Book Michael
You’ve Built Something Worth Protecting™
Strong. Clear. Actionable. Transformational. Practical. Relatable.
Michael Palumbos brings a powerful message and a proven system for helping family businesses, advisors, and rising generations build enterprises that thrive across generations.
Whether speaking to family business centers, estate planning associations, universities, professional organizations, or peer groups, Michael delivers insight your audience can use immediately rooted in decades of real-world experience with families and the advisors who support them.
Book Michael
A Trusted Voice at the Intersection of Business, Family & Wealth
Most speakers focus on business strategy. Others focus on family dynamics or wealth planning.
Michael unifies all three with the Family Business Flywheel™ and the Family Business Family Office™, giving families and advisors a simple, visual way to strengthen the enterprise together.
This makes his work ideally suited for:
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Family Business Centers & Universities
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Industry Associations: Construction, Manufacturing,
Agri-business, etc. -
Vistage, YPO, EO, Tiger 21 & Family Business Peer Groups
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Estate Planning Councils & Wealth Advisor Organizations
- Family Office, Wealth & Legacy Conferences
Confidence
Understand strengths, vulnerabilities and generational readiness.
Clarity
A shared language and visual model everyone can use.
Continuity
Tools for sustaining leadership, governance, and unity.
Integration
A unified approach to business, wealth, and family.
Communication
Frameworks to reduce conflict and increase alignment.
Practical Tools
Clear next steps participants can implement immediately.
Keynotes
Ted Lasso Leadership: How Families Build Winning Cultures & Multi-Generational Momentum
Using the structure of the Family Business Flywheel™, this keynote helps families replace fear and fragmentation with trust, accountability, and shared purpose so culture becomes a competitive advantage across generations.
How to Break the CEO Doom Loop™ and Lead with Clarity, Capacity & Confidence
An advanced leadership keynote for family business founders and successors, and enterprise CEOs (Based on The CEO Playbook: Family Business Edition).
Play Like a Champion Today
Inspired by Lou Holtz’s legendary standard-setting philosophy, this keynote shows family business leaders how to define “champion behavior,” build true A-Player teams, and create accountability systems that free the founder while strengthening the enterprise.
Other Popular Topics
From Operator to Architect
If you stepped away for 90 days, would the business accelerate, or wobble? Most family business CEOs don’t fail because of strategy, they stall because they’re still the hub of the wheel.
What This Talk Covers
- The hidden cost of being indispensable
- Why “working harder” actually slows enterprise value
- The mindset shift from chief firefighter to enterprise architect
- How great family CEOs design businesses that run through people, not around them
The Invisible Balance Sheet
Is your wealth working as hard as your business or waiting for an exit that may never come? Most families optimize the income statement while ignoring the balance sheet of their life.
What This Talk Covers
- Why fragmented advisors create invisible risk
- How wealth coordination fuels business growth (not just preservation)
- The hidden drag of tax inefficiency, misaligned incentives, and poor planning
- Why enterprise value peaks when business and wealth strategies align
Stop Exit/Succession Planning! There's a better way for Family Businesses
If tomorrow forced the transition, would clarity or conflict take over?
Exit and Succession planning are focused on a moment in time - family businesses may be better served thinking about creating systems and processes that make every transition seamless and empowering.
What This Talk Covers
- Why most succession plans fail before the ink dries
- The difference between heir and leader
- How unspoken expectations derail transitions
- Designing succession as a process, not an event
The Family Is the Ultimate Asset Class
What return are you getting on the most important asset you’ll ever steward: your family?
Families invest in businesses, real estate, and markets, but rarely in themselves.
What This Talk Covers
- Why family alignment predicts long-term enterprise success
- How communication gaps become financial risk
- Governance as a relational operating system
- Treating trust, purpose, and shared vision as appreciating assets
Why Event Planners
Choose Michael
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Creator of the Family Business Flywheel™ and Family Business Family Office™
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A rare ability to unify business, wealth, and family dynamics.
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Decades of hands-on experience advising multi-generational families.
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Story-driven, relatable, engaging content that holds attention.
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Practical and actionable tools, not theory.
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Customizable for family business, advisor, university, and peer-group audiences.
Step 1
Select Your Event Type
Family business event, advisor program, university class, retreat, or peer group.
Step 2
Schedule a Quick Call
Choose a 15-minute inquiry call or a 30-minute program design call.
Step 3
Create a Custom Experience
We tailor the session to your audience, goals, and event structure.
