Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
All parents wonder whether the things they say and do get through to their children. At least two parents, who are also recipients of the inaugural Upsize Lifeline Awards, can know for sure.
The first is Judith Brown, who developed a 10-year transition plan with her son Richard Brown so he would take over the firm she founded, JNBA Financial Advisors. The plan “allowed me little by little to give over the responsibility, and we did it in an organized fashion,” says Judith Brown.
Letting go wasn’t easy. “It’s like giving up one of your kids,” Judith Brown says when reached at her Florida home. “There’s a part of me that will always want to be in control. Another part of me feels real joy as I watch what he does and the good decisions he makes,” she says.
Brown says she’s proud of the relationship she and her son have created. When it comes to business, a parent/child relationship is always a challenge, and she believes that in our society it’s even more difficult when it’s a mother and a son.
“We’ve done an inordinantly good job of learning how to agree with each other and disagree with each other,” she says. “That was something he was determined to do. It’s like a marriage; learning how to argue is probably the most important thing.
“We’ve learned to absolutely say what we mean in a non-threatening manner,” Judith Brown says.
“Step to the plate” is the best lesson that Richard Brown says he learned from his mother. Says Judith Brown: “In life you have to be there, you have to do the right thing, and if you do that you will win. Maybe not right away, but you will win.”
A second award winner, Lowery Smith, says he doesn’t think he consciously set out to teach his son his best lesson: “Never quit.” But that son, Earl “Doc” Smith, president of EDS Consultants and Construction Managers, cited the credo when naming his father as his lifeline.
Both father and son have struggled with dyslexia, and the son said his father’s example taught him to keep working hard no matter what. “Victory is won by those who show up,” Lowery Smith says. “I’ve climbed a few mountains and had some life challenges. You either hang in there, or give up on it,” Lowery Smith says. For him the latter is not an option.
He was surprised when he heard the tribute that his son wrote to nominate him for this award: “It blew me away when he read that to me.”
The lessons imparted by Smith and Brown are detailed starting on page 9, along with wisdom from five more people named as “lifelines” by local business owners.
One of those, Frank Cesario, was nominated for showing Judy Hoff of Healthcare Academy the “science of sales,” as Cesario puts it. Cesario says he believes in being a “realist entrepreneur,” an entrepreneur when it comes to seeking opportunities, and a realist when it comes to seeking outside expertise to help.
The winners of the Upsize Lifeline Awards have learned that lesson well.
— Beth Ewen editor and co-founderbe***@*******ag.com
