My Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Justin Cunningham helps thought-leader business owners make simple changes to radically grow profits through standing out, creating transformative content and offers, and optimizing effectiveness.STORY: Justin overworked himself while planning an event in Los Angeles so much that he was out of his depth during the event.LEARNING: Face your fears and show up. Stay true to your passion. Your outcomes do not define you. “Luck is when passion meets opportunity.”Justin Cunningham Guest profileJustin Cunningham helps thought-leader business owners make simple changes to radically grow profits through standing out, creating transformative content and offers, and optimizing effectiveness.Justin is a former international music performer, designer, event producer, and editor of NZ Entrepreneur magazine.His business career as a global sales trainer, accelerated results educator, and the founder of the SHIFT agent movement and the celebrated ‘SHIFT Your results’ system.Justin is best known for his fast results recipes for time-poor businesses and his ability to simplify the complexity of standing out and being rewarded in saturated markets.In short - Justin helps frustrated business rockstars go BIG!Take The ‘Shift Your Results’ - Business Owner Quiz reveals the unconscious ways we are blocking our goals and results and how to overcome that.Worst investment everJustin wanted to go to Los Angeles and create an event called Creative supernova. He intended to support creative entrepreneurs. He was motivated, pumped, and fired up to host the event. Justin had a business partner helping him with the finances, and she also had a lot of relationships in Los Angeles.Promotions for the event started, but nothing was happening. No tickets were being sold at this stage. He’d already spent about $30,000. Justin went to LA, and even though he didn’t have any support structure there, he stayed seven weeks on the ground hustling. He managed to get about 90 people to sign up for the event.Justin’s biggest mistake was doing so much by himself to make the vent happen. He spent so much time hustling and getting it ready. He was also dealing with the grief of losing his dog and stepfather. This left him so burned out that when he went on stage during the event, he was out of his depth despite being a successful sales trainer.Lessons learnedFace your fears and show up.Stay true to your passion.Your outcomes do not define you.Where your attention goes, your energy flows.Andrew’s takeawaysBurnout is real.Don’t try to do too much at once. This could break you.Actionable adviceYou can be afraid or excited about what the future holds. Either way, the future is going to come. So make your choice and go forward because taking action will always get you closer to whatever you want to be. You might not always get what you want. But you may get more than you expected.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsJustin’s goal for the next 12 months is to be consistent and persistent.Parting words “You’ve got one choice; go big.”Justin Cunningham [spp-transcript] Connect with Justin CunninghamLinkedInFacebookWebsiteAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever PodcastFurther reading mentionedEvan Carmichael (December 2016), Your One Word: The Powerful Secret to Creating a Business and Life That Matter.

BIO: Mohammed Aneez is a multidisciplinary designer and has been Co-founder and Design Director at Emnicent Designs.STORY: Mohammed co-founded a design studio with three friends from college. Even though the company was profitable, the co-founders didn’t have enough entrepreneurial experience to scale the business according to their goals.LEARNING: Focus on good leadership. Learn from other leaders. “Good leadership will build you a profitable company.”Mohammed Aneez Guest profileMohammed Aneez is a multidisciplinary designer and has been Co-founder and Design Director at Emnicent Designs. His expertise lies in product design for enterprise solutions, digital transformation, and usability design for business-to-business (SaaS) products across domains. With cross-domain experience and a veteran of design methodologies, Aneez leads multiple teams in-house and at client locations. He also provides free design consultations for various startups from India.He believes that creativity and entrepreneurship are skills that are innate in every human being and must be embraced. He likes to indulge in design practices that are experimental.Worst investment everAfter college, Mohammed and his three friends started a design studio. The four were good designers, but none had business experience. However, they succeeded in running a profitable company. The company was cash-flow positive in under a year and had many projects coming in. Their problem was high demand and low supply at the end of the first year. They didn’t have sufficient designers for the demand.Due to a lack of entrepreneurial experience, the four were just going by the gist of it. They had zero structure for handling sales, marketing, finance, hiring, etc.By the end of the first year, one of Mohammed’s co-founders had a family emergency, and he felt getting a job would be better. He was not into the entrepreneurial spirit, so he left the company. At the end of the second year, another co-founder left because he felt the company was more focused on making profits than the initial goal. When the co-founders came together, their goal was to do much more research and drive the design community forward. Now the company was just a design studio that provided services to different companies.After the second guy left, Mohammed started to think about why he had launched the business. He realized that his lack of leadership skills had made the co-founders and the business generally stray from its initial goal.Lessons learnedLearn leadership qualities and how to ensure that it’s imbibed in the company culture.Learn from other leaders. Get to know how they keep the ball rolling and become great.Focus on building the right team.Andrew’s takeawaysScaling is very crucial for a company to continue running.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsMohammed’s goal for the next 12 months is to learn to be a better leader.Parting words “You don’t need a lot of people to trust and be around you. Just find that one person who is ready to listen and talk.”Mohammed Aneez [spp-transcript] Connect with Mohammed AneezLinkedInWebsiteAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Tech founder, LinkedIn influencer, Metaverse architect, community builder, advisor and consultant to web3 and blockchain projects, philanthropist, and lover of dogs - it’s LinkedIn’s (beloved) “Crytpo Guy” Cory Warfield!STORY: Cory spent so much time and emotions trying to raise capital for his company instead of focusing on generating revenue from a product that was already selling.LEARNING: Focus on producing revenue, and investors will come knocking. “If you ask for money, you get advice. But if you ask for advice, you get money.”Cory Warfield Guest profileTech founder, LinkedIn influencer, Metaverse architect, community builder, advisor and consultant to web3 and blockchain projects, philanthropist, and lover of dogs - it’s LinkedIn’s (beloved) “Crytpo Guy” Cory Warfield!Worst investment everCory’s made his worst investment ever as a first-time founder trying to raise capital. Raising about $800,000 for his company caused the demise of the company. Cory spent so much time and emotion creating pitch decks trying to raise money.After he raised the capital, the funders came in and hired all sorts of unnecessary staff. They also scrapped Cory’s MVP, which was earning revenue, and instead spent a lot of money launching an inferior product.Cory believes that had he instead spent that time trying to find ways to increase revenue, the company could have raised that $800,000 quicker. The company would have had enough capital to scale the way he had wanted it to. Now Cory bootstraps every venture he’s part of.Lessons learnedThe best investment that an early-stage company can get is revenue. When you have customers putting their money into your product, you’ll have enough validation, and investors will throw money at you.In addition to revenue, building a community is even more important. And if you offer value to that community, you can monetize it.Andrew’s takeawaysFocus on sales and generating profit so that you can bootstrap your start-up instead of just raising capital to run it.Actionable adviceIf you are pursuing investment capital, don’t appease or kiss investors’ butts. Just act like they’re no big deal. Psychologically, it makes them start to bid on you in their own mind. It makes them want that deal.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsCory’s goal for the next 12 months is to help as many people as possible get into the metaverse. He wants to help them create their own meta worlds, communities, and other metaverses and environments. He wants to see more people embrace this new world happening in real-time.Parting words “If you’re wondering whether or not you should go for it. I think the answer is always very simple: go for it.”Cory Warfield [spp-transcript] Connect with Cory WarfieldLinkedInAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: William Green is the author of “Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life.” The book is based on hundreds of hours of interviews that he’s conducted with many legendary investors over the past quarter of a century.STORY: We look at some of the many lessons William learned from spending hundreds of hours interviewing some of our greatest investors.LEARNING: Be aware of your flaws and frailties. Avoid standard stupidities. Be authentic and true to who you are. “I’m very vulnerable to my flaws and frailties. I think it’s a valuable thing to be aware of your particular flavor of stupidity.”William Green Guest profileWilliam Green is the author of a book titled “Richer, Wiser, Happier: How the World’s Greatest Investors Win in Markets and Life.” The book is based on hundreds of hours of interviews that he’s conducted with many legendary investors over the last quarter of a century. Published in 2021, the book is being translated into about 22 languages.William is also the host of the “Richer, Wiser, Happier” podcast, in which he interviews famous investors like Howard Marks, Joel Greenblatt, and Ray Dalio.William has written for many leading publications, including The New Yorker, Time, Fortune, Forbes, Barron’s, and The Economist. He also edited Time magazine’s European, Middle Eastern, African, and Asian editions.Having interviewed extraordinary people like Jack Bogle, who founded Vanguard, Peter Lynch, the legendary investor of fidelity, and Sir John Templeton, who was probably the greatest international investor of the 20th century, among others, William Green has learned many lessons about investing and life in general.Today, we go straight to some of the profound lessons he’s learned.Lessons learnedSelf-awareness is critical in investing successfullyOne of William’s most essential lessons from spending hundreds of hours interviewing great investors is that he’s not one of them. He doesn’t have the temperament that they have or the intellectual firepower that most of them have. He’s not as calm, patient, or rational as they are or has an obsessive fascination with sitting around analyzing business models and looking at financial statements. However, this realization is not a bad thing. In fact, it’s incredibly liberating. William realized that once he was self-aware, he could stop playing against people better equipped to win than he was.Charlie Munger taught him it’s best to play games that you can winThis incredible revelation came particularly from Charlie Munger, Buffett’s polymath genius partner at Berkshire Hathaway. Munger taught William that it’s best to play games that you can win. Now William is aware of his strengths and thus takes on opportunities in life that harness those strengths. When it comes to investing, the lesson here is that people should avoid buying individual stocks if they don’t know how to value a business and, therefore, are not equipped to understand the individual stocks that are winners.Arnold Van Den Berg taught him the value of controlling your inner landscapeAnother lesson William took away from his interviews came from Arnold Van Den Berg. He was born just before World War II, and during the Holocaust, he went into hiding as a Jew. Van Den Berg was a guy who was least likely to succeed. He barely made it through high school and had internalized the idea that he was stupid and brain-damaged. Yet, he had this incredibly successful investment career that he built by turning around his life and controlling his inner self. Whenever William is anxious, sad, self-loathing, or feeling like his life is going in the wrong direction, he thinks of Van Den Berg’s journey. If Van Den Berg could turn his life around, he could also achieve what he wanted if William just took control of his inner landscape.Money is important to reduce everyday stressBy interviewing the greats, William learned that people want to be heard and understood. They will tell you what you want to know if you’re captivated, empathetic, honest, and authentic with them.William advises people to take their money and financial security seriously. This is because it’s really stressful not to know if you can pay your bills and take care of your family. Don’t let anyone convince you that money is not important. It is.Avoid what Charlie Munger calls standard stupiditiesLuck may have played a big part in the success of great investors, but a lot depended on tilting the odds in their favor. One of the things that the most successful investors like Charlie Munger do is try to avoid what he calls “standard stupidities.” When you behave stupidly in the short run, you can get away with it. But if you do that consistently or regularly over 10 to 20 years, your luck runs out at some point. Thus, the advice from Munger is to avoid things with a catastrophic downside and limited upside to increase your likelihood of staying in the game.William says one form of standard stupidity is to bet too aggressively on speculative stuff you don’t understand. He advises never investing money you can’t afford to lose.The Bond King says to ensure that your mistakes are not fatalJeffrey Gundlach, who’s often called the King of Bonds, advised William always to ensure that his mistakes are non-fatal. To always ask himself if he’s wrong about a particular investment, what will be the consequence?William now knows that a reasonable investor diversifies his portfolio. The average investor should probably own five to ten funds to be reasonably diversified.Predicting the future is a fool’s gameOne thing that’s clear to William is that analysts or people who pretend to predict the future are fooling themselves. So be tremendously skeptical when dealing with them.Another piece of wisdom William picked from Joe Greenblatt, Howard Marks, Buffett, and Munger: always value businesses, buy them for less than their net worth, and then wait.Templeton taught William to never blindly trust one person, even if that person is your friend or brilliant and honorable. According to Templeton, even when you find someone you admire, hedge against the fact that they can be wrong.Finally, William says that investing is not simple, and even when you learn a crucial lesson, it may not apply next time. That’s just life, and it’s not simple.Andrew’s takeawaysThe more you’re true to who you are, the better your life will be.Revenue is proof of concept, and profit is proof of competence. But the most important thing to an investor is growing that profit.Buy good companies at low prices relative to their value, but don’t forget that stocks follow earnings. You may buy a cheap company, but your investment won’t be that profitable if it doesn’t grow its profit.Even when you’re inclined to follow someone because you like what they said or admire them, remember that you still have to keep doing your research and re-evaluate your decision constantly.Take control of your inner landscape because, ultimately, only you can shape that.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsWilliam’s goal for the next 12 months is to go on an eight-day meditation retreat with a great Tibetan Buddhist meditation teacher. He also wants to take more control of his inner landscape.Parting words “When you do something that’s incredibly stupid, look at it and say; not going there again.”William Green [spp-transcript] Connect with William GreenLinkedInTwitterPodcastWebsiteBookAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: AJ Aluthwala is a specialist in discovering, planning, and executing customized online marketing strategies for businesses to attract massive amounts of online traffic and convert that traffic into sales.STORY: AJ and his business partner agreed to get into an unprofitable business only to help a friend. They lost a ton of money, and the friendship failed too.LEARNING: Don’t partner with anybody, especially friends, based on emotion. Always know your numbers. Review your financial statements monthly. “Always know your numbers.”AJ Aluthwala Guest profileAJ Aluthwala is a specialist in discovering, planning, and executing customized online marketing strategies for businesses to attract massive amounts of online traffic and convert that traffic into sales.He also helps companies develop their own proprietary apps to help them improve customer experience and increase the value of their business.He has worked with over 200 companies around the US and worldwide.AJ has lived and worked in Asia, Europe, and North America and has visited over 15 countries worldwide. AJ and his family moved to sunny Florida in 2014.He is offering listeners a free white paper on “5 Things to Look for When Selecting a Mobile App Developer’ which you can download at ElleApps.Worst investment everIn 2013, AJ and a partner were running a wholesale business. They did not want to get into the retail side at all because they knew it was cutthroat. However, they had a friend who begged to get involved in their business. His idea was to take the wholesale business to retailers for better profit and more significant margins.To help out this friend, the two partners accepted his idea and got into the retail side. They acquired property, vehicles, and other things to run the business. However, the company was losing around $5,000 a month, which was excruciatingly painful. AJ had to borrow $10,000 from his wife to keep the business afloat.Eventually, they had to close everything up in a few months. The partners didn’t part ways on good terms, and the friendships fell apart. So AJ not only lost money in this investment but a friend too.Lessons learnedDon’t partner with anybody based on emotion.Before starting a business, do your research and look at numbers; if numbers make sense, you can start the business.Be careful when getting into business with friends.Andrew’s takeawaysStay open to new ideas, but don’t get distracted from your vision.Create, or hire someone to draw financial statements and then review them monthly.Actionable adviceMake sure you run the numbers, then make decisions based on the numbers, not on emotions.AJ’s recommended resourcesThe 5 Things to Look for When Selecting a Mobile App Developer whitepaper.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsAJ’s goal for the next 12 months is to expand and build an A-grade team to handle a couple of new projects starting up. [spp-transcript] Connect with AJ AluthwalaLinkedInFacebookInstagramYouTubeWebsiteAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: David Aaker, sometimes called the Father of Modern Branding, is the author of 18 books on branding and related topics. He is the vice-chair of Prophet, a global branding, growth, and transformation consultancy.STORY: David was an advisor to a software company acquired by Microsoft in the 80s. He had stock in the company but decided to sell it to save on taxes. The stock would now be worth millions of dollars.LEARNING: Don’t let saving taxes drive your investment decisions. Keep your money in the market for as long as possible. “Don’t sell your stocks to save on taxes.”David Aaker Guest profileDavid Aaker, sometimes called the Father of Modern Branding, is the author of 18 books on branding and related topics. The last three are Aaker on Branding, Creating Signature Stories, and Owning Game-Changing Subcategories. He is the vice-chair of Prophet, a global branding, growth, and transformation consultancy.Worst investment everDavid was an advisor to a software company that was a competitor to Windows in the 80s. The company was better than Windows but couldn’t get any of the big computer companies to adopt it. And so they sold to Microsoft. David had stock in this company that he wanted to keep for his daughters. He later decided to sell his stocks to avoid income tax. Had David kept the stocks, his daughter would have millions of dollars today.Lessons learnedDon’t let saving taxes drive your investment decisions.Andrew’s takeawaysThe real long game in building a portfolio is letting time work its magic. So keep your money in the market for as long as possible.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsDavid’s goal for the next 12 months is to help people understand how to build brand assets and emphasize structures and financials in their strategic thinking.Parting words “People should manage their charitable giving portfolio as they do their stock portfolio.”David Aaker [spp-transcript] Connect with David AakerLinkedInFacebookTwitterWebsiteBooksAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Mahesh Murthy has helped launch Amazon, over 60 startups, a few hundred brands, and a few satellites. He’s a marketer, entrepreneur, and investor.STORY: Mahesh invested close to $400,000 into a startup only to discover that one of the founders was siphoning money via his sister and mother.LEARNING: Verify startup founders before investing in them. Hire someone to monitor your investments if you cannot do it yourself. Invest in a minimum of 10 startups instead of just one. “Never give your entire investment to one person.”Mahesh Murthy Guest profileMahesh Murthy has helped launch Amazon, over 60 startups, a few hundred brands, and a few satellites. He’s a marketer, entrepreneur, and investor.As a marketer he:Worked on Amazon, Pepsi, and NikeHelped launch MTV and its rival Channel V.Founded ad firm Pinstorm.Wrote ads, including ‘Asia’s best ad of the decade.”As an entrepreneur he:Failed in his first three ventures.Is taking a company public soonHas taken another into space: Asia’s first private firm to launch satellitesAs an investor he:Has run three venture fundsWas voted India’s “Best VC of the Year.” Twice.Worst investment everMahesh was lucky to be in the US at the start of the Dotcom revolution working at one of the early digital advertising firms in Silicon Valley. He read about a small startup in Seattle that wanted to sell stuff online.Mahesh went to his boss and told him about the startup, but he dismissed him. But he prevailed, and finally, the boss allowed him to meet the startup’s founders. The startup was Amazon. Mahesh started working with Amazon, and in the process, he learned a lot from Jeff Bezos.After a few years, Mahesh decided to return to India and take his e-commerce knowledge there. He also started doing a lot of angel investing. Through this, he met two founders who wanted to teach students outside India online.Mahesh was very excited about the idea and was ready to invest. The two founders hired teachers, and the teaching started. Mahesh was pretty much hands-off and would write a check every three months. The founders would update him on the progress and insist they had everything under control.Soon, Mahesh noticed the company was spending so much money renting computers and an office space bigger than necessary. He kept asking why the founders were doing this instead of buying the computers and renting a smaller space. The founders insisted that they just wanted to be flexible and not invest in assets they knew nothing about. Mahesh just bought into all this.Finally, after about two years of pumping so much money into the company without much progress, Mahesh decided to look deeper into how things were running. He went to the office, and while looking at the financial books, he noticed that the people renting out the computers and the space were related. He dug a little deeper, did a few Google searches, then figured out that the computers belonged to one of the founder’s sisters and the space belonged to his mother. This partner was taking a chunk of money from the company and putting it into his own pocket through his mother and sister. Mahesh was incensed. When he asked the founder about it, he exited the company. When the second founder heard about it, he also left the company.Now Mahesh had very little money left, a company with no leadership, about 25 staff, and no customers. He and his partner jumped in and did what they could to find some customers, paid the teachers full pay, and slowly let them off.About two years later, they sold the company to another company building an education giant and got some shares in it. Up to that point, Mahesh had invested close to $400,000, and he only managed to get about $40,000 back when the new owners took the company public.Lessons learnedNobody’s a good judge of character, so don’t trust people blindly.Being hands-off may be easy and fantastic, but it won’t help your investments.Ensure all the paperwork is correct and your tax is done correctly.Hire somebody who will track and monitor your investments if you cannot be hands-on.Andrew’s takeawaysIf you’re going to invest in startups, invest in 10 startups, not just one.Monitor your investment regularly.Get your complete financial statements, balance sheet, and income statement monthly and hold a monthly meeting to review them.Actionable adviceIf you’re investing in a startup, hire a chartered accountant who will look deep into the books on your behalf. Additionally, put the systems in place to monitor your investments so you don’t get scammed.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsMahesh Murthy’s goal for the next 12 months is to launch more satellites and segments.Parting words “Trust but verify.”Mahesh Murthy [spp-transcript] Connect with Mahesh MurthyLinkedInFacebookTwitterInstagramWebsiteAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Joseph Hogue graduated from Iowa State University after serving in the Marine Corps. He worked in corporate finance and real estate before starting a career in investment analysis. He has appeared on Bloomberg and CNBC and led a team of equity analysts for a venture capital research firm.STORY: Joseph bought stocks in an energy company at a time when industry prices were low with the hope that the company would outperform the market, but it didn’t. He lost $30,000 in the investment.LEARNING: Always look at debt-to-equity ratios, especially in a down market. Set percentage caps on the stocks in your portfolio. “Bad things happen to good companies.”Joseph Hogue Guest profileBorn and raised in Iowa, Joseph Hogue graduated from Iowa State University after serving in the Marine Corps. He worked in corporate finance and real estate before starting a career in investment analysis. Joseph has appeared on Bloomberg and CNBC and led a team of equity analysts for a venture capital research firm. He holds a master’s degree in business and the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation.Joseph left the corporate world in 2014 to build his online businesses, first through creating websites and later through his YouTube channel, Let’s Talk Money. He’s since grown the community to over 500,000 and reaches more than 1.8 million people a month through his blogs, YouTube channel, and a weekly market newsletter.Subscribe to Joseph’s free weekly market newsletter to get an update on all the news, trends, and what he’s watching in the week ahead for stocks!Worst investment everIn 2014/15, high debt and low energy prices knocked the entire coal industry down. Regulators were circling, trying to limit the coal generation capacity in the United States. But still, a third of the US energy grid was generated by coal, so this was still a viable resource that people were using. The stocks in the energy industry were down by almost half.Joseph was fully aware of what was happening in the industry. He decided to do a bottom-up analysis of the stocks. He found Peabody Energy, the world’s largest private-sector coal producer at the time. The company had a solid market share and relatively good fundamentals relative to many other stocks in that sector.He started buying Peabody Energy stocks in 2015. At the time, the stock was already 50% lower from its peak just a couple of years ago. The stock kept falling, and he kept buying. Like many investors, Joseph fell into the gamblers’ trap. Eventually, he was just praying to get even.Peabody Energy ended up filing for bankruptcy in 2016, and in the process, Joseph lost about $30,000. This loss embarrassed him because he had already worked in the industry for about four years and had passed all three levels of the CFA in 2011. He was a charterholder and had worked with venture capital and private wealth management.Still, Joseph just ignored the basics of investing. He thought he had a strong investment case in that coal was still something the US would need to generate electricity. The world was not about to get rid of it overnight. A lot of these stocks seemed to be trading at a discount. Joseph picked the one stock he thought had the financial size and scope to survive, supposedly, but it didn’t survive.Lessons learnedWhen buying a specific industry is down, always consider the debt-to-equity ratios. This will help you know if the company can survive this period of market weakness.Just because you think a company or even an entire industry is indispensable doesn’t mean that that specific company can’t file for bankruptcy or that it can’t wipe out its shareholders.Don’t think any companies or investors are sacrosanct.Set percentage caps on the stocks in your portfolio.Bad things happen to good companies.Andrew’s takeawaysDebt is the number one risk that companies face.Understand how bankruptcy can affect your portfolio and what to do when a company you’ve invested in files for bankruptcy.Actionable adviceDon’t put more than 10% of your money in a single stock. Do your rebalancing on the asset level, from stocks to bonds, commodities, or other assets. Suppose you’re trading in a particular industry or even a sector doing well. In that case, you can always reallocate some of that money into the competitors doing well, so you still have that industry exposure that’s doing so well but not necessarily that one individual company.Joseph’s recommended resourcesHis Let’s Talk Money YouTube channel, where he explains investing in straightforward and easy-to-understand ways.Sectorspdr.com, where you can see how the 11 stock sectors of the economy and the S&P 500 companies have done over specific periods like one day, five days, up to five years. The analysis gives you an idea of what the market is doing in those 11 sectors. You get to know which sectors are performing well and which ones are lagging.FactSet Earnings Insight is excellent for people who want to do a deeper analysis of the companies in the S&P 500. The site provides data on their earnings and what the expectations are. The website updates its earnings insight report every Friday.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsJoseph’s goal for the next 12 months is to start an investor community with a revenue share agreement. His investment goal is to keep pushing hard and making more money to invest. [spp-transcript] Connect with Joseph HogueLinkedInFacebookYouTubeWebsiteNewsletterAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Priya Kumar is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, bestselling author, and now screenwriter. She has written 15 inspirational books that have won 42 international awards.STORY: Priya ignored the need to learn basic accounting and instead left her money matters in the hands of her accountant. The accountant took advantage of her ignorance and swindled all her money.LEARNING: Learn basic accounts and finance. Analyze your profit and loss statement and balance sheet every month. “Learn accounts so that you’re always aware of where your money is going.”Priya Kumar Guest profilePriya Kumar is an internationally acclaimed motivational speaker, bestselling author, and screenwriter. She has written 15 inspirational books that have won 42 international awards. She has worked with over 2000 multi-national corporates across 47 countries and has touched over 3 million people through her workshops and books.Priya has written over 700 columns for national and international publications. The media have extensively featured her work in India and abroad, and she has been invited as a celebrity guest on several business, entertainment & reality shows.Priya was awarded the Times of India, Speaking Tree, and Good Karma Award as India’s most Inspirational Author.Known as The Biography Specialist, Priya is currently penning the official biography of Mr. Pullela Gopichand, the Olympics Badminton Coach. Priya wrote the biography of Late Shri O.P. Munjal, the founder of the Hero Group, and Subhashish Chakraborty, the founder of DTDC, which made it to the most famous biography of 2015 on Amazon.Worst investment everPriya didn’t know anything about finance or accounting, so she hired an accountant to manage her money. She didn’t know that he was stealing her money through forgery and deceit to the point that Priya had no money in the bank. The theft went on for a year and a half.Circumstances aligned, and it came to Priya’s notice through her bank that she had issued some checks, which she hadn’t. She reported the whole thing to the police, and the accountant was caught. However, there was no way to bring the money back. It’s been six years, and the case is still in court. Priya is yet to get any money back.Lessons learnedWhen you delegate your accounts to somebody, put systems around it.Learn finances and accounting so that you’re always aware of where your money is going.Andrew’s takeawaysMake sure you get your profit and loss statement and your balance sheet every month.Reconcile your accounts at the end of every month.You don’t need to become a financial or accounting specialist. Just learn the basics.Actionable adviceIf you want to be wealthy and protected, invest in learning finance basics.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsPriya’s goal for the next 12 months is to be centered and solid and do whatever it takes for her to find herself.Parting words “Be responsible. Whatever happens, it is your doing and your creation.”Priya Kumar [spp-transcript] Connect with Priya KumarLinkedInFacebookTwitterInstagramYouTubeWebsiteBooksAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever Podcast

BIO: Mario Bekes began his career with the Department of Defence Republic of Croatia in Military Police/Security Services for seven years. In 1998 he worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs Republic of Croatia in Security Intelligence Services, secondment in Republic of Croatia Consulate General in Sydney for five years before founding Insight Intelligence in 2003.STORY: Mario allowed his ego to make him believe that he knew everything there is to know about running his business, and so he failed to invest in learning.LEARNING: Be open to continuous learning because you can never know everything. “Foundations are critical in business, but you can only establish them when you work on yourself.”Mario Bekes Guest profileMario Bekes began his career with the Department of Defence Republic of Croatia in Military Police/Security Services for seven years. In 1998 he worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs Republic of Croatia in Security Intelligence Services, secondment in Republic of Croatia Consulate General in Sydney for five years before founding Insight Intelligence in 2003.Mario is proficient in 3 languages (English, Croatian and Russian). He has published five books, including “Corporate and Workplace Investigations,” published in August 2018, and his latest best-seller on Amazon, “The Blood Soaked Soil,” published in September 2021.He is also the designer of software programs (Intelligent Risk Manager, Intelligent HR Recruiter, and Online Task Manager) and pioneering and architecting the application of psychology in the corporate environment as a tool for preventing fraud and increasing the success rate in investigations.Mario conducted numerous internal and external investigations in corporate and government sectors in Australia and overseas, particularly in human intelligence and competitive business intelligence.If you’re happy to be interviewed on his radio show “Life: The Battlefield” and share your knowledge, experience, and how to deal with obstacles in life, business contact Mario on any of the platforms shared below and quote “A. Stotz Academy.”Worst investment everMario believed that the world owed him and that nobody knew more than he did. With these beliefs, Mario saw no need to learn new things. His worst investment was not listening to the business environment and absorbing from the experts. Mario instead invested in his alter ego, which drove him into insanity.His ego made him believe that having beautiful business cards, a beautiful desk, and everything else would make him a successful businessman. So he refused to learn how to run his business. The result was two years of struggling to understand the business and losing money.Lessons learnedBe open to continuous learning because you can never know everything.Associate yourself with experts to enhance your understanding of the business environment.Andrew’s takeawaysDesign your product and service in a way that it can be scaled.Actionable adviceInvest in proper planning and proper financial structure as you build your business. Also, invest in people such as CFOs, and CEOs who can help you to run that business.No.1 goal for the next 12 monthsMario’s goal for the next 12 months is to reduce internal test fraud and criminal activity for all his clients, current and future ones.Parting words “Please listen to this podcast.”Mario Bekes [spp-transcript] Connect with Mario BekesLinkedInFacebookTwitterInstagramYouTubeWebsiteBooksPodcastAndrew’s booksHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketMy Worst Investment Ever9 Valuation Mistakes and How to Avoid ThemTransform Your Business with Dr.Deming’s 14 PointsAndrew’s online programsValuation Master ClassHow to Start Building Your Wealth Investing in the Stock MarketFinance Made Ridiculously SimpleBecome a Great Presenter and Increase Your InfluenceTransform Your Business with Dr. Deming’s 14 PointsConnect with Andrew Stotz:astotz.comLinkedInFacebookInstagramTwitterYouTubeMy Worst Investment Ever PodcastFurther reading mentionedMichael Gerber (2009), The E Myth Revisited: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It.