Diary of a High Net Worth Investor

Something a bit different for you today. We’re looking at the almost taboo subjects of addiction, mental health and even eating disorder challenges facing high net worth individuals, business founders and senior executives. And my guest, Janine McNab, is extremely well qualified to talk about these issues. She has worked across a diverse range of global high-growth sectors including travel, utilities, technology, and innovation before finding her home in healthcare some 6 years ago. She’s the Chief Operating Officer of Harbor London and Orchestrate healthcare where they tackle these issues with a multidisciplinary, medically led team of experts including Psychiatrists, therapists, nutritionists, addiction specialists, chefs, personal trainers, and wellness coaches. Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

Jeremy Middleton is an inspiration to any UK entrepreneur looking to build a unicorn business. After meeting business partner Richard Harpin when they both worked at corporate giant Proctor & Gamble, they took the brave step of leaving the regular pay cheque behind and setting up their own businesses. There were plenty of challenges and false starts but they eventually founded a plumbing and heating company that morphed into HomeServe, now an international company and the UK’s largest home repair business. In 2023 the company was taken private by Brookfield Asset Management at a value of £4.1 billion. In parallel my guest began his own consulting firm and has made investments in multiple SMEs where he offers patient capital as well as sound advice to the founders.  He’s also been active in philanthropy through his own foundation and community enterprise fund as well as being a Conservative party candidate in several elections. In 2012 he was awarded the CBE for services to charity and politics. Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

You need to hear what AI expert Ziggy Kormandel says about the future in an AI world. A few spoilers: “What took $1 million and three years we can now do in 2 months”.“School is obsolete. The model is flawed, the gig is up!”.“Privacy is dead. Live like there’s always a camera on you.”“Our grandchildren will marry AI robots!”Ziggy is president of Stayhealthy and its acquisition Augmently. Stayhealthy combines healthy lifestyle solutions using enhanced engagement technology with a global community wellness network, while Augmently creates hyper realism on mobile devices. He’s involved with at least five other companies and is now heavily into the theory and practice of Artificial Intelligence. All this and he now lives just down the road from me in Portugal.  Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

My guest today is Tim Croak, a Toledo, Ohio based founder of a wealth management company with a 40 year track record in investment and retirement planning. He’s a Chartered Life Underwriter and a Chartered Financial Consultant who became the youngest life member in the country of the prestigious Million Dollar Round Table and is the author of the book “The Light, a guide to living life with awareness, honor, and purpose”.He's served on various advisory councils for Columbus Life, New England Financial, Ameritas Investment Corp and Aviva USA. With his son Eric he looks after $500 million on behalf of his clients and is increasingly focused on the challenges facing high net worth families in the 2020s. Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

For a long time now I’ve been telling my high net worth clients that, as their wealth increases, they need to upgrade their advisory team. Too many families remain loyal to accountants and tax consultants who do not deal with clients of a similar profile. My guest today only deals with American clients earning $2 million plus a year, providing a mix of tax advice and wealth management designed to help them hang onto as much of their hard earned dollars as possible. His practice embraces how to structure your business and investment affairs to best effect, dealing with an exit from your business and planning the transfer of wealth to the next generation. He’s a Forbes Council member and author of the best selling book Win The War For Money And Success. His name is Neil Jesani. Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

My guest today is Mark Flickinger, General Partner and Chief Operating Officer at BIP Capital and BIP Ventures, a major VC firm based in Atlanta Georgia, where he’s very much focused on fundraising and investor success. Before focusing on the provision of venture capital, he’s worked at the coal face with startup consulting firm 4th Strand and a biotech startup developing therapeutics for cancer and autoimmune diseases. He recently served as the Chairman of the Board for Venture Atlanta and sits on the board of several other companies. He has an MBA from The University of North Carolina and a Mechanical Engineering degree from Princeton. Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

My guest today is James Church, author of the Amazon best-selling book, Investable Entrepreneur: How to convince investors your business is the one to back, and co-founder and COO of Robot Mascot, a global award-winning investment readiness agency.He’s on a mission to stop great ideas failing due to poor communication and is frustrated to see so many founders struggle to raise the capital they need because they’re unable to convince investors their business is the one to back. He’s won the Business Advisor of the Year award at the Growing Business Awards and has been featured in Entrepreneur Magazine and Forbes. He’s run mentoring sessions at national and international incubators and delivered lectures for The Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Design Museum and Regents University London. Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

In this episode we’ll hear from two business partners, one from the Spanish island of Majorca and the other from that financial hot spot in the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man. They have very different backgrounds but a shared love of all things financial. Unusually for two guys steeped in the traditional, regulated financial world, they were early adopters of crypto currencies like Bitcoin and eventually decided to launch the world’s first digital asset fund of funds under their Block Asset Management company. Their names are  Kevin Ballard and Manuel Du Luque. Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

David Fleck is at the forefront of the technology that will shape our future in the areas of health, life sciences and clean energy. Through close ties with the California Institute Of Technology his venture capital firm, Freeflow, invests in everything from drug discovery to space technology and provides all kinds of ongoing support to its portfolio companies. His career has included consultancy with PWC and Bain, product management at Google and building and selling audience engagement platform Disqus. Outside of business he is heavily involved with Family Promise, a charity helping homeless children across America.  His firm has a unique way of working with founders. often spending the best part of a year getting to know them before making a decision to invest. Then, he's happy to wait for 7-10 years for an exit. All of which surely qualifies him as the most patient VC in Silicon Valley! Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.

It's very rare to find an entrepreneur who is shaking up a major asset class through new technology and new thinking. In today's episode we meet just such a man in Canadian Antony Abell, CEO of TPX Property Exchanges. He's lived in the UK for many years, including a spell in the army and as an Olympic skiing coach before turning to the business world. He's been involved with 24 companies in 28 years and his latest venture is the most disruptive yet - turning property into liquid funds through TPX Property Exchanges. The London exchange is the first to launch, with 20 other target sites around the world planned for the next 18 months. The social and economic impact of this platform will be huge, enabling young families to buy half price homes and the asset rich and cash poor to achieve instant liquidity without the compound interest of equity release or lifetime mortgages.     Want to learn more about using business and investing to build the lifestyle and legacy you deserve? Subscribe to my free Escape Velocity newsletter on Substack here.