In this intimate conversation, Sharon Foulston shares her profound journey through wealth, loss, and the search for identity. Her story resonates deeply, especially for those who have experienced the complexities of sudden wealth and the emotional turmoil that can accompany it.

Sharon's life changed dramatically at the tender age of 10 when her father's successful business made them millionaires overnight. Moving from a cozy housing estate to a mansion in the countryside, she became acutely aware of the lifestyle changes that wealth brought. However, the transition wasn't entirely positive.

Tragedy then struck when Sharon's father died unexpectedly in a motor racing accident on her first day at university. This loss not only shattered her family unit but also left lasting scars on her identity

In this episode, we delve into the complex interplay of wealth, identity, and loss. Sharon’s insights offer valuable lessons for anyone navigating the challenges of family dynamics in the face of sudden wealth or loss.

Inheritance and early wealth impact

Dealing with the loss of a parent at 17

The role of sailing and nature in personal growth

Managing identity and purpose beyond wealth

Lessons on resilience and facing fears

The importance of self-awareness and values

Links - https://www.sharonfoulston.com/

Book - https://amzn.eu/d/0fHmhUqs

The Great Survivors: What Britain's Oldest Family Businesses Can Teach Us, with Nigel Cope

Russ is joined by Nigel Cope, former City Editor of The Independent and long-serving communications lead at a FTSE 100 company, to discuss his new book, The Great Survivors. Nigel visited twelve of the UK's longest-standing family businesses, speaking to family members across generations and non-family staff, to understand how they have lasted a century or more and what the rest of the business world might learn from them.

In this episode:

• Why family businesses, despite numbering around five million and employing some fifteen million people in the UK, remain underreported and underappreciated (02:00)
• How sector-based representation and a preference for keeping a low profile keep the family business model out of the national conversation (05:13)
• The inheritance tax changes and why the "farmers' tax" framing missed the wider family business impact (07:21)
• The case for more family business ambassadors, and the idea of being "1-0 up before you start" in communications (13:43)
• How the twelve businesses were chosen: at least 100 years old, fourth generation or beyond, and a spread of sectors, sizes and regions (20:58)
• Challenging the myth of the sleepy family firm, with examples of innovation from Barbour, Stephen Walters and Berry Bros. & Rudd (27:02)
• Common traits: intergenerational thinking, cautious finance, deep community roots and a broader definition of success (31:17)
• Proximity of ownership, visible owners and the stability it creates for employees and communities (33:54)
• What family businesses could contribute to the debate on growth "in every postcode" (42:43)

Businesses featured in the conversation:

R.J. Balson & Son, C. Hoare & Co., Shepherd Neame, Berry Bros. & Rudd, Lock & Co. Hatters, Samworth Brothers, Timpson, Barbour, Stephen Walters & Sons and Walker's Shortbread.

Nigel's key takeaway:

Family businesses are collectively bigger, more important and more successful than most people realise, and their approach to doing business deserves closer examination.

Links:

• The Great Survivors by Nigel Cope, available from Waterstones, Amazon, Eye Books and other major booksellers
• Family Business UK
• Family Business United

With Dr Dennis Jaffe and Dr Cynthia Scott

What if your family's values are not the tidy list on the wall, but something far messier and far more powerful?

In this episode, Russ sits down with Dr Dennis Jaffe and Dr Cynthia Scott, married co-authors of Living Your Values, the follow-up to their groundbreaking 1993 work on values in families and organisations. Between them they bring decades of research into resilience, culture change, and what actually holds hundred-year family businesses together.

The conversation gets straight to the point Dennis and Cynthia have built their careers on: values are not words, they are actions. A word like "respect" or "integrity" on a poster tells you nothing until someone can point to a story that shows what it actually looks like in practice.

Highlights include:

• Why Dennis's research into hundred-year, multi-generational family businesses found one answer, far above any other, for what kept them together
• The difference between legacy values, current values, espoused values and aspirational values, and why families so often confuse them
• Why picking five values "out of a hat" is the least effective route any family or organisation can take
• The personal values pyramid: why understanding your own values has to come before a family can agree on shared ones
• How storytelling, not word lists, is what makes values genuinely stick across generations
• Why healthy families do not need identical values, and how diversity within a family can be a source of strength rather than division
• What it really means to be a "values champion", and why that question produces far richer conversations than simply asking "what are our values?"

This is a conversation about doing the harder, more honest work of turning belief into behaviour, and why that work never really finishes.

Get the book: Living Your Values: Connecting Personal, Family, and Organizational Values to Build Purpose and Clarity

Learn more about Russ and The Family Business Partnership: familybusinesspartnership.com