A Seat at the Table

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Stan Van Vleck always had a drive to succeed and a mind for business. He grew up in a cattle ranching family and had his eyes set on being a part of the family business but unfortunately, old school tradition shut him out of that opportunity as he was not the first born son in his family and didn't quite fit the mold his father wanted him to fit.

After being told several times by his father that he could not be a part of the family business, Stan went on to pay his way through college and law school and began building an investment portfolio that would give him the ability to eventually buy out his family and finally take over the family ranching company after his father’s passing. 

Today his vision has grown the company to include a commercial real estate company and soon an investment fund with the hopes of creating a more dynamic and sustainable family business for future generations. 

Visit the Van Vleck website  

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center website

Sponsor:   River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

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Natalie talks with Paul Endelman whose father Ken started the world's largest manufacturer of pilates equipment and education. Paul is head of sales strategy at Balanced Body and he tells the story of how his father went from building custom water beds to building custom exercise equipment for a famous Hollywood trainer. 

Paul tells Natalie how his grandfather instilled in him a love of art that led him to seek out art all over the world and eventually come back to Sacramento and help put together large public art projects like the Art Hotel. That type of civic involvement inspired Paul to take his innovative business skills to help solve problems in the community in Sacramento during the pandemic.

Lastly, Paul talks about how Balanced Body pivoted their business model during the pandemic and how they are still striving to overcome supply chain and manufacturing issues.

Visit the Balanced Body website  

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center website

Sponsor: 

River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have.

Mark Echeverria is the 4th generation operator of Musso and Frank Grill in Hollywood. Musso and Frank is part of Hollywood culture and history, having been a meeting place for movie executives, famous writers like Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, rock stars like Keith Richards and countless movie stars. 

Mark talks about how the restaurant almost closed after nearly 90 years and how he was tapped by his family to move from Alaska where he was running fishing tours, to come down to the Hollywood walk of fame and help pull the restaurant back from the brink of closing. He did just that all while maintaining its signature culture, nostalgia and service. 

Mark tells Natalie all about the famous and colorful history of the restaurant, some of the stars who are open about their affinity for Musso’s and why their signature martini is so delicious. 

Visit the Musso and Frank website

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center website

Sponsor: 

River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have.

Chris Benziger comes from a long line of family working in the beverage business, starting with his grandfather smuggling Canadian whiskey into America on a tugboat during prohibition. But it was his oldest brother Mike who realized so much great wine was coming out of California and convinced his entrenched New York City family to move across the country and start a winery in Northern California.

All this happened when Chris was just 15 years old and after helping the family build the farm and then going off to college and working for many years in another career, he was wooed back to the winery to become a partner where he was instrumental in making Benziger a bio dynamic winery, which stopped using pesticides and chemicals to grow their grapes. 

Chris got married, had a family and knew that he would be dedicated to Benziger Wines for the rest of his life. Then the unthinkable happened, his older brother was diagnosed with what was likely terminal cancer and the family and partners decided to sell the winery without consulting Chris. Devastated and angry for a time, Chris put the pieces of his life, his business and his family relationships back together and saw things work out with him still running Benziger Wines under new ownership. 

Visit the Benziger Wine website

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center website

Sponsor: 

River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have.

Natalie talks with Chairwoman Shawn Devlin and CEO Steve Fleming about the origins of River City Bank, which started with a desire to buy a helicopter and a business plan written on a cocktail napkin during a dinner at Frank Fat’s in Sacramento. 

Shawn recounts the story of her father going from radio station owner, to TV station owner, to TV salesman and distributor, to founder of the region's first commercial bank. 

Shawn and Steve have since taken the reins of River City Bank and have grown the bank's assets and profits by over 500% in 14 years and continue to thrive as an independent bank. Shawn and Steve talk about the importance of mutual respect in their sharing of ideas and how the bank has succeeded due to its development and retainment of a talented staff. 

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center website

Sponsor: 

River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have.

Natalie talks with father and son, Dave and Ryan Lucchetti about how Pacific Coast Building Products has gone from 100 employees to over 3500 employees and many subsidiary companies under Dave’s leadership over the last several decades. 

Dave shares what it was like to take over a family business as the son-in-law of the founder, while Ryan talks about working his way up through the company in several different roles before being named President and CEO, a role currently holds. 

The three discuss how business and family values have shaped the company and how those values have held the company together as they grew into a large enterprise spanning multiple states.  They also discuss how they structured their board and why and the relationship family members have with regard to shareholder positions. 

Visit the Pacific Coast Building Products website

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center website

Sponsor: 

River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have.

Your host,  Natalie Mariani Kling sits down with father and son, John Delmare and Allan Delmare of Rappahannock Cellars and Dida’s Distillery, both nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.  25 years ago John and his wife made the huge decision to leave California and take their eight kids (at the time) across the country to start a new business in the growing Virginia wine market.  John and Allan talk about how their family values and faith have shaped how they run their business, how vital it has been to have talented second generation family members develop and fulfill roles and how keeping the business running and growing has made planning for succession very difficult.  Some pertinent elements of the conversation are part of every family business and where they are in the process is also a familiar space that sheds some light on the difficulties of planning for the future for many family owned businesses.  

Visit  Rappahannock Cellars website  

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center here

Sponsor: 

River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have.

The Adams Group has been in business for over 100 years, getting started when the founder, David Adams was transporting barley from Woodland to the port of Oakland in a horse drawn buggy to be shipped to Britain during a barley shortage in the 1920’s. 

Since then the Adams Group has grown into a food ingredient, vegetable oil and trucking company that produces ingredients found in millions of products found on your grocery store shelves.

Today Natalie sits down with Marianne, Meg and Wayne,  three of the five Adams children who are currently the fifth generation of Adams to lead the company. They talk about their family history, stewarding a company built by previous generations, working together as siblings and how their family has handled succession across those five generations.

Adams Group website

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center here

Sponsor: 

River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have.

Today Natalie talks with Vincent Ricchiuti of Ricchiuti Family Farms.  At just 23 years old Vincent showed up to the annual family board meeting with the bold idea for the family to shift from growing stone fruit to growing other crops that he believed had a better long term outlook. 

Natalie talks to Vincent about what it’s like to come into a family business as the fourth generation and uphold the traditions built while also moving the business in new directions. They talk about Vincent becoming enamored with olive oil and his journey to producing award winning Enzo Olive Oil and expanding their retail business under the name Enzo’s Table. 

They also talk about how Vincent may have been on a path to being a part of a Super Bowl regime and how a mentor convinced him he could make a bigger impact at home than in the NFL. 

Ricchiuti Family Farms website

Enzo’s Table website

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center here

Supported in part by  River City Bank

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com

Let us know what you thought of this episode and any other comments you may have.

Today Natalie sits down with Wayne Bishop of Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm. 

In 1973, Wayne’s parents, Bill and Sandy Bishop planted the first pumpkins and invited local schools to come visit the farm. Soon after that Sandy and her friends started baking pies in her kitchen to sell to guests when they came to visit. 

Since then the Bishop’s built a full scale bakery where they still bake scratch made pumpkin pie from pumpkins grown on the farm along with other delicious treats. Over the years they added  fun farm rides and attractions and they have become the largest U-Pick pumpkin field in the world welcoming 275,000 guests each year. 

Wayne now runs the farm with his wife and two sons and he talks about growing up with his house always smelling of fresh pie, the benefits and struggles of working with his parents and now his sons and how doing a SWOT analysis for the business (strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats) drastically improved how they operate. 

Visit Bishop’s Pumpkin Farm website

Visit the Capital Region Family Business Center here

To learn more about the Capital Region Family Business Center visit our website HERE. To learn more about River City Bank and how they can benefit your family business, visit www.rivercitybank.com