Welcome to this week's Intangible Balance Sheet Episode with Jeremy Pryor. Jeremy shares more about his journey of integrating family, faith, and business by consciously building a multi-generational family. We discusses the impact of mentors and the value of direct investment in the Christian community, the significance of family meals and economic engines which foster family unity.
Takeaways
Chapters
00:00
The Importance of Family and First Principles
05:44
The Influence of Mentors and Role Models
16:59
The Pivotal Moment of Shifting Perspectives on Family
21:49
Overcoming Roadblocks and Building a Multi-Generational Family
25:51
Creating a Legacy for Future Generations
31:44
The Importance of Family Values and Rhythms
34:30
Conclusion and Resources
Please check out and subscribe to my Youtube Channel and Newsletter!
JOSH KLOOZ, CFP®, MBA
WEALTH ADVISOR
Phone 281.719.0036
Text 281.699.8691
Fax 281.719.0156
jklooz@carsonwealth.com
1780 Hughes Landing | Suite 570
The Woodlands, TX 77380
Music by bensound.com
Welcome to this week's Intangible Balance Sheet Episode with Jeremy Pryor. Jeremy shares more about his journey of integrating family, faith, and business by consciously building a multi-generational family. We discusses the impact of mentors and the value of direct investment in the Christian community, the significance of family meals and economic engines which foster family unity.
Takeaways
Chapters
00:00
The Importance of Family and First Principles
05:44
The Influence of Mentors and Role Models
16:59
The Pivotal Moment of Shifting Perspectives on Family
21:49
Overcoming Roadblocks and Building a Multi-Generational Family
25:51
Creating a Legacy for Future Generations
31:44
The Importance of Family Values and Rhythms
34:30
Conclusion and Resources
Please check out and subscribe to my Youtube Channel and Newsletter!
JOSH KLOOZ, CFP®, MBA
WEALTH ADVISOR
Phone 281.719.0036
Text 281.699.8691
Fax 281.719.0156
jklooz@carsonwealth.com
1780 Hughes Landing | Suite 570
The Woodlands, TX 77380
Music by bensound.com
Josh Klooz (03:29.523)
Hello and welcome in again to the Wisdom and Wealth Podcast. This is Josh Klooz and today is another of our Intangible Balance Sheet Series. I'm really excited to introduce to you today Jeremy Pryor. We've never actually formally met before, but I followed Jeremy's work via social media and there's just been a lot of overlap. And I'm really excited to learn more about Jeremy's story and glean from his wisdom. So Jeremy, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for joining us.
Jeremy Pryor (03:59.638)
Yeah, thanks Josh for having me.
Josh Klooz (04:02.067)
So if you don't mind, I'll give just a brief intro to listeners that maybe knew Jeremy, and then I'd love to have you just briefly introduce yourself to the audience. But we call these episodes the intangible balance sheet because I believe that the best things in life typically can't be counted, and the things that we want most to pass on are our first principles and certain beliefs that have grounded us and have anchored our lives.
and have served us well. And so those first principles typically come to life through stories. And so that's kind of the heartbeat of the podcast and what we hope to pass on to future generations, whether it be our family or whether it even be in our community. So with that introduction, Jeremy, would you mind introducing yourself just briefly and then we'll dive into the formal discussion?
Jeremy Pryor (04:55.466)
Absolutely, yeah. So my name's Jeremy Pryor, grew up in the Seattle area, met my wife in Jerusalem, and we ended up settling in the Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky area, we have five kids. Two of my oldest are married, we have our first grandbaby, they just came. So we've primarily done entrepreneurial endeavors, so we've started a number of different businesses, have a nonprofit as well that spent a lot of time doing a lot of real estate investing these days, so.
And a lot of, probably the thing for us that's a little unique is just constantly trying to figure out how to integrate our family into our faith and our business life. And so that's been a constant thing to try to understand how to do, how to do it. Well, my parents live with us and they moved from Seattle out here. And so, so yeah, we're a big multi-generational family trying to figure out how to, you know, how to, how to do, do good. And, and also.
to work together.
Josh Klooz (05:56.847)
Thank you so much for that introduction. It strikes me as often, I think, family businesses get a bad rap in that people are trying to do everything that they can to not do business with family when in reality, it sounds like you're going against this dream. So I can't wait to hear a little bit more about that as we dive in. Jeremy, one of the ways that I find that unlocks some of those stories that are multi-generational is just starting out with our guests saying,
come to you by way of your grandparents or that stick out to you that are that are kind of family based that are on your intangible balance sheet.
Jeremy Pryor (06:36.042)
Yeah. Um, one of them that I would say, um, more my, my dad, um, so he was, he was in the ministry in the Seattle area and, um, he was leading a ministry for older, um, mostly it was a very large mega church and they were, um, he was doing like a, um, kind of a science school class with, uh, mostly, uh, people that are like in their sixties and seventies.
And so he got to the place where he was really sort of teaching through the life of Abraham. And he noticed that a lot of the different folks in his class were, you know, getting to retirement age and heading South, you know, and see how a lot of people go to Arizona. And so a lot of, a lot of those kinds of things, Florida places like that. And just leaving their family and, and have done, I see the typical American thing, which is like, let's make our kids as independent as possible. And then when we're older,
Um, we'll, we'll spend, you know, money on comfort. And, and so my dad was working through this and, um, and really got inspired, um, by the legacy of Abraham, which is really, was the turning point in my story too, when it comes to family and business and understanding these things was just, uh, a season of studying, um, him as a father. And so he, in his kind of the last class, the last time he, he taught on Abraham, he said, so we're gonna.
apply this and we're selling our house and we're moving to Kentucky to be with our grandkids. And I think it really shocked a lot of people in his class. They're like, Whoa. And so this was, um, at least I think 15 years ago now that they moved to this area. Um, and so my dad, who, you know, was, he was a Colonel in the army. He was a, he had a doctorate. He came in, um, and one of my tiny little businesses that we had started and, and just was a buyer, um, for me. Um, and I got to work with both.
my dad who was the buyer for the, for the, it's an e-commerce business that we started back in 2003. And my father-in-law who was the bookkeeper. So my dad spent the money and my father-in-law counted the money. And so he was a very much a family business and we ended up selling that, that business about four years later, but it was one of the sweetest seasons of my life to get to just get to spend that time, that quality time with my dad. And
Jeremy Pryor (08:58.446)
he's been here ever since as well. So we've got lots of things we get to do together. But I think it was, it really started with that decision to be inspired by a multi-generational father like Abraham and saying, okay, that's something that doesn't just exist in the primitive past, but it's something that somebody could choose to do today.
Josh Klooz (09:15.015)
That is such a neat story. So was your dad a chaplain in the army, or was he just a lay pastor at one of the churches that you were at? Okay.
Jeremy Pryor (09:21.901)
Yes.
Jeremy Pryor (09:26.142)
Yeah, he was, he was both. He was full-time pastor at a church, but he was also a chaplain. He was a state chaplain for the national guard army national guard in Washington. Um, and then he had started an active duty and then became a, um, a, uh, national guard chaplain.
Josh Klooz (09:45.486)
So as you grow up, what were some of the pivotal moments in kind of shaping your thinking and even what you're interested in? I'm always curious to see what guess answers to that question will be.
Jeremy Pryor (09:57.95)
Yeah. Well, I think, you know, one of the biggest legacies that my parents, um, really provided for us was we, we grew up in a, uh, they, they grew up in the Midwest. Um, but I think they, my dad made a decision to really, um, want, he wanted to follow a much more spiritual path and he felt like a calling from God. And it felt like if we stayed in the places he grew up, um, we would, uh, just end up with a very more materialistic, I guess, uh,
And so they left where they were comfortable and moved out to the Seattle area and really in that transition dove fully into like, how do we do what's most meaningful? And you know, for us that was definitely you know, encapsulated in our Christian community. And so just that was a huge part of my upbringing was my parents really demonstrated to me the
the value of doing what's most meaningful. And one of the things that my parents, I think did an awesome job of modeling was, they love working together. So both my mom and dad would find ways to partner with each other. And then after we grew up and they were, they were kind of in the empty nest season.
they began to actually work side by side in a ministry for a number of years. And so, um, and to this day, you know, they're, they really do see that as a partnership that, that really crosses lots of, lots of places in their life. You can see that as, as they're getting older, um, how rich that is to be able to have that kind of a relationship. So I think, I think that they really modeled what a very integrated marriage looks like as well.
Josh Klooz (11:44.123)
So the other portion that I'm always curious about with different guests is what I call kind of the barbershop mentors. And maybe that's a little bit too flippant, but I think you're mentored by your community to a certain degree, and you tend to seek out certain people as you're growing up. Does anybody stand out to you or are there any people that stand out to you that have influenced you, whether it be intellectually, spiritually, and or professionally even?
that you can think of growing up.
Jeremy Pryor (12:14.346)
Yeah, there's two that kind of come to mind. One was someone who directly mentored me. So one of the things that my parents saw me just really drifting as I was kind of moving from junior high into high school and they spent a lot of time just praying and thinking and how is Jeremy going to really live into
his real purpose and not just get kind of caught up in so much of the shallow things that were happening, you know, that typically happen when you're at that age and stage. And so I met this guy named Ed Kelly, who was a, he was a business guy working downtown Seattle and gave it up to be a youth pastor and made a commitment to like, to spend time with me every day. I'm every week for six months. And
that completely changed the course of my life. So I think I have a huge amount of interest in like just that kind of direct investment, you know, in the Christian community, call it discipleship. It's where somebody really walks you through what it means to pursue God. So that was, that was a big mentor. And then I would say, you know, one of the first investors we ever had in a business, he, um, he bought half of our first company.
Um, called another world enterprises. It was an e-commerce business. And, um, he would, we would have these three hour monthly board meetings. And one of the things that was really surprising to me was so he had three sons, they had, they own multiple businesses. And so we would sit in these board meetings and oftentimes, um, he would. Sort of pause in the middle of the meeting, um, whatever we were talking about and then turn to his sons and just kind of instruct them. And this would go on sometimes for 10 or 15 minutes in the middle of a board meeting. Um,
Josh Klooz (13:59.483)
Hmm.
Jeremy Pryor (14:03.29)
And, you know, some, I remember one day I was just like listening to him talk to his sons and he was talking to all of us, but he was really directing, you know, like, let's really get into the principles behind what, what we're working through here in this business. And I realized in that moment, I was like, kind of, he's spending more time with his sons in their thirties than most men spend with their kids when they're in their house. And, um, I was in my.
Josh Klooz (14:25.701)
Hmm.
Jeremy Pryor (14:27.41)
late twenties and I kind of made a commitment. I remember during one of those meetings, I'm like, I want to live the kind of lifestyle that, where that's an option for my kids and I don't want to force them to partner with me, but, but a lot of times you can pursue a career path or, you know, businesses that will make that really like a real, a real option. And, and some, a lot of pathways, I would say the majority of pathways that people pursue kind of in our economic work culture makes that almost impossible as an option.
Josh Klooz (14:56.365)
Hmm.
Jeremy Pryor (14:56.734)
But I just saw what this guy was doing. And I was like, that's a really cool thing. So I was very impacted by that model. And I would say started making decisions that kind of moved our family in that direction from that point forward. And so that was really influential on me.
Josh Klooz (15:17.287)
And so you have that kind of, I don't want to call it a light bulb moment or an aha moment.
Josh Klooz (15:28.155)
How long did it take before you finally started putting the scaffolding on of what that looked like for your own family? And hey, this is how I can apply what I've seen here, the parts that I like of it to the purpose of the next generation.
Jeremy Pryor (15:34.975)
Yeah.
Jeremy Pryor (15:44.894)
Yeah. So we, yeah, from that, I just made a lot of decisions that I was where I was trying to like, uh, not just in that direction. So some businesses that we started really were centered on specializations that if your kids weren't really wanting to engage in that, like probably the largest business we ever started was a video production studio that really involved a lot of artists and it was very creative. Um, but
you know, so it would really appeal to your kids if, if they were really into that. Um, but if you pour your whole life into one business where there's a lot of specialization, then if you have five kids, then maybe one or two, your kids would be interested, but then, you know, maybe the rest won't want. So I would say that the decisions that we made were, um, to try to create, you know, something that like is a micro version of a family office, right? Where
what you start to do is say, okay, we have these businesses, we have kind of a portfolio of businesses, but let's also like think about what are things we could be investing in that, that would provide a real variety of opportunities so that different skill sets in the family could come around. And so like when we started to, to work on, uh, developing more of a real estate portfolio, um, you know, we intentionally kind of thought that through from a family perspective. So, um, my daughter, uh, oldest daughter does the property management. My son is kind of on the
rehab side, my wife does the, you know, more of the books and, um, the accounting and I do a lot of the, you know, deal finding. Um, so we just are constantly trying to think about, okay, what, what are, what are the variety of roles and what are our kids really good at? What do they enjoy? And let's just kind of move our, um, move closer into a direction that, that would appeal to them. So we can, we can work together. Um, so a lot of this is to kind of rooted in the idea that should our most
foundational identities come from our family or from our work. And I think, you know, we live in a culture that has decided that work identities are preeminent. And that's a decision we made. And that's an unusual decision historically. Most times in history, people, their grounding of their identity actually came from their family. And so, and if people want to create a family like that, it's actually really difficult because you know, you tend to make a lot of your life decisions centered around your work.
Josh Klooz (17:43.079)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Pryor (18:08.906)
And so this subtly causes people to become totally centered on their work identity and it's been very hard on the family. And a lot of times people, as they get kind of towards the end of their life, they, they see this disconnected. They don't understand where it came from and they don't realize that they, they made a decision, you know, decades earlier that really, I think, um, put them on that path, but we're not clear about what it looks like to go down a different path. What does it look like for us to actually live out of our family identities?
you know, out of what it means to be a father or a mother, a son or daughter, a brother or a sister. And to us, these are much deeper identities. They're much more long lasting and they're more valuable and important. Now we still need to work and we still want to be really successful at work. We want to create things in valid that are really very valuable. But we want to do that from the position of a settled family identity, as opposed to striving in our work to, to create an identity so that we can feel good about ourselves. And so I think that
Josh Klooz (18:39.217)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Pryor (19:07.766)
that's been a lot of that has started with trying to root those family identities very deeply. Um, and so when we go to work, we, we are, we're still fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters in the workplace. Um, and to provide that kind of a, a place where that those identities are honored. Um, and you know, that's, that's a, can be challenging, but that that's required, you know, as to really think through a lot of things from, you know, foundational principles up.
Josh Klooz (19:36.503)
Yeah, a lot of communication, I would imagine. I mean, it's one of those things that I was explaining to my own kids too, of like, you know, I want, they're younger, but I was like, hey, I would love for you guys to be business partners at some point in life, because who knows you like each other? You know, who understands how to serve you quite like each other? And, you know, even at a younger age, they were starting to kind of grasp the thought process. Before we get too much further down the road here,
Jeremy Pryor (19:51.062)
Yeah, that's right.
Josh Klooz (20:05.123)
I do want to make sure, are there any events in your life, Jeremy, that you look back on as kind of pivotal and you look back on today and say, hey, had it not been for this nudge or this particular event, you know, I wonder where we would have been without that. Or you can't imagine getting to where you are today without that type of a catalyst. Is there anything like that in your family history?
Jeremy Pryor (20:30.294)
Yeah, I mean, there's definitely big milestones that events that have happened that really, when I look back, I do see, man, that was a definite, definite fork in the road. Um, one of the most dramatic ones for me, um, was very simple. When I was 23, I was doing a semester abroad in Jerusalem. And, um, this is the same semester I met my wife and I was there to study Hebrew. I was super into, um, just old Testament studies. Um, I was, you know, I was, I was, um,
kind of far down a degree path there and doing, um, some Hebrew studies in Israel. And I wasn't, you know, I was there for that reason, but I kept noticing this thing that kept kind of striking me, which was just children and men, like together, like from, I remember the, the international flight all the way to just spending time, I would walk the streets of the old city or different parts of the, of the city and coming from the West coast as I did.
this was very strange site and I was very puzzled like having these guys realized how annoying children are. Um, I, I wasn't, I wasn't a kid person. I wasn't excited, um, to have kids necessarily, but, um, but here I was in a culture where you could tell these, it was really a masculine thing to want to have a large family and really spend time with children. And I was like, that's very strange. Um, and it really culminated one day I was sitting on a
like a bench and I watched a group of three or four dads walk past all of them pushing strollers with all these little kids in tow and I was like man I've never seen anything like that before I've seen mommy brigades you know blast pass but I've never seen a daddy brigade and that's when I began to really ask a lot of questions about you know kind of culturally where this came from this value of particularly fathers and men and children and so the deeper I got into asking those questions
what I discovered was that they believe something about family that I had, I had never even considered, which was a family and it's very nature is multi-generational. And, um, they, they were, they saw that this idea of family building as primarily, you know, they knew their grandfather, they, they knew their genealogy. They were very, uh, aware of their multi-generational family heritage and the history of their, their multi-generational family. Um, and you know, I, I didn't,
Jeremy Pryor (22:49.778)
I really wasn't that familiar with mine. You ask most people in our culture, they can't, they're gonna have a really hard time naming their great grandparents because they're not really that relevant to the way we live life. But there are cultures that have a deep memory of where their family came from. And I think this actually shapes how they see children, how they see grandchildren, that they see them as, not just like, am I a kid person? Do I like playing with babies or something?
Josh Klooz (23:00.208)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Pryor (23:19.154)
They really see this as the one of the most meaningful parts of their whole lives. They look at that child and they see generations in their eyes and they're motivated and excited by that. And when I was asking some of these Jewish fathers where this value came from, they just, the university would say Abraham. You know, they, and that's when I did a deep dive and I was there to study the Old Testament. So that's a great place to go.
Josh Klooz (23:28.364)
Mm-hmm.
Jeremy Pryor (23:47.654)
I always thought that Abraham's obsession with multigenerational family, I just thought that was a primitive part of his culture and that we've sort of, you know, we don't have that part of art. He was, you know, into trading camels, you know, we're not into training camels, you know, he was into multigenerational family. We're not into multigenerational family, but here I was in a modern city with men, fathers who were thinking like Abraham did when it came to family. And then I was looking at just the devastation of family, um, in
in the West. And I was, I was before, you know, before and after this trip, I, I was doing youth ministry in the Seattle area and man, I just, I, to me, this is where I, I got very deeply disillusioned when it came to family. I just, there was so much brokenness, but you know, I, I realized that I think, I think that some of that brokenness, if not the root of it is really our ideas about family are so different. So I would kind of, yeah, point back to this moment of just seeing these fathers pushing strollers and
me just asking a really weird question that, you know, is what is a family? Um, um, is it, it is a family in an essence of multi-generational team or, or is it just a collection of individuals where we, uh, spring off into our individual lives? And that's what I assumed it was given just the kind of culture I grew up in. And so I decided, um, when I started a family after, um, a few years into, into having a family and starting to have children that I, I wanted to actually adopt,
the sort of Abrahamic vision of family and it completely changed everything for me like I the way I saw everything the way I saw Business the way I saw integration The way, you know, we lived our faith my marriage Everything was altered dramatically by those principles So that was a huge fork in the road for me
Josh Klooz (25:37.799)
So you see this kind of vision as the family being the primary enterprise. And I'm a little bit cautious to ask this question. What were some of the early roadblocks to moving past that in your opinion? Like you're like, nah, that was a nice thought exercise, but...
tangibly, you know, it's not worth pursuing. Were there any detractors or any inhibitors that you found most harmful to kind of the vision that you were getting at the time?
Jeremy Pryor (26:20.342)
In terms of, yeah, things that made it difficult for me to follow this vision, yeah, I mean, it felt like extremely counter-cultural. You know, an example is that if you create a rhythm for your family, here are like four or five things we do as a family every week. Culturally, there's not really an understanding that that's something that...
Josh Klooz (26:23.679)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jeremy Pryor (26:45.982)
we're all going to build around, you know, it's difficult to go to a coach of a, of a sports team that your kids are in and say, Oh, we can't practice that night. We have a family thing. They're like, what? Like that's not an excuse. Right. And so what tends to happen is the coach, the teacher, the pastor, everyone has first dibs on your children's time and the father, the mother, we're, we, we get whatever is left over. And what it means to be a really good father and mother is to
really get our kids involved in as many of those things as possible. And so, and so there are no scraps left over. Like we're, we're managing a very tiny sliver of time. Um, so we, we just inverted that. Like we said, okay, we're going to start with, here's our family's rhythm. These are the things that we're going to do as a family. And there, there are a lot of other blocks of time that are available outside of that, that our kids could, could do sports or do other things, but it has to fit within some of these, these blocks.
And that certainly made it difficult for our kids to become professional athletes or something. I don't think any of them would have become professional athletes, but sometimes I talked to fathers about this and they're like, well, my eight year old soccer career could suffer. You know, I'm like, okay, well, so, you know, so that, I would say that, that was one of them is we just had to make it really, and we did it when our kids are fairly young. So they got kind of used to it. And then when they got into high school and stuff, they, they were, they were
Josh Klooz (27:57.13)
Uh, yeah.
Jeremy Pryor (28:11.19)
biggest believers in it. They were not interested in sacrificing the things that we were doing as a family for other opportunities. And there were, like I said, a lot of things that our kids pursued with the free time they did have from our rhythms, but we did feel free to craft an actual family rhythm and say, yeah, this is who we are and this is what's important to us.
Josh Klooz (28:36.995)
Yeah, it's neat to hear this from you because I'm one of these odd people that, you know, in an Excel spreadsheet I once figured out that if I was incredibly fortunate, I think somewhere in my 90s I might be able to help one of my great grandchildren buy a business if they decided to do, accelerate things just a little bit, you know. I actually think that would be fun, you know, just the process of walking through that. But Jeremy, I want you to think, you know...
even further than that, like say four generations from now. Are there any other events in your life, whether it be now or even dreams you have in the future that you think are gonna be most instructive for them and why?
Jeremy Pryor (29:22.754)
Well, one of the things I guess I learned was that, one of the things that's really difficult is that we all get one chance at creating a multi-generational family, right? And so it is difficult for us to run those experiments to say what does last three, four, or five generations? And so I think the only way to really answer that question well is you have to really pay close attention to case studies, the small number of families
Jeremy Pryor (30:05.742)
And so each of the lessons and they're basically what I've learned is there are a set of tactical tools that make that far more likely and you can't just blow these off and expect for there to be a fourth generation legacy. Um, you know, so I think that's a really important thing to remember. And I think that's a really important thing to remember.
I would say one of those that we invested in very early on when our kids were still pretty little was a multi-generational family meal. Um, and so the typical Western family, you know, they experience one or two of those a year, that is not enough if you want to keep your family multi-generational. And within, you know, when we we've lived in Jerusalem now a number of times and it's really interesting on the Sabbath just to see, you know, families, um, adults in their thirties and forties all, you know, driving off to
their parents' houses to celebrate a Sabbath dinner. And it's really timeless. Like they're not, they don't have anything better to do. They have nowhere to go. Um, they're there to just spend time as a family and the, and the more generations are exist at that table, the better. And so I've, I've gotten to go to a lot of those, um, Sabbath dinners, or Shabbat dinners in Israel and just got to see how skilled these patriarchs and matriarchs are at.
at that, that sort of table experience, crafting a table experience that their children and grandchildren, great grandchildren absolutely love to be a part of. Um, they have a lot of practice. I had no practice at that, you know, our culture, we just don't have a vision for that. Um, and so we, you know, that, so that I would say that was, that was one thing that, that if you, if you have a multi-generational family meal that your kids can't imagine not bringing their kids, your grandchildren to.
the chance of you actually creating a multi-generational family, I think goes up exponentially. Um, so, but you have to, you have to be willing to take that time. So we do that every Friday and I don't have for, uh, I think about 17 years now. Um, and you know, I remember one time I, my great grandma, um, she came in and, or she was my grandma, my kid's great grandma, she came and stayed with, with us when she was kind of towards the end and
Jeremy Pryor (32:15.47)
Um, stayed, stayed with my sister, but you know, right up the street from her house and was able to come to those Sabbath dinners. And every time she came to one of those meals that are table, she was bridging seven generations, right? She could remember three generations, uh, before her. And then she was seeing four generations downstream from her. And, um, and that it was so meaningful for all of us. I think a lot of, um, older people today, they don't know why they're still alive. Honestly, they're like, but you know, they, it's, we don't, we don't really understand the point of.
Josh Klooz (32:33.233)
Hmm.
Jeremy Pryor (32:44.95)
of elders in a family because the way we do family, the kind of families we're building, they're really designed to launch individuals. It really does pull the meaning out of those last decades of life. And those, you know, when it is time to tell the story, family stories. So that was a big one. Certainly the reasons we started to really invest in building businesses, you know, that's a huge pattern that
that multi-generational families tend to have economic engines that, that draw the family together. When we first started our first business, I never saw anything like it. So I didn't come from a particular entrepreneurial family, but my wife's family was more that way. And so when I had this crazy idea to start a business, they just all came out of the woodwork. I was like, what is going on? Her dad would drive down her mom, her brother, you know, her younger sister, they just all showed up and they would just work late into the night and they were, they were just there like,
All right, the family's starting a business, like we're in, you know. Yes, exactly, it was awesome. So, you know, it was like a magnet for the family, you know, and where we tend to design our economic lives in a way that is predictably kind of repels the family into it's different, like, okay, everyone, go to whatever city, you know, your career is gonna take you to the best. Whereas some of these,
Josh Klooz (33:44.359)
It's like an old fashioned barn raising in the West.
Jeremy Pryor (34:10.134)
when the family owns a business, it does tend to have, now there are other issues if you're not really good at relationships and reconciliation and you know, like you mentioned it, there's plenty of horror stories but it's really important to understand that the way a lot of people deal with those problems is they just destroy the family before it even gets started. They just blow the family into its different pieces and send them all over the place and there's no gravitational force that
Josh Klooz (34:17.403)
Yeah
Jeremy Pryor (34:38.282)
like centers the family and draws the family back together.
Josh Klooz (34:44.519)
This has been such a unique conversation and just such a fun one, Jeremy. And I feel like I could take the conversation a thousand different directions right now. But unfortunately, we're running up on time. The last question though, and I want to give you plenty of time to answer this, is kind of what I call and what some would call an ethical will, but they're eulogy. I'm curious to hear from you. Have you written your eulogy? And if so or if not, what are some of the themes
that you see in it and that you want to be a part of it.
Jeremy Pryor (35:20.126)
Yeah. So I would say, I mean, we have on our wall, you know, our family's mission, vision, and pillars, our values that really matter to our family. And I think it's my responsibility to embody those things as deeply as possible. And so I've mentioned a lot of them, you know, already here, honoring our elders, like a big part of what, you know, I get to do in this season of my life is spend time with my parents and, and model for my kids what that looks like to, to create those bridges.
Um, you know, another one is that, that we believe we are story formed. Our family's very into stories. Um, my kids are very liter, literary. And, uh, and so that, that's a, makes up a big part of, of how we, we live as a family. Um, we believe, you know, part, big part of our family mission involves, um, how we're a blessing other families. Um, we, you know, this is part of why I was excited to join you on this podcast. And it's just, this is, this is what I want to be, be about is to.
support other fathers in particular who are trying to figure out what, what is this role? Um, you know, my wife spends a lot of time talking to mothers. Um, and you know, I think that we need to go much deeper in trying to understand these core identities. And so like when we were at our Sabbath table, you know, the thing that I want to be remembered is that I was present as a father, you know, every single week and that, that my, my complete embracing of that fatherhood,
I think is actually what causes my son to feel like a son, my daughter to feel like a daughter, you know, and my wife to feel like a mother and my dad to feel like a grandfather. So we want to inhabit fully those family roles. And you know, initially, I struggled with like, I much, I found it much easier for me to inhabit my work role. It felt much more native to me, much more controlled by me. I kind of knew the rules.
And, um, you know, fatherhood was not an intuitive role for me. And so it really started for me as a decision that this is the most important thing. Um, I don't feel it, you know, um, but I, I believe it. And so I'm going to live into it and I'm going to take the time to fully embody it. And, um, and so practicing that on a, on a weekly basis, um, you know, we, we try to have just a real peak family experience every single week.
Jeremy Pryor (37:45.062)
And it's those things that I really hope my kids remember.
Josh Klooz (37:49.347)
Jeremy, this has been such a good conversation and thank you so much for your willingness to share with us. If somebody wants to learn more about your content or your work, what's the best way for them to do that?
Jeremy Pryor (38:01.142)
Yeah. So you can go to family teams.com where there's a lot of resources there, different courses and things. I have a book called family revision. Um, so I kind of unpack that, the, this story a little more detail and then just all the principles we've been talking about. And then they can find me on all the socials, Jeremy Pryor.
Josh Klooz (38:19.975)
Excellent. Well, Jeremy, thank you so much again. Please know that we're wishing you and your family nothing but truth, beauty, and goodness on the road ahead. And look forward to our paths crossing again soon.
Jeremy Pryor (38:30.206)
Awesome, thanks Josh.