Podcasts about Goldman Sachs

Title: Inside the Secret Network That Billionaires Use to Pay Zero In Taxes with Alex Sonkin Summary: In this episode of Raise the Bar Radio, Seth Bradley welcomes Alex, founder of the Due Diligence Project, to discuss the massive blind spot in tax strategy among CPAs and how his peer-reviewed CPA community solves that. Alex shares how traditional CPA firms, despite servicing ultra-high net worth clients, are often unaware of the vast number of advanced tax mitigation strategies available. His platform introduces vetted tax strategies reviewed by hundreds of independent CPA firms, much like an Amazon or Netflix model for financial services. Rather than relying on static, siloed in-house teams with mediocre solutions, Alex's vision is to empower CPAs and family offices through a Virtual Family Office model. This allows affluent individuals (not just billionaires) to access world-class, peer-reviewed tax and financial planning strategies while maintaining their trusted CPA relationship. The conversation emphasizes humility, proactive due diligence, and massive action as critical principles for success in tax planning and entrepreneurship alike. Links to Watch and Subscribe: https://youtu.be/v8RSrMRslHU Bullet Point Highlights: Most CPAs, even in top firms, are not deeply versed in advanced tax mitigation due to limited time and exposure. The Due Diligence Project functions as an independent, peer-reviewed network, allowing CPAs to tap into the collective knowledge of hundreds of top professionals. Traditional large CPA firms and Wall Street structures are siloed and don't provide open-source best-in-class strategies. The future CPA firm is a Virtual Family Office — proactive, advisory-driven, and built with world-class independent specialists instead of static in-house teams. The Virtual Family Office model brings elite wealth management strategies to affluent individuals (e.g., $10M-$50M net worth), not just billionaires. Humility, curiosity, and willingness to collaborate are essential for CPAs and advisors to truly serve clients at the highest level. Success requires massive action and consistent pursuit of better solutions — complacency kills innovation and wealth creation. Transcript: (Seth Bradley) (00:02.094) What's up, Builders? This is Raise the Bar Radio, where we talk about building wealth, raising capital, and all in all, raising the bar in your business and your life. This is the No BS podcast for capital raisers, investors, and entrepreneurs who are serious about scaling their business and living life on their own terms. I'm Seth Bradley, securities attorney, real estate investor, and entrepreneur, bringing you world-class strategies from the best in the game.   If you're ready to raise more capital, close bigger deals, build a better you, and create true financial freedom, you're in the right place. Let's go. Alex, what's going on, brother? Welcome to the show.   Seth, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.   man. Fellow San Diegan. So, appreciate that and appreciate that you you love the weather like I do.   best weather in the world, All of San Diego County, even if it gets like 10 degrees hotter, it's as good or as better anything else on the planet.   (Seth Bradley) (01:05.698) Yep, yep. Sometimes you gotta go outside of San Diego for a little bit to appreciate it because you forget that every single day is fantastic.   We're not going to get into the June gloom and the May gray because people outside of San Diego, don't want to hear that. uh, know, we get to complain between each other. everyone outside of San Diego, were like, we don't want to know about any of your problems.   Right, Exactly, exactly. All right, man. Well, let's just jump right in, Tell everybody a little bit about your background, about your story, and take it back as far as you like.   Sure, graduated University of Michigan Business School undergrad and became an options trader in Chicago as a member of the Chicago Board of Trade, the Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Options Exchange was a market maker down there for many years and came up with a couple ideas and moved to California. What we do now is we have the largest independent peer review community of CPA firms in the country. We support   hundreds of CPA firms who basically introduced their favorite resources, favorite tax attorneys, favorite strategies. And then as a community and independently, everyone independently vets out every strategy, every resource. And we rank and rate all of the strategies, all of the resources. Very similar to what you'd experience in Amazon or Netflix or the streaming services when you watch a movie or you buy a product on Amazon.   (Alex Sonkin) (02:35.534) you're going to go look for the 4.9 out of five stars and do a quick price comparison. So what we did is we've created essentially an independent peer-of-view ranking and rating system for sophisticated tax strategies and then cost mitigation strategies because the tax code is just way too big. No one knows how many pages there are in the tax code. It's constantly changing. we basically, we didn't even know we were doing this at the time because all we were doing was   putting together advanced tax planning institutes, filling them up with CPA firms, bringing speakers, specialists on to present their ideas. But the magic was happening in the hallway conversations between these tax attorneys and the CPAs in these Q &A sessions. And what we realized was that traditional CPA firms really have no clue how many pages are in the tax code, have no idea how many strategies there are that are available to them that have been fully vetted.   And they don't have the time and the resources to fully vet those strategies out. So we just realized we were onto something and we kept building and building and building. And we just had an event. Our last couple summits, diligence project summits had close to 700 CPA firms on one, close to 847 was our largest summit.   The more eyeballs, the more tax-focused CPAs are looking at the strategies and vetting out the strategies, the more refined the due diligence is and the more new resources they're able to introduce to our network. So we're able to go deeper, wider, and more refined in our due diligence when it comes to tax planning.   Yeah, that's awesome. So you you analyze and put a score on the actual strategy itself as well as the firm.   (Alex Sonkin) (04:25.76) Yeah, everything, right? Because you and I both know there's so many moving parts in our business. And when a CPA firm is dealing with their most, their highest net worth clients, billionaires, centi-millionaires, multi-millionaires, and they have, they're selling an appreciated asset, whether it's real estate or their company or shares in another company they've invested in, they want that sale to be tax efficient. Then they might want that money to be invested in other   parts of their portfolio. want that transition to be efficient. They want all the estate planning to be efficient asset to all these different moving parts. But the area where most CPAs and attorneys are the weakest is in the income tax mitigation part. There's a lot of decent estate planning out there, asset protection, other planning. It's really the income tax mitigation part where very few people are excellent at this.   Financial advisors, attorneys have very little experience with tax court, with audit. They should really not be involved in income tax planning. The CPA firms are the ones who are signing the tax returns. They have the experience with audit. They have the experience with tax court. But they're spread so thin just trying to produce tax returns and financial statements and meet all of the deadlines that they have to meet throughout the year. There's actually very little time for them to do proactive tax planning.   and to complete due diligence and even start the due diligence on a tax strategy. Where do we start? Who do we call? How do we find out if the client's going to go to jail? If there's issues with this? They really need to get their confidence level up at a very high level before they call their clients that you really need to look at the strategy and do this. So that's where we really live is we really there to support the tax focused CPA or the family office that's supporting that.   that ultra high net worth family that's led by a tax focused advisor, hopefully a CPA with at least 10,000, 50,000 hours of experience in auditing tax court, where they could look at the notes, look at, part of, join the due diligence project community, look at the notes, look at the strategies, meet the specialists, communicate with other CPAs in our network to really understand the risk reward of.   (Alex Sonkin) (06:48.088) the strategy when it as how it compares to other possible strategies or combination of strategies to bring to their client.   Yeah, yeah. I mean, I love the overall idea of kind of this Amazon marketplace for CPAs and tax firms and tax strategies. It's like, you know, I know when I'm looking for a new accountant or a new CPA with a different group, with a different real estate group or something, you know, I might have done some good business with one CPA and then some that I did not. And I don't have a consistent person to go to at this point. And it also depends on what we're talking about, right? This, the, the speciality of it. it's a   if we're talking W-2 tax mitigation or we're talking about real estate investment or we're talking about some sort of high cash flow entrepreneurial venture, it really depends. One CPA can't necessarily do all that. Maybe a large CPA firm that has all that stuff in house for sure. But when we're talking about your one CPA that you know that's been filing your tax return for the last 20 years, they're not very specialized in these sorts of things.   Here's what's interesting, Seth. You made some interesting points here. Here's what's interesting. Traditionally, people say, I need a CPA. My current CPA firm is not doing the job. That's kind of par for the course. They don't know what's wrong. They know something's wrong because they know that a lot of billionaires aren't paying any taxes. They're paying this 30, 40 % of their income in taxes. They feel something's wrong. So, I need a new CPA firm. So, what do they do? Hey, can you find me a great CPA firm that's local to me? Why is that important?   Why do you need someone that literally that is that's local to you right away? The business owner is already messing up. That is not the most important thing. Okay, then they'll want someone Okay, forget distance. I'm okay with just meeting them virtually. They need to be a specialist in real estate. That's fine Okay, you've got a real estate portfolio there, especially in real estate, but really That's that's a that's another that's a good question, but it's not the best question. It's not gonna get you to the promised land   (Alex Sonkin) (08:52.366) How fluent is that CPA firm in tax strategies? Are they plugged into a network like ours where they have hundreds and hundreds of independent CPA firms, former partners of KPMG, Deloitte, PWC, Ernst & Young, all proactively vetting strategies and introducing, unless you're part of a due diligence network like ours, you might be part of a very, very large CPA firm.   that also is part of other groups, other associations and none of them know, you know, three, four, five different strategies that would be perfect for mitigating taxes in a specific situation. So going to a large firm that has lots of in-house resources, are those resources the best? Do they have access to the best tax attorneys in the country? If those attorneys are in-house working for a CPA firm,   Or let's just say they're working for Jeff Bezos and Jeff Bezos' family office. Seth, do you think the best tax attorney in the country wants to be W-2 working for a CPA firm or working for a family   Right, right.   No, no. So right away, you've already discounted. You are not going to work with the best tax attorneys in the country. You're going to work with a static, the best attorney that's willing to be W-2, working for a CPA firm, working for a family office. If you look at the top 1000 tax attorneys in the country, you might now be working with number 945. Is that what you want to be like? No, no, no, we're fine. Our tax   (Alex Sonkin) (10:29.484) Our tax planning is done by my CPA and they've got this tax attorney that's the 945th best tax attorney in the country in their space. It's like saying, I'm building this orchestra and my trumpet player, instead of getting the very best trumpet player in the world, I have the 945th best trumpet player playing trumpet. You want to put that on your website? You want to market that? think your client's going to be like, this is going to be awesome. I'm going to have the 945th best.   You   (Alex Sonkin) (10:59.138) Resource in that space giving me planning ideas. Whereas I'm a business owner I've had to get to this point to have a tax problem here to overcome all these challenges and now you're gonna bring me a tax planning solution. That's like D minus That's what's going that's puts par for the course. This is what's going on. What we know is 18 % of Fortune 500 companies are zeroing out their tax returns Okay, just listen to this 18 %   of most profitable companies in the world have a team of attorneys and CPAs that zero out their tax return. That means 82 % have no idea what they're doing on a relative basis. those 82%, we're talking about 82 % of the most profitable 500 companies in the world. What we're saying is their tax planning from our vantage point, it's not that it's not good.   It's like average to below average, whereas their revenue and income is off the charts. That's like a big problem. It's like saying, you know what? We have a basketball team where our point guard, our forwards, and our two guard are really good, but our center is like garbage. You know, we've got like a high school level center, and then we have all-stars at all the other positions. That's not gonna work.   Yeah, yeah. mean, why is that? I mean, it's like, you know, they should have access to the best resources. They should be getting advised by the, you know, the top experts in the industry. But, you know, they're just not. Are they not putting the effort? Do they not have access? Do they not know, like, what's the...   Because the difference is when you look at Amazon and you look at Netflix and all the other streaming services that are providing an independent peer-review because back before Amazon and Netflix we had Blockbuster video and we had Barnes and Noble right and we did do diligence very differently going to all the different Blockbuster videos going into Blockbusters and Noble trying to find a book to buy right it's very different experience now we live in this very different world now with   (Alex Sonkin) (13:09.196) independent peer review and all these things. However, the financial services world was created by who? It was created by people like Bernie Madoff. It was created by Wall Street, right? So everything in the financial services world is really created by Wall Street, people like Bernie Madoff. And so Goldman Sachs doesn't want you to know what Morgan Stanley is doing. Morgan Stanley doesn't want you to know what JP Morgan's doing. And so really the financial services realm is   is kind of built in silos. No, come into the Goldman Sachs silo. Come into Ernst & Young. You don't need to worry about what our competitors are doing, what these other CPA firms are doing. We're Ernst & Young, we're Goldman Sachs, we're JP Morgan. You can have the products and services that we have in our back room. So essentially, when you look at JP Morgan, Ernst & Young, Pricewaterhouse, all these huge shops, they're just stores with back rooms. And it's like shopping at a store.   It's like going to Toys R Us. What do we have in Toys R Us? Well, what do we have in our back room? Whereas when you walk into Amazon, what do you have? When you walk into Netflix, you have the full scale universe, open source. So what we've done is we've basically taken the financial services industry and we've created this open source peer-reviewed model. And we started with sophisticated tax planning because that's where most people are really, really bad at it.   And then we've added cost mitigation and other resources. You know, we're not trying to compete with asset management and money managers and all those other, know, certainly we vet those people out. But, you know, there's millions of people that manage money and our financial advisors. And certainly we do our vetting and due diligence on those people. Where we really differentiate ourselves is the income tax planning resources and solutions. Because what we found is the top biggest   most profitable, most famous CPA firms and law firms, that's their blind spot. That's where they're really, really bad because they don't know how many are in the tax code. They don't have the time and the resources and they don't know who to call to actually start and complete a successful due diligence process for sophisticated tax structure.   (Seth Bradley) (15:29.708) Yeah, yeah. So when you say independent peer review, what exactly does that look like? mean, walk me kind of through that and how that works.   I'll show you like this is what you and any let's say if you're a real estate investor right and you're about to sell let's just say a 10 million dollar asset that has nine million dollars of gain in it you're gonna do the same thing that we've done if you're smart what are you gonna do you're gonna go out there and be like what are all the tax strategies that are possible to help me mitigate this huge tax liquidity event right then you're gonna get a bunch of ideas and then what are you gonna do   You're going to show those ideas to your most trusted financial people who are probably your CPA, your lawyer, your advisors, all these other people that you think are financial gurus and really most of them are not even qualified to comment on the tax structure except your tax-focused CPA who has at least 10,000 hours of experience in audit and tax courts. So really you should only bring this to your CPA. But now you brought it to your attorneys and your advisors.   So they're all going to comment on it because they're financial experts even though they have almost zero experience in auditing the tax court. So what do these people do with this idea? Some of them will like, oh, I don't know, just pay your tax. So you're going to get all sorts of answers. Now, you're the business owner. You have no idea how to quantify these answers. So you're really the tax expert trying to manage all this information and trying to be like, what do I do? And what are you going to do?   you're gonna basically go with what your CPA kind of tells you that they're comfortable with. Now your CPA doesn't know all the strategies, so they might know 10 % of the possible strategies. So you're gonna go with the most comfortable strategy that your CPA is comfortable with, that they've completed their due diligence on, which may be strategy number 443 out of the possible thousand strategies that are out there. And now you have the 443rd best idea.   (Alex Sonkin) (17:35.522) that you're implementing and your ROI on that is going to look just like that. Meanwhile, it's taking you all this effort to create $10 million of asset and it's going to take you just like this to completely give away the tax on that because your CPA is not plugged into an independent peer review environment where they can work with other CPAs who have experience with other resources, be able to ask your questions, get your questions answered, maybe ask another round of questions.   But really at that point, you really need to be dealing with the thought leaders in that space, not some local attorney or other CP that also has no clue what's going on. It has no idea how many pages there are.   Got it. So when somebody comes to, you know, they have that issue, right? And they're trying to find the right CPA that can help them with that specific situation and find that number one best tax strategy. You know, what do they do? Do they come to your website to try to find someone in the network? Because anybody in your network can tap into everybody else in your network and find that optimum strategy.   There's really two ways of doing it. They either find a CPA in our network, which is one of the easiest things to do, or they have their trusted CPA plug into our network and complete their due diligence. That's probably the best way because they are this way. This gives them another warm and fuzzy. Hey, I've had this relationship with my CPA for 20, 30 years. I really like them. I understand the challenges that they're under just because they haven't plugged into the network doesn't mean they're a bad CPA or bad person.   It's like having a, you know, I just bought a gold plated cell phone. It's the greatest cell phone iPhones ever produced. But if I don't plug it into Verizon, if I plug it into Bob's telephone network that only works in four locations in America, I'm gonna have this $5,000 cell phone that's basically just a brick that I could just use as a paper holder. But if I have a normal cell phone, I plug it into Verizon and I can make a phone call from anywhere.   (Alex Sonkin) (19:43.298) That's a much better experience. it's not the quality of it. It's partially the quality of the CPA, but it's more so the quality of the network. and certainly these, the CPAs that really are attracted to us are the ones who have these huge hearts that want to do the very, very best for their clients. And they know that they need to pick up every rock and flip over because they know their clients don't want tax returns and financial statements.   They need those. They don't want any of that. What they really want is proactive tax planning ideas. And what the CPAs don't have time for is that. So they have to create time. And we show CPAs how to create that time. We eliminate all, 95 % of the time. It takes them to complete the due diligence because we just show them the notes. We get them 90, 95 % there. Then they take the notes. They take the resources.   They jump into the tax code and then they complete the last 5-10 % of the due diligence process on their own because they're going to have to actually do a little bit of work to get this done. But we've reduced their time and increased their confidence level in completing this project by a factor of 10x, which is a huge value to them because they don't have the time and they don't have the resource to get this work done, but they want to get it   (Seth Bradley) (21:07.616) the interruption, but we don't do ads. Instead, know that if you're raising capital for real estate, my law firm, RaiseLaw, is here to give you the expert legal guidance you need to raise capital compliantly and structure and close your deal. And if you're looking for a done-for-you fund-to-fund solution, Tribest is the industry's only all-in-one setup and fund administration solution. Visit Raise.Law and Tribest.com to learn more.   Right. Yeah. And I can imagine it takes a certain degree of humility, right, from those CPAs to say, I don't know everything. I'm not just going to make up something. I'm not going to make it up. But I'm not going to do kind of half-assed research for a few minutes and tell you I know everything about the subject. Right? Like, I can admit that I don't know everything. I'm not an expert in every single tax strategy.   You nailed it. mean look we do a whole program about the ten pillars of extraordinary due diligence Curiosity is one of them independence is independence versus group think and you nailed one of those pillars. It's it's it's it's humility and You know being curious being humble when you're the tax expert as you know CPA that's been around for 30 years you like I've seen everything right? That's kind of how you feel   But if you have that idea, I've already seen everything. I already know everything. How many people, by the way, how many pages are there in the tax code? I have no idea. Well, that is that's not congruent. What's congruent is I've been in the industry 30, 35 years. Do I know the tax code? I don't know the tax code. It's constantly changing. I'm humble, but I'm working hard. Yeah, there are sections of tax codes that I know, but it would be awesome to be part of independent peer community of hundreds and hundreds of other tax geeks like me.   where we're chewing, know, we're eating this elephant one bite at a time and working together as a community. That's hard working humility. And if you think about it, those are the kind of people that are winning in every, in your profession, in my profession. Think about a basketball player. It's like the best basketball players, they are working to improve their game every day, every month, every year. As soon as you think, oh, I'm the best. Nobody does that. Kobe, Michael.   (Alex Sonkin) (23:25.034) Everyone was constantly improving their game every offseason even though they were achieving they were the grace of the world So when you see a CPA going, I already know everything. I'm not humble run for the hills You're in big trouble   Right, right. So I mean, I can see where this is. This could actually just change everything, right? I mean, it can change. Like if you get enough CPAs on this network and it's kind of the authority, the accepted way that things are done, it could really just change, you know, set the bar, right? So like, you know, where do you see the CPA firm or the future going? What does it look   Yeah, you know, we started out as the virtual family office hub. We're still the virtual family office hub. What we do is the due diligence project. So we've had a vision, you know, more than 15 years ago where the CPA firm of future, the CPA firm of today is no longer just a CPA firm, right? They're not just an accounting firm looking backwards. What does a CPA firm mean now? They're a proactive looking firm. So they're really   providing advisory services. They're bringing ideas to the table. That is not what accountants traditionally do. So right away, the CPA firm of the future in our world is a virtual family office led not by a money manager or an attorney or a financial advisor. It's led by a tax advisor who really has a tremendous amount of experience with audits, with tax court, with income tax planning.   that's plugged into this community. really let's build Wall Street underneath an elite tax advisor and let's give them vetted best in class peer reviewed resources for estate planning, money management, all the different resources underneath them. And let's make sure all these resources are trained to be part of a team that's led by the captain, which is the head of their family office. But in this case, it's a virtual family office because in our opinion,   (Alex Sonkin) (25:30.732) Like we said, the best people in the world don't necessarily want to be W-2 static living next to the family office or living next to the CPA firm that they support. These resources could be anywhere and everywhere. And it's like Lego pieces. Let's build out a custom build, a virtual family office with your favorite advisors, with your favorite CPA, plug them into due diligence project, and then maybe replace some of the resources with best in class peer reviewed.   I'm going to keep my estate planning attorney. I'm going to keep my CPA, but then let's build out the rest of my virtual family office with resources, specialists, specialized attorneys that my two estate planning attorney and my CPA need to help me do what I need to do and get from point A to point B.   Yeah, yeah, I love that. Let's let's unwind that a little bit. What what exactly is a family office? We have a lot of listeners that are, you know, high net worth individuals, wealthy, probably a high paying job of some sort. And, we still don't know what a family office is. Like, what is a family office? We hear about it all the time. People talk about it. You know, what is it? Is it just, you know, the Trumps and the Bidens that have them or what?   Well, look, when we first started doing this, we had to educate everyone. What is a family office? And there's still people that don't know what a family office is, and that's okay. So traditionally, what a family office is, is when a family or a business owner sells their business, and now they have a big pile of money instead of running their business where they don't need CFOs and C-level executives and marketing people. Now they have a big pile of money. Maybe they're building a real estate portfolio, private equity, various investments.   They, instead of having to make 17 phone calls, hey, I'm gonna call my CPA, I'm gonna call my attorney, I'm gonna call my advisors, they make one phone call to the head of their family office and their family office is gonna house their entire financial team. So their CPAs, their attorneys, their advisors are all part of a family office and there's usually a CEO of that family office.   (Alex Sonkin) (27:36.814) So that structure traditionally can cost anywhere from $250,000 a year up to $2,000, $3,000, $4,000,000 a year if you're dealing with very high net worth billionaires. our idea was to rebuild that structure and make it a virtual family office instead of a single family office or a multi-family office with everyone working W2 in a static place, was let's create a virtual family office environment where we can have a world-class tax attorney support   multiple virtual family offices led by CPAs around the country. And based on what their clients want and need, they may not need a full $250,000 or a million dollar yearly cost. Maybe they can have a family office with $50,000 worth of yearly expenses and they just need, you know, two, three advisors, six meetings a year, get their hands around what you're doing.   And they don't need check writing. They don't need a lot of these other services that maybe a ultra high net worth family needs where they just want to make one phone call instead of 17 phone calls and say, take care of this for me. In the virtual family office model, it's the same one phone call, except now the team underneath that person that's getting the call are vetted best in class peer reviewed resources who might be all around the world who will all get together on a virtual meeting.   to support the client when the client has, hey, I have a liquidity event or I have a tax event or I want to update my plan. Hey, let's bring the team together and let's look at all the moving parts and let's rebuild your plan. But now we're going to take advice and ideas from the smartest people in the world. We're all working together as part of a team.   Got it. Yeah. the virtual family office, makes it seem like that it offers wealth management, the best wealth management, more, it makes it more accessible to more people, right? Like not just billionaires, but maybe lower than that, right? Like maybe we've got $10 million or something like that and we can still get the best of the best.   (Alex Sonkin) (29:42.068) Exactly. And so our idea was, you know, you have these people who are worth $50 million and they can't afford a family office, but they want to, you know, the $50 million, they want to live life too. They want to be able to go play tennis. They want to give time to their synagogue, their churches. They want to do something else besides actually running their own, you know, basically overseeing their $50 million portfolio, which is a full-time job. the problem is they're not qualified to be doing that work.   Yet can they identify investments that they like? Sure. Can they identify the best planning around those investments? They're not schooled in that. So they really should not be involved in their family office. should identify a tax-focused CPA, have them build out a virtual family office for them. And then now they have the benefit of making one phone call instead of 17, which saves them lot of time. And they can now trust the fact that they have best-in-class peer-reviewed resources to give them the very, very best ideas.   So now what happens? Their confidence level goes up. So their time and planning goes down, confidence level goes up, the quality of the solutions goes up, and they're all of a sudden out, they can create a lot more wealth by doing world-class planning because we're seeing a lot of wealth just go away to state and federal governments and unnecessary taxes simply because the team does not know and has not completed their due diligence on all the possibilities.   That's we want.   Yeah, that's incredible, Alex. You know, I want to have you back on the show to maybe get into some of the more of nitty gritty stuff, right? Like what are some of these tax strategies that we might not know about or we might not hear about every single day because we tend to hear about the same ones over and over. And you've probably seen some pretty exotic ones, some very specific ones that people have never even heard of. But, you know, we're running out of time today. But, man, I would love to have a whole episode just kind of based on that.   (Seth Bradley) (31:40.91) But before we jump into the freedom four, you have one last gold nugget for our listeners.   Yeah, you know, just work hard, write your goals down, read your goals and update your goals. You know, there's a magic formula of being able to just writing down your goals, looking at your goals and just updating your goals. Be grateful. I know you get a probably get a lot of people just with gratitude and hard work and all that stuff. writing down your goals is something that very few people do. And of the people that write their goals down, a very high percentage of those people actually achieve those goals. So   simple way of getting successful and I do it and I recommend that little idea to every one of my friends and family.   Yeah, absolutely. you know, I think people sometimes they get caught up in, you know, the the mental stuff, they don't want to jump into that. But goal setting is more of a tangible thing. And all those things you hear about, like whether that's a vision board or affirmations or visualizations or setting goals, like it's all kind of the same, right? It's just even if it's like,   I want to update my tax planning. I want to have a better tax planning team. know, write that down. And every day you look down at all your goals and make them balanced. You know, some of it is they'd give back to the community, have strong relationships with my family members or have no relationships with certain families. I don't know, you know, what the goals are. But balanced goals where you're constantly reviewing those goals and then you're updating those goals. And every day you do something to take a step.   (Alex Sonkin) (33:15.278) towards achieving those goals. Those are little things. It's not a huge deal, but when you do that over time, there's a compound effect to it that is incredible that people just can't appreciate. It's been said, we think we can do a lot more than we do in a year, but we don't realize how much we can do in a five or 10 year period. It's incredible.   much we can do in a five or ten year period if we're just consistent every day for that period of   Absolutely, you get some momentum going over time. All right, let's jump into the Freedom 4. What's the best thing you do to keep your mind and body healthy?   I do strength training six days a week and I actually prefer using a rubber band training. This X3 bar program that's out there. There's a bunch of different competitors now, but it's like a 20, 30 minute training.   Nice, nice. With all your success, what is one limiting belief that you've crushed along the way and how did you get past it?   (Alex Sonkin) (34:18.968) Great question. You know, I think everyone experiences fears, fear of failure in different areas. And I think you have to attack your fear of failure. Whatever you're scared of, whatever's on your radar that's popping up as a fear, you have to literally identify it and attack it and just prove to yourself that you're really not scared of it.   Love that. What's one actual step our listeners can do right now to start creating more freedom?   They can take action. Action is the key. The real problem is people just sit around, they get in front of themselves. They're too much thinking, too much analysis. What I've seen is people who have achieved incredible, let's just say business success, those people weren't smart enough to know.   that how hard that business was actually going to be to build. They were actually not, if they were smarter, they would have never done the business because they were like, the odds of me actually achieving this business and creating it are so small. I'm just better off not doing it. They weren't that smart. So they just went ahead and jumped into it. And so what I found is just taking massive, massive action. Even if it's a failure, that massive action creates a pattern because it's going to   Success is going to require massive action. And when you have a pattern and know this is going to take massive action and it's okay if it doesn't work out, I'm going to go for it anyway. I'm just going to assume it does work out. So being positive, massive action. If it fails, boom, you learn something and you go do something else and you just keep taking massive action.   (Seth Bradley) (36:10.402) Perfect. Last but not least, how's passive income or entrepreneurship made your life better?   You know, I've been very blessed. 20 years ago, I came up with an idea based on a diet that cured cancer for my aunt, my mother-in-law. And I suggested to my wife and my mother-in-law that they start selling my mother-in-law's cookies that were based on a diet that cured cancer for my mother-in-law. And so now today, we have a company called Go Macro, MacroMars, that my wife and my mother-in-law built based on an entrepreneurial idea that   you know, that I had over 20 years ago. And as soon as we had a little bit of success in the beginning, I knew this was bigger and better than we had even thought of. And I just continually supported my wife and really just in every way I could to watch this opportunity grow. So to me, that's been my my passive, even though, you know, I'm married to this business owner, you know, supporting her and watching this idea grow and flourish into a really   Successful health food company called comacro where we sell these macro bars. They're super delicious   Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, it's passive for you, maybe not quite as passive for her. I have the same issue with the gyms. You know, they make really good money and it's passive for me, but my wife is running those things, so no.   (Alex Sonkin) (37:31.174) Exactly, well you know she's had to be there to support you so yeah so for her it's passive and it's a great story for her and it's a great successful story for you as well. know how hard it is to build.   Yeah, awesome Alex. The list has been incredible, man. We're gonna let you find out more about you.   DoDiligenceProject.com or info at DoDiligenceProject.com. You can introduce your CPA to us or you can reach out to us if you hate your CPA and want us to recommend a great CPA for you that's already plugged into our...   Easy enough, man, easy enough. All right, brother, thanks for coming on the show.   Seth, it's been my pleasure. Thanks so much for having me.   (Seth Bradley) (38:09.986) Absolutely.   (Seth Bradley) (38:13.944) Thanks for tuning in to Raise the Bar Radio. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs to hear it. Keep pushing, keep building, and keep raising the bar. Until next time, enjoy the journey.   Links from the Show and Guest Info and Links: Seth Bradley's Links: https://x.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.youtube.com/@sethbradleyesq www.facebook.com/sethbradleyesq https://www.threads.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.instagram.com/sethbradleyesq/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/sethbradleyesq/ https://passiveincomeattorney.com/seth-bradley/ https://www.biggerpockets.com/users/sethbradleyesq https://medium.com/@sethbradleyesq https://www.tiktok.com/@sethbradleyesq?lang=en   Alex Sonkin's Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexsonkin/ https://encoursa.com/presenters/alex-sonkin https://www.facebook.com/asonkin/

Matt McLennan, Co-Head of Global Value Investing at First Eagle Investments, joins Bilal Little, Director of Exchange Traded Products at the NYSE, to share his path from Australia and Goldman Sachs to leading one of the industry's most respected value teams. He discusses First Eagle's philosophy of resilient wealth creation, with an emphasis on capital preservation, scarcity-driven opportunities, and real assets. McLennan also explores today's challenging macro backdrop of inflation, debt, and geopolitical risk, and why gold remains a critical hedge.

Plus: Disney takes a stake in Webtoon Entertainment. And Hershey shares get an upgrade from Goldman Sachs. Katherine Sullivan hosts. Sign up for the WSJ's free What's News newsletter. An artificial-intelligence tool assisted in the making of this episode by creating summaries that were based on Wall Street Journal reporting and reviewed and adapted by an editor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode 93 of the Digital Velocity Podcast, Erik Martinez sits down with Ginger Grant, a seasoned data strategist, to explore how artificial intelligence and machine learning are reshaping the fundamentals of business analysis and decision-making.  Ginger shares her unique perspective on the crucial distinctions between generative AI and machine learning, highlighting why accuracy, data quality, and the right questions matter more than ever. She explains why companies must address messy, fragmented data before they can effectively harness AI, and how grounding models in proprietary data unlocks more reliable business insights.   Listeners will gain insights into: • Why machine learning has a more immediate impact than generative AI for business-critical tasks • The persistent challenge of data organization and the dangers of Excel-driven reporting • How companies like Goldman Sachs are grounding AI models in proprietary data to achieve accuracy • Why dashboards and rote reporting are ripe for automation—and where humans remain indispensable • How leaders can encourage AI adoption without stoking fear of job loss, through training and intentional change  For direct-to-consumer marketers and cross-industry leaders alike, Ginger offers actionable guidance on how to move beyond data collection toward true business impact. From defining success metrics to ensuring critical thinking remains at the core of analysis, this episode is a must-listen for executives and marketers preparing to navigate the future of AI-driven decision-making. 

Goldman Sachs - ‘Central Banks Will Be Buying Gold For Years' Central banks have set records for the amount of gold they've purchased in the last few years. But with the price continuing to soar to new all-time record highs, a relevant question that rarely gets asked is, if they will continue to buy that much gold in the years ahead? Although Goldman Sachs just put out a report on that exact topic, which Vince Lanci walks you through in this morning's show. So to find out more, click to watch the video now! - To get access to Vince's research in 'Goldfix Premium' go to: https://vblgoldfix.substack.com/ - Get access to Arcadia's Daily Gold and Silver updates here: https://goldandsilverdaily.substack.com/ - To get your very own 'Silver Chopper Ben' statue go to: https://arcadiaeconomics.com/chopper-ben-landing-page/ - Join our free email list to be notified when a new video comes out: click here: https://arcadiaeconomics.com/email-signup/ - Follow Arcadia Economics on twitter at: https://x.com/ArcadiaEconomic - To get your copy of 'The Big Silver Short' (paperback or audio) go to: https://arcadiaeconomics.com/thebigsilvershort/ - Listen to Arcadia Economics on your favorite Podcast platforms: Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/75OH2PpgUpriBA5mYf5kyY Apple - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/arcadia-economics/id1505398976 - #silver #silverprice #gold And remember to get outside and have some fun every once in a while!:) (URL0VD)Subscribe to Arcadia Economics on Soundwise

From fashion merchandising at Tommy Hilfiger and Gap to leading e-commerce at Lucky Brand, Tiana Ravden spent over two decades shaping how people experience style. But a personal challenge—ruined silk tops and sweat marks—sparked her entrepreneurial journey and led to the founding of Eroe.   In this episode, Tiana shares how she transformed a DIY solution into a patented product while juggling corporate roles, restaurant ownership, and motherhood. Her story is one of resilience, creativity, and purpose. You'll hear how she navigated the complexities of product development, built a brand rooted in authenticity, and found support in unexpected places, including her identical twin sister.   Whether you're a founder or a dreamer, this episode is packed with insights on balancing vision with business realities, protecting your ideas, and building a brand that truly empowers. About Your Host DCA Virtual Business Support President, Denise Cagan, has been working with small businesses for over 20 years. She has served on the boards of professional organizations such as Business Leaders of Charlotte (BLOC) and the National Association of Women Business Owners Charlotte (NAWBO). Denise is also a graduate of the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Business Program, which is a program for small businesses that links learning to action for growth-oriented entrepreneurs. Recognized as a facilitator, problem solver, and builder, Denise enjoys speaking to business groups about social media for small businesses and motivating remote and work-from-home (WFH) teams. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Quality Systems Management from James Madison University. With extensive experience in outsourcing solutions that provide administrative, creative, marketing, and website support, she is able to help other small businesses grow and thrive. Connect with Denise DCA Virtual Business Support website. View and listen to Podcasts with Denise Cagan. LinkedIn

The 'Golden Age' is not looking very golden, unless you happen to own actual gold. Government debts and deficits are increasing, Americans are paying 86% of the tariffs (according to Goldman Sachs), and The Fed is expected to crank up the printing presses by lowering interest rates, which will further increase the prices that American consumers pay for goods and services.

Want a quick estimate of how much your business is worth? With our free valuation calculator, answer a few questions about your business, and you'll get an immediate estimate of the value of your business. You might be surprised by how much you can get for it: https://flippa.com/exit -- In this episode of The Exit, serial entrepreneur and investor Divya Gugnani, founder and CEO of 5 Senses, unpacks her journey from Goldman Sachs to co-founding five companies and selling three, including Send the Trend to QVC. With a background in finance and private equity, Divya attributes her entrepreneurial staying power to strong cash management and a focus on fundamentals. She shares lessons from building early ventures, from auto parts to culinary media, and how creating hyper-personalized shopping experiences led to her fastest success, selling Send the Trend just 11 months after raising funding. Time at QVC gave her valuable insights into product storytelling, ultimately inspiring her to launch beauty brand Wander Beauty, which became her third successful exit. Divya's exit advice is clear: get your house in order early (books, legal, taxes), know what you want from a deal, and hire strong operators so you can focus on the sale process. She emphasizes selling on the upswing when growth and profitability are aligned, creating competition among buyers, and avoiding short-term revenue plays that dilute brand value. Today, Divya shares her entrepreneurial lessons and AI insights via TikTok, continuing to inspire founders globally. -- Divya Gugnani is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and author with over 20 years of experience building and backing businesses. She is the Founding Partner of Concept to Co., investing in 80+ companies, and the Founder & CEO of 5 SENS, a fine fragrance brand. Previously, she co-founded Wander Beauty, later acquired by Nameless CPG, and Send the Trend, acquired by QVC. Divya began her career in finance at Goldman Sachs, Investcorp, and FirstMark Capital before becoming an “accidental entrepreneur.” Featured widely in top media outlets, she is also the author of Sexy Women Eat, and regularly mentors founders and lectures at leading universities. She holds a B.S. from Cornell, an MBA from Harvard, and trained at the French Culinary Institute. Website - https://5sens.co/ TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@dgugnani -- The Exit—Presented By Flippa: A 30-minute podcast featuring expert entrepreneurs who have been there and done it. The Exit talks to operators who have bought and sold a business. You'll learn how they did it, why they did it, and get exposure to the world of exits, a world occupied by a small few, but accessible to many. To listen to the podcast or get daily listing updates, click on flippa.com/the-exit-podcast/

Today's episode is from #756 that originally aired on Jun. 17, 2024. Investment Expert and best-selling author, Salvatore Buscemi. Sal is a former investment banking professional from Goldman Sachs, a three-time published author and now serving as the CEO of a multi family office. His portfolio prominently features privately-held life sciences companies, complemented by a diverse array of high-performing enterprises and select industrial real estate assets. In the real estate sector, his focus is consistently on Class A properties. His group partners with top-tier sponsors who have weathered multiple economic cycles, commit significant co-investment, and maintain audited financials. Connect with Sal: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/salvatore-buscemi Get Sal Free Book Here: investinglegacy.com or sal@brahminpartners.com Highlights: 11:36 -  Class A Opportunities (NY) 16:12 - Sal's Structure, What's on The Radar 19:40 - Threats, Housing, Social Changes 22:06 - Sal's Take on Crypto 32:51 - Building Relationships Instead of Being Transactional Quote: "For Those of you who are starting, it's never a spreadsheet, you can do ChatGPT and it can give you whatever you need. It's all about the relationships. That's going to be the most coveted skill going forward." Recommended Resources: Accredited Investors, you're invited to Join the Cashflow Investor Club to learn how you can partner with Kevin Bupp on current and upcoming opportunities to create passive cash flow and build wealth. Join the Club! If you're a high net worth investor with capital to deploy in the next 12 months and you want to build passive income and wealth with a trusted partner, go to InvestWithKB.com for opportunities to invest in real estate projects alongside Kevin and his team.  Looking for the ultimate guide to passive investing? Grab a copy of my latest book, The Cash Flow Investor at KevinBupp.com.  Tap into a wealth of free information on Commercial Real Estate Investing by listening to past podcast episodes at KevinBupp.com/Podcast.

What's driving US tech stocks — and what could be ahead for the sector? Peter Callahan, the US Technology, Media and Telecommunications sector specialist within Goldman Sachs Global Banking & Markets, discusses with Chris Hussey on the sidelines of the Goldman Sachs Communacopia + Technology Conference.  Recorded on September 9, 2025.  The opinions and views expressed herein are as of the date of publication, subject to change without notice, and may not necessarily reflect the institutional views of Goldman Sachs or its affiliates. The material provided is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation from any Goldman Sachs entity to take any particular action, or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities or financial products. This material may contain forward-looking statements. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Neither Goldman Sachs nor any of its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or information contained herein and disclaim any liability whatsoever for reliance on such information for any purpose. Each name of a third-party organization mentioned is the property of the company to which it relates, is used here strictly for informational and identification purposes only and is not used to imply any ownership or license rights between any such company and Goldman Sachs. A transcript is provided for convenience and may differ from the original video or audio content. Goldman Sachs is not responsible for any errors in the transcript. This material should not be copied, distributed, published, or reproduced in whole or in part or disclosed by any recipient to any other person without the express written consent of Goldman Sachs. For additional disclaimers and regulatory disclosures, please visit https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/podcasts. Disclosures applicable to research with respect to issuers, if any, mentioned herein are available through your Goldman Sachs representative or at http://www.gs.com/research/hedge.html. © 2025 Goldman Sachs. All rights reserved Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of blockchain firm Digital Asset, joined me to discuss the Canton Network's unique blockchain that is built for institutions.Topics: - Canton Network's unique public and privacy blockchain - Raising $135 Million - Institutions need for privacy with Blockchain transactions - Zero Knowledge proof- Tokenization of assets- 24/7 Markets- Stablecoin market - Chainlink partnership Show Sponsor -

Hear TKO exec Mark Shapiro talk about the future of WWE as part of a Goldman Sachs tech conference.

Goldman Sachs' Darren Cohen, co-head and chief investment officer of Growth Equity within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, discusses his career trajectory and investment philosophy, and where he sees opportunity today. This episode was recorded on August 11, 2025. The opinions and views expressed herein are as of the date of publication, subject to change without notice, and may not necessarily reflect the institutional views of Goldman Sachs or its affiliates. The material provided is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation from any Goldman Sachs entity to take any particular action, or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities or financial products. This material may contain forward-looking statements. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Neither Goldman Sachs nor any of its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or information contained herein and disclaim any liability whatsoever for reliance on such information for any purpose. Each name of a third-party organization mentioned is the property of the company to which it relates, is used here strictly for informational and identification purposes only and is not used to imply any ownership or license rights between any such company and Goldman Sachs. A transcript is provided for convenience and may differ from the original video or audio content. Goldman Sachs is not responsible for any errors in the transcript. This material should not be copied, distributed, published, or reproduced in whole or in part or disclosed by any recipient to any other person without the express written consent of Goldman Sachs. For additional disclaimers and regulatory disclosures, please visit www.goldmansachs.com/insights/podcasts © 2025 Goldman Sachs. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET. Brad is first joined by CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton. Col. Leighton (USAF-Ret.) provides his expert analysis on Venezuela and the Trump administration's ill-considered attack on the purported drug boat and what that might mean for how the current regime uses our military.  The two also posit the political and diplomatic implications of Trump's “name change” from the Department of Defense to the Department of War.  Col. Leighton also breaks down the significance of Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un joining Xi Jinping in a show of strength as China unveiled new weapons at a huge military parade. Finally, the Colonel gives the latest updates on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.   Then, Brad is joined by Sarah Jones, the Editor-in-Chief of PoliticusUSA. The two examine the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) again handing President Trump a bleak set of jobs numbers, just one month after he fired the agency's commissioner over weak employment data. They also detail the specific damage the President's tariffs have done on the U.S. economy, as well as a new report from Goldman Sachs estimating that 86% of the tariff revenue collected so far has been paid by American businesses and consumers. Additionally, the pair talks about the latest news surrounding the Epstein files. Finally, they discuss the chilling implications as Trump continues working to turn the military into his own police force, which he seeks to unleash in predominantly Democratic-led American cities. Col. Cedric Leighton is the Founder and President of Cedric Leighton Associates, a strategic risk and leadership consultancy serving global companies and organizations. He founded the company in 2010, after serving in the US Air Force for 27 years as an Intelligence Officer and attaining the rank of Colonel. His website is www.CedricLeighton.com and his handle on BlueSky is @CedricLeighton. bsky.social.  Sarah Jones' handle on BlueSky is @politicussarah.bsky.social‬ and the website for PoliticusUSA is www.PoliticusUSA.com. Brad writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Hill.' He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His handle on BlueSky is @bradbannon.bsky.social.  

Fernando De Leon and Mike DeGiorgio talk Crexi's founding, AI's role in CRE, compounding wealth, and the grit needed to build lasting companies.The Crexi Podcast connects CRE professionals with industry insights built for smart decision-making. In each episode, we explore the latest trends, innovations and opportunities shaping commercial real estate, because we believe knowledge should move at the speed of ambition and every conversation should empower professionals to act with greater clarity and confidence.  In this episode of The Crexi Podcast, host Mike DiGiorgio, CEO and founder of Crexi, sits down with his long-time mentor Fernando, founder of Leon Capital Group, to discuss the origins and journey of Crexi. Fernando shares insights into his investment philosophy, the importance of data and technology in commercial real estate, and the fundamental role of compound interest. The conversation spans various topics, including the impact of AI, the dynamics of different business industries, and the essential traits of successful entrepreneurs. Additionally, Fernando speaks about his philanthropic efforts and the values that drive his investments. This episode provides a deep dive into the strategic and personal elements that have shaped Crexi success and offers valuable lessons for commercial real estate professionals and entrepreneurs alike.First Impressions of the New OfficeThe Origin Story of CrexiAssessing the Competitive LandscapeThe Will to Succeed in BusinessThe Impact of AI on Business and Real EstateLessons from Building Multiple BusinessesThe Importance of Good Team MembersResilience and Optimism in BusinessReflections on Early Career ChoicesThe Importance of GratitudeImpact of Upbringing on Real Estate PerspectiveInvestment Committee InsightsPhilanthropy and Giving BackAdvice for Future GenerationsThe Future of Commercial Real EstateClosing Remarks and Reflections  About Fernando De Leon:Fernando De Leon is the founder and CEO of Leon Capital Group, a diversified holding company with subsidiaries across financial services, healthcare, and real estate. What began as a modest Texas real estate developer has grown into a platform overseeing ~4,000 employees and businesses operating nationwide and abroad.Under his leadership, Leon Capital has invested in or developed over $15B in real estate, including 20,000 rental housing units, 25M SF of industrial, 15M SF of retail, self-storage, healthcare assets, and 10,000 residential lots. The firm also co-founded a European logistics platform with the Perot Companies that has developed more than 40M SF across the EU.In healthcare, Leon's portfolio includes Specialty Dental Brands, Frontline Dental Implant Specialists, Advanced Medaesthetic Partners, and others managing 600+ locations and serving 2M patients annually. In financial services, Leon operates Bastion Insurance, Finsurity Premium Finance, and Patient Capital. Fernando is also a co-founder of Crexi, now one of the largest CRE marketplaces, serving 3M professionals with real-time transaction data.A Harvard graduate and former Goldman Sachs analyst, he was named a Horatio Alger Award recipient in 2025. Through the De Leon Family Foundation, he supports poverty relief, healthcare access, and education, including scholarships for Texas students dedicated to community impact. For show notes, past guests, and more CRE content, please check out Crexi's blog.Looking to stay ahead in commercial real estate? Visit Crexi to explore properties, analyze markets, and connect with opportunities nationwide. Follow Crexi:https://www.crexi.com/​ https://www.crexi.com/instagram​ https://www.crexi.com/facebook​ https://www.crexi.com/twitter​ https://www.crexi.com/linkedin​ https://www.youtube.com/crexi

Episode SummaryHow do you break into the games industry later in your career? And once you're in, how do you build a meaningful life and community without burning out? In this episode, Greg is joined by Amir Satvat, a Business Development leader at Tencent and the winner of the "Game Changers" award. Amir is one of the industry's most important connectors, having built a community that has helped thousands find jobs and opportunities.Amir shares his incredible journey from finance at Goldman Sachs to gaming in his late 30s, offering a practical playbook for career pivots. He breaks down his disciplined, non-negotiable approach to balancing a high-stakes job with being a present father and husband, and reveals why true networking is a 12-month game of building relationships, not a last-minute job hunt. This conversation is packed with wisdom for anyone looking to build a sustainable and impactful career in games.Timestamps (01:55) The Pivot: Amir details his unconventional path from banking and healthcare into the games industry. (11:00) The Non-Negotiable Framework: How Amir uses rigorous time-blocking to protect family time and avoid burnout. (25:49) Confronting Ageism: Amir discusses the industry's challenge with retaining and valuing older talent. (32:25) The #1 Networking Mistake: Why you need to build relationships long before you need them. (39:40) The Financial Modeling Trap: How a finance-first mindset can be both a powerful tool and a creativity killer in game development.Guest BioAmir Satvat is a leader in Business Development and Strategy at Tencent and the founder of a professional gaming community that has helped thousands of people. Known as one of the industry's most important connectors, his work is driven by a deep passion for helping others succeed. LinkedIn: Amir Satvat Community Hub: amirsatvat.comKey Topics Breaking into the games industry mid-career Effective networking strategies for long-term success Balancing a demanding career with fatherhood and family life Transferable skills from other industries (finance, tech, healthcare) Community building and the power of trust Continuing education and staying relevant Industry challenges: ageism, the future of consoles, and business modelsRelevant Links Amir's Community Website Tencent

In this episode of Top of the Pile, host Karen Elders sits down with Jim Citrin, one of the nation's foremost experts on leadership and career success. As leader of Spencer Stuart's CEO practice, Jim has advised boards and CEOs on more than 850 top leadership searches over the past 25 years. He brings a wealth of experience as a former McKinsey consultant, Goldman Sachs associate, and bestselling author of eight books, including The Career Playbook, which offers invaluable guidance for young professionals navigating the early stages of their careers.Together, Karen and Jim explore the realities of today's competitive job market, where internship and entry-level acceptance rates at top firms rival Ivy League admissions. Jim shares strategies for standing out among hundreds of applicants, emphasizing the importance of clarity, persistence, and developing what he calls the “career triangle” of job satisfaction, compensation, and lifestyle. The conversation highlights how young professionals can proactively balance these factors throughout their careers.They also dive into practical advice on relationship-building, networking (or as Jim prefers to call it, “authentic connection”), and mastering the art of interviewing. From creating strong first impressions to asking thoughtful, well-researched questions, Jim breaks down the habits that set top candidates apart. Throughout the discussion, both Karen and Jim stress the value of curiosity, resilience, and self-awareness—qualities that help young professionals build momentum early in their careers.This episode is filled with timeless advice, practical strategies, and inspiration for anyone looking to launch their career and stay at the "Top of the Pile".Here are a few links to key items mentioned:The Career Playbook by Jim CitrinInterviewing to live, living to interview, article by Jim CitrinGirl Effect, a non-profit, aims to unlock the power of girls and end poverty globallyLAUNCH Career Strategies was founded by Karen Elders and Elyse Spalding. We help young professionals launch a successful career path with expert coaching services. Reach out today for an initial FREE coaching session.LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook

S&P Futures are positive this morning as the market await the payroll revisions data, a downward revision of up to 1m is expected. The White House is said to be preparing a report that will be critical of BLS data gathering functions. Apple's major product launch will be a key highlight today, the event kicks off at 1:00 PM ET, with new iPhones, Apple Watches, and AirPods expected to be announced. Anglo American & Teck Resources announced a merger.  The Salesforce CEO will be presenting today at the Goldman Sachs' Communacopia & Tech event at 4:25pm. Executives from C & JPM will be presenting today at Barclays financial conference. On the earning front CASY is lower after its earnings announcement. After the bell today, earnings releases are expected form GME, SNPS & ORCL

The guest host for today's show is Brad Bannon. Brad runs Bannon Communications Research, a polling, message development and media firm which helps labor unions, progressive issue groups and Democratic candidates win public affairs and political campaigns. His show, 'Deadline D.C. with Brad Bannon,' airs every Monday from 3-4pm ET. Brad is first joined by CNN Military Analyst Cedric Leighton. Col. Leighton (USAF-Ret.) provides his expert analysis on Venezuela and the Trump administration's ill-considered attack on the purported drug boat and what that might mean for how the current regime uses our military.  The two also posit the political and diplomatic implications of Trump's “name change” from the Department of Defense to the Department of War.  Col. Leighton also breaks down the significance of Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Un joining Xi Jinping in a show of strength as China unveiled new weapons at a huge military parade. Finally, the Colonel gives the latest updates on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.   Then, Brad is joined by Sarah Jones, the Editor-in-Chief of PoliticusUSA. The two examine the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) again handing President Trump a bleak set of jobs numbers, just one month after he fired the agency's commissioner over weak employment data. They also detail the specific damage the President's tariffs have done on the U.S. economy, as well as a new report from Goldman Sachs estimating that 86% of the tariff revenue collected so far has been paid by American businesses and consumers. Additionally, the pair talks about the latest news surrounding the Epstein files. Finally, they discuss the chilling implications as Trump continues working to turn the military into his own police force, which he seeks to unleash in predominantly Democratic-led American cities. Col. Cedric Leighton is the Founder and President of Cedric Leighton Associates, a strategic risk and leadership consultancy serving global companies and organizations. He founded the company in 2010, after serving in the US Air Force for 27 years as an Intelligence Officer and attaining the rank of Colonel. His website is www.CedricLeighton.com and his handle on BlueSky is @CedricLeighton. bsky.social.  Sarah Jones' handle on BlueSky is @politicussarah.bsky.social and the website for PoliticusUSA is www.PoliticusUSA.com. Brad writes a political column every Sunday for 'The Hill.' He's on the National Journal's panel of political insiders and is a national political analyst for WGN TV and Radio in Chicago and KNX Radio in Los Angeles. You can read Brad's columns at www.MuckRack.com/Brad-Bannon. His handle on BlueSky is @bradbannon.bsky.social.  

In this episode of the Milk Road Show, we're joined by Sandy Kaul, Head of Digital Asset Innovation at Franklin Templeton, and a TradFi heavyweight with stints at Goldman Sachs, Citibank, JP Morgan, and more. Sandy isn't just throwing buzzwords. She's calling it like it is: “The next 5 years will bring more change to finance than the last 50.” From tokenized equities to AI-managed wallets, Sandy breaks down why the future of finance won't be account-based; it'll be wallet-based. And how crypto rails are about to absorb trillions in legacy assets.~~~~~

   It's a great week to be a Missouri Tigers fan as they rely on a couple of rock solid fundamentals to stop the Kansas Jayhawks to win the Border War revisited.  The best team won but boy, oh boy, did KU have a shot in this one.    The Chiefs find themselves all alone in last place as the week begins.  Yes, the division we promise will be the toughest ever proved true as the Raiders and Broncos both won, too.  We also update the injury status of Xavier Worthy.    The Royals can't get the sweep against the Twins and fall another game back in the Wildcard race.    Trump is taking Chicago with ICE but is adamant he's not at war with the city itself.  Scott Bessent sets the host of Meet the Press straight.    It was quite a final act by the Chinook Helicopters and their pilots the the Army Reserve in KC this weekend.  Rich Eisen takes a shot at Harrison Butker and a legendary, grammy award winning rock star has died at 81.

S&P Futures are positive this morning as the latest payrolls data is increasing the odds of a 50-basis point cut at next weeks Fed meeting. Tomorrow the BLS will be announcing its revisions to the payroll data for the period of April 2024 to March 2025. This week's inflation reports could derail a large cut. President Trump is expected to meet with EU officials this week on talks aimed at ending the Ukraine Russia war, sanctions and energy policies are likely to be discussed. On Sunday, Tres Sec Bessent said he's confident that the tariffs will be upheld by the Supreme Court.  This week's sell-side calendar is busy, with today's highlights including Goldman Sachs' Communacopia & Tech event, Morgan Stanley's healthcare conference, and the Barclays financial conference, all featuring top executives sharing sector-specific and market outlooks. On the earning front CASY is releasing after the bell today and later this week ORCL, SNPS, GME, CHWY, RH, KR & ADBE are scheduled to release.

The Evolving Role of Private EquityIn this special episode of The Accountant's Flight Plan, Brannon meets with Morry Brown, regional market leader here at Poe Group Advisors, formerly of Goldman Sachs, to share a timely update on how private equity is  impacting mergers and acquisitions in the accounting profession today.This was a live discussion with an informative Q&A at the end.  Morry and Brannon dive deep into the steady rise of PE-backed deals and discuss the impact of outside capital on CPA firm sales. They unpack why it is funding partner buyouts and, therefore, reshaping the structure of firm operations themselves. Morry highlights why many of these investors view the accounting profession as a “sticky” industry, given its recurring revenue streams. This makes CPA firms especially attractive compared to other industries with less stable revenue projections.Pros and Cons for CPA FirmsBrannon highlights that while PE firms often bring significant advantages (including technological advancements and recruitment capital), the deal structures they propose can be unrealistic when compared to traditional sales. Morry reflects that the earnouts and layered incentives within these deal proposals are becoming increasingly common. This can, unfortunately, create complications for sellers who are looking for a cleaner transition than private equity can provide. Brannon and Morry both emphasize the importance of owners thinking carefully about what they want. Especially, considering that a straightforward deal that looks less flashy on paper might be better in practice than a larger quote that relies on a complex earnout structure that would lead to a messy exit.What CPA Firm Owners Need to Know for the FutureSo what do the next 12–18 months look like for the industry? With interest rates and capital funds shifting consistently, Brannon and Morry believe that not all private equity buyers will remain active to the same degree. For firm owners, this simultaneously creates opportunities and reasons to be cautious. Before deciding your next steps in the future of your firm, get clear on what your own goals are outside of the changing tide within the industry. Whether you want to maximize your firm's value, ensure continuity for your staff, or simply exit without complexity, knowing your goals will help you make them a reality.Timestamps:02:00 – Introductions of Morry and Brannon06:30 – Why private equity is interested in accounting firms' sales10:15 – PE-backed deals vs. traditional sales: what's the difference?14:45 – Earnouts, incentives, and PE's risk of overcomplication20:10 – Possible benefits of PE investment: talent and technology upgrades26:00 – Market shifts: Interest rates and deal pace 31:30 – Practical advice for firm owners considering PE offers43:58 – Question and Answer period from firm owners like you!

Franco Fubini was born in Argentina, raised in Italy, educated in America, and built his career in London.He's worked for Goldman Sachs, Apple, and luxury food brand Valderrama.But then came Natoora.Today, Franco is the founder of Natoora – the chef-obsessed fruit & veg supplier, serving Ottolenghi, Dan Barber, and Alain Ducasse.This episode is an eye-opener into food systems, supermarket power, and how our plates shape the planet.ON THE MENU:Growing up between Argentina, Italy & the U.S. – how culture shapes taste.The Goldman Sachs years – why Franco walked away from banking.Apple's obsession with perfection – and how it influenced Natoora.Alain Ducasse, Dan Barber & Ottolenghi – building trust with world-class chefs.Why supermarkets destroyed seasonality – and how Natoora fights back.The hidden cost of cheap fruit & veg – why “local” doesn't always mean good.How Natoora built a supply chain from scratch – and why it matters.Why chefs are the real gatekeepers of better farming.The problem with food labels, and why transparency beats marketing.Franco's long-term vision – a revolution in how we eat and farm.An honest, global, and deeply inspiring conversation with one of food's great challengers. ==============================================

Want to know which companies Goldman Sachs says have real staying power? Hosted by Michelle Martin we break down Goldman’s picks: Walmart, Ollie’s Bargain Outlet, T-Mobile, Charles Schwab, and Porch Group. We also spotlight Singapore’s Fitness Champs IPO and what its U.S. debut means for Asian expansion. Plus, the Fed’s next move, Apple’s iPhone launch, earnings from Oracle, Adobe, and Kroger, and tariff decisions looming over tech stocks. In our UP or DOWN segment: Robinhood, Lululemon, Hyundai, and Tesla’s trillionaire ambitions all get the spotlightSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A version of this essay was published by firstpost.com at https://www.firstpost.com/opinion/what-fuels-anti-india-hate-in-the-west-13932053.htmlI am personally very pro-America, yet I too have been baffled by the noises emanating from the Trump administration regarding India, particularly from one aide. Peter Navarro, apparently some trade muckity-muck, has had a field day accusing India of various sins. Apart from the entertainment value, this leads to a serious question: Why? And why now?There is reason to believe, by connecting the dots, that there is indeed a method behind this madness. It is not a pure random walk: there is a plan, and there are good reasons why the vicious attack on India has been launched at this time and in this manner. Of course, this is based on open source and circumstantial evidence: I have no inside information whatsoever.In this context, consider what is arguably the greatest political thriller of all time: "Z" (1969) by Costa-Gavras. It is based on a real-life political murder in Greece, where a popular left-leaning candidate for President was covertly assassinated by the ruling military junta.The way the plot unravels is when the investigating magistrate, masterfully played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, notices a curious phenomenon: the use of a single phrase "lithe and fierce like a tiger", used verbatim by several eye-witnesses. He realizes that there was a criminal conspiracy to get rid of the inconvenient candidate, with plausible deniability. Words and phrases have subtle meanings, and they reveal a great deal.Thus, let me bring to your notice the following tweets:* “India could end the Ukraine war tomorrow: Modi needs to pick a side” (August 5)* “Europeans love to whinge about Trump and to claim he is soft on Russia. But after 3 years it is Donald J Trump who has finally made India pay a price for enabling Putin's butchery.” (August 6)* Speaker: “[the American taxpayer] gotta fund Modi's war”. TV Anchor (confused): “You mean Putin's war?”. Speaker: “No, I mean Modi's war”. (August 28)Do you, gentle reader, notice a pattern?Now let me tell you who the authors of these posts are. The first quoted an article by an officer in the British Special Forces, which means their covert, cloak-and-dagger military people.The second was by Boris Johnson, former British Prime Minister. Johnson, incidentally, has been accused of single-handedly spiking ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, when there was a possibility that the whole sorry spectacle of the war could have been settled/brought to a close.The third is by the aforementioned Peter Navarro on an American TV channel, Bloomberg Television.I don't know about you, but it seems to me that these three statements are lineal descendants of each other, one leading seamlessly to the next.This is how narratives are built, one brick in the wall after another. In reality, India has not contravened any sanctions in buying oil from Russia, and in fact has helped maintain a cap on oil prices, which were rising because of the Ukraine-Russia war. But then who needs truth if narrative will suffice?My hypothesis is that the anti-India narrative – as seen above – has been created by the British Deep State, otherwise known as Whitehall. First from the spooks, then from the former Prime Minister, and then virally transmitted to the American Deep State. It is my general belief that the British are behind much mischief (sort of the last gasp of Empire) and have been leading the Americans by the nose, master-blaster style.Britain has never tasted defeat at the hands of Russia; while France (Napoleon) and Germany (Hitler) have. Plus the US Military Industrial Complex makes a lot of money from war.A malignant British meme, intended to hurt Russia, is now turned on to India, which is, for all intents and purposes, an innocent bystander. Britain has had a thing about both Russia (“The Great Game”) and now India, and it was precisely why it created ‘imperial fortress' Pakistan, with which to trouble, and if possible, hurt both.Then there was the second set of tweets that took things one step further. Navarro, all warmed up, blamed “Brahmins” for “profiteering by buying Russian oil at the cost of the Indian people” in a broadcast on September 1. Why he would be bothered about the “Indian people” is a good question. But what was far more interesting, indeed hilarious, was the near-simultaneous, and absurdly wrong, set of tweets by a whole group of INDI Alliance mavens.They ‘explained', in almost identical words, that what Navarro meant was not “Brahmins”, but “Boston Brahmins”, a term coined in 1860 by Oliver Wendell Holmes, a doctor/essayist, to refer to traditional US East Coast elites, generally WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) who dominate the corridors of power in the US. Many claim to be descended from the original Pilgrims, Puritan extremists from Britain, who arrived in Plymouth on the Mayflower in 1620.They go to private (‘prep') schools like Philips Exeter Academy, then Harvard or Yale, then Goldman Sachs, then Harvard Business School, and generally end up running the country as a hereditary, endogamous caste. It is very difficult for outsiders to marry into or enter this circle, although money helps. For example the Irish Catholic Kennedy clan is part of this caste because they made big bucks (partly by smuggling liquor during the Prohibition era), even though the Irish are generally looked down upon.I have long claimed that America is full of castes like this, which include the investment-banker caste, the lawyer caste, the doctor caste: all go to the same schools, the same colleges, marry each other, etc. In fact they do form the kind of exclusionary group that the western narrative imputes to India jati-varna. Anyway that's a long story, and that's not the point: it is the tweets by, for example, Karti Chidambaram, Sagarika Ghose, Saket Gokhale, et al.They were so ‘spontaneous', so near-identical, and so outright idiotic that it is impossible that they came from anything other than a ‘toolkit' supplied by the usual suspects: the regime-change specialists. And their claim was not even accurate: Navarro was indeed targeting Hindus and Brahmins, as is evident from the following tweet. There is no earthly reason for him to choose this image of Modi, other than that he was coached into doing so.So we go back to the original question: why? Who hates Hindus so much?There are a number of other incidents where Indians (in particular Hindus) have been targeted in various countries: Ireland recently; Australia some time ago and again now, see below an anti-immigration (particularly anti-Indian) rally on August 31st; Canada with its Khalistanis running amok (lest we forget, 40 years ago, they downed Air India Kanishka).Let us note the curious coincidence that these are all countries where the British have influence: Canada and Australia are in effect their vassals. Ireland is not, and I suspect the British are hated there, but somehow in the last few weeks, this British prejudice has spilled over with “Irish teenagers” physically attacking Indians (including women and children). I wonder if the “Irish teenagers” are really British agents provocateurs.So let's put two and two together: who hates Indians, Hindus and Brahmins? Why, Pakistanis, of course. And they have been burned a little by Operation Sindoor. Pahalgam didn't quite turn out the way they thought it would, considering it was scheduled during the India visit of J D Vance accompanied by his Indian/Hindu-origin wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance. That might explain why there's a sudden explosion of social-media hatred by ISI and CCP bots against Indians.Pahalgam was Phase 2 of the regime-change operation. By so visibly targeting and murdering Hindus in Pahalgam, the Pakistanis calculated they could induce massive rioting by Hindus against Muslims, which would be an excuse for “the rules-based liberal international order” to step in, exile Modi, and um… restore order, as in Bangladesh. The usual playbook.Alas, “the best laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley”, and Pakistan got a whipping instead, and some of their (US or China-supplied?) nuclear assets apparently went up in smoke. But make no mistake, the regime-change gang will redouble its efforts.Phase 1 had been the 2024 elections where there were surprising losses by the BJP. Phase 3 is the ‘vote-chori' wailing by the INDI Alliance: odd, considering nobody knows which passport(s) Rahul Gandhi holds. Phase 4 is the ongoing ‘Project 37' in which renegade BJP MPs are supposed to bring down the central government.Pakistan, and its various arms, including the Khalistan project, participate with great enthusiasm in these various phases. And for all intents and purposes, the UK has now become a Pakistani colony. Recursive master-blaster, as I conjectured: Pakistani-Britons control Whitehall, Whitehall controls the US Deep State. Here's Britain's new Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, in the words of a suddenly-awake Briton on September 6th.An Emirati strategist, Amjad Taha, asked a valid question: why is there more terrorism in the UK than in the Middle East?Wait, there's more. Here's a loudmouth Austrian who wants to dismantle India, long a Pakistani dream. And the map is by some Jafri, which sounds like a Pakistani surname. The Austrian also wants Rahul Gandhi to be the next Prime Minister.Pakistan is itself unraveling, as can be seen in Balochistan which is in open rebellion. Their Khalistani dream is new, but Kerala and the Northeast as Islamist entities were standard memes even from Chaudhury Rehmat Ali who dreamt up Pakistan in the first place in the 1930s.Pakistan just got a boost, however, with OSINT identifying a US C-17 (a giant military cargo plane) arriving to resupply Nur Khan Airbase. This raises the question again: were US personnel and assets decimated there by Indian missiles during Operation Sindoor? Is that why the US got so upset? Did Trump read the riot act to Modi, which led to the ‘ceasefire'? Now did they replenish the F-16s etc that were blown up? See, no Pakistani losses!I imagine this goes well with the newly announced “US Department of War”. I only hope the war target here is China, not India.Speaking of US internal politics, it was utterly laughable to see Jake Sullivan, President Biden's NSA, coming to the defense of India in Foreign Affairs. He directly engineered the vicious regime change in Bangladesh, but now he's full of solicitous concern! Nice little U-turn!From a global perspective, I believe that both China and the US are intent on knee-capping India. That is the logical response from an incumbent power when there is a rising insurgent power: the Thucydides Trap idea. It is a back-handed compliment to India that it is in splendid isolation, and has to pretend to rush into the arms of China because of Trump's withering assault.India will survive the hate; but Indian-Americans may find themselves in some jeopardy as the MAGA types are now focusing their ire on them.It is, as I said, the Abhimanyu Syndrome: India is completely alone (the RIC lovefest is just marketing). That is the bad news, and also the good news. If everyone (the US Deep State, Whitehall, CCP, ISI, Soros) is against India, it means India matters. Someone said India is the ultimate swing state. No: India is the incipient superpower, the only one that can make it a G3 rather than a G2. Naturally, the G2 is not very happy to let one more into their cozy club.1910 words, 7 Sept 2025 This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/subscribe

How I Lost By Hillary Clinton: by Hillary Clinton (Author), Julian Assange (Foreword), Joe Lauria (Introduction)Judging by the stance of the leadership of the Democratic Party and much of the media, Hillary Clinton's devastating loss in the presidential election of November 2016 was all the fault of pernicious Russian leaks, unwarranted FBI investigations and a skewed electoral college. Rarely blamed was the party's decision to run a deeply unpopular candidate on an uninspiring platform. At a time of widespread dissatisfaction with business-as-usual politics, the Democrats chose to field a quintessential insider. Her campaign dwelt little on policies, focusing overwhelmingly on the personality of her opponent. That this strategy was a failure is an understatement. Losing an election to someone with as little competence or support from his own party as Donald Trump marked an extraordinary fiasco. The refusal of the Democratic leadership to identify the real reasons for their defeat is not just a problem of history. If Democrats persevere with a politics that prioritizes well-off professionals rather than ordinary Americans, they will leave the field open to right wing populism for many years to come. Drawing on the WikiLeaks releases of Clinton's talks at Goldman Sachs and the e mails of her campaign chief John Podesta, as well as key passages from her public speeches, How I Lost By Hillary Clinton also includes extensive commentary by award-winning journalist Joe Lauria, and a foreword by Julian Assange, editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks. It provides, in the words of the Democratic candidate and her close associates, a riveting, unsparing picture of the disastrous campaign that delivered America to President Trump, and a stark warning of a mistake that must not be repeated. "Clinton lost the 2016 election, Trump didn't win it. How I Lost by Hillary Clinton is a vital rallying call against the type of triangulating politics that may defeat Trump in 2020, but will never defeat Trumpism." -Bhaskar Sunkara, editor, JacobinBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-opperman-report--1198501/support.

Stablecoins are suddenly the hottest topic in global finance. From Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, to governments in the U.S., Japan, and even China, everyone is rushing to get a piece of the digital dollar market. But what exactly are stablecoins, and why are they attracting so much attention? In this episode of Down to Business English, Skip Montreux and Samantha Vega unpack the booming world of stablecoins. They explain what makes stablecoins different from cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, why new U.S. regulations (the GENIUS Act) have given them legitimacy, and how countries in Asia are dealing with them. Skip and Samantha's conversation will help you better understand digital finance and strengthen your business English vocabulary. Key points of their discussion include: What stablecoins are, and how they maintain a steady value. Why the U.S. GENIUS Act is a milestone for cryptocurrency regulation. How major banks like Citi, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs are using stablecoins. Why Japan, South Korea, and China are launching their own versions. The risks that could come with rapid growth, including transparency issues and systemic risk. Do you like what you hear? Become a D2B Member today for to access to our -- NEW!!!-- interactive audio scripts, PDF Audio Script Library, Bonus Vocabulary episodes, and D2B Member-only episodes. Visit d2benglish.com/membership for more information. Follow Down to Business English on Apple podcasts, rate the show, and leave a comment. Contact Skip, Dez, and Samantha at downtobusinessenglish@gmail.com Follow Skip & Dez Skip Montreux on Linkedin Skip Montreux on Instagram Skip Montreux on Twitter Skip Montreux on Facebook Dez Morgan on Twitter RSS Feed

What does Friday's disappointing jobs number mean for the Fed – and where are the opportunities for investors today? Rich Privorotsky, head of European One Delta trading in Goldman Sachs Global Banking & Markets, discusses with Chris Hussey.   Recorded on September 5, 2025. The opinions and views expressed herein are as of the date of publication, subject to change without notice, and may not necessarily reflect the institutional views of Goldman Sachs or its affiliates. The material provided is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation from any Goldman Sachs entity to take any particular action, or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities or financial products. This material may contain forward-looking statements. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Neither Goldman Sachs nor any of its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or information contained herein and disclaim any liability whatsoever for reliance on such information for any purpose. Each name of a third-party organization mentioned is the property of the company to which it relates, is used here strictly for informational and identification purposes only and is not used to imply any ownership or license rights between any such company and Goldman Sachs. A transcript is provided for convenience and may differ from the original video or audio content. Goldman Sachs is not responsible for any errors in the transcript. This material should not be copied, distributed, published, or reproduced in whole or in part or disclosed by any recipient to any other person without the express written consent of Goldman Sachs. For additional disclaimers and regulatory disclosures, please visit https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/podcasts. Disclosures applicable to research with respect to issuers, if any, mentioned herein are available through your Goldman Sachs representative or at http://www.gs.com/research/hedge.html. © 2025 Goldman Sachs. All rights reserved Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Derek and Edgi share four safe dividend stocks for September ,Accenture, Fuchs Petrolub, Canadian Natural Resources, and Munich Re. They also cover market news on Sanofi, Novo Nordisk, and T. Rowe Price, discuss dividend hikes, and tackle listener questions on gifting stocks, building a five-stock portfolio, and the dividend growth vs. high yield debate.

Courage is Contagious: Voices Uniting Against Human Trafficking Synopsis: Teresa Velardi sits down with author Andi Buerger and contributing authors Lisa Babbage, Chris Meek, and Eric Caron to discuss the powerful new book, Voices Against Trafficking: Courage is Contagious – Uniting Voices and Nations in the War Against Human Slavery. At a time when true heroes can seem scarce, Voices Against Trafficking brings together extraordinary accounts from ordinary people who refused to look away in the face of injustice. These first-hand narratives spotlight individuals who saw something, said something, and took action—changing the course of lives forever. The stories remind us that the courage of a single person can create ripples of hope that reach across communities and even nations. Andi Buerger, a survivor of brutal child sex trafficking, shares her journey from victim to internationally recognized advocate who has rescued hundreds of at-risk teens through her nonprofit work. Lisa Babbage brings her expertise as an educator, nonprofit leader, and survivor of abuse, working to restore dignity to women and children. Chris Meek, co-founder of SoldierStrong, combines lessons on leadership, resilience, and humanitarian service from decades of working with U.S. veterans and global causes. Eric Caron, a decorated former U.S. Special Agent, offers a law enforcement and national security perspective on dismantling trafficking networks and rescuing victims. Together, they discuss the harsh realities of human trafficking, the systemic challenges in combating it, and the urgent need to unite voices from all walks of life in this fight. This compelling conversation will challenge listeners to confront the uncomfortable truth about modern-day slavery—and inspire them to believe that courage truly is contagious. Guests Andi Burger: Andi Buerger, JD is an international speaker, author, and advocate for victims of human trafficking & exploitation.  Andi herself was a victim of child sex trafficking and unspeakable abuses by family members for 17 years.She founded Beulah's Place, which provided temporary shelter services to at-risk unsheltered teens for 14 years.  300+ youth were successfully rescued and assisted earning national recognition. Andi later founded Voices Against Trafficking(VAT) to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves — the voiceless victims of human trafficking and exploitation. VAT advocates for the protection of every human's rights regardless of race, gender, culture, or socio-economic status.  Voices Against Trafficking-The Strength of Many Voices Speaking As One, gives a portion of proceeds from each sale to survivors of child abuse and trafficking, as does Andi's first book,  A Fragile Thread of Hope - One Survivor's Quest to Rescue. Andi launched Voices Of Courage magazine in 2023.  It is distributed internationally and accepted into the U.S. Library of Congress. It honors everyday heroes who selflessly fight to protect human rights. These champions come from all walks of life to change communities and the world for the better. A television series by the same title debuts in 2025. Chris Meek: Dr. Chris Meek is co-founder, chairman, and CEO of SoldierStrong, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that focuses on helping America's servicemen, women, and veterans take their next steps forward. He has been recognized for his work in philanthropy with the President's Call to Service Award (2011), March of Dimes Franklin Delano Roosevelt Outstanding Corporate Citizen Award (2012), Syracuse University's Orange Circle Award (2014), the ACT-IAC “Game Changer” Award (2020), and was named a “Face of Philanthropy” by the Chronicle of Philanthropy (2021). In addition to Meek's work as a philanthropist, he has been a financial services executive for over 25 years working at S&P Global, State Street Global Advisors, and Goldman Sachs. He holds a BA in economics and political science from Syracuse University, an MBA in financial management from Pace University in New York City, and an MPA from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He is a doctoral candidate in organizational change and leadership at the University of Southern California. Meek serves as adjunct professor at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on nonprofit management and board governance. He shares his experiences and discusses resiliency, empowerment, and leadership through adversity on his weekly podcast, “Next Steps Forward with Chris Meek,” via the VoiceAmerica network's Empowerment Channel. Next Steps Forward is his first book.  Lisa Babbage: For the past decade, Lisa Babbage has been involved with a variety of causes all aimed at restoring women and children through education & needs-based support, and workforce development. This passion emerged from her own need, recovering from childhood sexual abuse and homelessness. Since working through her personal trauma, Lisa went on to receive a doctorate in Public Policy and Nonprofit Leadership and is recently received her second Masters, this time in STEM Education. After twenty years of educating Georgia's children as a K-12 educator and TEACH Gwinnett Supervisor, and over ten years in the mission field of Atlanta, Lisa says her work has only just begun. She is a Charter member of Voices Against Trafficking and works to provide temporary housing for at-risk women in her city through her own nonprofit Maranatha House. As the current Vice President of the Christian Institute of Public Theology, her focus is on enforcing Georgia's Character Education Laws. She has partnered with countless other organizations to provide food, resources, tutoring, Ndestructible 7 Life Coaching, and encouragement to hundreds. She is the author of over twenty books, most of which are focused on restoration, and is a documentary filmmaker. In 2020, she became an Emancipation Brand Ambassador for COL1972 and spokesperson for GAE Coalition. Previously, Lisa served in an Executive Board capacity for state affiliates of No Left Turn in Education, Women for Trump, and Rotary International. Rev. Dr. Babbage is the current First Vice Chair of the Georgia Black Republican Council.  Eric Caron: Eric J. Caron is a distinguished former U.S. Special Agent and diplomat known for spearheading impactful covert operations on a global scale, focusing on transnational crime and national security. Eric has been instrumental in bringing dangerous criminals to justice and rescuing dozens of children from the horrors of human trafficking. Currently, as the Special Liaison for law enforcement at Voices Against Trafficking and co-founder of the Stop Child Soldiers Foundation, Eric's passion for public safety is matched only by his expertise as an international security consultant preventing human & wildlife trafficking in the U.S. & Africa. His unwavering commitment has earned him prestigious accolades, including the U.S. Attorney General's Award for National Security and a Citation from the Secretary General of INTERPOL. A highly sought-after authority in national security, Eric's perspectives resonate in major publications like the Washington Times, Epoch Times and Voices of Courage. He has also made guest appearances on Newsmax, One America News Network (OAN), Christian Broadcast Network (CBN), and numerous podcasts. In his compelling book, Switched On: The Heart and Mind of a Special Agent, Eric invites readers into a world of intrigue and courage, sharing gripping stories and invaluable life lessons from his extraordinary career. From investigating the CIA and countering the ambitions of nations like Russia and China regarding weapons of mass destruction, to navigating the complexities of Dubai and Afghanistan, his narrative not only captivates but also inspires audiences to live a life that is truly "Switched On."  Purchase the Book: https://amzn.to/4oVSiXm Video Version: https://www.youtube.com/live/LhxsKDNYUuE?si=v3n5MxPf5UHTppsu Chat with Teresa during Live Show with Video Stream: write a question on YouTube Learn more about Teresa here: https://www.webebookspublishing.com    http://authenticendeavorspublishing.com/

Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend with Host Tom Busby take a look at some of the stories we'll be tracking in the coming week. In the US – a look ahead to CPI and PPI data and Apple’s September 9th In the UK – on global defence industry gathering in London for the UK's flagship sector event. In Asia – a look ahead to China August CPI and PPI data. - Stuart Paul, US Economist with Bloomberg Economics, to preview CPI and PPI data.- Mark Gurman, Bloomberg News Managing Editor for Global Consumer Tech, to preview Apple’s September 9th event.- Ros Mathieson, Bloomberg Chief Asia Correspondent, on global defence industry gathering in London for the UK's flagship sector event.- Tony Halpin, Russian Government and Economy Team Leader, on global defence industry gathering in London for the UK's flagship sector event.- Mary Nicola, Bloomberg MLIV Strategist in Singapore, discusses China August CPI and PPI data.- Kevin Sneader, APAC ex-Japan President at Goldman Sachs, discusses China’s stock rally.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hier gibt's mehr Infos zum Private-Equity-Angebot von Scalable Capital. Der Kalender zum Podcast? Jetzt kaufen. Sweeney & American Eagle provozieren erfolgreich. Lumen will mit Palantir KI-Firma sein. Goldman Sachs x T. Rowe Price & Citigroup x BlackRock. Sanofi leidet. Porsche & Sartorius fliegen aus DAX. Lululemon & Broadcom mit Zahlen. Covestro hat EU-Stress. Das Spielzeug von Mattel (WKN: 851704) hat jeder. Die Aktie fast niemand. Ein Fehler? „Carglass repariert, Carglass tauscht aus.“ In den ikonischen Jingle kann man an der Börse leider nicht investieren. Aber in den Carglass-Miteigentümer: Den BlackRock Private Equity Fund (WKN: A410GZ). Diesen Podcast vom 05.09.2025, 3:00 Uhr stellt dir die Podstars GmbH (Noah Leidinger) zur Verfügung.

Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend with Host Tom Busby take a look at some of the stories we'll be tracking in the coming week. In the US – a look ahead to CPI and PPI data and Apple’s September 9th In the UK – on global defence industry gathering in London for the UK's flagship sector event. In Asia – a look ahead to China August CPI and PPI data. - Stuart Paul, US Economist with Bloomberg Economics, to preview CPI and PPI data.- Mark Gurman, Bloomberg News Managing Editor for Global Consumer Tech, to preview Apple’s September 9th event.- Ros Mathieson, Bloomberg Chief Asia Correspondent, on global defence industry gathering in London for the UK's flagship sector event.- Tony Halpin, Russian Government and Economy Team Leader, on global defence industry gathering in London for the UK's flagship sector event.- Mary Nicola, Bloomberg MLIV Strategist in Singapore, discusses China August CPI and PPI data.- Kevin Sneader, APAC ex-Japan President at Goldman Sachs, discusses China’s stock rally.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Madeline Mann shares insider tips and strategies for landing exciting new career opportunities.— YOU'LL LEARN — 1) The resume mistake high achievers make2) The simple tweak that dramatically nets you more inbound opportunities3) The interview hack that makes you sound like an expertSubscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1090 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT MADELINE — Madeline Mann is an HR & Recruiting leader who spun her insider knowledge of the hiring process into an award-winning career coaching empire, called Self Made Millennial. Mann is now known for turning job seekers into Job Shoppers, to enable any professional to land high-paying job offers for seemingly unattainable roles. Her clients have landed at companies such as Netflix, Google, Goldman Sachs, Deloitte, NBC Universal, Amazon, and more. She lives in Los Angeles.• Book: Reverse the Search: How to Turn Job Seeking into Job Shopping• LinkedIn: Madeline Mann• Website: MadelineMann.com• YouTube: Self-Made Millennial— RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: The Game: Penetrating the Secret Society of Pickup Artists by Neil Strauss• Book: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert Cialdini• Book: Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter by Liz Wiseman and Greg McKeown• Past episode: 217: An Effective (but Rare) Strategy to Snag Your Dream Job with Kristen Berndt• Past episode: 664: Dr. Robert Cialdini on How to Persuade with the 7 Universal Principles of Influence• Past episode: 719: Liz Wiseman Reveals the Five Practices of Indispensable, High-Impact Players— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Strawberry.me. Claim your $50 credit and build momentum in your career with Strawberry.me/Awesome• LinkedIn Jobs. Post your job for free at linkedin.com/beawesome• Quince. Get free shipping and 365-day returns on your order with Quince.com/Awesome• Square. See how Square can transform your business by visiting Square.com/go/awesomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This segment exposes a web of alleged corruption, from the financial sector to local politics. The host dissects a Goldman Sachs report that links gold prices to the Federal Reserve's "independence," which the host re-frames as a desperate attempt to protect corrupt officials like Lisa Cook, who is facing allegations of mortgage and tax fraud. The host claims this is a political move by Democrats to keep their people in power and prevent rate cuts that would benefit the opposing administration. The segment then pivots to Chicago, where Mayor Brandon Johnson is said to live like a king with a 150-officer security detail, while advocating for policies that enable criminals. The host argues that this is part of a global, "Marxist" strategy to disarm and intimidate the public, citing a Canadian police chief's advice to "comply" during a home invasion. It is a "worldwide" plan, the host says, to create a climate of fear so that citizens are too busy surviving to challenge their leaders.

This comprehensive analysis reveals a multi-front war on the American people, allegedly waged by a criminal alliance of the Chinese Communist Party, international cartels, and the Democrat Party. The host synthesizes a series of events, from a massive drug bust to a controversial local reparations plan, to illustrate a single, overarching conspiracy. It is a war fought with deadly drugs, financial crimes, political corruption, and ideological subversion. The segments expose what they claim are the enemy's tactics: Chinese networks laundering billions in cartel wealth to buy U.S. land and influence elections, Democrat leaders protecting criminals in sanctuary cities, and a manufactured government "shakedown" used by both parties to benefit their donors. The host argues that this is a deliberate strategy to disarm and intimidate the public, mirroring tactics used by authoritarian regimes. The transcript also delves into the legal and political battles of the day, criticizing the administration's handling of the Epstein files and exposing an alleged scheme between Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve. Finally, it warns of a global "speech dragnet," citing the arrest of a UK comedian for tweets he made in the U.S. as a chilling sign that the world is turning authoritarian and that Americans are at risk of being silenced and even extradited for their beliefs.

This explosive segment dissects a series of events to argue they are all part of a single, coordinated war against the American people. The host begins by exposing what they call a corrupt alliance between Goldman Sachs and the Federal Reserve, alleging a scheme to protect officials facing felony charges and manipulate the economy for political gain. This is linked to a broader "Marxist" philosophy of elite rule, exemplified by Chicago's mayor, who is said to live like a king with a 150-officer security detail while advocating for policies that enable criminals and put the public in danger. The transcript also critiques what it calls a "catastrophic" political blunder by the administration in its handling of the Epstein files, arguing that by labeling the scandal a "hoax," it gave a massive opening to political opponents and alienated victims who were seeking justice. The host warns that these issues are not isolated, but are connected to an international "speech dragnet." This is evidenced by the arrest of an Irish comedian in the UK for tweets he made on U.S. soil. This incident is presented as a terrifying precedent, suggesting Americans could be arrested and extradited for their online speech, with globalist forces aiming to "crack" tech leaders and silence free expression worldwide.

Janki Lalani Gandhi spent nearly two decades in investment banking, advising founder-led brands like Supergoop, ILIA, Paige, and ALC before making a bold transition outside of corporate finance. Her career has earned her recognition as one of the Most Influential Women in Mid-Market M&A and a spot on WWD's Top 40 Under 40 in fashion and beauty.In this episode, Janki shares what she has learned along the way, from navigating male-dominated rooms to making high-stakes decisions without a playbook. She's built a leadership style that doesn't rely on being the loudest voice in the room.Timestamps:[00:00] Introduction[09:04] Lessons from early years in investment banking[12:38] Frameworks for assessing new opportunities[15:42] Janki's approach to high-stakes decisions with confidence[17:56] Leadership lessons and finding her own style[20:34] Staying grounded through family and personal values[23:44] Navigating motherhood, career, and the juggle[29:02] Advice for first-time founders entering competitive industries[31:46] The future of consumer brands, tech, and AILearn more about Janki by following her on LinkedIn.Follow Nancy Twine:Instagram: @nancytwinewww.nancytwine.comFollow Makers Mindset:Instagram: @makersmindsetspaceTikTok: @themakersmindsetwww.makersmindset.com

What if the future of real estate wasn't just about commissions, but about building lifelong wealth and client loyalty? In this episode of the Invest2FI Podcast, host Craig sits down with Ramon Casaus. He is a powerhouse real estate leader who built an independent brokerage in Albuquerque, expanded virtually across New Mexico, and later scaled his career in Scottsdale, Arizona. Ramon shares how discovering PLACE, founded by Ben Kinney and Chris Suarez, completely changed his trajectory.  From early inquiries at the 2019 Keller Williams Family Reunion to hearing the “land on Mars” 10-year vision in Cabo, to partnering with Goldman Sachs-backed PLACE, Ramon discusses clarity, scale, IPO opportunities, and why agents who embrace partnerships are set to thrive. If you're an agent, investor, or curious about how a trillion-dollar consumer services industry ties into homeownership, this episode is packed with insights you can't miss. PODCAST HIGHLIGHTS [04:14] Ramon recalls running his own brokerage in Albuquerque from 2017 to 2020. [05:39] At Keller Williams' 2019 Family Reunion, he first hears about Place. [07:22] Ben Kinney's “land on Mars” vision convinces Ramon to go all-in. [08:10] Zillow HQ visit shows him how billion-dollar proptech disrupts the real estate industry. [10:10] Ramon breaks down $100 billion in commissions versus trillion-dollar services. [12:13] Place's one-stop app for insurance, mortgage, and 37-point inspections. [15:45] Place solves the loyalty gap: 80% say yes, only 15% repeat. [26:51] Place acquisitions and Goldman Sachs backing create efficiency at scale. [28:53] Half of U.S. agents already use Place-owned tech without knowing it. [34:00] Ramon explains 50% guaranteed net profit through partnership, not splits. [37:44] Why a blue-collar work ethic and patience matter for new agents. [40:08] Place partners gain pre-IPO stock at Goldman Sachs valuations. [47:28] Ramon's “why” is fueled by possibility and the question, Why not? [52:01] Closing thoughts: why Place feels like early Apple or Uber.  HOST Craig Curelop    

What happens when a dietitian starts a private practice, sees a gap in support for clinicians, and decides to fix it herself? You get The Practice Collective - a coworking model built specifically for practitioners in nutrition, wellness, and mental health. In this episode, Samantha Barash shares how she went from running her own nutrition practice to creating a thriving coworking community for private practice professionals. Her story shows how powerful niche coworking can be, and how keeping things simple and community-focused leads to strong growth. We cover: How Samantha's nutrition practice inspired her to launch a coworking space designed for private practice professionals. Why focusing on authentic connections and referrals beats traditional marketing. How she reached 45 members in just 800 square feet with a mix of in-person and virtual memberships. The unexpected role of virtual offices in her business model. Key lessons from completing the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and how it shaped her growth plan. Resources Mentioned in this Episode: Samantha's LinkedIn profile The Practice Collective website Everything Coworking Featured Resources: Masterclass: 3 Behind-the-Scenes Secrets to Opening a Coworking Space Coworking Startup School Community Manager University Follow Us on YouTube

Jon Hilley started his career at Goldman Sachs. 3 years ago, he founded 1031 Specialists, a Qualified Intermediary that facilitates 1031 exchanges for real estate investors across the country. They are growing rapidly and are already a top 10 firm in the industry.Learn more: https://www.1031specialists.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-jon-hilley-founder-of-1031-specialists

Alberto Gallo is Chief Investment Officer and Co-founder at Andromeda Capital Management. Prior to that, Alberto initiated and ran the Global Credit Opportunities fund at Algebris Investments. Previously, he ran macro credit research at RBS in London and served in senior research roles at Goldman Sachs in New York, Bear Stearns in New York and London, and Merrill Lynch in London. In this podcast we discuss the Western debt crisis, monopolisation and rising inequality, demographic problems, and much more.    Follow us here for more amazing insights: https://macrohive.com/home-prime/ https://twitter.com/Macro_Hive https://www.linkedin.com/company/macro-hive

Matt Ehret and Ghost dive into the geopolitics of power, finance, and space with a sprawling discussion that begins with Russia's special envoy Kirill Dmitriev. They trace his rise from Stanford and Goldman Sachs to orchestrating Russian privatization schemes, WEF connections, and his surprising pivot toward fostering U.S.–Russia–China cooperation. The hosts explore Dmitriev's ties to Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi purge of 2017, and how those moves reshaped global finance, tech, and even Twitter's role as an intelligence weapon. From there, they pivot to General Flynn's recent Q-linked posts, General Kwast's comments on Trump and Putin's Arctic energy strategy, and revelations about joint nuclear reactor projects on the moon. The conversation blends hard geopolitics with philosophical reflections on peace, the space economy, helium-3, quantum computing, and humanity's capacity for redemption. With free-flowing banter and live analysis, Matt and Ghost challenge listeners to see beyond Cold War psyops into a new paradigm of cooperation and sovereignty.

Jon Hilley started his career at Goldman Sachs. 3 years ago, he founded 1031 Specialists, a Qualified Intermediary that facilitates 1031 exchanges for real estate investors across the country. They are growing rapidly and are already a top 10 firm in the industry.Learn more: https://www.1031specialists.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-jon-hilley-founder-of-1031-specialists

In this episode of Building the Premier Accounting Firm, Roger Knecht sits down for a live discussion with Rick Haskell about his journey as an entrepreneur, academic, and finance expert. They explore the mindset needed for success in business and valuable lessons for accounting professionals. Rick shares insights from his experience with Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program and offers advice for small business owners. Key Takeaways: Understand the crucial role of financial literacy for business owners.  Recognize the importance of management training programs in developing leadership skills.  Identify key characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, including passion and vision.  Learn how to make a successful exit from a business and plan for what's next. Embrace technology and innovation to elevate the accounting profession from bean counters to consultants.  Featured Quotes: “I don't want them to become the accountant for their business…I want them to go out and make rain.” - Rick Haskell “Those that understand their numbers…and those who are controlled by other people who understand their numbers.” - Rick Haskell “No success can compensate for failure in the home.” - Roger Knecht Behind the Story: Rick Haskell's career path is anything but ordinary. From his early days in a film studio to leading financial wellness initiatives and ultimately becoming a business school dean, his diverse experiences provide invaluable insights into leadership, entrepreneurship, and the importance of lifelong learning. This episode explores the lessons he's learned along the way, offering actionable advice for anyone looking to build a successful and fulfilling career. Conclusion: Thank you for joining us for another episode of Building the Premier Accounting Firm with Roger Knecht. For more information on how you can establish your own accounting firm and take control of your time and income, call 435-344-2060 or schedule an appointment to connect with Roger's team here.   Sponsors: Universal Accounting Center Helping accounting professionals confidently and competently offer quality accounting services to get paid what they are worth.   Offers:  Get a FREE copy of these books all accounting professionals should use to work on their business and become profitable.  These are a must-have addition to every accountant's library to provide quality CFO & Advisory services as a Profit & Growth Expert today: “Red to BLACK in 30 days – A small business accountant's guide to QUICK turnarounds” – This is a how-to guide on how to turn around a struggling business into a more sustainable model. Each chapter focuses on a crucial aspect of the turnaround process - from cash flow management to strategies for improving revenue. This book will teach you everything you need to become a turnaround expert for small businesses. “in the BLACK, nine principles to make your business profitable” – Nine Principles to Make Your Business Profitable – Discover what you need to know to run the premier accounting firm and get paid what you are worth in this book, by the same author as Red to Black – CPA Allen B. Bostrom. Bostrom teaches the three major functions of business (marketing, production and accounting) as well as strategies for maximizing profitability for your clients by creating actionable plans to implement the nine principles. “Your Strategic Accountant” - Understand the 3 Core Accounting Services (CAS - Client Accounting Services) you should offer as you run your business. Help your clients understand which numbers they need to know to make more informed business decisions. “Your Profit & Growth Expert” - Your business is an asset. You should know its value and understand how to maximize it. Beginning with the end in mind helps you work ON your business to build a company you can leave so that it can continue to exist in your absence or build wealth as you retire and enjoy the time, freedom, and life you want and deserve. Follow the Turnkey Business plan for accounting professionals.  This is the proven process to start and build the premier accounting firm in your area.  After more than 40 years we've identified the best practices of successful accountants and this is a presentation we are happy to share.     Also learn the best practices to automate and nurture your lead generation process allowing you to get the bookkeeping, accounting and tax clients you deserve.  GO HERE to see this presentation and learn what you can do today to identify and engage with your ideal clients.   Check it out and see what you can do to be in business for yourself but not by yourself with Universal Accounting Center.   It's here you can become a:   Professional Bookkeeper, PB Professional Tax Preparer, PTP Profit & Growth Expert, PGE   Next, join a group of like-minded professionals within the accounting community.  Register to attend GrowCon and Stay up-to-date on current topics and trends and see what you can do to also give back, participating in relevant conversations as they relate to offering quality accounting services and building your bookkeeping, accounting & tax business.   The Accounting & Bookkeeping Tips Facebook Group The Universal Accounting Fanpage Topical Newsletters: Universal Accounting Success The Universal Newsletter   Lastly, get your Business Score to see what you can do to work ON your business and have the Premier Accounting Firm. Join over 70,000 business owners and get your score on the 8 Factors That Drive Your Company's Value.   For Additional FREE Resources for accounting professionals check out this collection HERE!   Be sure to join us for GrowCon, the LIVE event for accounting professionals to work ON their business. This is a conference you don't want to miss.   Remember this, Accounting Success IS Universal. Listen to our next episode and be sure to subscribe.   Also, let us know what you think of the podcast and please share any suggestions you may have.  We look forward to your input: Podcast Feedback   For more information on how you can apply these principles to start and build your accounting, bookkeeping & tax business please visit us at www.universalaccountingschool.com or call us at 8012653777  

In this episode, Former Acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks and UC Berkeley's Barry Eichengreen discuss the outlook for stablecoins — digital currencies pegged to the value of traditional fiat currencies like the US dollar. Moderated by Goldman Sachs Research's Allison Nathan, the discussion covers the potential implications of a growing stablecoin market existing payment and banking systems, financial markets, and broader financial stability. This episode explores the latest Top of Mind report. This episode was recorded on July 14, 18, and August 7. The opinions and views expressed herein are as of the date of publication, subject to change without notice, and may not necessarily reflect the institutional views of Goldman Sachs or its affiliates. The material provided is intended for informational purposes only, and does not constitute investment advice, a recommendation from any Goldman Sachs entity to take any particular action, or an offer or solicitation to purchase or sell any securities or financial products. This material may contain forward-looking statements. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Neither Goldman Sachs nor any of its affiliates make any representations or warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy or completeness of the statements or information contained herein and disclaim any liability whatsoever for reliance on such information for any purpose. Each name of a third-party organization mentioned is the property of the company to which it relates, is used here strictly for informational and identification purposes only and is not used to imply any ownership or license rights between any such company and Goldman Sachs. A transcript is provided for convenience and may differ from the original video or audio content. Goldman Sachs is not responsible for any errors in the transcript. This material should not be copied, distributed, published, or reproduced in whole or in part or disclosed by any recipient to any other person without the express written consent of Goldman Sachs. For additional disclaimers and regulatory disclosures, please visit https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/podcasts. Disclosures applicable to research with respect to issuers, if any, mentioned herein are available through your Goldman Sachs representative or at http://www.gs.com/research/hedge.html. © 2025 Goldman Sachs. All rights reserved. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Healthcare costs keep climbing, and yet patients and employers often feel powerless to change the system. What if outsiders—those not steeped in the traditions of healthcare—are actually the ones best positioned to fix it?This special episode is a reshare from The Benefits Playbook podcast, where Halle joins Collective Health CEO Ali Diab. Together, they unpack what it takes to make health benefits simpler, more transparent, and more consumer-focused.We cover:

Mercedes Bent, formerly a Partner at Lightspeed, and a leading investor in fintech, AI, and consumer companies. Guest Bio: Mercedes Bent is a seasoned investor with a background that spans venture capital, startups, and institutional finance. As a former Partner at Lightspeed, she spent over five years leading investments in companies like Stori, Mexico's first tech unicorn co-founded by a woman. Before her time in VC, she served as a General Manager, scaling a startup from $2M to $100M in revenue, and worked at Goldman Sachs managing $1.75B in assets. Mercedes holds degrees from Harvard and Stanford. Episode Summary: Join us for a deep dive with Mercedes Bent, a top investor with a unique perspective on technology, finance, and building a successful career. We'll discuss her journey from managing institutional assets at Goldman to becoming a partner at a major venture fund. Mercedes will share her insights on how to identify market trends, evaluate founders, and the critical role of timing in a fund's performance. Key Discussion Points: The Hierarchy of Metrics: We explore Mercedes's framework for evaluating a company's health and why founders should pay close attention to it. Building a Fund: What it's like, both logistically and emotionally, for a partner to launch their own fund while managing an existing portfolio. Risk and Timing: The parallels between high-stakes games like poker and the world of venture capital. How to think about risk, probability, and when to go "all in." Evaluating the Market: Mercedes's mental models for assessing new trends, founders, and the future of consumer technology and AI. The VC Crossover: Advice for aspiring investors and operators looking to break into the venture capital space. The Rise of the RIA: A look into why some larger venture funds are shifting their business models and how that could reshape the industry. Connect with the Guest: Mercedes Bent's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mercedesbent/ Disclaimer: The views expressed are for informational purposes only and not financial or legal advice. Opinions are my own and do not reflect those of Finalis Inc. or Finalis Securities LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC. Consult a professional for your specific situation.

In this episode, hosts Steve Carran and David Millili sit down with Michael Weiss, co-founder and co-CEO of Trailborn, a brand redefining outdoor hospitality.Michael shares his journey from Goldman Sachs to Airbnb and Compass, to ultimately launching Trailborn—boutique, design-forward hotels in outdoor destinations like national parks, wine country, and coastal getaways. Listeners will hear how Mike and his partner identified a white space in the market, why outdoor hospitality is booming post-COVID, and how Trailborn is bridging the gap between camping and traditional luxury hotels.We also dive into:The challenges and opportunities in outdoor hospitality today.How Trailborn balances local authenticity with brand consistency.The company's partnership with Marriott and what it unlocks for growth.Lessons Mike has carried from startups like Airbnb and Compass into building Trailborn.The importance of finding the right business partner and aligning on vision.If you're curious about innovation in hospitality, the rise of outdoor travel, or how design and experience shape modern brands, this episode is packed with insights you won't want to miss.Watch the FULL EPISODE on YouTube: https://youtu.be/t5PWuCYNvQ0 Join the conversation on today's episode on The Modern Hotelier LinkedIn pageThe Modern Hotelier is produced, edited, and published by Make More MediaLinks:Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikedweiss/Trailborn: https://www.trailborn.com/For full show notes head to: https://themodernhotelier.com/episode/204Follow on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-...Connect with Steve and David:Steve: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8E...David: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-mil.