Building Unbreakable Brands

Meghan Lynch (00:00):
Some families hope their values will pass themselves on, but the families that endure across generations tend to have someone, a quiet architect, who designs for connection on purpose. In today's episode, you'll hear from someone who has spent her life as part of two deeply influential enterprising families and has made it her mission to understand what actually keeps families strong over time. We talk about the simple practices that build multi-generational connection and explore the tools she personally created to keep younger generations engaged, even as the family becomes larger and more dispersed. And of course, Henry joins us with his questions about famous last names and holiday traditions. All this and more coming up on this episode of Building Unbreakable Brands. Welcome to Building Unbreakable Brands, the podcast where we talk to business leaders with a generational mindset. I'm Megan Lynch. I'm an advisor to family businesses and CEO of Six Point Strategy, which helps generational brands honor their past while evolving for the future.

(01:22):
My guest today is Mitzi Perdue, who is a speaker, writer, businesswoman, the widow of Frank Perdue, and the daughter of the founder of the Sheridan Hotel Chain, Ernest Henderson. Welcome, Mitzi. I'm so glad to have you on the show.

Mitzi Purdue (01:38):
Actually, what a joy to be on this show and especially your interests so parallel what I like to talk about. So this is perfect.

Meghan Lynch (01:46):
I love it. I'm very excited. And one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the show was we had first connected and met when you were speaking about the Purdue family newsletter that you write and send out to the family. And I just thought it was such a great example of intentional stewardship of family stories and family legacy. So I was hoping you could talk a little bit about why you first started to write the newsletter, like what inspired that and kind of where it's gone since.

Mitzi Purdue (02:24):
Perfect. Let's start with why I began writing it. I've been writing a family newsletter since Frank Perdue and I first married, which was 1988. But a few years into it, it became really clear to me, just from studying and looking around the world, that if you really want the kids and the family to treasure being part of a family business, part of a family legacy, don't spring it on them at age 21. Nope. Get them while they're young. And so I thought, here I am writing this newspaper for grownups. What if I wrote a newsletter for kids and I'd make it real simple, like short sentences, no multi-syllabic words, things that a kid could get. And it was aimed at age four to 12. And maybe I can best answer it by giving you an example of one of the newsletters.

Meghan Lynch (03:20):
I love that. Yeah, yeah.

Mitzi Purdue (03:22):
Okay. I'm going to mention since Thanksgiving is coming up. With Thanksgiving, we have a family tradition that goes back. The company started in 1920 and we haven't been having Thanksgivings that long, but we've had them a long time. And one of the traditions for years was the late matriarch of the company, Mamadou Purdue. Mamadou would make her fabulous Thanksgiving biscuits and she'd make them and the family would gather around and the kids would get to see her and everybody's eager to eat her biscuits. But the really special thing about it from my point of view was she'd flip up the batter and then she'd put it on a baking sheet, cover the baking sheet with aluminum foil, drop the biscuits on it, bake it, ruin the biscuits after they're cooked. And the special thing is, after she'd removed the biscuits and brushed the crumbs off, she'd wash it with dishwasher fluid and dry it and reuse it.

(04:28):
Now, what's special from my point of view, every newsletter I write has a message of culture, who we are and how we do things. And that message was, we're a family that doesn't waste and she reuses aluminum foil and we're ecological. We don't waste nature's bounty. And so between being frugal and ecological, the newsletter where I told the story of mommy doing and how her wonderful biscuits were made with lumen that was reused. Well, that, in my opinion, it probably gets you pretty far in communicating to kids that we're a frugal family, that we get our identity through service, not through spending. The story probably counts, but I thought we could take it a step further and I'm going to show you what I call a treasure chest. It is treasure chest. What I'm holding up here is, you're not seeing me, but are you seeing the treasure box?

Meghan Lynch (05:30):
Yes. Yep.

Mitzi Purdue (05:30):
Okay. In this treasure box, every newsletter that I send out, I have inside the treasure box, each kid gets one, and I have hundreds of these in storage to use for sending out newsletters. Each kid gets a present and kids like presents. And I've studied persuasion enough to know that when you've gotten a present, you almost can't help it. I mean, almost can't help it. You feel good. You feel that person's a pretty good person and maybe listen to them. When you're trying to embed a culture, it's really good to get the kids in a receptive frame of mind. Okay. Inside the treasure chest for that particular newsletter was a Ziploc bag with Mommy Du's recipe for biscuits in it. You just add water, but it also has a chef's toke and a chef's smoke. And the kids get to play dress up. But the sort of big message inside that particular box is a great big sheet of aluminum foil.

(06:37):
The kids get to make money dose biscuits and they talk with their grownup about what's it like to be frugal? Why do we care? Why is that one of the things that is a hallmark of our family? And that means that not only did they read the story, and I hope they remember the story, but they also had an hour of talking with their grownup about who we are and how we do things. And as they're whipping up these biscuits, they're wearing their chef's mocks and chef's hats. And the whole purpose is to teach the culture. And it's easy, easy, easy, easy to teach the culture when it's just you and your kids. How about when it's third generation or fourth generation or heck, second generation? If you're not all living together, this is a way of kind of bridging the distance. And with both families that I'm a member of, you mentioned that I was part of the hotel family.

(07:35):
And by the way, we sold the hotels when my father died, but we still invest as a family, so we're still a family business. In both cases, surprisingly, but there are family members from Maine to Seattle or to Washington, Washington DC. And so the newsletters just for me have been a really, really good way of embedding the culture.

(08:04):
I gave you. Bad Nitzi.

Meghan Lynch (08:07):
No, it was wonderful. I think it really helps it come to life. And I love that you're not just kind of telling a story at them, but also making it into an experience that they're having so that they're really living the story and applying the story in real time with their adults and hopefully it's coming to life for them so that they can start to see how it applies. I think it's just a really smart way to do it because I think oftentimes we can get very didactic about this is what we do and this is how it's done, but it's a lot different when you start to live it and experience

Mitzi Purdue (08:43):
It. Have some fun with it. And I actually, I believe I know that it's working because I know when we get together like for Thanksgiving or when we get together for ... Or just when we have get togethers, maybe it's wedding or something, I know that the kids get together, they talk about it. So it has an impact

Henry Lynch (09:02):
And

Mitzi Purdue (09:03):
A structured activity around a value that you're trying to instill in the kids, this has worked for us.

Meghan Lynch (09:09):
Yeah. I think that it's brilliant. And also as the family becomes more diffuse, it does also create that shared experience that cousins can have together who may not see each other very often, maybe once or twice a year, and kind of help build those bonds that they can use later in life.

Mitzi Purdue (09:29):
By the way, I did write a book on this, how to instill family values in your kids so they'll love it and it's on Amazon. And to find it, just go to my name Nitzi Purdue. I've lost account. I think I have 20 different newsletters with activities and costumes and just sort of fill in the blank newsletters.

Meghan Lynch (09:50):
Yeah. It's amazing. It's such a rich resource for families to read and then figure out how it applies to their own family and what values are important to them. And I think it's really great. I think also that families can assume that closeness will just happen naturally, that we don't have to do anything, but I think this newsletter idea shows that closeness and passing on those values really takes intention, especially as you mentioned, as families become larger, more diffuse. How do you think about that importance of intentionality around family relationships and connection and values?

Mitzi Purdue (10:31):
Okay. I'm going to say that in my opinion, it's just extraordinarily important to use a word that ... A big word, but I think applies, it's existentially important. I don't think your family survives if you leave it to accident. And for proof of that, the odds of a family making it a hundred years, which both my families have, is one in a thousand. Most families don't last. A very rough rule of thumb, I will accept that it's rough, is that with every generation, your chances of making it to the next generation are only a third. And do you know what causes most families to break up? It's not that they made bad investments or that their competitors took over. That happens, but it's a really small part of what causes a family breakup. The big thing is family quarrels. So in both my families, we put a huge effort on making sure that we didn't blow each other up by a huge family quarrel.

(11:37):
And I'm going to guess you're going to ask, how do you do that?

Meghan Lynch (11:41):
Yeah, absolutely.

Mitzi Purdue (11:42):
Okay. Both families, quarrels are inevitable. I believe there's no such thing as a family that doesn't quarrel. We all quarrel robustly, but the rule in both families is we don't take the quarrels public. And in the case of the Hendersons, the way we expressed it is we don't wash our dirty linen in public. And we had some rucious disagreements. Example, when we were deciding, I think it was 67, when my father died and there was a question of, do we keep the Sharon hotels in the family? And some of us thought, "Oh yes, we've got to. " And others thought it doesn't make sense. And feelings were intense, but nobody went to the press or went to a lawyer to deal with it. And the end result is we did sell the company. I was kind of against it by the way, but because we didn't fight, the rewards are that now, even in 2025, the family reunions keep on and we're still a united and strong and loving family.

(12:49):
The Purdues have almost the same attitude, which is what we call the covenant, which is it's okay to fight. In fact, we even want you, if you've got something you feel strongly about, don't hide it and let it grow. No, bring it out and deal with it. And if you have to speak strongly, yeah, you do. So we're kind of okay with quarrels, but not that we love them, but we just recognize that they're important, but the covenant is you don't go public with them.

Meghan Lynch (13:19):
Yeah. Yeah. And I love that each family has their unique way of articulating that value, but it's a similar shared value between them that's helped keep both strong. That's really cool.

Mitzi Purdue (13:31):
Yeah. In fact, something that puzzles and amazes and pleases me is, I grew up in a family that is a business family and that's long lived. The first, it's the Henderson Estate Company that started in 1840, and we still keep going. And then I married into a long life family. The Purdues right now are 105 years old and they come up with some principles among them. They have family reunions. In fact, both families have endowed family reunions so that people have ... If they don't take advantage of coming to the family reunion, they're really missing out in something fabulous and to them free. So the cousins do get to know each other and care about each other. So family reunions, then philanthropy is a big part of it. Both families ... I mean, I grew up in one family that's big in philanthropy and I married into one that was huge in philanthropy.

(14:25):
And I think that's a very ... I think to keep a family together, you kind of have to be proud of that you're doing something good. Both families get to have that

Meghan Lynch (14:36):
Feeling. Yeah. Yeah. A part of something bigger than yourself. And I know you've been doing work in Ukraine, have traveled there a number of times and are doing some fabulous work around mental health there, knowing that both of these families have that kind of rooted in service, even in the businesses that they built in hospitality and nourishing people. Do you see your philanthropic work as a continuation of that legacy or do you feel like it's something that you've added to the family voice and diversity?

Mitzi Purdue (15:12):
I can answer that by a quick story about my late father and then a very quick story about my late husband. I remember when ... I don't know how old I was, maybe I was eight, but I go wandering into his office in our home and it's summer and I'm like eight years old and I see him on a Saturday just burying books and studying something. And I ask him what he's doing. He said, "I'm going through proposals for charitable donations." And I said, "But you could be out playing golf like my friend's daddies are. " And he said, "No, I like golf, but the greatest pleasure my money has ever given me is in giving it away." Wow. Wow. Okay. And then Frank Purdue, the happiest that I ever saw him was, it happened over and over again, but he funded what feels to me like countless different scholarships because he was a big believer in education for helping you be all you can be.

(16:08):
So the happiest I think I can ever think of him is when somebody maybe who'd been out of college 10 or 15 years would come up to him in a restaurant or an airport or something and say, "Mr. Purdue, the scholarship that you gave me means today I'm married, I have kids, I'm happy it wouldn't have happened without an education." And for hours after forge, Frank would just be beaming. So I think I have two role models who are very important to me, who are very philanthropic.

Meghan Lynch (16:40):
And so this has just become kind of another way to kind of live out that value, but just in a way that happens to be personal to you or how do you see that?

Mitzi Purdue (16:51):
Well, okay. And again, in the case of both families, you're admired, not because you were in designer clothes or went first class, no, you're admired because you're contributing in some way. So I do think it's part of the culture from both families that I grew up in that giving back was all important. And in my case, Ukraine, it's sort of by accident, but I am a writer by trade. That's what I do. I've written a story for psychology today on human trafficking in Ukraine. And the point of it is in conflict areas, the human traffickers just converge because there are all these vulnerable women that they can travel and it's horrible. And so I wrote about this awful thing and the title of it had the word Ukraine in it and human trafficking. Well, a wonderful coincidence from the point of my career was the head of police for, he's now second in command of the Ukrainian national police.

(17:50):
He had written his master's thesis on human trafficking, so he had read my story. Yay. There's some real perks to being a writer. Well, on a Zoom call, he invited me to come to Ukraine to see for myself. So 10 days later, I'm in Ukraine and I've been there five times now. I've conducted interviews in bomb shelters and cities under active attack. I mean, I've seen some real interesting things, but the biggest thing I walked away with is mental health. If you've been under, like today, under continuous, heartbreaking stress for four years, the odds are that you're going to have ... And I'm going to list some symptoms you might have. You're not going to have all of them, God willing, but like nightmares, insomnia, panic attacks, depression, uncontrolled anger, just stress does this to you and prolonged stress, it's just difficult. But in the case of Ukraine, there's so few mental health professionals in proportion to the need.

(19:01):
I mean, by some estimates, there's one mental health professional for a hundred thousand. I mean, you're not going to get counseling and yet counseling can do you so much good for things like insomnia or depression or just a whole host of things that a little bit of counseling can help you so much. So I have a little bit of a background in artificial intelligence and I suggested to general portray us, what if we used a ChatGPT kind of thing to provide kind of first aid for people who can't get counseling with a real person and it kind of grew. It's, here's where we are now. Imagine that I'm holding up my palm, imagine that that's a smartphone. Ukrainians have fabulous numbers of people. The odds are if you're in Ukraine, you very likely have a smartphone and you can get access to the internet free courtesy of Elon Musk.

(19:58):
And with this artificial intelligence thing, it's available to you free twenty four seven if you're depressed in the middle of the night or whatever your symptom or whenever you have it, you can call and you can get amazingly good advice, but it's from artificial intelligence and it's built by Ukrainian mental health professionals so that it's appropriate for you and your culture and what works there. And I'm pretty excited about it because we're still testing it, but we're testing it in larger and larger groups and the feedback we're getting I think is amazing. And then I quickly need to say that I don't think we're going to cure anybody like to, but what the tests do seem to reveal is we can make the burden a little lighter.

Meghan Lynch (20:48):
It sounds like amazing, impactful work and such an amazing way to kind of pair the technology with the emerging needs of people on the ground and use technology to solve a problem that years ago people would have looked at totally different ways to solve, "We just need to train ."

Mitzi Purdue (21:13):
The just plain would have suffered and then it becomes generational because if you're dysfunctional because you're depressed or unreasonably angry or ... I personally think insomnia is a bigger problem than would recognize because if you're not getting sleep and then you have to go to work at eight in the morning and then you go back and you ... I mean, it's horrible and there's a lot that's known of good advice to give to people who have insomnia. Yeah.

Meghan Lynch (21:40):
That's amazing. And hearing you speak about that kind of like spirit of philanthropy, of seeing big problems in the world and feeling a sense of not just agency and solving them, but like a real sense of, this is who we are and this is what we do, we help in these situations. And then also thinking about this culture of like, we also, we're a force for good in the world and we also keep our own encouraged disagreements, keep them private. It really like makes me think about a lot of what we see in generational businesses, which is the stories that you preserve and you nurture become the culture that you're creating, right? So if you're telling stories about strife and disagreement and that's the public story, then that's what you perpetuate. If you're telling stories of generosity and impact, then that's the story, that's the culture that you perpetuate.

(22:46):
And it seems like that's kind of at the heart of a lot of what you're teaching is that we have to just be careful of the stories that we're telling and the impact of them, not just on the current generation, but on future generations.

Mitzi Purdue (23:02):
Yeah. I mean, I've come to believe that we are the stories we tell ourselves. Oh, and one other thing that I want to add to what I said about family quarrels, the reason that in the cases of the two families I'm associated with about don't make your family quarrels public like to the press, is statistically by the time you go to the press with a quarrel, your odds of putting it back together again, completely putting it back together again are just so small that I know a lot of family business consultants won't even take on a family when their quarrel is public because the odds of success are so small. On the other hand, you can ... I've seen this Black Henderson family when you can be just curious at each other and yet, I don't know, a couple of months later, you forgot it because the least said, easiest men did.

(24:00):
But on the other hand, both families ... I'm repeating myself, but it's so important. We don't believe in squashing down the argument and not dealing with it. It's just we don't do it in

Meghan Lynch (24:11):
Public. Yeah. It's just how to have a healthy disagreement as opposed to something that you then lose control over and-

Mitzi Purdue (24:17):
Exactly.

Meghan Lynch (24:17):
... you end up putting the family relationships at risk.

Mitzi Purdue (24:21):
Well, you know what? Maybe the goal is since every single family in the world is going to have quarrels, you want a healthy quarrel where the disagreements are brought to the fore and you try to deal with them. So you don't want to squash them down and not deal with them because I think they grow up back bigger and you also don't want to take the public because it's so hard to cure if there are other parties involved. I also am against ... I can love lawyers, but I don't want lawyers involved in a family quarrel because in my own experience at 84, I've seen a lot of family dysfunction. And again, it's my belief that by the time you have adversarial lawyers involved, I've never seen a family put it back together.

Meghan Lynch (25:07):
Yeah. If the goal is longevity of the relationships, you want to keep all that stuff out and figure out how to have those disagreements and resolve them through other ways. It makes a lot of sense. I just was also thinking too ... I'd love to know if we are the stories we tell, and I think a lot of families kind of underestimate the cost of losing some of that institutional memory or those family stories. I'm curious if there's one memory from maybe your early days with Frank or part of the Purdue company, like if there's one story or memory that you have that like, "Oh, if I could take this and make it a part of every employee's onboarding at Purdue," what would you bring? Or maybe something from your father that you would love to see people at Sheridan Hotels remember or be a part of their experience?

(26:08):
Well,

Mitzi Purdue (26:09):
I think one of the things about Frank Perdue is, first of all, he was amazingly frugal. He built the company, I think for just love of building something that provides jobs and provides food, and he wasn't building it to make a great big fortune so that he could spend it on yachts and jewels. No, we lived in a pretty middle class house. Our neighbors, one worked for the library and another was like a retired teacher, so we weren't living on Millionaires Row and he just wasn't into spending money that didn't greatly motivate him. What did motivate him was he loved ... Well, okay, I'll give you an example of what did motivate him. And I'm going to boast if you'll forgive me because I had a part in this, but I suggested to him when we first marry that we entertain every single person who worked for the company.

(27:07):
And he thought that was a super crazy idea because at the time there were 16,000 employees and he said, "You can't possibly do that. " And I pretended that I hadn't really heard that he was saying no. And I said, "I think we should have them at a hundred at a time." And he said, "That's too many." And I said, "I bet we could start it in six weeks." "No way, that's way too soon. "And then I told him," Let's start with the secretaries because they can tell everybody that our parties are fun. "And so six weeks later we had a party to the secretaries and like three times a month, I think it might have been Fridays from then on, we would invite the accountants, would like the truckers, would invite the veterinarians, would invite them in groups of people who knew each other because I was aware that it might be a little intimidating to go to the big boss's house if you weren't with your friends and at these parties, tell me how many CEOs would do this.

(28:06):
This is such a favorite memory of mine. It would have these bouffet dinners and they'd be catered by the chicken plant and the chef, again, I'm going to boast, but I think he absolutely loved me because he got a chance to make fancy stuff that he wouldn't in the cafeteria normally. And Frank Purdue, behind this big buffet line with like three servers would be Frank Purdue and I'd watch this man waiting on his employees. Is that not cool? And then at the end of the evening, he'd tell people what was going on in the company and he'd tell the good, the bad and the ugly and he'd invite questions. And I'm thinking for, imagine put yourself in the shoes of an employee and I'm not sure I can really do it, but I'll give my very best guess and from reading body language and seeing that people were enthusiastic and occasionally even telling me that it was one of the best things in their life.

(29:03):
Okay, you're an employee, you're at the big boss's house and he's telling you the most current, real information of what's going on in the company. And so you've got just real inside information and you can ask him questions. And then at the end of the evening, he would always end the evening and it would be different words each time, but it would boil down to this. I know the company ... And again, this is not a direct quote, but it would be the same thought every time. "I know the company could never be what it is today without you. Thank you.

Henry Lynch (29:35):
" Wow.

Mitzi Purdue (29:36):
So how many employees get to have the person whose name is on their paycheck, entertain them and wait on them and thank them?

Meghan Lynch (29:44):
Yeah. Wow. And to individually touch each person in the company over time, it must have really created that helped keep that family culture even as the business was growing and people might feel more disconnected. Expected. It sounds like that again.

Mitzi Purdue (30:02):
I've heard employees and we call them associates. Frank didn't like the word employees, no they're associates. But I've had people after his passing tell me that like one guy, but he's typical of what I heard from many, he was driving along Highway 50 in Maryland and he heard that Frank Purdue had passed and he said he pulled his car over to the side of the road and just put his head and his hands in the steering wheel and balled.

Meghan Lynch (30:27):
Wow. Yeah. So that impact is real and deep.

Mitzi Purdue (30:32):
I think they loved him.

Meghan Lynch (30:33):
Yeah. I mean, with such a big personality and that kind of connection with individuals, I always think of things in terms of brand. How does a company and a brand sustain itself when you lose that kind of like big shoes, that big personality that's kind of like at the center of things holding it together? Is it through storytelling or like what keeps that spirit alive in the company when you lose somebody like Frank?

Mitzi Purdue (31:12):
Well, we were divinely fortunate in Frank's son because I can remember probably 15 years before Frank passed, his son was telling me that we all understood that Frank was sort of a force of nature and larger than life, but we also understood that the personality it takes to grow a business isn't the same personality that keeps it running smoothly. The entrepreneur breaks all rules and his bull in its tiny shot. By the time you get to when Frank passed, I think it was 20,000 employees, at that point to keep it running smoothly, you need a whole lot of management principles, which Frank never studied, but like chain of command and just ... Well, Jim Purdue had a master's in business administration and he was just right for the succession. And for what happens next, there are five family members in the family and I think any one of them could run it.

(32:17):
Who's going to come out and talk? I don't know. I've watched with great fascination. I think the company's been blessed. So

Meghan Lynch (32:25):
It's really just making that room for the core family values being at the center, but then leaving room for different personalities and styles to be able to come forward and lead at different times in the company for different reasons. That sounds like it's at the heart of it.

Mitzi Purdue (32:46):
Okay. In a word, yes.

Meghan Lynch (32:47):
Yeah. You're listening to Building Unbreakable Brands, the podcast all about brand stewardship and crafting an enduring legacy. I'm speaking with Mitzi Perdue, and now my son Henry is here to be the voice of the next generation with some questions for Mitzi. And

Henry Lynch (33:06):
The hot seat today is this woman, speaker, writer, and the widow of Frank Purdue. It's the one and only Mitzi Purdue. Hi, Mitzi. Great to meet you.

Mitzi Purdue (33:17):
Well, I loved your introduction. Thank you so much.

Henry Lynch (33:21):
I have a couple of questions for you.

Mitzi Purdue (33:23):
I've got a couple of answers for you.

Henry Lynch (33:26):
Is there anything that you do that's special for Thanksgiving, like a food or a recipe?

Mitzi Purdue (33:33):
Oh yeah. In the Purdue family, this is sort of like a high holiday for us because Purdue doesn't just grow chickens, we also grow turkeys. And for the last couple of years, I don't know where you even find this, but I bet you can find it in the internet. We have a turducken and a turducken is, I think it's a chicken. I'm not sure I've got the sequence right, but I think it starts with a chicken that's boned. You stick that inside of a duck that's been boned and inside you stick that whole thing inside. And again, it's boned, so it's just meat. And you stick that inside a turkey. And so it's a turducken. And when you slice through, you're getting turkey, duck, and chicken. And that's just the coolest thing.

Henry Lynch (34:25):
Yeah. So what's it like to have a famous last name like Purdue? Is it stressful to have to live up to the name or is it exciting? What

Mitzi Purdue (34:34):
A great question. I think it depends on your personality. I know some people who don't love it. I, on the other hand, think it's the greatest thing in the world because I'm really proud of the product and I'm proud of the family and I love it. But to answer your question fully, I know quite a few women. They're much older than you, but they have famous last names and they don't even use it. I'm going to make up a name just to protect the innocence, but supposing your name is Rockefeller. You might not want the world to know who you are and judge you right off. And I'm not giving a real example. I just picked the most famous name I could think of, but the person will actually choose a different name like, "My name's Mary Smith." So you never know how famous their name is.

(35:29):
I don't take that attitude at all. I'm so proud of my family that I love to talk about it.

Henry Lynch (35:36):
So why did you decide to start your therapy resources for Ukrainians who are experiencing war trauma? Oh,

Mitzi Purdue (35:44):
I love your question. Thank you. The answer is I have a purpose in life and I've had it for probably most of my adult life. I feel that I'm here to increase happiness and decrease misery. And my whole life, I've tried to develop skills like public speaking or writing or fundraising or management. It's just so that I could be as big an influencer as I possibly could be to increase happiness, decrease misery. Well, when I was in Ukraine, and I've been there five times during the war, and I've been there when cities are under active attack, and even when there were missiles going overhead and you could see them. So I've really been in an active war zone, but since I've always been looking for the biggest thing that I could do, I hope, I mean, I'm not even sure I'm right, but to try to increase happiness and decrease misery, mental health issues like you can't sleep or you're really sad all the time, or you can't help being angry or you're afraid.

(36:56):
All these things are really hard to bear. And when it's gone on for four years, it gets harder and harder and harder. How do you have a close family life? How do you really get along with your parents if they're under stress and you're under stress? And in this country, you could probably get counseling. That doesn't happen much in Ukraine because all the resources are going to have the countries try to stay alive. So I need to ask a question of you before we continue. How much do you use the internet? A lot?

Henry Lynch (37:29):
A fair bit, yeah.

Mitzi Purdue (37:30):
How about something like ChatGPT or something like that? Any kind of motivation- Not

Henry Lynch (37:37):
Much, but sometimes.

Mitzi Purdue (37:38):
Okay. But you know it's there.

Henry Lynch (37:41):
Yeah.

Mitzi Purdue (37:41):
Well, ChatGPT is awfully good at ... Say you're feeling down and you can tell it. I'm going to pretend that my hand is my smartphone. You can call up ChatGPT and you can say, "I'm really feeling down. Can you help me? " And it can give probably five different things that will probably make you feel better. Well, I thought, what if we could do that for a whole country? And it turns out that you can. So I helped raise money and helped arrange to a university in Ukraine. I helped arrange for people to get that kind of help. And it's not completely ... Well, we're still testing it because one of the rules in medicine is do no harm. So we want to make sure we've been testing it for almost a year with groups of 20, 30, 40 people. Now we're starting to test it a hundred at a time.

(38:39):
And if it really works, it might be able to help a whole country. And boy, if that could happen, I would have achieved my life goal.

Henry Lynch (38:49):
Yeah, definitely. I also have a joke for you.

Mitzi Purdue (38:52):
Great. I love jokes.

Henry Lynch (38:55):
Why did the Turkey not eat anything at the dinner table?

Mitzi Purdue (38:59):
Okay. I can make a guess so it doesn't eat itself. Okay. What is it?

Henry Lynch (39:06):
He was stuffed.

Mitzi Purdue (39:09):
Love it. Love it. I'm going to tell that the Purdue Thanksgiving. I love it. Just great. Thank you.

Meghan Lynch (39:16):
Thank you so much, Mitzi. This was a wonderful conversation and I think listeners will learn a lot and take a lot away from your stories. If they want to learn more about the newsletters, about your work, where can people find out more?

Mitzi Purdue (39:33):
Okay. First, come to my website and that's mitzipperdue.com. And the one tricky thing is please spell Purdue right. It's P-E-R because there's a university that's spelled differently. So I don't want you to go to the university. I want you to go to me. Second, I have books on family business and you can find this and several others on Amazon. And so just go to Amazon and Mitzi Perdue, P-E-R-D-U-E. And you'll get the wisdom of Mitzi Purdue.

Meghan Lynch (40:09):
Wonderful. And yeah, I've checked out some of the books and they're really great. They're just chock full of not only stories, but lots of practical resources for families to be thinking about some of these important issues about how to really tell stories in a way that helps to support the next generation. So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. We'll link to those in the show notes and really, again, appreciate having you on and your time and everything that you've offered.

Mitzi Purdue (40:38):
It was pure joy. Thank you so much.

Meghan Lynch (40:42):
What struck me most today is Mitzi's clarity that family culture is not something that you automatically inherit. It's engineered. Her stories show how small, consistent actions, a newsletter, or shared recipe, become the scaffolding that holds a family together. I was also moved by her point that most families don't break apart from financial mistakes. They break apart from unmanaged conflict. The Purdue's covenant of addressing disagreements directly, but never publicly is such a powerful, practical safeguard for any generational enterprise. And her reminder that we are, in many ways, the stories that we tell is a call for every family business to curate the narratives that reinforce connection rather than fracture. If you'd like to learn more about Mitzi's work, including her books and her children's newsletter templates, visit mitzipurdue.com or find her books on Amazon. We'll link to everything in the show notes. And if this episode gave you new insight into storytelling, conflict, or generational stewardship, please share it and don't forget to leave us a review.

(42:04):
It helps more leaders discover the podcast. Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you next time on Building Unbreakable brands.