Disruptive Successor Podcast

Updated: 24 Apr 2025 • 192 episodes
disruptivesuccessorshow.com

The Disruptive Successor Show is a podcast for next-generation leaders in family businesses and entrepreneurs who want to disrupt the status quo to grow their business and take it to the next level. We all know that what got us here isn’t going to get us there. If you are taking control over your family’s business or trying to get your business to the next level, you will need inspiration, advice and resources to help you create a massive impact. Listeners of my show include not only the millennial or Gen Z but also the Baby Boomer and Gen Y. My listeners tend to be involved in these industries: business services, construction, design-build-maintain landscape contracting, food manufacturing, property management, real estate, and technology. And are interested in issues like business coaching, branding, communication, difficult conversations, disruption, employee ownership, exit planning, financial management, leadership, innovation, intergenerational transfer, marketing, multi-generational family businesses, business operations, process documentation, security, selling, storytelling, succession, visioning, wealth management, My guests are entrepreneurs, family business advisors, multi-generational and Gen 2 family business leaders, heads of university family business programs, consultants, coaches and firms that serve those who are growth businesses. Clients of my show typically are running businesses with 10 to 200 employees and $1M to $20M in revenues. Their concerns include: scaling up, exit planning, succession, leadership development, disruption, business planning, finances, growth planning, transferring generational wealth, transferring control, ownership issues, and more. The benefits listeners receive are introductions to experts and advisors around the issues of growing and exiting a business, whether it’s a family business or entrepreneurial venture. They get a feel for the challenges other business owners and leaders face and how they overcame them. They will hear stories from people and how they came to do their work and why. My shows feature handpicked guests who engage with me in casual conversations lasting between 30 to 40 minutes. You can expect to be entertained, engaged and may even get takeaways like business tools or ideas for implementation in your business. I’ve led entrepreneurial adventures in art, clothing, a holistic health lifestyle magazine and trade show, shoe manufacturing. I’ve also led several non-profit organizations. I earned an MBA from the University of Southern California in Entrepreneurship. I’ve been advising, coaching and consulting family-owned, family-run and entrepreneur-led businesses since 1989. My love for entrepreneurship follows the closure of my family’s sizeable multi-generational clothing manufacturing company after eight decades of operation because there were no successors. After uncovering the code to scale up a family-run business - a playbook and a disruptive successor - I wrote a book called Disruptive Successor: A Guide To Driving Growth in Your Family Business. My podcast is my effort to bring interested people into the conversation to benefit disruptive successors.

Show episodes

Adam Frederico grew up in Utah, surrounded by entrepreneurial family members, including his father, Russell Frederico, the founder of what is now Frederico Outdoor Living. A BYU graduate from the Marriott School, Adam spent 8 years in Chicago working in corporate America, startups, and consulting. He later pursued an M

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Joe Olwig and Shaun Lee are the co-founders of 6 Levers – an organizational consulting firm known for their 6 Levers framework. They are also co-authors of  the best-selling book, "At the Heart of Work: Rethinking what it takes to build organizational health with the 6 Levers Framework." Prior to co-founding 6 Levers,

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Andrew Morris, the founder of Sam’s Caribbean Marketplace, a business that has become a cultural landmark since its humble beginnings in 1993. Andrew’s journey is a true testament to perseverance, innovation, and the power of dreaming big. In 1979, Andrew arrived in New York from Jamaica with just $50 and a vision for

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Ryan Chute is an award-winning creative strategist and the driving force behind Wizard of Ads. Specializing in helping small businesses transform into big brands, Ryan delivers divergent sales and marketing solutions that accelerate profitable growth without the typical friction. With a background in retail and automot

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Dan Frosh is the director at the Merrill Center for Family Wealth. He works with enterprising families to navigate the complexities of wealth and family dynamics, aiming for multigenerational success. A trained attorney, Dan has previously served as a senior advisor at Cambridge Family Enterprise Group and writes and s

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Dann Van Der Vliet is the John and Dyan Smith Executive Director of the Smith Family Business Initiative (SFBI) at Cornell University. Cornell has been named as one of the “25 best schools for family business” by Family Capital in 2015. As the founding director, Dan guided the launch and growth of one of the leading ed

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