Family Business Audiocast | Episode 26 | Drew Sheinman | Brand Velocity Group & Brett Johnson | Benevolent Capital

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About Our Guests:

Drew Sheinman is a visionary strategist specializing in helping businesses launch, scale, and monetize their operations. As a 'white space' expert, he explores untapped opportunities and develops innovative ideas to drive growth. With a proven track record leading world-class companies and celebrities, Drew has generated billions of dollars in revenue through groundbreaking concepts, strategic partnerships, and new ventures. He has played a pivotal role in shaping markets for sports and entertainment giants such as Endeavor, MLB, Coca-Cola, and the International Olympic Committee. Drew is a Partner at Brand Velocity Group. Beyond his professional success, Drew values integrity, thoughtfulness, and kindness, and dedicates time to making a positive impact on the world.

Brett Johnson is a leader in the investment and sports industries. As Founder and Partner of Fortuitous Partners, he leads a diversified investment platform focusing on multi-asset developments in opportunity zones anchored by professional sports. His love of soccer is evident in his role as Co-Chairman of the Phoenix Rising Football Club, a professional soccer team based in Arizona. He has also made significant sports investments through Benevolent Capital, a private equity fund he founded in 2005. Benevolent Capital's portfolio includes investments in real estate, manufacturing, and consumer brands, showcasing Brett’s diverse investment interests. Notable investments include ArcherDX, Octagon Partners, TerraCycle, and NYC Office Suites.

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[Transcript]

R. Adam Smith: [Intro] Welcome to the Family Business Audiocast on LinkedIn. I am R. Adam Smith, creator of this audiocast series. As an entrepreneur, investor, founder, investment banker, and board leader the last 25 years, I am fortunate for my many experiences within the family firm industry. 

A warm thank you to our live audience on LinkedIn today – and for those listening in the future. 

A brief comment on why I created this broadcast: private companies are a passion of mine, having grown up in a family of entrepreneurs, and having engaged for two decades in deals, strategic transformations, investments, and boards, with an array of fascinating family enterprises, family firms, and family offices. I founded this series to offer a useful platform for listeners to hear from veterans, academics, and leaders in the vast family firm ecosystem. Whether you are a family business owner, building, running, or advising a family office, or just expanding your family office activities, I hope these conversations are useful and enlightening. And now, it is time to turn our attention [01:00] to our accomplished guest on today’s episode.

And I'm very pleased to host my friends and sports legends Drew Sheinman and Brett Johnson. Great to have you both here today.

Drew Sheinman: Thank you, Adam. Great to be here.

R. Adam Smith: Absolutely. Okay, a few words on you guys.

Drew Sheiman is a founding partner at Brand Velocity Group, boasting over 20 years in leadership across many industries that we all love and know: entertainment, sports, media, and also fashion, and other areas. He's been a pioneer in the media and sports industry for many years, including notable roles in the Breeders Cup, [Talent] Brand Ventures [Group], also head of Business Development for Madison Square Garden and related roles in Coca-Cola, the Baltimore Orioles, and the New York Mets. He is currently working with Eli Manning and other partners at his investment partnership, which we'll talk about today.

Drew's groundbreaking accomplishments have earned him many features, of course, in media outlets such as CNBC, the New York Times, [02:00] and is just a real gentleman and veteran in the industry.

Brett Johnson, also a good friend and veteran in the sports industry, is a versatile entrepreneur and investor with a significant track record in real estate manufacturing and consumer brands. He is the founder of Benevolent Capital and also a Partner at Fortuitous Partners, and he has recently, in the last couple of years, led the Phoenix Rising FC to tremendous growth in Rhode Island. He’s been recognized in his contributions to business and also community service and development and has received the distinguished alumni award from Pepperdine University's Graziadio School of Business and serves on the boards of several other private organizations, including the business school.

All right, let's get started. Let's start with you, Drew. So, BVG’s story is marked by significant differentiation and acceleration in the private equity space. Please elaborate a bit on your unique approach, particularly in integrating the whole range of marketing, business development, culture, into investment strategy. You guys talk about sharing the gains, [03:00] which is really interesting, in terms of sharing 10% of your carried interest profits to the employees of those acquired companies.

So, let's talk about that, how that reflects your approach to corporate culture and employee welfare.

Drew Sheinman: Thank you. So, when we started BVG, we saw an opportunity in the marketplace to differentiate private equity, to make great investments for sure, but more importantly to care about people and corporate culture, and to do the right things by the employees and the companies that we acquire. So, as Adam mentioned, we started our first-ever program called Share the Gains, where we, as the GP, take 10% of our carried interest and we give it back to the employees of the companies that we buy, which is very much aligned with those great family-founded entrepreneurs who want to do well, take some chips off the table, selling to a really good group of entrepreneurs, [04:00] private equity investors, who will not only care about their employees, but also bring significant value from a marketing/business development, and as we talked about, human relations/culture side of the business. And all those things together make us a huge differentiator.

On top of that, as Adam mentioned, Eli Manning is a business partner of ours. We work with many athletes as LPs in the deals of the companies that we acquire. But they're not just fancy, famous names. They’re people who are very involved in the business and help grow the companies that we acquire through organic growth, business development, opening doors, and really helping to support all things around the success of the business over time.

R. Adam Smith: That's great. Maybe a bit more on Brand Velocity Group since it's relatively new and you were sort of in stealth for a couple of years; now you've blown out, almost investing about half a billion dollars in multiple companies.

Just would love to hear more about a BVG for our audience today. What does it stand for? Where do you invest? And what are some of the metrics of the organization?

Drew Sheinman: So, Brand Velocity Group is a private equity firm. [05:00] We're focused on buyouts of companies that have EBITDA typically of $10 million or more and typically $75-100 million in sales. We focus on the consumer sector, broad category of consumer. We own a footwear company. We own a youth sports uniform company. We own the largest direct-to-consumer marketplace for home, grill, and outdoor living products. We own a women's fashion brand. And those things combined, we've been very focused in the sports and sports and entertainment space, as many other private equity firms have. And that led to us buying the youth sports uniform company about a year-and-a-half ago. We have a couple of other deals we'll be announcing over the next two to three months in that space.

And we’re not really interested in the quote/unquote “trophy vanity plays.” While we're passionate about sports, we're really passionate about being good capitalists and making money around great deals. And we pride ourselves on being very entrepreneurial, scrappy, independent, because we're not a fund, so we find deals and we syndicate the [06:00] capital raising around each of those deals.

And to date, as Adam mentioned, five buyouts. We put about $300 million plus capital to work, $400 million of assets went to management, and we’re really just getting started. So, it’s about growth and positioning, but most importantly, our message has really resonated with, again, those family-founded entrepreneurs who really want to take some chips off the table and have a great ride going forward with great partners.

R. Adam Smith: Wonderful, thank you. I think some of these themes are also relevant to Benevolent Capital. Brett and I started looking at deals together over about 15 years ago. And I'd like you, Brett, to share a bit about your background building into Benevolent Capital and also your thoughts on some of your approaches to investing with your family offices and into family businesses. I know you focus on long-term legacy as well.

So, how is your approach to that legacy and long-term [07:00] investment gains and continuity? How does that relate to your investment strategies? And maybe talk about your investment in TerraCycle, which is also related to legacy and sustainable wealth.

Brett Johnson: Yeah, thanks, Adam. Great to be here. Yeah, from my arc with my career, I started Benevolent Capital, which I refer to as my family office with my identical twin brother, which if anyone spends any time kind of looking at the depth and breadth of our portfolio, it now encompasses a diverse group of venture capital private equity and now professional soccer anchored opportunities, including a great deal of real estate specific to my project in Rhode Island. But we also have an investment in Ipswich Town, which is now up in the Premier League. It was two levels below when we bought it three years ago. So back-to-back promotions there.

But in short, it did start actually with TerraCycle. That was my first investment. Tom Szaky, incredible entrepreneur who dropped out of Princeton. He created Upcycling, the ways to divert waste from landfill, and has built [08:00] a global company. He operates in 70+ countries around the world, works with major brands, he’s the key speaker every year at Davos, and a real thought leader in the space. And increasingly, TerraCycle is looking at a new platform. We’re finding ways to get rid of the concept of waste.

So, they've launched with big retailers in the States and overseas where you buy through their loop program; when you buy a consumer good, you have the ability to return the packaging and it gets cleaned and it gets reused again, which, you know, if they can pull it off, it would be incredible. The world needs it, candidly. But in the meantime, I hope I answered your question.

But from my perspective, I'm now kind of full-time entrepreneur running my family office. And I partner up with other family offices and I always put my money in all my own deals. I don't charge management fees. I provide incredible preferred returns to my investors before I take a promote. So, we try to make it as [09:00] investor friendly as possible.

R. Adam Smith: Wonderful. Thank you for that. You both worked extensively with family-owned businesses. Drew, in your roles at BVG and Coca-Cola, and Brett, with your integration of family businesses in Phoenix Rising and other ventures. So, how do you effectively integrate family-owned enterprises into the larger organizational ecosystems and your investment portfolio? And how do you approach that relationship with a family business to create success, whether it be a family office investing with you or investing into a family-owned business?

Drew Sheinman: Sure, so I think that the biggest thing for us is just alignment, which sounds simple and oftentimes can be very complex, but we take great pride in being collaborative with the CEOs and with the companies that we acquire over time. And as we go to acquire a company, we basically go through the proof test and have our new CEOs-to-be talk to [10:00] other CEOs to get a validation that we are very different in our approach  to alignment with the CEO and the management team. And while we bring so much operational expertise and value, we really are supportive. We're not intrusive. We'll let the CEO and the company run their business. We're around the edges to help in any way that we can.

In terms of family offices, we've worked over our last few deals more aggressively with family offices. We think it's a great category of interest because we share many of the same family values in terms of our approach to private equity, our approach to corporate culture, our approach to taking care of, as we think about our portfolio companies as, families. And while we're not an impact fund, as we talked about, with Share the Gains and our give back program to the employees, we think it's very much aligned with the way family offices think and operate and want to be involved, and great partners, on the private equity general partner side, and also great companies as well.

R. Adam Smith: Great. I want to talk about the white spaces, because you guys cover such a broad range of sports. There's so much going on [11:00] with family offices and family businesses building sports empires, especially in the NFL and soccer teams. So, I want to talk a bit about the Football Greats Alliance and Endeavor and your experiences there.

And then also, Brett, founding Benevolent Capital, building leadership at the board level with sports organizations is super key because they are full of a lot of high-profile people. So, I'd love to hear about how you blend that ambitiousness of the sports organizations and how you get involved in governance and leadership.

Drew Sheinman: We're always looking for those white space opportunities where we can add the operational expertise in sports and entertainment. We have an extraordinary advisory team of really very prolific leaders in all aspects of sports. As we describe it, we can bring those types of investors, family office leaders, etc., into the “walled garden” of sports and an area that myself and certainly Eli [12:00] and many others around our sports group have lived there their entire lives. So, we're really excited to see the interest in sports.

That said, we always provide a very objective perspective of the right kind of opportunities, not just from an investment perspective, but also from an activation standpoint. So, the youth sports uniform company I mentioned that we acquired—so for that particular deal, I brought on board as investors, for example, Carmelo Anthony, the Mannings, Tim Tebow, Carly Lloyd, Klay Thompson, Marcus Smart—all great names, but more importantly, great people who are very passionate about elevating youth sports, but also very sophisticated in terms of the types of investments that they do.

So, that's a great representative example of the way we think about business opportunities and the opportunity to have a good return, the opportunity to do well by doing good, and the opportunity to have a great cap table of people who really want to help grow the business.

R. Adam Smith: Exactly, Brett, how about you?

Brett Johnson: My work for the last decade in professional sports is I started with Phoenix Rising [13:00] in that market and then ended up acquiring Ipswich Town three years ago in England and, as I said, got it back up to the Premier League. But my primary focus with sports now, the highlight is Rhode Island, what I'm doing there. Really taking what used to be very fallow land—it was a brownfield site in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, which is right outside of Providence. And working with the energy company, we cleaned up the site. We're 10 months away from completing a stadium, which will be an incredible asset. And then we'll develop all the real estate around it.

Leading with professional soccer, we've got a men's team. We're going to launch a professional women's team, which I'm very excited about. And then I'm just bullish on what I call “sports as an asset class,” having massive social and economic impact and candidly democratizing the ability for family offices to get into sports without, you know, trying to buy in at, I don't know, the Warriors at $7 billion, where I think it's had a pretty good run, if you will. I think there's a lot of emerging opportunities which are [14:00] very attractive.

R. Adam Smith: Right. A bit more on that balance between creating wealth and thinking about the, let's say, the continuity or the consistency of these entrepreneur- and family-owned businesses.

So, with Fortuitous and considering that you have background in both operations and private equity, Brett, maybe share a bit on how you approached the Tidewater Landing deal, which is in a significant development of Rhode Island. Maybe share a bit on that. And how did you create that synergy between the investment approach and the community approach for the local town?

Brett Johnson: Specific to Rhode Island, they lost their storied Triple-A baseball team, the Pawtucket Red Sox—picked up and moved to Worcester, Mass. And so, I was very quick to buy the rights to professional soccer through the United Soccer League. But my primary focus with the asset of professional soccer is to try to find a way that we could be catalytic in terms of transforming the region. The social and economic impact of the right sports franchise and the right investment—I mean, the stadium is a $140 million stadium for a minor league [15:00] in a small state. It's quite a substantial project.

And then, when you add on all the real estate around it, the overall jobs that you create is substantial and the economic impact you make is extraordinary. So, I really feel very proud about what we're doing. And the family offices that we've been able to aggregate that are part of the ownership group, increasingly family offices in the last 10 years I've been in this space—the shift both from high-net-worth family offices but also institutional that's coming into this asset class—has been fantastic and I still think we're really in the early days of that.

R. Adam Smith: I agree. I think we're in the third inning there, for a baseball analogy. Brett, thank you for that.

Drew, what do you think? How are you approaching the family offices investing from the LP perspective versus the GP or board or co-investment partner perspective? Would love to hear a bit about that and also maybe just a bit of dichotomy and comparing, let's say, the Endeavor corporate venture model versus the independent investment model. That would be interesting as well.

Drew Sheinman: [16:00] Yes, so very similar to Brett's approach in terms of how family offices can be a part of the opportunity to identify and participate either as investors or actually as active operational expertise that they can also bring to the table, which is I think why the family office category is so appealing to us.

So, that's on the investment side. Also from deal sourcing, we've had success in finding great opportunities, again, because we're so founder friendly and many of those family offices built their wealth on being successful entrepreneurs. We also take great pride, as I said earlier, in being an entrepreneur. So that alignment, I think, is really powerful.

In terms of answering your question, Adam, on the contrast. So, as an independent sponsor, a fundless sponsor, we go out and find the deals, we source the capital, we syndicate deal by deal, [17:00] and we really like that flexibility as opposed to being a fund and being forced to put money to work because it gives us that flexibility, the nimbleness, and again we're in control of our own destiny versus being a fund.

At some point down the road, we may decide to raise a fund but not at this stage. We really like that flexibility; it supports our plan and our mission very well. In terms of Endeavor, Endeavor's focus has really been more—besides the Endeavor M&A side of the world—in terms of their business ventures, it's been more early-stage ventures. And that's when I brought Eli Manning on board as a partner in BVG. It’s part of an overall strategy to get more athletes to see the value in private equity versus venture.

I like to joke saying most athletes would like to create the next three unicorns because one's not enough. So, the value in an athlete now is seeing private equity or buying companies that are making real money, so it's not a startup, and obviously the odds are very different in terms of success. And that opportunity is very appreciated by the athletes, [18:00] by the athletes’ financial support team, etc. And it's really, I think, a great opportunity. We've had success up to date, but we'll continue to grow further going forward.

R. Adam Smith: Definitely. Brett, over to Phoenix Rising FC, it's been significant growth under your leadership, sellout matches, community engagement. I see many family businesses in Arizona have supported the team.

Just a little bit more on the family-owned approach to build the club ecosystem within a community. It's so interesting and I'd like to hear about how you think that type of approach to making money while also building community is going to be increasingly relevant in today's sports world, including the women's sports area as well.

Brett Johnson: Yeah, Phoenix is an incredible market. It had basically every sport you can imagine, every professional sport plus strong collegiate market, but really lacked proper professional football, meaning soccer. So, my partners and I launched the club 10 years ago. Initially, there were some challenges just trying to get the right venue. We now have a great stadium [19:00] in partnership with the city of Phoenix near the Sky Harbor Airport.

But early days, trying in a very crowded sports market, we really did need to kind of tap into families, local entrepreneurs, families that have businesses that wouldn't be able to sponsor with the NFL team or the NBA, etc. So, really trying to find an option that was affordable for them to amplify their brands, etc.

The club has done very well. We won the championship last November. Didier Drogba of Chelsea and Ivory Coast fame finished up his career with us. And at some point, the ownership group, I’m confident, is going to look at also launching a women's team as well. I’m very proud of it. It kind of was the genesis for everything I do with the beautiful game.

So, I've got a weak spot for Phoenix Rising because that set in motion so much else of what I get to do now.

R. Adam Smith: That's great. I mean, you've both been involved in significant [20:00] marketing engagement efforts in different industries. Brett, at Rhode Island FC and also at Phoenix Rising FC, and then Drew, with the New York Mets, Madison Square Garden, and now your sports teams.

I think it'd be great to hear maybe an example of an initiative that really is driving long-term success in one of your businesses. And maybe connect that to, you know, where you see the sports industry going in general.

Drew, maybe one of your case studies each would be great.

Drew Sheinman: I think the case study I just mentioned about the youth sports uniform company and bringing the right type of ambassadors/investors to the table. I think it's a great example of the power of the right type of talent being involved in business and doing it for the right reasons, and one of the many reasons I so appreciate what Brett is doing, because, again, he's very much aligned with our approach of doing well by doing good.

So how do you do that and how do you do it in a way that's meaningful and do it in a way that's impactful and do it in a way that is scalable in a way that really is worth the time and effort and the investment and particularly the [21:00] return on the other side. So, we didn't just look at it as a uniform company but looked at it as the broad category of youth sports. And who doesn't believe in the value of helping kids live a better life and all the great learnings and teachings and experiences being involved in youth sports? And then, if you're a family member, I'm sure that many of them on this call who have kids, who doesn't appreciate, in a positive way, I'll say, how much money we all spend on our kids, right?

So, in going out and raising the capital for that great category, recession-proof for sure, but also great growth opportunity, not just from a return perspective, but from a return on emotion and power to really make the world a better place and using youth sports as a great vehicle to do that.

R. Adam Smith: I love that analogy. Brett, maybe just a bit more. How do you think that the family office world  will be building team brands? Like if you look at, you know, Stephen Ross [22:00]and some other players and like what the LeBron generation is doing, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the next generation of brand building and some of these big, huge families, not just the corporates.

What are you seeing next in the market in the next five years?

Brett Johnson: I think, again, the sea change in the decade that I've been involved in this space, the amount of family offices now that want to be in sports as an asset class. From my vantage point, I'm positively obsessed with sustainability, meaning that the venture has to be profitable. And that's why real estate becomes such an important dynamic with Rhode Island, having the real estate development rights.

But I think Drew's approach is correct in the terms of really looking at all the different ways to play sports, you know, with his youth apparel business in the sports industry. As I look at it, I want to have a [23:00] platform for professional sports, I want to look at the supporting technology around it. Oura Ring is one of our investments that tracks your sleep and recovery. I absolutely love that product. I think there are just so many fascinating ways to invest in complementary businesses.

And you mentioned LeBron and some of these individuals. I mean, they're woken up to the fact that it's not about an endorsement per se, it's about getting equity in the companies and really having meaningful stake in terms of driving real value in product or other opportunities, teams even. I mean, LeBron's in Liverpool and Fenway Group, etc. So, they're all amplifying their brand and their power and not just their balance sheet.

R. Adam Smith: So, you're both involved in innovative investment strategies across not just value creation, but also the community, also the governance side with the boards. I think it's a real testament to being able to bring best practices from private equity into independent investment platforms.

So, in my opinion, that's something to really take note of that those best practices are not limited to the large-scale organizations. [24:00] For example, at KKR we see some significant emphasis on ESOPs with their team and their leadership and I think that there's important lessons to be learned there.

I'd like to talk a bit more about that employee and equity empowerment with you, Drew. Just talk a bit more about the Share the Gains program using the athletes as strategic investors and really creating a greater deep incentivization and connection to the firm and the legacy of the company.

It'd be great to talk more about that briefly.

Drew Sheinman: Share the Gains is just one example of what we do to support those employees. And the impact of that is very profound. As an example, our company, Barbecue Guys, they're based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and many of you may know, sadly Baton Rouge in Louisiana has suffered from many hurricanes. So, the last hurricane that we had, many of the people were dislocated. So, again, from the GP, not LPs, out of the pockets of the people that run Brand Velocity Group, we all sent all the employees gift cards and the response [25:00] we got just because it was totally unexpected was just really powerful.

But it's not done for any other reason other than it's authentic and we really wanted to help those people in any way that we can. Some of the other things we do is we have personal business coaching for the CEOs, for their management team, and now the other people involved. And I should mention Share the Gains is not for the top executives because they get management incentive equity. It's really for the people on the ground.

And again, with Barbecue Guys as an example, when we first announced that we went and did financial literacy education for the team because they will stand to have transformational wealth with their company once we sell the company. And to have that impact and understanding is very profound. And that's something that's really important to us and as we've got athletes on board, anybody who invested in any of our companies, [26:00] they understand that 10% of our GP and other investors can also come along and support Share the Gains. It wasn't a requirement; it was an option.

And the last deal we did, we had probably about 40% of our LPs commit to Share the Gains, and that allocation was very powerful. And we see that continuing to grow going forward, which, again, is why family office community is so important to us because we want that alignment with our LPs. We wanted to have the people who also support what we're doing—not just good investments but also doing the best we can to make capitalism work in the most positive way for everyone involved.

R. Adam Smith: We've seen a powerful development of the B Corp, of course, as a peripheral and similar structure to share community gains and greater impact in the community in terms of a for-profit organization.

Brett, going beyond community, I think it's super important as wealth is built in the sports world and with these celebrities—it can be from the Kardashians and the media side and Jay Sammons, [27:00] it can be over to Will Smith, it can be over to LeBron, even Tony Robbins, it can be Marc Lasry. It depends who it is, but there's lots of investments being made with interesting platforms from Endeavor to Lion Tree, Allen & Company, your platforms, Ares. It's super varied, super complex.

I'd like to talk a bit about philanthropy, and where some of this wealth can go, and how to incorporate philanthropy into the wealth generation and to the sports investments. Brett, maybe you can share your views on that and draw some analogies to your experience in Rhode Island. And also, Drew, continue on that Share the Gains in terms of actual philanthropy.

Brett Johnson: I think all these sports assets; I mean, Ipswich is a 150-year-old club that has a substantial foundation that's very ingrained into the community, making sure to find ways to positively impact on so many different levels and so many different demographics around the club. And I think you could probably see some form of that with almost every sports franchise in the world.

[28:00] And certainly, as Rhode Island is, you know, six months old now in terms of how long we've been playing, but we've established a foundation and we'll start to make sure that we figure out ways to really give back to the community, provide access to those that wouldn't have opportunities both to come to games, but also to participate in youth sports and a whole host of other things that really make you a valuable and cherished sort of resource in the community.

R. Adam Smith: Drew, where do you see philanthropy going in general in sports in terms of nonprofits or two-tiered businesses as these grants get built? Let's say you can see these types of activities in soccer and tennis and so on. It'd be interesting to hear your thoughts on where that's going to go.

Drew Sheinman: A lot of what Brett's talked about. I don't think there's any better representative of what community means than sports on a professional level, on a recreational level. So, I think philanthropy has got to be [29:00] part of the overall platform, proposition, connectivity, that teams and organizations have in their communities. And I think that will continue to grow.

And I also think there's greater enlightenment because of leaders, like the ones we're talking about here, who are doing things the right way. And that sensitivity, that level of commitment that's required if you want to be successful in sports today, I think philanthropy is really critical. And you can't just generalize; it means different things in different communities. But I think it is an integral part of success, and more and more team owners are starting to understand that, more of the investors are starting to understand that. And that's great alignment and I think that bodes very well for the future and things that are really important for making this whole community and category improved.

R. Adam Smith: Thank you for that.

Okay, we'll wrap up soon. Brett, maybe share your views on maybe one of your favorite athletes and [30:00] what is impressive to you about that athlete in terms of their code of living or their approach to life or, what's inspiring to you.

Brett Johnson: I mentioned him earlier; Didier Drogba joined our ownership group in Phoenix and finished his career with us. And for the uninitiated, he's considered one of the greatest players from the continent of Africa, he’s considered Chelsea's greatest player. But he single-handedly stopped a civil war in the Ivory Coast. And I mean, on and off the pitch, he's just an extraordinary human being.

And one anecdote, he was about 40 years old when he came to play with us, and he was still the first player to show up and he was the last player to leave every single day. He had God-given talent that made him just extraordinary. But it’s just a great lesson for everyone just in terms of the work ethic that he and so many of these incredible athletes approach towards their craft.

Drew Sheinman: I guess in response to your question, Adam, it's hard to compare with that, but it is personal. I would say with a [31:00] high level of bias, but a high level of authenticity, Eli Manning was one of my favorite athletes. He won two Super Bowl Championships with my favorite team, the New York Giants. But now having him as a partner and a good friend, he's an extraordinary human being and the kinds of things that he does on a philanthropic level without looking for attention or visibility or acknowledgment or positive media. He just does it because it's who he is.

And also, the opportunity for us to have worked not just with Eli, but with the Manning family. They just do things the right way and they're just such kind people and really always thinking about the people that they're associated with and how they can add value to [not just] the things they’re involved in, but how they can add value in society. But most importantly, the word “kind” is definitely a great definition of who they are and how they operate, besides their football success, just as great people.

So, very fortunate to have Eli as a partner and the value add he brings [32:00] to our business, but also as a great human being and a great representative of how to do things the right way.

R. Adam Smith: Absolutely, it's a great selection and a wonderful family. I saw a quote that he said once, which is a lovely short quote saying that he “goes through life with a smile because I know things can be worse than they are.” He's got a great disposition and I'm so happy for you to be able to work with him.

So, I want to thank today our Family Business Audiocast attendees and our discussions about entrepreneurship, family-owned businesses, collaborating with family offices, involving them in governance, legacy, building those legacies, and wealth creation together with our esteemed guests, Brett Johnson and Drew Sheinman.

You can find them on LinkedIn, also Brett at Fortuitous Partners, and also Drew at BVP. Thank you so much for today. Brett and Drew, great to have you.

Brett Johnson: Yeah, thank you so much, and thank you to all who took time to listen. Thank you.

Drew Sheinman: Thank you so much.

R. Adam Smith: This is R. Adam Smith signing off. Stay tuned [33:00] for the next episode of the Family Business Audiocast on LinkedIn.

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Explore the strategic intricacies of family business success with the RAS Family Business Audiocast. Join R. Adam Smith as he delves into exclusive discussions with global leaders shaping the future of private wealth and enterprise. Each episode offers a rare glimpse into the core decisions driving prosperity in high-stakes markets. Tune in to gain expert insights and innovative strategies that empower family businesses to thrive across generations.

Available On : Amazon Music, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, iHeart, YouTube

Disclaimer:
Opinions presented are personal and do not represent the positions of speakers’, sponsors’, or guests’ organizations.

Family Business Audiocast™