Welcome to: 18 Summers
At 18 Summers, we like to ask parents a simple question:
“If you could do one thing to dramatically strengthen your family in just a few hours, would you do it?”
In all our years of helping entrepreneurs and busy professionals build enduring family connections and resilient kids, no one has ever said no.
What they do say is, “Tell me the one thing.”

Welcome to 18 Summers

At 18 Summers, we like to ask parents a simple question:
“If you could do one thing to dramatically strengthen your family in just a few hours, would you do it?”
In all our years of helping entrepreneurs and busy professionals build enduring family connections and resilient kids, no one has ever said no.
What they do say is, “Tell me the one thing.”
18 Summers: The Story


Boy meets girl. That’s always the simple story in movies. In real life, it’s a lot more complicated.
When founders Jim and Jamie Sheils first met, they faced a whole new challenge. Suddenly, they were a blended family, with the challenges of disconnection and time scarcity that all families face. It was Family Board Meetings that bridged the gap, helping a new family connect, and helping the kids find a sure footing on uncertain ground.
Now, through 18 Summers, Jim and Jamie reach families and organizations around the world, helping them discover the benefits of quality time and enduring relationships.
18 Summers:
The Movement
Our company, 18 Summers is built on the simple truth that, at best, we have only 18 summers to enjoy with our children before they become adults.
When your kids are still young, you spend almost all your time together. Even in their teen years, you’re still chauffeuring, chef-ing, coaching and corralling.
Then something happens. Your children grow up. They leave home. They go to school, and to work. They create families and lives of their own. You go from seeing your kids daily, to sometimes just a handful of times a year.
The math is simple and profound: By the time your kids reach eighteen, you’ll have spent almost all of the time together that you ever will. Over 70% of the time you will EVER spend with your children happens before age eighteen.
After that, all bets are off.
Our mission at 18 Summers is to help you turn some of that magical quantity of time together into quality time—and along the way, create bonds that last beyond those first eighteen years. Bonds that will endure for a lifetime.
Our Book
Pick up your copy of The Family Board Meeting today!
18 Summers: The Founders

Jamie Sheils
Founder
Jamie Sheils founded Florida’s only Waldorf-inspired public charter school and directed a Public Montessori Charter School and has developed/implemented programs in several other public and private schools.
She is the grateful ringleader of four beautiful children, ranging in age from toddler to teen.
Along with her husband Jim Sheils, entrepreneur and author of The Family Board Meeting, she founded the 18 Summers movement.

Jim Sheils
Founder
When YPO, EO, Harvard University and other world-class organizations want to help their people to succeed at home, they call on Jim Sheils. There’s a reason people call him “Crazy Glue for families.”
In keynote presentations, workshops, team events, or private consulting, Jim has helped hundreds of the top entrepreneurs and thought leaders around the world focus and implement where it really counts, at home.
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When Will You Transform Your Relationships?

At 18 Summers, we understand the drive to create something that matters, and to leave a lasting legacy.
We’re entrepreneurs too!
Our experiential learning programs offer you a unique chance to create the best possible legacy—an enduring connection with your children that lasts far beyond those fleeting early years.