID the impact of COVID, you know, Getting as hard and not only us, but everything that supports us around us restaurants, all that stuff.
And then you've got little yields coming for the next year, which means you've got to scramble to try to find fruit and right on the heels of that came what can only be described as, you know, a biblical disaster of the entire West coast being on fire.
Rick: Right.[00:17:00]
Gary Mortensen: Oregon has sat. And the last few years watched with poor as our friends to the South and in California and Southern Oregon at times through some pretty severe times.
We've never experienced anything like this. And so when it hit us and that in that smoke came in and then there was no wind and it just sat on us. That was on an already tough year. That was a tough one because obtained is something that you can't wash off. You can't rub it off.
Brandon Laws: The interesting aspect of this is, and I think Gary is saw it this way too, that the pandemic was devastating for so many organizations and including a winery, they have a beautiful tasting room, get tons of visitors. And if all of a sudden that shuts down, you can see that as detrimental to the organization.
However, I think they saw it as an opportunity. I mean, people because they're staying home their alcohol consumption was going way up. So I think they had to expand their not only [00:18:00] shipping direct to people, but retail. And I mean, I saw Stoller wine everywhere, whereas I would barely ever see it in the grocery store, but I think they, they must've expanded that.
And you can tell that they made tons of investments. I mean, Gary talked about it in the podcast and just a smart, smart guy, facing, as you said, the trifecta and made tons of investments to get out of it. And he came out, I mean, there's, there's still booming. It's crazy.
Rick Thomas: For sure. And actually I going to jump ahead to the last one that because there's a similarity here with, with Branco Culo from Express Employment Professionals, and he's just started a new franchise for SRG which is their professional recruiting Bronco talks about this which is hiring through a downturn and, and certainly the staffing industry overall saw in that first three to six months.
And, yet I, I think that [00:19:00] the beauty of his business, and I think express overall because they're franchise owned. So each of those office owners you know, leaders they got skin in the game and it's a great, it's a great illustration when you have skin in the game, what's, you're willing to do,
Brandon Laws: Anything to survive,
Rick Thomas: you're going to do anything to keep it going.
Brandon Laws: feast or famine, baby.
Rick Thomas: Feast or famine and, and he, he kind of talks about this through the interview and, and it's, it's, it's really to hear his reflection about that.
And how soon after that March timeframe, when you took the big hit, like most people, how soon after did you make the decision that, Hey, let's, let's keep the foot on the pedal here and hire?
Branko Culo: I would say it was almost within a month to two. . Because we, we realized and we've know from past experience in downturns that you need to sell your way through.
And so we [00:20:00] saw that our competition was taking their foot off the gas pedals that we know our competition very well. So know they were staying at home and hanging out and going golfing you know, instead of being in the office and making those calls or investing in those relationships to maintain them with their clients or their prospects throughout this process.
And we also know they laid off quickly and they laid off in big numbers. So we saw that as a huge opportunity gap for us to steal market share.
Brandon Laws: Well, he even said something to the effect of, you know, I think in the clip you saying like, you know, as some of his competitors are sitting on the sidelines, like golfing or sitting at home and not making the calls, he's investing in a sales staff and he's making those prospect calls and. Hey, it turned out. They have some pretty big numbers and they kept growing.
Rick Thomas: Well, have they grown top-line, but they've taken market share.
Because they were showing up in front of the client when their competitors weren't. And their clients are going, Hey, we still have to keep our business [00:21:00] going. Express is showing up where the heck is everybody else? It, it, it's a really cool story.
The last one which was the the third episode of the K curve that, that we posted was Chylese Austin with Lark & Fir. And she had started this brokerage. I've known Chylese since early 2000. She had started this brokerage on her own in 2018. So she had been in business for a bit before the pandemic hit.
Chylese Austin: So, it, and it feels like so long ago, but 11 months ago was May right.
And may was the beginning of what we still are experiencing 11 months later, which is like. A game of musical chairs from Hell.
You know, the music stops and there's never enough chairs in on somebody's ass is on the floor. And it's not pretty. And especially if it's your ass on the floor round after round after round. And if you have. You know, cash and you're very [00:22:00] flexible about where you want to be.
And You know, what the place looks like then no problem.
Rick Thomas: But like everybody else if you imagine trying to sell houses and everybody's shut up at home, so that pivot to virtual was a big one for her and the brokers in her office. What's fascinating to hear her talk about, and she's great, I love the way she describes things is, as we all know now with everybody going home and going virtual, the shift in demographics, geographically to now nobody's going into the office. Everybody is either staying home and realizing, you know, I want a new house or I, I want a bigger house
Brandon Laws: I did that.
kids that are doing in school.
Rick Thomas: Exactly. And, and so the real estate market I mean, it was just on fire and, and to hear her talk about how they've tried to keep up with [00:23:00] that
Brandon Laws: Yeah. I love that episode just because I was going through a home sale and purchase and just the behavior and then the, I don't know, it felt like almost irrational, like the way the market was going. And I loved hearing her talk about it cause she had a lot of good insights about, you know, why this is happening.
And people like me were pent up with their kids and they're like, I need a bigger house. I need to escape.
Rick Thomas: It's funny. So lived on property out here in Washougal for the last 30 years. And at times it's been both a blessing and a curse because it's a lot of property to take care of. but I got to tell you through this pandemic, it has been a huge blessing just to be be able to get out of the home and get out on a property.
And it really made me think about all those people that were stuck in an apartment somewhere
Brandon Laws: Oh, yeah.
Rick Thomas: with kids trying to do school and they're trying to work. Oh my gosh.[00:24:00] And maybe they've got other people in the home that they're trying to care for. I mean, what, what a crazy situation.
Anyhow. Last one kind of that, that last category was the interview with Taylor Gentry from Endeavor Capital on value drivers in the business.
And this one is really focused in that area of the exit planning. First of all, I've had the benefit knowing Taylor for the last five one of the smartest dudes, I think I've met, man. I mean, just, you know,
Brandon Laws: Oh, yeah. That was the first thing I noticed it was the house smart and articulate this guy is on,
he seemed, it seems pretty young too. I'm like, where did he get all this experience from?
Rick Thomas: I mean, you know, he talks about it in the podcast. It's interesting. I mean, he got out of high school. And he hightailed it to New York and to work on the street, got some phenomenal experience doing private equity and private investment banking actually in New York before he came back and eventually went to work with Endeavor, [00:25:00] but It was fascinating listening to him, talk about how they view businesses the buy side of the transaction what are the things that they're looking for.
And not like were any huge like aha moment, but to hear him kind of break it down,
Brandon Laws: Yeah.
Rick Thomas: was really informative.
What are some of the other drivers for value or quality and a business that you look for that don't necessarily show up right away on the balance sheet or the income?
Taylor Gentry: The first one that is absolutely critical. It's really the team.
And what we look at first is who are we backing here? And is this the team that's going to take this to the next level? Where does the team need to be augmented and supplemented? And are we aligned on what the team needs in order to continue to grow and scale the business? We'll spend time on kind of systems, processes, infrastructure those types of things.
Brandon Laws: Well, [00:26:00] he was saying in that clip too, that what they're looking for obviously is the financials. I mean, that's, that's one, but how much emphasis they put on the team that they have in place in the process is that to me was like, wow, you know, the people side of it really matters. And I really hadn't thought of it like, you know, from his vantage point, I would have thought it was all about like money, you know?
Rick Thomas: Exactly. It was actually really refreshing. But to hear, to your point, I mean, he's a finance geek and, and at the end of the day, it is about the money.
Brandon Laws: Right.
Rick Thomas: But getting to that point, to hear him talk about the kind of those, those tangible drivers that don't show up on the balance sheet.
And the quality of the team and how much importance they place on that, certainly at Endeavor the ultimate, you know, calculus of, this going to be a investment for us as well?
Brandon Laws: I think about, like, when I was thinking about that clip in particular, I was thinking about the [00:27:00] company Zappos and how, you know, they built this great culture. Had a nice business, really carved out a niche in the, in the e-commerce shoe market. You know, Amazon obviously saw it as an opportunity to acquire them and really kept them intact the way they were.
And I don't know the why that company, just for whatever reason, just kind of stuck out when it comes to this clip right here.
Rick Thomas: Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So, and, and there's a lot of other stuff packed in there. that's good, but. Taylor's another one that I want to bring them back because there's so many other places we can go with that conversation. And I, I feel like I barely was able to scrape the surface, know, you know, uh, anyhow, that, that was kind of the, the, the, the three large of insights or areas of really rich discussion that I, that I look back on season one, in spite of my imperfect delivery, they stood out, man.
Brandon Laws: You got to start somewhere and I'm glad that you have those conversations. Where do you think you're going to take season two? [00:28:00] Is there a season two?
Rick Thomas: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. It's it's, it's a great question. I've been thinking about this. So I, I want to take a few months off and, and kind of catch up with the business. This fourth quarter is, craziness. But I really want to focus on. You know, each of these, and I already mentioned, I want to bring Yolanda back and have a deeper conversation about those generational differences and how that shows up. And, and certainly Taylor as I mentioned.
If I can find somebody that's willing to talk about the business that didn't make it, the K curve in the pandemic, definitely want to do that. But that aside where I am really starting to spend more time on the whole kind of planning for exit in the business.
Brandon Laws: Hm.
Rick Thomas: And there are so many aspects of that. And certainly where have recognized. That, you know, let's say for our parents generation where it [00:29:00] was reasonable, that they could spend a good portion of their career, just plugging money into the stock market. They get their 10% return,
Brandon Laws: I mean, it's a good life.
Rick Thomas: the good life, you know,
Brandon Laws: and it's fine.
Rick Thomas: The punch out in her mid fifties, and they've got a nice nest egg. It's not that that can't be done. That that becomes more and more challenging and where the the money is made is in small privately held business and identifying those business models within that space that certainly build that equity
Brandon Laws: Right.
Rick Thomas: what's the whole process on how to exit and, and have a good exit.
And the other thing I'll say about that is, and I'll bring some more data and perhaps a guest to talk about this [00:30:00] is right now we're kind of midway to the latter part of the greatest transfer of wealth in the history global wealth. Okay. And, it started around 2010. There was a big report by Accenture that talked about this, about 45 trillion, trillion with a T in private wealth.
It was changing hands with the baby boomers beginning to retire. And as you would imagine there's been a buying spree, well, like any other market, this happens in real estate or any other market, eventually there's more sellers than buyers. And we are going to quickly start finding ourselves people with small privately held businesses in that And that if they haven't done exit planning to figure out how do they position their [00:31:00] business to exit
Brandon Laws: Right.
Rick Thomas: do a really good job of doing that, just all of a sudden deciding, you know what, this year I want to sell my business, it's like get in line. And if you think you're going to get the valuation, that's going to create this lifestyle for you with money.
Yeah.
Think again.
Brandon Laws: Let me ask you this. You said that the transfer wealth has happening. Is it just generation to generation or is it these giant private equity firms coming in, scooping up these, these nice businesses that have been created?
Rick Thomas: Yeah. So it's a great question. And this is where I really want to bring on a guest that can talk to this with some data. What I have observed is that in the early part of this wave, it's been a buying by primarily private capital. A lot of that fruit's been picked. Now it doesn't mean that there aren't new businesses, new business models that won't be really interesting. [00:32:00] There will be, but the preponderance of that is diminishing and it's going to force a lot of business owners that wouldn't normally handoff to a incoming generation to rethink that, because the reality is, is from a valuation point of view, they're looking to really set themselves up in retirement with a good exit and internal transfer to the next generation is not necessarily the best way to monetize it.
is likely the best way to do it, to maintain the legacy.
Brandon Laws: Right. Yeah.
That's what I was thinking. I'm like handing it to another family member to that generational wealth and legacy going. That's a good plan, but probably can't make as much money.
Rick Thomas: If they haven't set themselves up to be able to afford to do that because they're not going to get top dollar in valuation selling to the next generation. So it, it really creates, [00:33:00] it gets back to this exit planning. And, you know, when I talk about exit planning, I'm talking to five to 10 year trajectory
Brandon Laws: Yeah. So there's a lot of things that you need to do in those five to 10 years to set your business up for a good exit. And that's where I think that's where you want to take season two is my guess is how do you prepare your business for exit?
Rick Thomas: Absolutely. So we are going to spend more time on that.
Brandon Laws: Yeah. I love that. I'm curious, you know, with these family businesses, especially that you work with, are you finding that the next generation wants to take over these businesses or is it like, . Yeah, my kids don't want to run the business or have anything to do with it. So I'm going to sell, what are you seeing?
Rick Thomas: It's a great question. And here's my observation and great question cause I'm gonna write this down because I want to bring some data to the table
and talking about this, my observation is that generally the next generation are interested, but they're [00:34:00] not interested in perhaps the manner that the founding generation is telling them they need to do it.
Brandon Laws: Like getting your hands dirty and actually being involved in the operations
Rick Thomas: Well, not I mean, perhaps, more like, well, look you know, incoming generation, this is how I did it. So you need to do it this way. And the incoming generation, it's like, why would I do it that way? What a waste of time? And, you know, it's kind of like digital immigrants talking to digital natives and the digitalization of business across the spectrum, generation, especially now, which are primarily boomers and X'rs.
don't get it. They think that technology is just something you bolt on to the business, as opposed to something that is intrinsically tied to the business model. This is the difference.
And the biggest challenge that I observe is the next generation [00:35:00] saying, okay, I'm interested in the business, but I want the flexibility to really change how we do this and that's it, depending on the founder, some are willing to have that conversation. Some are like, no, you don't get it. And so the next generation is like, fine. I'm really not interested in the business.
Brandon Laws: Yeah. If you talk about all this stuff and more, I can't wait for season two.
Rick Thomas: Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. So anyhow, With that, Brandon at this has been a lot of fun having your help.
Brandon Laws: Yeah, it's been great.
Rick Thomas: You're in the engine room in the dock, then try to drive the ship, but then you're in the engine room and I appreciate everything that you've done to keep this engine running.
Brandon Laws: It's been great to be a part of it. And I appreciate you having me.
Rick Thomas: Yeah, look forward to it. And and so we'll, we'll be back hopefully by early next year with a new slew of guests and, and topics to dive into.
Brandon Laws: I look forward to it.
Thank you, Brandon.
