OMD DAILY

May 19, 2020: Today’s conversation is with Ricky Zhang, the Founder of Prince of Travel. I first interviewed Ricky on episode 17 of the Accounted For podcast where we go through his career journey to starting Prince of Travel and I will include the episode link in the show notes at omdventures.com/omddaily. For those of you who aren’t familiar, Prince of Travel is the go-to website for Canadians who want to learn about and plan luxury travel and Ricky shares various reviews and tactics to help Canadians achieve their luxury travel goals. In this catch-up conversation, I ask Ricky about the his experience in the travel industry during the COVID era, his journey in 2019 of growing the business, tactics related to running a media company and much more! Please note that this interview was recorded at the end of April and we suffer some sound difficulties due to internet connectivity issues near the end.. something I hope you can forgive me on.  

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

2020-05-18: Learnings from going through Mohnish Pabrai’s lectures/Q&A at Boston College, Trinity College and London Business School. Learning about companies with exceptional management, why price matters, owner earnings, circle of competence, Mohnish’s 10 commandments for investing, deserving to manage outside capital and more. I also dig into Joe Mansueto’s fascinating career of founding Morningstar: The low-key billionaire inspired by Buffett.  

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

May 15, 2020: Today’s episode is a conversation with Will Matthews, the Professor of Culture at G Adventures. G Adventures is a travel company founded 30 years ago with the headquarters in Toronto but offices globally with 1000+ employees (full-time and part-time). From its 4.5 Glassdoor rating, to unusual titles (CEO stands for Chief Experience Officer used by G Adventures’ front-line tour guides), EQ focused interviews in ball pits, global leadership camps all over the world to educating employees how to read financial statements, G Adventures invests heavily into investing in people. In our chat, we explore a little about Will’s transition from IT to leading culture and the various tactics and lessons he’s experienced in leading G Adventures to invest in its people. This was a previously recorded interview in preparation for this podcast. 

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

May 14, 2020: Learnings from Sam Well COVID on his real estate portfolio, Q&A with Francis Chou and Mohnish Pabrai that’s been an amazing 2 hours of investment learnings, and Michael Lewis’ fascinating career as a writer. 

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

May 13, 2020: Today’s episode is a conversation with Stephen Shedletzky, Head of Brand Experience and Igniters Team at Simon Sinek Inc. Stephen was one of the early employees to join Simon Sinek’s team, the author of bestsellers like Start With Why, Leaders Eat Last and the Infinite Game. In my first conversation with Stephen on the Accounted For podcast, link in the episode notes, he explored his career journey to joining Simon’s team and today we explore his experience helping leaders build companies where people wake up inspired, feel safe wherever they are and end the day fulfilled by the work they do. We chat about the companies Stephen works with, building trust, before vs. after, challenges to the work and much more. This was a previously recorded interview in preparation for this podcast. 

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

May 11, 2020: Learnings from initial research into Morningstar from annual report and proxy statement. Additional learning on how the modern European architecture was influenced by tuberculosis instead of some fad of minimalism and Tom Russo’s view on what matters in long term investments.  

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

May 8, 2020: Learnings from the 2019/2020 Constellation Software Annual Meeting. Acquisitions in vertical market software industry, use of leverage, public vs. private market opportunity set, spin-offs, organic growth vs. acquisition trade-off, culture and difference with Berkshire.  

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

May 7, 2020: Research summary on Trupanion, medical insurance for pets company based out of Seattle.  

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

May 12, 2020: Morningstar 2018 shareholder meeting changing my mind, new preliminary research into Spotify via shareholder letters and annual reports. Continued by learning about movie production and the career of Brian Koppelman.  

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com

The inaugural episode of OMD Daily. Going through the 68 learnings from Kevin Kelly, Senior Maverick at Wired Magazine, and legendary investor, Stanley Druckenmiller’s 2015 speech on his investing lessons, mistakes etc…  

• Find detailed notes of the episode on omdventures.com/omddaily
• Support the podcast by donating at omdventures.com/stakeholder
• Music by icons8.com