My Shout

When Tom Skotidas clashed with the brother he ran a business with, they could go weeks without speaking. Now a family business psychotherapist, he can see where that anger came from.

Tom brought his brother into his LinkedIn training agency when it took off. They were brothers, colleagues and co-owners at once, or as Tom puts it, three nervous systems in one. Years later, Tom chased his long-held passion for psychotherapy. His brother still runs the business, and their relationship is strong.

Tom talks Shane through why anger is rarely the first emotion, how patterns learned growing up get replayed in the boardroom and what an adviser should do when the next generation asks them to tell Dad. Shane also ends up answering a few of Tom's questions himself.

Next time an old argument flares up in your family business, it might be worth asking whose pattern is running the conversation.

Today's shout was Vittoria Coffee, a family-owned roaster in Sydney.

Vittoria Coffee: https://www.vittoriacoffee.com/

About Tom Skotidas

Tom Skotidas is a family business psychotherapist and the director of everpath. Working with individuals, key pairs and groups, Tom helps business families resolve entrenched conflict patterns, repair relationships and thrive as a system. He is also the author of the newsletter Family Business Therapy.

Website: https://www.everpath.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomskotidas/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/tomskotidas

General information only, not therapy or professional advice. If anything in this conversation brings up something difficult for you, you can reach Lifeline on 13 11 14 or at https://www.lifeline.org.au/

Kate's dad was close to the end of his life when a physio asked him when he'd retired. His answer? "Farmers don't retire".

Kate grew up the youngest of six on the family farm at Elmore, which has been on her father's side since 1870. Her two eldest brothers became the farmers. Kate was steered towards an academic career, spent 20 years advising farming families and then bought some land of her own.

Over an Irish nitro stout, Kate talks about coming home for the Sunday roast and struggling to stay in her lane, the powerful advice from her mum that she brushed off at the time and the chat with her dad, in the barn while the two of them were shovelling sheep manure, that finally got him unstuck.

Kate reckons only about one in ten farming families has a legally binding succession plan that everyone knows about, and it's rarely the wills and trust structures keeping the rest of them stuck.

When the farm is the family home, the office and who you are, what's left when it's time to hand it over?

Today's shout was an Irish nitro stout from Devilbend Farm Beer Co. on the Mornington Peninsula.

Devilbend Farm Beer Co.: https://devilbend.beer/

About Kate Burke

Dr Kate Burke is an agri-strategist and communicator helping people of agriculture think better, stress less and prosper more.

Kate has recently authored Succession: Future Proofing your Family Farm and conducts speaking, training and strategy sessions for family businesses navigating the challenges of transferring assets and responsibility from one generation to another.

Kate has 35 years' experience helping farming families.

Website: https://thinkagri.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drkateburkethinkagri

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1J9UGnqLJd/?mibextid=wwXIfr

How do you tell buyers you're selling when you can't tell anyone you're selling? Not the staff, not the suppliers, not the customers. And what does that look like from the buyer's side of the table?

Will Strange has sat on both sides. He pitched Three65 undies on Shark Tank, built sports GPS company SPT from a watch taped to his back at local footy and sold it to Italy's K-Sport in a deal that fell over, then came back, just after half-time at a Carlton game. Now he buys industrial businesses with the aim of keeping the name on the door for good.

Will talks about meeting key staff with the owner still in the room, the anonymous message that arrived mid-sale, why the next generation rarely wants the factory and the owners who reach settlement day and ask, who am I now?

If you've spent 30 years building the place, are you as ready to leave as you think?

Today's shout was water, supplied by Derek at Castaway Studios in Collingwood.

Castaway Studios: https://castawaystudios.com.au/

About Will Strange

Will Strange is a reformed tech entrepreneur who scaled a business across the globe with offices in Australia and the US, exiting in 2025. More recently, his focus and commitment has been permanent equity-based businesses: buying, owning and holding industrial businesses, building systems, bringing the growth mindset into these businesses and industries and leveraging the work previous brand holders have done.

Website: https://www.sparkequity.com.au

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamstrange/

Sara Pantaleo was already CEO of La Porchetta when her brother Rocky unexpectedly passed away. But nothing could have prepared her for the phone call from a journalist asking her to confirm what had happened.

Rocky was more than the co-founder of La Porchetta. He was the family patriarch, the face of the business and the person whose relationships held its shareholders together.

Over a glass of Cabernet, Sara tells Shane how the crisis plan she'd put in place helped keep the business running, even as she grappled with the loss of her brother and the expectations of eight shareholders who had always looked to Rocky.

It's a candid conversation about family, leadership and what happens when the person holding everything together is suddenly gone.

Today's shout was the Jim Barry 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon from Jim Barry Wines in the Clare Valley.

Jim Barry Wines: https://www.jimbarry.com/

About Sara Pantaleo:

Sara Pantaleo is a strategic business advisor, advisory board chair and non-executive director who helps business owners grow with clarity, structure and discipline. She began her career in IT at NAB before spending more than two decades in family business and franchising, becoming CEO of La Porchetta, one of Australasia's largest Italian restaurant franchises. Today she runs Affari SP, advising small, family and professional-services businesses on strategy, governance, people and performance, built on a philosophy of People, Profit and Purpose. Curious by nature and an early adopter of AI, Sara leads with a sustainability mindset and pairs real-world CEO experience with board-level thinking. An Italian-Australian and former national Franchise Woman of the Year, she sits on health, community and not-for-profit boards and co-founded the Moira Kelly Creating Hope Foundation.

Web: https://affarisp.com.au/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sara-pantaleo-maicd-cfe-55a18721/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/affarisp

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/affarisp/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2RTq78MdTZGylBMokQcocg