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Keynotes that bring clarity to succession, leadership, and family business transition

Rena Striegel standing outdoors in a garden, smiling with her arms crossed

Rena Striegel, Succession Planning Speaker

Keynotes for leaders shaping the future of family business and agriculture

  • Why Succession Planning Fails
  • Preparing the Next Generation to Lead
  • Family Dynamics in Business Transition
  • Governance for Multi-Generational Enterprises
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Speaking Topics

The most important business conversations are often the easiest to postpone.

Rena’s presentations help audiences examine the decisions, expectations, and leadership habits shaping their future. Each session offers practical ideas participants can apply to their own families, teams, and businesses.

Succession Planning Beyond the Estate Plan

“I Have an Estate Plan. What More Do I Need?”

Estate documents help establish how assets will transfer. Families also need to determine who will lead, how ownership will work, and whether the business can support the transition they envision.

Rena helps audiences connect their intentions with the practical realities of continuing a farm or family business. Participants explore the unanswered questions that can remain after documents are signed and identify the decisions needed to create a workable succession plan.

What attendees will walk away with:
  • An understanding of how estate planning and succession planning work together.
  • A way to evaluate how inheritance, debt, rent, and buyout obligations affect business continuity.
  • Clear priorities for moving the planning process forward with family members and professional advisors.
Topics we can explore within this presentation:
  • Fair Does Not Always Mean Equal
  • The financial consequences of dividing farm assets
  • Protecting the operating heir’s ability to continue the business
  • What Happens If You Don’t Make the Decision?
Format: 45–60-minute keynote | 90-minute workshop | Q&A available

Preparing the Next Generation to Lead

Building Readiness. Transferring Responsibility. Creating Accountability.

The next generation needs opportunities to demonstrate leadership. The current generation needs confidence that the business will be in capable hands. Progress depends on clear expectations, meaningful responsibility, and an honest assessment of what each person needs to do next.

Rena helps families distinguish between development needs, unclear roles, and hesitation to transfer authority. This presentation explores how to prepare future leaders while giving current owners a purposeful role in the transition.

What attendees will walk away with:
  • A practical way to assess leadership readiness through skills, judgment, and performance.
  • Strategies for developing successors through real decisions and measurable expectations.
  • An approach to transferring authority in stages, with clear responsibilities for both generations.
Topics we can explore within this presentation:
  • Is the Next Generation Actually Ready?
  • Recognizing the difference between readiness gaps and reluctance to let go
  • Moving from family expectations to defined leadership responsibilities
  • Giving successors room to lead and learn
Format: 45–60-minute keynote | 90-minute workshop | Q&A available

Family Dynamics and Difficult Conversations

The Confidence to Address What Matters.

Family business decisions carry years of shared history, unspoken expectations, and deeply held ideas about fairness. Those dynamics can make even a straightforward business conversation difficult.

Rena helps participants recognize what is keeping conversations stuck and approach sensitive issues with greater clarity. From inheritance expectations to performance concerns, audiences learn how to address disagreement, establish expectations, and keep important decisions moving.

What attendees will walk away with:
  • An understanding of how family roles and assumptions influence business conversations.
  • A practical framework for raising concerns, asking direct questions, and clarifying expectations.
  • Ways to work through disagreement and establish next steps when opinions differ.
Topics we can explore within this presentation:
  • The Confidence to Have the Conversation
  • Talking about fairness, contributions, and inheritance expectations
  • Addressing performance concerns with family employees
  • Making decisions when family members want different outcomes
Format: 45–60-minute keynote | 90-minute interactive workshop | Q&A available

Leadership Through Family Business Transition

Clear Roles. Shared Responsibility. Decisions That Move the Business Forward.

A leadership transition changes how a business makes decisions, assigns responsibility, and holds people accountable. Without clear agreements, owners can struggle to step back while emerging leaders struggle to step forward.

Rena explores how families can create the leadership structure their next chapter requires. Participants examine where responsibility and authority are misaligned, how to reduce dependence on one person, and how to maintain momentum through change.

What attendees will walk away with:
  • How to clarify roles, decision-making authority, and accountability during a transition.
  • Ways to distribute responsibility so the business can function beyond one central leader.
  • A practical approach to keeping decisions and transition commitments on track.
Topics we can explore within this presentation:
  • Leading Without Carrying Everything
  • From Behind the Scenes to the Leadership Table
  • Establishing a meaningful role for the transitioning owner
  • Creating a consistent process for decisions and follow-through
Format: 45–60-minute keynote | 90-minute workshop | Q&A available

For the People Making Decisions That Shape What Comes Next

Rena’s presentations are designed for people balancing business responsibilities, family expectations, and the demands of leadership.

Audiences include:
  • Farm owners, agricultural producers, and multigenerational farm families
  • Family business owners and leadership teams
  • Women in agriculture and business
  • Next-generation owners and emerging leaders
  • Agricultural lenders, CPAs, attorneys, and professional advisors
  • Industry associations and conference audiences

Presentations can be tailored to the audience’s experience, responsibilities, and challenges, from starting the succession conversation to preparing future leaders or navigating a difficult transition.

Bring Rena Striegel to Your Next Event

Give your audience a reason to have the conversation they have been avoiding, and a practical way to begin.

Whether your event focuses on agriculture, family business, women’s leadership, or preparing the next generation, Rena helps participants connect the ideas discussed on stage to the decisions waiting for them at home.

Start a conversation about your event, your audience, and what you want them to take away.

Book Rena to Speak