Empowering Leaders of Family Businesses

Introduction, in this interview, Alan Olsen, CPA, MBA discusses empowering leaders of family businesses with Lee Brower, Founder, Empowered Wealth LLC.

Transcript (software generated):

Alan Olsen

Welcome to American Dreams. My guest today is Lee Brower. Lee, welcome to today’s show.

 

Lee Brower

Alan, I’m delighted to be here. Thank you for having me.

 

Alan Olsen

Oh, I’m excited for this session night ugly. I’ve sat in classes with you. Management Consulting techniques, strategic planning. And so we’re going to have a great session today on those topics. But before we get started, for the listeners, can you give us your background? And what led you up to where you are today?

 

Lee Brower

Yeah, well, let’s give the really short version of it. I think that’s out of college. I, you know, when I was in college, I started selling mutual funds and term insurance. I was there on an athletic scholarship. But I’d be known to the NCAA, I guess I was working on the site with I was. And so that gave me a good background finance.

From there, I was fortunate to be hired by a firm in Los Angeles, which was one of the most renowned state planning financial planning firms in the United States, they had clients that included a former president in the United States, lots of entertainers, sports athletes.

So always say I worked with these famous people. But what that means is I carried the files into the room, but you know, but still, it was a great start, I fell in love with the concept of estate planning.

I became a student to have I go to probate courts, and I would, I would become a student of how money moved from one generation to the next, and eventually then left and created my own business and we became national. And then the constant question of how do you create value for your clients?

A concern was that 97% of family wealth, statistically, worldwide, never survives the third generation. And I said, Well, why are we doing estate planning, if only 3% of the assets move from one generation to the next, and in looking at that, I thought, well, that’s kind of an indictment on the industry.

And so I started searching for other things, in fact, considered even getting completely out of the industry, took a couple extra classes and actually went back and guts I thought, maybe I’ll go to med school become an ER doctor because you make a difference right off the bat.

And, but unfortunately, or fortunately, I mean, certain things happened along the way that brought me full circle round. And we started focusing in on primarily families, entrepreneurial families.

And we’ve recognized over the years that the greatest impact that we can have with others is to work with entrepreneurs who love their families, and really want to make a difference, believe in God, have a good strong faith base and willing want to make a difference on the planet.

Working with these entrepreneurs, I started to attend and get coached myself that opened up the door to mentoring more and more than probably over the last 20 some odd years, I’ve had the opportunity to mentor close to 1000 entrepreneurs that own their own businesses are highly successful, and a good majority of whom really want to make a difference.

So and I love that.

 

Alan Olsen

It’s an amazing story. And then you’ve outlined your approach to life. And that is when you see situations you immediately tried to problem solve, you know, what was solution needs to be put in place. And what I find interesting is most entrepreneurs are very much a ADHD. They’re very visionary spirit, they got to answer in their pants.

They’re constantly on the move, trying to think through. So I want to spend a little bit of time it’s unique that you consulted 1000 of these renegade entrepreneurs, and often, sometimes on entrepreneurs, you know, fail to see their own weaknesses, which is a stumbling block.

And so my question is this. How do you help a highly successful entrepreneur bridge the gap between their current success and their future goals?

 

Lee Brower

Let me just give you a couple of quick things, the enemy of arriving, excuse me, the enemy of thriving is arriving. And I think one of the challenges with entrepreneurs is that they’re so goal oriented, that when they hit a goal, they stall out because now what and so they constantly are riding this wave of goal setting. Years ago, I decided I was going to eliminate the G word from my language.

And the G word is goals. You know, contrary to what a lot of people say there’s been several studies one even from Harvard Business School Wharton School of Management, Kellogg School of Management, elders School of Management, where together they concluded that traditional goal setting has done more to destroy harm corporate America than almost any other concept that caught my attention.

Okay, that caught my attention. Well, if you’re not going to set goals, what are you going to do? And so then I determined well, not only am I not going to set goals per se, the way that traditional setup, what I am going to do is I’m going to eliminate finished mindset, my life.

And if I can help entrepreneurs really that are more focused really on the journey, eliminate the finish lines in their lives because goal setting Goal Setting goals is really like a finish line, isn’t it? And then then you arrive, then then what? And then when you’re if you’re also running a company and you start doing goal setting, it encourages cheating.

It’s more about motivation, it’s less around inspiration. And so what is that thing that’s bigger? What is it that real difference that you can make that you can never achieve? So, for example, can I improve character? can i improve competence? Can I improve? You know?

Can I improve connections, how many connections I make, can I improve compassion, and really kind of focus in on the journey and, and then watch what comes along the way. So if I can help an entrepreneur, basically what somebody said, Lee, what you do is you give progress a home, you get progress a future, you give success, a future, that’s what they say you give success a future.

And so if, if I can help you, if I can help an entrepreneur, be able to see something that’s beyond the next goal, and consider that to be a milestone, rather than a goal. It’s just a milestone to somebody, it’s even bigger, and I can keep you in motion, then your you your ability to achieve your future is always going to be bigger than your past.

So folks, first of all, focus on those things that matter most. Don’t let go of those. You know, when you say yes to something, ask yourself what you’re saying no to? Most entrepreneurs say yes to wait too many things. And so, if you just follow that formula, what am I saying? Yes? To what I say yes to this, what am I saying no to?

So, I would say that’s one no finish lines, to have something that’s bigger than to look forward to that transcends the current journey, and celebrate the journey, have gratitude and every step of the journey.

 

Alan Olsen

You mentioned that, that that goals are often a stumbling block. And, and not to use the G word. But I’d like to it which is very unique, because everyone else is saying set goals, set goals, set goals, accountability, right.

But if I could take that a little bit further and talk about the common mistakes of an entrepreneur, and this is where maybe I’m getting into mindsets, and how they think and what stops them from moving companies forward to you. They may be successful, but really getting to the next level.

 

Lee Brower

I break entrepreneurs down into two broad categories mindsets. Both are essential, both are powerful. I think one is driven by motivation; I think the others driven by inspiration. And to make a point, can people be motivated to cheat? I think they can. It starts right out of the blocks, your dad’s going to give you a weapon if you don’t get a good grade.

You know what I mean? So I pick up guys paper just to save the belt. Okay. All right. And but it can transcend and it moves up the ladder can people be inspired to cheat? When you’re inspired is that breath is elevating you to a higher position, it’s moving you up?

So it’s difficult to say I’m it’s been inspired to cheat, you might find circumstances where that would be inspirational, cheap, but I think most times no. So, as you look at from a standpoint of the river of having a reservoir mindset, reservoir, mindsets are very focused on how much shoreline can I get? How much water can I get in my reservoir? How do I get bigger fish in my reservoir?

Well, the only way you’re going to get bigger fish in your reservoir is to buy them. Look at that guy’s boat over there. I want a boat just like that. And what happens is, as you succeed as you move along, as an entrepreneur, you’re always looking for the next bigger boat. And so there’s no that level of satisfaction. And so then you arrive, and the enemy of thriving is arriving.

And so then where do you go from here and ultimately, you know, the reservoir starts to shrink up and die. you contrast that with a river mindset. If the if an entrepreneur can grasp hold of the river mindset, rivers always focused in on the flow. They’re more interested in controlling the flow.

Rivers in flow, attract tributaries, they attract wildlife to their shores, they create spawning beds, naturally. They create electricity. So it’s not just about receiving it’s about giving. It’s continually adding value, so that you’re agape pastures they irrigate crops, they can create electricity.

And so it’s looking for how do we find and discover with inside of each each of us, what is that river mindset that we’re looking for? Sometimes we have to experiment with the reservoir for a long time before we realize that it’s not it’s not giving us that inspiration. Yeah, we might be motivated to get that next boat, but we’re not inspired to create electricity for a whole community.

We’re not inspired to irrigate a pasture for this. So What’s a shift in the mindset? If everybody’s looking for their bigger future, everybody’s looking for their purpose, their meaningfulness, if their future does not include others, if they’re, if their purpose does not include others is not a true purpose.

So helping entrepreneurs look at those things that have given them joy, where they fit their unique ability, where their talents, and then ask themselves, how can I start doing more of that? And that just starts to narrow down with time. And there’s some amazing pioneers that are rivers that are creating great, have I been having such amazing success?

making that shift? changes completely their business? Completely?

 

Alan Olsen

You know, Lee, I often it is, we’re in the same industry. And one of the things that a lot can encounter is an individual that is trying to scale a company or a business or trying to get to a certain level. And you mentioned something about making sure that as you go through like that you have a good foundation. How does a person find? What is their foundation? Where do they begin?

If they’re like, Well, I’m not sure I just want to make a lot of money.

 

Lee Brower

So if I were to ask, typically, if I’m sitting down with somebody, some of the first insights was, I mean, I can still remember sitting down next to uh, anyways, the thought process went on, and I hit a, you know, like, when do you get your great ideas or like, when you’re in the shower, okay, boom, and hit you, you know, four o’clock in the shower, boom, I had this big question.

The question was, What is my stewardship to my well, and when does it end? That was my question, because I was floating around saying, Where do I want to go? What do I want to do? Yeah, I’m making money. But what do I really want to do?

And four o’clock in the morning, jumped out of the shower, wrote some things down, ended up on an airplane, sitting next to a lady whose husband managed, most people manage most of the real estate for the largest landowner in the whole western United States. And we had a great conversation.

And she told me that she had his she and her daughters owned a little store in Jackson, Wyoming, beautiful area that didn’t do this really loved working with their daughters of this great and what her husband was doing. And then finally, she says, What is it you do? The four o’clock moment? Okay. I said, I optimize assets. When she goes, what? 10 optimize assets?

I said, when you hear the word assets, what do you think of? And she said, Money, let real estate stocks, bonds, everything went, what do you have assets that you value more than your money, your stocks, bonds, etc? She goes to me like my family. And I said, Well, would you trade your family for more money? No. Okay, then like your family?

What else do you have that you went to? So we started talking through this? She said, Well, my values, I wouldn’t trade my values for that my beliefs. So they’re more valuable than money. Yeah. So I broke it down into four squares. Down in the lower left hand square, I put the things wrote things up in the upper left hand square, I wrote those things that are core to you.

So your, you know, your health, your well being I wouldn’t trade my health for more money. Certainly not my family. No, you know, I wouldn’t trade my values. No, my heritage, no, you know, my unique talents? No. So I put core up in there.

Then I opened the other quadrant I wrote down, I’ll do it on this back of a napkin, by the way of that delta napkin, so and up in the right hand corner, I put experiences in all education. Would you trade your at your learning? When you trade your learning? No, of course not. For good, bad? No. What about your personal your reputation?

No, of course not. You know, what about your friends, your alliances? You were late? No, of course not. And so I’ll get you started. You started realizing then there was one empty quadrant down there. And I said about there. What about when you leave this planet? Would you want to be somebody that contributed more than you was consumed or consumed more than you created?

And she said, Well, I certainly what about your children? Would you want them to be somebody that consume more than they created or create more than they consume? Alright, so I call that contribution acid. So I have four assets. Then I asked her, I said, Now, how many of these assets these four boxes, which of these four boxes do you want to give to your children?

She said all of them, all of them? And I said, Well, what if you couldn’t give them all? What if you had to leave just one behind? You could only give them three? Which one would you leave behind? And it took her all of about a fraction of a second she took her finger and she put us right on that lower left hand quadrant should the financial. I said wow, why did you say that?

She says because I know this, that if my kids are bankrupt here, or here or here, this is going to go away. But if they’re rich here, here and here, this is going to take care of itself. And that was a turning point for me.

Because I was asking myself, What is my, you know, why am I even in this business when I like those statistics, and now that business has graduated, I wouldn’t say I’m in the financial services business, we’ve moved beyond that, where it’s just one of the quadrants, but it’s still, at that point, made a big shift for me.

And I think when people get down to it, you don’t see him sitting down there at their grave sites, and I wish I had more assets.

So we should have spent more time with my family, I wish I had taken better care of my health, I wish I would have learned more from the experience more out there really enjoying life, I wish I would have given more I wish I could have helped other more people. That’s what they’re saying.

But sometimes it takes a pause, a pause that gets him to that reality if you had to choose and then so what are you doing now to do that. And then once they kind of get it, then to help them develop a pattern of thinking that way, move it through them, to their family, and then into their business. It’s interesting, Alan, I get calls from people all the time to help them with their business.

And I you know, I have lots of success stories of businesses that we’re here to hear. So the comments that can you have with my business, I said, maybe you and your spouse come and spend a week with me. spent three days with me, it’s not a week, it’s been three days with me, and we’ll decide. And they’re like my spouse, what is he or she have to do with it?

I say exactly. And so that’s pretty much the approach that we’ve taken, we’ve learned over the years that if you just pause, long enough to pause, and you ask yourself, what are those things that I value even more than my money? The things that I would not trade for more money? Would you trade your children for more money? No, of course not.

Would you spend your time with your children? No, but we do it all the time. We’ve all done it, would you trade your health for more money? No, but we all done it. You know, so it says just getting that back and spent. And it’s really amazing. Because I think at the heart of most entrepreneurs, they just need to have that wake up call.

And when they need to see that their systems in place, that they can be in harmony with that and still make even more money. That’s the bottom line is they actually make more money.

 

Alan Olsen

You know, it’s interesting, this concept that we’re talking about purpose. A lot of people don’t understand it’s there was a Dr. Seuss book look about the bird having a special feather. And everybody in the flock wanted had these special feathers. And so they all got a special feather on their back. And then they looked at the one that had it opposite feather wherever when it started.

So they kept blocking, you know, to, you know, to always try to get something that was unique, and it never arrived it that I think the concept of money sometimes is misleading. And I guess I just want to add to your testimony, oh, thank you for this great wisdom that, you know, I’ve met people who have sold companies for billions of dollars and then comment.

I am not happy. I could have anything I want in this world. But I’m not happy. And furthering the question, the comment comes back to happiness cannot be bought. And it exists within others and in relationships. So the I want to,

 

Lee Brower

I think, yeah, word on that happiness is happiness you can’t pursue happiness ensues.

 

Alan Olsen

Thank you. That’s great. That’s a great, well said well said. Let me go into sharing some important lessons that she’s learned in your career working with high profile clients of building your own company, and how these lessons have shaped your coaching and mentoring of others.

And you said you did this Oprah 1,000th Time to the entrepreneurs, what have you learned along the way?

 

Lee Brower

Well, a lot of what I’ve learned is been a result of what I’ve learned from them. You know what I mean? When I’m different in different things, it’s happened. I had an experience where I was invited to go to Mongolia right after the Iron Curtain came down. And there’s a lot of stories embedded that I spent quite a bit of time there.

But I got to meet with the president of the Mongolian Stock Exchange. Now imagine a country that had been under communist rule and there have been no entrepreneurs. Okay, he’s right. I mean, and his role, a young man, we called him Zolo because we couldn’t pronounce his name and he was he was okay with that.

Being charged with the responsibility of taking all these private businesses, all these businesses that were owned by the government and making them privately held, and he was tasked with enormous, you know, an enormous responsibility. But there was a moment in the I had my 16 year old son with me at the time. I wanted to give him a good experience.

And then he was sitting there listening. And so he taught, we got talking with Zola when he told us about the hours that he was working, and they weren’t long and arduous. And I said, what drives you?

You know, and he said, Well, you see these kids standing outside the door, they started lining up at three o’clock in the afternoon to learn all about entrepreneurship, capitalism, you know, learning all about that. And they would stand there in the freezer, it was below zero is like below four degrees or something, it was cold.

And then they would let him in for hours and work with them, and then send them home and have to finish up the day. So they were working long, long hours. And that’s when I said, Wow, and that’s when I asked him say what drives you? And he says, Well, right now in our country, we have about a 200% inflation rate, it’s we get 120.

We charges were charged 120%. On loans, we borrow from the bank, we have we pay, we get a 60% interest on our savings account. We have a total disruption of balance of trade, we don’t have any windows in our hospitals, where children’s hospitals, Everything’s bad. And he said the political had to be elected for the first time.

And they stood up and started saying is that all the problem with the US is this capitalistic system, here’s the problem. And the newspapers came by and asked me what I thought. And I told him the truth. And then he said, you see these teeth right here. And you can see his teeth have been knocked out. He said, I ended up the police station for three days.

He says I learned right then and there that everything that I own, my house, my car, my clothes, everything can be taken away from me like this. Except for what I have right here. And nobody can take that. Now, I thought that was the lesson for a long time.

But there’s a further lesson that that channeled my entrepreneurial career channeled a lot of the things that we’re we’ve learned, and that’s what he said next, I am glad I took down a note my journal on it. Because it’s what it said next, it made the difference.

And our son and my son and I, we talked many times about that experience, because I wanted him to hear that about education. And I thought that was the real meaning of what he said next was this, he says what I have right here is of no value to anybody.

 

Except me, unless I give it away. And once I give it away, it has a life of its own.

 

So that was a shift in my thinking completely in that these experiences that we have as entrepreneurs as running businesses. If we sit down and identify him, what are those moments that made us feel most proud about the work that we’re doing? And if you could identify those, those moments, there’s underlying principles.

I wondering if those moments, everybody can talk about their values, values mean nothing in my book. So you say this guy is crazy. He doesn’t believe in goals, he doesn’t believe in values. No, I believe in goals, I just don’t believe in the way they’re used. I do believe in values with values that are at a better actualized our principles.

Principles, then are for entrepreneurs, if you can uncover their principles, this is what you can always count on them to do. And if you can always count on them to do if you can identify them Lincoln to stories, then you’re going to develop a culture and culture is what drives culture eats strategy for breakfast.

And if I’m an entrepreneur, I’ve been a rugged individualists my whole time.

I don’t understand culture. But if I can embrace it in such a way, that they see a cause that’s bigger than themselves that will outlive themselves that will outlive them, capturing the stories naming and branding the stories that carry on principles, you will start to have people making decisions and choices at every level that would think like you do.

Christiansen the great professor, that, you know that has written several books, Clayton Christensen, thank you. He defined culture as great companies that have great culture are those companies that have made great decisions and know how to repeat them? Well, the way you know how to repeat them as you capture the stories.

So this is like Xolo captures the story so that he can pass them on? Well, if I sit down with a company and I say what are those moments that made you particularly proud to be a part of this company?

Ask an entrepreneur that and we can uncover that, uncover the underlying principles, capture the story, link them together, so they become part of the culture of the company. I’m going to have my employees making as good a decision or better decision than I’m making. That’s what makes you grow as an entrepreneur when you can get the people around you.

Making decisions and knowing how to repeat them as good as you’re doing that allows you to stay focused on the future. Leaders challenge what is working your managers can challenge them what is not working.

 

Alan Olsen

That is well said Lee. What hearing In the media and also technology today, we got this artificial intelligence on the cusp of our future. behemoth. Now with all said, where do you see entrepreneurship going in the next five to 10 years and how does the AI fit into this equation?

 

Lee Brower

is so awesome. They’re the bumper guards. We’re the bumper guards, if we truly understand our vision of where we’re going, the thing that we add is the very thing that we just talked about, no AI is going to go out and collect stories.

No AI is going to collect the feelings that come along with it, no AIs are going to be able to bring those stories into dishes and making, what’s going to happen is, and it’s going to happen faster than we can even count on. I mean, literally, I’ve been studying this very in depth.

And I think entrepreneurs wake up every morning, and ask themselves, how can we do things better, bigger, faster, cheaper, every day? That’s what makes them entrepreneurs. Politicians wake up, unfortunately, where the statesman, where are the politicians who will stand up and say, let’s put a man on the moon. Let’s go there.

Now they don’t lift anymore. They’re scared to death of the future. And when a future scares you, the only way you can elevate yourself is push others down around you. But the entrepreneur now has the opportunity to be the bumper guard, it has the opportunity to take what they do best.

Stop being the rugged individualist uses artificial intelligence to accelerate what you’re doing. And cast that vision into the people that they work with into their customers. And be able to say, don’t be afraid of this, lean into it. Sure, there’s going to be the evil ones that grab it and use it for bad. But it’s happened in all of technology.

That’s why we need bumper guards and entrepreneurs, candidly, entrepreneurs that believe in a higher power, that love their family, because the family is under assault. Center is salt, that love their family can see how to link those two together are going to be able to provide more security, more guidance.

And they’ll be able to use AI to do it even faster, better, cheaper. So I’m excited about it. It’s a great, great challenge.

 

Alan Olsen

Well said, well said let’s do this. One final question here. Balance, you’ve mentioned family, professional life, person wanting to balance but never getting there. What are they doing wrongly?

 

Lee Brower

I don’t think you by my language. And people could argue this just simply took the sentence out of context. I don’t think that you nor I have ever made a bad decision. Now, that shocks everybody, I’m sure for a second, we’re not being arrogant.

What I’m saying is I don’t think that we wake up in the morning, or the first of the year and said, Hey, I’m gonna be the worst Father, I’m gonna be the worst husband, the worst Mother, I’m going to be the worst, I’m gonna be out of the worst shape of my life, I’m gonna be, we have these aspirations, and we make decisions that we’re going to do a make him good.

It comes down to our daily choices, comes down to our daily choices, and you have to hit the pause button every day, and reset. So how you start your morning, how you start your mornings determines your day. And, you know, there was a my daughter gave me a quote yesterday, she said, Dad, whatever follows I am follows you.

And I thought about that. And I started thinking, and it has so many applications. I mean, we could go on forever, just on that one, saying whatever follows I am, follows you.

And so our the way that we think the way we talk if we don’t hit the pause button, and for me, the pause button for me is every morning I do a thing called P med prayer, meditation, exercise and diet, and they have to follow that order. And if I can follow that order every morning, my days then are good. If I don’t get my first hour, right, my days are not good.

So I would say it’s harmonious balance, not just balance. I look at four tires, if aren’t four tires are exactly balanced and you hit the curse of life, you’re gonna roll. But that’s why you put weight on one tire. So you have to have harmonious balance, where there’s times when there’s things going on in your family, you need to give it a little bit better attention.

But you can’t, you can’t take the air out of that tire. You still need air in that tire every day. But there’s times when it needs a little bit more air, financial same way. But if you take and you take those four areas, and you keep air in them, and you constantly you’re balancing them, that’s harmonious balance, and it takes effort, and it should be daily effort.

Where am I at today? What are my most important things? What am I saying no to so I can say yes to these. That’s the that’s the it takes it takes hard work, but it takes pause and reflection and commitment and has to mean something to you. And you know I call it being in wobble. You know when you’re out of wobble when you wobble.

It’s because something’s out of balance in your life. And you’re not going to be as efficient you’re not going to be If you’re not going to be as fast, you’re not going to have the velocity. And when you’re in wobble, then you just need to look at those areas of your life and say, okay, and the way you do that is, for me, it’s every morning.

I’d be for some, it’s every night. For me, it’s every morning.

 

Alan Olsen

Well, sadly, Lee, if a person wants to reach out for getting in contact with you for mentorship, or, you know, with questions, how would they go ahead and do that?

 

Lee Brower

Oh, the easiest way probably would send me it goes into our we go, we’ve got good staff around us that help facilitate things and make good responses. Just delete at Lee brower.com would be the easiest way the company’s name is. And you can go there and subscribe. We do a weekly podcast is five minutes long, but roughly less than six.

Sometimes in sometimes less than five. But in that general area, been doing it since the first week of 2014 Heaven Mr. Monday, they call it Monday, meaningful Monday. Welcome to go to Libra hour.com and sign up for it there. We’re empowered wealth.com. And we don’t solicit out of there, we don’t do anything.

You’re just welcome to come in and listen, and we send this out every Monday and people love it. They share it sometimes with their teams in the morning. But they at least we the feedback that we get it’s not scripted. It’s basically top of mind and this is our hit for this week. And this is what we’re going to do and or you know, challenge that we’ll make.

And that seems to be very popular, but just Lee at Lee brower.com would be a good email.

 

Alan Olsen

Well, thank you, Lee. I’m gonna just throw one final question. When everything is said and done, about Lee Breyers, browers life What do you want to be known for?

 

Lee Brower

Somebody that showed extreme gratitude for his faith and his family. And it was demonstrated by his actions.

 

Alan Olsen

Lee, thanks for being with us today.

 

Lee Brower

All right. Thank you, Alan. My pleasure.

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