The Wealth Integration System for Entrepreneurs™

What You Appreciate, Appreciates

There’s something that tends to happen after we achieve the things we once worked so hard for.

At first, we celebrate. We feel a sense of arrival. Gratitude is easy.

But slowly, quietly, our focus shifts. We stop noticing what we have and start fixating on what’s next—or what’s missing. The very things we once viewed as extraordinary become normal. Taken for granted.

This is where the principle “what you appreciate, appreciates” becomes a powerful reminder.

It’s not just a feel-good phrase. It’s a lens—a way of looking at life that invites more depth, more meaning, and often, more of what we actually want.

When we focus our attention and appreciation on something—whether it’s a relationship, an opportunity, a quality of life—it tends to expand. Not always in material ways, but in how it shows up, how we experience it, and how much fulfillment it brings.

This kind of appreciation can take many forms:
— Gratitude for your team
— Recognition of the freedom you’ve created
— Awareness of the lifestyle you now live
— Or even… appreciation for the hard seasons you’ve faced

That last one is often overlooked. The challenges. The setbacks. The uncomfortable moments we didn’t ask for—but that shaped us in meaningful ways.

When you can appreciate even the struggle, you unlock something new in yourself. You stop resisting what is, and you start growing through it.

So here’s the question:
What’s something in your life you want to appreciate and grow?

Who comes to mind when you think of someone who deserves more of your acknowledgment, your presence, your gratitude?

Don’t overthink it—your gut already knows. Take a moment to lean in and see what or who rises to the surface.

Now, your first step:
Reflect on the gratitude. And express it.

What are you grateful for?
Why does it matter to you?
And how can you express that—to them, or even just to yourself?

Whether it’s a conversation, a note, a quiet moment of recognition… take the step.

Because what you appreciate, appreciates. And the sooner we reconnect with that truth, the deeper our life experience becomes.

There’s More to Life Than Just ROI

Over the years, I’ve given countless talks to business owners, and one concept always seems to resonate more than the rest: Return on Life Experience™ (ROLE).

Business owners naturally think in terms of Return on Investment (ROI) — it’s how we measure success in our companies, investments, and opportunities. But ROI only tells part of the story. What often gets overlooked is something far more personal: the return you’re getting on your actual life.

ROLE asks a simple but powerful question:  Are you getting the life you want from the wealth you’ve worked so hard to build?

Why ROLE Matters

The money you make is only as valuable as the life it enables. Your choices around how you spend your time, who you spend it with, and the experiences you prioritize all add up to the quality of your life.

Return on Life Experience™ is about measuring, and ultimately improving, those choices. It’s about shifting the focus from “more wealth” to “more life.”

Start with Time

The most straightforward way to measure ROLE is by looking at your time.

Ask yourself:  How many hours per week and how many weeks per year do I want to dedicate to pursuing my business vision?

Then compare that to your reality.

For example, my personal target is 25 hours a week, 35 weeks a year working toward my business vision. The rest of my time, I want to spend on family, travel, adventure, community, and health.

I’m not there yet, but I have a clear target.

Now it’s your turn:  Fill in the blank: ____ hours/week, ____ weeks/year.

Give Yourself a Score

Next, rank where you are now compared to where you’d like to be on a scale of 1–5.

Example: If your target is 25/35 like mine, but you’re currently working 50 hours a week for 50 weeks a year, you’re probably a 1 out of 5.

Take a moment and give yourself a score.

Here’s what I’ve seen after asking this same question to over 1,000 highly successful business owners:

• 1 – 25%
• 2 – 30%
• 3 – 30%
• 4 – 10%
• 5 – 5%
  
  

Shocking, isn’t it? The group with the highest wealth often reports the lowest scores when it comes to Return on Life Experience™.

That’s something I’m committed to changing.

Take the First Step Toward Your Ideal ROLE

Improving your ROLE doesn’t always require radical change. Often, one meaningful action can create an outsized impact.

• Hire an Executive Assistant.
• Say no to activities that don’t move the needle.
• Bring in a COO to free up your time.
• Finally book that vacation you’ve been putting off.
  
  

Each of these steps moves you closer to aligning your wealth with the life you truly want.

So, don’t just think about ROI this week. Take a step toward improving your Return on Life Experience™.

The Hidden Cost of Misaligned Planning

By the time most business owners reach a significant level of success, the fundamentals are usually in place—financial planning, legal structures, tax strategies, maybe even insurance.

You’ve assembled a team of smart advisors, each focused on their respective area. Individually, they’re doing good work. But when you zoom out and look at the full picture? That’s where things get interesting.

The Puzzle of Disjointed Planning

Imagine your planning as a puzzle.

One piece represents your tax strategy. Another holds your legal documents. Then you’ve got investments, trusts, insurance, and your business plan. Each one was crafted with care and intention—but often in isolation. Different people, at different times, with different objectives.

When you try to bring those pieces together, they don’t always form a clear picture.

That’s what I call disjointed wealth planning—or what happens when the parts of your financial life don’t quite speak the same language.

The Real Problem: The Gaps

These gaps aren’t just technical oversights or minor inefficiencies. They’re cracks in the foundation—hidden risks, missed opportunities, and strategies that quietly work against one another.

Most of the time, those gaps stay invisible until something big happens:

• A major liquidity event.
• A lawsuit.
• A new investment opportunity.
• A family or life transition.

That’s when the plan you thought was solid suddenly shows its weak points.

And if your wealth has grown substantially since your initial planning, those gaps have likely widened with time.

Alignment Is the Missing Ingredient

The good news is, you don’t need to wait for a crisis to discover where things are out of sync.

When your financial, business, and life plans are truly integrated, everything moves with less resistance. You make decisions with clarity. Your strategies reinforce one another instead of competing for attention.

That’s what intentional alignment looks like—and it’s the difference between feeling successful and being fulfilled.

Bringing It All Together

This is why I created the Wealth Integration System for Entrepreneurs™ (WISE™).

It’s a framework designed to help entrepreneurs step out of fragmented thinking and into alignment. We organize everything into six core components—then help you build a cohesive strategy for each.

Because real planning isn’t about ticking boxes or chasing returns.
It’s about creating a system that works together—for the life you’ve worked so hard to build.

When your plan aligns with your purpose, success feels lighter, decisions feel clearer, and life starts to move with greater ease.

Intentional Decisions Lead to Better Outcomes

In my work with business owners, one theme consistently rises to the surface: Intentionality.

It’s not just a buzzword—it’s the foundation of effective planning and the cornerstone of building a business and life that truly align with your bigger picture goals. At its core, intentionality is about understanding why you make certain decisions and ensuring those choices connect back to what matters most.

Why Intentionality Matters

In business, every decision you make has ripple effects. From hiring your next key team member to reinvesting profits or exploring an exit, each choice can either move you closer to your long-term vision—or unintentionally steer you away from it.

The difference comes down to this: Are you clear on the “why” behind your decisions?

When we act without understanding our deeper motivations, even good-sounding decisions can create unintended consequences. But when we ground our actions in intentionality, we gain clarity, consistency, and alignment. We start making choices that don’t just serve today’s challenges but also strengthen tomorrow’s opportunities.

Bringing Intentionality Into Your Next Decision

Before you analyze numbers, weigh financial implications, or consult your advisors, pause for a moment and ask yourself:

Why am I making this decision?

Then evaluate whether that “why” is aligned with your values and overarching goals. If the reason doesn’t connect to your bigger picture, it may be a sign to step back and reassess.

A Simple First Step

Think about the next major decision on your horizon—whether in business or in life. Take one intentional pause before moving forward.

That small step alone can shift the trajectory from reactionary choices to deliberate outcomes. Because intentionality doesn’t just improve results—it transforms the way you lead, plan, and live.

Creating a Plan for Your Children

This past week, I sat down with a long-time client to discuss Lifestyle & Legacy Capital—one of the central themes from my book and a core component of the WISE™ framework.

As we talked, the conversation kept circling back to one fundamental question:

What do you truly want for your children?

For this family, independent wealth was already secured. Their focus had shifted to making thoughtful, intentional decisions about how much to leave for their children, and how much to allocate toward charitable impact. What gave them clarity wasn’t a technical solution—it was hearing the stories of how other business owners approached the same challenge.

The Wide Spectrum of Legacy Decisions

Over the years, I’ve seen just about every possible approach to inheritance planning. On one end of the spectrum, some business owners say:

“I want the last check to bounce.”

On the other end, others want their children to inherit everything they’ve built—completely protected from liabilities and estate taxes.

Most people fall somewhere in between.

But the most memorable story I’ve heard came from a business owner who had a very intentional plan for his three children.

A Story of Intention

When we first discussed his goals, he told me directly:

“I want each of my three children to receive $120,000 annually, inflation-adjusted, for the rest of their lives. The rest of my estate will go to charity.”

Naturally, I asked him why.

His response:

“$120,000 is enough for them to live a secure life, but not so much that they can ruin themselves or get too comfortable. I’ve given them education, support, and resources to grow their own wealth. They’re empowered to take it further.”

His plan included:

• Trusts to provide that income.
• Additional funds earmarked for education and healthcare.
• The remainder directed into a charitable foundation, where his children would also have future input.
  

After 20 years of working with business owners on Lifestyle & Legacy planning, I still consider this one of the most intentional—and beautifully simple—plans I’ve seen.

But here’s the key: it didn’t happen overnight. It took years of thought, reflection, and conversation to arrive at that clarity.

Why Intentionality Matters

Inheritance planning is one of the most emotionally charged decisions a business owner will ever make. Because it’s so complex, many default to the standard template:

“Everything to my spouse, then split equally between the kids.”

It feels simple. Safe. But the truth is—one size does not fit all.

Your children are unique. Your values are unique. And your plan should reflect that.

A Question for You

So let me ask you:

What do you want for your children?

Not what the estate documents say by default. Not what others think you should do. What do you want—intentionally?

Need a little more clarity? THIS VIDEO will help define what is for you, and what is for your children.

The First Step

From my experience, these decisions can take years to fully shape—and they will likely evolve over time. That’s why the most important thing you can do today is simply to start the conversation.

Ask your spouse or partner this question:

“What do we want for our children?”

Don’t aim for perfect answers right away. Just begin the dialogue. The sooner you do, the clearer and more meaningful your legacy plan will become.

SUCCESSion: Why Progress Starts When You Tell the Truth

Succession planning is one of the most critical — and most overlooked — challenges for entrepreneurs. Earlier this year, YPO invited me to deliver a keynote at their national manufacturing conference, where the topic was just that: succession planning.

As I prepared for the talk, one word in succession immediately stood out: SUCCESS.

Because at its core, succession is not simply about transition — it’s about defining what success means for you and your business.

The Hidden Roadblock: Lack of Clarity

For many business owners, the challenge isn’t creating a succession plan. It’s deciding what they actually want.

Some aren’t clear themselves. Others are clear, but haven’t communicated their intentions with their team or family.

The cost of this silence is steep:

• Slowed progress. Lack of clarity stalls momentum.
• Disengaged teams. When people can’t see the bigger picture, they lose motivation.
• Conflicting goals. Without a defined direction, efforts splinter, and unnecessary work piles up.
  

And perhaps most importantly: if you never say what you want, how will you ever get it?

The Power of Clarity

Clarity is the fuel for confidence and acceleration. It unlocks alignment, energy, and focus. But clarity requires two steps:

1. Decide what you want.
2. Be honest in communicating it.

That honesty — with yourself, your team, and your family — is where real progress begins.

If you’re unsure, THIS VIDEO will provide clarity.

A Lesson from George Lucas

Take George Lucas. After decades of leading Lucasfilm and building the Star Wars empire, Lucas made the decision to sell the company to Disney.

Why? Because he got clear on what mattered most: spending time with his family and launching his passion project, the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

He didn’t want his children burdened with the responsibility of managing the Star Wars franchise. By selling, he secured both continuity of his legacy and financial independence for his family.

It was a tough decision, but it aligned perfectly with his personal vision. Lucas told the truth — first to himself, and then to others. That honesty shaped his legacy.

The Question Every Business Owner Must Ask

What is the end goal for your company?

• Do you want to lead it to a specific milestone?
• Do you want to build a leadership team to take the reins?
• Do you want to pass it to your children?
• Do you want to sell?
  

There’s no right or wrong answer. Only the necessity of being honest about what success looks like for you.

The First Step: Communicate

Once you’re clear, communicate your end goal. Start with the key stakeholders — your leadership team, your family, your advisors.

Progress doesn’t start with a perfect plan. It starts when you tell the truth. From there, everyone can move in a shared direction.

Redirecting Your Energy: What Happens After You Step Back

After years - sometimes decades - of pouring your energy into a business, it’s easy to assume that more free time would be a welcome reward. And often, it is…at first.

But many business owners are surprised by what happens next.

Whether you've sold the company or hired a strong leadership team that gives you back hours in your day, a strange challenge emerges: What now?

When your identity has been so closely tied to your business, stepping back can feel less like freedom and more like disorientation. Suddenly, the rhythm of constant problem-solving and decision-making is gone. There’s space. And in that space, a question lingers: Where should my energy go now?

Many business owners fill the gap the only way they know how—by getting back into business. They re-engage with the company they stepped away from or start a new one altogether. Not always out of passion, but out of discomfort with stillness. The drive to be productive remains strong, but without clear direction, it often defaults back to familiar territory.

The truth is, you don’t just need more time. You need a new vine.

One with intention. One with meaning.

There’s a Japanese concept that speaks directly to this moment: ikigai, which means “a reason for being.” It sits at the intersection of four things:

• What you love
  
• What you’re good at
  
• What the world needs
•  What you can be paid for  

For most of your career, you did what you had to do. Now, you have the chance to ask what you want to do—and not just in business. This includes passions, hobbies, learning, creativity, relationships, and causes you care about.

The challenge? Most owners haven’t taken the time to truly answer that question. The success came from relentless focus and discipline. Now, it’s time for curiosity and exploration.

So—do you know what you want?

If you were to intentionally apply your energy somewhere else, where would it go?

We've created a tool to help.

The WISE Wheel™ is a tool specifically designed to help you clearly see the different areas in your life and determine where to focus your energy and efforts. 

Here are some ideas to spark your thinking:

• Expand a unique part of your business that energizes you
  
• Write the book that’s been on your mind
  
• Take up a new sport or physical challenge
  
• Learn a language, an instrument, or a craft
  
• Deepen your health journey
  
• Be more present—with family, friends, yourself
  
• Serve a cause, mentor others, or travel for meaning
  

You don’t need a perfect answer. Just a willingness to explore.

Looking for more insights? Join our bi-weekly newsletter below to receive exclusive content for business owners.