What happens after you request a private conversation

After you request a private conversation with Second Chair™, Nikola reads your request himself. Where there is a fit, you hear from him within three business days, in a personal email rather than an automated reply. That email includes a one-time link to schedule a private conversation. There is no public calendar, and not every request leads to a conversation.

The process is short, but it is deliberate. Each step is there so that the families who do speak with Nikola have already had a chance to decide, quietly, whether this is the right kind of help.

Step 1: The request form

The request form is at the bottom of the home page. It asks for six things:

Your name and email.
Who you are: the current leader or owner, the successor, a family office or private banker, or an advisor to the family.
The business and its industry.
When the transition begins: within six months, in six to eighteen months, in two to three years, or already underway.
What concerns you most. A free-text field, and the most useful part of the request.

Next to the form there is one line on price: engagements begin at $50,000. It is there so that nobody spends time on a conversation without knowing the scale of the commitment. The form also notes that what you submit is held in confidence and never shared.

Step 2: Confirmation

When the form is sent, you see a short confirmation: every request is read personally, and where there is a fit, you will hear from Nikola within three business days. If something went wrong, for example a missing name or email, the page says so and asks you to try again.

What comes next, where there is a fit, is a personal email from Nikola, not an autoresponder.

Step 3: Nikola reads the request

Every request is read by Nikola himself. He takes on every engagement personally, so the person reading your request is the person who would do the work.

The program is built for a specific situation, and the site is open about it: a family business, a successor who has decided to take the role and is stepping into leadership, and a family that wants help with how the successor leads the board, the senior team and the family. Legal, tax and investment questions stay with the family’s other advisors.

Step 4: A personal reply, where there is a fit

Where there is a fit, Nikola replies within three business days. The reply is a personal email written to you, not an autoresponder or a template.

That email includes a one-time scheduling link for a private conversation. The link is for your conversation only. Second Chair™ does not publish a calendar, and there is no booking page on the site.

Step 5: The private conversation

The conversation is where the family and Nikola decide together whether to go further. It is covered in detail in what the first conversation with Second Chair™ is like.

If both sides decide to go ahead, the engagement begins under a mutual NDA, and the work starts with the private diagnostic.

Is every request a fit?

No, and it is better to say so plainly. Second Chair™ works with a small number of families each year, and the program is built for one specific situation. The three business days apply where there is a fit.

Some situations are not right for this work:

The successor has not decided to take the role. The program begins once that decision is made, so the work goes into leading rather than deciding. If you are still at that stage, when your child does not want the family business may be more useful for now.
The family is looking for investment, tax or legal advice. Those belong with the family’s existing advisors.
The family wants a report for the shelf rather than a change in how the successor leads.

Who successor coaching is not for sets this out in more detail.

What should you write in the form?

The form is short, and the free-text field does most of the work. A few lines are enough. Useful things to include:

The role the successor is stepping into, and roughly when.
The rooms ahead. A first board meeting as successor, a company address, a family meeting, conversations with the bank or key customers.
What you have noticed. For example, that the successor knows the numbers but the senior team still turns to you, or that every family conversation about the handover ends in a negotiation.
Whether the successor knows you are writing, and whether they have decided to take the role.
Anything about timing that does not fit the options, such as a date that may move.

You do not need to name people or include anything sensitive. A clear description of the situation is enough for a first reading.

Can the successor or an advisor submit the request?

Yes. The form lets you say whether you are the current leader or owner, the successor, a family office or private banker, or an advisor to the family. Each of them can make the request.

Whoever writes, the program itself is the same: the successor is the client, and the family or the company pays. If you are writing on behalf of a family, it helps to say whether the family knows you are doing so.

How should you prepare while you wait?

There is nothing you need to prepare. If you want to use the time, three things help:

Read the method, so you know how the six months are structured.
Think about the next six months of events on the successor’s calendar. These become the material for the work.
Talk to the successor, if you have not already. A request that the successor knows about makes for a more honest conversation. Introducing a coach to your son or daughter covers how to raise it.

In short

Submit a short request: name, email, your role, the business, when the transition begins and what concerns you most.
Nikola reads every request himself. Where there is a fit, he replies within three business days by personal email.
That email includes a one-time link to schedule a private conversation. There is no public calendar.
Not every request is a fit, particularly if the successor has not decided to take the role.
A few clear lines about the role, the timing and the rooms ahead are more useful than a long letter.

When you are ready, the request form takes a few minutes.