Q2 '25 in Review
“And the whistle signals halftime as the teams make their way to the lockerrooms.”
2025 is shaping up to be a great year, a return to normalcy that the Taylors haven’t seen in quite some time. While the whole world experienced the upheaval that COVID meant for us all, not everyone followed that with having a baby deep into their 40s. While we count our new addition as nothing but a blessing, her arrival meant some big changes to our life’s direction.
My wife Sheya and I live by a philosophy called “A Life Less Ordinary.” It’s a phrase we use to remind ourselves that the beauty and enjoyment of our life together is made up of small choices made minute by minute. At every moment, we can choose ordinary, or we can choose something just a little bit better and the sum total of those choices build a beautiful life that’s fun to live and share with others.
This year, we have been able to step back into a life informed by our choices and not dictated by the world at large, or the world created by small hands and big joy. In my ongoing effort to be present with the living of this life, I offer my Q2 of 25 review.
Travel (and what it taught me)
NYC
We have a tradition in our firm that if you send 10 years with us, you and your spouse get to choose a destination anywhere in the country for Sheya and I to take you, spoil you, and say thanks for your service to the company. This year, our COO, Robert Rodriguez, and his wife, Megan, whom we love, celebrate 10 years and they chose NYC for their trip. They had never been so we had this unique challenge of building a trip for them that sort of balanced the major sites and still preserved some fresh take on visiting such an incredible place. We had a blast, spent time at our favorite restaurants, tried some new ones, walked our feet sore, and had a few too many on more than one occasion. The whole weekend was a celebration and appreciation of how much we love them, how much we appreciate them in our lives, and in our business. As we were in the car headed to the airport, we had just come out of the tunnel and I heard the wife whisper “I miss it already.” He later told me that the trip had convinced them that they could travel to New York without hesitation and they have plans to bring their son, too. That was the highest compliment we could have received. The greatest joys in life are often found in introducing people to the people, places and things that set your spirit on fire.
Montana
Several years ago a member of my Board, Jerry Daniels, sold his company and made enough money that he wouldn’t have to work for several dozen lifetimes. I’ve been through this process with many friends in the past, and it puts a different type of spin on the relationship. I thought that my friend would outgrow our relationship and I didn’t hold that against him. We all like to hang out with people who can do what we can do (check your friend list, you don’t have anyone that you spend time with that has 1/5 of your income, or 5x it either), but this guy is different. He recently bought a ranch in Montana (literally next door to the Yellowstone Ranch from TV), and invited our entire Board to visit with spouses for a week. He arranged everything from the food, to massages, to a day of shooting, custom cowboy hats, anything and everything at all that would prove to us individually that he loved and appreciated us. We spent a week being pampered and surrounded by the majesty of God’s creation that is Montana. I didn’t think I’d much care of the Big Sky life but sign me up, and when you do remind me that we only ever need enough to enjoy the time we have with each other!
Atlanta
Several years ago I met a friend, Kathryn Valentine, and we had this instant connection around the theme of motherhood with me sharing stories of how my Mom made time for things we loved as boys, and her sharing a steely-eyed commitment to being a mother to her own boys. She works with Fortune 500 companies consulting and teaching them how to empower women in negotiations. I have begun to notice that women have different styles of negotiation in my own business and I asked my friend if she would do something to edify them. I had no budget for the ask but made it shamelessly nonetheless. She agreed but asked if she could spend an evening with me to discuss several business challenges she was having and so we did that thing. She taught my ladies just how important their negotiation styles can be in achieving their work and life goals, and I helped her with insights into her business that she might have overlooked. True friends pitch in and help each other when the ask is sincere and the impact is assured.
Thomasville
Sheya and I were married at a plantation in Thomasville, about an hour from where we live now. Each year for our anniversary, we tend to take a trip but if we can, we sneak in a meal at the restaurant that hosted our Rehearsal Dinner (Liam’s, iykyk). This year, we celebrated 18 years (I’m like what?!) and had dinner at Liam’s. We are caught up in the thick of it, and don’t often have time or take time to revisit the happy memories. When we do hit pause for a minute, though, the happy memories come flooding back and we never think about the tough times.
Las Vegas
Not everyone is blessed with good family, but I have been. One uncle in particular, Tony Peugh, has always invested himself in my life, cared about what I cared about, loved those I loved, had fun when it was time, and mourned with me when it was time for that, too. He called me once when I was so low and hollowed out that I could barely form sentences to check on me. I have no idea what was said but he was by my side 2 hours later with a truckload of furniture that had suddenly become necessary. He took off work and stayed with me for 5 days, no questions asked. When I apologized for being a wreck he said: ”Feel your feelings and use my strength until you’ve found your own,” and cried with me over a love gone wrong. Last year as my family struggled through the aftermath of grief, I flew to Birmingham to have a day with him. He knew the days were long and the nights longer for us, and when he met the plane he had a suitcase packed and jumped onboard ready to come home with me. No agenda, no plan, just bringing his loving presence into a house that was hurting. When he left I told the kids “Live your life in such a way that your presence is the present you give others.”
I found out he was going to Vegas for the week to celebrate his birthday recently and I conspired with his husband and flew my plane out to surprise him. He was shocked and when we talked later I told him that I wanted my presence to be his present, echoing the words I shared with my kids. We had dinner, spend the entire day in the spa, had some libations and I flew home refreshed in my soul.
Paris and Champagne with Sheya and Friends
Sheya hasn’t been out of the country since 2020, and has been to Europe since 2018. We pride ourselves on making these kind of trips regularly but with life happening, we haven’t pulled it together. This year a friend let me know that his house in Champagne was going to be available for a single week and it was ours if we wanted it. I surprised Sheya with the trip as a Christmas present and then invited 2 dear friends, Jimmy and Elizabeth Tullis, to go along with us. We hired a driver who was also a sommelier and knew the wineries inside and out. We spent a couple of days in Paris, lunched at Le Bon Georges, went on a midnight speakeasy tour, bought the most expensive purse in the world at Louis Vuitton, and then journeyed to Champagne for a week. We visited 16 wineries (Veuve Cliquot, Pommmery, Moet & Chandon, Maison Ruinart, Pol Roger and Nicholas Feuillate among many others), ate at 3 Michelin Starred restaurants and 2 Bib Gourmands, and had a blast touring cellars and making new friends. We were invited to a street party by the vignerons, did private cellar tastings with guys producing less than 10k bottles a year, met their friends, and really felt welcomed. We returned to Paris for a couple of days before flying out during the midst of a heat wave unlike anything they’v ever seen before. This was my 26th trip to Paris, I know the city well but it never fails to surprise with some new treat. Traveling with friends is fun, traveling with really good friends is a different level of fun altogether.
Intellectual Pursuits
Published Un Ceo Solo Hace Tres Cosas
My publisher did a deep dive into the sales of my book A CEO Only Does Three Things late last year and realized that we were seeing a good number of purchases from Latin American countries, and even Latinos in the US. He asked me to consider publishing a translation of the book in Spanish, and we simultaneously released the book and the Audible book last quarter. In this country, Latinos found a large percentage of new businesses started each year and they are in the same trap that most CEOs are in: they never studied to be a CEO, it just happened. My hope is that a book written in their own native tongue can help them overcome the challenges that bedevil us as CEOs when we lose sight of what our actual role is within our companies.
Reading
Reset: How to Change What’s Not Working by Dan Heath. Systems rule the world. Most times when someone looks to reform the way things are going, they miss the fact that uprooting and replacing a system is so very difficult. For this reason, most reforms and resets simply fail to materialize meaningful change. Dan Heath’s book recognizes this and offers a pragmatic blueprint for achieving impactful change without overhauling entire systems. He introduces a two-step framework: First, identify "leverage points", small, strategic areas where minimal effort can yield significant results; Second, "restack resources" by reallocating time, energy, and attention to these high-impact areas. Progress stems not from working harder but from working smarter, making it a valuable read for leaders and teams seeking sustainable improvement.
Barbarians at the Gate, by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar. This is the definitive account of the 1988 leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco, one of the largest and most dramatic in history. Originally published in 1989 the book details the ego-driven, greed-soaked battle for control between RJR Nabisco’s CEO F. Ross Johnson, the private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), and a cast of Wall Street's most ruthless players. At stake was not just the company, but the soul of American capitalism at the peak of the 1980s corporate raiding frenzy. Johnson tried to engineer a management buyout to take RJR private, but his plan unleashed a bidding war that spiraled into absurdity—fueled by consultants, investment bankers, and lawyers who were all too happy to escalate the price in exchange for their cut. KKR ultimately won with a bid of $25 billion, though the deal left everyone bloodied and the company in a worse position than when it started. The book reads like a thriller, but it’s all fact—and it remains one of the best case studies on hubris, corporate excess, and the dangers of misaligned incentives in business leadership.
Seminars
The Be Generative workshop was created by Brent Robertson who developed this approach to transform how leaders engage in conversations and foster meaningful connections within their organizations after working as a management consultant and observing just how poorly most of us listen at work. His program emphasizes the power of deep, intentional listening as a catalyst for personal and organizational growth. Generative Listening, in his mind, is the discipline of listening not to respond or solve, but to let something new emerge. Most of us people listen through filters, confirming what they already know or waiting for their turn to speak, but this workshop teaches you to suspend that instinct. You learn to move through four levels: downloading, factual, empathic, and finally generative, where you’re listening from the whole system, not just your own corner of it. It requires real presence: the ability to sit in silence without rushing to fill it, and to stay open even as your own thoughts try to take over. In practice, this means noticing your reactions without acting on them and giving the other person space to unfold. The exercises are deceptively simple—just conversation—but they surface blind spots in how we usually relate. At its core, the workshop teaches that deep change begins not with action, but with listening so well that the other person hears something they’ve never said before.
Watching
I was happy to see that new episodes of the Bear were coming out … until I watched them. This has to be the most frustrating show ever made. There is so much promise in the message—that in the pursuit of excellence, we find our squad, work out our own problems, overcome and achieve—but that isn’t the show these guys are writing. Instead, it’s a soupy mix these cretins who can’t figure out their own emotions. It’s like watching the adult version of My So Called Life but sort of set in a restaurant? The lead actor has a face that’s so punchable with his double-chin and constantly open mouth that I cannot care at all that he gets a girlfriend and loses her (seriously one of the subplots).
The 2024 film Widow Clicquot offers a dramatized portrayal of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot's life, La Grand Damme of Champagne, emphasizing her resilience in a male-dominated industry. While the film captures the essence of her journey, it takes creative liberties, focusing more on romantic elements and visual aesthetics than on historical accuracy. In contrast, Mazzeo's 2008 biography, The Widow Clicquot: The Story of a Champagne Empire and the Woman Who Ruled It, provides a detailed account of Veuve Cliquot’s innovations in champagne production, such as the riddling process, perfection of Rose, and the invention of vintage champagne, and her strategic business acumen during the Napoleonic era. Mazzeo's work delves into the socio-political challenges of the time, offering a comprehensive view of her impact on the champagne industry. For those seeking a nuanced understanding of her legacy, the book presents a more in-depth exploration compared to the film's romanticized narrative.