Nike Anani: Taking Away Dysfunction in Family Businesses | The Tyler Wagner Show #1036

All right everyone, welcome back to another episode. Today we have Nika Anani, so welcome to the show.

Thank you, Tyler. I'm excited to be here.

Of course, grateful to have you on. So if you can just start us off, a little bit more about you and what you do.

I'm a business owner, second-generation business owner. I'm a wife, a mom. I'm also a legacy planning consultant. So I help business owners take their businesses from lifetime to legacy, essentially helping them to build businesses that will outlive them. That's really me. I'm a speaker. I'm an author.

Okay, awesome. Lots to talk about then. So what would you say, like the first thing that caught my interest there in your intro is how do you create a business in that way? Like what are the kind of checkpoints or the bullet points that you think of when building a business for like the long, long term? Yeah, that'd be my first question.

So yeah, legacy can be, you know, you can make a legacy over time. And you can make a legacy over space. So let's talk about the one over time. I think it's really important for folks to know that if you want to know the end of something, you look at the beginning. So you have to build with the end in mind. So it's not when you want to— you're nearing your retirement that you start thinking of, ooh, what will happen to this business after me? But instead, you build from inception, a sturdy foundation. Such that that foundation will outlast. And quite often that entails really involving the family. Because quite often as entrepreneurs, we're building our businesses for a purpose, and usually it's to provide some financial security for our family, right? And usually when you're approaching that retirement, your natural step is who in the family will take over some capacity, not necessarily take over as CEO, but have some oversight function, have some ownership responsibility. And I often say that, you know, for those folks to take over and become engaged owners, they have to really love the business, they have to know the business, they have to have bought into the vision of the business. And so it's not just a mechanical thing, hey, you come and take over. It takes time to fall in love with the business because they have to be exposed to it. It also takes time for folks to develop a vision for the business, which usually involves conversation from an early age on what is this business all about, where is it, where are we heading, who are we as a family, what is, you know, congruent with who we are, what is not. And these concepts can change over time, right? We're in a very dynamic world, we are dynamic as families, we have new entrants, unfortunately we have exits, and our businesses are dynamic as well. So yeah, those are the two points I would say: start with the end in mind, it's never too early to start having conversations as a family as to where it's all heading. That's the foundation on which we start building succession planning on, and fancy governance tools like your constitutions and your council and your committees and all these C words. But that lies on a foundation of connectivity in the family. So start with that.

And what was your— because you said second generation, so what is the family business that has— well, I guess so it was your parents first?

Indeed.

And yeah, so tell us a little more about that.

Yeah, so I was born in Lagos, Nigeria. My father was a medical doctor, my mother was a teacher, but in spite of being professionals, they couldn't afford to give me the standard of living they wanted. And so my dad started his side hustle supplying medical consumables to teaching hospitals across Nigeria. Um, but flash forward today, our family business is a construction business, real estate development company, and an engineering company. And halfway through my childhood, we moved to the UK. That was myself, my mom, and my brothers for our education. My parents were always quite averse to boarding school. So they preferred that we went to a day school and mom would, you know, settle us in after school, et cetera. So it was a bit of a sacrifice for the family for my dad to be apart from us, but hey, that was the decision they made. And I started my career in accountancy in Deloitte in London, but I found it extremely boring. And then ended up back in the family business straight after becoming a chartered accountant, back in Nigeria. And I was there for a decade. During that decade, I became a director in the family operating business and I set up a family office to manage the family's investments, as well as put together succession tools and governance tools, and to oversee this generational transition of ownership from dad and mom to myself and my brothers. And so we now have a family council, which I chair. My brothers are on the council, my father also, and a couple of external bodies as well. So, so yeah, that's our family enterprise predominantly in Nigeria. We have a number of investments as well, predominantly in Nigeria and Africa. And, but I'm here in the States. I moved to the States 3 months ago. Yeah.

How are you liking it so far?

Loving it. I'm like, why didn't we do this earlier? I love it. I love Austin. The people are cracking. It's gorgeous. There's so much opportunity. It really is the land of opportunity, the US.

So how did— or first, before I ask this question, I can totally relate. My major in college actually was accounting at first, and it was I did not. I didn't last very long there. I found that to be whatever the opposite of fun is.

Yeah, like I say, it was like putting needles in my eyeballs.

Yeah, that sounds— yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, yeah, it was bad. You know, the one thing it did for me though, it's funny, is like it made me realize how much I didn't like it, which then pointed me in a direction of something like podcasting, of something like I really like. Um, and maybe, you know, just this is a shout out to accounting. I would have never realized how much I like podcasting if I had never experienced how painful, like, like, yeah, there's always a silver lining.

I need— I, I— for me as well, honestly, like the accounting background is super helpful being a business owner. You know, the numbers are just, they're not everything. They're very important. They tell a story, right? And so I, I know like how facts will impact the numbers and how numbers tell a story. And so it's a useful tool, but similar to you. Yeah, kind of really, it was very quick within a year of being at Deloitte. I was like, this is not it. And I don't know what it is. And I just was like, I need to discover more. Get out into the world and discover what my purpose, my passion is. And I'm so glad for that experience because I would never have thought the world of entrepreneurship was for me. Never, um, never thought Nigeria was for me because I left at the age of 9 and I didn't really have friends. We would visit my dad, but it was very much like I felt like a fish out of water and always looked forward to coming back to the UK where my friends were, everything I knew was. So it really did take me out of my, you know, like you, like it forced me to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. And like you, I found passions in things that I never thought I had a flair for. Like, I also love podcasting, never thought that. I love speaking, never thought that. I'm an author. Like, these are all things in school that I never really was particularly good at, or perhaps didn't even try. Like, I didn't join public speaking club, English literature, and English— you know, what was the other one— comprehension. I didn't really enjoy them in school. So it's interesting how, you know, life experiences can, when negative, can force you to learn more about yourself.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like, literally what you just said, I guess we're pretty similar in that way, is That's what it was, is I just realized I didn't know what it was yet, but I knew that my career was not gonna be something that wasn't like involved with people. Me and like accounting is a lot of like alone time and the numbers. And so I was just like, all I know right now is it's not that. Okay, so what's the opposite of that? Well, public speaking, right? Lots of people around. Podcasting. So yeah, I think we kind of a similar experience led us into a similar path. I want to ask you about the book, but just before I do, I was just curious. So with the family business, how did you like, how did that transition occur to the construction company? Like what happened in between?

Yeah, I missed out the middle part. So Like I said, my dad started off supplying medical consumables, teaching hospitals and labs across Nigeria. And over time that kind of evolved into more hard equipment like MRIs and X-rays and CAT scans, et cetera. In 1999, Nigeria moved from being a military rule to a democracy. And under that transition, there was a lot of investment into infrastructure and development of the nation. And he had— he was— his clients were state governments and federal governments. And so these same clients were looking for contractors to design, build hospitals, particularly in Lagos State, which is the commercial capital of the country, and Rivers State. And so he had leverage off that relationship which he built and pursued joint ventures with established construction companies internationally known for the healthcare space. And that was the beginning of our delve into construction. So we began doing a lot of hospitals, designing, constructing, and maintaining hospitals for state governments, but Over time, we built an internal core competence for construction where we were less reliant on joint venture partners, and we then had in-house staff. And initially these were expatriates, and then we then built local, the local capacity of folks that were of Nigerian origin. And, you know, building a hospital is not much different from building a hotel. It's not much different from building a school or stadium. Or road. And so we made a tilt into these other aspects of construction with the same clients. Turned out there were more opportunities, and roads are a lot more profitable than buildings. And so today, flash forward, we're known as an infrastructure player. We're not really known as, you know, our background in healthcare. And that was really the tilt into construction. And then from construction, real estate development, and also engineering services. We realized that a lot of our clients needed not only someone to provide a bill of quantities and tender for construction jobs, but they also needed advisors to advise on feasibility studies and architectural drawings and all the engineering, all the fun engineering stuff. So, so that's been, that was the evolution from, from from dad as a side hustler to construction business.

That's so— I love that story. That's just so wild. Like a side hustle turned into that. Like, that's pretty sick. Like, oh man, that's fun.

Okay. It's all about opportunity, right? I find that entrepreneurs are such bold people. Like they spot opportunity and not only do they spot opportunities that they have inner conviction and courage to go after them. Because most other people will be like, well, I don't, I'm a medical doctor, what do I know about building? I can't do that, right? But he was like, well, if I can't, I'll find someone that can and we'll partner with them. And so I've learned so much, you know, having worked with my father with his mindset, like just opportunity mindset and abundance mindset and not just always thinking about what you can't do, but always thinking about how you can do things.

100%. Yeah, that it is. Um, with entrepreneurship, how much do you think— I've never asked this question— like, do you think it is like a personality trait, like it's within us, or is it like learned as you progress? Or maybe it's a combination of both.

I think you can learn it. I think, you know, some people have it innate in them. They're just high achievers and they have really high levels of self-belief.

Yeah.

And they just, they appear fearless, but I think you can also kind of understudy and you can kind of catch it because I mean, 10 years ago, I'm a completely different, I was completely different from how I am now. The thought of pioneering stuff would've been like, what? Like, where's the process manual? Like, Where's the established framework? Like, show me the accounting standards, show me like where it's been done and show me a case study and show me a map of how to get there. But I think 10 years later, having firsthand been an entrepreneur in a very volatile environment, I'm more kind of, I've trained my mind to learn that, you can really do anything. And you can, you can go after any opportunity. You are your biggest obstacle. If you believe that you can, you will. If you believe that you can't, you won't. So I think it's, I think some people have that innate ability and that mindset, but I do strongly believe you can learn it. You can develop it. It's like a muscle. The mind's a muscle. You just tell it what it needs to think.

Yeah, that's actually interesting. I'm glad, I'm glad we're having this conversation about this because I realized It's— I'm thinking back to my entrepreneurial journey. It was kind of like a switch. Like, I think it was within me, but in college, I— and we may have talked about this a little when we spoke on the phone, I'm not sure— but I read this book, The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss, and that was kind of the unlock for me. And I think with a lot of entrepreneurs in the beginning, what happens is once that unlock occurs and you see all the opportunity Right? When you see like all the problems that need to be solved, and from an entrepreneurial point of view, all that looks like is— it doesn't look like problems anymore, it looks like opportunity.

Exactly.

You're like, I have a million ideas. Like, so the next thing you have to do is realize that you can't do a million ideas all at once, and you gotta zone in and pick one.

Exactly. And I think before even going after the ideas, actually believe that you can. So often, like, you know, you fear that— fears of it failing, fear of, you know, being laughed at, you know, all sorts of sabotaging thoughts that you have to kind of overcome. But once you overcome that, like you said, all you see is opportunities. And it's like, I don't have enough hours in the day, I don't have enough capital— human, financial— to go after all these opportunities. And you're just kind of like, like a kid in like a buffet, like you just want everything. Right. Um, so even having that discipline to know like, okay, um, it's breakfast. I don't need to eat like, you know, dessert or whatnot right now. What I need to focus on is X. Um, it's also a mindset.

How did you rid yourself of that fear? Like, like my example is I started to think in a way of what's the worst that could happen? And I realized it was actually after reading that same book that I just mentioned, I realized that I would always think that something would be way worse. Like dropping outta school was this huge thing. Like if I dropped out and I failed, then all my friends would look down on me. And like, if I had to go back to college, then I would be older than everyone, which that would be so embarrassing. Like it was all ego.

Right.

And so, yeah, I'm curious, like how— and then for me now I just cycle through things and I'm like, like a public speech. I'm like, what's the worst that could happen? Like, I mess up. Like, who cares? Like, that's just the way it is.

Honestly, that's part of my mantra. I think I was very perfectionist in nature growing up, and I had to kind of shed that away and just remind myself that progress, not perfection. Just get something done. It's more important than it being Perfect. And similar to you, just letting go of this people bondage and like, you know, being obsessed with what people think of me, because like you said, it's egocentric. It's not really people-centric. And I, my, you know, I believe that entrepreneurs, a lot of us, it's like a calling. There are easier ways to make money with a guaranteed, right? A lot of us, when we compute like the amount of hours we've put into this, like this is like the low minimum wage, especially in the early days, right?

Oh yeah, for sure.

Yeah, and so for me, it's really about serving folks, not just about enriching myself. And if I'm really thinking about serving folks, then it really isn't about me and what I think and what my fears are. And, but another thing is I remind myself that I think most entrepreneurs have some level of fear. You know, there's this notion that, you know, some are fearless and they're just beasting it. I think that's a load of crap. Excuse me.

Say whatever you want.

I think it's a whole load of nonsense. I don't know who these people are that have no fears. We all have fears. But it's Suzanne David that wrote this on Twitter. She said, walk with fear in one hand and with courage in another. And I think that's really what I try to do is There are days where it's, you know, I just feel the fear just kind of trying to overcome me, like you're drowning in it. And I have to just raise my head above it and just, you know, push past that with courage. There are days where it's simple. I'm just gliding through, right? It's like riding a bicycle, like, you know, taking off the training wheels for the first time, you know, you will stumble a little bit, but as you continue to just cycle and cycle, it becomes easier and easier. So those thoughts aren't as dominant. You recognize them, you know what to do with them, you know how to speak back to them or to ignore them. They're just like, you know, a buzz in the background, just as opposed to this dominant voice where you literally can't do anything in spite of it. So yeah, I think that's how I deal with fears is remembering that everyone has fears. It's not really about me, and it's the most important thing is to just get stuff out there and not just be, you know, obsessed with it being perfect because people don't even notice anyway. They don't notice your level of perfection that you're aspiring towards.

And that's perfect segue into the book. One thing I just want to mention real quick though is, uh, so I'm a big fan of Drake, and one of the lines that he says that I think is in alignment with what we're saying is He says that one of the lines is like, "I use my anxiety to get the job done," is one of his lyrics. And I think that's kind of what he's saying is like, even him at this point in his career, he still has fears and anxieties and he actually uses it to create. And I don't think this is his only like form, but this is just one of his lyrics. Uses it to push himself like courage. To do more music and come out with more things.

So yeah, that resonates, don't you? I don't know about you, but for me, the fears, they change with seasons. So even if I've beasted it and I've achieved what I wanted to achieve in this season, then it's— then there's a fear of, oh my God, I have to maintain. Does that make sense? Oh yeah. Yeah, well, I'll do that. So I can just imagine Drake like, good grief. Can I write another song?

Oh yeah, there's always like leveling up, right? Like, I feel— and it's not for me at least, it's not like in comparison of others, but it's more— I think it's like a human nature. Tony Robbins says, I think it's one of the 6 human needs is like growth. Like, I think he said so. It's like no matter how successful you are, happy you are with who you are like, if you're not— what they say is if you're not growing, you're dying. Like, if you're not going forward, you're going backwards, which is kind of interesting. What do you think about that? What about if you're just in the middle, if you're just still?

I don't know. So yeah, so what's the internal narrative? Like, how do you pull yourself through a season where you're not growing? If— yeah, that's what I mean. Like, how do you— if I love the concept, right? We're all like on a journey of growth, but there's sometimes where, you know, you're not growing. So then how do you practically move forward?

Yeah, and just kind of feels like let go. Yeah, there's like a balance because I don't know if you're not growing if you're necessarily always going in the opposite direction because like you gotta— yeah, you gotta replenish. Yeah, you can't always be on the bicycle, like unless you don't ever want to be on a bicycle again, you know, you got to get off sometimes.

Exactly, exactly. So yeah, I'm not sure about that.

I'll have to go— we'll have to talk to like a psychologist or something. We'll have to figure that one out. So, so yeah, tell me, uh, I'm curious, two things. So about the book, what's the book about? And then after you explain that, I'd like to learn about your process in writing the book because a lot of our listeners are aspiring authors.

Yeah, the book is called Lifetime's Legacy: A New Vision for Multigenerational Businesses. So it's really about how can you take your business from being a lifetime business to being a legacy business, one that will outlive you. And it's not about technical stuff like financial planning or strategic planning in the business and all these tax planning and what usually all the advisors come, you know, coming to you to talk about. But really it's about how can you foster greater connectivity in your family, like what we were having a conversation about earlier, like how can you unlock creativity? How can you unlock collaboration, because I truly believe that families are gifted with natural diversity that other institutions are not necessarily gifted with. You've got different generations, you usually have different genders, and also their time horizon is usually longer than other institutions. Like, governments think in like election cycles, corporates tend to think in 90 days, But families think in generations, and so, you know, matching those two puts families in a very unique place to drive not only legacy enterprises, but also long-term strategic change. So unlocking that creativity and that collaboration is really key to seeing that families are not only able to— because a lot of the discourse, and you know, when it comes to planning your business, is how can you protect the future of your business? And I don't think that's sufficient in the age we're in. I think it's more important to focus on creating the business of the future, a business that's actually future relevant, given the high levels of disruption that we face. And so that's what the book is really about. How can you foster greater connectivity to bring about that creativity and collaboration?

As you were saying that, I just thought, imagine if like people running in politics thought in that way. Yeah, like how much different our world would be. I think it'd be better off.

I wholeheartedly agree. And not just politics, even like the philanthropy space is, you know, filled with people that have really great intentions, but quite often aren't long-termist in their thinking or strategic in their thinking. I think there needs to be more infusing of entrepreneurial mindset in the strategic space to see more sustainability. I've seen instances of money being raised for projects, and then projects are run for 6 months and then handed over to government, for instance, who cannot run those projects for a day longer. And then all that sunk cost is just, you know, money's gone down the drain. So entrepreneurial mindset is really important in driving social change and driving, like you said, even in, you know, cross-sector collaborations. Like, yeah, I'm for that. I'm so for the expansion of the family sector and the contraction of government.

Yeah. Hey, we're on the same page here. I like that. What was it like writing the book? Like, what was that? Any tips for people that you learned throughout the process?

Oh, so I, I found that I had bursts of inspiration, and, you know, I found it really difficult to— because I have friends that are authors, and they did, like, write for an hour a day for 90 days. I found that it took me about 30 minutes to get clear on exactly what I wanted to write, and then the remaining 30 minutes I'm doing research, and so it was just too short for me. So I would write in blocks of 3 to 4 hours, with probably about 2 hours of actual writing. I would also say number 1, actually, is get super clear on who you're writing for, why you're writing, the problems that they're facing, the solution that the book seeks to actually provide, and that you're not just writing for the sake of writing all the spaghetti thoughts in your head, because then it's really not elegant, it's really not succinct, it's really not clear who it's for, or how it will add value, and how it really stands out in the market. So I would say start with that. Spend a lot of time there. And then writing an outline for the book was super helpful. So I had an editor that helped me with that. So I had my ideas of how the book was going to be, and she's like, "Yeah, that's good. However, it'd be better if this was here, that was there." And I was like, "Hmm, wait a minute. Yeah." She's like, "And then you need to break things right down. You're like speaking at like college level when we need to break it down to elementary level. So it was really helpful having a third party, like, involved in co-creating this product. Yeah, and then creating a cadence and a rhythm. I found that my discipline needed to be, you know, on a different level to prior times when I wasn't writing. And what helped me to get into that rigor was exercise. So I found that the days that I would skip exercise and make up excuses, ah, it's raining, or like, yeah, I'm tired, my fingers hurting, were usually the days where I'm like, oh no, I can't really do an hour. I can't really write today. Like my brain's not working. And so it was a mindset game. And so I realized that I was telling myself, I don't know if you've read the book Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield.

Oh my gosh. I think, wait, Turning Pro.

Where he talks about the distinction between an amateur and a pro.

Wait, tell me, because I—

Basically, a pro practices deliberately and just is committed no matter what. An amateur will make up excuses, basically, is the gist of the book. Okay. And so it's really a mindset shift. So for instance, if you say you're a speaker, you speak and no questions. It's not, oh, because, you know, there's COVID, or, you know, you make up excuses. You just always show up and you just deliberately practice, and you go all in. And so for me, I had to tell myself, right, it's not I'm an aspiring author, I'm an author. And if I'm an author, I write. And if I'm writing, I told myself I was writing weekdays between these hours, I'm writing every day at those hours, because if I'm not, then I'm not an author, right? So a lot of it was mindset. Yeah, it really was mindset. And then there was a point halfway through where I was like, God, do I have it in me to finish this? Do I have a message in this? But having, like I said, a third party actually review the content and be like, you know what, the issue is that you do have a lot of content, but you're kind of skipping the middle. You're just like going from introduction to conclusion. And we're kind of lost in like how to connect the dots, it did mean that actually there was a lot more content in me than I actually thought there was too. So yeah, those were my tips for writing.

No, thank you for sharing that because I think the editor thing is so key. And actually the mindset shift thing is so key too. It's kind of like an affirmation in a sense. Like even though your book hasn't been published yet, like how would an author act to have a book, right? And it's like, well, if you're an author, then you're writing today, you know? And then the editor, just knowing that that's there and knowing how powerful that that assistance is, is I guess it makes it easier to allow yourself to not be a perfectionist on it and just get that rough draft done because you know, even if you, try to be a perfectionist on it, the editor's still going to rip it apart. So there's really no— you just have to accept you're about to— and when I say like it's about to be a battle, it's not like it's a battle like that. It's just knowing that whatever your rough draft is, like your book could be completely different by the time the editor's— like I'm talking like you won't even recognize it. So I don't know. I just think that's helpful for people to know that don't let it stop you. If you have an editor, they help a lot.

For sure. For sure. And I would also say communicate with the world. Like my mentor said, people don't want to see you on the stage performing and you're perfect, you know, with your perfect rendition. They want to see the backstage. They want to hear like your journey. Before you got to the VATS on the stage. So it can be terrifying, right? Because you have to be assured, like, in terms of, do I have something that's worthy of contributing? But you do, because you're an author, right? You've gotten over that hurdle. So once you do, you communicate to people like, this is— I'm writing this book, and it will be out on this date, or today I spent time with my editor, Or today I was taking a walk and I had an idea for my book, or invite them in the journey for their ideas as well. I'm thinking of a cover, what colors do you think? Or it's really important because what it does is it creates anticipation for the book. I've had so many people like message me like, when is it out? When is it out? I'm like, it's out in January. Like, we can't wait, can't wait. Because they feel like they're part of the journey as well. 100%.

You're preaching to the choir here. Yeah, well, that's one of the things that, uh, I don't know, we talked about this last time, but Gary Vaynerchuk, dude, Gary Vee, Gary Vee, like, that's one of the things that changed my life on creating content. He was like, document over create. And it's not like there's nothing wrong with creating, but he's just saying, like, don't view every piece of your content as it having to be, like, perfect. In a lot of cases people want to see the backstage. So what that looks like is it's not like when you write a book, the only thing you can share is the final book. You can share the ups and downs, like the days you woke up and you tried to write but you skipped your workout so your brain wasn't working right for you. And like, just that in itself, sharing that is part of it, right? That's showing backstage. And I don't know, that it just made it easier for me to create content because prior to hearing him say that, I would be prevented from posting things because I'd be like, oh, this just— this isn't like perfect, like it's not tweaked right or whatever. So yeah, I don't know, I think that's helpful for people. Um, so I want to leave the floor to you. If there's anything we didn't cover, please share. And then You got to tell the people where, where can they stay in contact with you and the book and everything else, website.

Awesome. No, I've had a really fantastic time with you. I think we've covered, covered it all. But you follow me, my website, www.nikeaanani.com. There you've got links to all my social and I'll be putting up some information on how to stay in touch with regards to the book. It won't be out till January. End of January, so it'll be in a couple of months. But yeah, perfect.

And thank you again for coming on the show.

Thank you, thank you so much.