404 Grace Vandecruze On The Deep Wealth Podcast

404 Grace Vandecruze On The Deep Wealth Podcast

[00:00:00] Jeffrey Feldberg: Grace Vandercruze is the founder and managing director of Grace Global Capital, bringing over two decades of expertise in investment banking and financial services with a focus on insurance transactions. She's advised on more than $20 billion in mergers, acquisitions, capital strategies, and restructurings.

 Grace's experience spans global life and PNC, reinsurance, IPOs, and regulatory projects. A passionate advocate for financial literacy, she's also the author of the international bestseller, Homeless to Millionaire, Six Keys to Uplift Your Financial Abundance. And before we hop into the podcast, a quick word from our sponsor, Deep Wealth and the Deep Wealth Mastery Program. We have William, a graduate of Deep Both Mastery, and he says, I didn't have the time for Deep Both Mastery, but I made the time and I'm glad I did.

What I learned goes far beyond any other executive program or coach I've ever experienced. Or how about Bruce? Bruce says, before Deep Wealth Mastery, the challenge I had with most business programs, coaches, or blogs was that they were one dimensional. Through Deep Wealth Mastery, I'm part of a richer community of other successful business owners.

The idea shared forever changed the trajectory of the business and best of all, the experience was fun. And we'll round things out with Stacey. 

Stacey said, I wish I had access to the Deep Wealth Mastery before my liquidity event, as it would have been extremely helpful. Deep Wealth Mastery exceeded my expectations in terms of content and quality.

And you know what, my Deep Wealth Nation, why they're saying this is because Deep Wealth Mastery, it's the only system based on a nine figure [00:01:30] deal. That was my deal. And as you know, I said no to a seven figure offer, and I created a system that we now call Deep Wealth Mastery that helped myself and my business partners, welcome from a different buyer, a different offer, a nine figure exit.

So if you're interested in growing your profits, preparing for a future liquidity event, if that's two years away or 20 years away, and you want to optimize your post exit life, Deep Wealth Mastery is for you. Please email success at deepwealth. com. Again, that's success, S U C C E S S, at deepwealth. com. We'll send you all the information about Deep Wealth Mastery, otherwise known as Scale for Ultimate Sale. That's where you want to be. You want to be with other successful business owners, entrepreneurs, and founders just like you who are looking to create market disruptions.

And they want to lock in their financial freedom and have success and fulfillment. 

That's the 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery Program. It has your name on it. All you need to do is take the next step. Send an email to success at deepwealth. com.

Deep Wealth Nation, welcome to another episode of the Deep Wealth Podcast. We have a very special guest in the house of Deep Wealth today. We have an M&A advisor, a mythical creature. Yes, an M&A advisor, but not just any M&A advisor, someone who is smart, who has done so many things Very well experienced, who's going to tell us what we really need to know, and we are going to have ourselves come out of this a whole lot better than when we came into it.

So I'm going to put a pause in it right there. Grace, welcome to Deep Wealth Podcast. It's an absolute pleasure to have you with us. There's always a story behind the story. Grace, what is your story? What got [00:03:00] you from where you were to where you are today?

[00:03:02] Grace Vandercruze: First of all, thank you for having me here. It's such a delight, a pleasure, and an honor to be speaking to your audience. I began my career as a CPA. I went to Pace University, and from there I went to Wharton Business School after completing my MBA, started working on Wall Street, soon specialized in mergers and acquisitions and capital raisings, including IPOs.

In the financial services industry, and from there, further specialized in the insurance industry. The insurance industry is a highly regulated environment, and can make it there, you can make it anywhere, and so I'm delighted to be here.

[00:03:43] Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. You're talking about all these different places that you've been and what you've seen. Oh my goodness. It really has me thinking, and I'll ask you this, in your journey, was there a particular moment, a pivotal moment that had you say, you know what, I'm going to stop what I'm doing here? And I'm really going to go into what I'm doing today, or was it a combination of things?

I'm wondering what was that turning point for you?

[00:04:08] Grace Vandercruze: so it was a combination of things. This is a bit of a, long story, because the story behind my story is this. I'm at a point in my career where I have advised in over 25 billion transactions in the insurance industry, including taking a number of the large insurance companies public when they demutualized in the early 2000s.

[00:04:30] However I was born in Guyana, South America. Second oldest of seven, and my grandmother really shaped my life. Although she had very limited education, she would stare at me, look at, hold my hand, and say, Grace, you have lengthened my years, and you have blessed my eyesight. And so she was so loving and giving to me and an amazing person.

She herself had nine children, but she and my granddad had room in their hearts to adopt five young sisters who lost their mom. So this incredible woman, whose shoulders I stand on today, raised 14 children. As a result, I'm one of 52. Grandchildren that she has, but I can assure you from everything she's imparted into me that I was her favorite.

[00:05:23] Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Personally, God bless her.

[00:05:25] Grace Vandercruze: God bless her indeed. Her most

[00:05:28] Jeffrey Feldberg: Oh my goodness. And now 52 grand. Oh my goodness. That,

[00:05:30] Grace Vandercruze: She had a village. She had a village. Her treasured words to me were believe beyond your limits. And one of the things I find in an being an entrepreneur, working at a company, moving up the career ladder, and now an entrepreneur, having my own company, believe beyond your limits have really shaped my life.

It's shaped me when I've climbed 25 mountain peaks and three different continents. It's shaped me when my family became homeless while I was in [00:06:00] college and I completed my undergraduate degree, partially going back and forth to a homeless shelter. Believe Beyond Your Limits were the theme beyond that really permeated my life.

My grandmother believed that you should never plan your goals Based on your current circumstances, that your current circumstances could deceive you in limiting what your vast potential and treasures that lie within you belies. So she obviously was an amazing woman. Yes.

[00:06:33] Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, that is wise words of wisdom, my goodness. As you're saying that, it actually reminds me of a slogan from a bank. I'll keep the bank name out of it. I'll share the slogan though, you're richer than you think. And how true is it that when we look at ourselves, particularly as entrepreneurs, we tend to underestimate ourselves and where we're at.

And Deep Wealth Nation, if you're saying, well, you know what, I am not a gazillion dollar corporation. I'm not in the insurance industry. I want you to stop right there, and I want you to put those dispersions aside because I got to share with you, Grace, some of my best successes, my biggest innovations that led to a market disruption.

It did not come from my industry. It came from other industries, other companies, many of which were much larger than myself. And Deep Wealth Nation, I want you to listen to what we're talking about because Grace has been there on the educational side, in the trenches, all of that. And she has really the gift to share with us of her insights of her journey along the way.

So Grace, let me ask you this, because we're talking over [00:07:30] 20 billion, 25 billion in transactions. For a lot of us, that's just hard to wrap our minds around. It's very large. And When you look back on that journey and all the different kinds of M&A activities that you were doing, what kind of pattern did you see?

Both perhaps really good strategies and strategies that just didn't work, that you can share with a Deep Wealth Nation, so they can either stop doing some things or start doing some things or do more of some things.

[00:07:55] Grace Vandercruze: Yes, let's go back to where you did the slogan the bank had, you're richer than you think you are. I think one of the things that I focus on is valuation because buried in valuations of companies are treasures that they might be overlooking. And I remember distinctly selling a life insurance company in the middle of the pandemic.

Who would buy a life insurance company in the middle of the pandemic and pay record prices? When I spoke to the CEO, he said, I would give this away, and I convinced him, we will not give it away. The reason we won't give it away is because The assets of a life insurance company is consisted of investments.

And they're mainly fixed income investment, government bonds. These bonds are long dated bonds. Long dated bonds had a higher interest rate than in a pandemic when the Feds had an [00:09:00] easing policy and rates were declining. So I said to him, look, you've got treasures. If we were to track the on the fly realize gain of your bond portfolio every single day as we're selling this company.

I, having the buyers focus on the assets. Let's focus on the riches and the niches that they're getting and not focus on the liabilities. We can talk about the liabilities and how we mitigate the losses, but if they focus on, they're able to capture a portfolio that's long dated, that's paying. An interest rate substantially many basis points, hundreds of basis points higher than what the feds are now doing in their, rate reductions.

That is the value of this. So it always amazes me in preparing companies for sale is identifying the overlooked riches in that company.

[00:09:59] Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow, so much there to share with what you've been saying and Grace, I got to share with you as you're talking about that, I'm reflecting on two things. One was my own journey where a buyer knocked at the door and I had no idea really what I should be doing, what I should be saying, because let's face it, the skills to build a business are very different than the ones to either raise capital or eventually to sell it.

So I just showed up as Jeffrey and I say that that buyer was the wolf in sheep's clothing. Yes, that's true. I need to take ownership as well. Part of that seven figures was because [00:10:30] I didn't really know how to position the company. And you're right. Valuators have come onto the Deep Wealth Podcast, exactly what you're saying, that for them, 80 percent of enterprise value, it's not in the balance sheet.

It's in the narrative. It's what, in your words, what riches as a company do we have? Maybe we've overlooked that we can share with the world. And that's why in our 90 day Deep Wealth Mastery here's a little bit of a shameless plug. Step two, X Factors. One of the things that we do is a deep dive for every one of the companies that's going through our mastery program.

Okay, where are you unique? Where are you world class? And some of those X Factors that a company is world class in, they are so unique, so individual to that company, no one else can even come close to what they're doing, that they're equivalent to what we call a hidden Rembrandt in the attic that you can now take out to public display.

And so, Grace, for the Deep Wealth Nation, can we double down on this for a moment and share with them why the ability to put our X Factors, or our riches as you're calling them, into a powerful narrative, an interesting story that's based on fact, also based on a very bright and prosperous tomorrow. Why is that important?

Because you've been on both sides of the table, so why does the prospective investor or buyer not only want to hear that, but they need to hear that?

[00:11:43] Grace Vandercruze: such a great question. and can answer it in another narrative I have. So, this was right before the pandemic. A company came to me. Same thing, we've got this non core line of business in our balance sheet. We need to get rid of it. And the business, And the last one is health [00:12:00] insurance for college and high school students.

And since it's already public, I'll share with you some more information. And the reason I'd like to share to the audience is how I sold the business to Warren Buffett and how we shaped the narrative to really get the client the absolutely best value to the best possible buyer in the market from a strategic and a financial fit standpoint.

[00:12:25] Jeffrey Feldberg: Please, yes, please do

[00:12:26] Grace Vandercruze: So, yes, so the company's name and, oh, this is public, is Commercial Travelers, and Commercial Travelers, as I mentioned, have this health insurance to students and K 12 and also college students. Because it was non core to the company, they were like, let's see how we can get rid of it. As I started looking and reading the history of the company, I could not be more excited.

Turns out commercial travelers begin in the 1800s commercial travelers were in originally insuring traveling salesmen. And guess this, Jeffrey, it has claims from the Titanic. Because it was ensuring traveling salesmen. And I read the history and I went over and I did a timeline of the key milestones of the company.

As the workplace changed and salesperson weren't going door to door, the company pivoted and started ensuring students in their health insurance. And I'm like, this is an amazing history. I'm all [00:13:30] excited about this history. And We were calling potential buyers and of course you craft a narrative that you, I have a company that you will not believe what, the amazing value that I'm selling.

How do you call Warren Buffett?

You call his right hand person, a Cheat Jane, who's in charge of all of the insurance transactions, and I got a cheat on the phone. I explained to him this company, this amazing company. Here's the history. Here's what it does. And would you be interested? And he said sounds interesting. And then he told me who else I should call in the, the organization to take a deeper dive on the company.

But he did say, Grace, before we hang up, why did you call us? And I said, well, I call you because my client is number seven in the industry. You are number four. If you Berkshire Hathaway acquire my client, you will be number one in the market combined. And he said, that's an excellent reason to call us. Three months later. An announced transaction was done, the client was happy, Warren Buffett was pleased uh, you know, he only looks at one in 250 deals that come across his desk. But it's all going back to what you said, Jeffrey, crafting a narrative that will make the buyer [00:15:00] excited to be part of your company.

[00:15:02] Jeffrey Feldberg: Quite the story there. And we can all agree, Warren Buffett was not born yesterday, a very shrewd business person and you came prepared. You had the narrative. You did the key milestones. You had the history. But, and this is what we talk about all about in step three, future buyer, you put yourself in the future buyer's shoes.

Okay. Why would they care? You tune into the world's favorite radio station for them, WII. FM, the what's in it for me, and you pique the interest. Hey, you're number four or number seven. If we do some kind of an acquisition here, you can catapult yourself to number one. Who wouldn't want to do that? Oh, Grace, from one really powerful narrative that you shared to another.

When we began, you referenced the family becoming homeless. That really made a big impact on you. And Deep Wealth Nation, I want you to go to the show notes. In the show notes, there is a link to Grace's international best selling book, Homeless to Millionaire, Six Keys to Uplift Your Financial Abundance.

And I love how you put that word abundance in there and really, homeless to millionaire. That says it all in three words. Obviously a very impactful kind of experience that you went through. So from that experience to where you are today, to the book, what would you want the Deep Wealth Nation to know of some of the six key principles in there?

[00:16:15] Grace Vandercruze: Absolutely. I think principle number one is very important, that is understanding your financial history and journey. You see, we all have a money history, a money story that shape our lives, [00:16:30] whether it's conscious or unconsciously, it's shaping our lives. I have asked all my readers to think back on your first money memory, and many of us, when we sit and think of it, regardless of how successful we are today, our first money memory is shaped with something Themes of lack, of not having enough, of having to struggle, and to think of the scarcity factor that we might have grown up with.

And I would even state that many of us, without realizing it, are suffering from some kind of financial PTSD, because we've endured family history of some kind of theft, mismanagement, underpayment. That really have caused a lot of hurt and pain and basically what I say is unless we address that, unless we make a full assessment and say, you know what, I'm writing a new money story because many of us are making more than a Any of our ancestors have, but are we maximizing fully our money?

And part of the we're not maximizing it fully is because we haven't come to grips with some of the pain or the hidden trauma surrounded money. And so It's time to write a new money story. It is time to shift our mindsets from a scarcity to abundance. And so I really work on the mindset factor because [00:18:00] unless we change the mindset, we're limiting ourselves and many of us aren't realizing how much limits we're putting on ourselves, but we are putting it.

[00:18:09] Jeffrey Feldberg: So true, I like what you said, financial PTSD, and listen, the stories we tell ourselves internally, that's what forms ultimately our external world, and we become a product or proof of whatever we're telling us, whether it's true or not true, and science is now coming in and saying that the mind can't differentiate.

If it actually happened, Or if we're telling ourselves, believing a lie, the mind thinks it happened, it doesn't know any difference. So, so true. And I also want circle back to chapter three. So in chapter three, it really resonated with me because you're talking about lifestyle, living debt free, more important today than ever before, and creative ways to really save.

And so again, that could be a whole episode in and of itself. If you look at one or two key strategies. From the lifestyle of how we, again, we're richer than we think, but how we can ensure that we continue that year after year, decade after decade. What would you want the Deep Wealth Nation to know about that?

[00:19:04] Grace Vandercruze: Sure. Absolutely. One of the things I talk about is particularly people are, who are newly minted wealthy individuals. They tend to wear their wealth. They tend to have some kind of status symbol. Many people who are wealthy and keep their wealth, are really under the radar in terms of, they're not consumers.

They're building [00:19:30] businesses. They're, they have all kinds of assets. But they're not wearing their wealth. So I see that's one mistake people where is make is wearing their wealth and buying designer clothing and in a way that really does everything to depreciate in the instance we put the items on, whether it be a car but just think of how can we buy assets that are growing over time.

And certainly what's on your body It's not bad. And the second thing I would say is everyone should download the app called Acorn. Acorn allows you every time you use a credit card, it runs up and automatically saves it. You can predetermine The investments that go into, you can also save an extra.

It not only helps you build up an emergency fund, you can actually use it as a investment nest day, a retirement nest day over time. And the reason I love that so much is because you can have your children, you can have, Every single generation in your family because we're all using credit cards and they can see how their investments work over time.

Look, I have a son who just finished college and he started using Acorn while in college. Acorn has several promotions where they'll give you as much as a thousand if you refer ten people to their app. And because he was on a college [00:21:00] campus, Because he was the mascot of his football team, he trained the cheerleaders, a really popular kid.

When he graduated four years later, he had over 30, 000 in his Acorn account. So, we talk about this, I'm like, this is absolutely amazing. So it's just like shaping the mindset of what we can do every day to make our money work for us while we sleep.

[00:21:28] Jeffrey Feldberg: Absolutely. And he said something really key. Having our money work for us. In fact, Grace, as you're talking about this, you have me thinking in so many different directions. I'm reminded one of my favorite reads out there, it's a classic book, The Richest Man in Babylon. in that book, he gives an analogy, not the typical analogy.

Best analogy per se, it's a little bit disturbing in today's language, but it says imagine that all of your money is like your children. And when you go out there and you buy, perhaps, clothes that you don't need, or another vacation home that you already have five of them, who needs another one? I'm just pulling at things here, but it's like eating your children, as opposed to your children going out there and they're working, they're earning money on your money, so while you sleep, you're earning money.

Isn't that where we want to be? And we can all agree that. Being in business, it has its own challenges, what I like to call opportunities, we don't need money to be another stressful kind of event that's keeping us up at nights, literally when there's so much that we can do. So all of that said, we've covered a lot of your background, where you've been, what you've been doing, but I am curious because to [00:22:30] me, what I love about M&A, it's really human nature at its worst, at its best, everything else in between.

And so as you've done these different deals, are there particular patterns that you've seen time and time again that really left an impact on you? And if there are, can you share some of that with the Deep Wealth Nation?

[00:22:48] Grace Vandercruze: Sure. So, Jeffrey, I was doing a presentation on M&A in front of a large audience and my first slide had the number 90%. Enlarge and Enbold. And what does 90 percent mean? It means that 90 percent of mergers and acquisitions fail, and this is according to a McKinsey study. And so, whenever you're part of an M&A transaction, it's important that you're part of the 10%, the 10 percent that succeeds.

being the 10 percent that succeed is making sure that you have the rights. Strategic and financial fit for your company. I think where a number of transactions fail is in the culture test. You are a small entrepreneurial firm that have grown over time, but managed to keep The entrepreneurial spirit, collaborative spirit with employees, everyone knows everyone, and you're about to sell to a large organization who views you as folding you [00:24:00] into their corporation And they will erase your flag, put their flag on it, and your employees wake up and feeling completely lost, don't quite fit into the organization, a decision making that would take five minutes.

All of a sudden, it's taking five days to five months and your clients are sensing the change and the M&A, just the synergies never materialize. So, my job is to make sure that we have successful M&A and have the due diligence process be well Disciplined in asking the right question. I always say every transaction, has a psychology.

There is a tone to the transaction. There's a way where two CEOs, meet and it's a marriage and you can, all the right questions are being asked and you just know that there's not going to be a divorce in the future. So this is why we, I get excited doing the work that I do.

[00:25:04] Jeffrey Feldberg: So interesting there and deep default nation there. You've heard it from Grace. I promise you her and I did not talk about this beforehand because Grace, similar to you, we've done our research and we share very openly that up to 90% of exits and liquidity events fail. And to your point, we don't wanna be on that 90%.

We want to be on that 10%. And between you and me, I suspect the number's even higher than the 90%. We just don't hear about it all the time. So again, from the. [00:25:30] A zillion dollar deals that you've done to the ones that are on a much smaller level to be part of that 10 percent success rate. So we're definitely going upstream with that.

What would you share with Deep Wealth Nation of some strategies that really work and get results?

[00:25:44] Grace Vandercruze: Yes. So preparation for sale is important. Having a data room with all of the relevant information up to date, up to speed, having it in a way that's accessible to potential buyers, having a key circle of leaders, in your company that understands the industry, understands your business, understands your customers that can clearly articulate all of the competitive advantages of this business and can give anecdotal evidence, can talk to key milestones.

I think when leaders are excited about the company that they've built that kind of pride resonates with potential buyers and it can really dictate the level of premium that's being paid for the company.

[00:26:38] Jeffrey Feldberg: And there you have it. I love it, Grace. In very few words, you just summarized the Deep Wealth nine step roadmap as well. So we talked about what To do. For me, and you can say, Jeffrey, you're on base, off base, oftentimes success is knowing what not to do. So with what you shared, I suppose we could say, well, just do the opposite of that if you want to fail or don't do that.

But what should we not be doing? [00:27:00] What should we stop ourselves from doing to be in that success circle?

[00:27:05] Grace Vandercruze: Sure. So I'll give you an example of real life because I've, I've lived this. There were two companies, one being acquired by the other, and one of the things, because I was representing the seller, one of the things I asked the seller to do is, look, let's not go directly into this transaction.

Let's go out to the market and see if there's another. Suitable buyer that can come in, that can bring a higher valuation if possible. And if even they don't bring a higher valuation, it brings a competitiveness to the process that can keep the desired buyers on its toes. And and this is what I say are the famous words I remember the seller told me.

He said, Good luck. I'm selling to a friend. I know this guy. He's my friend. I really like him. I don't need to go out there to explore any other options. This is it. So picture this. The seller lives in a very tight knit, small community. I wouldn't even say it a state but beautiful, small community. And The buyer is in a larger metropolitan area.

So the buyer came and his CEO friend came to meet the employees for the first time. And of course, everyone is abuzz in this company that this buyer is coming. [00:28:30] And the buyer came in his private jet which landed not too far from the company. So right away. Completely different lifestyle than the humility that the seller has.

And when it came, the buyer, his CEO friend spoke to the employees. the CEO made the mistake of not identifying with the employees of this Company, and basically said, I'm here to take you over. We've got our headquarters, four states away two time zones away. We will make our own evaluation of which of you come and which of you don't.

And that left such a negative. Sentiment in the company, it put the CEO, his best friend in a very difficult place with his employees. Needless to say, that deal never materialized. So one of the things you should not be doing is staying focused on just one particular buyer and not fully exploring the marketplace and all the other options that as a seller you may have.

[00:29:40] Jeffrey Feldberg: Wow. Yeah. So much there. And oh, it's a friend. Don't worry. I know this person. Everything's all gonna work out. And one of my favorite quotes in a situation like this, Ronald Reagan, trust but verify.

[00:29:52] Grace Vandercruze: bad. Yes. Yes.

[00:29:53] Jeffrey Feldberg: So Grace, let me ask you this. Imagine now I am a member of the Jeep Wealth Community. I've heard what you had to say.

[00:30:00] I come to you and say, okay, grace, here's our company. Help us. Help us prepare some narratives or help us get ready for some kind of a future exit or we're going to be doing some other kind of M&A activity. Let's now reveal back the curtain of what's your secret sauce? What exactly would you be doing for us?

What does that look like with your system?

[00:30:18] Grace Vandercruze: Sure. Sold. We have a process and a template, and the first thing is understanding your business. I want to understand your business because I want to be the best possible ambassador and advocate for you, your employees, and the value that you will have. I want to make sure that I not only understand your history, your current state, But your prospects, and remember, your prospects are so important because, the value of your company in some most simplistic terms is going to be the present value of your future cash flows.

So your prospects and your ability to deliver on your future cash flows is so critically important because your buyer is evaluating the expertise of your leadership. that can add to their organization significantly. And then secondly, I really do want to understand your competitive advantages.

What distinguishes you from everyone else? And that's where we spend a lot of time, going very deeply into that. Because I want to understand your branding, your history, your culture your customers, your recurring revenues [00:31:30] your efficiencies, your technology, your innovation programs.

I want all of that to factor into the valuation because it distinguishes you from everyone else in the marketplace. And from there, I want to sit with you and really understand your objectives. Sometimes sellers, their objective isn't necessarily to maximize the value. They're much more interested in making sure the strategic partner continues the same level of diligence with their clients and keep their employees.

So I'm going to make sure that I advocate. For your commitments, is it a commitment to your employees, a commitment to your clients? Is it a commitment to a strate geographical location? I want to make sure that I fully understand that. And once we get, gather that, we'll talk about valuation ranges where the expectations are because my.

Job is not only to meet that, but to exceed it. I'm in the business because I get referrals from other clients. I'm in the business because I've exceeded my clients expectations.

[00:32:40] Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, so much there. I really though, it goes back to, it's really a very boring concept, but it's one that works. It's preparation that we're not just doing a ready fire aim. Hey, we know where we want to be. We've given ourselves enough time at our own schedules, at our leisure. We're not going to be adding any unnecessary stress.[00:33:00]

We're going to prepare. We're going to find those skeletons in the closet or those Rembrandts in the attic and take the appropriate actions either way. And, Grace, let me ask you this, before we start going into wrap up mode, I'm wondering, is there a question that I didn't ask, or a topic that we haven't covered, or even a message that you'd like to get out to Deep Wealth Nation?

[00:33:19] Grace Vandercruze: Sure, one of the messages is let's look at where we are in the geopolitical risk, the macroeconomic environment, because it does play a role in what CEOs decide to do, I do think there's a lot of pent up demand because, companies are looking to grow, and M&A is a panacea for growth, and so we will see that happening. But I just wanted to mention that the backdrop of the macroeconomic and geopolitical risks. Does play a role.

[00:33:50] Jeffrey Feldberg: And as you're talking about that, really, it goes back to one of the topics we covered earlier, the world's favorite radio station, WII. FM, and in so many ways, it doesn't really matter. What, as the business owner, the founder, the entrepreneur, what we want, what is our, in this case, future investor, future buyer, what's going through their minds?

What's keeping them up at night? And in this case, it's out of our control. And if we're honest about it, nobody can control the market, but we can control when we do go to market. And that's what I love about the preparation side of things. That we can get ready. And hey, you know what? Not a great time to go right now.

Let's keep our gunpowder dry, as the saying goes. Let's see how things go. Then we can throw our hat in the ring [00:34:30] and really focus our time, our energy, our effort, our resources to get ourselves out there. So it's some terrific advice for everyone. And before I go into the wrap up question, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you this one last question.

Artificial intelligence. It is making headlines every single day. It is changing life and business as we know it. Any predictions of AI, where we are today versus where we're going to be?

[00:34:53] Grace Vandercruze: Oh, I'm very excited about AI. I think every business should be incorporating AI. And if you're not, you're going to be bankrupt. I think it's, in the innovation cycle, we're just in the beginning. We're just in the early phases. We're in the early innings and in the industry of insurance, that's over a hundred years old.

And with so much being antiquated where the customer service and the way we sell insurance is virtually the same in a world that's used in an Amazon like experience, it is going to force industries like the insurance industries in particular to really step up and drastically change the way they operate.

So I expect the way we operate businesses today We'll drastically change in five and ten years because of AI.

[00:35:48] Jeffrey Feldberg: And so Deep Wealth Nation, we spoke about this time and time again. It almost reminds me of something. As though it's the late 1990s, early 2000s, there was this thing come around. It's called the World Wide Web, what we now [00:36:00] call the internet and this thing called e commerce, although we didn't call it that at the time.

Are you sticking your head in the sand? Well, I'll get to it later. I'll let other people figure out, or to your point, Grace, Hey, why don't we jump in the ring right now? Sure. We'll have some potential setbacks, but we'll learn from that. It'll be a setup for some even bigger success. So I'm with you right there.

Deep Wealth Nation, follow Grace's terrific advice. Get involved in AI. Try it. Integrate it into your company. See where it takes you. And I can assure you, your future investor or buyer will thank you for that. So that said, Grace, let's go into wrap up mode. It's a tradition here on the Deep Wealth Podcast, where I have the privilege, the honor for every guest, I ask the same question.

It's a really fun question. Let me set this up for you. When you think of the movie Back to the Future, you have that magical DeLorean car that will take you to any point in time. So Grace, it's tomorrow morning. You look outside the window, wow, there it is, the DeLorean car, it's curbside, the door is open, it's waiting for you to hop in, which you do.

You're now going to go to any point in your life, Grace, as a young child, a teenager, whatever point in time it would be, what would you tell your younger self in terms of life lessons or life wisdom or, hey Grace, do this but don't do that? What would that sound like?

[00:37:09] Grace Vandercruze: I'd like to go back to my 17 year old self. My 17 year old self was in a state of shock, finding myself in a homeless shelter I came home every day ashamed of where I lived. I had safety insecurity, home insecurity, housing insecurities, and [00:37:30] everything happening. And the one riches I felt I had was that I was going to college, I knew my education was a bridge out of that shelter.

And the one thing I didn't do was stop going to college. I kept on going, I graduated on time. So I look in the mirror and I still see that year old. A young person looking back at me, and I tell her every single day, look how far we've come. Look how the fact that I a year and a half ago rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange.

How do you go from a New York City shelter to ringing the bell of this New York Stock Exchange? It's do the miracles. It's due to love. It's due to hard work, sweat, blood, tears, and prayers. And so I am one of the most grateful persons in the world today because I know the journey. I know all of the valleys that I've overcome, and I also know the mountain peaks that I've summited.

And so I'm proud to look at my 17 year old self and say, girl, you've gone a long way.

[00:38:48] Jeffrey Feldberg: Yeah, wow, what a heartfelt story. You've really been there, you've overcome such adversity. And for so many people, they could use that as a crutch or an excuse, you use that as your [00:39:00] rocket fuel to take you to the next level. And I love that advice. Look how far you've come. And Grace, you do have so much to be proud of what you've accomplished.

And something tells me the best is yet to come, as the saying goes, that there's so much ahead for you. I'm really excited for you. Now, we're going to have all this in the show notes for Deep Wealth Nation, it'll be as easy as a point and click. That said, for a listener, they want to get in touch with you, they have some questions, perhaps they want you to work your magic on their company.

Where would be the best place online for a listener to find you?

[00:39:28] Grace Vandercruze: The best place online is graceglobalcapital. com I'm also on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, at Grace Vandecruz.

[00:39:39] Jeffrey Feldberg: Terrific, Deep Wealth Nation. It's all in the show notes. It does not get any easier. It's a point and click. Well, Grace, it's official. Congratulations. This is a wrap. And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and prosper while you remain healthy and safe. Thank you so much.

[00:39:55] Grace Vandercruze: Thank you so much as well. 

[00:39:57] Jeffrey Feldberg: So there you have it, Deep Wealth Nation. What did you think? 

So with all that said and as we wrap it up, I have another question for you.

Actually, it's more of a personal favor. 

Did you find this episode helpful? 

Have you found other episodes of the Deep Wealth Podcast empowering and a game changer for your journey? 

And if you said yes, and I really hope you did, I have a small but really meaningful way that you can actually help us out and keep these episodes coming to you.

Are you ready for it? 

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So all that said. Thank you so much for listening. And remember your wealth isn't just about the money in the bank. It's about the depth of your journey and the impact that you're creating. So let's continue this journey together. And from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for listening to this episode.

And as we love to say here at Deep Wealth, may you continue to thrive and [00:42:00] prosper while you remain healthy and safe. 

Thank you so much. 

God bless.