If the unthinkable happens to you as a business owner or any of your business partners, can the business survive? Or will it cause the business to die or make lives more complicated than necessary? The business world is a silent, but strenuous battlefield attacking from the outside and that is why a business needs to cover all possible scenarios on the inside to protect itself. For a business to survive today and tomorrow, it needs more than a sturdy and capable leader. There needs to be some potentially difficult conversations between owners, partners, and families – now. In this episode, Janise Graham talks about “leaving in style.” She takes us to the heart of why a succession plan is essential, what topics to consider, and when to have these discussions. Tune in and learn how to assure you can create a plan for financial security in your business and in your succession plan.
“If you have a business succession plan and strategy you have something that you can refer back to.” -Janise Graham
Highlights:
00:28 Succession Plan and Its Importance in Business
07:07 Your D’s
14:20 The Messes Of Having No Succession Plan
19:28 Succession Plan For Solopreneurs
24:31 What’s Done Is Done
27:13 When The Going Gets Tough, Be Tougher
Resources
Book
- Leaving In Style: From Business Success to Succession by Janise Graham (Coming Soon!)
Have you ever wondered how to keep your business going after you leave? Protect what’s important to you! Tune in as @arlene_gale and @janisegraham get to the core of succession planning. #BookWritingBusiness #BusinessBuildingBooks #successionplan… Click To Tweet
Quotes:
10:34 “If you have a business succession plan and strategy you have something that you can refer back to.” -Janise Graham
10:56 “Although we all understand death, no one wants to talk about it.” -Janise Graham
14:23 “If you don’t put a plan in place for what happens to your business when you or a partner are no longer able to run it, the government has a plan for you.” -Janise Graham
20:22 “No matter how much we make or don’t make, we all inevitably will leave our businesses.” -Janise Graham
24:21 “Nobody wants to talk about writing wills, loved ones or business partner’s deaths, or our dying. But we have to because if you don’t die first, you’re going to inherit a huge mess.” -Arlene Gale
Connect with Janise:
Janise Graham is the owner of Leaving In Style, a business consulting company. She also serves as a speaker and author as well as Founder and Chief Insurance Strategist at Entrepreneurs Insurance Service. She is driven to help business owners and entrepreneurs plan for and protect the future of their families, their business, and even their employees. Janise is also the President-Elect for the Inland Empire Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners and has served as President of the National Association of Insurance and Finance Advisors. Janise currently holds a life and health license in several states and the Designation of Life and Annuity Certified Professional.
Transcription:
Arlene Gale: Welcome everybody to this episode of Mindset Meets Mastery, this is Arlene Gale. So are you the person that plans what you’re going to have for dinner everyday? This is one that annoys me because I’m not this organized. Do you plan what you’re going to wear the next day to work? When we start a business, we plan what we want to do for our business, right? We plan our programs, we plan our finances related to the business, or at least you should. We do all this planning around our business and how our business fits our life, but we never plan for what happens if we die. I know boom, boom, Debbie Downer here now. But seriously, if you don’t have a succession plan for your business, it can turn into a huge mess.
I have a friend right now who has a brick-and-mortar store, and the first brick-and-mortar store they had, he had a partner. And then the partner decided they didn’t want to be in business anymore, so the partner just left.They never changed the structure of the business and then the partner died. Guess what? Now the person who’s running the business has to make payments and explain choices that they’re making to an ex-wife, and a wife, and a child. It becomes very messy and very time consuming because they never thought about a succession plan. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today, why do you need a succession plan? How do you create a succession plan? What are the things that we need to plan for when we have a succession plan, and I don’t have the answers, but I do know somebody who does.
So help me welcome my guest, Janise Graham. She’s a speaker, author, and founder, and chief insurance strategist at Entrepreneur’s Insurance Services and owner of Leaving In Style, a business consulting company. She is driven to help business owners and entrepreneurs plan for and protect the future of their families, their business, and even their employees. Janise is president elect for the Inland Empire Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners, and has served as president of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. Janise currently holds a life and health license in several States and the designation of life and annuity certified professional.
So welcome, Janise, thank you for being here with us today.
Janise Graham: Thank you for having me. It’s definitely my pleasure.
Arlene Gale: Well, so you certainly have a lot of street cred and a lot of licensing, so let’s start with, break it down for us about what is a business succession plan, and why do we need one?
Janise Graham: Oh, that’s a great question. And listening to your story is exactly why it’s needed. Unfortunately, it’s one of those things that people, you don’t know what you don’t know, and they don’t find out until it’s after the fact. But a business succession plan is basically a plan to put into place that speaks and dictates what’s going to happen with a business if there’s something happening to you. And if there is a business partner, which in your case that there was a business friend, it’s almost, I like to call it a business pre-nup. If you think of it that way.
Arlene Gale: Oh, well.
Janise Graham: Think of it as a business pre-nup. We know what a pre-nup is, so it’s a plan that you’re putting in place when everyone is in love, and a business partnership is no different than a marriage. They get along great, everything’s exciting, new, and written over drinks until one person is doing all of the work and the other one’s playing golf or whatever the case may be. If there’s no plan or structure in writing, then there’s going to be a lot of consequences that are basically going to be dictated by whatever state you’re in because the government always has a plan for you.
Arlene Gale: Oh, yeah. If you don’t plan for you, the government already has.
Janise Graham: There’a a plan, whether you like it or not?
Arlene Gale: Exactly. So you talked about business partners and then you also talked about pre-nups. So is it important for a couple in business, even if they have a pre-nup, to also have a succession plan for the business, if anything happens to the marriage, whether it’s death or divorce?
Janise Graham: Absolutely. It’s not as pressing in the case of death because the spouse will typically inherit, but maybe it’s a second marriage, and this is the second husband or the third husband and there are children from a previous relationship. Should something happen to the parent, those children are going to come in, and they’re going to have a vested interest or want to have a vested interest in that business. So it is still nice to have something in writing. Also, it’s very helpful to have a business succession plan or even continuity in the event that something happens to both owners. I remember once being at a meeting and this guy turns around, he’s, what do you do? And I explained to him: “I help business owners put a plan in place.” He didn’t understand it. And like I said, so like going a little further. Well, just in case the business owner dies. Oh, that’s more of it. And he didn’t get it. So I said: “Well, what do you do?” So he’s like, he was an architect, he worked for an architectural firm. I said: “Who owns the business?” And he told me: “Oh, the business owner right over there.” And he pointed to him, I said: “Okay, what I do is I put a plan in place. So just in case he dies, you still have a job.” Then he got it. Because as an employee, we were hearing it, and we’re seeing it now, small businesses are who employ this country.
Arlene Gale: Absolutely.
Janise Graham: And if there’s something that happens to a small business owner, that employee doesn’t have a job, the employee doesn’t have an income, that employee can’t pay for food. It has a trickle down effect. So oftentimes, employees may not understand what I do until I put it into an example that makes sense to them. So having a business plan or business succession plan not only helps the business owners, it also helps the employees. And in the case of a married couple, it would be set up a little differently, but they could still have a succession plan.
Arlene Gale: So when you talk about a succession plan, you’ve given a couple examples, but something that comes to mind is, let’s say you build a business and you want to now sell it, is that something that is covered in a succession plan?
Janise Graham: Absolutely. I won’t go through, I have 10D’s that I go through and what’s included in a business plan, but one of them is DEPARTURE, you have your DEATH, DISABILITY, DIVORCE, there’s several of them. I’ve kind of created this whole D day experience, but one of them is departure. And that departure could be either by way of selling business, preparing the business for sale, or it could be my retirement of one of the partners. And I also happen to sit on the board for a lender, and we were looking at a loan and I was like, Oh, my goodness. They had this business, had a succession plan, and even a retirement strategy, they wouldn’t need a loan. They had a key employee, what I think it was a CFO or someone who died, and because there was no plan in place–
Arlene Gale: Wow.
Janise Graham: –they are paying out the heirs from their profit. So it’s affecting their cash flow. Had there been a plan in place, there are several ways to fund it, but typically it’s done with life insurance and a certain type of disability insurance. Have they had a plan in place, the insurance company would have paid the heirs in that family and it would not be coming out of the cash flow of the business.
Arlene Gale: Wow. And then when it comes out of the cash flow of the business then, like you said, it trickles down and that impacts the employees, and whether or not they can keep their jobs.
Janise Graham: Absolutely. If I’m paying out $50,000 a year, a month, whatever the case may be for the size of the business to someone who’s not there, that money that I give you is paying to an employee that I desperately need or we need to be in a growth mode. And if there’s a downturn in the economy, which we’re going to see that’s extra cash that could have gone into the business, so yes, definitely, having a plan would definitely have helped.
Arlene Gale: Well, I’ve been really impressed with the couple of small businesses in my community where they’re, somehow, someway, whether it was a succession plan or something else, had enough funds that they could pay their employees for a month or more if their business shut down for whatever reason. Is that part of the succession plan? Or is that just good financial management?
Janise Graham: That’s good financial management, that is not really a part of the succession plan, that’s a part of their business continuity of looking at a worst case scenario, which is awesome. It’s like, let’s plan for the worst and expect the best. And a lot of times we see businesses that plan for the best and expect the best. And when the worst happens, there’s no plan B. So that’s a business who recognize that with their growth that they’re going to set aside reserves as opposed to buying a new car, by spreading themselves thin, or they may have a line of credit that they’re able to tap into. But that is just good financial business planning.
Arlene Gale: Well, I don’t know, maybe I’m just old and cynical, but what I’ve found in my life is if I’ve got a plan, I usually don’t need it. It’s when I don’t have a plan that things can really spiral out of control.
“Although we all understand death, no one wants to talk about it.” -Janise Graham Click To TweetJanise Graham: Absolutely right. I mean, it’s almost, when we talk about getting a loan, a bank will lend you money when you don’t need it, but when you need it, it’s not there. It’s the same thing, if you have a plan and a strategy, it gives you a sense of calm as well. You have something that you can refer back to, and that’s all we’re doing is like no one wants to talk about, I had to learn and doing my slides, and during presentations I always talked, in the industry we talk about death, disability, divorce, and I realize, why don’t I lead with the things that people understand? Although we all understand death, no one wants to talk about it. So let’s talk about the things that happen, dementia, you talked about having a spouse and a former spouse,, we call those unintended business partners. All of a sudden you have these unintended business partners who have a say in your business. Okay, let’s talk about that first, and then we’ll talk about the death part, because we do really have a greater chance of being disabled before we die. So yeah, nobody wants to talk about that part.
“If you have a business succession plan and strategy you have something that you can refer back to.” -Janise Graham Click To TweetArlene Gale: well. And if you’ve got a family business, you need a succession plan. If you’ve got heirs that want to come in at some point or if they don’t, right?
Janise Graham: Absolutely. If you have heirs, let’s say you have three children, and you have one child that’s really interested in the business and two that aren’t. If you die and you left the entire business to that one child, the other two are going to a problem with it because unfortunately, a lot of families don’t realize that, yes, that child is interested in the business and the other two are not, but the other two don’t see it that way, they see it as an asset.
Arlene Gale: Right.
Janise Graham: And Johnny has always been the favorite anyway, so it causes dissension with heirs. So if you have one child heir that’s interested in the business, there’s a provision for that that can be written into the succession process. It could also go into the family trust, and maybe the other two heirs get something different, or they’re compensated in a different way that’s equal or similar because they could all do business. It’s like, will sue him and it will spin all the money at court.
Arlene Gale: And then who wins?
Janise Graham: The Attorneys.
Arlene Gale: Exactly. I was going to let you answer that because I know my answer, but we agree. The only one that wins are the lawyers.
Janise Graham: Absolutely.
Arlene Gale: So let’s talk about some of the worst case scenarios of what will the government do to the business if the owners die and there’s no succession plan, we’re going to come back and ask that question in just a moment.
Welcome back everybody, this is Arlene Gale, and my guest today is Janise Graham and we’re talking about death. No, not really. It’s really been fun because we’re trying to make it so that you know the bad stuff that will happen if you don’t take the relatively easy step of creating a business succession plan. And I promise that when we came back from break, we were going to ask Janise to tell us. If we don’t put a succession plan in place for our business, tell us what the government’s going to do to us or for us, because maybe that will scare some people straight. Remember that old saying, I’m gonna scare him straight.
Janise Graham: Absolutely. Well, like I said earlier, if you don’t put a plan in place, the government has a plan for you, and that plan is going to vary depending on the state that you’re in. I happen to be in the lovely state of California where there’s definitely lots of plans for employers. And basically, if there is no plan, and there’s no strategy, there’s no one available to step in, or there’s a battle, let’s say there’s a fight, let me stop before we even get to the government. Let’s talk about your competition. Because there may not be anything for the government to do because your competition will step in and say, Oh, do you need these? You don’t have a job? Alright, you want to work for me? You want to bring the clients over here? And they will be really friendly competition, but your competitors know who you are, they know who your clients are, and they know those clients still need to be serviced. So they’ll step in and offer me a job if I bring the employees, the clients with me. Well, you’re not here, you’re not here to dispute anything. So the reality is that you can have nothing for the government to do because there’s nothing left.
“If you don't put a plan in place for what happens to your business when you or a partner are no longer able to run it, the government has a plan for you.” -Janise Graham Click To TweetArlene Gale: They are being cannibalized.
Janise Graham: Cannibalize, your competition gets your business for free. But let’s say there is a business lab. Your business is going to go through probate, and I don’t know about where you are, but the state that I’m in probate, it takes a minimum to get into the core of nine months. So you’re in limbo, now you’re gone. Your employees have lost their job, your clients still need your services. So if they haven’t found them elsewhere, there’s nothing there. Now, if there’s still a viable business by the time it gets to the courts, they’re going to look at the ownership and the legacy, and oftentimes, they’re going to just divide it up based on who’s left. So if there’s five of you and your partner had one, or you had five kids and they can’t find that one other kid, your heirs will still inherit, we’re in a community property state, so the heirs are going to inherit your assets, and probate court is very difficult to fight on your own. It’s one of those courts where you have to have an attorney. And a lot of people look at, well, you know what? The state taxes are really low right now, this affects me. Well, state taxes may not be the issue, it’s the probate fees, the attorney fees, an attorney is based on a scale of the value. And they’re looking at the value. Let’s say the value of the business is $9 million and you have 8 million of it in debt, they look at the 9 million, they don’t look at the 8 million.
Arlene Gale: And then your estate, your heirs have to make up the difference? Or your estate has to make up the difference then?
Janise Graham: No, it would be the heir. If it’s in the estate, the estate would make up the difference.
Arlene Gale: Wow. I’m not the government, that’s a lot of money.
Janise Graham: Yeah, and I mean, at that point it is not going to the government but the government is dividing it up, but it requires the help of an attorney. Either way it’s going to require the support of an attorney. So I always say, do the business planning, just do the plan. It costs a lot less to have an attorney draw up a business plan or business succession plan than to represent you on court. And I’ve done presentations with plenty of estate planning attorneys and I tell them: “I could sell your business better than you, but I’ll just show people the numbers.” If they just put it together, a business plan or business succession plan, pennies on the dollar compared to what it’s going to cost, they have that same attorney represent you in probate court.
Arlene Gale: Wow. And that’s what happens if you don’t have a succession plan.
Janise Graham: Yeah. That’s what happens if you don’t have a succession plan.
Arlene Gale: Wow. So if you don’t want to get tied up with a bunch of lawyers and in court, and have your business in limbo for what? Nine months, that’s–
Janise Graham: Oh, no. That’s the minimum. That’s just to get into court. That’s the minimum. That’s just to get in front of the judge, to get into court. I started working with business owners in this space, because I saw that happen. My mom had a very successful friend who had a very nice business and he flew his plane up North and was heading back and didn’t make it. And I didn’t understand what was going to happen to the business, I kept asking, on asking, and asking. And ultimately in his case, he didn’t have to go to probate because the competition got it, which was the legacy for his 12 year old son. And that legacy wasn’t nothing because the competition stepped right in and said, these clients don’t need to be served, we could serve you.
Arlene Gale: Wow. So we’re talking about, you mentioned the number 9 million, and you’re talking about bigger companies in that case potentially. Is the same true for, I hate the term solopreneur because I don’t believe anybody can be in business by themselves, but an entrepreneur who is sole owner of that business, or somebody who’s got just one, or two, or three employees, is it true for them too?
Janise Graham: Absolutely. Absolutely. And a solo preneur could be anyone, they could have any amount. It could be $100,000 business, it could be a $10 million business, you could still be a solopreneur. So the differences are, if you are a solopreneur, a sole proprietor, it’s going to go straight to probate. It’s going to be a probate issue, unless you have a spouse or a business with your spouse. But if you’ve incorporated and you have a partner, oftentimes I’ve asked this question, if I die, if Arlene and I are in business together — what happens to the business? And I just get a blank look. And a lot of business partners think, well, I get the business. Well, no, you don’t. So it doesn’t matter that the dollar amount, that’s going to be just a matter of the planning. But the reality is that no matter how much we make or don’t make, we all inevitably will leave our businesses. The only thing I can guarantee, 100%, and that’s the equalizer.
“No matter how much we make or don't make, we all inevitably will leave our businesses.” -Janise Graham Click To TweetArlene Gale: Absolutely. Because for a variety of reasons, people don’t want to talk about death, or divorce, or think about all that yucky stuff, but it really is worse and harder to deal with if those things aren’t discussed now, and have been dealt with now.
Janise Graham: That’s absolutely correct. I mean, with love and marriage, love, marriages is love, divorce is business. It’s the same thing in business. A business is a business, and departures are the breakup of a business is even more business.
Arlene Gale: Absolutely. So if somebody came to you and said, Hey, I’ve got a business, I’m this old and I don’t know what to do next, how would you help them? How would you start? What are some of the questions you would ask them to get them to think about what they’re doing next?
Janise Graham: That’s a great question. I ask a series of questions, if they have the business and they don’t know what they’re going to do, I get them to visualize. What do you see in your future? How long do you see being a part of this business? Because ideally, if they’re older and they have a five year window, good. If they have a 10 year window, great. Because you can really put some strategies and plans in place. Unfortunately, a lot of folks get to wake up one day and they’re tired, and they go, I am so done. Well, in that case, there’s a lot you can do for planning other than to try to find someone to buy your business. It’s always sad to see a successful business just close because the person was retired. They don’t think of selling the business, preparing the business, propping it up, doing all the right things to actually sell the business and get something out of it. There’s a challenge there as well because with baby boomers owning most of the businesses, there’s not enough people out there to buy them. So many years, people work in a business. I’ve worked in this business for 35 years, it’s my retirement plan. Okay, well, is there a strategy that’s put into place? So if you have a lead time of five years or 10 years, then we can work. I ask a lot of questions and really look at where the business is, how the business is structured. Do you have a successor? And someone may say, well, I have a child that’s interested in the business. Great. Do they have the financial resources to buy you out? And then there’s options there. But if there’s time, we can start working towards making sure that that successor is viable to either get a business loan, or maybe the business is going to give them a carry back, they’ll help carry that loan. If it is a key employee, he is like, Oh, I have John, he’s my office manager, he would be a great successor. Let’s start propping and prepping John for taking over this business in five years ideally. I mean, if you’re going to do it in three years, but even trying to sell a business, it takes time. And I have a very dear lady that’s a mentor to me who it took two years to sell her business, it’s over $20 million business, but it just still takes time. You may have a lot of folks just like the house coming through, kicking the tires, so to speak, looking at that business and maybe they have a level of discomfort because you don’t have good books. Maybe they have a level of discomfort because there’s no structure in place. So if you could start propping the business up and putting a system in place. And we do that with a series of questions, lots and lots of questions. And then even having that business succession plan in place is helpful.
Arlene Gale: Wow. And I’m thinking all of those things you’ve got to do for business and people don’t want to look at that. They don’t want to talk about that until it’s too late, then they wish they had. The same thing as true in our personal lives. Nobody wants to talk about our wills, and our death, and our dying. But you got to, because if you don’t, if you don’t die first, you’re going to inherit a huge mess.
“Nobody wants to talk about writing wills, loved ones or business partner’s deaths, or our dying. But we have to because if you don't die first, you're going to inherit a huge mess.” -Arlene Gale Click To TweetJanise Graham: That’s, and that’s right. And the thing is, it’s like the Nike commercial, just do it. Once it’s done, it’s done. I mean, it’s one of those things that no one wants to talk about. And I tell people, if you don’t want to talk about it, that’s fine. Bring me in. I’m a third party disinterested person, and I will ask the questions that you can’t ask mom and dad, or you can’t ask a business partner. I’ve had before, they all say, Oh, you’re trying to kill me off, or you’re trying to get rid of me. No, not at all. So they don’t ask those of me because I’m at a party. But if it’s a business partner that wants to know, okay, do you really — business would your business partner’s wife? Like, Oh, my goodness, I don’t even want to talk to her, let alone be in business with her. Well, that’s a great opportunity to put a plan in place, and that’s how we look at it. And also with business, there is no compelling story you could put on GoFundMe, that has somebody fund your business. It’s just not going to happen.
Arlene Gale: Nope. It’s just not. Such great wisdom. So Janise, tell people where they can connect with you, follow you, or even your website where they might be able to see what services you provide and get a chance to talk to you about how you can help them.
Janise Graham: Absolutely. I’m making it really easy. I have several websites but I’ll give you, it’s www.leaving, like goodbye, that kind of leaving, leavinginstyle.com.
Arlene Gale: I like that.
Janise Graham: Thank you. You can reach my website that way. My Facebook and Instagram with leaving in style. And I have a book that I keep moving the data on, I put it out there, I’ll tell you my datebook release, July 20th.
Arlene Gale: July 20th.
Janise Graham: Leaving in style, it’s business success, a bit from business success to succession. So it’s really just an introduction to this topic for business owners so that they’ll at least feel safe and have a guideline to move them to the needle, just move forward a little bit.
Arlene Gale: Absolutely. Well, and one step at a time, that’s all we could do sometimes. And sometimes baby steps, and sometimes they’re bigger steps, but it’s all gotta be done one step at a time. So I want to put you on the hot seat. Are you ready?
Janise Graham: I’m ready.
Arlene Gale: Alright. So I mean, the podcast is called Mindset Meets Mastery. So think back when you first started this business and what made you go into this business. What was a major mindset that you had personally that you needed to overcome in order to get to the success where you are today?
Janise Graham: Wow, that’s a great question. I actually joined in, came into the financial services industry 25 years ago, and it was very much a personal journey. And it was one, I worked in telecommunications prior to that. And my biggest fear was not having enough money on retirement. I didn’t understand it. I didn’t know what a 401k was. Oh, I had a friend who told me to put money in it, so I did, I didn’t know. He just told me what to do, and I did it. And at that time, I was a single mom, and I’d have people that would meet with me and they would come, they go, Oh, you’re okay, or you’re fine. And I never knew what fine meant. I didn’t know what that meant. And I realized now they didn’t see a sale. They didn’t see a way to sell me something. So I came into the industry on a personal quest and I was very honest when I started. I worked for two major insurance companies and I was like, I’m here because I don’t know. And I think they saw the coachable, teachable part of me. So I came into the industry initially for a personal understanding of finances and the financial opportunities that were out there. And it has evolved. It evolved into working for the insurance companies and supporting agents to moving into starting my own business 20 years ago, working with consumers and the public. And with that journey, I originally started my business doing retirement planning because that’s what I knew. And once my mom’s friend passed away, that was in 2001, I started to see a hole. It was truly an evolution. Why am I in this industry? I don’t know. I look in the mirror sometimes and ask, God, why am I here? And then I realized I’m here because I explain things in basic English. When the going gets tougher, there’s a crisis, I really calmed down. When I was learning to swim, I’ve probably in second grade, my mother was teaching us to swim and she said: “If you think you’re drowning, wait till you get out of the water to panic.” And I’ve taken that as a life mantra, right? Think about it.
Arlene Gale: There’s wisdom there.
Janise Graham: Exactly. If you think you’re drowning, wait till you get out of the water to panic. So I brought that mindset to a space where people panic a lot. So I bring a sense of calm, and I bring a sense of reasoning, and it’s just evolved into who I serve. And I found that, as long as our people, but when it comes to business planning, there’s not a lot of information and resources that’s readily available.
Arlene Gale: So if you had one golden nugget of information that you could leave the listeners with today, what would that be to help them take that next step?
Janise Graham: Wow, that one golden nugget. I would say to just really sit down, even if it’s 10 minutes with yourself, just sit down and write. I’m not asking you to get an attorney or do anything sexy. Just write down what you like to see in your life and in your business 10 years from now. So if you’re 65 years old, what would you like to see at 75? Would you like to see yourself in that chair? Would you like to see yourself on the beach? Just start with that vision of where you would like to see yourself in your business 10 years from now.
Arlene Gale: That is a great golden nugget. So thank you Janise for your time here today. This is Janise Graham, she made it very easy to find her. Give them the website again, please.
Janise Graham: Leaving In Style.
Arlene Gale: Leaving In Style. That’s great visuals. I can see myself in that convertible, bright red, driving around the mountains, so I’m gonna leave that way. To me, that’s my style. So anyway, it’s a great visual. So remember, Leaving In Style, connect with Janise Graham, there’s great wisdom here, and she will not help you put out fires because she’s going to keep the fires from happening to begin with.
Janise Graham: That’s right.
Arlene Gale: Alright. So Janise, thank you so much for sharing your expertise and your wisdom with us today, I appreciate it.
Janise Graham: Thank you for having me, Arlene. I’ve enjoyed it immensely.
Arlene Gale: Well, great. Connect with Janise, but I’m going to leave my listeners with this final thought. Don’t let the world dictate what is or is not possible for you. You get to make those choices. You get to live your story everyday. You get to write the story of where you’ve been and where you’re going, and only you get to write that story everyday.