Dealquest 300 - Grace Vandecruze - ENHANCED AUDIO
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Corey Kupfer: [00:00:00] Grace Vandecruze is 20 years into a successful career as an investment banker, primarily focused on the financial services industry after having spent seven years as a financial auditor in public accounting.
She's an in an insurance investment banking expert, advising companies and insurance regulators on mergers and acquisitions. Financings, capital strategies, valuation, restructuring, private placements, due diligence, and other transactions. She has developed an in depth knowledge of all forms of corporate insurance and financial services transactions and financings in debt and equity markets.
Ms. Van de Kroos has worked on numerous restructurings, debt and equity offerings, including IPOs, M& A transactions, team mutualizations, and regulatory projects in the global life. And PNC reinsurance and insurance markets and more broadly in financial services. Grace, welcome to the DealQuest podcast.
Grace Vandecruze: Thank you, Corey. It's a pleasure to be here.
Corey Kupfer: Well, listen, you know, we do a lot of deals in financial services, but much more on the [00:01:00] investment advisor, money management, wealth management side. We've had some exposure on the insurance side but less so. And I always like having, I mean, sometimes we have general M& A experts on or other kinds of deals, our audience knows.
But I, I love when we niche down a bit, right? Because it's always fascinating. There's always interesting aspects of different industries, especially regulated industries, which the insurance, industry is like the investment advisor space. But before we get to all of that, and I want to talk about your book and I want to talk about, you know, all the interesting journey you've had, I want to take you back to when you were a little kid growing up, maybe 10, 12 years old, what did you want to be?
Because I'm guessing a, you know, investment banker, M& A expert. And the insurance, space wasn't it back then, but you tell me.
Grace Vandecruze: And Corey, you may be right. Okay. Yeah. It's interesting. I was 10. When I was 10, I grew up in a very small country, Guyana, South America. And I went to St. Mary's, elementary school and I saw the nuns.
And they were [00:02:00] days. What I wanted to be changed based on who I admired that day. I wanted to be a nun. I wanted to be a traffic officer. You know, I just wanted to, I just knew that I can be whatever I'd like to be, but my perspective was so limited at that age, that, it was very limited.
However, I had, I came from a very big family. I'm second oldest of, seven. So we're a family of nine. My mom is second oldest of nine, but there's an interesting story to that. And I always like to, I love the fact you went back to the beginning because there is a, Proverbs that says, wherever the stream flows, it never forgets its source.
And my source is my late grandmother, who had nine biological children. And she and my dad, she and my granddad adopted Five young sisters who lost their mom, [00:03:00] so they raised 14 children. As a result, I'm one of 52 grandchildren. You know, this is not a family, it's a community.
Corey Kupfer: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Grace Vandecruze: And, but as we speak here in this intimate conversation, Corey, I can assure you that I was her favorite.
Aw.
Corey Kupfer: And is that what you got? Because you said something very interesting, which is, you know, you were in a place where, you know, there would seem to be limited options, but at the same time, you had this sense you could be anything you wanted to be. Yes. Did you get that from your grandmother? Yes. Because, like, that's a very early, I think, split between people who grew up in an environment, whether they're influenced that or not, and have that belief, versus people who have much more limited beliefs about their opportunity.
Grace Vandecruze: Sure. .
So for a child, the chattel will feel rich if it's if he or she's surrounded with a lot of love.
And I had a lot of [00:04:00] love. I had lots of aunts and uncles. And although my world was small and limited, I. I had this inner sense of self worth that I can be and do whatever I'd like to be. So I mean, I changed all the time what I grew up thinking of, but what's important today is. Here I am on Wall Street, and I can look back at my life, very humble beginnings, and every day I wake up with a sense of gratitude.
I love what I do, particularly for the insurance industry, and we'll get into why I particularly love the insurance industry, but the gratitude that I have every day to do what I'm passionate about is something that is invaluable to me.
Corey Kupfer: That's great. I love that. Okay. So I'm going to want to. Fill in some of the middle here, but just to the little format we do have on this podcast I have two opening questions and one [00:05:00] closing one So I'm gonna ask you my little opening questions, but I want to come back to this what was your first deal of any type?
It could have been something when you small when you were a kid or something early in your career What's it? What's a deal a first deal an early deal that you can remember that comes to mind?
Grace Vandecruze: A deal in terms of a transaction that comes to mind.
Corey Kupfer: Transaction. However you define it. It doesn't have to be that, you know, that formal.
Grace Vandecruze: Or a defining moment for me.
Corey Kupfer: I mean, some kind of transaction but listen, I want to hear about the defining moment as well. Whatever comes to mind.
Grace Vandecruze: Sure. So a defining moment for me. Was when I was in college here in New York at Pace University, I majored in accounting and I was heading home from Manhattan to Brooklyn, New York and a beautiful summer's day in June.
It's around three o'clock. I turned the corner where my brownstone apartment was only to see this chaos up ahead. Fire trucks, [00:06:00] police cars, sirens, all of this. And as I got closer, it's that sinking feeling in your stomach and you look and realize it's your place that's all up in flames. And it's that moment was traumatic and transformative for me, many, much of which I didn't appreciate until much later.
But I met my mom standing there and she had some of my siblings with her. And what amazed me at the moment was how calm she was. She was super calm and, you know, I said, what happened? What happened? She said, Can't you see we had a fire? But amidst the ashes, my late dad was determined to keep us as a family together.
He reminded us that the saddest day of his life was when his, he was orphaned at eight and separated from his two siblings. [00:07:00] And Cory, the only place we can go to, Go and be together as a family, was a New York City homeless shelter. So a day that began very normal. Ended up with me, my six siblings, mom and dad, walking into shelter with all of our possession fitting into a 30 gallon trash bag, 13 gallon trash bag with room to spare.
And it's where my grandmother's words become really meaningful to me. It's in those moments when you start to reflect, you know, how did I get there? And, what's in you come out. And one of the words my grandmother used to say to me, apart from the fact that she would look at me and say, Grace, you have lengthened my years and you have blessed my eyesight.
I told you I was her favorite, but her most treasured words to me were believe beyond your limits. You know, she [00:08:00] believed. That you should never plan your goals and your dreams based on your current circumstances. In fact, she would tell me your current circumstances really don't have the capacity to hold all of your potentials, your gifts, your talents, and your treasures.
Wow. And those words came to me at a time when I felt the lowest and very discouraged. So while I live in a homeless shelter, the homeless shelter did not live in me. And that tenacity to keep going forward, I completed my undergraduate degree at Pace University on time with good grades because I Thanks to the support of my parents, my grandmother, of course, I was able to keep focused.
But the reason why this resonates today with me is that today I have the great opportunity of advising on very critical issues. [00:09:00] insurance transactions. And when I go into a boardroom of an insurance company, I tell my clients and, that I am just not an insurance, advisor. I am an advocate for insurance.
advocate for financial wellness and financial security. Because had my family had insurance that, and a safety net, that fire could have restored, been an opportunity to restore dreams and give us a brand new home. So I know the meaning of insurance and the impact it has on many, many lives. So I bring a passion to work of what I do.
And I just love work I do so happy to talk to you about the deals.
Corey Kupfer: No, that's great. So how did you get into the deal space? And, you know, at all? So obviously, you know, as somewhere in this journey from where you just left us to where you jumped [00:10:00] to, and I love the fact that you have this driver, this passion, right?
You know, one of the things I love to do, I always say to folks, like anybody I do business with, whether it's in business, whether it's, it's the reason why I represent so many, you know, entrepreneurial growing companies. Cause you know, the people with a vision and have a passion to why, the person who cooks for us is like, she's, she left engineering to become a chef, right?
Because she is passionate about. Making food for other people in the way and that passion she puts into the food, right? So like for me, it's a passion of mine to have passionate people around me in my life So I love that. So how do you, so you get these, and also the other thing that struck me is, you know, I paid a hundred thousands and tens of thousands of dollars in personal growth courses and, you know, business growth courses to really get that message embedded in me that your grandmother gave you from day one.
Like this message that you can be anything, do anything, especially that your current circumstances do not dictate your future. You know, that's [00:11:00] something that, that a lot of people have to learn. So you had such a great start. So how did that propel you and what's the journey to you becoming a dealmaker?
Grace Vandecruze: Yes, so it propelled me to really continue taking one step forward every day towards my goal, just stay focused, just, you know, stick to your goal. So I knew I wanted to be an accountant because when I was in high school, my, I did an aptitude test at the end of the test, the counselor came out and said, you should I majored in either accounting or Spanish.
So I was perplexed by both. I knew some Spanish, didn't know what accounting was. And I'm always attracted to, learning more or the complex. And I said, Oh, it's a little bit mysterious. Let me do that. That I got a perfect score in the regions and the head of my accounting department was also an adjunct professor at Pace [00:12:00] University.
So off Pace I went, I continued, I finished my undergrad at the time. Degree and time. And I, and then I went to work for EY, which is an aucting firm. I worked for five years and realized, although I had a career, the work was becoming monotonous and it wasn't challenging enough. And I started to learn about Wall Street.
I went to, the Wharton Business School. I had an excellent time. I had the best, one of the best two years of my life, I must say at Wharton, just learning so much. And I had the privilege of interning between my first and second year at, Merrill Lynch in their investment banking group. I worked like I'd never worked in my life.
I mean, thought 80 hours a week was It's hard work. I mean, I worked 120 hours a week. There were nights I did an all nighter. I would, they'd [00:13:00] send my car home to my, you know, back to my parents. Sometimes I just had the car wait, I share it and change. But I was so, driven, by the complexities of the deal and it was so dynamic.
And what I always say is accounting, and the auditing work that I did was always looking backwards. You come in, you look at history. Circle numbers, and then you bless them, you audit them. But when you work in a mergers and acquisitions, it is so forward looking. It's the, you're in the strategic driver's seat of the company.
And it allows you to really direct, you know, the direction of the company. So it's, it was fascinating work for me. I got an offer after graduation and that's where I went.
Corey Kupfer: So do you remember the first deal you ever worked on? At all?
Grace Vandecruze: The first deal I ever worked on, well, it depends on what capacity. It's interesting as a, [00:14:00] as an associate, you work in many deals, right?
I've worked at so many, I worked on some bank finance deals, some insurance deals, and it was a lot of processing, the PowerPoints and so forth. But the deals that are meaningful to me are the deals where. I worked in the leadership capacity. I had the privilege of advising the clients and really, shape the way the transaction is viewed and shape the way investors view.
View the transactions and that to me is meaningful, particularly when I knew that the deal was actually going to have some rippling effects in the industry. So one example that I would give is the mutualizations of insurance companies. And that's a long word, but all it means is that an insurance company is transforming from a mutual company owned by the policyholders.
To a publicly traded company, through an [00:15:00] IPO and working in the IPO, I've had the privilege of working on the IPOs of MetLife, John Hancock, Prudential, Manulife, and Sunlife, Anthem, to name a few. And, with Prudential, I remember that deal very, very, carefully because I was advising the insurance commissioners on that deal, the insurance regulators.
Have to approve every transaction. And one of the things I remember, and I'll never forget, we sat in a room with the regulators and they looked at me and they said, we're concerned that Prudential's IPO will be based on a number that the board of directors determined. And I said, I don't think so.
That's not how an IPO price is determined, you know, there's a book building process. There's a roadshow. So I was able to get our head of capital markets to come in and do education and [00:16:00] the regulators were so supportive. In tune to learning more and understanding the process, and I really felt that I, added tremendous value to, to that IPO.
Another, IPO I'll never forget is when Anthem, which was a health insurance company in Indiana, demutualized. That company was subsequently acquired by WellPoint in California, but when they were demutualizing, it was monumental for us because it was the first major IPO after 9 11. And, it was, you know, talking about the market conditions, how, and how does the market reacts and investors sentiments and investors, And that feeling about an insurance company, post 9 11, you know, really, was played an impact in that transaction.
So it's dynamic, it is fast moving. It keeps you learning [00:17:00] new, concepts and ideas. And so I just love what I do.
Corey Kupfer: Yeah. I can tell. And it's interesting, like, I'm not, I won't profess to be an expert in that field like you are. Sure. But. I am aware of that, like that de mutualization process, like that was a, I'm not saying it still is now, but that was like a big trend for a while.
Like it used to be the default, you know, the majority way that insurance companies were owned was that they were owned by the policyholders, right? They were mutual. So, and that became like, I mean, you mentioned the number of the big players and I think, almost all of them, I mean, you know, is there, is it like what percent, are there any significant ones that are still, you
Grace Vandecruze: know, you know, in Actually, Cory, you brought up a great point.
So after that wave of demutualization, for the most part, you know, the big companies demutualized, but for the most part, that was it. Okay. There were a few public offerings, but weren't as significant. And many companies, most of the insurance industry, have stayed private, either privately held stock company or mutual insurance companies.
If you look [00:18:00] at, North, Northwest, is a, Mutual, you look at New York Life, Mass Mutual is a mutual. So there are a number of very prominent mutual companies.
Corey Kupfer: Yeah. There was this big wave, I remember, you know, and, very interesting.
Yeah. So, and then there's also been, you know, you also work on M& A transactions in the space, right?
And that's, you know, that's been, there's been some significant consolidation and acquisitions effect. You know, doing so much in the investment advisor space, there are certain things, even in terms of deal structures and trends, because the investment advisor space is less mature in terms of its deal.
Although now the private equity money has come in and deals are, Like, it's been crazy the last several years, but it's, you know, the insurance industry had happened sooner. So talk about, talk a little bit about, the M& A side and the role you played. And also, we left you at a big firm there and we haven't gotten to, like, where you're about to get.
Give us both, you know, talk about the M& A, talk about your evolution in that as well.
Grace Vandecruze: [00:19:00] Yes. Let's talk a bit about the insurance landscape and what's driving M& A. So the insurance landscape in the United States is the most developed in the world. But it's also the, well, very fragmented. So on the life side, we've got the top 10 companies own about, 55 percent of the market share.
And then you've got over, 800 companies fighting for the other 45%. Wow. PNC side, it's even more, dramatic, where the top 10, own, 55%, and over 3, 000 companies are fighting for the 45%. Wow. Wow. market share. And there are lots of drivers compelling companies to merge. One is, there's a higher need for capital because of innovation and technology investment.
Also rating agencies are requiring higher levels of capital. So are regulators. And then, [00:20:00] also more importantly, many insurance companies, some of them don't have a CEO succession plan. And, one dramatic story that happened about, five years ago, two insurance companies voluntarily submitted their license back to the regulators and said, we quit.
You know, we're a small company, didn't have a CEO succession plan, went out on a sale, Process could not find a buyer, so we voluntarily are, we submitted your, our license back. That is pretty dramatic. So, as a result of these compelling drivers, M& A continues to, flourish. In the industry. And right now, it's a bit not as busy as it was last year because everyone is looking at the high interest rate environment.
However, there are lots of discussions. I always say in the insurance industry, there's a long gestation period. No one, [00:21:00] everyone is risk averse and one, you know, you want to be very careful, but it is, a fairly ripe industry for additional M& A because it could be used as a panacea for growth.
Corey Kupfer: I know there's been a lot of discussion out in the general media and in various places about, you know, The relationship of two things in a certain way, but I don't want to focus on generally, I want to see if there's an M& A impact. Obviously, you know, for the, the PNC carriers, whatever, you know, the impact of climate change and weather events and that kind of stuff, right?
Whatever has been discussed ad nauseum and there's been insurance folks that have pulled out of certain states, right? Because of certain risks and things like that. So I don't want to talk about it generally because that's not what this podcast is about, but has that also been a driver for, deals because of the risk involved in that?
Grace Vandecruze: That is, it's a driver. And one of the things I would [00:22:00] say about catastrophe, I remember when I was young in my career, we started a major reinsurance company in Bermuda. And the CEO back then would say, look, you know, for every 11 years. We can go 10 years without a major catastrophe, but the 11th year it will hit us.
Now, we've had year after year, 10 consecutive year of high catastrophe. So, the insurance industry is really concerned about that. And it's redirected where capital is going, how they're riding risk, where they're riding risk. It's the price they're paying, the consumers paying for that risk. And so yes, that's a major driver.
Corey Kupfer: Yeah. You know, doing as much M& A as we do in various industries, you know, any kind of challenge change in circumstance, right? Big event is usually a driver, right? It's, you know, like, there are people who either have better anticipated it or react to it better [00:23:00] or better suited to weather it.
And then those who aren't so that, you know, it's a question that I assume, you know, that was the case. So interesting. So I know that, one of your many deals you worked on was a deal with Warren Buffett, who was, it was also, it was known in the insurance space, right? So, tell us, you know, anything, a little bit about that, what that he said, whatever you can talk about.
Grace Vandecruze: Absolutely, I can talk about the deal. It was a company, I was advising a company by the name of Commercial Travelers. And, it was a non corporate company. core company to its parent company. So commercial travelers focus on, healthcare insurance to students and including college students.
However, its parent company did mainly burial insurance policies. So they're like, do not call me up. We've got this company. It's non core. Can be, can you help us find a buyer? What really intrigued me, Corey, was when I started to look into the history of this [00:24:00] company, I was super excited. This company wrote policies from the Titanic.
Wow. Right. Because commercial travelers, they were insuring traveling salesmen. And so they had these policies from the Titanic. And then as the market changed, they pivoted to insuring college students and K 12 and so forth. So I was like, wow, policy, you know, this is a rich, this company has a rich, rich history.
history. And like any M& A transaction, after assessing the company, seeing what valuation range that it might be, one of the key exercises is looking at potential buyers. So we put together potential buyers list. And one of the things I did was I looked at the competitive landscape. And this company, it was number seven in the market of the health insurance of students.
And as we looked, [00:25:00] we realized that Berkshire Hathaway had a market share in this industry. And so I called up, Ajit Jain, Ajit is, Warren's, point man in the insurance industry. He's mentioned all the time on annual meetings and so forth. So I called Ajit. He answered the phone and I explained, I told him that my company and whom I'm advising, I had met Edgy twice, but I just felt, let's focus on, the deal at hand.
And, I explained my, the company And what the company does, and I said, would you be interested? And he said, it sounds interested, interesting. Why don't you call? And he gave me another person to call. And he said, wait a minute, before you hang up. Why did you call us? I said, well, Ajit, commercial travelers is number seven, and you are number four in the market.
And if you [00:26:00] acquire my client, you'll be number one. He said, well, that's a good reason. And Berkshire Hathaway purchased it, but they, of course, they do a little diligence and we had negotiations, but they purchased that transaction. I love telling that story because one aspect of the story was the night before I called Warren Buffett, how excited I was.
I was scared and excited. I was terrified what could wait for the next day. I was terrorcitis. I was terrorcited. But you know, that is how we grow as individuals. This is a story. And this our clients, this is how we give the best deals by looking beyond, you know, the normal, potential buyers, Warren Buffet that loved to bo to boast that he acquires one out of every, I think he [00:27:00] said this was 260 deals he looks at.
Well, I'm glad. One of Well, that one was my deal. .
Corey Kupfer: Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. What a great story.
So, how did you end up with your own firm, talking to you, sort of left us at Merrill. Yeah. So, yeah,
Grace Vandecruze: absolutely. Great question. So after Merrill Lynch, I eventually started working for, and then for Swiss3.
Who had acquired Boutique Investment Bank and I was part of the bank and that's how we did much, much of the initializations that I told you about. I then was promoted to Managing Director and I was the first, African American and the first woman promoted in my division for Managing Director. Toy Mall, chaos hit.
It seems like chaos. So in my last three years of managing director, we were sold, my division was sold four times. Wow. Four times.
Corey Kupfer: In three years, four times. [00:28:00]
Grace Vandecruze: In three years. Wow. And so I had four times of calling clients saying, yes, this transaction happened. We're still committed to you. But lurking at the back of my mind.
Was, you know, this is a lot of stress, a lot of distractions. I still have to manage a balance sheet and the fourth time I'm at my desk and, I'm like, I'm going to do this. It's just like it started as a thought and then it just became like a little, tiny voice that became louder and louder.
There's a lot of courage that it takes to start your own company, particularly on such grand level. However, I'm also a mountain climber, and I climb over 25 mountain peaks on three different continents. And every time I climb a mountain, it's not only the physical strength it gives me, but most importantly, it's the [00:29:00] mental tenacity and resilience that I'm building all the time.
And I looked at it like a mountain climbing journey. And I'm like, I'm going to take the courage. And one day, the defining day, I think it was the last day of my work, I called all my clients and I said, I'm thinking of starting my own firm. Will you support me? And a hundred percent said yes. And that's how Grace Global Capital was birthed.
Corey Kupfer: I love that. I mean, I love the Asheville story. I love the mountain climbing. I don't climb mountains, but I'll tell you, You and I, there's a lot of sort of, I talk about mindset on this podcast a lot, right? Cause I think everything's lots of mindset and you and I have very aligned mindsets. One of the things I only have one phobia in life and that's heights and every few years I.
bungee jump or I, you know, recall off a cliff or I, you know, skydive or whatever. And everybody's like, why do you do that? If you have a phobia, I'm like, because I don't like having [00:30:00] anything limiting me. And then people say, oh, so then you get over it. I'm like, no I'm scared like crazy every time I do this.
Or I just want, I don't want to have anything limiting me. I want to break through it. And that's exactly what you said. When I'm in a tough situation in business or in life or whatever, I hark back to that time I leaned back off that mountain to repel, right? Afraid, I mean, you know, it's funny, because for me, actually, repelling backwards off a mountain was scarier than jumping out of a plane.
Because first of all, you jump out of a plane, you got an instructor harnessed to you. But also, it's just like, you're trusting, you know, it's like a trust fall off a mountain. But in any case, my point is that I draw upon that. Literally, I will, put myself back in that situation.
And it's like, okay, if I can move forward through my toughest phobia,
Grace Vandecruze: Absolutely. I always say, people say to me, aren't you scared when you're climbing a mountain? Of course. If you didn't, if you weren't fearful, you wouldn't be human. It is a natural protective mechanism that we have, [00:31:00] but we have to learn to navigate life, taking, bring fear, self doubt, along with hope.
It's fair determination, resilience along with us. The question is, who is going to be the strongest voice? It's going to be the, faith, hope, resilience, determination, tenacity will be the strongest voice I'm taking into my day every single day. But I know that when self doubt comes, I welcome it, but it's not the loudest voice that I'm listening to.
I
Corey Kupfer: love that. So, do you do, You know, well sleep by side, cell side, combination, talk to us about that.
Grace Vandecruze: It's a combination, but mainly cell side.
Corey Kupfer: And, so talk to us a little bit about, you know, obviously I'm sure we can speak for hours and we don't have anywhere near hours left on, you know, specifics on how many deals in the insurance space and other deals, but, you know, just are there any highlights of what's different?
I mean, again, I know, like I sort of mentioned [00:32:00] one already. It's just different when you're doing deals in a regulated industry, right? Cause you have that factor. But whether it's anything specific to that or other things, you know, a trends in the, specifically in insurance. Space deals, you know, what's interesting right now or what?
Grace Vandecruze: What's exciting. What's interesting is the innovation in the space. You know, the insurance industry has many, many pain points. And, in addition to being an advisor in the insurance industry, I sit on two insurance company boards. So I have that perspective of what's happening. When acting in the strategic direction of the boardroom, and I think I the wave of innovation, where are the insured tech companies or companies just looking to transform the way they do business?
The, the speed. Eliminating the paid points for the customers and really transforming the customer journey because our cus customers really have. I have gotten used to an [00:33:00] Amazon like experience. The insurance industry is not, but that's changing. The second, I think one of the major things that I see is the, age of AI and how that's being embedded into the insurance system.
process to understand the customers, but to really increase the speed and it's been embraced by the industry. And I think it's going to make a dramatic difference in the industry. And then the third trend I see is the focus on what I call the human capital, the focus on talent. We are in an industry that's.
Aging in terms of talent, and it's so important for us to recruit, retain and build, our talent industry. And much of that building will be up, upscaling the talent, really. shifting the talent. So, for example, when I first started [00:34:00] in the insurance industry, there were very siloed organizations. You know, you're starting claims, you go up in claims, you start in, in revenues and so forth, sales, you go up in there and so forth.
Now, what we're seeing is a work Or set really loves a multifunctional role. Can I work in claims today and sales tomorrow and an IT and really keeping themselves, very much, in tune to new, ideas and technology, in the company. And, you know, that kind of agile workforce is making a big difference in terms of, innovation in the, at the company level and in the industry.
Corey Kupfer: Love it. I can't say any specifics because it's, you know, it's not public yet, but I've got a good friend who's working on, a very significant AI thing in the insurance industry, which I could, see the availability of it. You know, and this is. This really can be easily be multi billions dollars.
It [00:35:00] is not some pie in the sky thing. It is like, you know, and again, I don't want to get too far into it because I want to be so opaque, but it is a, one of those clear pain points that AI can solve specifically for insurance companies, you know, around certain things. And, And, yeah, it's just a, it's just a huge opportunity.
And, you know, and obviously whenever, again, even this technological change, that's often a driver for deals as well, right? Because some people, you know, like if somebody gets an advantage on that, then the other people either have to say, especially as well players, Hey, Do I figure out a way out, a way to compete with that and build it internally?
Well, that's probably gonna be tough. Maybe it's time to, you know, to combine into somebody who has that capability where already. So I don't have to myself.
Grace Vandecruze: That's an excellent point in two ways. Number one, in an ATE transaction, the technology becomes critical and important. So, if you have a technology that another company wants.
That's going to, your acquisition value increases exponentially. And one of the [00:36:00] things that Microsoft, as an example taught us, Microsoft's value has accreted 1 trillion in one year, specifically due to its investment in OpenAI. And a trillion in a year, You know, tells you what other companies, can accrete values to that.
So I think that's one part. And I was at a course, at MIT in collaboration with EY, specifically on, on, AI. And one of the observations I made and the room sort of like took note and agreed, but, that's based on my observation is that when you, when we look for CEOs and what are some of the capabilities of CEOs in the past, no one looked at the CIO as a possibility of being a CEO.
But Changing that. If you have a C, CIO with [00:37:00] great strategic vision and that has, implemented, the innovation in the organization that is impressive, that is your next CEO. And so I, I see that those two trends.
Corey Kupfer: Love it. So tell us a little bit about your book, Homeless to Millionaire, Six Keys to Uplift Your Financial Abundance.
Grace Vandecruze: Yes, so, we remember vividly, COVID and the George Floyd situation, and I remember I was super busy with work, because that increased during COVID, I'm grateful to that. However, over and over as a loop, The George Floyd situation, played. And, prior to COVID, I had written this book, but didn't publish it.
Just had it on the shelf. And when you write a financial empowerment book, there are always ways you can edit and re edit and so forth. However, it occurred to me that the origin of the George Floyd story was an economic story of [00:38:00] someone who presented a 20 bill and it cascaded from there. That ultimately, he was murdered and I wanted to shift the conversation to financial empowerment.
What can we do as individuals to really up level where we are financially? And I also wanted to write a book that honored my grandmother. But one that she would understand. Yes. So taking lessons from mountain climbing, knowing that the financial journey is like climbing a mountain one step at a time, I created a roadmap starting from doing an inventory financially, but not your typical inventory that you do at a financial advisor.
This is a mental inventory of your relationship with money. What's your first money memory? Let's talk about that because most of us, regardless of where we are financially, are suffering from financial [00:39:00] PTSD. Most of us have some kind of lost or fraud, scarcity, and lack relating to money, some type of trauma.
And they're embedded in their subconscious and shape the way. We treat money at this time, and I wanted to start the conversation and have a community really shift from that mindset of scarcity to a mindset of possibilities of abundance because money is abundant. Abundantly flowing out there, and really rewrite your money story.
And knowing that wealth is your birthright, success is your birthright, and abundance is your birthright.
Corey Kupfer: Oh, boy, do I love that. And like I said, you know, mindset wise, but like you and I speak the same language because, and I did a lot of work, you know, I grew up I've shared this a little bit.
You know, we weren't poor growing up. We always had food on the table and the light stayed [00:40:00] on. And I had a roof over my head, but we were low middle class. Just paycheck to paycheck, you know, and we very well could have, if my dad lost his job or, you know, we had a health thing that went, but like we could have, you know, it could have been really bad.
We just, we're just lucky that never happened. So it was always on the edge, but we always, you know, so I came from that and there was a lot of work around money, relationship to money, the whole thing, you know, money doesn't grow on trees, all these scarcity kind of conversations.
I have visions of my father, literally these are back in the days where he physically cashed his paycheck into cash and he put money in one envelope for rent and one for food and whatever. And like, you know, well the dollars were running out in the food, but you know, the food, we didn't go out to eat, we didn't do any of that stuff.
So, you know, that's, that's where I come from and, you know, at every level of success I've had, there's been work I, would do around my relationship to money to be able to hold it home in that, that next level, even up to a decade or so ago when a phenomenal, there's a woman, Barbara Yuson, Barbara Sanney, she's not Barbara Yuson.
She's written a lot of, you know, empowerment books around, around money [00:41:00] and she's a friend of my wife's. And, and she had a one conversation with me and she was like, Oh, because you know, you make a lot of, you, you know how to make a lot of money. So you really know how to get income.
You don't know how to build wealth, but you know how to, you know how to generate income. Right. And for me, the income would come in and then it would go out and then, you know, a bit of these ups and downs, ups and downs. And that, that one distinction, even the, decade of 12 years ago, whenever that was put the switch in my mind after even all the money I did, I was like, Oh, wait a second.
She's right. And I've since been able to build a lot more wealth because it wasn't a matter of like, it doesn't, building wealth is, you would think it's correlated to how much money you're making. Yes. Obviously it's easier to build wealth the more you make. But the truth is, if you spend as much as you make or you invest and lose or you, whenever, or you stop, you know, you have circumstances where you make an accident and it really drops, you know, it's easy not to build wealth.
So in any case, I won't go too far into my story, but I just want to say like the work you're doing in that book and the message that you're bringing around that is so crucial and I too come from an abundance [00:42:00] mentality. So you know, it's,
Grace Vandecruze: yeah. So here's a book, Homeless the Millionaire. There you go.
Corey Kupfer: Anybody who's watched the video, you can see it. Your
Grace Vandecruze: Financial Abundance.
Corey Kupfer: Yeah. So check it out. So, all right. So that'll roll me into my second to last question, which is people want to find out more about you. So where can they find the book? Where can they find out more about your company? What are the various places they can go?
Grace Vandecruze: So, the book is sold on BindBook stores, but the biggest one is Amazon, so you can get it on Amazon. You can find out more about my M& A work at GraceGlobalCapital. com and more about my financial empowerment work at Financial Abundance with Grace.
Corey Kupfer: Love that. Final question on the podcast, Grace, is always about my highest value in life, my highest ideal, which is freedom.
And for me, that means everything from, freedom from oppression for all people around the world to why I'm an entrepreneur and I haven't had a boss in decades. What does freedom mean to you and how does it impact your life and business?
Grace Vandecruze: Sure. Freedom means to me, love and the [00:43:00] passion to do what I'd like to do, but most important, my option of leaving a living legacy.
And I love to be free. I'm on my, I just completed my first anniversary last, yesterday. I got married last year to the love of my life. And that is so amazing. I am just filled with so much love and the passion, my work and what I do working with insurance company in a way that really adds value to people, the mission driven of insurance.
I could not work in a more noble industry, which is. Fantastic. And the legacy is I'm more important of what I can leave behind. I work, my passion of legacy is in education. I sit on the board of the Wharton School. I, and endow a number of scholarships, many in the name of my grandmother, and nothing feels me more [00:44:00] fulfilled and give me more joy at seeing the impact on other people's lives.
Based on my work.
Corey Kupfer: Love it. I love it. Listen, service mentality, look at the legacy, make an impact that all resonates with me. I'm thrilled for you that you've met the love of your life. I am about to celebrate, my 22nd anniversary, with the love of my life, in August. So, yeah, there's nothing like having a phenomenal partnership, To drive, you know, with aligned values to drive all those other things as well.
Grace, listen, I so appreciate you coming on the podcast, for being such a great guest, not only in terms of helping us to understand something specific around deals in the insurance space, but all also. All the wisdom that you brought, starting with the wisdom that was brought to you from your grandmother.
Grace Vandecruze: Thank you so much, Corey. And many more success and blessings to you and your listeners. Looking forward to talking to you soon.
