Most owners know succession planning matters. Almost none of them actually do it. In this episode of McStay on What Matters, Sean McStay sits down with Mike Mack, founder and president of X5 Management and author of the new book Succession, to unpack the conversation most founders avoid: what happens to the business when you are no longer the one holding it together.

They get into why succession is really about making yourself replaceable, why your replacement should not be a copy of you, how a clear plan retains your best people instead of losing them, and the gap between intending to plan and actually doing it. Candid and practical, built for owners and leaders of small and mid-sized companies.

What you’ll learn:

* Why avoiding the succession conversation is what costs owners the most

* How planning your succession makes you more valuable, not less

* The three questions that reveal a real successor: do they get it, want it, and have the capacity

* Why a clear path forward, even without guarantees, is your best retention tool

* The difference between thinking about a plan and actually having one

Chapters:00:00 Welcome, and Mike’s new book Succession01:07 Who Mike Mack is and what X5 Management does02:18 How X5 evolved from the original idea05:25 When to make your first hire07:59 Why slow and steady beats hiring to fix a problem08:38 The discovery process: where are you in three years?12:04 Succession: the gap between intention and action15:26 Making yourself replaceable, and the ego problem18:35 Why your replacement should not be another you21:23 Succession as a retention strategy, and timing25:31 Clarity over guarantees28:35 How to start the conversation at your own company33:27 “What if we train them and they leave?”36:23 The one thing every owner should do next38:57 Where to find Mike and the book

About Mike Mack:Mike Mack is the founder and president of X5 Management in Edmonton, celebrating 20 years in 2026. X5 is in the people business: strategic planning, succession planning, leadership and team development, and executive coaching. Mike is the author of several books, most recently Succession.

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Steve Cadigan, former Chief HR Officer at LinkedIn and author of Workquake, joins me to talk about what leaders are getting wrong about talent, development, and the future of work.

We discuss why one-size-fits-all talent strategies are failing, why people are increasingly loyal to learning and growth rather than companies, and why organizations will not be able to recruit their way out of the accelerating need for new skills.

Steve also shares lessons from LinkedIn’s rapid growth, his own transition after leaving the company, and why careers are built on trust more than hard work.

This conversation is about development, but not in the classroom sense. It is about how leaders create the conditions for people to keep growing while the world around them changes.