Podcast appearances and mentions of todd combs

On today's special episode of I AM HOME, we're revisiting one of our most insightful conversations in honor of the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting, which took place earlier this month. Originally recorded in 2023, this episode remains as relevant and inspiring as ever. Our hosts are joined by Amy Myers, Chief Marketing Officer at NFM, for a captivating interview with Todd Combs—a multi-billion-dollar investment manager at Berkshire Hathaway and the President and CEO of GEICO. Todd takes us behind the scenes of his incredible journey: from sitting in a Columbia University lecture hall listening to Warren Buffett, to an unforgettable meeting with Charlie Munger at the California Club and ultimately accepting the call to join Berkshire Hathaway. Join us for a personal and profound look into the world of high stakes investing, following your childhood dreams and the importance of building a sense of home wherever life takes you. Resources: I Am Home | Podcast on Furniture and Family | NFM

Pablo Martínez Bernal, gran conocedor de la figura de Buffett, como inversor y como empresario, visita Tu Dinero Nunca Duerme. Warren Buffett sigue siendo el mejor inversor del mundo. Pero desde hace unos días, lo es más por su historial que por su labor diaria. Porque el sabio de Omaha anunció que se retiraba, por sorpresa, en la última conferencia anual de inversores de Berkshire Hathaway. Y a partir de ahí se desataron las especulaciones, ¿quiénes serán sus sucesores: en la dirección y en la selección de activos? ¿Seguirán los nuevos responsables de Berkshire manteniendo la línea que hizo famosos a Buffett y a su socio Charlie Munger? Para ayudarnos a responder a estas preguntas, esta semana nos acompaña en Tu Dinero Nunca Duerme el Head of Sales para Iberia de Amiral Gestion, Pablo Martínez Bernal, un gran conocedor de la figura de Buffett, como inversor y como empresario: "Ha sido una gran sorpresa. Todo el mundo daba por hecho que iba a hacer como Charlie Munger, que se iba a morir siendo consejero delegado de la compañía. En esta profesión, las canas cuentan: el acumulado de muchos años de conocimientos son un ayudado. Pero quizás el mismo ha pensado que no quiere ser un problema, sobre todo si aparece un deterioro cognitivo". "El rol por el que siempre ha insistido que le gustaría ser recordado es el de profesor. Ésa es la gran contribución para la comunidad inversora. Fue profesor en la Universidad de Nebraska y ha continuado con esa labor de una u otra forma (por ejemplo, recibiendo a grupos de estudiantes de MBA). A lo largo de estos años, el acumulado implica que ha dado clases a decenas de miles de inversores", nos recuerda Martínez Bernal. ¿Y qué hay detrás de tantos años de éxito? ¿Algún secreto que nadie más conoce?: "No diría que hay un secreto. Warren Buffet, antes de leer el libro El inversor inteligente (de Benjamin Graham), ya invertía, porque empezó a los 11 años. Lo hacía usando los gráficos: es decir, la gente no lo sabe pero era trader. Es curioso cómo una persona que había empezado mal, tira todos los sistemas que le estaban dando dinero, y apuesta por el value investing. Por eso, su secreto consiste en encontrarse con un libro y darse cuenta de que era la filosofía adecuada, que no era sencillo". Eso sí, aunque siga siendo un value de pura cepa, el gran inversor sí ha evolucionado a lo largo de los años: "Buffett no ha cambiado lo fundamental, el value investing, pero sí se ha adaptado. Una de sus claves es que la filosofía ha permanecido intacta, pero el cómo invierta ha cambiado mucho. De los años 50 a 2020, las compañías han cambiado mucho. Ha evolucionado con el paso del tiempo. Munger le dijo en su momento que lo que hacía (comprar empresas de baja calidad) no era escalable. Y a partir de la inversión en See's Candies cambió la forma en la que invertía" Eso sí, nuestro invitado cree que habrá pocos cambios en la nave: "La cultura empresarial de BRK sigue intacta. Estarán Greg Able, que será el nuevo consejero delegado a partir del 1 de enero de 2026; es canadiense que era parte del círculo cercano de Buffett. El rol más importante, el de asignador del capital, lo van a heredar Todd Combs y Ted Weschler".

The Investing Power Hour is live-streamed every Wednesday on the Chit Chat Stocks YouTube channel at 1:30 PM EST. This week we discussed: (00:00) Introduction to Financial Markets and Weekly Updates (03:25) Visa's Legal Challenges and Market Impact (06:14) Exploring LVMH and Market Valuations (09:32) Boeing's Union Strike and Financial Struggles (16:24) Todd Combs and Geico's Management Controversies (26:27) China's Economic Challenges and Market Responses (39:26) SoundHound AI: A Small Cap Analysis (51:25) Closing Thoughts and Market Reflections ***************************************************** Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ChitChatStocks Follow us on Twitter/X: ⁠https://twitter.com/chitchatstocks Follow us on Substack: ⁠https://chitchatstocks.substack.com/ ********************************************************************* Sign-up for a bond account at Public.com/chitchatstocks A Bond Account is a self-directed brokerage account with Public Investing, member FINRA/SIPC. Deposits into this account are used to purchase 10 investment-grade and high-yield bonds. The 6.9% yield is the average annualized yield to maturity (YTM) across all ten bonds in the Bond Account, before fees, as of 8/28/2024. A bond's yield is a function of its market price, which can fluctuate; therefore a bond's YTM is “locked in” when the bond is purchased. Your yield at time of purchase may be different from the yield shown here. The “locked in” YTM is not guaranteed; you may receive less than the YTM of the bonds in the Bond Account if you sell any of the bonds before maturity, or if the issuer calls or defaults on the bond. Public Investing charges a markup on each bond trade. See our Fee Schedule. Bond Accounts are not recommendations of individual bonds or default allocations. The bonds in the Bond Account have not been selected based on your needs or risk profile. You should evaluate each bond before investing in a Bond Account. The bonds in your Bond Account will not be rebalanced and allocations will not be updated, except for Corporate Actions. Fractional Bonds also carry additional risks including that they are only available on Public and cannot be transferred to other brokerages. Read more about the risks associated with fixed income and fractional bonds. See Bond Account Disclosures to learn more. ********************************************************************* FinChat.io is The Complete Stock Research Platform for fundamental investors. With its beautiful design and institutional-quality data, FinChat is incredibly powerful and easy to use. Use our LINK and get 15% off any premium plan: ⁠https://finchat.io/chitchat ********************************************************************* Sign up for YellowBrick Investing to track the best investing pitches across the internet: joinyellowbrick.com/chitchat ********************************************************************* Disclosure: Chit Chat Stocks hosts and guests are not financial advisors, and nothing they say on this show is formal advice or a recommendation.

We discuss whether Buffett's deputies can match the Oracle's performance (1:30) - What Were The Big Takeaways From Berkshire Hathaway's Sale of Apple Stock? (7:40) - What Were Some of The Surprise Buys and Sells From Warren Buffett (11:30) - Todd Combs and Ted Weschler Have Underperformed The Market: What Does This Mean? (22:20) - What Will Happen When Warren Buffett Is No Longer In Charge? (29:45) - Jim Simons vs Warren Buffett: Comparing The Two Investing Legends (34:10) - Should You Be Adding S&P 500 Index Funds To Your Core Portfolio? (38:20) - Episode Roundup: SPY, IVV, VOO, SPLG, MOAT, QQQM Podcast@Zacks.com

In this 2014 interview, Warren Buffett discusses his perspective on macroeconomic trends, current economic conditions, and his unique investing style. As the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett shares his wisdom on how he navigates the complexities of the market while maintaining a focus on fundamental analysis and long-term value. Later in the interview, Buffett is joined by Todd Combs and Ted Weschler, his trusted investment managers at Berkshire Hathaway. Together, they delve into their collaborative approach, offering a rare glimpse into the strategies that drive Berkshire's continued success. 

On today's replay episode of I AM HOME, we're celebrating the kickoff of Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Shareholders Meeting! Our hosts are joined by Amy Myers, Chief Marketing Officer at NFM, for an in-depth interview with Todd Combs. Todd is multi-billion-dollar investment manager with Berkshire Hathaway and is also the President and CEO of GEICO. Todd shares all the things that led him to Berkshire Hathaway, from sitting in a lecture hall at Columbia University listening to Warren Buffett to meeting Charlie Munger in the California Club and accepting the job at Berkshire Hathaway. We're diving into the world of investing, achieving childhood dreams, and the importance of creating a home no matter where you go. Stay tuned for an exciting, personable look into the world of Todd Combs.

In this heartfelt episode, we pay tribute to Charlie Munger, the visionary vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway who recently passed away. Joining us is Todd Combs, an investment officer at Berkshire Hathaway and a close acquaintance of Munger. Todd shares personal anecdotes and insights into Munger's profound influence on the investment world and his unique approach to life and business. From his early meetings with Munger to the invaluable lessons on value investing and rational thinking, Todd provides an intimate look into the wisdom of one of the greatest investors of our time.     Key Topics: Celebrating Charlie Munger's contributions and legacy (01:20) Todd's initial encounters with Munger (02:15) The intellectual journey and partnership between Munger and Buffett (08:57) Munger's approach to life, investing, and the importance of mental models (11:22) Behavioral economics insights shared by Munger (13:00) The practical applications of Munger's wisdom in business and investing (16:17) Munger's lasting impact (24:59) And much more!   Mentioned in this Episode:   Poor Charlie's Almanack: The Essential Wit and Wisdom of Charles T. Munger by Charles T. Munger  Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman      Thanks for Listening!   Be sure to subscribe on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And feel free to drop us a line at valueinvesting@gsb.columbia.edu.   Follow the Heilbrunn Center on social media on Instagram, LinkedIn, and more!

Zaterdag vertrekken tienduizenden mensen weer naar de jaarvergadering van Berkshire Hathaway in Omaha. Warren Buffett zal het voor het eerst zonder vriend en zakenpartner Charlie Munger moeten doen. De cliché's in de media zullen weer rondzingen. Die waren er al toen de Beursnerd langsging, in 2016: Wie worden de opvolgers als Buffett overlijdt? Antwoord: Greg Abel wordt operationele CEO van de bedrijven die volledig van Berkshire zijn, de briljante Ajit Jain wordt de baas van de verzekeraars in de holding en Ted Weschler en Todd Combs gaan de aandelenportefeuille hopelijk verzekeren van meer winst. Maken de aandelen van Berkshire een duikvlucht zodra hij overlijdt? Antwoord: vast, maar dat betekent niet het einde van de waarde van Berkshire Hathaway. Welke waarde zit er nog in Berkshire Hathaway? Antwoord: goedkope financiering voor investeringen als gevolg van de verzekeraars, een stel aankopen van de holding die al sinds jaar en dag voor de originele koopprijs in de boeken staan, en afgezien daarvan een stel goed functionerende bedrijven in de portefeuille. Luisteraars die écht geïnteresseerd zijn kunnen een blik werpen op de jaarlijkse brief van Semper Augustus Investments Group. De investeerreus is niet alleen vernoemd naar de duurste tulp van tijdens de Tulpenbubbel, maar schrijft ook elk jaar een brief die Berkshire Hathaway helemaal uit elkaar trekt tot op de prijs van de T-shirts van Fruit of the Loom. Berkshire Hathaway is dan ook een eindpunt. Het investeervehikel is één van de weinige bedrijven in de Fortune 500 die door één man in één leven is opgebouwd. De beurswaarde van meer dan 800 miljard dollar zegt genoeg, de berg ongebruikte cash van meer dan 160 miljard dollar ook. Stel: je wil alle advocatenkantoren in Amsterdam kopen. Dat kost wat. Maar op een gegeven moment moet je naar een andere stad, als je geld maar niet opraakt. Dat probleem heeft Buffett zo'n beetje met alle bedrijven over de hele wereld. En hij weigert natuurlijk om dan maar in de marge te gaan priegelen. Want daarmee voeg je weinig waarde toe. Je weet natuurlijk nooit welk bedrijf in nood nou weer een miljardeninvestering vergt, maar Buffett is onderhandelaar pur sang en neemt dat soort deals niet altijd aan. Toch kan het groter. Werp vooral eens een blik op het Noorse staatsfonds. Een land met 5.5 miljoen mensen geeft namelijk een antwoord op de vraag hoe ver Berkshire nog kan gaan. Het antwoord? Ver. Wie de website erop naslaat, krijgt direct 17.5 biljoen Noorse kronen voor de kanis. Het metertje is de positieve versie van het bekende bord waarop de Amerikaanse staatsschuld rücksichtlos omhoog schiet. Ruim 1600 miljard dollar wordt inmiddels belegd in een portefeuille bij de Noorse centrale bank die voor 70% uit aandelen bestaat en voor 30% uit vastrentende waarden. Het Ministerie van Financiën maakt een index om te verslaan die ook zo is samengesteld. En wat blijkt? Sinds 1998 heeft het fonds, na kosten en inflatie, de index met 0.2% verslagen. Dat klinkt misschien niet als fantastisch resultaat, maar dat heeft inmiddels al meer dan 200 miljard dollar aan waarde opgeleverd, bleek uit een studie van 2022. 'Tuurlijk: bruto is de jaarlijkse gemiddelde return van 6.09% sinds 1998 niet bepaald indrukwekkend. Maar men belegt het spaargeld van een heel land dan ook niet door het deels in de S&P 500 en deels in de wereldindex te stoppen. De 70/30 portefeuille is een veiliger blok aan het been. Maar toch maakt de relatieve outperformance versus geweldenaars als Buffett hier minder uit. Feit is dat er in een berg fondsen bij de Noorse centrale bank waarde wordt gecreëerd. Die 0.2% waarmee men de eigen index verslaat, tikt in absolute getallen keihard aan. Maar hoe voeg je dan waarde toe voor het Noorse volk? Nou, dat noem je negatieve selectie: als je al gemiddeld 1.5% van 9000 bedrijven op aarde bezit kan je je nergens verbergen, zoals topman Nicolai Tangen in 2022 zei na verlies te hebben geleden. Maar je kan wel een uitsluitingsbeleid voeren en zo de index proberen te verslaan die jij eigenlijk zelf al vormt. Er werd bijvoorbeeld nooit in ultraschandaal Wirecard geïnvesteerd. Goed, het Noorse staatsfonds voert wel juridische procedures om geld terug te krijgen van de investering in het omgevallen Silicon Valley Bank, maar foutjes maken we allemaal. Ironisch genoeg was juist de Nederlandse ervaring met Gronings gas de aanleiding om het Noorse spaargeld zo te investeren. Het Oljefondet is zo ingericht dat de regering jaarlijks nooit meer dan 3% van het fonds kan uitgeven. Dat is gek genoeg al goed voor rond de 20% van de Noorse overheidsbegroting. En dus blijft het groeien, want het rendeert beter dan 3% per jaar. Toch een mooi voorbeeld voor aandeelhouders van Berkshire Hathaway. Misschien behaalt het investeervehikel niet meer de bizarre resultaten van de vorige zes decennia, maar het is vrij onwaarschijnlijk dat Buffett in zijn testament op laat nemen dat de groei mag stoppen en dat de boel mag worden geliquideerd. Er is leven na Berkshire Hathaway.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One of the best ways to get better at anything is to studying people that are already great in that field. If you want to get better at basketball for example, you may watch a video of Michael Jordan explaining the game to you. He's proven he knows what he's talking about. In this case, we want to get better at investing - making our money work really hard for us. In this video we have the top 10 stocks one of the best investors of all time is buying and selling to get a specific insight into specifically what Warren Buffett is doing with his money. We get to see what he believes are the best 10 stock investment moves today in 2024. Berkshire Hathaway is managed by some of the best investors in the world including the legend, Warren Buffett, the late, great Charlie Munger, deep value expert Ted Weschler, and financial stock pro Todd Combs. Thank you for watching. ❤️ Please support the channel by checking out our affiliates. All commissions are reinvested to improve the quality of videos! -

This week on The Synopsis, we talk about a recent memo, "Google Shut the Door on Competition, AI Swung it Back Open". We cover some old threats to Google's Search dominance and how AI catalyzes them. This show is in our Dialogue format, which you can expect more of in the coming future. We hope you enjoy!  You can read the Full Memo Here.  -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Show Notes (0:00) Intro (0:51) Memo background  (3:10) Product Encroachment (9:12) Two Way Google Historically Competed (11:05) Form Function Changes (15:03) AI Threats and How AI is Changing Things  (16:42) Facebook's Platform Shift  (24:40) AI risks to Sponsored Link Business  (28:06) Todd Combs, Charlie Munger, What Can Investors Assume?  -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Buy Speedwell Research's Meta Report: https://speedwellresearch.com/2023/01/17/meta-platforms-deep-dive/  Become a Speedwell Member here to gain access to all of our research reports: https://speedwellresearch.com/subscribe/ Speedwell's free newsletter: https://speedwellsnippets.substack.com/ Twitter: @Speedwell_LLC Threads: @speedwell_research Email us at info@speedwellresearch.com for any questions, comments, or feedback. -*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-   Disclaimer Nothing in this podcast is investment advice nor should be construed as such. At the time of this writing, one or more contributers to the podcast has a position in Google. Furthermore, accounts one or more contributors advise on may also have a position in Google. This may change without notice. Please see our full disclaimers here:  https://speedwellresearch.com/disclaimer/

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Today's teacher is Todd Combs, Investment Manager at Berkshire Hathaway and CEO of Geico. In this episode, Todd will share lessons learned across the full arc of his career, beginning in the halls of the Florida state regulator and all the way through to the great plains of Omaha, Nebraska, home of the eternal compounder. Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are two of the greatest business minds in history with an eye for talent and character. If we were to sum up this class into a single topic, it would be exploring what these two investing giants saw in Todd to select him out of the almost 8 billion other people in the world. Todd is a compounding machine and a terrific storyteller, full of insights and advice that all of us can benefit from. Please enjoy this class with Todd Combs.  For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Summus. Summus is a revolutionary health benefit solution, driving superior employee engagement while dramatically lowering your company's enterprise level healthcare spend. They're completely transforming the world of health benefits by providing employers and their employees in any location with fast access to over 5,100 of the top medical specialists from America's very best medical centers for support across all health questions. No bot interactions, just the best doctors, helping you through whatever health obstacle is in your path. If you're looking for a benefit that drives your employee engagement, truly takes care of your people in their most scary and vulnerable times, all while improving your healthcare ROI, visit GoSummus.info/AOI. This episode is brought to you by Hunt Club. Hunt Club unlocks relationships and helps companies grow. Whether it's recruiting your next hire, landing your next big partner, or financing your business, a trusted introduction always works more effectively. Hunt Club's tech enabled search model leverages the largest community of its kind to refer amazing talent on your behalf. Additionally, its software program, Atlas, helps organize the entire network of a company or fund and assisting in streamlining the right introductions. If you're looking for the ideal solution for all of your talent needs, visit HuntClub.com/AOI. ----- Art of Investing is a property of Pine Grove Studios in collaboration with Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Art of Investing, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @ArtofInvest | @Buhrman_Rick  | @PaulBuser | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:06:36) - (First question) - How Todd's pre-college life helped shape him (00:09:36) - Reflecting on past curiosity and how it was directed (00:12:10) - Undergrad years and memories he holds dear to his heart (00:13:57) - Specialization versus generalization   (00:16:48) - Creating greatness in all fields through patience (00:19:18) - Why Todd attended business school  (00:26:27) - The numerous job avenues students can take to become successful investors (00:30:53) - Rick tells the history of Blue Ridge and Tiger (00:35:53) - How Todd's experience in short selling shaped him as an investor today (00:41:18) - Meeting Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger  (00:43:15) - Finding the motivation to succeed in your early career life (00:46:38) - Todd's experience building Castle Point  (00:55:29) - The will to keep pursuing his career after years and decades (00:60:48) - What he thinks Buffett and Munger saw in him (01:09:57) - What it's been like to be mentored by Buffett and Munger through the years

Invest Like the Best Key Takeaways  Embrace the concept of lifelong learning In the final analysis, love is the most enduring force in the universe To be rooted in love necessitates an unusually long time horizon, and vice-versaInstead of striving to be interesting, we should strive to be interested The obstacles that take firms down are not functions of failure but are functions of success There is a fine line between maintaining discipline and embracing changeThe best team wins; it is just a fact! While an individual's abilities are important, the slope of their capacity to learn is even more important While new entrepreneurs experience an initial decrease in income, they often experience an increase in joy and freedom All of us are investors; whether you are aware of it or not, you are always choosing how to allocate a scarce amount of your resources, such as time If you pursue a non-traditional path that is more aligned with your internal wiring, in the end, you will be as successful or more because it is aligned with who you are truly meant to be  The richest, fullest lives are the ones that are full to the brim Learn, learn, learn some more, and then die at your desk None of the keys to living the good life point toward a life of ease; they all point to living a life of devotion“Maybe the kindest thing that all of us can do is to pursue something radically, in service to others, because you just don't know how it's going to change the trajectory of a human life.”– Rick Buhrman Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.orgMy guests this week are Rick Buhrman and Paul Buser. Rick and Paul spent over a decade managing the public equity portfolio at Notre Dame's Endowment before leaving in 2020 to set up a permanent capital vehicle called Sator Grove. As you'll hear in this conversation, they know, have studied, or have invested with most of the world's best capital allocators. A few years ago, they also set up a class at Notre Dame for 40 of the college's brightest students, called Art of Investing. The class is devoted to exploring the joys of compounding and each week, they bring in a world class investor or operator to share in detail how they've built their lives, portfolios, and businesses around the principles of compounding. Starting next week, it will be available as a Colossus Podcast so that you too will be able to join their class and learn from the likes of Todd Combs, Andre Perold, Ho Nam and others. I'd encourage you to search Art of Investing in your podcast player and subscribe so you don't miss the first episode. Now onto my discussion with Rick and Paul. Art of Investing: Trailer For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Tired of running your own expert calls to get up to speed on a company? Tegus lets you ramp faster and find answers to critical questions more efficiently than any alternative method. The gold standard for research, the Tegus platform delivers unmatched access to timely, qualitative insights through the largest and most differentiated expert call transcript database. With over 60,000 transcripts spanning 22,000 public and private companies, investors can accelerate their fundamental research process by discovering highly-differentiated and reliable insights that can't be found anywhere else in the market. As a listener, drive your next investment thesis forward with Tegus for free at tegus.co/patrick. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:02:30) - (First question) - Shifting from Notre Dame to Sator Grove (00:06:20) - An overview of Sator Grove (00:11:39) - Launching in April 2021, they manage $300M for diverse, flexible investments (00:15:47) - Investing in meaningful projects with trust, long-term focus, and high potential (00:25:30) - How Mitch Rales embodies insatiable curiosity and lifelong learning (00:39:33) - Embracing change, adapting, and experimenting for success (00:41:49) - How investors learn from failed companies (00:51:59) - Investment success hinges on talent's judgment, character, adaptability, and trust (00:56:53) - What they found concerning in firms and teams when assessing managers (01:02:16) - Analyzing asset allocation challenges (01:07:39) - Fostering disciplined habits for growth (01:13:06) - The importance of nurturing compounding (01:21:21) - Creating meaningful connections and providing lifelong lessons (01:26:58) - Wisdom from their mentors and its impact on their investing philosophy (01:43:49) - Defining the good life: Quality projects, quality people, and meaningful integration (01:45:29) - The defining moments of their investing careers so far (01:47:59) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Rick and Paul

My guests this week are Rick Buhrman and Paul Buser. Rick and Paul spent over a decade managing the public equity portfolio at Notre Dame's Endowment before leaving in 2020 to set up a permanent capital vehicle called Sator Grove. As you'll hear in this conversation, they know, have studied, or have invested with most of the world's best capital allocators. A few years ago, they also set up a class at Notre Dame for 40 of the college's brightest students, called Art of Investing. The class is devoted to exploring the joys of compounding and each week, they bring in a world class investor or operator to share in detail how they've built their lives, portfolios, and businesses around the principles of compounding. Starting next week, it will be available as a Colossus Podcast so that you too will be able to join their class and learn from the likes of Todd Combs, Andre Perold, Ho Nam and others. I'd encourage you to search Art of Investing in your podcast player and subscribe so you don't miss the first episode. Now onto my discussion with Rick and Paul. Art of Investing: Trailer For the full show notes, transcript, and links to mentioned content, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by Tegus. Tegus, the modern research platform for leading investors. Tired of running your own expert calls to get up to speed on a company? Tegus lets you ramp faster and find answers to critical questions more efficiently than any alternative method. The gold standard for research, the Tegus platform delivers unmatched access to timely, qualitative insights through the largest and most differentiated expert call transcript database. With over 60,000 transcripts spanning 22,000 public and private companies, investors can accelerate their fundamental research process by discovering highly-differentiated and reliable insights that can't be found anywhere else in the market. As a listener, drive your next investment thesis forward with Tegus for free at tegus.co/patrick. ----- Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.  Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus Show Notes (00:02:30) - (First question) - Shifting from Notre Dame to Sator Grove (00:06:20) - An overview of Sator Grove (00:11:39) - Launching in April 2021, they manage $300M for diverse, flexible investments (00:15:47) - Investing in meaningful projects with trust, long-term focus, and high potential (00:25:30) - How Mitch Rales embodies insatiable curiosity and lifelong learning (00:39:33) - Embracing change, adapting, and experimenting for success (00:41:49) - How investors learn from failed companies (00:51:59) - Investment success hinges on talent's judgment, character, adaptability, and trust (00:56:53) - What they found concerning in firms and teams when assessing managers (01:02:16) - Analyzing asset allocation challenges (01:07:39) - Fostering disciplined habits for growth (01:13:06) - The importance of nurturing compounding (01:21:21) - Creating meaningful connections and providing lifelong lessons (01:26:58) - Wisdom from their mentors and its impact on their investing philosophy (01:43:49) - Defining the good life: Quality projects, quality people, and meaningful integration (01:45:29) - The defining moments of their investing careers so far (01:47:59) - The kindest thing anyone has ever done for Rick and Paul

In this episode, William Green chats with hedge fund manager Christopher Begg, who is the CEO, Chief Investment Officer, & co-founder of East Coast Asset Management. Chris is also a revered professor at Columbia Business School, where he teaches the Security Analysis class that was originally taught by Warren Buffett's mentor, Ben Graham. Here, Chris shares powerful lessons on how to identify high-quality businesses & build a life that's defined by a commitment to quality.IN THIS EPISODE YOU'LL LEARN:00:00 - Intro03:54- How Chris Begg came to teach an investing class originally taught by Ben Graham.10:29 - What Chris learned from his ten fireside chats with Berkshire Hathaway's Todd Combs.13:17 - What Buffett & Munger taught Chris about focusing on a few great businesses.17:58 - How he finds undervalued stocks by asking, “Where are the clouds today?”26:55 - Why he's bullish on Meta & Google, despite an array of perceived threats.36:09 - How he identifies great businesses by seeking 8 layers of competitive advantage.47:13 - How to succeed through “persistent incremental progress eternally repeated.”1:00:01 - Why investors can't afford to ignore a company's impact on the environment.1:06:40 - Why consistent kindness is a potent ingredient of success, helping to build trust.1:15:22 - How Chris gains an edge by continuously compounding his interdisciplinary knowledge.1:32:17 - What he's learned about the pursuit of excellence from surfing with Josh Waitzkin.1:40:48 - Why Chris structures his workday to include meditation & contemplation.1:50:46 - What studying Andrew Carnegie—once the world's richest person—has taught him.1:53:40 - Why Chris believes that the world is headed in a better direction.Disclaimer: Slight discrepancies in the timestamps may occur due to podcast platform differences.BOOKS AND RESOURCESChris Begg's investment firm, East Coast Asset Management.One from Many by Dee Hock.Nick Sleep's list of long-term vs short-term characteristics.Robert Pirsig's Zen & the Art of Motorcyle Maintenance, Lila, & On Quality.Finite & Infinite Games by James Carse.William Green's book, “Richer, Wiser, Happier” – read the reviews of this book.William Green's Twitter.NEW TO THE SHOW?Check out our We Study Billionaires Starter Packs.Browse through all our episodes (complete with transcripts) here.Try our tool for picking stock winners and managing our portfolios: TIP Finance Tool.Enjoy exclusive perks from our favorite Apps and Services.Stay up-to-date on financial markets and investing strategies through our daily newsletter, We Study Markets.Learn how to better start, manage, and grow your business with the best business podcasts. P.S The Investor's Podcast Network is excited to launch a subreddit devoted to our fans in discussing financial markets, stock picks, questions for our hosts, and much more! Join our subreddit r/TheInvestorsPodcast today!SPONSORSIf you're aware you need to improve your bitcoin security but have been putting it off, Unchained Capital‘s Concierge Onboarding is a simple way to get started—sooner rather than later. Book your onboarding today and at checkout, get $50 off with the promo code FUNDAMENTALS.Have peace of mind knowing River holds Bitcoin in multi-sig cold storage with 100% full reserves.What does happen when money and big feelings mix? Tune in to find out on the new podcast, Open Money, presented by Servus Credit Union.Make connections, gain knowledge, and uplift your governance CV by becoming a member of the AICD today.Enjoy flexibility and support with free cancellation, payment options, and 24/7 service when booking travel experiences with Viator. Download the Viator app NOW and use code VIATOR10 for 10% off your first booking.Join over 5k investors in the data security revolution with Atakama.Apply for the Employee Retention Credit easily, no matter how busy you are, with Innovation Refunds.Invest your retirement savings in what YOU know and are passionate about with a Self-Directed IRA with New Direction Trust Company.Send, spend, and receive money around the world easily with Wise.Beat FOMO and move faster than the market with AlphaSense.Support our free podcast by supporting our sponsors.HELP US OUT!Help us reach new listeners by leaving us a rating and review on Apple Podcasts! It takes less than 30 seconds, and really helps our show grow, which allows us to bring on even better guests for you all! Thank you – we really appreciate it!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

https://aletteraday.substack.com/p/letter-80-todd-combs-2023   https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/todd-combs-meeting-munger-buffett-and-joining-berkshire/id1502613782?i=1000611548160   QuickFS Link: https://quickfs.net/?via=focused Twitter: @Focusedcompound Email: info@focusedcompounding.com Focused Compounding is an exclusive, members-only site for buy and hold value investors. Inside, you will find research writeups written by hedge fund manager, Geoff Gannon. Experience all this in the company of investors who follow the principles of Buffett, Munger, and Fisher instead of the whims of the crowd. Please read our Disclaimer: https://focusedcompounding.com/disclaimer/

On today's episode of I AM HOME, we're celebrating the kickoff of Berkshire Hathaway's Annual Shareholders Meeting! Our hosts are joined by Amy Myers, Chief Marketing Officer at NFM, for an in-depth interview with Todd Combs. Todd is multi-billion-dollar investment manager with Berkshire Hathaway and is also the President and CEO of GEICO. Today, we're sitting down with Todd to talk about all the things that led him to Berkshire Hathaway. From sitting in a lecture hall at Columbia University listening to Warren Buffet give a lecture to meeting Charlie Munger in the California Club to accepting the job at Berkshire Hathaway. We're diving into the world of investing, achieving childhood dreams, and the importance of creating a home no matter where you go. Stay tuned for an exciting, personable look into the world of Todd Combs. Resources: In the News: 2010 NY Times 2010 NY Times 2015 Harvard Business Review 2022 Graham & Dodd Annual Breakfast   Features: 2017 FSU Alum Mag 2018 Originally Bloomberg   Videos: 2019 Ted and Warren YouTube

I summarize and discuss an interview with legendary investor Charlie Munger, by fellow Berkshire Hathaway insider Todd Combs. The fireside chat with Munger is from April 2022, on the occasion of the 2022 Singleton Prize for CEO Excellence. Munger offers his wisdom on investing and life in general. Related content: Chris Mayer 100 Baggers: Stocks That Return 100 to 1! https://youtu.be/59CuGd2aAwg Full interview: Charlie Munger in Conversation with Todd Combs | Singleton Prize for CEO Excellence https://youtu.be/aciej48jbFk Highlights from Charlie Munger's Conversation with Todd Combs (2022 Singleton Prize for CEO Excellence), Neckar Substack https://neckar.substack.com/p/highlights-from-charlie-mungers-conversation Recommended investing book: 100 Baggers: Stocks That Return 100-to-1 and How To Find Them, by Christopher W Mayer (referral link): https://amzn.to/409n3dI Using a referral link helps support the pod, thanks! The main investment brokerage I use to buy international stocks, and to hold cash, is Interactive Brokers (referral link): https://ibkr.com/referral/john5664 I use GuruFocus for historical, financial and valuation data, screeners, charts and comparison tools, to help me make smarter long-term investing decisions (refferal link): https://www.gurufocus.com/?r=2c95d5930bb2537b2e0265075fb66581 Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser. This content is for education and entertainment purposes only. Do your own analysis and/or seek professional financial advice before making any investment decision. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theartofvalue/message

I summarize and discuss an interview with legendary investor Charlie Munger, by fellow Berkshire Hathaway insider Todd Combs. The fireside chat with Munger is from April 2022, on the occasion of the 2022 Singleton Prize for CEO Excellence. Munger offers his wisdom on investing and life in general. Related content: Chris Mayer 100 Baggers: Stocks That Return 100 to 1! https://youtu.be/59CuGd2aAwg Full interview: Charlie Munger in Conversation with Todd Combs | Singleton Prize for CEO Excellence https://youtu.be/aciej48jbFk Highlights from Charlie Munger's Conversation with Todd Combs (2022 Singleton Prize for CEO Excellence), Neckar Substack https://neckar.substack.com/p/highlights-from-charlie-mungers-conversation Recommended investing book: 100 Baggers: Stocks That Return 100-to-1 and How To Find Them, by Christopher W Mayer (referral link): https://amzn.to/409n3dI Using a referral link helps support the pod, thanks! The main investment brokerage I use to buy international stocks, and to hold cash, is Interactive Brokers (referral link): https://ibkr.com/referral/john5664 I use GuruFocus for historical, financial and valuation data, screeners, charts and comparison tools, to help me make smarter long-term investing decisions (refferal link): https://www.gurufocus.com/?r=2c95d5930bb2537b2e0265075fb66581 Disclaimer: I am not a financial adviser. This content is for education and entertainment purposes only. Do your own analysis and/or seek professional financial advice before making any investment decision. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/theartofvalue/message

Charlie Munger and Todd Combs sat down In 2022 for a fireside discussion about several interesting topics, such as life, investing, history, success, and much more. The conversation was released in 2023. 

Doogles nerds out on a Todd Combs interview from the 2022 Graham and Dodd breakfast, looking at how Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Todd Combs analyze companies. Skippy highlights the fact that housing in America is historically unaffordable. Doogles shows that most goods and services that people need are also historically unaffordable. The episode wraps with quick hits on InvestmentGPT, whether it's time to buy bonds and the nonsense that is WeWork.Join the Skippy and Doogles fan club. You can also get more details about the show at skippydoogles.com, show notes on our Substack, and send comments or questions to skippydoogles@gmail.com.

Can you think of any stocks in the S&P 500 that will have higher earnings five years from now? Are you 90% confident in your prediction?  If you have a good answer to these questions, then you might be able to start investing like Warren Buffett. Motley Fool Senior Analyst John Rotonti joins Ricky Mulvey to discuss: - What one of Buffett's lieutenants revealed about Berkshire's stock-buying framework - How investors can use the framework, and why so few stocks fit - One company that may fulfill Berkshire's criteria Companies discussed: BRK.A, BRK.B, KO, USB, NVR Interview with Todd Combs - https://investmentmanagementinsights.substack.com/p/graham-and-dodd-annual-breakfast Berkshire's 1986 Letter to Shareholders: Chairman's Letter - https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/letters/1986.html Host: Ricky Mulvey Guest: John Rotonti Engineer: Tim Sparks

Portfolio Manager, Macrae Sykes, discusses the actions of Berkshire Hathaway and its investment team led by Warren Buffett and other managers Todd Combs and Ted Weschler.

Welcome to the seventh episode of The Better Podcast! We're your co-hosts CHIN Hui Leong and CHONG Ser Jing. In The Better Podcast, we want you to get better at this game called life, together with us. This podcast is designed to share what we've learnt about life, business, investing, and so much more.For our seventh episode, we discussed a whole bunch of things, including:Hank Paulson and Neel Kashkari had no idea how much money was enough to save the US financial system when the Great Financial Crisis erupted in 2008; Paulson was the Treasury Secretary back then and Kashkari was his aideWarren Buffett and his investment lieutenants - Ted Weschler and Todd Combs - felt lost in the investment landscape when the COVID-19 pandemic first happenedThe experiences of Paulson, Kashkari, Buffett, Weschler, and Combs highlight the importance of humility when investingHow chaotic the situation was during the Great Financial CrisisA book written by turnaround expert Steve MillerLearning the proper lessons from financial crises and market crashesA prediction by venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners from its State of the Cloud 2022 report on how software firms can build different monetisation models through the power of APIs (application programing interfaces)Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos linking beer brewers in the early 20th century with cloud computing providers todayAn interesting story of how one road in China came to be named “1 Sundram Road”Another prediction by Bessemer Venture Partners from its State of the Cloud 2022 report: Cloud marketplaces will become an important distribution channel for software companiesNothing on this show should be taken as investment advice. It is purely for informational and entertainment purposes only. All opinions expressed in this show by us and our guests are solely our own opinions. We and our guests may hold positions in the financial assets discussed in the show. These holdings are subject to change at any time.We value your feedback, so let us know your thoughts! Contact us at thebetterpodcaster@gmail.comShow NotesBook from Mary Childs on Bill Gross titled The Bond King, which featured the story on Hank Paulson and Neel Kashkari: LinkPodcast featuring Ted Weschler, where he shared his investing experience when COVID-19 happened: LinkBook written by Steve Miller: LinkBessemer Venture Partners State of the Cloud 2022 report: LinkAcquired podcast featuring Jeff Bezos's story on beer brewers in the early 20th century: Link This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit thebetterpodcast.substack.com

Warren Buffett is setting the record straight after The Wall Street Journal insinuated that Berkshire Hathaway might have had inside information on the Microsoft-Activision Blizzard deal that informed his own timely ATVI buy. Buffett said the stock buys were made by “one of the two investment managers who operate independently of me at Berkshire” – a reference to Berkshire investors Ted Weschler and Todd Combs – and were completed long before the acquisition was announced. Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO and the company's largest shareholder, discusses the Activision Blizzard deal, investing--or not investing--in the metaverse, inflation, and the markets. As founder of the non-partisan, nonprofit data organization USA Facts, Ballmer shares data on the US population amid the pandemic, as well as misinformation. The Ukraine-Russia crisis entered a tense new day, as reports indicated there were new outbreaks of violence and ceasefire violations. Plus, happy fry-day!In this episode:Steve Ballmer, @Steven_BallmerJoe Kernen, @JoeSquawkBecky Quick, @BeckyQuickAndrew Ross Sorkin, @andrewrsorkinCameron Costa, @CameronCostaNY

It's time. We wrap our Berkshire Hathaway trilogy with Warren and Charlie entering a new era: the age of the internet. Can they and Berkshire adapt to this brave new world? We find out. And, after 9+ hours, we render our final judgments on Berkshire and Warren's career. Is "Never bet against America" still the right longterm approach? Or is there another, even bigger Snowball out there that Warren may be missing? If you love Acquired and want more, join our LP Community for access to over 50 LP-only episodes, monthly Zoom calls, and live access for big events like our recent Book Club event with Brad Stone. We can't wait to see you there. Join here at: https://acquired.fm/lp/ Sponsors:  Thanks to Tiny for being our presenting sponsor for all of Acquired Season 8. Tiny is building the "Berkshire Hathaway of the internet" — something they're so dedicated to, they even make and sell bronze busts of Warren & Charlie online! if you own a wonderful internet business that you want to sell, or know someone who does, you should get in touch with them. Just like Berkshire, they commit to quick, simple diligence, a 30-day or less process, and will leave your business to do its thing for the long term. You can learn more about Tiny here: http://bit.ly/acquiredtiny and find their Berkshire Nerds store here: http://bit.ly/acquiredbrknerds Thank you as well to Vouch and to Capchase. You can learn more about them at: https://bit.ly/acquired-vouch http://bit.ly/acquiredcapchase The Berkshire Hathaway Playbook: (also available on our website at https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-iii ) 1. The Berkshire Hathaway "Culture" Berkshire Hathaway really only has three key cultural tenants that stretch across its huge array of operating businesses and investments: Don't put Berkshire's reputation at risk (i.e., don't be Salomon Brothers). Don't take money out of the business (i.e., re-invest and avoid or defer paying tax whenever possible). Funnel all excess cash back to Omaha for re-allocation (i.e., if you can't find a good use for excess cash, give it back to Warren). 2. You need different strategies at different company scales and points in time. Berkshire's greatest longterm strength has been its ability to adapt and employ different strategies as it and the world has changed. From the transition from cigar butts to wonderful businesses as we saw in our last episode, to diluting the equity portfolio with fixed income assets from Gen Re before the internet bubble crash, to focusing on preferred equity during the financial crisis and ultimately making a non-controlling stake Apple the largest asset in the whole Berkshire portfolio, Warren and Charlie have demonstrated remarkable flexibility during their investing careers. 3. There are huge advantages to a company structure where one person makes all decisions. Warren's ability to make $10 billion+ decisions on his own and within an hour (usually with input from Charlie) is truly unique in the global history of business, and allows Berkshire the flexibility to capitalize on opportunities that no one else can act upon, like the financial crisis. At the same time this setup obviously carries risk — not so much in Warren making bad decisions (cough, airlines), but in missing other opportunities simply due to lack of diversity in thought. Which leads us to our last playbook theme... 4. Never Bet Against The Internet. (aka the "Rosenthal doctrine") Andrew Marks of TQ Ventures perhaps sums up Warren's career best: he's the greatest "status quo investor" that's ever lived, as embodied in his "never bet against America" philosophy. As long as the future looks mostly like the present, nobody is better than Warren at handicapping probabilities and picking winners. But that's no longer the world we live in today. As Doug Leone laid out in our Sequoia Part II episode, we now live in a world of accelerating change: what works today is unlikely to keep working tomorrow. And where is that dynamic baked into the very fabric of existence? The Internet. Never bet against it. Links: Bill Gates 1996 Wired interview: https://youtu.be/VFFlO7yBIBM?t=1056 Jeff Bezos's 2008 AWS == electricity talk at YC Startup School: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nKfFHuouzA Charlie's 2021 Shareholder Meeting "slip-up": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gyqElEG6Uo Carve Outs: Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits: https://www.amazon.com/Common-Stocks-Uncommon-Profits-Writings/dp/0471445509 Xbox Game Pass: http://xbox.com/gamepass Goodfellas: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/ The Goodfellas soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0xVpgEngjrg6FOw5vEFHRp Episode Sources: https://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/11/22/269071/index.htm https://berkshirehathaway.com/2020ar/2020ar.pdf https://companiesmarketcap.com/berkshire-hathaway/marketcap/ https://cunninghamjeff.medium.com/don-keough-mel-gibson-and-the-buffett-gang-abcb8b06e9b3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajit_Jain https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Stearns 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https://omaha.com/business/ajit-jain-s-role-at-berkshire-expands-new-ceo-at-reinsurer-gen-re-will-report/article_e2c6283e-d64a-57aa-85bf-c6f540f41231.html https://omaha.com/business/berkshire-hathaways-bnsf-railway-seems-to-pull-its-own-weight/article_59b29e97-aa57-5826-9c1f-8e2cf85180cd.html https://rationalwalk.com/revisiting-berkshire-hathaways-acquisition-of-bnsf/ https://rationalwalk.com/revisiting-berkshires-wrigley-investments-brka-brkb/ https://realmoney.thestreet.com/investing/kass-apple-is-the-most-consequential-investment-that-warren-buffett-ever-made-15220462 https://sabercapitalmgt.com/warren-buffett-1997-email-exchange-on-microsoft/ https://sabercapitalmgt.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/BuffettRaikesemails.pdf https://seekingalpha.com/article/4175060-time-for-berkshire-and-mclane-to-part-ways https://static.fmgsuite.com/media/documents/1bae1ba7-c2f2-4af5-ac1f-c0429dc7e5f0.pdf https://theoraclesclassroom.com/blog/berkshire-hathaway-intrinsic-value-calculation-q3-2020/ https://waitbutwhy.com/2015/01/artificial-intelligence-revolution-1.html https://www.ajc.com/business/keough-affable-but-tough-coke-leader/3mJH6FkDAXijjEscdeEQMK/ https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Financial-History-Berkshire-Hathaway/dp/0857199129 https://www.amazon.com/Poor-Charlies-Almanack-Charles-Expanded/dp/1578645018 https://www.amazon.com/Snowball-Warren-Buffett-Business-Life/dp/0553805096 https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2008ar/2008ar.pdf https://www.berkshirehathaway.com/2020ar/2020ar.pdf https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2017/02/27/buffett-apple-airline-wagers-highlight-emergence-deputies/nV0z0YHUmR8SjYi1XZ6eLK/story.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/31/this-decade-saw-warren-buffett-finally-exit-ibm-jump-big-into-apple.html https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/31/this-decade-saw-warren-buffett-finally-exit-ibm-jump-big-into-apple.html https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/24/warren-buffett-says-apple-is-probably-the-best-business-i-know-in-the-world.html 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https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BRK.A/berkshire-hathaway/stock-price-historyhttps://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/25/warren-buffett-says-berkshire-stock-managers-weschler-and-combs-have-trailed-the-sp-500.html https://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/15/business/worldbusiness/IHT-buffett-quietly-amasses-10-stake-in-amex.html https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/business/28gum-web.html https://www.reuters.com/article/us-berkshire-buffett-precisioncastparts/warren-buffetts-10-billion-mistake-precision-castparts-idUSKCN2AR0MZ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2011/apr/30/warren-buffett-big-mistake-david-sokol-lubrizol https://www.wsj.com/articles/BL-DLB-32821 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303341904575576373008860754 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303467004575574630162624198 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703740004574513191915147218 https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748703977004575393180048272028 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Audio source: https://www.acquired.fm/episodes/berkshire-hathaway-part-iTranscriptI think maybe in part because of this mindset of like I'm going to stay true to do what I'm good at, he makes the biggest missed opportunity ever maybe in history. I was teasing Ben, over the last couple days texting him saying, I've got something in this episode that I don't know if you know but is just the most unbelievable thing that you will never imagine.Ben: Lay it on me.David: In 1967, he writes his partners saying that he's introducing a new ground rule to the partnership. This one is quite literally the opposite of Don Valentine. He says, “We will not go into businesses where technology, which is way over my head, is crucial to the investment decision. I know about as much about semiconductors or integrated circuits as I do about the mating habits of this chrząszcz.” It a Polish word. It means beetle in Polish. Typical Warren way with words here. “This is very unfortunate.”Ben: What was the company?David: “Very unfortunate decision to make.”Ben: Let's see, 1967. It predates Microsoft by seven years, predates Apple. It's way after IBM. What's around this time, DEC? No, it's post-DEC.David: No, you'll get it if you think about it enough. Silicon Valley, or just as we talked about it a lot on the show.Ben: Is it an early Sequoia investment?David: Just pre-Sequoia. Sequoia was started in 1972, but this is all the crew that Don Valentine—Ben: Is it an Arthur Rock investment?David: It is an Arthur Rock investment.Ben: Is it Intel?David: We're talking about Intel here.Ben: No way.David: Get this. Buffett, at this point, is on the board of Grinnell College in Iowa. He's a trustee of Grinnell College, which by the way, he was introduced to by Susie. Susie became an incredible civil rights activist and Grinnell College was involved in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King spoke at Grinnell College six months before he was killed. Susie brings Warren to the college to listen to King speak. Warren is like incredibly moved by Dr. King.He decides after that to join the board. They were trying to recruit him to join the board, so he does. Do you know who else was on the board? One of Grinnell College's most famous alumni, alongside Warren Buffett?Ben: Noyce or Moore.David: Yes, bingo. Robert Noyce.Ben: Wow.David: Alumni of Grinnell College, inventor of the integrated circuit, part of the traitorous eight, who left Shockley Semiconductor to start Fairchild, and then co-founder of Intel with Gordon Moore and Andy Grove is on the board of Grinnell with Warren. Not only has that, but Warren chairs the endowment investment committee at Grinnell. Of course, that would make sense. When Noyce leaves to start Intel and Arthur Rock is putting the deal together to finance Intel, Noyce brings it to the investment committee at Grinnell College and says, there's $100,000 piece. I think Grinnell should invest in this company. I think this is really going to be big. I know what I'm doing.Ben: He saw the deal.David: Warren approves the investment and Grinnell does invest $100,000 in the Intel seed round effectively. But Warren never goes near it for the partnership, for himself. In fact says, I will never invest in technology companies. Unreal.Ben: Basically held to that for another 45+ years.David: Totally. Not until Apple and I think—I haven't done the research yet—Apple bubbles up within Berkshire from Todd Combs, not from Warren. Talk about sins of omission. This is before Sequoia. Imagine if Warren had financed Intel, Warren Buffett could have been Warren Buffet plus Sequoia Capital.Ben: Wow. Realistically, what would he have done with it if he did invest in it? First of all, he's never invested in technology business to this point. He's never invested in something that early. Everything he's bought has been pieces of public companies.David: Yup. Established on-going cash flow businesses.

146. Investment Gurus at Berkshire Hathaway Warren Buffett, Todd Combs, and Ted Weschler

071. Leadership at Berkshire Hathaway Greg Abel, Ajit Jain, Todd Combs, and Ted Weschler

This week's Alpha Trader podcast features hosts Aaron Task and Stephen Alpher talking with Seeking Alpha contributor and editor of The Lead-Lag Report, Michael Gayed. Gayed is also portfolio manager of the ATAC Rotation Fund, which has managed to walk between the raindrops in 2020, returning about 60% year-to-date. Prior to the wide-ranging interview with Gayed, Task and Alpher mull Friday afternoon's big news - the disclosure of a $500M stake in Barrick Gold (GOLD) by Berkshire Hathaway ([[BRK.A]], [[BRK.B]]), alongside major cuts in holdings of Wells Fargo (WFC), JPMorgan (JPM), and Goldman Sachs (GS). Warren Buffett, of course, has made no secret over the years of his disdain for investing in the yellow metal, and whether it was The Oracle himself, or Ted Weschler or Todd Combs who made the Barrick purchase remains to be seen. Nevertheless, the news lit a fire under Barrick and the gold miners (GDX) in general on Monday, not to mention maybe playing a role in lifting gold (XAUUSD:CUR) almost back to the $2K level. The ATAC Rotation Fund is highly tactical and designed for low correlation with broader markets - rotating into Treasurys when indicators point to high volatility, and into equities with leverage when indicators point to low volatility. The fund's signals got it into Treasurys in late January and back into equities in late March - hence, the big gains in 2020. Key to the indicators - the behavior of utilities (XLU) and long-dated Treasurys (TLT). And what are those indicators saying now? It's a bit cloudy, says Gayed, noting the absolute yields of Treasurys suggests deflationary pressure, but the underperformance of the utility sector suggests reflationary pressure. In the short term, at least, Gayed suspects the reflationary forces will win out. There's plenty more, including the growing chance of a major selloff in Treasurys, why we should pay attention to the soaring price of lumber, and how Gayed might position his fund for a "two crash" scenario. Finally, we get into Gayed's recent article, "The Greatest Disconnect Between Stocks And The Economy Continues," and how COVID-19 has exposed capitalism's weaknesses. Listen to or subscribe to Alpha Trader on these podcast platforms: Apple Podcasts Spotify Google Play Stitcher

Todd Combs & Taras Denysenko Todd Combs 0:06 Welcome to the introduction to our new show All About Ballroom Dancing. Taras Denysenko 0:13 And I’m tourist Dennis sanko. When I’ve been teaching since 1994. Todd Combs 0:18 And I am Todd Combs I’ve been teaching since 1995. And not only are we teachers for so long, but we were also professional competitors for many, many Taras Denysenko 0:30 years. And wait, that’s not all. We’re also ballroom dance studio owners. Todd Combs 0:36 Yes, we own studios. We do it all. But we also a couple more things in our credentials in our in our little resume here. We are traveling consultants. We’ve gone through many, many exams, many tests, gone really far with this set of dancing and we get hired to go to studios all over the United States and out of the country to but mostly United States and we work in studios. Yeah, so we get hired, I’m sure if your students from other places you know that they bring in consultants to the studios you go to and that’s what Taras Denysenko 1:08 we do also. And wait, that’s not all. Because if you’re also competitive dancers, whether professionally or program or amateur, we’re also accredited ballroom dance judges. So we can do enforce our opinions on the dance floor and we can place you first or last. Don’t do it. Todd Combs 1:35 Now on this show, we’re not going to focus on trying to teach you to ballroom dance via a podcast, an audio show that’s just it’s it’s insane. That’s too much for anyone to do. We could probably do it because we’re amazing, but it’s still probably tough. What what we’ll we’ll talk about things and dancing, talk about moves. We’ll talk about stuff but you know, it’s not going to be a learning to dance show. Yeah. Taras Denysenko 2:01 So what we are and will be discussing on the show is some ideas surrounding ballroom dancing. Anything from anything? Todd Combs 2:11 Yeah. things you can do to improve your dancing Taras Denysenko 2:15 topics, from music to shoes, even subjects, like when you can wear rhinestones and when you shouldn’t. Todd Combs 2:23 And what we’re also going to do is we’ll definitely have interviews, we’re gonna interview coaches, we’re gonna interview Yeah, fellow coaches, fellow judges, fellow studio owners, teachers, students, professional competitors, we want to get all their opinions. Because usually when the students come in, they want to know, what are the judges looking for? What are if I’m doing even if it’s in studio doesn’t have to be a big competition. It could just be something you’re doing in the studio. What do What does everyone want to see work? How can I improve it? We’ll we’ll get everyone’s feedback from, from those questions. Taras Denysenko 3:03 Yeah, that’s the crazy thing is the ballroom world can be a strange and scary place if you’re brand new to it. And even at times, even if you’re not, so that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to help lead. You see what I did there? We’re like that. We’re here to help lead you through this strange and beautiful world. Todd Combs 3:24 Yes. And one of the big things is, obviously, there’s gonna be a lot more students listening to this than teachers and students have questions and we want to know, what are your questions? What do you want to talk about warming? We’ll pull our studios and see what students want to hear but we want to hear outside our studios. Now what do you want to hear us discuss what would be beneficial to you? What kind of questions do you have about dancing? And we know between us we know a lot about dancing. I’m not even trying to be conceited or but this is our This is our craft. You know, we’re really good at what we do. We know a lot about it, but I’m not going to say we knew everything and if we don’t know the answer we know someone who does know the answer. So yeah, I’m not going to say we’re not going to Oregon know every answer but we will find someone who does and will answer it for you. So, the Our email address is info at all about ballroom dancing.com. So, email in your questions, and we’ll talk about them. So, until next time, have fun on the dance floor. And we’d like to thank MBB for supplying this song called “Do It“. You can find this song soundcloud.com/MBBOfficial

episode - 002 Todd Combs & Taras Denysenko Episode Transcripts: Todd Combs 0:07 All right, everybody. This is the second episode of all about ballroom dancing and have one I am one of your hosts, Todd Combs and I on the other one harass Dennis sanko. In today's topic is a hot topic It is called Do I need a partner to ballroom dance? Taras Denysenko 0:35 And what an interesting topic this is, and it seems appropriate for the current times. But boy, we get a lot of phone calls and inquiries about people asking, Hey, I want to learn how to ballroom dance. Do I need a dance partner? Yeah, I would say normally who asked this question sort of the ladies, the single ladies that they call in and you know, for dance lessons. So I'd say in a week that's a that's a good percentage of people. Todd Combs 1:00 Call and ask that question constantly. Yeah. And that's a good question do you need? Do you need a partner to ballroom dance? And that is that is the focus of us answering this question. I mean, it's an easy answer, but we'll tell you why. It's an easy answer. But but maybe before we talk about and just give them an answer, I'm going to give the example of Maslow's hierarchy of needs. So Maslow proposed that healthy human beings have a certain number of needs and that those needs are arranged in the hierarchy, right? A lot of people might know the Maslow's pyramid. And this is done by five, a five level pyramid with the higher needs coming into focus only once after the lower needs have been met. So let's the first two needs we don't even they don't really pertain to us. The first need is the physiological need. And that is air water, food, shelter, sleep, clothing. The second one is safety needs personal security, employment resources, health, things like that. So I think people who are calling into dance have probably met those needs. And they already have those needs, right?  And then, and then the third name, you can talk about the third need. Taras Denysenko 2:17 Well, 30 talking about love and belonging, where people are looking for friendship, a little bit more intimacy, family sense of connection. Todd Combs 2:27 Right? And then the, the fourth one would be esteem. So that's, you know, they want they want respect, they want self esteem, they want status, recognition, they want strength, freedom, things like that. Yeah. And then the final one is the self actualization, the desire to become the most that one can be.  Right, and I think I think that's true. You could look at that pyramid and say, there's all kinds of things you can see yourself and all those levels. Everyone has those levels. Yep. And yeah, People come in and in dancing is not something everyone did when they grew up. I mean, I will I shouldn't say that some sometimes ladies come in and they did cheerleading ballet tap jazz, but guys never really did a lot of that not many. Right? So, yes, this is something new, you know, for promote for most people but even when women come in they were dancing by themselves. And they were in control. And then they come in and yeah, ballroom dance and they the guys lead. They hate it. Yeah. That's very true. They, they hate it. Yeah. But they they learn to like it. So so then maybe now we can, let's discuss a few reasons why. You know, people call the studio, kind of inside of this pyramid. So, now we trust and I discussed that next episode we're going to have a have a more in depth discussion about the reasons why people call The studio why people come in what? What are the major reasons they want to take lessons? Right? Right. So that'll be the next episode. So today, we thought would be an appetizer. You know, we would go over some of these but not so much detail because the next episode we will Yeah, that's that's like it's a good one because that next that next topic that's a that's a big one. That's what helps people really want to develop their dancing to their utmost potential. Taras Denysenko 4:29 But yeah, yeah, there was some just general light stuff, Todd Combs 4:33 some light stuff. So what would you say okay, you give them the first one. What's one reason why people call the studio in interested in taking dance lessons? Taras Denysenko 4:40 You know, I think the biggest, biggest reason is that when people go out and they see people dancing, they look they're having a lot of fun and some music. That's the biggest one. They just want more fun, and just enjoy their socialize when they go out.  That's a great one Todd Combs 4:55 right now. And I would say I'll give, you can think of one, two. So I'll say We get people who, who, cuz I'm in Houston. I mean North Houston. So there's a big, I think it's one of the biggest Cruise Line ports here. So we get a lot of people that just came from a cruise. And guess what, there is a ton of dancing on a cruise. So all they did was watch people dance and they did not. And they felt like they were missing out. They were left out someone. Someone didn't invite them to the party, right? So people come in a lot of times because they were missing that enjoyment of social dancing on a cruise. That's when we get a lot of that. How about you? Taras Denysenko 5:35 Yeah, we get a few of those but more. We're in Virginia Beach, Virginia, so we're right on the oceanfront, or we're right in the ocean. So we have a lot of people coming in for vacation. We have a lot of live bands playing at all sorts of different venues at the hotels. So there's a lot of opportunity for people to listen to really good music, and shags a really big thing in these parts down here and so there's a lot of Dancing, swing dancing, country dancing. So when people are out there, at the hotels at the ocean, they see people dancing. They're like, ah, we want to do that it looks like so much more fun. We can get so much more out of our vacation. Because there's so much good music. So that's a big one. Todd Combs 6:18 Yeah, and then and then, since I'm in Houston, it's, it's now it's really hot in the summer, so people don't go out necessarily as much. You know, when it's when it's 300 degrees, but there's there we don't get that snow. So there's a lot of outdoor venues. Yeah, outdoor music. And when they're doing the outdoor concerts, they are playing dance music. I mean, it's it's tough. 40 6070s 80s so people are out there trying to dance which I applaud them. I'd rather someone try to dance than just sit down. Totally agree. Yeah, but people people see there's usually there's usually a couple good dancers and then everyone watches them. Now. Not everybody has Some people don't have the cojones to get up and try it. But they all i mean i guarantee they all wish they could and I know what I'm talking about is the guys who wish they could get up and do it. So yeah, but I think another another reason is specially right now and we are still in the middle of the Coronavirus lockdown and I think people are gaining calories, maybe Taras Denysenko 7:25 think that's the thing. Todd Combs 7:27 The belt buckle is is going to the next run, I think exercise and health benefits, things like that, that have to do with with dancing and because dancing is a great way to exercise and you don't realize you're exercising. That's not the gym and that's what people love about it. Taras Denysenko 7:49 That is a really, really, really, really I'll say overtime. Really good point. Nine times out of 10 people are like, Man, I'm getting a workout and I don't even feel like I'm exercising.  It's active, you're using your entire body and your brain to try to learn this skill. So when you're trying to learn a new skill or new type of movement, you definitely are working your body a bit more. So, yeah, that is that is true. Todd Combs 8:21 Yeah. And you touched on the idea that it's so important that dance studios circulate these medical journals, articles, and things like that, that that, that how they link, dancing with brain activity, in a big way to cut down your risk of dementia and Alzheimer's. there's not as many things you can do that require you to listen to music, anticipate the timing, look ahead into either what you're about to lead for the man or being so actively, or being so actively mentally that you're waiting as a woman to work.  respond to what his movement is and then know where he's going and be able to do and accomplish the the steps you're supposed to meet. Your brain is on overdrive constantly. Taras Denysenko 9:10 Yep. Todd Combs 9:10 So it is a big, big deal for brain health. And I can't even I can't even say enough. You know about brain health. We have so many I have one of my students whose whose sole purpose well who've you've worked with when when we bring to Ross and our studio, he works with Ann, and her mom was in this this old house, the old folks, I mean, it was in a care facility. And I think it was terrible that they had the buildings were were named 54321. So when you when as you progressed in the buildings, it meant you were getting worse. So I think they could have named it like the oak. You know, the oak building the pine Building are something nice, but it was literally like when you're in building five You're You're good. You're basically you know, you just got there for you need a little more care three need more and then two, you know you can have your own you have to have a nurse with you all the time one is like you're almost gone, right? It's like so terrible because it's like, but her mom was in building three and went to building two and no one you know, the thing was no one wanted to change to building two. So you could see that you were deteriorating. Yeah. And so and and biggest reason to take lessons and compete programming is that she does not want to go through what her mom did. So that is her biggest thing is brain health. She knows how big it is. So whenever she messes things up, I mess with her and go I'm gonna put you in building TWO Taras Denysenko 10:53 it probably gets her back on focus real quick. Todd Combs 10:55 It does and then yeah, she laughs And then she gets back in the in the in the saddle. Taras Denysenko 11:00 Well, yeah, well, you know, to go along with that another another big reason people want to learn to dance is it's a great way. If they do have family members going through something, something to help them relieve some stress. I mean, stress relief. There's so much stress in the world right now. Yeah, especially now with the COVID 19 like people we did a virtual class today and we have some health care professionals that never miss our virtual group classes because they are just so stressed out and they need an escape and the studio physically going there to be around healthy fun environment people who are just so excited to dance, but they still not get get that same feeling virtually.  But yeah, stress relief. That's that's another big one. Todd Combs 11:50 Yeah, yeah. Right. And and even when we weren't in the COVID there were still people that you know, because oil and gas is So there's, you know, these people who, who sometimes we have women have come in and said, I make decisions all day long. I don't want to make one. I want someone to tell me what to do. I want to be the learn, you know, the learning, you know? Yeah, I want to I want to, I don't want to have to tell everybody and so, and sometimes the back, I'll just say, Hey, you know, what, what dance Do you want to warm up with today? And they're like, I hate you. I don't care. You just tell me like, even to that point. Yeah, I go. Yeah, I'm sorry. Okay. I'm trying. I tried to be nice to the students and give them some, you know, some options and things. But some, sometimes they don't want that. They just want to be, you know, the stress of their job. It's, you know, dancing definitely takes it away. And it's very hard to think about things outside when you're dancing. You know, I'm sorry, it's, you know, think about outside influences outside beings. You know, it's just dancing takes over. Yep. When you're in 100%. Yeah. So, no, Taras Denysenko 12:56 wait, wait. Before we go. The next thing you try to do Be nice to your students once in a while. Todd Combs 13:03 Every once in a while every once in a while. I'm nice because I turn around real quick. Yeah. And I and I put them in building TWO Taras Denysenko 13:13 Oh man, bam, bam, Todd Combs 13:16 bam.  I think I do is probably the one of the main reasons and I slowly touched on it earlier but one, I can't we can't bypass the reason all those other reasons they're there but there's one reason guys are in and guys are in for the confidence. They lack the confidence. And they'll never tell us we know every guy comes in. If he's single, he wants to be more you know, he wants to push himself be able to you know to attract women. Yep. Or or if it's not his main goal to meet women it's it's still a social activity they would like to be able to do even if it's a one day I would like to get married again. And I like to be able to dance with her, you know, so it's not the immediate reason It's pretty close. Taras Denysenko 14:01 Yeah. But, you know, interesting story. Like we're, again, we're here in Virginia Beach where there's a lot of Navy people here and a lot of single guys. They'll call us they'll be interested in taking lessons. One of the reasons is stress relief because they want some sort of balance in their life depending if they're, they're more of a, what's the word I'm looking for?  They just need some balance if they're actual operators or, you know, using firing weapons and doing all that stuff there it's Go go go, you know, they want something that's going to be a little bit more balanced, a little more cultured. Um, but it's interesting talking about the confidence we've had guys tell us they feel more comfortable jumping out of an airplane than they do on the dance floor. Or they feel more comfortable under fire. Todd Combs 14:56 Yeah, Taras Denysenko 14:56 then on the floor, so confidence is a big thing. It's can be a scary thing and like, oftentimes when guys, if guys don't know how to dance what is the typical guy do stupid dumb you know? They'll make fun of it. But we all know Todd Combs 15:10 yeah I love the guys who come in and you can you can tell the that come in with their wives and it used to be much worse in the 90s in the early 2000s but but nowadays it's a little bit more mainstream yeah but yeah the guys who come in and they're kind of goofing off you know they're like oh and they'll just try to quadruple spin the women mm hmm it's because they're the second their competence gets in starts to get shibori they go into guy mode in most most guys do it now older guys don't because they've already been crushed by their wives. They know that it's all over. But the young guys they don't know yet. They don't know yet. So they act goofy and and try to be cool. And then and then and then once they've once they feel like they can accomplish something They're cool, but guys are We are all little boys. And when we can do something, if we even feel like there's not a chance we give up and throw our toys in the ground. I mean, it doesn't matter how old you are, guys, we're just kind of like that. Taras Denysenko 16:16 Yeah. Todd Combs 16:16 And then and then you know, we can't do it we're going to give up who are women, they'll persevere you know, they didn't do it, right. They'll just do it again, guys, they start doing it wrong too many times. And they give up so female teachers learn to teach, you know, men, they know, US teaching women and female teachers teaching men it's, it's totally different. Taras Denysenko 16:36 Yeah. Todd Combs 16:36 And they, you know, female teachers know, I gotta do this. And I have to do that, you know, to keep the guys in check. But then but then the female teachers, I swear, I think they have it better the guys listen to the female teachers. They do what they say. It's it's like the male students that have a wife and a female teacher, and they do what they say. Whereas when we teach women....Lord, it's "no I don't want to do that. I don't what about this? What about that?" Like, .......?  I'm your teacher. Just do what I say Taras Denysenko 17:08 Just do it now. Just do it do it. Maybe then, man. Yeah, that'll be another episode because we could go on and on about that one. Todd Combs 17:16 Oh my god, I could do five episodes. It's probably good. We should have a female. We should have a female on this show to try to balance this out. It's gonna be heavy handed on the ladies. Taras Denysenko 17:26 I could talk about my one student, Amber. Amber if she ever listens to this. Todd Combs 17:30 Oh, yeah.  I'll tell her I'm gonna we're gonna work. We're gonna work on Kiva motion today and we're gonna put you in front of the mirror so you can see what you're doing. "No, I don't want to do that." What do we know? You don't want to do that.  You're gonna do what I tell you.  That's right. I'm the highly skilled your doctor. No, no, tell your professor school. We're just gonna work on today and in class. "Nah when I do that," Why are we the only ones that have to deal with that? Taras Denysenko 18:00 I Don't Know, I don't know. Todd Combs 18:02 Now let's answer the question to Taras. I'll ask you. I'll ask you the question. Okay, the episode you can answer. Taras. Do I need a partner to learn to dance? Taras Denysenko 18:14 Well, I'm going to answer that question for you in the most uncomplicated way. No. Todd Combs 18:21 Bam, Taras Denysenko 18:21 bam, Todd Combs 18:22 good.  You definitely do not need a partner to learn to dance. Taras Denysenko 18:29 Nope. Todd Combs 18:31 Never. Taras Denysenko 18:32 And why is that? Todd Combs 18:33 Yeah, yeah. So why is that? Why do we not need a partner to learn to dance now here, I'll give you one reason and then terrassa give you another. So when Now, if you're calling a dance studio, and you're saying I want to learn to dance, you do not need a dance party because the studio will supply you with a teacher, right? You're going to have to learn from someone and they're going to give you a teacher and that teacher will be your partner. That teacher is going to teach you to dance that They're gonna be showing you everything so you don't need a partner. Now, the the other good thing about not having a partner, I'll add to this is that you get the teachers 100% of the lesson. If you have senior female and you have your your male partner in, I guarantee the guy's gonna get 70% of that. That teachers time on the first few lessons first, maybe not, you may 1 lesson or two, because the guys have to lead. So the guy is going to get most of the attention. So when you don't have a partner, you're getting 100% of us. Now, if you're learning by yourself, let's say you know if YouTube or something like that, which is more challenging, but if you're learning by yourself, you still don't want to have a partner because you have to learn how to do moves on your own. Before you can ever learn to make a woman do talking to the guys first who if you need if you're before you ever can lead a lady you have to know how to move yourself. Mm hmm. Before you can Everything about moving a woman now if you're a lady wanting to learn to dance, again, same applies you go to a studio, they're gonna have a partner. If you're learning by yourself, they will show you the pattern on of underarm turn, or a salsa basic or a two step basic or a cha cha basic, and then you just need to work on that on your own. So if you can work on the patterns yourself, then you that's what you need to work on. And you don't need a partner for that. Taras Denysenko 20:27 The second reason why you do not need a partner to learn to dance is because a good teacher will teach you how to lead or follow in general, not just lead or follow your certificate other whether it be your husband or wife, but learning to lead or follow with your significant other is not the best way to learn. Because oftentimes you get into a routine or a specific grouping that you get kind of stuck in and then you just end up kind of dancing through memory. Todd Combs 20:57 Right. I was gonna say if, if anyone can think back.  Like your grandparents, did you ever have those grandparents that when you were younger, that they danced, or maybe it's just an old couple, you knew, they danced. And they look great on the floor. And they look so cool. They look so cute. They did the little stuff. But if you ever tried to dance with him separately, it was a disaster. You could not recreate that cool move with your grandfather with he just kind of moved around and kind of manhandled you to get through it because they had their little thing, which looks great. And I don't want to I don't want to say it's not good to have that. But, you know, in our studio and tarus terrassa Studio, our goal is to teach you to lead, not lead these five steps in a row in a grouping. It's the lead whatever you want, whenever you want to. That's what leading and following it so not getting pigeonholed in that old cute couples scenario which again, looks great That's, that's awesome, but that's not what we're out to teach. You know, we want you to be a dancer. Yeah. Not a routiner. Taras Denysenko 22:08 Yep. And that's a big thing right there. We want you to learn how to dance. Not just a step, but learn how to dance. You know, and that could be a whole other topic right there to is what is Yeah, what is dancing. Todd Combs 22:23 Right, right. Yeah. Taras Denysenko 22:24 But you know, you look at like, talking about routines and groupings, like, Dancing with the Stars, like these celebrities. You know, they they go on to this show, and they learn, they learn a routine and they learn you know, they talk about Okay, they're going to do this week's episode. They're doing the cha cha cha Yeah, well, if the if you were to try to go out to a club and they were like guys is a great Chacha Do you want to talk? They'll be like, Well, I know how to do a crossover Ray to walk around turn to side by side piece to this thing. And that's all I know how to do. Todd Combs 22:57 Yeah, and they got to play the song. Taras Denysenko 22:58 You gotta play that. I did on this. Todd Combs 23:00 Show. Taras Denysenko 23:00 Yep. Yeah, Todd Combs 23:01 yeah, yeah people people come in and think those celebrities know how to dance. They don't know how to dance those celebrities have now some of them may have learned before the show salsa but they did not learn how to dance from the show they learned how to do a routine to that song. And with that partner Yeah, you try to you try to you find you know, a celebrity who was on the show or you meet with someone out and ask him to dance. Alright, guarantee it's not gonna go Well Taras Denysenko 23:28 no. But they do look at you know, these teachers that are on that show they make their students or those celebrities Oh yeah, good. But Oh definitely knows to experience leaders or followers you try to ask them they won't feel good. Todd Combs 23:42 So going back to why, you know, you learning together only as a bad ideas again, because you only will learn to dance with each other. Now, let's say 80% of the time that's fine. So for most people, they'll go Oh, that's that's fine with me. That's good. And and I'll say you know, like We've talked about we want to make you good leaders and followers that say, okay, even though you're going to dance with each other in life 80% of the time, you're still going to go to a wedding, you're still going to go to a party, you're still going to go on a cruise with friends or something, there's going to be chances or you're going to be around other people who dance Now, if you're that cool guy, that couple like said grandparents and you know how to dance together. People are gonna see you and think you are the man. You're cool. That's when your confidence goes through the roof. That's like, Man, that's right. I am the man. I am awesome. Yeah. And then and then they're gonna go Hey, look, this a song, let's go dance. And then your confidence is going to crash like a like a glass vase. Because you dance with your wife and you're good at that two step. You're good at that salsa with your with your wife, but if you dance to someone else, you know, it's a disaster in in that's, I'd say there's some responsibility Kind of like, What is it? What is what is Peter Parker get told by his his uncle Taras Denysenko 25:05 with great power comes great responsibility. Todd Combs 25:10 Yes. And when you learn to dance, you have great power and the responsibility is that you are able to, to make every woman you dance with feel amazing. Yep. To make every guy you dance with feel like he is a good leader. And he there was it was as equally as amazing. Taras Denysenko 25:28 Yeah. Todd Combs 25:28 But when you dance with that, that partner and you know someone besides your wife, and or your partner, sorry, and you can't dance with them. There's this level of expectation they have. They just saw you rock the dance floor. They saw you hustle and spin that woman around to you know, big song and it was the coolest thing they've ever seen. And they dance with you and you it's like you can barely walk and they start going. Wait, what? What happened to that guy? Taras Denysenko 25:55 Yep. Todd Combs 25:56 So So even though 80% of the time you dance with your wife, you want To be a good dancer 100% of the time. Yep. All right, not 80% of the time totally. Taras Denysenko 26:05 My parents when they were growing up and when they.....back in the day when they were going out, they would go out to in Buffalo, New York and Rochester, New York, where they met each other. They would go to the Ukrainian clubs and in the Ukrainian community dancing was a really big thing. And a polka band would come on, and they would be dancing polkas or waltzes or foxtrots or rumbas in my mom and dad, they were known as, as a dancing couple, they would always dance together, again that 80% of the time, and because they typically looked good on the floor, the ladies would ask my dad to dance and my dad's gentlemen, he would say yes, but I remember him telling me stories. He would get off the dance floor and he'd be like, ah, I had to carry these ladies around and they're just killing me. Yeah, yeah. And my dad wasn't a trained dancer, but he grew up culturally dance. It, but with his experience that my mom knew that she needed to carry her own way in, whereas some other other ladies had no idea. So we keep they came off the floor. And he, of course, would want to make them feel good. But he wouldn't want to ever dance with him again. So it's always good to be able to learn how to follow anybody. And so, yeah, whether you dance with your significant other, but, you know, when I lead my mom was a funny I led my mom a couple years back and I never danced with her before. And when I let her through a swing, I was amazed that she never took lessons and that she could carry your own weight. She knew what a connection was. She was just kind of never really yeah, it was pretty wild. I mean, she did take some lessons at the studio with back in Rochester when we were still there, but nothing of significance. But so yeah, women have a responsibility or should say followers have a responsibility as well that you have great power. But you have Todd Combs 28:00 Yes, Taras Denysenko 28:01 great responsibility. Todd Combs 28:03 Do they call your your parents "The Dancing Denysenko's" Taras Denysenko 28:06 they do. That's a thing. Todd Combs 28:10 To make a logo, it's awesome. Taras Denysenko 28:12 Dancing with the dentists and goes up Todd Combs 28:14 "The Dancing Denysenko's". Yeah, so that was that was pretty much the gist. I mean, we wanted to explain, you know why you don't need a dance partner and stop thinking you need a dance partner and go out there. Learn some stuff, call your local studio, learn some basics. And, you know for us and what you'll quickly find out is when the students come in now we want to show them some patterns. But again, anybody I always tell people, I can teach a monkey to do patterns, but I want to teach you to dance I want to teach you to lead movement, lead the lady around the floor with your body, so it doesn't matter if a fast song a fast song is on or a slow song. So get out there and just give it a try. Yeah. Taras Denysenko 28:59 you'll you'll you'll thank us for it. Todd Combs 29:02 Alright, the next episode is "The Top 10 Reasons Students Love To Ballroom Dance" Taras Denysenko 29:09 Only 10 Todd Combs 29:11 only 10. I know Okay, top 30 Okay, reasons. That's the Taras Denysenko 29:16 top 50 Todd Combs 29:16 Okay, so going in our Taras Denysenko 29:18 right. All right top tip. Todd Combs 29:20 Okay, top 10 reasons. Well, we hope you enjoy this episode. We enjoy your feedback. You can find us on Facebook now. We are https://www.facebook.com/AllAboutBallroomDancing/ On Facebook. We have an Instagram, all https://www.instagram.com/allaboutballroomdancing/ on Instagram. And you can contact us at info@allaboutballroomdancing.com I might change it to a Gmail or a Yahoo account just to make it quicker. But right now, info@allaboutballroomdancing.com we'd love to hear your feedback on questions. You have comments anything about ballroom dancing? Let us know what are your thoughts. Facebook us. Taras Denysenko 30:02 We want to hear that we're here for you. Todd Combs 30:05 So until next time, keep dancing. Taras Denysenko 30:07 And we'll see you on the dance floor real soon. Todd Combs 30:42 If you like our theme music it's called "Do It" by MBB. And you can find this at https://soundcloud.com/MBBOfficial

A future guest just told me, every band has a song about being in a band, so today I give you my version. I won’t do this often, and only do it this week in case listenership drops due to the holiday—I didn’t want any guest to have a smaller than normal audience. I have now been doing this for almost one year, and have learned a tremendous amount. Since the whole idea behind the show is to learn in public, I am going to share a few of the lessons I’ve learned with you today. I’ll shape it as a top ten list, which ends with a fun story about my recent dinner with Warren Buffett. You’ll notice that many of these are just good business and life lessons applied to something specific: a podcast. I hope you can pull the essence of one or more of these and change how you do things, especially if you create any sort of content as part of your job. (1:35) Conversation is my new favorite way to learn. I love books, and always will, but conversations are even more efficient and engaging. Talking with people who know their field deeply is the most fun thing in the world, and it is an underused method of learning. Lectures are too one-sided. Books often don’t flow the direction you want them to. Conversations are alive and interactive. I have been doing this very publicly on the podcast, but I’ve also been doing it more in private after realizing how powerful it can be. If you can commit to having conversations with new people where you tell them as little about yourself as possible, you’ll be off to a good start. I don’t mean that talking about yourself is bad—not at all--only that in each conversation, the time you spend talking about you is time that you aren’t learning something new. The less your ego gets involved, the more you will learn—and I should know because I used to have a big ego. This means asking dumb questions, sometimes more than once. It means probing on the simplest parts of a person’s field or knowledge. As everyone knows, it is fun to explain something you love to people that don’t know as much about the topic in question, but are eager to learn. So it logically follows that you should want to be the less knowledgeable person in most conversations. If everyone took this tact, things would be a mess, but I wouldn’t worry too much about that! One side effect of learning to ask good and interesting questions is that you realize how rarely anyone asks you good or interesting questions. An example of why it pays to remove ego: A month ago I didn’t even know what a cryptocurrency token was. Now I can have a fairly in-depth conversation on the topic because I made small incremental improvement improvements across ten different conversations. In each of those, I was the moron, trying to get up to speed. The more times you are willing to be the idiot, the faster you will learn. It is a pretty cool formula: ten times the idiot, one time the (relative) expert. They should teach you how to have a good conversation in elementary school. (3:31) Preparation and careful listening are everything. The best editing for the podcast is done before the conversation starts and during the conversation itself. Most of the episodes you hear are very lightly edited, if at all. A majority aren’t touched. The ones that I have edited a bit were my fault: I didn’t prepare well enough to be nimble and attentive in the conversation. What I’ve found is that the role of the person asking the questions is to create and sustain momentum. I have this visual of a rush of water running down a maze of tubes which have hatches that open and close. If the water hits a closed hatch, everything stops. My job is to anticipate by listening very carefully and get ahead of the water to open doors to keep the momentum going. The clues to what each person loves most are usually buried in another answer. I’ve gotten much better at picking up on those cues. One example: every time someone says “we can talk about that later,” it means “I want to talk about it now and if you ask me, I’ll give a great answer.” The way I prepare for this ahead of time is to read everything I possibly can and try to be able to discuss it as if I were answering my own questions. This way, I can sense when there is a deviation between how I’d answer my own question and how they do. That deviation is often the door to something very interesting: an opinion or idea not already discussed by the guest in some other medium. An example: Scott Norton mentioned in passing that he’d read up on the history of ketchup as part of his early research, so I asked him to tell me that history and it was one of my favorite answers. I moved it to the front of the podcast. (5:07) Finding the next guest is all about the quality of other guests and the quality of my questions. The first few guests on the show were people I knew well, or well enough to invite onto a non-existent platform to chat about investing. But in the majority of the conversations, I was meeting the person for the first time-- 39 of the 47 guests to be precise. That means that almost all of these wonderful conversations started because someone else introduced me to the guest and their ideas. They introduce me because they either 1) liked being a guest themselves or 2) like listening to the show. At the end of each episode, I ask the guest who I should talk to next, which allows the conversation to thread from person to person organically. But it isn’t just the guests, it is all of you. I am grateful to everyone who devotes their time to listening to this show and for all the thrilling and often random connections it has created in the investing world. One tiny example: Brian Bares of Bares Capital Management emailed me offering to connect me with Will Thorndike. Will is the author of one of my favorite books, and was near the top of my wish list. But I had no connection to him whatsoever, and then one just appeared. Brian has also connected me with another guest who you’ll hear from soon. Because of Brian’s kind outreach, I know more today. This has happened many times. If you are listening, and know someone fascinating, please send them my way. Sidebar: If you are someone whose job it is to book podcast guests, please stop emailing me (not that you are listening, anyhow). The network effect is what drives this shows success, I just happen to sit at the central node in this particular network. The more listeners, the more connections, the more connections, the more great conversations you’ll hear. It is a virtuous cycle. So please, send me guest ideas, send me topic ideas—things you want to understand but don’t. Send me anything, I read it all. I’ll do my very best to keep the quality up, and then depend on you. (7:01) Give your audience credit. There have been a few conversations—the recent one with Michael Mauboussin comes to mind—that have been pretty complicated. But these episodes often generate the most positive feedback. The accepted rules for content are that simple and short are good, but I’ve found the exact opposite. There is a strong positive correlation between the length of an episode and the number of listeners, and between the complexity or newness of the ideas explored and the number of listeners. I get emails from people all the time, and they are often a lot smarter than me. I’ve had countless coffees and lunches all over the country with listeners who have written incredibly thoughtful emails which help me understand fields like private equity and venture capital at a much deeper level. Because I push myself to the very limit of my brain’s abilities, I have been lucky to attract a ridiculously interested, smart, and kind audience. They say you get the investors you deserve, but its clear you also get the listeners you deserve. The biggest compliment I am paid is by the army of smart people who just give me their time. I think the real rule for content should be: just operate at your own level—don’t try to move simpler or more generic. The beauty of the internet is the power of the niche—find one and own it. (8:15) Avoid colonized topics. I have a lot to say about smart beta strategies, but it is a topic that has been so thoroughly picked over by the investing community that it is no fun anymore. It is a very good rule that if I’m bored of some topic, everyone else will be too. Instead, I search for aspects of the investing world that I don’t know much about, because if I don’t know, it’s a decent indicator that some chunk of the audience won’t know. I think this lesson is key. It is so easy to explore the same stuff as everyone else, because it’s less work. But as many guests have pointed out: the key to their personal success was that they wrote the playbook instead of reading someone else’s. If the playbook is already out there, look for a different question to explore. (8:59) Consider the user experience. An upcoming guest observed that most bank customers aren’t customers at all, but suppliers. They give banks the capital they need to do business, and are therefore treated like suppliers, not customers. I think it’d be easy to view podcast guests as suppliers—in this case suppliers of content—so I am very careful to remind myself that the opposite is true. The guests are my customer just as much as you are. I try to make the experience of coming on the show easy and fun, before, during, and after taping. I am careful to provide lots of feedback to each guest once the episode launches. I like Airbnb founder Brian Chesky’s notion of an 11-star experience. He suggests any business go through the thought experiment of explaining what an 1 through 11 star experiences would be for the product or service. When you do this, star levels 7 through 11 are ridiculous, but it helps you calibrate and re-orients you to your customer. I like to think I provide a 4-5 star experience now, but in the coming weeks I’ll sketch out what an 11-star experience might be and see how I can make it better. In fact, this is something I’d love to discuss with you: how to make both the guests and the listeners’ experience better. I’ll explain how to be a part of that conversation at the end of this episode. (10:16) Find great partners. The show sounds so clean because of my excellent producer Mathew Passy. If you want to start a podcast, he is your guy. He has already started working with others that I know and my plan is to fill his entire schedule. He is one example of a key partner. The show also works because I don’t have to spend much time on finding guests. This is because of the great network, but a few nodes in that network stand out. Khe Hy, Jeff Gramm, Brent Beshore, Morgan Housel, Josh Brown, and Ted Seides, among others, have been instrumental in introducing to some of the best guests on the show and for that I am deeply grateful. People often ask how I have time to do this show, but the secret is it doesn’t take that much time! This is only possible because of the great partners I’ve found in the last year. The person whose voice or face is attached to something always gets way too much of the credit. Partners drive everything, and I’m thankful to have such great ones. (11:11) A generalist mindset can be a huge advantage. It is easy to pay homage to Charlie Munger’s latticework of mental models, but when you live it, you see why he is right. Knowing the key drivers and major ideas in a variety of fields is a huge source of leverage. It is difficult to study broadly and deeply, but the two aren’t mutually exclusive. I could talk to you about quantitative equity strategies until you pass out, but a key to the podcast’s success is that I can usually fake it in other fields like history, psychology, science, philosophy, travel, books, food, economics, mythology, sports and so on. Having these in one’s repertoire is like having a set of keys to getting the best out of other people. Different keys unlock different people. I think that a lot of being a good investor is asking good questions. If you know a little about many different fields, it makes that task much easier, and increases the odds that you’ll get the goods from whomever you at talking to. If these seems too daunting, I’ve found food, travel, and sports to be the most widely accepted keys. (12:17) Amplify what works. The most downloaded guest on the podcast so far is Brent Beshore. He has been on three times, and you can bet he will be on again. The second most downloaded is Michael Mauboussin, also a repeat guest. Andy Rachleff told me that one of his best business lessons is that you learn far more from success than from failure, and that you should use success as a compass. Drive hard in the direction of what works rather than trying to shore up weaknesses. If something is working, more of that thing, or a better version is likely to work too. A better version of a failure is likely still going to fail. A lesson within this lesson: this is all even more true for unexpected Brent is now a close friend, but I didn’t expect him to be the most popular episode. This has been a recurrent theme in my conversations on venture capital: it is usually the thing you didn’t expect which yields the biggest payoff. When something is expected or obvious to you, it is expected and obvious to others. That means competition. If Brent had been on 10 other podcasts before mine, the results would have been very different. Instead, Brent my eyes (and about 100 thousand other sets of eyes) to a fascinating new area of investing. (13:29) Don’t expect anything in return. People always ask me what my goal is with the podcast. The answer is simple: none. I don’t expect to get anything out of this other than the conversations themselves. The means and the end are the same. This is so important to me. When the process itself is the goal, magical things happen. When I have a guest on the show, it is like buying a call option. Actually its better, because I’m not even paying for the option: instead the option is “purchased” through a conversation: it is free, and highly enjoyable. The beautiful thing about call options is that the potential upside is enormous and the downside is limited, or in this case close to zero. Investors everywhere hunt for asymmetric outcomes: low downside, huge upside. And that is exactly what I’ve found this podcast to be. The second-best compliment I get is from guests who often tell me that the podcast generated a bizarre amount of inbound feedback, or even opportunities that they never expected. I don’t expect anything in particular to happen, but now I know that crazy things just will Its hard to escape the most obvious example—so let me tell this story in closing. The entire podcast began because of a rule of mine: when I read an interesting book, I email the author and ask them to lunch. I emailed Jeff Gramm after I read Dear Chairman, we got lunch, and we hit it off. We hatched a plan to record a conversation, and that was the beginning of the podcast. Very simple. 6 weeks later, the same strategy paid off again, and I met and recorded an episode with Ted Seides on hedge funds. We give Ted endless grief for his losing bet with Buffett, but I have learned so much from him about all corners of the investing world. He quickly became a friend and confidant. Ted also happens to be friends with the best investor of all time—something I didn’t know when I first met him. Fast forward to this past week. Ted, Brent Beshore and I flew to Omaha to have dinner with Warren Buffett—street value of almost $3 million dollars, my dad reminded me. I’ll get back to Warren in a second, but first a key observation here: not in a million years would I have thought a podcast would turn into a three-hour private dinner with Warren Buffett. If I had had the temerity to set that as a goal, it would have probably been impossible. If I’d been angling to get a private dinner with him, it most likely would never have happened—because everyone hates that guy. I think that because I am never angling for anything, the outcomes are far more interesting and improbable than if I was trying to achieve some specific goal. Another thing: the best thing about the dinner wasn’t that it was with Warren, but that it was with Brent and Ted, who have become such close friends. And the chance to meet Todd Combs, who was fantastic. Back to Warren. He is incredible. Kind, sharp, funny as hell, and relaxed. Early on he said to us “do you know what it says on Wilt Chamberlain’s tombstone? It says, finally I sleep alone.” We spent the first hour talking about college football. He could be a football color commentator. The amount of facts and dates and people he was throwing at me was staggering, and I know a lot about college football. I went to Notre Dame, and he had 5 Notre Dame specific stories that were some of the best I’d ever heard. He told me he once got through to an ND captain by calling his dorm room. He’d heard that the player was a big Buffett fan, and when he called the kid was awestruck. The reason for his call was an offer: two stock picks in exchange for Notre Dame’s playbook for the upcoming game against Nebraska. I don’t idolize people, and I never will, because idols are just people like anyone else. What was most refreshing about this dinner was realizing that Warren is just a person too—an exceptional one, but still a normal person. One that wants to shoot the breeze, tell stories, tell jokes, and learn about you. Knowing that even the greatest investor of all time is just a person is so reassuring. It makes anything seem possible. I’ll keep most of the details of the dinner to myself, but suffice it to say it was something I’ll never forget. But, and this may be more important, it was something I never expected. If you can find some way to give back to other people which they enjoy, and do so without any expectation of a return, you’ll be so happy, and great things will result. It has worked for me and I’m sure it will work for you. So those are ten of many observations and lessons learned so far, and here is a bonus: there is room for a lot more. In the coming year, I plan on experimenting with lots of ways of bringing this community together, digitally or in person. If you are interested in being more involved in the podcast in general, stop by investorfieldguide.com/frontier to learn more and get involved. Thank you for listening, and have a happy fourth of July.   For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag

Who is Todd Combs and what does Warren Buffett see in him? Has Microsoft regained its mojo? And will Kimberly-Clark revolutionize your bathroom? On this week's show, we'll answer those questions, talk about some of the week's big stock market movers, and talk about the business of the mid-term elections with CNBC's John Harwood.