The Intelligent Investing Podcast

In today's episode, I sit down with my buddy Robbie Kramer to discuss the ultimate value investment, relationships. Last week, I had the pleasure discussing investing on his show. You can listen to the episode, here. If you prefer to watch it on YouTube, you can watch the episode, here. The most important relationship you'll ever invest in is probably who you end up marrying. Choosing quality romantic partners is Robbie Kramer's specialty. It was an absolute joy to sit down with him and chat all things relationships, romance, and dating.   Watch this episode on YouTube   Transcript For a transcript of today's episode, click here.  Show Notes [00:01:18] Marrying the right person [00:02:35] People who are successful in their careers yet stunted in their relationships [00:10:05] Common Mistakes Men Make [00:13:07] Instagram and Online Dating [00:14:53] Three Prompts for Dating Profiles [00:19:56] Socially Awkward Men [00:22:29] “...Some of these guys are worth a hundred million dollars, running big funds, very wealthy. Social, but either they're still single or they have a wife who they're pretty much like in an emotionally abusive relationship, like they're just not happy. If they're very honest with themselves, they're not happy with their romantic life, and that stuns me how you could be actually fairly socially incompetent.” [00:23:35] Unhappy Relationships [00:24:51] Social Freedom Exercises [00:27:41] The Wealthy Executive Who Hides Behind Masks [00:33:14] Optimizing your life Links From The Episode Profile Prompts Photo Feeler Get In Touch With Robbie Kramer Instagram Inner Confidence The Leverage Podcast   My Other Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Summary In this episode, I break down the current paradigm for shareholder activism, speak to the new model that I invented which is vastly superior both in results and reliability. We discuss the myth of "if it can't be measured, it doesn't exist", the myth around "soft skills", and how people often ask the wrong questions or measure the wrong stuff due to perverted influences by HR departments. If you're interested in more discussion of the new model for shareholder activism I developed, see the following links below: A New Model For Shareholder Activism (Podcast) The Proxy Activism Project A New Model For Shareholder Activism (Blog) A New Model For Shareholder Activism (YouTube) A New Model For Shareholder Activism (Eric Schleien / John King) Netflix, Sears, and Tribal Leadership (Eric Schleien / John King) How To Keep Large Companies Innovative (Eric Schleien / Scott Forgey) Eric Schleien discussing Tribal Leadership Eric Schleien discussing Activist Investing CBRE Case Study – Tribal Leadership Comparing Transformational & Transactional Leadership (Eric Schleien) Cultural Issues In The Hospital Industry (Eric Schleien) New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

NEW PODCAST Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. Summary I received this email last year about Trupanion and wanted to address some points made. The entire email is here: Hi Eric,   I come in peace as a Chester County native who still very much prefers Wawa over Sheetz, despite living in Pittsburgh. You seemed very open to hearing counterpoints, as per your podcast on TRUP, so I wanted to give you some things to chew on.    You made two points (I'll summarize): 1) It is justifiable to exclude development expenses from IRR and 2) there are "no accounting shenanigans" going on.    I would love, then, to hear your thoughts on the following:   Let's first level set with the IRR methodology: the company allocates fixed expenses between Subscription and Other based on their relative revenue contributions. This includes a pro-rata allocation of G&A expenses.    So let's get into G&A expenses -- what's in there? Typical back office stuff, finance, accounting, etc. But also a couple million bucks of rental income related to subleasing of the company HQ. Per their 2019 10-K: "The change was primarily due to a $3.1 million increase in compensation expenses, a $0.8 million increase in professional service fees, and a $1.5 million increase in depreciation expense mainly due to owning our home office building since August 2018, partially offset by a total of $2.6 million in savings from additional lease income and less rental expense."   The rental income has the effect of reducing reported G&A (i.e. it's netted against expenses). So my first question for you is as follows: if you firmly believe development expenses that aren't related to acquiring new pets are justifiably excluded from IRR calculations, how are you comfortable with several million dollars of sublease income that's clearly not related to acquiring subscription pets benefitting IRR?   Next up is their pet-food VIE. Also from the 10-K: The Company has also entered into a series of agreements to provide ancillary services to the variable interest entity at cost. The Company provided $1.2 million and $1.4 million of these services for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively, which were recorded against its operating expenses.   So TRUP provides back office support to the VIE and reduces its reported opex to account for the compensation for providing the services.    So the next question is the same as the first: Would you bucket this in line with "development expenses" as being rightly excluded from IRR, or are you OK with the company getting the tailwind from the expense reduction?   Now here's where the situation becomes a bit more nefarious. The VIE has received a total of $9.5 million of funding from TRUP, including $7.0MM of preferred capital and $2.5MM from a line of credit. Think for a minute about what's going on here: the company pushed $9.5MM of cash down to another legal entity, and now reduces its reported OpEx for services provided to the VIE, with the payments being made with money TRUP used to finance the VIE. Money coming out of one pocket and right into the other.    Third question: Do you think this is an accounting shenanigan?   Lastly, management knows PAC is getting out of hand and pulled a fast one in the first quarter to make it look like they've got things under control. Aren't you the slightest bit curious how they're going to hold PAC at $280 for the balance of this year in an increasingly competitive environment?   Management casually slipped in the following comment during the earnings call: "We expect stock-based compensation to be around $6-$7 million per quarter for the remainder of the year." Coupled with the $8.4 million of SBC already booked in 1Q'21, TRUP is on track to recognize $28 million of SBC expense in 2021. Putting this figure into perspective, it is 3x higher than last year's $8.9 million of total recognized SBC expense. Last year SBC expense was 1.8% of revenue; this year it will be 4.1%.   What does SBC have to do with PAC and IRR?    Well, for the purposes of calculating PAC (a key input into the IRR calculation), management excludes SBC because it's non-cash. By upping the portion paid in the form of equity, management is artificially reducing the level of PAC incorporated in their IRR calculation. in 1Q'21, fully-loaded PAC (including SBC) was $328/pet, representing 22.4% y/y growth. SBC embedded in Sales and Marketing was $40/pet -- leaps and bounds above historical levels ($20/pet). See the charts at the bottom of the email. Had SBC been more in-line with historical levels ($20/pet), PAC (for the purposes of the company's IRR calculation) would have been ~$310...much closer to the full year figure I was expecting.   This is all a long winded way of saying, if you were to run the company's IRR calc with PAC of $315 or above, there is absolutely no way they would be within the boundaries of their self-imposed 30-40% target range. The only reason they'll print numbers within range this year is a result of their increased use of SBC in compensating their employees.     The table below illustrates Restricted Stock grants (not expense, but grants) since 1Q'19. The grants in the most recent quarter -- $66 million! -- jump off of the page and explain why SBC will be elevated in the quarters to come. But don't just take my word for it. From what I can tell, we both respect Buffett a lot, and here's what he's got to say on the topic: "I have no objection to the granting of options. Companies should use whatever form of compensation best motivates employees -- whether this be cash bonuses, trips to Hawaii, restricted stock grants or stock options. But aside from options, every other item of value given to employees is recorded as an expense."     When it comes to SBC, RSUs are a functional cash equivalent, so there is no legitimate justification to exclude the related expense from any measure of profitability -- GAAP or otherwise.         Perhaps using RSUs makes sense for the time being given the extreme overvaluation of TRUP. Management can handsomely compensate employees and gloss over the dilutive impact on the company's financials. But what happens when shares are back at $30, but territory partners are expecting their compensation to remain flat in nominal terms? Shareholders will either be 1) massively diluted or 2) the company would have to lean more heavily on cash compensation. The latter of the two options is a functional non-starter at the current juncture given the company's persistently negative free cash flow (another topic the bulls don't understand, but I'll let sleeping dogs lie on this one).   Last question: Do you believe SBC is a true expense? If it is, should the company be including it in its IRR calculation?     Management updated guidance, and frankly, I think the financial outlook is worse than I was expecting. "Adjusted Operating Income" -- which is ex. SBC, D&A, and Pet Acquisition -- is forecast at $75MM. PAC -- ex. SBC -- is forecast at $66MM. That leaves us to $9MM. "Development expense" will be $4MM (at the mid), SBC is $28MM, D&A will be $12MM, resulting in a pre-tax net loss of $35MM. This is larger than the company's cumulative net loss for the past six years combined!      I know this is a battleground stock and don't expect everyone to come around. But I also think: 1) there's only one set of correct answers to the questions I've laid out above, 2) none of the afforementioned points are "dumb", and 3) management is using sleight of hand to paint a picture of the company that is out of step with reality.  As someone who puts a lot of value in associating with the right people, I certainly don't appreciate the games / shenanigans that Daryl and team are pulling.      $MM Adjusted Operating Income 75 - PAC (66) - Development expense (4) - SBC (28) - D&A (12) Pre-tax Income (35)   HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com Disclosure: Eric Schleien and some SMA clients of Eric Schleien through GSCM own shares of TRUP. Nothing here is investment advice. Do your own due diligence.  

NEW PODCAST Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. NET NET HUNTER This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value – this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary Evan Bleker is a professional investor who has built his track record by buying high quality net net stocks. When not researching stocks, he focuses his time on helping small investors learn the strategy so they can earn great returns. Evan manages two investing websites: Net Net Hunter and Broken Leg Investing. Net Net Hunter Complete guide to net net stocks Broken Leg Investing Deep Value Guide Evan discussed Warren Buffett's net net investing practice during his partnership. Further resources available here: You can follow Evan's portfolio performance here: You can sign up for his free newsletter on the Net Net Hunter home page.   Show Notes 1:06 - What is Westell (WSTL)? 2:24 - Estimating liquidation value 3:07 - A simplified approach to finding high quality net-net stocks 3:55 - The 5G rollout 5:10 - Potential catalyst 5:26 - Dark Companies; The new SEC rule 8:57 - Westell quarterly update HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com Disclosure: Eric Schleien and some SMA clients of Eric Schleien through GSCM own shares of WSTL. Nothing here is investment advice. Do your own due diligence.    

NEW PODCAST Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. NET NET HUNTER This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value – this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary Today's interview guest is Trey Henninger where discuss a recent update on Solitron Devices (SODI) Trey Henninger runs the blog and podcast, DIY Investing. Trey is a private value investor focused on microcap and dark stocks in the United States. His focus is on high-quality companies with predictable durable earnings where management has skin-in-the-game. Trey runs a concentrated portfolio. By focusing on small companies, Trey hopes to find overlooked compounders at value prices. His favorite opportunities have a market cap below $50 million.   RESOURCES My Book on Amazon Alex Bossert's VIC writeup on Solitron Trey Henninger's Stock Thesis on Solitron Connect With Trey Henninger Twitter Blog Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com Disclosure: Eric Schleien and some SMA clients of Eric Schleien through GSCM own shares of SODI. Nothing here is investment advice. Do your own due diligence.  

Summary In this episode, I sit down with Vitaliy Katsenelson of IMA to discuss Uber's business model. We ended up chatting for about an hour and went pretty deep into the weeds around ride-sharing, Uber, and also what the future holds for the industry both in the United States and globally. Show Links Investor.fm Contrarian Edge The Six Commandments Was Our Money Manager Kidnapped? More About Vitaliy Katsenelson Vitaliy N. Katsenelson, CFA, is CEO at Investment Management Associates in Denver, Colo.  He is the author of Active Value Investing (Wiley, 2007) and the The Little Book of Sideways Markets (Wiley, December 2010). He runs the blog ContrarianEdge.com.  He writes monthly for Institutional Investor. More About Eric Schleien To learn more about me, Eric Schleien, check out my personal website and business website. You can also reach out to me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you'd like to read my book, you can find it on Amazon. Reviews are appreciated. New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Schleien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. To learn more about Eric's work, check out his ontological coaching firm, Transformational Leadership Associates. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

It's Eric Schleien with episode #167 of The Intelligent Investing Podcast. Today I discuss one of my current positions LAACO with a quick update. Summary I originally invested in LAACO when the stock was trading at roughly $2000/unit. The thesis was that you could buy the entire company at a significant discount to the private market value of the assets. You can read my original thesis, here. Recently, there has been news reports that the company may be in the process of selling their self-storage business which would be huge for shareholders. You can see a link to an article, here. More About Eric Schleien To learn more about me, Eric Schleien, check out my personal website and business website. You can also reach out to me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you'd like to read my book, you can find it on Amazon. Reviews are appreciated. New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Schleien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. To learn more about Eric's work, check out his ontological coaching firm, Transformational Leadership Associates. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

It's Eric Schleien back atcha with Episode #166 of The Intelligent Investing Podcast. Today I bring on Jason Rivera to discuss BE Semiconductor Industries NV (BESIY). Summary Jason found the company when they were a $640 million dollar market cap company. Since then, the stock is up ~10x. Not a bad return! When Jason  found them, they were a pick and shovel play in the semiconductor industry. The company builds testing kits. They also build plastic casings for the actual semiconductor pieces. They're a necessary business for the semiconductor industry. Jason believes you can expect that trend rapidly grow because of the internet of things and 5G. Jason  found the stock by going one by one through the OTC markets database. There's around 20,000 companies listed there. More About Eric Schleien To learn more about me, Eric Schleien, check out my personal website and business website. You can also reach out to me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you'd like to read my book, you can find it on Amazon. Reviews are appreciated! Get In Touch With Jason Rivera To learn more about Jason Rivera, check out his website: Value Investing Journey   New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Schleien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. To learn more about Eric's work, check out his ontological coaching firm, Transformational Leadership Associates.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Join Eric Schleien as he discusses Altria Group Inc (NYSE: MO) with Jason Rivera from Value Investing Journey. Eric Schleien has been following Altria for many years and brought Jason on after he saw that he's talked about it on his website. For those who don't know, Altria is the maker of Marlboro cigarettes and is considered the ultimate sin stock. You can make the argument that the stock has often been cheap due to the fact it is a sin stock leading to high rates of returns over many decades. About Eric Schleien To learn more about Eric Schleien, check out his personal website and business website. You can also reach out to him on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Microcap Shareholder Activism If you are an executive of a microcap public company or a large shareholder of a microcap company where the executives are not doing right by shareholders, I'd be happy to see if me and my team can help with our novel approach to shareholder activism. For more information, see our offering at Transformational Leadership Associates and would be happy to do a free consult. If you'd like to read Eric Schleien's book, you can find it on Amazon. What Are Sin Stocks? Sin stocks are public companies involved in activities that are considered unethical by society, such as alcohol, tobacco, gambling, adult entertainment or weapons. ESG investors tend to exclude sin stocks, as the companies involved are thought to be making money from exploiting human weaknesses and vices. Why Do People Avoid Sin Stocks? A common question people ask is why do people avoid sin stocks? In reality, a stock doesn't know you own it. As long as you aren't participating in a secondary offering, you buying stock in Altria in no way contributes to the tobacco industry. However, even though that is the reality, there are many reasons why people avoid sin stocks. For example, there is an entire investment industry around what is coined ESG. ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance. Companies are given a score based on a variety of metrics. This has led to a whole new money making scheme in the name of “feeling good” about what you're investing in despite the fact it makes no actual impact to the planet. However, this ESG fad has led to opportunities for prudent investors. Altria Stock Valuation Jason discusses how he values Altria. Jason assumes the company is worth 11x EBIT which he considers high for most companies but appropriate for Altria. That would get you to a value of about $129.5 billion. Then, if you add cash of just under $2 billion and subtract the company's $28.2 billion in debt, that gets you to a value of about $101 Most companies, I wouldn't value it. An 11 X EBIT, multiple them. I would, again, for the competitive advantage we already talked about, so that gets us to a value of about 129.5 billion. Plus cash they had about just under $2 billion cash minus all of their debt at $28.2 billion. That gets us to a value of about $101.3 billion. This contrasts to a current market cap of about $93 billion. What's The IRR For Altria Stock? Jason assumes that the future returns for Altria will essentially be their dividend of just over 7%. In addition, Jason believes the company will be a good hedge for inflation. This IRR is much higher than a US Treasury Bond and he believes it is a good fit for a long-term portfolio with someone who is extremely risk averse. About Jason Rivera To learn more about Jason Rivera, check out his website: Value Investing Journey

Hi, it's Eric Schleien, and welcome back to another episode of The Intelligent Investing Podcast! In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the wonderful Jason Rivera who runs Value Investing Journey. I've always liked government contractors due to the sticky nature of their business, high margins, and lots of recurring revenue. I also love them when they are tiny and undiscovered and filling some interesting niche or segment of their market. A company that seems to possibly fit that bill is WidePoint Corporation (WYY). What Is WidePoint Corporation? WidePoint Corporation (WYY) is the leading provider of Trusted Mobility Management (TM2) solutions. TM2 converges at the intersection of WidePoint's pioneering Telecom Lifecycle Management (TLM), Telecom Bill Presentment & Analytics, Mobile and Identity (IdM) Management solutions. Market demand for secure mobile management such as WidePoint TM2 solutions is increasing due to security risks and vulnerabilities that could result from allowing mobile devices and cloud-based applications access to an organization's technology infrastructure. In today's connected world with high-profile data breaches, it is important for an enterprise to have a TM2 solution in place to protect valuable mobile assets and infrastructure while complying with changes in privacy and data protection laws and regulations. WidePoint TM2 solutions provide security, manageability, and visibility of an enterprise's mobile assets and services through a single platform supported by our secure TM2 framework. WidePoint is the leading provider of customized telecom and mobile management solutions to the U.S. public sector. WidePoint has a diverse portfolio of government and commercial clients, serving global and international enterprises and the Fortune 100 across a multitude of industries. More About Eric Schleien To learn more about me, Eric Schleien, check out my personal website and business website. You can also reach out to me on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you'd like to read my book, you can find it on Amazon. Reviews are appreciated! Get In Touch With Jason Rivera To learn more about Jason Rivera, check out his website: Value Investing Journey  

Eric Schleien hosts the September Roundtable for Finance Podcast Week. Join Eric Schleien, host of the Intelligent Investing Podcast, with Andrew Sather and Jason Rivera for a jam packed hour long finance roundtable.  Eric Schleien Discusses Real Estate Stocks In this episode, Eric Schleien sits down with Andrew Sather and Jason Rivera to discuss two real estate stocks. Laaco Ltd (LAACZ), which owns the Los Angeles Athletic Club and has a Self-Storage Business. Cedar Realty Trust (CDR), which owns grocery anchored retail outlets across the United States. Eric Schleien believes that both of these are cheap real estate stocks that would be some of the best picks for 2021. Both of these stocks are special situations as it is likely that both of these will be selling core assets for a higher price than the current market value. In Cedar's case, they may sell the entire company. With Laaco, they may sell their self-storage business at what would almost certainly be a higher price than the current market price if they were to get a fair valuation on the assets.   Eric Schleien Discusses Modern Value Investing One of the things that Eric points out during the roundtable is that modern GAAP accounting isn't always appropriate for companies such as Amazon (AMZN) or Trupanion (TRUP) to show true value of the business. For example, Amazon's R&D expense he believes is an asset even though it gets run through the income statement as an expense.  To learn more about Eric Schleien, check out his personal website and business website. You can also reach out to him on Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. If you'd like to read his book, you can find it on Amazon.   Jason Rivera Discusses Altria Stock During the episode Jason Rivera discusses Altria (MO) as a potential value investment due to the stability of the business mixed with a high dividend yield. Jason believes that Altria is a better inflation hedge than buying TIPS. To learn more about Jason Rivera, check out his website: Value Investing Journey   Andrew Sather Discusses Defense Contractors Andrew believes that defense contractors offer good value in this market. As a value investor, he is always looking for sectors and companies that are being mispriced by the market for various reasons. To learn more about Andrew Sather, check out his website: Investing For Beginners

Principles Of Power My book Principles Of Power: The Art & Wisdom of Badassery is now available on Amazon. I would be extremely grateful if you could pick up a copy and write an honest review. Would mean the world! New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. To learn more about Eric's work, check out his ontological coaching firm, Transformational Leadership Associates. Summary In this episode of The Intelligent Investing Podcast, Eric Schleien sits down with Evan Bleker of Net-Net Hunter to discuss a tiny little company, McCoy Global Inc. (MCB.TO) with a current market cap of $21 million. Show Notes [00:48] Tiny little company traded on Canadian Venture Exchange [2:14] A study on net-nets that buying at a huge discount to net current asset value doesn't enhance performance that much [4:21] The company is cash flow positive [5:26] Modeling out different scenarios (classic Dhandho!) [6:09] Could be a $2/stock if drilling takes off About Evan Bleker Evan Bleker is a professional investor who has built his track record by buying high quality net net stocks. When not researching stocks, he focuses his time on helping small investors learn the strategy so they can earn great returns. Evan manages two investing websites: Net Net Hunter and Broken Leg Investing. Net Net Hunter Complete guide to net net stocks Broken Leg Investing Deep Value Guide Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

I had a blast chatting with Evan Bleker who runs Net-Net Hunter. We discussed an interesting little company that many of you may be familiar with called ADDvantage Technologies Group, Inc. (AEY). Show Notes [00:35] Overview of ADDvantage [1:23] The 5G Rollout [2:05] How 5G Cell Towers Work [4:13] The Impact of COVID on ADDvantage [5:15] What it will take for the company to breakeven [6:18] The Delta COVID strain & Telecom Companies [7:52] The company may go bankrupt [9:53] Large upside in stock if they don't go to 0 [11:41] Brief discussion on American Tower (AMT)    

New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. To learn more about Eric's work, check out his ontological coaching firm, Transformational Leadership Associates. Summary In this episode of The Intelligent Investing Podcast, Eric Schleien sits down with Braxton Gann to discuss another shipping company, Dorian LPG (LPG). Braxton believes the business is cheap due to the business trading at a steep discount to its Net Asset Value. Show Notes [2:10] Shipping has been in a bull market [2:37] Track record of management [4:45] Eric Schleien pushing back on Braxton on concerns about shipping stocks [8:08] How to make money with shipping stocks [10:26] Recap on Scorpio Tankers Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. To learn more about Eric's work, check out his ontological coaching firm, Transformational Leadership Associates. Summary In this episode of The Intelligent Investing Podcast, Eric Schleien sits down with Braxton Gann to discuss Stealth Gas (GASS). Braxton believes the business is cheap due to the business trading at a steep discount to its Net Asset Value. Show Notes [1:19] About the company [2:19] "Shipping has been one of the worst industries over the past decade..." [3:13] Value of the second hand market for ships [3:54] Resource Recommendation: Value Investors Edge [5:02] Investment Risks [6:58] Salaries in the shipping industry Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. Podbean This podcast is sponsored by Podbean.  Podbean is probably the easiest way to create your own podcast. We use Podbean to host the Intelligent Investing Podcast and my new podcast, The Eric Schleien Podcast.  Download the free Podbean Podcast App, to start, record, and publish your very own podcast in minutes.  Podbean provides everything you need to run your podcast and you can record and publish episodes directly from the app on your phone. Check it out! TIKR.COM This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com‘s free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent NET NET HUNTER This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value – this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary On today's episode, I sit down with Jason Rivera who is self-taught value investor that focuses on small and obscure public companies to buy for his investors and subscribers. He teaches others how to become great value investors via three of his services: The Value Investing Training Vault, The Value Investing Masterclass, Our Value Investing Coaching Program He also have various other mini courses, masterminds, and other online and live events related to value investing and capital allocation as well. On his Value Investing Journey blog, YouTube, and social media pages he also releases a ton of free content to help people learn how to become a world class value investor. He also consults, advises, and values and evaluates businesses for business owners with his company Alpha Capital Allocation. Jason find areas to improve these businesses operations, profitability, cash flow and value, and then shows them how to do it. He is the author of the acclaimed value investing education book How To Value Invest. He is also the author of On Float. Jason has run his blog Value Investing Journey for nearly a decade and the site has been named a top 50 value investing blog in the world four times now. And his two value investing and education sites have been Named Top 15 Value Investing Podcasts In The World. He also manage investment portfolios for clients. Between the blog, his YouTube Channel, Quora, Twitter, LinkedIn, and various other sources he's had more than 500,000 views of his content worldwide. In the first 8 years of his investment career he produced investment returns for the portfolios I manage of 21.7% per year on average. This compared to about 9.9% for the market on average every year during this same period. Jason has written for several publications and investment newsletters including Seeking Alpha, The Palm Beach Letter, Wyatt Research, Insider Monkey, Guru Focus, and others. He's a member of the Rutgers University CX Advisory Board and also a member of the John Maxwell Team as a Coach, Teacher, and Trainer.   Show Notes [3:33] Stock Market Valuations [9:33] Tech industry profits are skyrocketing... [12:45] Bonds are horrible investments right now... [16:49] What stock to own in an inflationary environment... [18:00] Commercial and single family real estate [18:19] JM Smucker $SJM [21:50] Apple $AAPL [22:29] General Mills $GIS [23:44] The future of Intel $INTC   HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. Podbean This podcast is sponsored by Podbean.  Podbean is probably the easiest way to create your own podcast. We use Podbean to host the Intelligent Investing Podcast and my new podcast, The Eric Schleien Podcast.  Download the free Podbean Podcast App, to start, record, and publish your very own podcast in minutes.  Podbean provides everything you need to run your podcast and you can record and publish episodes directly from the app on your phone. Check it out! TIKR.COM This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com‘s free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent NET NET HUNTER This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value – this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary On today's episode, I sit down with Andrew Sather who is a self-taught investor since 2012. He specializes in identifying value traps and avoiding stock market bankruptcies. You can also listen to his podcast - Investing For Beginners. Show Notes [2:29] Infrastructure Bill [3:34] Not a typical minding company - economic moat [4:32] Long-term industry tailwinds [5:27] 125 year quarry rights [7:56] Valuing the business [9:47] Discussing $MLM's competitor Vulcan Materials $VMC   Resources Seeking Alpha Articles by Andrew Sather E-Investing for Beginners   HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. Podbean This podcast is sponsored by Podbean.  Podbean is probably the easiest way to create your own podcast. We use Podbean to host the Intelligent Investing Podcast and my new podcast, The Eric Schleien Podcast.  Download the free Podbean Podcast App, to start, record, and publish your very own podcast in minutes.  Podbean provides everything you need to run your podcast and you can record and publish episodes directly from the app on your phone. Check it out! TIKR.COM This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com‘s free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent NET NET HUNTER This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value – this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary In today's episode, I sit down with Andrew Sather who is a self-taught investor since 2012. He specializes in identifying value traps and avoiding stock market bankruptcies. You can also listen to his podcast - Investing For Beginners. Show Notes [3:06] Walmart vs Target [7:11] Returns on Invested Capital & Re-investment opportunity [8:14] Valuing Target [9:40] Corporate waste at Walmart   Resources Seeking Alpha Articles by Andrew Sather E-Investing for Beginners   HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. Podbean This podcast is sponsored by Podbean.  Podbean is probably the easiest way to create your own podcast. We use Podbean to host the Intelligent Investing Podcast and my new podcast, The Eric Schleien Podcast.  Download the free Podbean Podcast App, to start, record, and publish your very own podcast in minutes.  Podbean provides everything you need to run your podcast and you can record and publish episodes directly from the app on your phone. Check it out! TIKR.COM This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com‘s free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent NET NET HUNTER This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value – this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary On today's episode, I sit down with Andrew Sather who is a self-taught investor since 2012. He specializes in identifying value traps and avoiding stock market bankruptcies. You can also listen to his podcast - Investing For Beginners. Show Notes [3:19] Bank Of America $BAC [3:39] Just a crazy amount of capital that's flowing into these banks... [6:30] Lending to the fed... [7:51] Fintech [8:50] $BAC and $WFC still attracting new deposits in a low interest rate environment [10:42] Federal Reserve Bank Requirements [12:27] I'm bullish on the industry in general... [12:48] Bank Valuation Metrics [16:45] Building an economic moat through customer service in banking Resources Seeking Alpha Articles by Andrew Sather E-Investing for Beginners HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. Podbean This podcast is sponsored by Podbean.  Podbean is probably the easiest way to create your own podcast. We use Podbean to host the Intelligent Investing Podcast and my new podcast, The Eric Schleien Podcast.  Download the free Podbean Podcast App, to start, record, and publish your very own podcast in minutes.  Podbean provides everything you need to run your podcast and you can record and publish episodes directly from the app on your phone. Check it out! TIKR.COM This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com‘s free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent NET NET HUNTER This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value – this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary On today's episode, I sit down with Andrew Walker who is a portfolio manager at Rangeley Capital LLC and runs Yet Another Value Blog. We discuss Pershing Tontine (PSTH), a SPAC run by Bill Ackman that just recently announced a deal to acquire 10% of Universal Music Group (UMG) from Vivendi. Show Notes [4:24] The UMG announcement [7:15] Background on SPACs [9:47] A unique tontine structure [14:38] Spinning Eagle SPAC [16:50] SPACs vs SPARCs [22:31] Valuation [27:09] UMG's Economic Moat Resources PSTH Article 1: https://yetanothervalueblog.substack.com/p/further-breaking-down-and-simplifying   PSTH Article 2: https://yetanothervalueblog.substack.com/p/breaking-down-the-ridiculously-complex   HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com Disclosure: Eric Schleien and some SMA clients of Eric Schleien through Granite State Capital Management, LLC own shares of PSTH. Nothing here is investment advice. Do your own due diligence.  

NEW PODCAST Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. Podbean This podcast is sponsored by Podbean.  Podbean is probably the easiest way to create your own podcast. We use Podbean to host the Intelligent Investing Podcast and my new podcast, The Eric Schleien Podcast.  Download the free Podbean Podcast App, to start, record, and publish your very own podcast in minutes.  Podbean provides everything you need to run your podcast and you can record and publish episodes directly from the app on your phone. Check it out! TIKR.COM This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com‘s free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent NET NET HUNTER This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value – this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary Today's interview guest is Trey Henninger where we discuss the multi-bagger potential in Solitron Devices as well as do a recap on Entercom (now known as Audacy), and Northfield Precision. You can listen to the former Northfield Precision podcast here, and the Entercom podcast episode, here. Trey Henninger runs the blog and podcast, DIY Investing. Trey is a private value investor focused on microcap and dark stocks in the United States. His focus is on high-quality companies with predictable durable earnings where management has skin-in-the-game. Trey runs a concentrated portfolio. By focusing on small companies, Trey hopes to find overlooked compounders at value prices. His favorite opportunities have a market cap below $50 million. Show Notes [00:02:50] What is Solitron? [00:03:42] "I interviewed the CEO on my podcast"  [00:04:29] This was at the time a $5 million market cap company. And they looked like they were going to earn something like half a million dollars to a million dollars ... [00:05:58]  "I think the best way to  value the company is using an earnings analysis" [00:09:27] Consistently profitable with strong moat [00:12:52] Bought a new facility [00:14:18] Company hitting an inflection point [00:15:09] Recap on Entercom (ETM) [00:17:29] Recap on Northfield Precision (NFPC) RESOURCES My Book on Amazon Alex Bossert's VIC writeup on $SODI Trey Henninger's Stock Thesis on $SODI  Connect With Trey Henninger Twitter Blog Spotify Apple Podcasts YouTube HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube GET IN TOUCH WITH ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com Disclosure: Eric Schleien and some SMA clients of Eric Schleien through GSCM own shares of SODI & NFPC. Nothing here is investment advice. Do your own due diligence.  

New Podcast Hey All! I've started a second show completely devoted to the field of Ontology which is another huge passion of mine. Please check out The Eric Scheien Podcast which is an ontological podcast where I break down distinctions of human consciousness as an access to enhancing performance. TIKR.com This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com's free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent Net Net Hunter This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value - this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary Today I'm discussing the merger between Discovery Communications & WarnerMedia. I believe this situation provides an asymmetric risk profile. In the episode I outline the situation, valuation, and how I'm thinking about the investment opportunity.  Show Notes [1:55] Overview [2:11] Market doesn't like the deal [3:01] Makeup of the deal [3:53] Will be spending more on content than Netflix [4:34] Why is the stock down? [8:15] John Malone [9:18] Intrinsic value of Discovery Communications Resources John Malone Interview on CNBC My Book on Amazon About Eric Schleien Eric Schleien is the Founder/CEO of Granite State Capital Management, LLC. In addition to being a value investor, over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com

This episode is also brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com's free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent This episode sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value - this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary Today I'm discussing some very brief thoughts on Liberated Syndication (LSYN). They filed an 8k which led some investors to be alarmed. I think the fears are overblown and briefly discuss my views on the company and the recent development.  Show Notes [01:15] About Liberated Syndication [01:55] The Concern Over The 8k Filing [02:27] Paying Low Multiple For Growth [03:39] Free Call Option On Litigation Outcome Resources VIC Writeup on LSYN About Eric Schleien Eric Schleien is the Founder/CEO of Granite State Capital Management, LLC. In addition to being a value investor, over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com

This episode is also brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com's free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent This episode sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value - this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary Join Eric Schleien with today's interview guest, Robert Jacobson, as they talk everything about entrepreneurship, technology advancements, and how you can invest in outer space. Robert admits he is no rocket scientist, but as you join us in this discussion, listen as he tells us the many non-hyperbolic real things that are developing right above us. In this episode, Robert shares the different business models on space and technology exploration emerging in the industry today. From businesses leveraging the advantages of multiple small satellites, providing internet to remote areas, ultramodern telescopic devices, advanced GPS tracking, and even the fusion of VR technology and floatation tanks. As you remain tuned in, find out more as Robert, later on, speaks of his book that gives us a great introduction to how the industry that will help change humanity is affecting us economically, socially, and more. About Robert Jacobson Robert is a hyper-connector, advisor, entrepreneur specializing in the emerging New Space economy.  Robert Jacobson is an entrepreneur and investor driven by a life-long passion for space. A born improviser, team builder, and dealmaker, Robert approaches business challenges with a flexible and creative mindset. With a talent for developing nuanced, boundary-defying solutions, he creates effective bridges between various enterprises and worlds of experience—from merging interests and subject matter to propelling humanity forward via space's myriad offerings. Robert authored the book Space Is Open for Business on democratizing the New Space economy. Robert's Website Space Advisors Twitter Robert's Book; Space Is Open For Business: The Industry That Can Transform Humanity Show Notes [00:25] What outer space is doing for us. [03:14] The XPRIZE – Getting a human to space. [07:55] "It wasn't going to be through NASA." [10:18] The space advancements by 2020. [15:10] -An audacious goal of backing up Earth's civilization. [17:07] On Astrabotic and the project – Great Pause. [18:39] Floatation tanks – The closing thing to walking on outer space. [21:15] The opportunities for space ventures today. [26:34] New business models through satellite advancements, etc. [35:17] A book on the industry that can help transform humanity. Resources Space Is Open For Business Book by Robert C. Jacobson: Propel X – Alternative investments Space Angels – Your access to smart space investing Syndicate 708 - Propelling the next generation of Deep Tech entrepreneurs Starburst - The #1 Aerospace Accelerator About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

This episode sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value - this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. This episode is also brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com's free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent Summary In this episode I sit down with Evan Bleker to discuss what he's currently doing in the net-net world for 2021. It was a pleasure to have him back on the show. We discussed the big winners from 2020 and biggest losers. One of the big winners we discussed was a net-net stock called Polar Power. We also discussed how tanker stocks were the biggest losers for 2020 as well. We then discuss Evan's general net-net strategy, and a few stocks such as Kaspien, Playmate Toys, and TLV Holdings. If you're interested in investing in net-net stocks you won't want to miss this. Show Notes [00:21] Discussing the net-net portfolio for 2020 [00:44] Big winners and losers of 2020 [00:48] Polar Power [01:59] Tankers [02:49] Kaspien [10:18] Playmates Toys [15:05] TLV Holdings [26:15] ADDvantage Technologies Resources Evan Bleker's Book on Amazon Eric Schleien's Book on Amazon About Evan Bleker Evan Bleker is a professional investor who has built his track record by buying high quality net net stocks. When not researching stocks, he focuses his time on helping small investors learn the strategy so they can earn great returns. Evan manages two investing websites: Net Net Hunter and Broken Leg Investing. Net Net Hunter Complete guide to net net stocks Broken Leg Investing Deep Value Guide Evan discussed Warren Buffett's net net investing practice during his partnership. Further resources available here: You can follow Evan's portfolio performance here: You can sign up for his free newsletter on the Net Net Hunter home page. About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page! You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com

This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com's free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent This episode is also sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value - this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net-net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary It's time again for another Trupanion (TRUP) episode as there's been another writeup on the company that completely misunderstands their business in my opinion. For my other episode on Trupanion where I made a rebuttal to Todd Wenning at Ensemble Capital which you can listen to here. This is a rebuttal to the Steel City Capital letter which you can view on Seeking Alpha. Show Notes [3:28] The PAC spend is the output, NOT the input as Steel City Capital attempt to argue [3:53] Growth inline with PAC spend [5:26] Including development expenses in IRR doesn't make sense [6:06] The proper way to look at Trupanion's subscription business IRR [6:37] Doesn't make sense to include preloaded costs into IRR calculation [7:24] How to look at "Other" Business About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page! You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN: Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

This episode is brought to you by TIKR.com. This is a product I personally use for researching stocks at my firm. TIKR.com is focused on bringing institutional-quality investment research tools to individual investors. TIKR.com is powered by S&P Global CapitalIQ and has coverage of 50k+ stocks globally with financials, estimates, valuation metrics, ownership, transcripts, news, filings, and more. Join TIKR.com's free beta today with tikr.com/intelligent This episode is also sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value - this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary Eric Schleien brings on Don Chambers to discuss his activism at Firsthand Technology Value Fund (SVVC). Don will be proposing to terminate the management company and potentially liquidate the company after that at the next annual meeting. The company currently trades at a steep discount to NAV. For prior episodes about SVVC: https://ericschleien.com/podcast/firsthandtechnologyvaluefund/ https://ericschleien.com/podcast/donchambers-svvc/ Show Notes [00:01:55] Update On SVVC [00:02:13] Cards are stacked against the investor and they're tremendously stacked in favor of the entrenched money managers. [00:02:50] The proposal on the proxy [00:03:09] The Annual Meeting [00:03:24] Binding vs Non-Binding Resolutions [00:04:18] The Previous Non-Binding Proposal Last Year [00:05:30] The Entrenched management team  ABOUT DON CHAMBERS Donald R Chambers currently runs the website, SaveFirstHandTechnology. He is also a recently-retired (June 2017) professor of finance with 36 years of teaching experience. Dr. Chambers has written several books regarding investments and personal finance that are distinguished by their clear writing and ability to make difficult concepts accessible to his audience. He is the lead author of the 600+ page Modern Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice which is in its eighth edition (forthcoming with FlatWorld), the 1,000-page Alternative Investments which is in its third edition with Wiley, and several other books on finance. Dr. Chambers has published over 50 scholarly articles. ​Dr. Chambers has had numerous appearances in media including national television, national public radio, regional television, and regional radio. Dr. Chambers co-starred in a nationally-televised cable television series regarding finance in 1988 (45 Fortune) and frequently serves as a public speaker. In more recent years, he has written numerous blogs and spoken frequently regarding investments in his role as Chief Investment Officer of Biltmore Capital Advisors. About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page! You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN: Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com

This episode is sponsored by Net Net Hunter. If you're interested in finding high-quality stocks trading at fractions of liquidation value - this research service is for you. I personally use this service at my firm to help me research tiny and obscure net net stocks all around the world. Using Net Net Hunter comes out to way less money than hiring an analyst to do the exact same thing manually. It's a service I love and I am proud to be able to offer this service to my listeners. If this is something you're interested in, please click here. Summary Join Eric Schleien with today's interview guest, Mikkel Thorup, as they talk real about the many possibilities of living life as an expat in foreign countries. Due to dyslexia and being made to study in special classes, Mikkel was poorly treated by many peers during his younger years – an experience with discrimination he did not feel when he got to live life outside the country. Mikkel shares in this episode the key points he gets clear with, on tax and obligations to the government, with clients who are interested in living an expat's life. From his experience in living in other countries, he also discusses the cost of living, lifestyle, and luxuries that foreign countries experience that the average life in North America no longer caters to nowadays for many. As an expat, Mikkel keeps things in perspective. For him, a country's government should always be viewed separately from its people and culture, and that people shouldn't go to other countries and try making it like their own. Instead, Mikkel believes it's crucial to learn how to embrace the experience, culture, food, language, and everything else about a place that people can make friends and stories with. About Mikkel Thorup Mikkel Thorup is the host of The Expat Money Show podcast. He is also the author of the #1 Best-Selling book Expat Secrets on Amazon. Mikkel has spent over 20 years in continual travel around the world, visiting more than 100 countries, including Colombia, North Korea, Zimbabwe, and Iran. His goal is to help people just like you to generate additional streams of income, legally eliminate your tax bill, and take advantage of offshore structures so you can travel the world freely and never have to worry about money again. Website: https://expatmoneyshow.com/ Podcast: https://expatmoneyshow.com/episodes/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThorupMikkel Show Notes [01:35] Getting into special class and dropping out of school. [09:15] What is an expat? [12:36] The school system in the pandemic. [15:03] Want the expat life? What to ask? [23:40] Healthcare in Panama. [27:09] On residency-based and territorial-based tax systems. [29:32] What to look into - The FEIE. [34:15] Belize is an excellent place for certain reasons… [37:35] The cost of living and the quality of life in South East Asia. [39:19] What can expats get life access to that North America can no longer offer? [47:08] Experiencing North Korea and Iran. [50:16] On Amazing Switzerland and Estonia's VISA Program. [59:44] What people who want to be an expat need to learn… Resources The Expat Money Show - Is E-Residency in Estonia Right for You with Ott Vatter: Expat Secrets - How To Pay Zero Taxes, Live Overseas & Make Giant Piles of Money Book by Mikkel Thorup About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN: Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

Join Eric Schleien in this Q&A format as he answers questions on short positions, investment strategies, destroying your own conclusions on business and investments, and so much more. When asked about the mistakes he's made with investments and what can be learned from them, Eric expounds on what he thinks is a rear-view mirror thinking and on how he managed to lose more money to areas of omission than commission.  Summary While it's common for others to work on becoming large firms, Eric's unique gameplay is to stay boutique and manageable. For Eric, it's not necessarily rejecting growth. Instead, it's more about being able to hold control and balance on different elements. When you're running multiple large funds, it will reach a point where you start losing the competitive advantage by becoming too large, he explains. In this episode, the group also brings up the relevance of Environmental and Social Trends in determining the long-term value of companies. Quoting from Brookfield Asset Management CEO Bruce Flatt, "It's not a good business to not be a good steward of the environment.", for Eric, if a business is taking steps to have an adaptable and inclusive culture – value is quickly elevated. Even though it's not the end-all-be-all, for Eric, when a business does good in proving its CSR, it helps contribute to building a competitive advantage and value in the long run. Show Notes [01:20] Podcasting is going to be bigger than radio; On Liberated Syndication/Libsyn (LSYN). [06:26] How do you size your investments and know what to trim? [10:38] The art form to portfolio management. [14:00] On the threat inflation poses. [19:50] The advantages of being a boutique firm. [21:53] On not taking short positions. [26:26] Has the pandemic changed investment strategies? [28:22] Rear-view mirror thinking. [34:05] How do you factor in ESTs on a business's long-term value? [36:39] There's only so much you can control when you run large funds. [42:06] When an investor insists on dividends… Resources Principles of Power - The Art & Wisdom of Badassery Book by Eric Schleien About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Join Eric Schleien with today's interview guest, Julian Lin, as they discuss the different names in the country's cannabis industry and the stocks he entered and exited in light of the pandemic. For some of these companies, leaving the pandemic with so much debt and having to spend so much for redevelopment isn't going to be an excellent spot to have. Summary In this episode, Julian also talks about the presence of Canadian cannabis brands in American markets. Despite them being 'okay,' because they're the only names people can invest in when in America, the evaluations of these brands coming from across the border remain to sore insanely. Nonetheless, cannabis brands have challenges unique to them in general. Julian acknowledges that when you look at these companies, they scream expensive. In reality, if cannabis is decriminalized and is not to pay a particular type of tax in the future anymore, their shares will trade at multiple folds in earnings. For Julian, the macro picture for cannabis is all promising in the next 2-4 years.   About Julian Lin Julian Lin runs Best Of Breed, a research service uncovering high conviction ideas in the winners of tomorrow. He is ranked in the top 1% of all bloggers on Tipranks. Website Show Notes [01:04] "A terrible time to own those stocks." [02:52] How did Simon Property Group enter the pandemic? [04:14] It's a problem with the cost of capital. [07:27] The cannabis industry in the Biden administration. [09:07] Cannabis in Canada. [11:30] The business models of different cannabis brands. [13:03] What cannabis companies are not allowed to do. [15:54] GTI is a multi-state presence. [17:11] The future for Cannabis. [17:48] The primary catalyst for American cannabis stocks.   About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

The GameStop short took many by surprise and brought the world of short selling into the mainstream. Join us for this in-depth panel moderated by Eric Schleien of the Intelligent Investing Podcast with Jake McClure of The Personal Wealth Coach Podcast and Rick Bloom from Rick Bloom Talks Money on the nuances of what actually happened, and how all the pieces fit together. Eric Schleien's Book Thank you for supporting the podcast. My new book, Principles of Power, is now on Amazon. I would be incredibly grateful and humbled for a purchase with an honest review. About Principles of Power "Principles of Power can be related to as an advanced Coaching Handbook for Leaders. 
If you are a leader, an aspiring leader, a coach, consultant, or program facilitator, this book is designed for you. The material is delivered inside of a modern leadership context of service and contribution. 
Eric features many partnerships in Principles of Power. His inclusion of useful quotes from Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Werner Erhard, Nassim Taleb, Seth Godin, and many other leaders attests to the thinking and the research that went into the writing of this book. 
It is now undeniable that the understanding and implementation of powerful Listening, authentic Relationship, and a recognizable Permission to Lead, are cardinal distinctions of effective leadership. 
The word, 'cardinal' has a Latin root and means ‘hinge' – like a hinge on a gate. So, like a hinge, cardinal distinctions are connected to every nuance of leadership. You will see these distinctions in action in the background of Eric's many leadership conversations. 
Authentic Relationship, for example, is essential to the effectiveness and empowerment of the participants and the leader. If authentic Relationship is missing, any outcome or result devolves to the result of domination or force, and is not an outcome of effective leadership.
Consider this: Leadership is granted by the permission of those being led. Take a moment and allow that to sink in. The job of the leader is that of an environmentalist, providing the space for people to collaborate, flourish, and create. These two different activities, management and leadership are often commingled, especially in business schools and in the workplace. They are distinct and operate under different rules and measures. It's like Checkers and Chess – Same game board, different games with different rules and outcomes.
Disentangling and distinguishing the two arenas of activity grants power to both managers and leaders.
 So, the fundamental exercise of listening for people's greatness is in the background of every sentence in this book. And there is much more…
Principles of Power is strongly influenced by the transformational work of Werner Erhard. Much of the author's thinking is also grounded in the classic distinctions of Tribal Leadership and the thinking of Warren Buffett and his partner, Charlie Munger. 
Those, plus Eric's own extensive practical experience renders Principles of Power to be an extremely useful ‘go-to' resource, filled with useful, implementable information, sprinkled liberally with memorable quotations from intelligent diverse sources – all apt and worth adding to YOUR leadership lexicon." - John King, co-author of Tribal Leadership Other Resources Eric Schleien discussing GME Puts Eric Schleien discussing why he hates shorting stocks - GME Finance Podcast Week About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies and Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, GuruFocus, and was featured in Warren Buffett's Biography, “Of Permanent Value.” Eric is also a certified Tribal Leadership consultant with over a decade's worth of experience in the field of transformational coaching. Since 2012, Eric has specialized in producing breakthroughs at the level of organization. He's also the co-creator of the Udemy course, Leadership By Design. Eric also hosts The Intelligent Investing Podcast which is a business/value investing podcast. Eric loves interviewing interesting people and has interviewed Warren Buffett's son, Peter Buffett, Jimmy Fallon, and former adult film star, Bree Olson as well as over 100 interviews on his podcast. Eric currently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Granite State Capital Management, LLC and runs a real estate investment and consulting firm, Wyoming Warehousing & Safe Deposit Company. About Jake McClure Jake McClure has been working with his father and partner, Jeff in finance since January of 1991. In 2010 he completed business studies for his designation as Certified Investment Management Analyst® at The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. In 2007 In concert with Jeff, he founded an objective, fee-based fiduciary service in The Personal Wealth Coach, an SEC Registered Investment Advisory Firm. Jake is married to Alissa, a cellist, and a world traveler. They have two children. Jake is also a successful artist, having been commissioned by the Austin Ballet's BATS to create the 2011 annual Long Award, and has had showings of his artwork in many public places. Jake has also given musical business advice to several major recording labels and production companies. His passion lies in finding the links between economics, art, and music, then defining those links in the lives of his clients.   About Rick Bloom  Rick is a partner and co-founder of Bloom Advisors and the law firm of Bloom, Bloom & Associates. He is a licensed attorney, certified public accountant (CPA), and financial advisor. Additionally, Rick holds the Series 65 license. Rick currently hosts the podcast "Rick Bloom Talks Money" and writes a weekly financial column in the Observer & Eccentric Newspapers. He served as host of the popular “Money Talk” radio show on WXYT-AM 1270 and the “Rick Bloom Show” on WDTK-AM 1400. Rick was a featured writer of regular financial columns for the Detroit News and Oakland Press and also aired twice-daily business updates on the Michigan Radio Network. He has been recognized by a variety of esteemed financial publications and has been named a top financial advisor for several years. He has presented at conferences and given speeches to hundreds of business and civic organizations throughout his career and has made appearances on both radio and television. Rick is a member of the Fidelity Investment Financial Advisory Council. Rick is an honors graduate of both Michigan State University and the University of Michigan Law School. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

Join Eric Schleien with his guest Andrew Sather as they talk about Warren Buffett's Cash Cows, Hedging the US Dollar, Residential Real Estate, Griffon, and Electronic Arts. In this episode, Andrew also sheds light on stock buybacks and turning over rocks in order to unearth value even from beat-up ventures and potential investments. He emphasizes the strategy of having enough key players in a business or investment that's enough to stabilize everything. Stay tuned to this discussion and find out what else Andrew has to say about the current financial industry.   About Andrew Sather Andrew is a self-taught investor since 2012. He specializes in identifying value traps and avoiding stock market bankruptcies. "I didn't see a resource to walk beginners through investing, step by step. So I went out and made it.", Andrew said. Website Linkedin Twitter YouTube Apple Podcast   Show Notes [03:31] Warren Buffett's Cash Cows [04:55] Companies need to do it smartly with Buybacks. [06:45] The parallels of EA Games and DairyQueen. [09:10] What makes EA Games a Cash Cow? [12:10] On turning over rocks; books by Peter Lynch. [13:13] An observation I disagree with… [14:34] What needs to be understood in flipping rocks in beat-up industries. [18:23] Having a hedge for the US dollar. [19:00] What I found out about the Top Companies in the S&P 500? [19:58] Companies whose revenue did well even if the US dollar didn't. [26:35] The likes of Paypal; the likes of Mastercard.   Resources Beating the Street by Peter Lynch One Up On Wall Street by Peter Lynch Seeking Alpha Articles by Andrew Sather E-Investing for Beginners     About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Join Eric Schleien with today's interview guest, Trey Henninger, as they talk about Entercom, Northfield Precision, and the new SEC rule that impacts dark companies and small businesses. By taking a close look at the outcomes and probabilities close to ETC and the merger made with CBS Radio, he explains what Entercom holds for the next 12-18 months and tells us the technicalities on why he thinks owning shares from the company can still end up positively. Summary In this episode, Trey will also be getting into all the old news, the expected, and the good with Northfield Precision Instrument Corp. Listen as he discusses the company's performance during the pandemic, their ROI report, and how NFPC will seemingly be affected by the new SEC rule that targets dark companies. For Trey, once the new regulation comes into effect in the following months or years, going expert or grey may become an option to be considered for Northfield. Going in further on the upcoming SEC rule, tune in as Trey explains what the regulation aims to do, what it requires from business entities, how it can backfire, and what it means to trade without a quoted price –a scenario that may just mean good deals for experts. For him, there are always as many opportunities in matters like these as there are risks in every leverage.   About Trey Henninger: Trey Henninger runs the blog and podcast DIY Investing. Trey is a private value investor focused on microcap and dark stocks in the United States. His focus is on high-quality companies with predictable, durable earnings where management has skin-in-the-game. Trey runs a concentrated portfolio of 5 stocks with a 20% weighting each. By focusing on small companies, Trey hopes to find overlooked compounders at value prices. His favorite opportunities have a market cap below $50 million. Website Twitter Email             The DIY Investing Podcast (on all major platforms)   Outline of the episode: [00:42] Entercom Communications – America's #2 Radio Broadcasting Company. [02:18] ETC as a radio company and as a growing digital audio presence. [02:49] The crashing merger of ETC and CBS Radio. [03:46] Binary outcomes and the probabilities for the company now. [06:55] What the debt market is telling about it. [08:03] Covid as an excuse...; The company's ownership. [09:49] A business with no assets, basically. [13:09] Bad as expected – Northfield Precision [15:54] What SEC Rule is, not retail investor-friendly. [16:40] How the new regulation can backfire – a theory! [18:25] What it means to not get quoted a price… [19:45] Anytime you have leverage, there's risk and also lots of opportunities.   Resources: CBS Radio and Entercom merger Follow and subscribe to the new, The Eric Schleien Podcast:   About Eric Schleien: Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast: If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN: Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: intelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Join Eric Schleien with his guest Peter McCormack as they talk about podcasting, the unique characteristics of Bitcoin, and what the future holds for it. Because of the oppositions and baseless accusations against it, for Peter, Bitcoin should've already failed. Today, it is still operating and growing even higher.   In this episode, Peter gets into discussing decentralization, Bitcoin mining, his piece of advice to anyone looking into investing in Bitcoin, and so much more. To interested investors, Peter believes there should be a profound investment strategy before throwing money onto Bitcoins. He believes cryptocurrency can be a very punishing investment if done wrong.   Stay tuned to this casual exchange and find out more of what Peter has to say about Bitcoins and investments.   About Peter McCormack:   Peter McCormack is a full-time journalist/podcaster covering topics such as Freedom, Human Rights, Censorship, and Bitcoin. He is the host of the What Bitcoin Did Podcast.   The What Bitcoin Did Podcast, is a twice-weekly Bitcoin podcast where host Peter McCormack interviews experts in the world of Bitcoin development, privacy, investment, and adoption. Launched in November of 2017, the podcast has grown to nearly 200 episodes with a guest list that is a testament to the diversity of knowledge and opinions that represent the broader Bitcoin community.   Individual podcast episodes have focused on engaging and accessible conversations with some of the industry's most influential minds. Established veterans such as Adam Back, Charlie Shrem, and Andreas M. Antonopoulos have shared the WBD mic along with rising stars. No areas of discussion are off-limits, and differences of opinion are encouraged. Past topics have ranged from Cannabis to Censorship, Libertarianism to the Lightning Network, and Sex Workers to Segwit2x.   You can find Peter McCormack on: Website Linkedin Twitter Instagram Apple          Spotify              Outline of the episode:   [01:59] Stumbling upon Podcasts in a vegan retreat in Italy… [03:29] Podcasters – just get out and do it! [04:50] Are cryptocurrencies worth investing in? [06:20] What is decentralization? [08:04] The resistance of Bitcoin. [11:24] On Bitcoin's stability. [13:40] What does Blockchain do? [17:15] Bitcoin Mining. [20:00] A bit of advice to anyone wanting to invest their money in Bitcoins. [21:51] Is Satoshi Nakamoto fame-driven, rich, alive? [24:39] What could break Bitcoin? [27:53] Privacy in Bitcoin. [30:30] The first thing to do when getting into Bitcoins.   Resources: How to Start a Podcast in 2020 Pat Flynn   Understanding DigiCash   How to Download Kraken Pro: Advanced Bitcoin & Crypto Trading on PC:   Kraken's Official Mobile Apps   About Eric Schleien:    Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry.   Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less.   Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast:   If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!         You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms:   Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube     CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN: Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com    

Join Eric Schleien with his guest Norma Belenky, the Head of Events of Podbean, as they talk about the evolution of media, Podbean's exciting podcast features, and most especially the upcoming Finance Podcast Week.   In this episode, Norma shares her story on getting into podcasting and the facet that sets apart a podcast. She also gives us a brief of the stimulating discussions, guests, and perks we can expect from Podbean's event that every entrepreneur, investor, and alike will gain from.   Stay tuned to their talk to catch a glimpse of Finance Podcast Week's exciting lineup for everyone.   About Podbean:  Podbean is a podcast publishing and monetization service, providing free and premium hosting packages for individuals and businesses. Podbean offers a user-friendly interface that integrates publishing, management, syndication, and analysis tools into an easy-to-use podcasting package.   Facebook:       https://www.facebook.com/NormaJeanBali/ Instagram:       https://www.instagram.com/normajeanlovesdoodles/   Outline of the episode:   [01:12] What is Podbean, and what does it bring? [02:32] The upcoming Finance Podcast Week: Guests, Topics, and Program. [05:26] Elements of media changed by today's podcasts. [08:54] The freedom in Podcasts. [09:41] Live features on Podbean's Finance Podcast Week and what to expect. [13:08] The technology, integrations, platforms, and accessibility of today. [15:39] Ask the hosts, join in the conversation – Podbean Finance Week. [18:23] Live podcasts + Pre-released episodes of participating podcasters. [19:23] The dates to save… [22:03] On getting into podcasts and becoming a part of Podbean. [25:20] The community, collaborativeness, and openness that is in podcasting. [26:37] What needs to be a part of podcasting? [27:32] In the age of information overload, to stand out, you need to have…   Resources: For tickets, got to Finance Podcast Week  More info about the Finance Podcast Week  Podbean Live   About Eric Schleien:   Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals, including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry.   Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

Join Eric Schleien with his guests, Chelsea Dietsch and Tara Songster of Alluring Oddities, as they share stories about their income-generating passion for thrift shopping and what it took to make this side-project grow and continue growing. More than just a business, Chelsea and Tara treat their passion as a venture wherein they can cultivate experiences for their friends, loved ones, and Buffalo's whole community. Community over competition is a general outlook that they endorse. Learn more from their experiences as you tune in further to what Chelsea and Tara have to share.   About Alluring Oddities: Alluring Oddities is a curated and cultivated gallery of mostly 60s or 70s offbeat thrifted treasures in Buffalo, NY. The brand is owned by Chelsea Dietsch and Tara Songster.   Outline of the episode: [07:45] The fascination towards everything timeless in condition. [09:53] Make money out of it, not: get rid of it. [11:03] More than just a business, it's a lifestyle. [13:22] Alluring Oddities: a thrift store's gross margin. [14:37] Set your brand different from others. [15:30] The resurgence in Buffalo's market. [17:03] Why interact with your audience? Why research? Why benchmark? [19:44] Connecting to peoples' stories through their belongings. [25:43] On price tagging. [26:34] "Community over competition." [29:22] What your venture will mostly need from you. [30:06] Putting everyone's strengths at work.   Resources:   Bounty Hunter TK4 Tracker IV Metal Detector Value Investing 2nd Edition Principles Of Power   Thrift at or Donate to Goodwill   Thrift at or Donate to Salvation Army     About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

Join Eric Schleien & Rafael Resendes discuss how to value and measure the intrinsic value of Tesla (TSLA) and GameStop (GME).   Rafael Resendes is the portfolio manager & co-founder of Applied Finance Capital Management.   To watch this on YouTube (which for this one, I would recommend) - you can click, here.   Resources For listeners interested in some of the research presented on the show today, you can sign up for the monthly newsletter, The Valuation Edge. For listeners interested in actually modeling companies they can join the waiting list for the Intrinsic Value Tool. Value Investing 2nd Edition, on Amazon. Eric Schleien's Book: Principles Of Power: The Art & Wisdom of Badassery, on Amazon   About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Welcome to the Intelligent Investing Quick Thoughts Series, where I just spend a few minutes on relevant topics, thoughts, or things in the news. Episodes are all under 10 minutes. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube by clicking here.   Summary In this episode, Eric Schleien discusses how to play GameStop (GME) from a value investing standpoint and what he is doing around selling Put Options.   Other episodes discussing GameStop (GME) Eric Schleien discussing GME Puts Eric Schleien discussing why he hates shorting stocks - GME About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   About Julian Lin Julian is a contributor on Seeking Alpha with over 13,000 followers. Julian runs a stock investment newsletter named Best of Breed which invests in high-quality companies with “moaty” business models, conservative balance sheets, and best in class management teams. You can find out more about the newsletter here – there is a 2 week free trial available.   Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com    

Welcome to the Intelligent Investing Quick Thoughts Series, where I just spend a few minutes on relevant topics, thoughts, or things in the news. Episodes are all under 10 minutes. Summary In this episode, Eric Schleien discusses how to play GameStop (GME) from a value investing standpoint and what he is doing around selling Put Options. About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

I discuss why I hate shorting stocks and discuss the recent example of GameStop (GME).   About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Welcome to the Intelligent Investing Quick Thoughts Series, where I just spend a few minutes on relevant topics, thoughts, or things in the news. Episodes are all under 10 minutes. In this episode, I discuss some success I've had with overbid opportunities where you buy a stock that is getting bought out at an absurdly cheap price with the hope for a higher bid and where your downside is low due to the low valuation already. With a low-interest-rate environment, I expect these opportunities to continue to run into 2021.   About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Summary In this episode, I sit down with Brian Balbirnie who is the Founder & CEO of one of my favorite microcap companies, Issuer Direct. For those interested, a few years ago, I sat down with Travis Wiedower where we discussed the company.  This episode is also available on YouTube. About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Summary In this episode, I bring Jeremy Raper of Raper Capital back on the show to discuss his 2021 Investment Playbook. We also do a recap of some of the investments from 2020. You can also watch this episode on YouTube.   Show Notes 0:37 - Corona Update 1:34 - The easy money has been made, so now what? 2:46 - Market crises 4:51 - Short-term pain 5:59 - 2021 Investing Playbook 10:47 - Stonex Group (SNEX) 12:14 - Junior Canadian Copper Miners 14:27 - SPAC Warrant Arbitrage 15:57 - Hyliion Holdings Corp (HYLN) 16:06 - Nikola (NKLA) Warrant Spread 18:01 - Robinhood Punters 18:46 - TikTok Investors 24:32 - The Oil & Gas Industry 28:46 - Peabody Energy (BTU) Bonds 29:57 - Canadian Smallcaps 30:19 - Looking outside the United States 31:10 - Betterware de Mexico SAB de CV (BWMX) 43:52 - Martin Werner   About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com    

Summary In this episode of the Intelligent Investing Podcast, I sit down with the Founder & CEO of Shift (SFT) which went public recently via a SPAC.   Show Notes 1:29: Background On George Arison 3:50: Getting into the automotive space 4:39: The Auto Financing Market 10:16: Starting Shift 13:49: Company Growth 15:16: Disruption in Cars 16:20: The Traditional Dealer 16:26: Carvana vs Shift 18:49: Older cars are a huge part of the used car market 19:10: "How do you look at internal rate of returns?" 19:26: "it's a kind of a land grab situation" 20:31: "what the business looks like at scale" 27:02: "select dealers that we want to work with that have really high-quality inventory, high-quality service." 27:15: "a win for the dealership." 30:21: "how do you fund the growth right now?" 31:44: SPAC investing 33:16: "SPAC investors might actually get really burned if they're just buying a bunch of things that seem very sexy." 33:51: "There's been many, many, like over a hundred SPACs. I don't know how they're going to find deals." 34:53: "what investors should be looking for when they look at SPACs"   About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Summary In this episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rafael Resendes who is the portfolio manager & co-founder of Applied Finance Capital Management. It was pretty exciting to have the co-founder of Applied Finance on the Intelligent Investing Podcast due to the fact they have become a thought leader in valuation and portfolio construction in the value investing community. You could say they are the real deal.  Unlike the majority of firms today that focus on low multiples to define “value”, they define value as identifying companies trading below their intrinsic value. Their Valuation Driven™ approach forms the foundation of their investment decisions. Applied Finance is 100% employee-owned, with the average tenure of our 10 partners being over 18 years. History of Innovation Research has always been a critical part of Applied Finance's culture.  In 1995, they humbly began in a Chicago basement, with the idea to create a better approach to measuring corporate performance and value companies than existed at the time. Their roots were and remain dedicated to answering two questions critical to any investment decision: What is a firm's economic performance? What is a firm worth? They developed the Economic Margin® framework to measure a firm's economic, rather than as-reported accounting performance, leading the industry with primary research into: Capitalizing R&D Estimating size and leverage risk premium Modeling competitive advantage through Economic Profit Horizon™ Ultimately, creating a direct link from corporate performance to valuation. Shortly thereafter, they began assembling a technical team that today includes a unique mix of professionals with diverse functional, educational, and cultural backgrounds.  The result is a special workplace that values: accomplishment, stability, and ethics in the pursuit of excellence for our clients. Since 1995, they have calculated over 20 million out of sample, point-in-time, company valuations.  Each week they add approximately 20,000 additional intrinsic value estimates to continually expand their knowledge and improve their strategies. Their proprietary research analytics provide the foundation for our repeatable and sustainable investment process. Philosophy His firm aims to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic value which forms the foundation of their strategies. As obvious as that phrase seems, he believes there is much to appreciate in its meaning and implementation that is too often is either ignored and/or misunderstood in the value investment community. First, he focuses his efforts on understanding a firm's intrinsic value, not its cheapness. Cheapness investing, encompassing the Fama/French value factor among other low price to something metrics, has become extraordinarily popular over the past 30 years.  While there has been an abundance of academic research and marketing expenditures promoting such styles, the research and messaging behind this approach is fundamentally flawed. After controlling for whether a stock is over or undervalued as measured by Applied Finance's Intrinsic Value Factor, cheapness provides little to no achievable excess returns. The “low price to something” investment managers know such metrics do not represent intrinsic value, instead, they hope the stocks they buy are correlated to companies trading below their intrinsic value. Each week, Applied Finance calculates the intrinsic value of every stock in the investable universe of each strategy they support to determine the stocks providing the most attractive future expected returns at any point in time to identify candidates for inclusion into our strategies. Second, his company actively cultivates a vibrant valuation culture within their investment group through an ongoing commitment to: Develop and maintain a deep professional expertise Perform ongoing theoretical and applied valuation research Continually review our valuation efficacy. Lastly, while it is easy for an investment manager to claim they perform valuations as part of their research process, it is important to understand that performing a valuation is actually very easy, it is only simple algebra. In contrast, it is extraordinarily difficult to consistently perform valuations that identify companies trading above and below their intrinsic value, which can be purchased or sold short to generate alpha at the portfolio level. Unlike any other firm, Applied Finance over the past 25 years has developed and maintained original, proprietary research to properly model equity risk premiums and Economic Margin® sustainability, which they call Economic Profit Horizon™. This enables them to avoid the unrealistic assumptions common to most valuation approaches practiced today. In addition, they archive 20,000 valuations weekly, over 20 million since 1995, that allow them to understand how well they value the stocks they own in their portfolios and just as importantly those they do not so they continually learn and grow our knowledge base from our mistakes. This enables them to avoid the unrealistic assumptions common to most valuation approaches practiced today.   About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Summary Jason DeBono, corporate Vice President of NuView Trust Company. Jason shares the ins and outs of alternative investing and also offers current investors a deep dive into their world and share with them how they can use their current retirement plans and turn them into funds for alternative investments. With over 15 years of experience in the self-directed IRA industry, and his role as Vice President of NuView Trust Company – Jason & his team are on a mission to empower people by providing them with valuable information on how to move away from ever-unpredictable wall street stocks and bonds and into more sustainable, “main street” investments. A self-directed custodian with over $1.4 billion of assets under custody, NuView specializes in enabling individual investors and financial professionals to diversify their investment portfolios, using alternative asset classes such as real estate, tax liens and deeds, notes, private equity, cryptocurrency, and precious metals in IRAs. Outside of his role at NuView, Jason is the loving father of 2 children and serves as Co-founder and Chairman of Chair the Love, a 501(c)(3) organization, which provides wheelchairs and other mobility-related services to those in need. A recording of this podcast on YouTube can be found, here. About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. Help Out The Podcast If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

My New Book After 7 years in the making, my book Principles of Power has been released!    ***THIS WEEK ONLY*** CYBER MONDAY SALE.... 90% off the Kindle Book...just 0.99 cents :)    Summary "Principles of Power can be related to as an advanced Coaching Handbook for Leaders. 
If you are a leader, an aspiring leader, a coach, consultant, or program facilitator, this book is designed for you. The material is delivered inside of a modern leadership context of service and contribution. 
Eric features many partnerships in Principles of Power. His inclusion of useful quotes from Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, Werner Erhard, Nassim Taleb, Seth Godin, and many other leaders attests to the thinking and the research that went into the writing of this book. 
It is now undeniable that the understanding and implementation of powerful Listening, authentic Relationship, and a recognizable Permission to Lead, are cardinal distinctions of effective leadership. 
The word, 'cardinal' has a Latin root and means ‘hinge' – like a hinge on a gate. So, like a hinge, cardinal distinctions are connected to every nuance of leadership. You will see these distinctions in action in the background of Eric's many leadership conversations. 
Authentic Relationship, for example, is essential to the effectiveness and empowerment of the participants and the leader. If authentic Relationship is missing, any outcome or result devolves to the result of domination or force, and is not an outcome of effective leadership.
Consider this: Leadership is granted by the permission of those being led. Take a moment and allow that to sink in. The job of the leader is that of an environmentalist, providing the space for people to collaborate, flourish, and create. These two different activities, management and leadership are often commingled, especially in business schools and in the workplace. They are distinct and operate under different rules and measures. It's like Checkers and Chess – Same game board, different games with different rules and outcomes.
Disentangling and distinguishing the two arenas of activity grants power to both managers and leaders.
So, the fundamental exercise of listening for people's greatness is in the background of every sentence in this book. And there is much more…
Principles of Power is strongly influenced by the transformational work of Werner Erhard. Much of the author's thinking is also grounded in the classic distinctions of Tribal Leadership and the thinking of Warren Buffett and his partner, Charlie Munger. 
Those, plus Eric's own extensive practical experience renders Principles of Power to be an extremely useful ‘go-to' resource, filled with useful, implementable information, sprinkled liberally with memorable quotations from intelligent diverse sources – all apt and worth adding to YOUR leadership lexicon." - John King, co-author of Tribal Leadership   ABOUT ERIC SCHLEIEN Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Viktor is the co-founder of Freetrade, the main commission-free trading app, or neobroker, in the UK, soon launching in Europe. Viktor grew up in Eastern Europe and joined Google's early European team in 2005, where he spent seven years based in Dublin, Ireland. After a year-long gig in Hong Kong, where he headed up search engine optimization Asia-wide at an agency, he began his startup journey both as an operator and investor. When he moved to London, there were no commission-free neobrokers, so he joined forces with founder Adam Dodds to build Freetrade. As an investor, Viktor prefers investing in startups through equity crowdfunding and he's on a personal mission to convince more companies to crowdfund. He is a public equity investor focused on tech companies as well. Viktor holds an MBA from the Central European University and lives in London with his wife.   Company Website Viktor's Twitter If you're in the UK, check this out, Freetrade is launching pensions (SIPPs)   ABOUT ERIC SCHLEIEN Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com

Show Links The Proxy Activism Project A New Model For Shareholder Activism (Blog) A New Model For Shareholder Activism (YouTube) A New Model For Shareholder Activism (Eric Schleien / John King) Netflix, Sears, and Tribal Leadership (Eric Schleien / John King) How To Keep Large Companies Innovative (Eric Schleien / Scott Forgey) Eric Schleien discussing Tribal Leadership Eric Schleien discussing Activist Investing CBRE Case Study - Tribal Leadership Comparing Transformational & Transactional Leadership (Eric Schleien) Cultural Issues In The Hospital Industry (Eric Schleien) Took 9 Years To Develop ProxyActivism is a project that has taken 9 years to create over the course of thousands and thousands of hours to develop, and finally launch. This blog post will go into the background into how ProxyActivism came to be, our process, how I see this project unfolding, and how you as a value investor can be involved (and no, for all you cynical fucks, I'm not trying to sell you something) The Initial Insight My idea for ProxyActivism started when I did an ontological leadership program with a former Vice President of Disney who decided to quit his job and devote the rest of his life to empowering people. I got more in a few days of intense Socratic style inquiry than in all the years of reading books combined. As someone who relied on books to “get ahead” this was a completely new paradigm for me. Within the next few months, my income tripled, I repaired relationships with the people around me, and produced many more results. I figured there must be some application to business as well. And it turned out my intuition was right. The company had a consulting arm. The consulting arm of the organization was recently named one of the top consulting companies in the world by Forbes. At a lecture I attended at NYU, the preliminary internal data at the company was that their average client experienced a 600% increase in profits within 12 months. I thought to myself, “I wonder if I could combine ontological coaching with shareholder activism?”   A Zero Competition Game I figured this must have already been done and figured I would go work for a hedge fund already doing this and get some experience under my belt. However, after searching, I could not find a single hedge fund that was doing activism this way. Even the funds that talked about so-called “transformations” at companies - were really just doing more “change management consulting” and not actually anything transformational. Nothing wrong with that, just not as reliable or as effective.  So I became very frustrated that I could not find a single hedge fund playing this game called transform companies. I knew I was missing something. Every single business study on this kind of work showed results that any shareholder activist would be salivating over, this was clear alpha, and a low competition game with very high barriers to entry. (If the barriers to entry were low, I would not be writing about this or even talking about this).   Why Is Nobody Already Doing This? I knew I was missing something but couldn't figure out what. This was the best idea I ever had in my life for a business and also seemingly the lowest hanging fruit. I just couldn't get why nobody had taken this on before. And then it became quite clear. I called 37 different hedge funds or investment managers that were engaged in some kind of activism. I was excited and figured they would all be competing for me to implement this idea at their fund. I had this vision that I would develop this business as a fund, make a ton of money, and make a ton of people (including myself) extremely successful in this world. These “so-called” rational people however became quite cynical. Not skeptical and open. Cynical and closed off. I couldn't believe it. Some of them told me this was not their wheelhouse and they were going to stick to what they already knew. Ok fine, I can get that. But an unwillingness to learn something new? Whatever happened to expanding the circle of competence in a low-risk manner that would not take up a lot of time? Interesting. However, there were also managers that told me it sounded like bullshit, that the results sounded too good to be true. I asked them if they wanted me to share with them all the independent case studies out there. Not one person was interested. The Challenge: Combining Two Domains Now I was intrigued. Ontological coaching is so outside the realm of these managers because you can't measure it directly as a function of cause and effect. I started to see that all business management tools and techniques were based on cause and effect and that these managers, while extremely smart at reading numbers or learning about different management techniques, were also completely immature around their thinking when it came to leadership, ontology, and anything transformational in nature. They were inappropriately trying to apply their pre-existing models for management techniques onto a leadership conversation as that was their box of awareness/logic system. Anything outside of that - it was like their thinking-brain just shut down and their survival-lizard brain went into automatic. It was outstanding to watch very intellectually smart people start spewing nonsense trying to make sense of something they had no understanding of into other models that were not relevant to this conversation. Long-story-short, they were unable to or unwilling to get it -- regardless of decades worth of data and case studies.  I figured, fuck these guys, I'll just work with consultants who already have a great track record of transforming businesses and share with them how doing the work they are already doing in the context of a fund structure would be much more lucrative than charging a rate on their time.  The first person I went to was the CEO of this large consulting arm that had a several-decade long track record of doing ontological/transformational work with businesses, many that are in the billions of dollars in market cap. The CEO was extremely friendly on the phone with me but he flat out said that his company was going to stick to what they do best and not get involved in investing or starting a fund which he saw akin to gambling and “playing the market”.  Fuck…...  Was this why the idea hadn't been done before? I reached out to another woman I knew who for 20 years had been producing amazing results with very large businesses charging $5,000/hour for her services. I spent a month outlining an entire business plan and then did a call with her presenting her with the idea. I again explained how if she did what she did in a fund structure she'd make more than her already lucrative $5,000/hour and would be able to generate even more business as the stock price performance would be worth more in marketing than anything she was currently able to do right now. I wanted her to be the woman that when a guy like Bill Ackman or Carl Icahn needed extra support, they could give her a call.  She told me that she wanted to stick to what she was good at and not get involved in the stock market or hedge funds. Holy fucking shit!!!!!! It was becoming very clear to me why this had never been done before. The ontological coaching world didn't know shit about investing and their brains would shut down. They were more akin to getting involved with startups, sexy industries, and today would be into things like Crypto and 3D printing. Again, all worthy pursuits but not to combine value investing/shareholder activism/ontological coaching together.  Resignation & Cynicism On the flip side, many great investors are great because they are resigned and cynical by nature. Where is management lying to me? How are the books being cooked? Even people reading this article, many great investors may be reading this with their automatic little inner voice saying something like (where is this guy going to try to sell me something or bullshit something). The cynicism is great or investing and looking at raw data, however, it's horrible for relationships, partnering with others, leadership conversations, creativity, and innovating. They see no or little possibility. Great for investing in a timber company at a huge discount to their land, not so great for transforming a company that doesn't involve some cookie-cutter management tool that you can neatly fit inside a spreadsheet. I felt completely defeated. I needed a lot of capital to get this off the ground yet no fund with the capital to do this would even listen to me or attempt to get it. I also needed an ontological coaching skillset to do this. Nobody with a track record in this realm understood value investing and wanted nothing to do with it despite the fact that they were more effective activists than any of the famous hedge fund activists (yet they didn't even realize how valuable their skillset was). It's like a biochemist who ends up realizing they can make a ton more money also consulting for a biotech hedge fund yet they want nothing to do with the stock market. Similar idea. It was also daunting because to get a background in ontological coaching would take many years of intense training, it wasn't some horseshit thing I could do online and get a bullshit life-coaching certificate in a month. Fuck fuck fuck. Finding A Needle In A Haystack In one last desperate attempt, I posted a message on Facebook that said something like: “I'm working on a huge project where there is a lot of money involved for the success of this. I need someone who has a background in ontological/transformational coaching, has worked with many businesses over 10+ years, and has a successful track record at doing it” I figured with everyone I was connected to on Facebook who was part of this industry, someone would know somebody who I could connect with. All I needed was one person to get it. I figured it I found one successful consulting firm or coach to get this, then I could either get their former clients to invest in a fund we start or introduce their former clients to some of these cynical hedge fund managers to get them to see this wasn't some bullshit motivational garbage horseshit thing I was trying to sell them on (also funny because I wouldn't even make money unless there was actually success the way this project is structured...but again….their preconceived belief systems overrode any kind of logical and rational thinking).   Meeting John King: Tribal Leadership Within 24 hours, the messages started coming in. Eventually that led me to a guy who then introduced me to John King the creator of Tribal Leadership who co-wrote a book about his technology with a professor at USC, Dave Logan who started CultureSync. I loved John. He reminded me of Charlie Munger with his intellectual thirst, his independent way of thinking, and his non-stop learning, reading, studying. Like Munger, the guy was a genius (even though he will refuse to let me call him that), and he is a polymath who has the capacity to take principles from one field and synthesize them with another field to come up with completely new insights for looking at the world. When I shared with John how much he reminded me of Munger, he told me he was a huge fan of Charlie and also a lover of mental models. This was my kind of guy. Over the next 5 years he spent countless hours training me to be able to deliver his Tribal Leadership work. Finally I had found a form of ontological coaching I could build the skillset to deliver, I could find people around me who could also deliver this work and now all I needed was a fund manager to supply some capital. I asked John if he would let me speak to some of his former clients to start getting testimonials together that I could share/use as a resource for fund managers I speak to. He said he would be happy to do that as long as he got consent from the clients first. All of his former clients he asked were happy to give him consent. I ended up speaking to people such as the Founder/CEO of 1st Service Solutions, Ann Hambly to the creator of the Private Client Group at CB Richard Ellis and former head of Colliers International for all of North America, Glen Esnard. I also ended up meeting through John, the guy who created the culture and foundational work at Lululemon when it was just 4 people and who now coaches VP's at Google, LinkedIn, and PayPal.  Each person I spoke to was fascinating and knew I wanted to work with them on this project if I could in some capacity. They all got what I was attempting to do.  Meeting Chuck Gillman My big break came around 2017/2018 when I was in Omaha, Nebraska at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting and was attending the annual party I go to every year hosted by Whitney Tilson and Chuck Gillman. I had been going every year since I was 18 and had gotten to know both of them. Chuck has an outstanding track record as a shareholder activist. He runs a family office and only invests in microcap situations where he can do activism. He focuses solely on that. I had shared with Chuck that I had a team of people that I partnered with who had a background in turning around companies focusing on organizational culture and that a year 10 longitudinal study showed an average increase of 3-5x in profits within 24 months of organizations doing the work. Chuck was intrigued and had the humility to get that he had no idea how the technology worked and was completely outside of his circle of competence yet was totally willing to listen for as many hours as it took to understand the process, how it worked, and get a good handle on what we wanted to do. He immediately saw the opportunity where others didn't. I introduced him to John King on the phone and he was immediate impressed by some of the formers examples of organizations that had used this work such as the private client group of CB Richard Ellis which seemed to defy industry tailwinds during an extremely difficult time for the industry and also Zappos which Tony Hsieh shared about his influence of Tribal Leadership on the company in his book Delivering Happiness and now gives out copies to all his employees.  Today I have a pretty deep bench of trained Tribal Leaders with long track record of executive experience and turning around companies that are ready to get on boards when duty calls. Going Forward: Our Process This is what our process looks like going forward.   Identity Microcap Targets The first step is simply identifying companies that we could bring Tribal Leadership into the organization. This is extremely difficult and the hardest part. The criteria are very strict. The market cap of the company must be under $400 million and ideally below $200 million. On top of that, management must own 10% of the stock or less. Then the management must be underperforming for a long period of time due to incompetence and mismanagement or simply because they're corrupt.  Talk To Existing Shareholders However, we do things a bit unconventionally. Instead of taking a position and then attempting to wage a proxy battle, we first start talking to existing shareholders that already own a lot of stock. If we win the election, we then buy a lot of stock in the open market. Yes, it caps our upside but it also limits our downside if the election doesn't turn out. This is what Chuck has been doing for several decades and it's a very low-risk and patient approach to being successful and getting people onto a board where there's activism opportunity. Chuck spends most of his time networking with people who invest in small and microcap stocks with the idea that at some point a small percentage of these people will reach out to him with a company that has been underperforming and management won't work with them or take any of their ideas and this is a last resort. Now, partnering with Chuck, I have been taking calls on a weekly basis with shareholders from all over the world and it's been a fascinating and fun experience to meet so many intelligent and interesting people both here in the United States and abroad. Screening Candidates The next step is I examine the business model to see if I deem it a candidate for Tribal Leadership. There are some businesses where there really isn't a shot at being able to do anything. However, often what looks like a strategic issue or mismanagement issue is merely a cultural issue. When you move organizations from Stage 2/Stage 3 to Stage 4 - the managerial strategies and behaviors naturally alter naturally as a function of the new culture and profits increase by a factor of 300% - 500% within 2 years. Results start showing up in as little as 6 months.  If the company seems like a fit, the next step is to call major shareholders and see if they are interested in seeing change and interested in new board members who will be aligned with shareholders. If any of our team gets on the board, the salaries will be extremely low and we will be incentivized with out of the money options. Chuck has a long track record of being friendly towards shareholders once he and/or his team gets on the board. This will be no different….(remember I'm not re-inventing the wheel here...just combining two wheels to create an ultra-wheel). Paying Legal Expenses & Getting On The Board Then the next step is we will pay all the legal expenses of the Proxy Battle and we will do it knowing we already have the support of large shareholders. If we know they will vote for our slate, we will spend the money to make it happen.  Once the new board members get elected who already are trained in or have experienced Tribal Leadership for themselves, the next step is actually transforming the culture of the organization. Reorganization One of the wonderful things is that this does not require reorganization of any kind. The current structure and configuration of a company work well with Tribal Leadership because the kinds of benefits are in management and leadership capacity and the ability to work together to resolve problems and produce business results. Of course measuring results is important. The great thing about this project is that the fact we will only be working with public companies will make our successes public. The first 1-2 situations will be the hardest. However, as this is proven in public markets (vs ontological coaching being proven outside of a fund structure for 40 years...I know, I know...it shouldn't matter but it does to most people)....my goal is to get to the point where people start calling us to help them and this process becomes even easier. There is some horseshit conversation that these are “soft skills” which is far from the truth. The soft stuff is the hard stuff. Measuring is easy. You measure before you start a project. Measure after you finish a project. When you go from Stage 3 to Stage 4, the results generally go from 3-5x in measurable results, including the bottom line. There are a variety of different metrics that we utilize as we go through the process. Different metrics are appropriate for different circumstances and cultural stages. For a run down on the different stages of culture, refer to the Tribal Leadership TED talk, here.   Velocity In Results It also doesn't take long to implement a new culture. The actual initial training only takes about 2 days. It's intense with very long days. Many people report it as the most valuable and life altering experience they've ever had. That's not hyperbole either. After the 2 day program, there's usually half day follow ups every 6 weeks at the beginning until it becomes self sustainable and really gets embedded into every facet of the organization. Generally, it takes 18-24 months to elevate from a Stage 2 or 3 culture to a Stage 4 culture. Results start to show up within 1-2 quarters.  The Myth Of Employee Buy-In One of the concerns is how to get “employee buy-in” which is some garbage taken from your traditional consultant/flavor of the month who has some strategy or point of view they try to force onto every employee. Employees roll their eyes while pretending to go along because they need to play nice with the boss. It's the reason why most consultants are a total waste of money. Motivational speakers are even worse. With Tribal Leadership there is no buy-in. Instead we distinguish what is already there in a way people have never seen before. To my knowledge it is impossible to change people. The first step in implementation (buy-in...except not really...will just look like that on the surface) is that we first do a diagnostic that tells us where we are culturally and the prevailing issues or predicaments that are just not getting resolved. This is called “culture mapping.” Then, we look to discover where there already is alignment to create new overall strategies, using the “strategy model.” Then, we drill down and do the work until each and every person has their own map and their own self-designed strategy. Success depends upon the degree to which people follow the strategies that they created themselves. Normally, the people in the C-Suite hand a strategy to the employees and demand “buy-in.” The way we do it, we involve everybody in the design of their own strategies and the wisdom of the overall strategy all at once. No Use Of Force Something we get asked a lot is if we aren't forcing this upon anyone, why would someone who is already very successful want to partake in something like this. It's a valid question and a key issue. Those at Stage 3 ‘have it made' and are in control of those at Stage 2, so their incentive is predictably not great to change their ‘I'm great- You're not' point of view. However, if the overarching interest of the organization is to elevate their culture and the outcomes and results of the greater group, then the Stage 2/Stage 3 culture must move to Stage 4. In order to do this, the issue of ego and self-promotion on the part of the Stage 3 people must be addressed. The organization will only move to Stage 4 if the issue of the Stage 2/Stage 3 mentality has been successfully addressed. The issue with Stage 3 will always show up in the overall financial success of the company. The Low Hanging Fruit Alpha Another thing I get asked by nearly every hedge fund manager is if there's such a focus on shareholder value, why isn't everyone doing this? Of course the asshole response would be “because people like you are closed off to this because you're lazy and/or immature in your thinking.” However, you can't really say that to anyone. I had this conversation recently with the COO of a business unit of a major multi-billion dollar publicly traded company that's compounded by nearly 20% over the last 20 years. They implement a similar kind of work at their business and as he said, “it's the last bastion of alpha because it's low hanging fruit that nobody is doing so there is no competition.” The ‘shareholder value' focus is a focus on the bottom line, not a focus on the cultural vitality of the organization. Tribal Leadership is focused on the well-being and effectiveness of the organization. Ultimately, shareholder value is an outcome of an effective and stable culture. The more effective the culture of the people at work, the more effective their results. Our philosophy and our supporting data have shown that if we effectively attend to the well being of the people doing the work, the quality of their work will show up in measurably higher productivity.   What's Missing In The Prevailing Model For Shareholder Activism: Icahn, Ackman, Etc What we do is drastically different and also significantly more effective than what is taught in modern day business schools. Firms like McKinsey and basically every shareholder activist that is using management models, cost cutting, etc is the modern portfolio theory of the leadership world. That doesn't mean it doesn't produce results. You can still make money using modern portfolio theory over 50 years. You can still improve shareholder value by cutting costs and improving efficiencies. It's just leaving a ton of extra value on the table that isn't even that difficult to attain. It's low hanging fruit. Business schools are strong on management and weak on training people to be leaders. Management is based on control, domination, survival, and ultimately, fear. Most management is a carrot/stick game. The game is about managing for a result against a diminishing resource - time. Leadership requires transforming the relationships that people have while working together, mutual respect, collaboration, and stability. The culture of an organization is a function of the quality of leadership provided and attended to. If the management disrespects the employee, the employee will slow down and waste the most critical resource that management has - time. If the management provides effective leadership, the employee will respond by using the time effectively. Employees who have the experience of partnership and respect of their employers produce net superior results.  Tribal Leadership builds sustainable environments where leadership and partnership arise naturally. Our data supports the point of view that a focus on culture and leadership produces superior results in a more efficient and sustainable manner than management techniques that focus on operational efficiencies alone. Nothing Wrong With Management Conversations I'm also not saying there's anything wrong with making operations or management more efficient. I'm saying that there's an entire component that's missing that's leaving a lot of low-hanging fruit alpha on the table. Put simply, Management and Leadership are in and of two different domains. Management is about efficiency and is the vital and necessary underlying craft of any great company or organization. Leadership is about empowerment, teams, and the relationship between people working on a team, between teams to teams, and ultimately, an organization operating as a single unit producing profits and creating shareholder value. Leadership is in its own realm and requires a different mindset and worldview. The leader must be a great manager - that is a given - but he/she also must know when to step away from the psychological limitations of the manager fixated on efficiency and adopt the mindset of a leader who is exploring the creative world of breakthrough into ‘out of the box' thinking and hitherto unknown or experienced effectiveness of the organization. Culture Kills Off Strategies Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” Business school strategies are mostly derived from HBS and Michael Porter - a brilliant man. However, according to Peter Drucker, at best, the Porter model is successful 30% of the time on average. That is because the strategy is ‘imposed' on the employee and the employee has little or no input. Therefore, the person who best knows the job and is actually doing it is told what to do and how to do it. Predictably, the employee often resists and is resentful. The strategy model we teach in Tribal Leadership is between 70-80% successful. This is largely because we teach the employee to design their own strategy, quarter by quarter. They are ‘bought in' by definition from the beginning of the process and appreciate that their input is honored. Furthermore, the strategy model we teach is simpler, self-managing, and self-correcting. In essence, a more elegant design. Furthermore, it allows leaders and managers to take advantage of and capitalize on the inherent understanding of customer data and other critical aspects of having an organization perform at a high level and make its clients and market happy.   ABOUT ERIC SCHLEIEN Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA. HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   CONTACT ERIC SCHLEIEN Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

Had the pleasure of bringing back on Don Chambers who is currently involved in an activist campaign against SVVC. To see the first episode where he discusses his ongoing battle with SVVC, you can click here.   You watch this as a video on YouTube, click here.   Show Links BDC Info Don's Proposal to SVVC (see page 16) Election Results     Don's Proposal   PROPOSAL THREE (Non-Binding Stockholder Proposal) THAT THE BOARD SEEK AND PURSUE ANY AND ALL MEASURES TO ENHANCE SHAREHOLDER VALUE   A stockholder, Donald Chambers, submitted the following proposal for inclusion in the Company's proxy materials. If the stockholder, or a representative of the stockholder who is qualified under state law, is present and properly submits the proposal for a vote, then the proposal will be voted on at the Annual Meeting. The Board of Directors unanimously recommends that you vote AGAINST the proposal. The proposal and the stockholder's supporting statement, exactly as received from the stockholder, are set forth below and are followed by the Board's explanation of its reasons for opposing the proposal. As an advisory vote, if approved, the stockholder's proposal would be a non-binding recommendation to the Board of Directors. The Company will provide Mr. Chambers's address and number of shares held promptly upon oral or written request.   STOCKHOLDER PROPOSAL   RESOLVED: That the shareholders of SVVC assembled at the 2020 annual meeting in person and by proxy, hereby request that the Board of Directors of SVVC seek and pursue any and all measures to enhance shareholder value including: (1) orderly termination of the fund, (2) orderly liquidation of SVVC assets with distribution of available cash to shareholders, (3) tender offers for SVVC shares using available cash from any and all investment exits, (4) merger of the fund into an entity offering shareholder exits near NAV (net asset value), or (5) other measures likely to allow shareholders to exit SVVC near its NAV.   REPRINTED SUPPORTING STATEMENT FROM STOCKHOLDER   I urge shareholders to vote “Yes” to this proposal for the following reasons (based on information, belief and personal computations): The performance of SVVC's stock has been catastrophic relative to relevant benchmarks. The total annualized compounded market returns of SVVC and three relevant benchmarks over the life of SVVC are:   Ticker Description Annual Return 4/28/2001 -10/24/2019 VT1 Total stock market ETF 9.5% VB Small stocks ETF 8.0% SPBDCUP S&P BDC Index 6.3% SVVC   -8.9%   Basing SVVC's return on its recent NAV generates a positive return (4.8%). But that highlights the crux of the problem: SVVC's NAV overstates its value under current management because it does not fully account for prospective fees and expenses. SVVC's market price does reflect the massive fees and indicates a loss of -8.8% per year. SVVC's 2% annual management fee (on gross assets) is roughly a 7% annual fee based on the market value of the equity. SVVC's most recent statement reports $908,003 as the quarterly management fee (which is over 50 cents per share annualized). There are additional expenses and a 20% incentive fee on realized net profits. Accordingly, the discount of SVVC's market price to its NAV has been very large - recently well over 50%.   The annual rate of compensation to each of the four independent directors of SVVC is $50,000 per year yet, reportedly, only one director held SVVC stock and that director held only 700 shares (see SVVC Proxy Statement 5/30/19). Assuming that SVVC's valuations of its private investments are reasonable, the Directors should be able to locate private equity investors enabling SVVC to be liquidated at a value near to its NAV.   Disclosure: Mr. Chambers is a part-time employee (CIO-Model Portfolios) of Biltmore Capital Advisors (BCA) which manages approximately 292,254 shares of SVVC on behalf of its clients. Mr. Chambers has recused himself from all decisions at BCA regarding SVVC transactions or voting while this proposal is under consideration. SVVC is a restricted security for BCA employees so Mr. Chambers is restricted from transacting in SVVC while this proposal is under consideration.    About Don Chambers Donald R Chambers currently runs the website, SaveFirstHandTechnology. He is also a recently-retired (June 2017) professor of finance with 36 years of teaching experience. Dr. Chambers has written several books regarding investments and personal finance that are distinguished by their clear writing and ability to make difficult concepts accessible to his audience. He is the lead author of the 600+ page Modern Corporate Finance: Theory and Practice which is in its eighth edition (forthcoming with FlatWorld), the 1,000-page Alternative Investments which is in its third edition with Wiley, and several other books on finance. Dr. Chambers has published over 50 scholarly articles. ​Dr. Chambers has had numerous appearances in media including national television, national public radio, regional television, and regional radio. Dr. Chambers co-starred in a nationally-televised cable television series regarding finance in 1988 (45 Fortune) and frequently serves as a public speaker. In more recent years, he has written numerous blogs and spoken frequently regarding investments in his role as Chief Investment Officer of Biltmore Capital Advisors.   About Eric Schleien Over the past decade, Eric has trained thousands of individuals including board members of public companies as well as several Fortune 500 CEOs. Eric specializes in organizational culture and has become a leading authority on organizational culture in the investment industry. Eric has been investing for 15 years and has been using breakthrough coaching methodologies for over a decade. Eric had the insight to combine proven coaching methodologies with shareholder activism techniques to create an entirely new model for shareholder activism that was more reliable and created greater sustainable results in a rapid period of time. On average, Tribal Leadership produces a 3-5x increase in profits of culturally troubled companies within an average of 24 months or less. Eric currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.   HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com  

In this episode, Eric Schleien sits down with Ann Hambly, the Founder/CEO of 1st Service Solutions. I'm a huge fan of Ann, as she transformed the CMBS industry and has also been impacted by the Tribal Leadership technology which I've shared about many times here, here, and here. As one of the managers of Brookfield Asset Management shared with me, "Transforming Culture is the last bastion of alpha due to the low competitive nature of the endeavor." To watch this episode on YouTube, see below or click here. Ann has been involved in literally every aspect of the CMBS industry throughout her 35+ year career. She created from scratch and ran many large servicing shops before creating 1st Service Solutions in 2005. She has been an intentionally integral part in shaping the CMBS industry since its inception. Ann founded 1st Service Solutions in 2005 to address what she saw to be a gaping hole in CMBS.  Unlike ‘on book' commercial real estate loans, there is no ‘banker' for the borrower to speak to after securitization.  In creating what was to become the first borrower advocacy space in commercial real estate, Ann has grown 1st Service Solutions into what is now known as the preeminent CMBS Borrower Advocate practice. The company has been featured on William Shatner's ‘Moving America Forward' show as a company changing the business landscape in America. Ann has been and continues to be highly involved in industry leadership as a featured keynote speaker at conferences across the country speaking on CMBS structure, CMBS workouts, assumptions, and hot topics in the general CRE industry. With the release of her book, ‘CMBS 911,' Ann once again set out to meet an unmet need: explaining, in simplistic and straightforward terms, the roles, responsibilities, and motives of every individual or entity involved in the CMBS process. “The whole process can be overwhelming and confusing for the borrower and there's always a lot on the line,” she explains. The book has gone on to become an industry bestseller and is being adopted into the Purdue College of Business Real Estate curriculum as well as other colleges and universities. In addition to her own book, Ann's expertise has been featured in ‘True Leaders: How Exceptional CEOs and Presidents Make a Difference by Building,' ‘Trends in Commercial-Mortgage Backed Securities,' and ‘The Law of Distressed Real Estate.' Ann is also a prolific contributor to many, many real-estate and business-related publications having published 50+ articles, commentaries, and columns in such publications as the Commercial Real Estate Show, the Commercial Observer, Scotsman Guide, GlobeSt.com, Mortgage Bankers Magazine, National Real Estate Investor, Real Estate Business, Real Estate Forum, and Reuters among others. Jurists frequently request Ann's involvement in high-profile cases regarding commercial real estate because of her vast and varied experience. She has been called upon to provide expert reports, depositions, testimonies, and professional consulting services on many high profile cases. Ann is a member of the Board of Directors of the Counselors of Real Estate (CRE) and has been an active member of C12, a Christian CEO group, for the past several years. In addition, she has previously served on or as the chairman of the Board of Directors for the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA), the Commercial Mortgage Securitization Association (CMSA), the Multifamily Housing Institute, and the Real Estate Capital Recovery Association (RECRA). Throughout her lengthy career, Ann has received many, many professional awards and citations. Among them are the induction in the Commercial Real Estate's Hall of Fame, numerous times designation as a ‘Legend and Woman of Influence in Commercial Real Estate' by Real Estate Forum, named a ‘Top 10 Most Distinguished Women in Real Estate' by the Mortgage Bankers Association, selected as a member of the prestigious Real Estate Roundtable, and named as one of six ‘Most Influential Women in Commercial Real Estate' by National Real Estate Investor to name a few. Ann lives in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex and enjoys time spent with her family, especially her six grandkids.   HELP OUT THE PODCAST If you like The Intelligent Investing Podcast, please consider leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. It takes less than 30 seconds to do and makes a huge difference! You can also join the Facebook page!       You can subscribe to the podcast on the following platforms: Apple Podcasts Stitcher TuneIn Spotify Podbean iHeart Radio YouTube   Contact Eric Schleien Facebook  |  LinkedIn  | Twitter  | YouTube | GSCM | Instagram Email: IntelligentInvesting@gmail.com   Contact Ann Hambly 1st Service Solutions | Email: ahambly@1stsss.com