Episode 088: Growing into Wealth with Logan Angel

Welcome to Successful Generations, a podcast for the next generation of family business, family philanthropy, and family wealth. Sure, people might assume you won the birth lottery, but coming from a family with a recognized last name has its challenges.

Hello and welcome to Successful Generations. This is Ellie Frey Zagel, and this is episode 88 with Logan Angel. Logan is the second-generation philanthropist. She talks about the experience that she had with KORE Venture. Last week we had Andrew Doust from KORE Venture. This week we have Logan who talks about her experience with the KORE Venture program in the Rising Generation program. So I hope you enjoy this week’s episode with my new friend Logan.

Ellie: Hi Logan. How are you?

Logan: I’m good. Thank you for having me.

Ellie: Thank you so much for being on Successful Generations podcast. Are you ready to get started?

Logan: I am.

Ellie: All right. So the question that I ask all of my guests is tell us a little bit about yourself.

Logan: Okay.  Hi. My name is Logan. I am 29 years old. I am originally from Connecticut, but I’ve lived here in Dallas, Texas for the last seven years. I serve as director my family’s foundation. I enjoy travelling, volunteering, and attending concerts and sporting events in my free time. Pre-COVID of course.

Ellie: Yes. Pre-COVID. I was just like ooh. All things that we cannot really do very well right now in COVID. We talked in a previous conversation about you not growing up in wealth. In fact, you didn’t come into it until your preteens. So what happened? How was your life impacted? Just dive right into it.

Logan: Okay. Correct, yes. Growing up, my family we always lived in neighborhoods where everyone else’s house looked like ours. We played with the neighborhood kids and did all the normal sports and school activities like everyone else did. My brother and I had no idea at the time that we would ever be perceived as anything different from that. We just thought we were like everyone else. Until my seventh-grade year when my family moved to Richfield, Connecticut, and my dad took a new position at a new company.

At that time, I was 12 going on 13. We moved into a new house that was much bigger than any other house we had ever lived in. That was kind of the first signal to my brother and I that okay. This is a little different. What really made it stand out for us that we were “being perceived as different” is when the kids at school realized that a new family had moved into the big white house on the hill. That’s still the identifier and little moniker that has stayed with me for a long time. That’s the first time that I ever really truly felt different in my life. So yeah.

Ellie: Yeah. Without a doubt. That seems like a very…Like the fact that you still can remember it. It just is like okay. Something’s different right now. What is happening? Did you guys have conversations with your parents, or did you just run with it?

Logan: I think we definitely asked like why is our house different? Just little things that you would pick up on as a preteen. I mean I didn’t have a true sense of the magnitude of what was going on at the time. That was just the beginning of the wealth generation amongst our parents. So it started off small. Then obviously as the years have gone on, we’ve had to have much more in depth conversations about that. But no. As preteens and even teenagers I don’t think we got a ton of preparation. Because we didn’t truly know what it was going to turn into.

Ellie: Yeah. Of course, hindsight. So now with that hindsight. Can you talk a little bit about like what preparation do you wish you had had? What are some of the things that you wished you’d known kind of looking back at that time?

Logan: Right. So at the time, middle school and high school, there was definitely a sense of isolation. We didn’t know any other families that were in our position. We didn’t have any family because my brother and I are second generation. So this was very new. Obviously, the wealth generated very new to our family unit. So like I said, I only have my brother to lean on. We were each other’s peers and each other’s friends in that. So it would have, I guess, been nice to know more peers in that space. My parents didn’t know how to provide that for us either because they were kind of taking things as it went.

So yeah. I didn’t get the opportunity to meet people in the same life positioning until I was an adult. Probably within the last year when I did decide to attend the KORE immersion program. So that’s still happening for me as an adult. I’m still just starting to get to know people and peers in the same space and life positioning that we’ve been put into. So yeah. It could have been nice to have more friends or know what was going on. But like I said, my parents were figuring out as they were going too.

Ellie: Yes. I remember that I actually had a very similar experience in the sense that I grew up on a farm. Very much grew up like everybody else. When friends started to come over, I lived out of town. So it wasn’t a normal occurrence to have friends just stop by. We didn’t have neighbors. Our neighbor was like a mile away or something like that.

Logan: Right, right.

Ellie: So when friends just started coming over, they were like, “Oh my gosh. Your house is enormous.” I’m like what are you talking about? There’s seven of us. There’s five kids. It’s a farmhouse. My dad’s a farmer. It just didn’t register that there was anything different until probably like third or fourth grade when I realized that my Christmases were a lot larger than most people because of my grandparents owning a kind of regional bank. I just didn’t even know this.

My day to day was just very humble, very modest, very hard working. Like I’ve been working since I can remember. But yet the Christmases or the size of the house and the fact that we had this farm just kind of started to set my family apart. So very interestingly. I didn’t get to ask questions until I would say high school.

Logan: Yeah. I didn’t realize that not everyone went on family vacations for every school holiday that we had off. Things that just seemed very normal to me I didn’t put into context until I became an adult and realized how that was perceived by others.

Ellie: Yes.

Logan: It’s very unique to us.

Ellie: Yeah.

Logan: Also a weird experience.

Ellie: Yes, exactly. It is. Did you have a hard time fitting in when you moved to this new school?

Logan: I made friends. I was very happy kid and a good student. I just always felt some sense of isolation and felt like we kind of had to hide some of ourselves. I know that I went above and beyond to try to make sure that I was relatable and just like everyone else. That people didn’t use my identifiers like the girl with the big house.

Ellie: The big white house on the hill.

Logan: Exactly. Which people still referred to me as that before they even knew what my name was. It was just one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone’s business. We rode the school bus to school because we went to public school just like everyone else. So everyone knew where I lived. There’s still jokes made about it to this day. But yeah. I had plenty of friends. I was very involved with school. I just felt like there was always a little semblance of myself that I was hiding from others. I just wanted to make sure that people liked me for me, which I think is probably an insecurity that is relatable to some.

Ellie: Oh absolutely. Without a doubt. I think that is the question. Like do people like me for me? Or do they like me because we can go out to nice dinners and we take my friends? Or we go on vacations and sometimes we take friends and all of that. Yes. That’s a real question.

Logan: Yeah. That’s kind of a lifelong, I wouldn’t say battle. I don’t think it’s that in depth for me. But you do learn how to filter through those kinds of people and to learn people’s true intentions along the way. I have definitely been burned by people. I would like to think, and I do believe the majority of people actually are friends with you and want to be in your life because they like your character as a person.

Ellie: Yes. Thank goodness for that. So I know my parents talked about like do not talk about this to anybody. So I grew up in philanthropy. My dad was removed from the family business. So when we started having conversations in high school, it was around philanthropy. My dad was like, “Do not talk about this with anybody ever. Not even your siblings.” Did you also have a similar experience?

Logan: Yes, I think definitely to an extent because my brother and I didn’t even know the extent of what our wealth was or what it would be. So I think we kind of let everyone else do the talking for us. Like everyone already kind of had their assumptions. My parents wanted to make sure that…Our home was always a house that always had people coming in and out of it. My mom said, “If I’m going to live in this big house, I want to make sure it’s used for good purposes.”

So we always hosted missionaries or had fundraising events at our house. We had Young Life programming at our house. We just always were inviting others in. My mom wanted to be a host and just share generosity any way we could. That’s always been a value instilled in us even when were kids. So I think when we did start coming into wealth, we’d already had the good values instilled in us and a base in foundation for who we are as people. So I don’t think it changed us as much as it could have. Yeah.

Ellie: Yeah. I love that. I know that for us too it just kind of our family business because a family foundation. I think that generosity value is one of those values that staves off entitlement. It just is giving back is such an honor and a privilege and a blessing. To be able to do it in a way that I’m able to do it by even just volunteering. Even just offering to help somebody who’s lost or whatever it is. It just is this value that just kind of keeps on giving. Not only to other people but to yourself.

So I think growing up with that value early with role models. I can only imagine set you up for success, as we’re going to talk about later about running your family’s foundation.

Logan: Yes.  As kids, my brother and I never understood why my mom was always dragging us with her to food banks and homeless shelters. We would go with her on her Meals on Wheels route. Oh my goodness. As kids, my mother was always in the school volunteering. We just never understood why. We’re like, “Everyone else is out having fun. Why are we volunteering?” As an adult, volunteering is one of the most joyous activities for me and I love doing it. So I’m so glad that my mother instilled that in us as young kids.

Ellie: So fantastic. So fantastic. So you talked a little bit about what you had had is some additional peers who you can kind of share your experiences with. Tell me a little bit about how you found KORE Venture.

Logan: So I think I’ve mentioned before I have a younger brother who’s four years younger than me. We had a family friend that was involved with KORE Venture. My brother’s previous employer was also involved with KORE Venture. So it was kind of always expected and an assumption that my brother would attend this programming, but I was very hesitant. I was not initially interested whatsoever. I didn’t see how I would be a good asset to the program. I didn’t think I was going to have anything to bring. I was wondering what could I possibly get from this.

At the time last year, I was 28. I was like I’ve already lived the majority of my 20s. I feel like I’m getting a late start to this. I’ve never been more glad to have rejected my initial gut reaction to something because I was so wrong. I’m so glad I didn’t miss the opportunity to actually lean into that.

Ellie: So Logan can you talk a little bit about what KORE Venture is just in case people didn’t hear the podcast with Andrew?

Logan: Yes. So KORE Venture is an immersion program that is for future wealth inheritors. A lot of the peer group that attended this work within their family businesses, their family’s philanthropies. There’s multigenerations of wealth. I was a second generation, but we have third and fourth. We’ve had speakers come through that were sixth or seventh. So it’s just kind of helping future wealth inheritors step into their roles and truly understand their responsibilities, the expectations and opportunities surrounding family wealth.  So it provided us a peer group, and also just some education and life experience as to how to handle that.

Ellie: Okay. Fantastic. So is there…I know there’s a little bit of travel involved. Like what else is involved in this program?

Logan: Yes. There are many aspects that I definitely don’t want to sell short in just my brief experience. There were three different residentials. The first one was in upstate New York. Then we also traveled of Oxford, England and Salzburg, Austria. So the programming itself, there were a lot of speakers that came in. We had classroom learnings.

Then I can share a little bit like of what was most beneficial to me. We had wealth advisors there that are relational wealth advisors. So since I went through the programming with my brother, we got to act out a lot of real-life conversations in real time. And talk about how we’re going to work together as a family unit to preserve our family’s legacy, and how we can truly use our impact for the most good in the communities.

It also provided a lot of time to heal some old wounds that we didn’t even realize were there. A lot of family units have those. A lot of things go unsaid. The longer we let that fester, we never truly fix anything or know how to work together in the future. So my brother and I are very different people. He’s a little more dominant and naturally assertive. That’s something I’ve always been so envious of because I don’t think I have those qualities, or I’ve never really acted into that.

So I’ve always kind of viewed myself as the sibling that was kind of to the side or maybe a little more meek or less assertive. Then I just realized. We did a lot of personality testing as well. So we did strength assessors and things that made us realize that we are very different. But there is a reason why we are different. We both have our own sets of skills and abilities. You need both of those things to make a family unit work. So we realized that our differences actually make us stronger together.

Ellie: I love that. I mean it’s seriously so powerful. Like every single parent right now is like taking notes that’s listening to this. I guarantee it. Because it doesn’t always happen. I’m willing to bet that if you were able to solve old wounds that you also learned how to have tough conversations. Your relationship going forward is just going to be so much more strengthened because of the tools that you now possess.

Logan: Yes. Absolutely. We have much more productive conversations as a pair and as well as our family unit. Because we learned much more productive communication skills. There’s a lot of different ways that you can stop and reflect in the moment as opposed to leaning so hard on your own agenda that you could actually…We learned to listen much more for understanding than just to hear ourselves speak. So we all have things that we’re trying to accomplish, but we learned how to find a shared vision now. So it’s absolutely strengthened our sibling bond. I know my parents are very grateful that this program has helped us come a lot closer together as well.

Ellie: Did the two of you create a shared vision? Or was it passed down to you from our parents?

Logan: Our parents. They’ve kind of gave us a lot of freedom, which to most I think would be like, “Well, that’s awesome.” At the same time, it’s also been kind of daunting because it’s so wide open. So for me it’s kind of always like okay. Well, where do we start?

So our parents are obviously very involved, and we have our family foundation, but also, they’ve given my brother and I a lot of room to grow and kind of make our own mistakes and learn together along the way. So they’ve given us the platform and the resources to be like, “You two need to work together to figure out what you want that to be.”

So we’re going to see each other in a couple of days for Thanksgiving. We literally have a family agenda all set up with things we want to present to our parents about things we’ve been researching on our own and ideas we have in the future and what our family foundation could look like. So they’ve given us a lot of freedom to run. But since we have the background now to learn how to communicate together and make sure that we’re both being heard, it’s been a really good journey so far.

Ellie: Yeah.

Logan: Working together.

Ellie: Yeah. Knowing that your skillsets are probably complementary not necessary competing. When you do have maybe some competition between you, you have the tools in which to sort that out. I think that is so beautiful. Like so great.

Logan: Yes. Sorry. We definitely, there was an unsaid competition that neither one of us realized was happening until we had the platform and the venue to actually dive into that and communicate. We realized we were butting heads over things that had no businesses continuing on. So when we did realize, “You’re better at this. I’m better at this. How do we use that together?” Yeah. It’s been much more productive.

We used to communicate before because I mean I love my brother and he loves me. But it used to be more of, “Do you need something? When am I going to see you?” Now we just talk to talk. We call to catch up. That’s personally, but it’s also helped us a lot professionally as well.

Ellie: Oh, I bet. Oh my goodness. So the benefits have been great. You kind of entered in the KORE Venture. How long are the residential programs? Are they months?

Logan: So the whole programming lasts about four to five months, but you’re not actively living in that every day. The first residential was 10 days in upstate New York. Then we went home for a couple of months and we worked on our own kind of homework. We worked with our personal coaches, which I will dive a little more into. Then the second residential was in the summer. We were in Oxford, England. Then we went home for a little while longer. Then we concluded in Salzburg, Austria. So all together the program is about five months, but we were only physically together about three weeks or so.

Ellie: Okay. So fascinating. I always think that travel is such a good way to bond. It’s so important to see the world. All of it. So dive into a little bit of coaching. Like you talked about the other benefits like doing skills and meeting peers. Your working relationship with your brother. Dive into the coaching aspect. How is that impactful for you?

Logan: Yes. So I think I mentioned that I was even pretty hesitant to go into the programming. But once I was reading about the immersion program, I saw that there is a contract with the personal coach. My mom for a long time has kind of pushed me to look into professional coaching or life coaching, leadership coaching, whatever that may be. I’ve flirted with the idea before, but I’ve never dove into it. So once I realized that was a part of KORE, I was like okay. I feel like this is a sign. I should do that.

So coaching is, it’s difficult because I had to do a lot of unlearning and a lot of negative self-talk that I imposed on myself for many years. I always kind of doubted myself because I wasn’t sure how I fit into my family unit. It was so much more abundant to me of what my parents do. What my brother is good at. I had a hard time harnessing what that looked like for me.

So through personal coaching, I worked on a lot of self-viewings. I worked a lot of how my relationship was with my brother. I worked a lot about on how I could step more into my professional role and really find the competence that I needed to do that. Because I’ve been working with my family foundation for many years, but it had been a lot of just getting things done. Working day to day.

Now that I’ve gone through KORE, I really just felt so much more empowered and encouraged and supported. And found that confidence to actually take more initiative and find a lot more answers for myself. A lot of things that I was just too scared to step into. I really just needed that little bit of push to get me there. It’s been extremely beneficial. My parents still talk to this day about the change they’ve seen in me within the last year and a half. So that’s really exciting for me too.

Ellie: Yes. Can you talk a little bit about, I think it was in Salzburg? The graduation, what your dad…Can you give us context and what your dad said?

Logan: Yes. So we went to Salzburg, Austria at the end of last summer. That was the conclusion of the immersion program. So all the participant’s families came. They met the wealth advisors we had been working with. They met our coaches. They met all the KORE staff. So they really got to see what we had been working on for the last several months, what our experiences were like. We shared our experience with everyone.

So the very last day we were there my dad kind of pulled me aside and he said, “I’m so proud of you. I’ve always believed in you and your abilities. I was just waiting for you to realize that and find the confidence you needed in yourself.” So every child likes to hear their parents say that they’re proud of them. It was just this huge moment where I realized, I was like wow. Everyone this entire time believed in me. I just hadn’t believed in myself yet. So that was hugely monumental.

Ellie: Oh, my goodness. If you were to put like a sentence together on what KORE Venture meant to you, what would it be?

Logan: Wow. I tell everyone that the feeling that I most identify with after my KORE experience is empowered. I think that’s a really important word for you, especially a young woman trying to step into a professional role and also just my personal life. I just feel like I have all the tools and the resources and the abilities and the networks to really dig into whatever I want to do. I just didn’t have that confidence yet. I hadn’t felt empowered to do so. Now I definitely feel like I have that team around me to really elevate me to dive into whatever I want to pursue in the future.

Ellie: Oh, I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that. So let’s talk about you now running, you now as an empowered confident woman, running your family’s foundation. Can you share a little bit more about your work in philanthropy?

Logan: Yes. So my parents started our family’s foundation back when I was in high school. So I had no part of that then. It was kind of just a vehicle to make donations in our local communities. It was really small scale. It was just my mother giving away money. So I knew that I had a passion for people and for service. I just never knew you could make a career out of that. That I probably would have pursued something different in college a lot sooner on because it took me a while to realize that that’s something I wanted to actually pursue.

But after several years of working post-graduation, I approached my parents and I said, “I’m not happy with what I’m doing. I want to change. I think I want to work in philanthropy.” So I actually had to pitch my parents to tell them why I think our family’s foundation should be my life’s work. So I just had to do a bunch of research on my own. I was just like this is the ideas I have. I’m going to go back to school. I’m going to get my master’s in nonprofit management. I’m going to do this the right way. But I really think I have a passion for this. I wanted to grow it into something bigger.

They’re like, “Okay. This is your idea. You want to run with it?” So they gave that to me. It’s been several years, but like I mentioned I was kind of just going through the motions until I realized wow. There’s so much more that I could harness. There’s so much more that I could. So since I’ve gone through KORE, I’ve started to meet a lot of peers in my same network. I’ve been networking with a lot of people. I’ve gone to conferences. I’ve been interviewed for an article about wealth inheritors. I’m doing this podcast now.

So I’ve really realized that I have a lot of influence. I have a good supporting team now. So there’s a lot more that I could utilize and I could do and really impact communities that I care about. Now that I have a platform, I want to be there for other young female entrepreneurs and philanthropists as well. So I’m kind of just getting started, but I’m really excited for the first time to dig further into that. And just be in the position of my family’s foundation, that’s part of our family legacy. It’s also my vehicle to impact real change.

So I’m just really grateful for the positioning I’m in now. I could just see that now we’ve been working on a real clear vision of what we want our future to be and how we’re going to grow and scale this family foundation to be around for many generations to come just like your family.

Ellie: Oh, I love it. I can hear the passion. I’m like kind of giggling over here. Because in my 20s, that’s when I really started. I came back from Africa. Realized that I had such an opportunity that I hadn’t done anything with, which is being in my family’s foundation. And just started networking like you. Going to conferences and meeting peers and asking a lot of questions. Just figuring out family philanthropy. I haven’t looked back sense. It’s just been incredible.

Logan: Yes. I feel just really on fire and really passionate. Obviously COVID has kind of put its own spin on things, but if anything, I’ve realized that there’s always going to be people that are in need and need help. No one’s ever going to truly lose their passion for people. So I’ve found unique other ways of helping as much as I can this year. We don’t get to be on the ground as much, but there’s still a sense of connectedness when you do get to have a Zoom call with somebody or an email. Just keeping the passion for helping others alive.

People have really gotten involved with that and risen to the occasion to help others during this time. So I’m still encouraged with what’s going on and how that will continue to happen in the future. Yeah.

Ellie: Yeah, that’s so good. Well, thank you for sharing. Is there anything that we missed that you want to share either about KORE of family philanthropy or kind of growing up as a wealth inheritor? Piece of advice you’d like to give for other people who are maybe experiencing this first time and they don’t have the confidence. They don’t have the self-actualization yet.

Logan: Of course. I guess if you have a chance to dive into this kind of stuff when you’re a little bit younger, I think it helps. Obviously, you’re never too old to start digging into what it looks like. It never hurts also to be at a young age just curious. Ask questions, do a lot of research. I think for a long time I was scared to even find other people in my positioning. I kept making the complaint or like, “I don’t know anyone like me.” But how hard did I really try to find those groups of people? So yeah.

I know it’s easier said than done, but don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. There are a lot of people that are willing to help and to give their aid that I just wasn’t even aware of. Now that I’ve really been in these groups of people, there are so many people like yourself who are willing to help. So definitely don’t be afraid to ask for help. Don’t be afraid to do research and reach out to people.

Just have an inquisitive mind. There’s a lot of things that I had to go about doing to find what I didn’t like first. Like don’t be afraid to “make mistakes” or whatever you need to do to find yourself. Like you have your own purpose within your family. You’re not just your family’s namesake. You have your own identity. You have your own purpose. You can do whatever you want. You have those tools, the resources, the opportunity. So don’t be afraid to go out there and find yourself. It’s definitely going to be worth it in the end.

Ellie: Love it. Such great advice. All of it. People need to rewind it and just listen to that all over again. So good Logan.

Logan: Thank you.

Ellie: Logan, thank you so much for being on Successful Generations. I know this has impacted so many people. As soon as they listen to it, I’m sure they’ve taken so many notes. It just is like your authenticity and willingness to share is critical and awesome. So I really appreciate you coming on the show.

Logan: Of course. Thank you so much for giving me the platform to share and encourage others. Thank you, Ellie.

This episode may have just ended, but the conversation continues. What is one thing of value you received from this episode? Head over to successfulgenerations.com to connect with Ellie directly and meet other likeminded next gen leaders. If you like what you just heard, go to iTunes, and leave a review. Of course, we would love it if you would subscribe to our show. Until next time.