Let Me Speak To A Manager

Berkshire Hathaway recently held its 2022 annual meeting. Dubbed the "Lollapalooza for Investors," Warren and longtime partner, Charlie Munger were in rare form. They answered questions for six hours on topics related to the economy, stock market, inflation, global relations, and how to protect your investments in a down market. Frank and Ian deconstruct some of their best soundbites and relate their advice to their businesses.

Running a small business is an emotional roller coaster. You can have the worst morning of your career and the best afternoon all on the same day. In this episode, Frank and Ian talk about how they stay sane amidst the chaos.

Growing your net worth isn’t necessarily about what you know. It’s about how you behave. And even really smart people struggle to control their unconscious instincts and biases.

Money―investing, personal finance, and business decisions―is typically thought of as a function of math. But in the real world, people don’t make financial decisions on a spreadsheet. Their personal history, unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled their decision-making process and it is incredibly easy to make terrible decisions. We look at 12 of those mistakes in this episode and try to unpack techniques to overcome them.

Some interviewers lean too heavily on technical skills, others rely solely on personality. Most are fooled by some form of unconscious bias (recency, primacy, "just like me"). In this episode, we look at our egregious mistakes as young managers and the steps we've taken to limit them in the years that followed. This episode should be mandatory training for any new manager tasked with hiring employees.

The human brain makes thousands of daily decisions, most of which have no impact on your long-term success. And when we are faced with a decision that requires deep reflection, we are too often influenced by subconscious bias. Our brain creates a narrative and we are vulnerable to faulty decisions as a result. In this episode, we offer nine questions you can ask yourself to improve the quality of those big decisions.

Are you stuck? Not satisfied with your productivity? Do you have a big idea but can't seem to take the first step? You're not alone. We dive into the psychology of procrastination and list some tangible steps you can take to start moving the needle.

The gambler's fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy, occurs when an individual erroneously believes that a certain random event is less likely or more likely to happen based on the outcome of a previous event or series of events. In this episode, Frank and Ian dissect this cognitive bias that prevents many people from making quality career and investing decisions.

Alastair J. MacDonald is an international analyst, forecaster, speaker, writer and investment consultant. He is the founder and editor of “The Parallax Report,” a subscription-based market, social and economic forecasting service for individual investors, and institutions. His specialty is identifying the dangers and opportunities in global markets, as driven by social mood. His analysis accurately predicted; the decline in the US dollar (2004), the bursting of the US housing bubble (2004-2005), the global financial crisis (2007), the peak in commodity prices (2008), the collapse of Lehman Brothers (2007), the bottom in US stocks (Spring 2009), the bull market in the US dollar (2011), the second term of Barack Obama (Aug 2012) and the election of Donald Trump (July 2016). He hosts a weekly podcast called “Alone in the Crowd.”

Also, Alastair is a business coach to Frank Cava, an exercise in maddening futility.

We don't often host guests but this episode has us re-thinking our strategy. This was a fascinating conversation about war, historical markets, business cycles, psychology, and surviving multiple hippo attacks in Africa.

You can watch his Ted talk here.

News of inflation is dominating the headlines for the first time in decades. But what does it mean to an investor? In this episode, Frank and Ian talk about how rising prices influence their investing decisions. Disclaimer: Frank and Ian are only stating opinions and personal preferences. Consult with a professional before making any investment decisions.

What if you spent twenty years of your career in one field and had to start over from scratch? That is exactly what Nick Clemente is faced with after a distinguished military career that is ending soon. In this episode, we work with Nick on how to approach his second act and share our experiences transitioning from corporate to startups.

In this episode:

• Giving up your identity, or adding to it?
• The highest return, entry-level position
• The reality of building something new and humble pie
• Adapting your vocabulary to adjust to a new industry
• Don't underestimate what your mind can accomplish when it is given back 40 hours per week
• You are in charge of your professional brand
• How to figure out what you do next