Adam Torres and Kathleen Tepley discuss Los Angeles Consulting Group.
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Show Notes:
Listen to the November event coverage for the Los Angeles Consulting Group. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Kathleen Tepley, Founder of Los Angeles Consulting Group, discuss upcoming events.
About Kathleen Tepley
Founder & CEO of Los Angeles Consulting Group (LACG), a global business development practice that primarily serves family offices, closely-held operating businesses, philanthropic foundations, and differentiated service providers in the private capital markets.
LACG hosts two different business development advisory practices, both managed by Kathleen.
LACG’s network enhancement practice proactively provides clients with strategic counsel and timely, curated introductions to relevant business partners within LACG’s ecosystem. Through LACG’s event production practice, Kathleen and her partners conceptualize and produce public and invitation-only private events for the global private capital community, designed to enhance awareness of the client’s brand (the Lido Family Office Investment Symposium based in Beverly Hills and Santa Monica since 2010 is an LACG supported production, for example).
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres. And if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today is a special episode. We’re bringing Kathleen Tepley back onto the show, and we are going to be covering the November events for the Los Angeles consulting group.
For those of you that have not been following this series each month we bring on Kathleen to talk about what’s new with her. Los Angeles consulting group, what new events they have going on what’s going on in their networks and really just to catch up with Kathleen. So first off Kathleen, welcome back to the show.
Thank you, Adam. Thank you so much for having me. Do you believe it’s already coming up on November? November. I feel like looking at the I mean, I’m going into stores already. I’m seeing Halloween stuff, but I’m also seeing Christmas stuff. And I’m like, what, how are we already at Christmas? It seems like it was just summer and people were surfing and heading to the beach.
I cannot believe that in Minnesota we’re thinking about preparing for snow. So wow. It’s incredible. Traditions. Traditions. I need to be nosy here, Kathleen. What kind of traditions do you have going into the holidays? I feel like you, you and your family do cool things. You know, we Focusing on me and knowing that I’m getting to that point where all of the elder in our families, patriarch, matriarch are now passed on.
And so we have to keep up the traditions. We have to keep up the fun things that we used to do when we were growing up as kids. And from the. Lighting the candles on the boulevard. Our entire neighborhood does that to having the green bean hot dish at Thanksgiving to going around the table. What are you thankful for?
And I’m looking forward every year to go back to Minnesota for 6 weeks longer spending time with the family. And I really look forward to the entire year. For those traditions. And I love that we’ve got nine of those little peeps running around our homes and we get to change grandkids, right?
Like grandkids, the grand peeps, the grand babies, we get to share those traditions with them and make new ones. Love it. Love it. I always look forward to it. It’s what inspires me all year to be here in LA and knowing that I get to go home to Minnesota and spend time with them and all these amazing traditions that we’ve shared over the years.
What was your favorite when you were a kid? Do you remember any of those kid ones for you as a kid? Obviously now , you’re running the operation and you got to make sure all nine of those grandkids have good memories. I get it. But do you remember a fun one that you used that you just enjoyed? It does.
And it kind of ties into my upbringing. I was a little cherub. I used to sing in the church choir and I remember having to get up at five 30 on Christmas day to sing. And so I always look forward to those fun things. It was difficult getting up, putting curlers in your hair. You had to sleep on those curlers.
And. So 1 of the fun things that happened every year, and I don’t know when it ended, but Santa would come to our back door and knock on the door and all the kids would see Santa. And that to me was always fun. Just to see as I was younger, I was excited. And then, as I got older, my cousins being excited and just sharing that.
That love and that affection. And then we would take gifts to our neighbors, especially our elderly neighbors. We make extra food and we walk them around the neighborhood, the cookie sharing. I mean, just everything about that love and giving of others is what really inspires me around holidays. What about you, Adam?
What’s something you remember? I think one of my favorite ones and , I’m gonna bring old school back this year and it may sound simple, but it was always, it’s one of the things I remember was going to midnight mass. I always thought that was really I, even when I was like really young, like before I couldn’t even stay up to like, to like to remind, to be awake the whole time.
I remember sleeping on the church pews. And I mean, I figure I was maybe like 16, 17 years old about that time. No, I’m just kidding. Come on, I wasn’t, but you know, late service, right? The midnight candlelight service. Yeah, but I was seriously, I remember being young and just falling asleep. And as I got older, it was just it was just always a fun time.
And then maybe like some hot cocoa after or something like that. And then as I got older, it might’ve been like a hot toddy after, I don’t know, but you know, Minnesota, it’s glug glug glug. Lug so for the Norwegians, it’s a combination of several things. It also pushed away if you got the flu or something, but they would always make lugs.
Sometimes there was a rum in it. Sometimes there was an egg in it. US kids always got glug. We got to have it. Oh, when we were getting sick. Fashion. Glug, glug recipe. Whoa, spice. Yeah. Sometimes alcoholic mold, wine or spirits especially. Ooh, I might have to. So it’s got some Swedish origins too. So I feel like an Ikea run might have some glug I, Ikea probably has it.
I bet you. They might serve it around the holidays. I never went there during the holidays, I’m a follow back up on that one. Let’s start our tradition. Well, my gosh. So I know, I know going into December. So today we’re going to talk about some November events for Los Angeles consulting group. And of course, we’ll, I have to bring up in January, the, the big one that comes up the original mixer.
But I think December is typically a little bit slower because you’re intentionally, because you’ll be traveling, you’ll be spending time with family and other people. So let’s just get it kicked off and tell me what’s going on into November, how we’re kind of going out with the bang for the end of the year.
I love November because everybody is starting to focus on where they’re going to be over the holidays. It’s also the give to give spirit. I think we have. philanthropy day coming up for all the nonprofits. And so we tend to focus a little bit. If it’s not an election year, we tend to focus on closing out our year in November.
We have family office events every year regularly for the global family office community. We’ll do our toys for tots events. Again, getting donations for the toys for tots. How long has that been going on? So Heath Goldman started it with wine Wednesday and he’s been focusing on wine Wednesday for 17 years.
I think the last six or seven has been specifically collecting toys for the children’s hospital. And it’s important to me because when my children were growing up here in Los Angeles, coming from Minnesota, my youngest one used to get treatment for juvenile rheumatoid arthritis from the children’s hospital.
And we saw the results of Toys for Tots. So kind of jumped into one of the events that we are having. It is later in the month of November, but I’m sharing it now the very first, because collect those toys, collect those toys. And if You know, you can get to wine Wednesday out in Calabasas on Wednesday, November 20th starts at 5 30.
It is an amazing wine event. You bring your favorite wine. They opened up some special bottles and this year we’ve donated some of our wine so that he gets started with wine Wednesday in support and celebration of those kids and supporting the Los Angeles children’s hospital. That’s amazing. And I remember my, so my earliest Toys for Tots memory, I remember being a kid and this is maybe the early nineties or mid to early nineties.
And my, uncle, he used to own a bar out in, Michigan, I think in like Macomb Township or something like that. And they do these huge Toys for Tots drives. And I think we still have some of these on video and he would literally be dressing up as Santa Claus and they would have this helicopter that would come in and he’d be in the helicopter and they’d drop stuff and he dropped down and he was a little Santa or they’d have other Santas or something like that.
And they, we see do a lot with toys for Tots. , I love the organization. I love what they’re doing to help. And I love the idea of, I mean, you think the kids , and like, They’re how they benefit from that during the holidays. I just think it’s a it’s a amazing organization. I love it. So thank you for again sharing about toys for tots.
I think it’s important. And if people are interested in becoming active toys for tots, if you go to their website has different opportunities. I know 1 year we did The hogs. So this was a motorcycle group. Not, you know, that got together and they would also donate. We would get boys ship from everywhere to the for toys for tots.
Love it. Oh, it’s amazing. So you also have some things coming up in San Francisco too. So you’ll, it looks like you’ll be joining us and coming back from the Midwest air shortly. Yeah. Yes. So November, we start with Whiskey Wednesday on Wednesday, November 13th. So if you want to come visit us, please go to the website.
And again, people bring one of their favorite whiskeys. You’ll be networking with a bunch of professionals, family offices, private equity. We have a lot of real estate investors. This is a monthly event, and we will be having a lot of One in November on the 13th, and I think, I think December 11th. I’m only going to share it now since we’re not doing any events in December.
December 11th is our other Whiskey Wednesday to close out the year for Whiskey Wednesday. So please please let us know if you’re interested. I love Whiskey Wednesday. I can’t tell you how many people that have said, Hey Kathleen, You haven’t been at Whiskey Wednesday the last few months and it’s growing.
I love that. I love it. So it’s amazing. If everybody is listening, just so you know, it’s a, if you just go to losangelesconsultinggroup. com, I know you’re probably driving in your car, you’re at the gym, listening to this, you’re doing other things and you’re like, man, what are these events they’re talking about?
If you just go to the losangelesconsultinggroup. com website and just click on the events tab, you’re going to see all of these events and even more details than we’re giving today, as we kind of just Do a quick, overview of what’s up and what’s going on this month. So let’s see, we covered the the San Francisco, right?
Or did we cover it? So you’re going to be doing the family office round table. Yeah. This will be my last San Francisco trip of the year. And a few years ago, one of our clients, Dr. Jeremy Lurie said, Kathleen, why aren’t you doing events in San Francisco? And I said, because. I don’t go there very often. And boy, after that first trip, I love the feeling of San Francisco.
I know they’re getting a lot of media hype about it, not being safe. I’ve been going quarterly to San Francisco for our family office events now since COVID. And it’s been incredible. We usually do a, special curated luncheon. We call it our lunch at brown table sponsored by Eisner Amper. They are an accounting firm out of San Francisco.
They are a global accounting firm, but our San Francisco office hosts a amazing luncheon. We’ll get about 12 to 15 guests and we’ll have a speaker and So it’s family offices, investors that are interested in meeting each other. Please let us know this luncheon is one of my favorites. Cause we get to bring a speaker and then because we’re in San Francisco, how can we not try to add on another event?
So we’ve created a group called cocktails and conversation for the first hour and a half for the, the professional women leaders within San Francisco. We have a women’s group. And we’ll have an hour and a half of conversations, usually around a theme, a topic or a speaker. And then we close out that conversations with our ladies for a co ed cocktails.
And that will be for an hour and a half that will have not only our women that have attended the session on the theme topic, but then we’ll have the men come in and spend some time with us. And this time, we’re going to celebrate the upcoming holidays. So if you’re interested in attending or sponsoring.
Please let us know it is our last cocktails and conversations for 2024 and we’ve met some incredible people and we’d love to see you there. So that is November 14th in San Francisco, right around the Embarcadero area. So, if you’re from the area, want more information, please let us know. I love the feeling in San Francisco and I love all of our community.
Yeah. What kind of, I mean, I haven’t, I haven’t yet been to one of the San Francisco events. I’ve obviously come to your LA events and some of your other events. Like what, what kind of individuals show up? Like, tell me a little bit about the vibe. I’m curious. Cause I gotta make it up there someday. So typically we used to focus just on family offices, but as you know because of the tech industry up there, that’s what I was thinking.
Yeah, we get a lot of investors. So now, even with our women’s group, we get those on both sides, those that have attended Berkeley, those that have attended Sanford. Now they’ve evolved in their companies. So they’re either tech photo focused medical. Tech focus or investor focused in other initiatives.
We usually get 50, 50, we’ll get 50 percent family offices and 50 percent that support the investor arena and it’s, it’s been such deep relationships, our San Francisco area. So Just I love being able to host that, because when I walk away, I hear the stories for months about how people are doing fun things together, and they’re getting involved.
What kind of speakers? I mean, not necessarily just for this one, but in general, what kind of speakers do you bring in? Or do you like our themes or topics? I’m just trying to get a feel. So I think, and we’re still looking for the speaker because of the election coming up. We really wanted to tie it in a little bit with the election, but my past speakers, we’ve had a I, we’ve had speakers that that’s been 1 of our popular 1 because we can’t usually shut down the lunch.
They keep asking questions. We’ve had Robert man. Q. So. Who speaks a lot about the wealth tax coming up with this election. Bob has his own family office, a multi generational family office, and he really speaks with authority on what’s happening in Washington for family run businesses and wealth tax.
He’s been an incredible 1. and then another time we had, a doctor that came and spoke, she also runs a lab and was talking about investment in health care. And that 1 was our largest, we had to get 1 of the bigger rooms at wayfair tavern, because we doubled our numbers just to listen to a doctor Sally speak.
So great themes, great topics. And I know they’re successful because nobody wants to. Stop asking questions. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And then people keep coming back, right? So that’s the other part about it is that these you’ve been doing this for a while. They’re successful and you definitely have a footprint in San Francisco.
That’s only going to grow. That’s amazing. So then, okay, so then you’re going to San Francisco, then you come back and that’s what we were talking about. about before the Wine Wednesday and the Toys for Tots, which is that’s going to be November 20th. And then also, and you’re doing that with, I noticed some other some other partners on there.
Am I off on this one? I think you’ve worked with Icon before. I’ve seen Icon’s name before in Palms. What’s Markham? Is that one new or am I off? So that is Brian Rabinowitz. He’s with Markham. So our hosts for Wine Wednesday, our, our founders, Heath Goldman of Icon Wealth and Legacy Partners, and then Brian Rabinowitz of Markham.
And then of course us. So again, those Wine Wednesday events that ends up happening during our global focused week. And what does that mean? Every year, In Beverly Hills, we have our global family office conference. This is our partners out of London that come in and host a symposium with all day speakers panelists.
We’ve been doing this now. We launched them in 2019. Just took a couple of years off during COVID. They came back in 2022. So this will be our fourth global family office community. U. S. Conference, and we get about 125 guests. In Beverly Hills for this, this conference. So if you are a family office and or a member of a multi generational family that has a family office or family initiative, please, this is a great event.
We’ve get our people from Singapore, Sweden, London. China coming in and our U. S. family offices to attend this event. What’s your favorite part about this event? Because I’ve heard about this one year over year. I think Chirag went last year and I believe he might even went the year before that. But I hear about this event pretty often it comes up.
But what’s your favorite part of this one? I think the impact of having these families that normally wouldn’t meet their peers from, you know, Singapore, Sweden, or even Africa last year, we had Simon Borschert, and also Shannon Elizabeth from the Shannon Elizabeth foundation come in and speak. And they’re from Africa.
They have a like black rhino compound out in Africa. So they came in. Spoke on philanthropy and also talked about, I don’t even, I think it’s Nemo is the black rhino. And so you’ve got someone all the way from Africa that’s flying in to spend time with us. We learn from all of the speakers and we have everything from the financial to the education on legacy and succession planning to we’ll talk a little bit about what families go through and usually we have a few impact speakers.
Like last year, we had Walter O’Brien of Scorpion speak on AI, which was the beginning of our AI focused for 2023 to 2024. Yeah. And to me, it’s kind of rare to get over a hundred people in one place from that particular space is not easy. Like when you think about people flying in from London, from Africa, from Singapore, like all around the world for this, for this, you know, pretty, still pretty intimate.
Like you’re not going and seeing, you know, there’s 2000 people there, right? It’s, you know, a couple hundred and you’re there. And so you have time to really make real connections in my opinion. Am I, am I off on that or? Oh, deep connections. I know year by year as they’ve gotten to know each other. GFOC hosts a London conference.
So some of them meet in Beverly Hills for the first time and then get to carry on the relationships moving forward. So it’s just so intimate, so impactful, and it’s great meeting new families every year. And we’re happy to host them on, on our end of town in Beverly Hills. Was that the one that you went to this year in London or am I off?
I don’t know. I can’t keep track of you. I know. Did you go to London this year? Was that last year? I don’t know where you went. Well, we were supporting it, but I have committed. I am going to go to London in June for their June conference. And they also have a principal’s retreat in Southern France and Provence in September.
And I have committed to going in 2025, the South of France. You have to go. It’s tough. It’s tough. Come on, Adam. Jet lag. Come on. Jet lag. I’m a baby bird from Minnesota. I get jet lag. I thought you said you were a cherub. Wait a minute. Which one are you? Are you a baby bird? Are you a cherub? What are you? I can’t.
Well, us Minnesotans, sometimes when we get on an airplane, even go 45 minutes, we get jet lag. And so can you imagine London or France? Oh my gosh. Here we go. All right. And let’s so that’s going to close out really December, January and December. And then I, you know, I got to get a plug in here for the original mixer, which will be coming out in January for, so for those that don’t know what the original mixer was, I mean, give us a little bit of that.
I love this original mixer. We call it our community event. It’s been around for about 18 years founded by, again, Brian Rabinowitz of Markham. Heath Goldman’s been one of our partners now for just as many years. Heath Goldman of Icon, legacy and I can wealth and legacy. And this is a, an event where we get 250 plus we’ll stop at 250.
Yeah, that’s, that’s our typical number. We have 20 to 25 exhibit tables, anywhere from CPAs or attorneys. Sometimes we’ve gotten an event company, their specialty vodka specialty Saki you name it and it’s just a celebration of all these businesses we started with a closed reception from 4 to 530 usually focused on private equity or family offices and then from 6 to 9 it’s the 20 to 25 tables and each table is hosting sushi brownies specialty chocolates plus we’re serving wine or.
Any type of beverage around these exhibit tables and it is networking. It’s meeting great people. It’s we’ve got this story cam that comes every mixer. And I think you got caught. Oh yeah. I was in the story cam. I love the story cam. Story cam is fun. You guys, that guy that runs that company is awesome.
But we’re hoping that you’ll come back with Mission Matters and interview our guests. I would love to see you there interviewing our guests again. So if we could have you on January 30th at the Luxon Sunset, please go to the website and register. But we would love for you to be interviewing all of our guests.
We would just love that if you’re available. Oh, I don’t, I don’t miss that one. Original mixtures. That’s on my calendar. You already know. So , I’m excited to go out and catch the next one. I know I was at the last one and it’s just, I mean, great times really. So all good there. It’s very successful every single time.
We only have it three times a year. So this will be starting the, the, the 2025 with a bang. Amazing. Well, Kathleen, this has been fun catching up and getting into what’s going on, going into November and, and a little sprinkle of December and January. If somebody is listening to this and they want to follow up, they want to learn more, what’s the best way for them to do that?
I would love them to either go to our website, LosAngelesConsultingGroup. com, or they can email me. Now, here’s my call to action. My email is KJT, so my initials for Kathleen Jo Tepley at LosAngelesConsultingGroup. com. If you have ideas. For an event, or you have topics for a speaker or themes. You would like to see us support for 2025.
We’re taking in all those ideas. Now. We’re happy to chat with you. We’d love to see what the community is interested in for 2025 and that’s what we’ll be doing in December is building out these events for you, Adam, for Chirag, and for our community. Amazing. And for everybody listening, just so you know, we’ll put the website link in the show notes so you can click on it and head right on over.
That’s losangelesconsultinggroup. com. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t done it yet, hit that subscribe or follow button. This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new ideas, and hopefully new inspiration to help you along the way in your journey as well.
So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and Kathleen, again, thank you so much for coming back on the show. Thank you for having me, Adam. Always a pleasure.