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Legacy & Succession Planning with Dennis M. Posterma CEO/ Founding Editor of Shotcallers Magazine

This month, CEO and founding editor of SHOTCALLERS magazine Dennis M. Postema, discusses balancing being a new dad with prepping for a lifechanging surgery in an essay about legacy and succession planning. Each of us is more than just the sum of our parts. We are a complicated equation of experiences, impulses and spirit that mixes with analysis, emotional intelligence and physical health to create our unique beings. While health is just one factor in our sum, it can be a very large driver of what we ultimately become. Since 2007, upon my diagnosis of ulcerative colitis (a disease that causes an inflammation of the large intestine), I

have been driven to action—publishing books, creating television shows, designing comprehensive courses and coaching clients. While ulcerative colitis is a painful condition that causes fatigue and affects my whole life, I have found that constant health challenges push me further than I might otherwise have gone. Now, with a complex surgery looming, I find my thoughts expanding even farther into the future and into succession and legacy planning.

The Surgery

I’m no stranger to surgery. Between 2007 and 2009, I underwent three surgeries at the Cleveland Clinic. In one, they removed my colon, and I had an ostomy for nine months.

Later, surgeons rebuilt my colon out of my small intestine. In 2012 I was admitted for emergency surgery because of a bowel obstruction and was hospitalized for 10 days after my small intestine wrapped around my liver, an almost lethal incident. The latest surgery is a seven-hour procedure to install an ostomy bag and a urine bag, both hopefully on a temporary basis. The surgeon will go in through my abdomen and then down my leg to take a tissue flap to repair the fistula that has caused me to live with a constant infection for the past few years.

While these surgeries are always physically extensive, the mental and emotional aspect is often more difficult— and overlooked. The fact that this is happening during a time when I thought much of my health problems had passed is a beautiful little nudge and reminder from my Creator that I am human and, thus, mortal. Not one to ignore Him, this has inspired me to move forward on my own succession planning. Succession or Continuation?

Before we dive in, I want to touch on the difference between succession planning and business continuation planning.

Continuation planning is a type of emergency planning that ensures your business will function and your clients will be served, even if you lose power, technology or your business location due to an act of nature or the temporary loss of a key employee. I have a continuation plan in place that ensures my business moves forward while I’m in surgery and recovery to ensure my clients are taken care of with the same professionalism and expertise that I would offer them myself.

Succession planning is about creating an ongoing future plan for your business for when you decide to step down, or when you simply can no longer run it as you

Succession planning can be about training a new generation to replace you, choosing a new leader, selling the company, or planning other parts of the transition process. It’s also about making sure the transition is very easy for the new owner/ owners, whether that is family or someone purchasing your business.

No matter what, it should be a win-win-win: a win for your loyal clients, a win for the person taking over to give them the best chance for success, and a win for you so you can call it quits and retire with peace.

The Plan

Most entrepreneurs not only think they are invincible, but they love the journey and the everyday hustle and bustle of it all, so many don’t want to imagine their experience ending, even though it inevitably will. Like most other entrepreneurs, I don’t plan on going anywhere, nor do I ever expect to not be in the driver’s seat for my businesses. Yet, as an executive wealth and performance business coach and professional within the financial and wealth planning sector, succession planning is a constant topic I cover with clients. Many of my major clients are baby boomers, making succession planning a very practical and looming concern.

Succession planning is an extensive process that focuses on future happiness, not just for your family but for your clients and employees.

Since my daughter was born, the direction of