“Joy is and always has been an inside job.” - Tim Brown
As Chief Client Services Officer and Global Head of the BPB Family Office, Tim Brown helps lead Berkowitz Pollack Brant CPA's focus on family offices, cross-border global families, entrepreneurs/closely held businesses, tax strategy/estate planning/structuring and commercial real estate (www.bpbcpa.com). The BPB Family Office serves as a multi-faceted and fiduciary based “Virtual Single-Family Office” platform that performs no wealth management or banking services. Prior to BPB, Mr. Brown served with Bernstein Private Wealth Management and as Managing Partner with HB Partners, a boutique investment bank working with high-growth commercial real estate companies and “buy-side” representation for single-family offices specific to PE and real estate. Mr. Brown served as consultant with Alliance Bernstein’s Non-Traditional Asset Strategies and continues to consult with Anschutz Investments (the Anschutz single-family office, with investments and operations in professional sports, concert promotion and entertainment (LA Lakers (former minority shareholder), LA Kings, LA Galaxy, AEG, AEG Live), hospitality (Sea Island Resort, The Broadmoor Hotel, Xanterra), natural resources, wind-energy, ranching, telecommunications and other industries.
Previously Mr. Brown served as President of Concord Energy Holdings, a Colorado-based integrated commodity logistics and oilfield services company. While at Concord Energy, Mr. Brown focused on a senior leadership restructuring and operational turn-around of a crude oil truck hauling division, a frac-water recycle mobile treatment operation and natural gas energy marketing. Prior to Concord, he was the Founder and CEO of Radius Media Holdings, a position he held for more than 11 years. Radius Media provided a broad stratum of five operating companies that ranged from radio broadcasting, lifestyle driven events in the Colorado resort communities, a nationally focused large-format printing company with a specialty in outdoor advertising (OOH), a sponsorship/naming rights marketing agency and the management of seven digital billboards in downtown Denver.
Brown began his career more than 25 years ago in sales management in the high tech and telecommunications industry. During the course of a decade, he worked with both established and start-up companies, as an entrepreneur and intraprenuer, in Denver, Chicago and Sydney, Australia including Cisco Systems, Alteon Web Systems (Nortel Networks) and American Power Conversion.
Mr. Brown is an active member of Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO, www.ypo.org) in the YPO Jackson Hole Integrated and YPO Miami-Fort Lauderdale Gold Chapters, serving as past Chapter Chair of the Rocky Mountain Chapter (2018-2019) and past board member of the M&A focused, YPO Deal Network (2017-2019). Additionally, Mr. Brown served as the Member Chair for YPO Jackson Hole Integrated, Vice Chair of the YPO Personal Investing Network (2018-2020), is current Chair of the YPO Personal Investing Network (2020-2023) and Co-Chair of the two-time “Best of the Best” award winning YPO Chicago Booth School Seminar. Mr. Brown Co-Founded YPO Investing Network’s Personal Investing Forums, which have continued to grow month-over-month, with over 500+ global members and 43 global forums since April, 2019. Mr. Brown previously served on the Chief Executive Organization’s International Board (www.ceo.org), the sister organiation to YPO.
Mr. Brown is the author of two books, “Jumping into the Parade” (2014) and “Old School with New Tools” (2015). Mr. Brown earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University with a focus on political science. He and his wife Aleathia, split time between Jackson, Wyoming and Miami, Florida.
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[00:00:00] Jeffrey Feldberg: Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast where you learn how to extract your business and personal Deep Wealth.
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This podcast is brought to you by Deep Wealth and the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience.
When it comes to your business deep wealth, your exit or liquidity event is the most important financial decision of your life.
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At the end of this episode, take a moment and hear from business owners like you, who went through the Deep Wealth Experience.
As Chief Client Services Officer and Global Head of the BPB Family Office, Tim Brown helps lead Berkowitz Pollack Brant CPA's focus on family offices, cross-border global families, entrepreneurs, closely held businesses, tax strategy, estate planning, structuring and commercial real estate. The BPB Family Office serves as a multi-faceted and fiduciary-based “Virtual Single-Family Office” platform that performs no wealth management or banking services. Prior to BPB, Mr. Brown served with Bernstein Private Wealth Management and as Managing Partner with HB Partners, a boutique investment bank working with high-growth commercial real estate companies and “buy-side” representation for single-family offices specific to PE and real estate. Mr. Brown served as consultant with Alliance Bernstein’s Non-Traditional Asset Strategies and continues to consult with LA Lakers, LA Kings, LA Galaxy, AEG, hospitality, natural resources, wind-energy, ranching, telecommunications, and other industries.
Previously Mr. Brown served as President of Concord Energy Holdings, a Colorado-based integrated commodity logistics and oilfield services company. While at Concord Energy, Mr. Brown focused on a senior leadership restructuring and operational turn-around of a crude oil truck hauling division, a frac-water recycle mobile treatment operation, and natural gas energy marketing. Prior to Concord, he was the Founder and CEO of Radius Media Holdings, a position he held for more than 11 years. Radius Media provided a broad stratum of five operating companies that ranged from radio broadcasting, lifestyle-driven events in the Colorado resort communities, a nationally focused large-format printing company with a specialty in outdoor advertising, a sponsorship/naming rights marketing agency and the management of seven digital billboards in downtown Denver.
Brown began his career more than 25 years ago in sales management in the high-tech and telecommunications industry. During the course of a decade, he worked with both established and start-up companies, as an entrepreneur and intrapreneur, in Denver, Chicago, and Sydney, Australia including Cisco Systems, Alteon Web Systems, and American Power Conversion.
Mr. Brown is an active member of Young Presidents’ Organization in the YPO Jackson Hole Integrated and YPO Miami-Fort Lauderdale Gold Chapters, serving as past Chapter Chair of the Rocky Mountain Chapter and past board member of the M&A focused, YPO Deal Network, Personal Investing Network and is current Chair of the YPO Personal Investing Network and Co-Chair of the two-time “Best of the Best” award-winning YPO Chicago Booth School Seminar. Mr. Brown Co-Founded YPO Investing Network’s Personal Investing Forums, which have continued to grow month-over-month, with over 500+ global members and 43 global forums since April 2019. Mr. Brown previously served on the Chief Executive Organization’s International Board, the sister organization to YPO.
Mr. Brown is the author of two books, “Jumping into the Parade” and “Old School with New Tools”. Mr. Brown earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado State University with a focus on political science. He and his wife Aleathia, split time between Jackson, Wyoming, and Miami, Florida.
Welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. And as usual, I have a zinger of an episode lined up for you because of the guests that we have. Our guest has really done so many things. has generated Incredible success learned a lot along the way and together we're going to be paying it forward on this episode, but I'm going to stop there because I don't want to take the wind out of our sails Tim.
So Tim, welcome to the Deep Wealth Podcast. Really a pleasure to have you with us today. And you know, Tim there's always a story behind the story. Tim, what's your story? What got you to where you are today?
[00:06:08] Tim Brown: Wow. I love that question. That is one of the best I think I've heard in a long time. And I don't know if I have a great answer other than curiosity. When I think there's a great quote that somebody shared with me one time that people plan and God laughs. And so when I look at my life, I think I've always been attracted to learning and curious about things. I've always enjoyed creating and I've always enjoyed you know, really just loving things that you do. And so just by nature of that, I've been attracted to different opportunities as it relates to how I ended up with what I do today was not planned, but yet love it.
love it. And I feel like you know, Mark Twain has this great quote that the two days in a person's life are the day you're born then the day you figure out why. And recently I think I figured out why.
[00:07:06] Jeffrey Feldberg: That sounds like not just an episode, that could probably be an entire series in and of itself just with that alone. But please continue Tim.
[00:07:14] Tim Brown: I think it's just, it's interesting. Life is really, I've always viewed it as being really neutral. And it's really up to us to take every experience as it comes along. And we can either use that experience or our upliftment or betterment or learning, or you can use it to hold you back.
And for me, especially the, probably the last 10 years of my career, I have shifted in terms of you know, everything from how you reinvent yourself to how you hold your story, to how you take things that happen in your life and pivot from those to, to use those ultimately to grow and to get better.
And when I think about what I'm doing today, it is a really a combination of a lot of things that I love. And I feel real grateful that. And gratitude goes a long way.
[00:08:07] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Tim, tell him, let me ask you this, because really when you take a big picture look of what you've done and you've done a lot. You've started in sales and then you've been presidents of companies. You've been a consultant. You're now being a chief client services officer, and you're working with wealthy families and you've been a thought leader.
You've written books. So you've really covered a large gamut of things out there. And if we're open about it, you have more experiences than many people listening in on this podcast. And I'd say even myself included. So when you look back on your life and those experiences, and you're putting this all together, I mean, what would be some I'll call them classic takeaways.
Really lessons well learned that have now today's served you well. And just similar to that wonderful quote that you gave, the day that you were born in the day that you figured out why you were born, what can you, maybe we can start there on the podcast of what can you share with us?
That if someone were walking away from this episode and they were only to remember one thing, and there's no pressure with this question to him, no pressure at all. But if someone was to remember one thing from something that's really impacted your life in a big way, what do you think that would be?
[00:09:22] Tim Brown: Wow. is a question. And I think I'm going to go with, I had a board member for my first company that I ran, which was a radio broadcasting company. And one of the members of my board had been a long-time radio owner. He'd done very well. And went on to reinvent his own career, became mayor of the City of Boulder, ran for Congress.
It's really interesting things. And I was talking about some of the challenges that we had as a startup company and how we were building and he stopped me and he says, you know what the definition of success is? And I said, I don't know, grit, hard work And he says, no, the definition of success is when plan B works. And so I've always thought that was a great learning lesson for me. It kind of reminds me of John Wooden when he was the famous basketball coach for UCLA and people would talk to John, hey John, are you you know, we've got this big game coming up. They're often just looking pretty good. How are you feeling about that?
And he would always say, you know, we're gonna just we're gonna play our game. Team feels pretty good. But his big thing was good players adjust, but he said a lot of really great things, but I view it as good players adjust. The other thing that, that I feel like I learned in life in my call it early forties is really the power of re-invention.
For me, I had thought that my life was going to go specifically a certain way, people plan and God laughs and then it didn't quite go as I planned and I ended up losing lot of money in 2009 $55 million is actually how much I lost business.
And when you look at your worth as a human being. And you equate that to you do in business. How many points you put on the board and business? Most people just want to talk about their highlight reel and life. And then you get knocked down to the ground was something that pretty difficult to how are you going to hold that?
back on that and what arguably was probably the most difficult thing I ever had to navigate through turned out to probably be the best teaching event of my life. And that would ultimately go on to me really trying to positively impact a million lives on the planet with. The exactly what I was talking about, how you hold your story, how you show up in the world and do incredible things. And so, you know, I think that's the whole point is in life you have all of these opportunities, you have different teachers who come into your life. Some of those teachers are events.
Some of those teachers are people you meet. Some of those teachers are other areas. And it's really how open are you to those things? And that's why I think that the word curious is really important here. If I had to give one piece of advice to my son, and that was the only piece of advice that I could give to him that would be it, I would say, always remain curious.
I think curiosity comes this quest to always improve yourself. You have to have a lot of humility. I think to be curious in many ways because you know, you, you don't have it all figured out. And I think that's really the doorway ultimately to creating and without sounding too esoteric, I think as human beings or in our highest and best selves as people when we're creating you look at giving back philanthropy and charity and why, I think that's such an amazing experience for people on both sides, frankly, of that, you know, as you get the ability to help create a better outcome in the world. And from that, I think that outcome also helps create better version of you in terms of how we show up in the world.
And anyway, that's probably a very long-winded answer Jeffrey to what you'd asked me.
[00:13:27] Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, What I love about that and Tim, your answer, there is a lot to unpack there, but let's focus in on a moment for something that's near and dear to your heart, because what's interesting, you know, you've mentioned in passing some financial numbers and some large financial numbers while you were at it.
And for some people that really would move the dial, but where I heard the passion with you was on the philanthropy side. And for the members of our community. The initial focus and particularly here at Deep Wealth with our nine-step roadmap and the 90-day Deep Wealth Experience, if I can be blunt about it, We help business owners become wealthy.
We help business owners become wealthier than they would've been in a liquidity event. Have they just gone on their own? But one of the things that we talk about in the Deep Wealth Experience and this ties into your philanthropy question, Tim and it's simply this and people really look at us in a funny way because it's day one of the Deep Wealth Experience we're talking about how you're going to create a liquidity event of a lifetime but before we even talk about that, we begin to talk about what is life after the exit? Like your post exit life. What's what does it look like for you? What are you doing? How are you paying it forward? Are you giving it back? Is there philanthropy and for a lot of business owners, when they're really vulnerable with us and they're open and they're transparent, they say to us, you know, Jeffrey I never really thought of that.
I've just been nose to the grindstone with this business. Haven't really given much thought to that. I don't really know how to answer that. And what I love about this episode with you, Tim is we can help give the questions for the business owners to answer of the post-exit life of what that would look like after the fact.
So talk to us about philanthropy. Why is philanthropy so passionate for you, Tim? And why can that make such a difference for people?
[00:15:15] Tim Brown: Yeah, that's a great question. And I'm a big believer in issues 10 in life. You look to see what with our children, issues tend to revolve around purpose and identity. when we go through difficult times with our teenagers or children in their early twenties, they tend to come back to purpose and identity to some shape or form.
And I think the same thing is true for us as human beings. When we feel that we have a purpose that might be bigger than us when we feel we have an identity connected to the outcomes and multiple people?
I think it could be pretty incredible. I think of Bob Buford who wrote the book half time and how that's gone on to frankly, change the world in ways that I don't think Bob could have ever imagined right in here, Bob had this massive liquidity event in the broadcasting business was in his forties, had no idea to do at that time, because he had spent his entire life, with essentially focused on a way of doing and now went into halftime to figure out how to focus on a way of being and that way of being. Really created this regenerative process I think, is, was what he was looking for at the time. And so when you look at that liquidity event, you've spent so much of your career every day working so hard, making tough decisions, moving things along, the day of the entrepreneur, is a lot of times you move ball down the field, maybe 2 yards in 29 days. And then you go 9 yards on day 30 and you get it over the line and you live to fight another day, another month building things. And it's a grind, your purpose, your identity as it relates to being the CEO or the president of that firm and what those ultimate goals are and what you're looking to do.
And so I think what's important as you look at philanthropy, if you look at your purpose, whatever definition you want to give to that, I think the more clarity you have around, I know who I am. I know I have a purpose. know that the wealth that I have is now a tool to create whatever it is that I want to leave behind, whatever change I want to witness the things that I want to do.
I mean, at some point, you have all of this wealth, can't spend it in one lifetime. And I think with that comes different layers of complexity. And this is one of those things where I just think it can be so incredibly fulfilling. A lot of the topics that we talk to families about revolve around what do you see a generation from now. What do you see three generations from now? What do you see 10 generations from now? And if you had the choice of going back in time talking to your ancestors, going forward in time, and talking to your descendants, which one would you pick?
And 9 times out of 10, people want to talk, to their descendants and so the question then comes, do you feel like you've got an obligation to your descendants' generations from now and that they're making, how they're showing up in the world? And I think that philanthropy and charity how you give back. Can also influence those generations way out in the future. And that's what think that regenerative process then can occur within each generation as time folds out. If you to have those values of, who I am, I know I have a purpose. I know that wealth is simply a tool for me to accomplish those things.
[00:19:00] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Tim building off of that, and there's a lot of powerful things that you said in there, and I know offline, I've been privileged to have a number various conversations with you. And so here's the question that I'm thinking about when you look at your own personal experiences around wealth. And you're also in a very unique position because with what you're doing day in, day out at the firm, you're dealing with family offices and families where let's just say, money is never going to be an issue.
Assuming they do things right for many generations. And how are these families and in your own experiences as well too? So put that in there. How are you finding that purpose? So once you're no longer running that business, that the business and the liquidity event are now a distant memory. How are you giving meaning and what are these families doing to give meaning to their lives that you have a life worth living?
[00:19:52] Tim Brown: That's another great one. Look, I think we need to take a step back and number 1, there's a difference between happiness and joy. And I think a lot of people can maybe sometimes confuse the two and I think that happiness is based on happenings and It could be somewhat fleeting. I think that joy is and always has been an inside job. And so when I examine your question, I guess what I would probably be the counseling on would be what are the things in life that bring you joy? Some of the simple things and many times that pivot from operating a business to starting a family foundation or getting more involved in different places that have an interest to really come from listening to yourself and what brings you joy.
And it may be things that weren't expected. I don't think it always has to be you know, a path that you thought it might've needed to be. I think you may get into it. You made listen to yourself and you may end up in a completely different place. As part of that, and that's what I would be doing.
I would actually sit down. I would give a of a pad of paper to somebody. And I would say, I'd love for you to just have a free flow here by yourself, over a cup of coffee. And I write down for an hour, everything in life that brings you joy. And then let's sit down together and examine everything that you've written here and let's kind of tune and hone through this and see what some of the themes might be of that. Does that make sense?
[00:21:37] Jeffrey Feldberg: It does I, and we're going down this rabbit hole because you're answering one question, but what you're saying is so rich hits bringing up so many more questions and maybe we could look to do this with what you're saying. Let's do just do a quick thought experiment as you and I. No one else is listening here, Tim.
No worries here. And that the thought experiment is this. Imagine a business owner knew the beginning and the end. And what I mean by that is a business owner knew that the business that was started, that's the beginning, that the end point it's going to be magnificent. Like we're talking a grand slam of liquidity events, wealth beyond imagination, but that's all the business owner knew.
And the business owner didn't know anything about the middle and what happened after the fact. So if a business owner came to you and said, Tim, this is what I know. Can you please help me fill in the middle in terms of what should I be doing as I'm working toward that liquidity event? And I know it's just going to be spectacular and successful, but how do I enjoy the process along the way?
What should be some takeaways for me? And once I do have that, what should I be doing beforehand, before the liquidity event to optimize my life for happiness, to have that true joy that you're talking about, Tim, and it's really tapping into both your experiences and you're really a modest fellow because for our listeners, Tim is also a thought leader and Tim has penned two books Jumping Into the Parade.
And Old-school with new tools and Jumping into The Parade, The Leap of Faith That Made My Broken life worth Living. Again, each of those books could be an episode of itself, when we combine all those things, Tim, I mean, you're such a wealth of resources and experiences.
So back to the thought experiment, because that's really whereas businesses. Many of us are in, and particularly in the Deep Wealth community, we have a terrific business. It's successful. We're helping people solving painful problems. We're changing lives. We're learning about the nine-step roadmap. Maybe we're even in the Deep Wealth Experience we're putting ourselves and working towards that terrific liquidity event.
But we know that we don't know what we don't know. That's what we do know. And we want to be prepared for that. And here you are, you've really been on all different sides of this. And from your perspective, what could you share with us in regards to the business owner? Who's saying, okay, Tim, here's the beginning.
Here's the end. Help me fill in the middle end and afterwards.
[00:24:10] Tim Brown: You know, two things come to mind, Jeffrey when I think about question. There's a lot wrapped up in this. If I could go back in time when I was running my business as an entrepreneur, I can remember with my first wife where I was reading an email in the kitchen and she said something to me and I snapped. And when I think about that like your family. I think what I've learned is family comes first.
You've got your faith, your family, your friends. There's the 3 apps and can define that, however, you want. I'm just speaking with me and I really could have handled that better. Who knows email I was replying to? It doesn't really matter.
What matters is, was my maturity level at the time was so wrapped up in this future version of me that I was missing the whole point that it's about being present in the moment. And it's about your family. And I find it, you know, I'm now in my early fifties and there's this different of intentionality that comes into my life. I sort of think of the concept of time when we're young is wasted and then there's this point in our life where, and everybody knows who's listening to this podcast. Everybody knows where you were, when that moment hit you, where you realized the time wasn't infinite, that it was finite.
It was that moment in time where it went from I'm 30 years old and I have all the time in the world to I'm X age and I have 30 years left. And I think it's at that point in time, where you really examine everything, what you're doing, you're doing it. Who you're doing it with? And back to your question, imagine you're a business owner and you knew the beginning and you knew the end.
What would you say about the middle is I think I would say enjoy the ride. Be present with your family. Spend time building on that when you look at a lot of liquidity events and you correlate that to some divorces, a lot of times divorce will happen within one year of a major liquidity event. And it's because, things haven't been healthy for awhile, and now you've got the flexibility to do something like that where maybe you didn't have that flexibility in the past. And I look at my second marriage now and it's very different in terms of the way the things that I bring to the marriage because I went through a very big learning process as a human being. And so from that, I feel like I show up differently. But you know, look it's, we are where we are. think the whole point of life is constant improvement. You know, I can remember sitting down with my former father-in-law who ironically, I still work with his family office. And I asked him, I said how did you become successful? And I'm asking this to And he said, look, I always looked at people who I respected and admired. looked at values that they had and how they were showing up in the world.
And I knew that it took three weeks to develop a habit good or bad, and I would begin to emulate those things that they did, knowing that within three weeks I could create a habit. And that's really how he got into giving back. He used to work with inmates who were being released he would buy each of them a suit help them get good started again in life. And he felt like by them having a suit and having a little bit of money to get started would give them a lot of dignity would give them respect that they we're looking for to come back into society. And that those were for us human to human to be helpful.
And I still look for those opportunities as well. So again Jeffrey, a very long drawn-out answer for me. I'll work next time we have a podcast together being a little more succinct answers back to you.
[00:28:27] Jeffrey Feldberg: You know what I love the variety and your answers and how you're just pulling things together. And this is unrehearsed. We're really just going off the cuff here. And as you and I said offline, there was really no other way to do it. So we're doing more so of you Tim. I get the easy part.
I get to ask the questions. You're doing a little bit of tap dancing here, but I just feel like you're doing just a terrific job with that, but you bring up an interesting point and you don't really hear this much in M&A or in liquidity events circles and you're so right. When you think about it, a liquidity event I mean, that is a life-changing event.
And for many people, they've worked towards that for decades they've put everything their hearts, their soul, their passion, sleepless nights, all of that into getting to that final day and crossing that finish line. But you said something interesting that after the liquidity event, some major life changes can happen some negative ones.
And you mentioned in this case, sometimes even less than a year, marriages are dissolving and other changes are happening. Tim, why do you think that's going on? What was the glue that was holding things together or what came apart or what should we know about now? So we can tell our future self, hey, you know, along the way, you better be mindful of ABC and D so you can avoid this negative outcome.
[00:29:44] Tim Brown: Yeah. I think you've got to have a feel for ultimately, what you, how you want to feel in life and who you want to be with as part of that. And then you, I think you can take it day by day. I don't know if I have the greatest advice. I think it's all kind of kitchen table wisdom just exercising, gratitude, being respectful of others. Having an understanding of what your short and long-term goals are that may not be tied just to wealth and an understanding. How your actions in the world affect others around you? I had a chief financial officer and a business partner of mine and he made it a really observation to me one time because we were in growth mode and he said, Tim, I feel like sometimes you're so focused.
It's like a boat driving down a lake. That's just perfect glass lake. Okay. And you're looking out from the boat and you're driving the boat to the lake is completely glass and it's smooth and you're just, you've got the throttles down, but you're not taking the time to look at the weight that you're leaving behind you as you make that decision.
And he said, you know, there are times as a team where I feel like you're so focused in this area that we can't keep up with the weight that's being left behind. And I thought that was really good perspective. I think that's one of the amazing things about a 360-degree evaluation of a person. And the ability to help us see blind spots. I look some of the things that we teach inside of our YPO investing forums. You know, we now are coming up on having 500 members placed in these investing forums. And I chair that program within the YPO personal investing network.
And a lot of the things that we work on is approaching holistically. It's looking at how do you help somebody to find their why. Before the what and the, how, investments as an example, a lot of people have a liquidity event. They want to start a family office, which makes a lot of sense.
A lot of times, And the original questions really in the beginning kind of start with the what and the how what should I invest in? How much versus the why, why do you want to be invested? And what kind of role do your children play in this? Some of the most commonly asked questions when you get into these investing forums now, how much do I leave my children?
When do I talk to them about wealth what's their viewpoint as it relates to this? And it's interesting too in terms of what a lot of times may think about that versus what the parents and the wealth creators think children think and where there's disconnections between that.
So I'd given a really long answer to relatively short question.
[00:32:39] Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, you know, two things are jumping out there and I experienced exactly what you're talking about and if you would have asked me this before my liquidity event, I would have said, you know what, yeah, yeah, Yeah, whatever, full of it, it doesn't really make a difference, in all those other kinds of things.
But you said something that really resonated, and that was that really the simple things in life all those colloquialisms that you tend to hear that sometimes we can take for granted they really are true. And just simple things that make you happy. And what brings you joy?
And you know, before I went through, what you know, my whole liquidity event I wouldn't have appreciated that but after the fact I certainly did and you know, money, doesn't buy happiness and your home is where the heart is and you can just go on and on those things that you say that have been around for eons.
Well, there's probably a reason why they've been around for eons because they're true and they work. But then you brought up another point and again, it's something that you don't really hear a lot out there in the popular press or media. And you're in a very unique position to comment on that. And by the way, congratulations will what you've done on YPO with creating that whole network of investments and wealth.
Then everything else that goes along with that, can you talk to us about wealth and the next generation? Because as business owners, we're so focused on, okay, I'm going to cross that finish line. I'm going to make this count and you do cross a finish line. We're type A personalities, and we are driven and we look to make things happen, but we don't really give much thought to now what.
How am I going to deal with wealth and the kids? What does that look like? And am I going to tell them stories of how I walk 20 miles in 20 feet of snow, if you're in the Northeast or, you know, are you going to have them live the posh life or something in between? What are some takeaways on that one subject that again, there can be a whole series on that, but what would be some takeaways for us?
[00:34:28] Tim Brown: What I think is important first and foremost is how do you ensure identity, purpose, and impact within your children for the family? Within my investing forum, I had all of my forum mates buy a pack of value cards. These are values that come in a deck of cards that range from commitment to loyalty to wealth.
And I said I want you to buy two packs. I want you to go home with your spouse or partner, and I want you to give them a pack of 30 values cards. And I want you to take a pack of those 30, and then I want you to sit in separate rooms for an hour. And I want you to pull out the top six values and rank them from most important value of your life to number six, and then take the other 24, and just, you can put them in another pile where you're not going to come back to those. And then I want you to come back and get together with your spouse or partner. And I want each of you to share what those six values are. And I want you to ask probing questions in terms of values and how do they come to those values. And when did they know, and what were some of the drivers ever using the word why?
By the way, I think when people hear the word, why they shut down, and then everybody came back to the forum and we talked about what came up inside of those conversations. It was amazing talking about this for a couple hours and just all of the breakthroughs that occurred within each of those relationships.
But the best part was the part two of that was then everybody left that meeting. And I asked each of my forum mates to write a letter to each of their children that described what their hopes and their fears were each child based on those values. Based on the values of both partners the wife and the husband and how that created. And many of them might form mates, took those same values cards, and they sat down with their teenage children older children, and they did the same thing, they said to their son or daughter, we'd like you to spend an hour, pick out your top six values and sit down with us and help us understand what the values are that guide your life And you have some very interesting conversations that can come out of those. So I think that ultimately, we talked earlier about this regenerative process there's a book called Borrowed From my grandchildren. And it has to do really with of the things that family offices deal with. Sometimes you can have future and future generations as they get more And more disconnected from how the wealth was created.
I may not have the same appreciation for it. So this book Borrowing For My Grandchildren was that every generation should view themselves Gen 1 basically the creator and you have this regenerative process in place that can be incredibly empowering and so those are some of the things that I think could be helpful to this.
But ultimately there are three things to get your children thinking about and it's how can it be an economic engine. What's their image and identity and how can they make an impact on the world? And so all this comes back to what we talked about minutes ago, purpose and identity.
And that card exercise is always just interesting. A lot of times with the wealth creators, we think you're so lucky I've created all this wealth. And you may have a child that's very anxious. They're worried they're going to mess it up. They see how successful their mom or dad have been or both.
And they feel like there's this a lot of expectations that have been put on them and that they won't be able to live up to it. Or they feel that the wealth may be a burden to them because of what other children say or think. And a lot of these things come out as you have these types of conversations with your children.
And I think those are just some of the things that I would share with some of the listeners here at our podcast. And anyway, thank you.
[00:38:21] Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah. Tim, it's interesting, you have a wonderful way of taking complex topics and subjects and not to confuse simple with simplicity, but you simplify them in a way that it's easy to understand. And there's some quick takeaways. And when it came to the children's side of being an economic engine and you went on and defined a few other attributes, But preceding that you also said it really all comes down to values.
And when you think about it, I liked what you said about values, because we're now doing a full circle. Whether you're starting off a business as a business owner, you found a painful problem that you're really passionate to solve. You can make a huge difference. Or you now have that successful business, or you're looking to have that liquidity event, or you're thinking about that liquidity event, but you're smart enough to know, hey, what's my post-exit life gonna look like the common thread in all of those different scenarios.
Who are you? What is your value? What's the why behind all of that? And it's a terrific way of looking at things.
[00:39:22] Tim Brown: And if they're not your own values, I don't know how you can really know the why. That's something that only that's an inside job. No, that can't be imparted to you by somebody else. What your why is. The why is between you and you alone what that is? And that may come in different parts in each person's life as we go this journey
[00:39:47] Jeffrey Feldberg: You know, It's all true, Tim, with that in particularly with social media, what some people call FOMO, the fear of missing out and we're taking someone else's why, because, oh, we don't want to miss out. I want to be there. Oh my goodness. I don't want to be left out and we find ourselves in a trajectory of a path of values that really aren't our values or someone else's that we're living in really isn't.
That's why I think you're spot on when you're saying, hey, the values that have gotta be your values. You can't take them from someone else. You've got to own it. They've gotta be yours. It's gotta be your own DNA in your own values.
[00:40:19] Tim Brown: And I think that when you look at the correlation between joy and loving your life come closer, you are to your own values and living the best version of you. And I'm not trying to speak in platitudes. A lot of times we grow up where there are very stern expectations that are placed on us.
Not all the time by others. So some many times it can be by us, but we're living up to something. We need to understand the why. I did this interesting. I know we're going to be out of time soon, but when I was moderator of traditional forum in Denver forum, did an exercise for everybody, had to present and it was, what do you want? had to distill down what you wanted into one sentence you had to do this whole presentation on it. And ultimately, the clarity about what you want because you may say I want a hundred million dollars. Okay, great. Why? Because I want to live wherever I want to live.
I want to travel well, why though? And so you keep distilling it down and for me, it was interesting. My why was, in terms of what drives me is I love to create, I love to learn and I love. And as long as I put myself in positions where those three things are given to me, those are how I ultimately feed my soul.
You know, learning and loving and creating and as entrepreneur and an intrapreneur my entire career, if I really dramatically think about it, all of those fit inside of those three values. Absolutely. And that's why I think I've never really worked a day in my life because I've been able to be in situations where I'm creating and I'm loving it.
And I'm learning from it and those are also opportunities for us to help build up the next generation or build up other people. I think it's an interesting thing as leaders the true im trying to remember Jim Collins, the level but what was the number one of good degrade level, something leaders, level five had to do with the ability to almost see into others.
And you use different experiences to pull that out and help them ultimately become the best versions of themselves. It's you lead through those types of things and empowering others.
[00:42:39] Jeffrey Feldberg: Tim, what's amazing with what you've just shared and really you've taken. If you think about it, you've taken your life and you've put it down to three words that really move the dial for you. Learn love, create, and so eloquently. You've just shared something that I talk a lot about on the podcast of how my thesis is every single person on this planet.
Every single person came here with a superpower. But that's a superpower. We don't know what that is, is hidden from us. And our mission is to not only find out what that superpower is. But to share it and to take it to humanity and just to put it out there and really make that difference. And for you, that learned that love and create taps into your superpowers, where you're doing magnificent things, whatever role that happens to be along the way.
And you're getting that true joy and that fulfillment. And I think it's you're right. We're bumping into some time here in the episode, but it's also a terrific segue. Into a question that we'll use to wrap up the episode. And here's the question for you, you know, I'd like you to think of the movie Back to the Future, and in the movie, you have that magical DeLorean car, and that DeLorean car, it will take you to any point in time.
So now imagine Tim it's tomorrow morning and you look outside and lo and behold, the DeLorean car, not only is it there, but the door is open and it's waiting for you to hop in. So you hop in and you're now going to any point in your life, Tim, as a young child or a teenager, whatever point in time it would be.
Tim, what are you telling your younger self in terms of wisdom lessons learned, hey, Tim do this but don't do that. What would that sound like for you?
[00:44:27] Tim Brown: I would probably tell myself that be patient it all works out in the end, there's all these amazing experiences and opportunities come up in life. You just need to be. Just need to be present. I got to see where things go and ultimately I think it's all in many respects. We can't take anything with us and so the experiences and who we experienced it with, and ultimately I keep coming back.
I've said it a times today at our time, this, how do you become the best version of yourself? And what does that mean? And I think the best version of yourself is understanding what your, why is and figuring out ways to bring more of that in your life. However, that manifests And I think the more, you know, what your, why is a lot of the things that aren't your, why become a lot easier to remove. I think it's five times harder sometimes to say no to something than it is to say yes, but yet every time you say yes to something, you're saying no to nine other things.
So it's an interesting thing. I had a coach one time that told me that no was a complete sentence. We were trying to figure out ways to for me to get a little bit more focused on how I was spending my time and said, look, you don't know explanation sometimes. No, it's just a, it's a full sentence.
Just know it doesn't work for you?
So, anyway, that's what I would tell my younger self. And I would probably go back and see if I could relive 1993 again, the year I was 23, that would be a lot of, would enjoy that again.
[00:45:58] Jeffrey Feldberg: Well, That sounds like there's a whole other story behind the story on that one. And, maybe that'll be a great invite to have your back and we can follow up on so many of these wonderful areas that we just scratched the surface on. And Tim, let me ask you this, and I'm going to put this in the show notes for our listeners.
It'll be really easy for them. It will be point-and-click. If someone would like to find you online or reach out to you, where would be the best place?
[00:46:22] Tim Brown: Yeah, just drop me an email. Probably my personal email so tim[at]3cr8[dot]com
[00:46:29] Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific. And we'll put that in the show notes. So it'll be really easy for our listeners. Well, Tim, this is going to be a wrap and a heartfelt thank you for taking part of your day and spending it here with us on the Deep Wealth Sell My Business Podcast. And as always, please say healthy and safe.
[00:46:46] Tim Brown: Thanks, Jeffrey. What a fun time. Appreciate you, including me, and hello to everybody out in podcast land.
[00:46:52] Sharon S.: The Deep Wealth Experience was definitely a game-changer for me.
[00:46:55] Lyn M.: This course is one of the best investments you will ever make because you will get an ROI of a hundred times that. Anybody who doesn't go through it will lose millions.
[00:47:05] Kam H.: If you don't have time for this program, you'll never have time for a successful liquidity
[00:47:10] Sharon S.: It was the best value of any business course I've ever taken. The money was very well spent.
[00:47:16] Lyn M.: Compared to when we first began, today I feel better prepared, but in some respects, may be less prepared, not because of the course, but because the course brought to light so many things that I thought we were on top of that we need to fix.
[00:47:32] Kam H.: I 100% believe there's never a great time for a business owner to allocate extra hours into his or her week or day. So it's an investment that will yield results today. I thought I will reap the benefit of this program in three to five years down the road. But as soon as I stepped forward into the program, my mind changed immediately.
[00:47:54] Sharon S.: There was so much value in the experience that the time I invested paid back so much for the energy that was expended.
[00:48:04] Lyn M.: The Deep Wealth Experience compared to other programs is the top. What we learned is very practical. Sometimes you learn stuff that it's great to learn, but you never use it. The stuff we learned from Deep Wealth Experience, I believe it's going to benefit us a boatload.
[00:48:18] Kam H.: I've done an executive MBA. I've worked for billion-dollar companies before. I've worked for smaller companies before I started my business. I've been running my business successfully now for getting close to a decade. We're on a growth trajectory. Reflecting back on the Deep Wealth, I knew less than 10% what I know now, maybe close to 1% even.
[00:48:36] Sharon S.: Hands down the best program in which I've ever participated. And we've done a lot of different things over the years. We've been in other mastermind groups, gone to many seminars, workshops, conferences, retreats, read books. This was so different. I haven't had an experience that's anything close to this in all the years that we've been at this.
It's five-star, A-plus.
[00:49:03] Kam H.: I would highly recommend it to any super busy business owner out there.
Deep Wealth is an accurate name for it. This program leads to deeper wealth and happier wealth, not just deeper wealth. I don't think there's a dollar value that could be associated with such an experience and knowledge that could be applied today and forever.
[00:49:21] Jeffrey Feldberg: Are you leaving millions on the table?
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