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Learning that drives better investment decisions

My Worst Investment Ever December 2022

Ep638: Drew Neisser – Be Real Estate Light

BIO: Drew Neisser is the founder of Renegade and CMO Huddles. Drew has helped dozens of CMOs unleash their inner renegade via multiple award-winning campaigns.

STORY: Drew made the mistake of increasing his staff from 40 to 100 and tripling his office space. Then one of his clients refused to pay the $500,000 owed. He was left with a real estate and cash flow problem.

LEARNING: Be conscious about recurring versus non-recurring revenue. Be careful not to lose your business focus while chasing revenue.

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Ep637: Rick Elmore – Your Entrepreneurial Journey Is the Dream

BIO: Rick Elmore is an entrepreneur, sales and marketing expert, and the Founder and CEO of Simply Noted.

STORY: Rick had a team of software developers, electrical engineers, and mechanical engineers who were to develop a robot for a seven-figure client. The robot was supposed to be done six months before the client signed the contract. Unfortunately, the team couldn’t deliver, so Rick lost the contract.

LEARNING: Let your losses drive you. There’s no straight line to success.

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Ep636: Lisa Gates – Someone’s Burdens Shouldn’t Be Yours

BIO: Lisa Gates is a leadership coach and career story sleuth who helps women strategically self-advocate so they are seen, heard, valued, and paid.

STORY: Lisa’s husband got a 65 Mustang as payment for an $800 debt. They spent over $14,000 to repair the car and sold it for just $7,000.

LEARNING: Don’t invest in something you don’t naturally value or have an interest in. Don’t let other people’s problems be yours.

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Ep635: Ilise Benun – Ask Every Question You Can Think Of

BIO: Ilise Benun has made it her business to teach basic business skills to creative professionals who should have learned them in school but, alas, did not because it’s not taught in school.

STORY: Ilise hired a designer to design a brochure for her consulting practice. Instead, he delivered a folder with her logo.

LEARNING: Stand up for yourself. Ask every question you can think of.

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Ep634: Souniya Khurana – Own Your Narrative Regardless of What People Tell You

BIO: Souniya Khurana is the Co-Founder and CEO of the podcast company and a new-age media venture WYN (Wine) Studio.

STORY: When Souniya was in grade six, she failed math. Everyone kept pushing her to focus on this failure instead of her strengths. This made her create a narrative that she wasn’t good enough.

LEARNING: Own your narrative. Don’t let anybody else decide who you are or your narrative. You can change your narrative.

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Ep633: Michele Wucker – Don’t Ignore the Warning Signs

BIO: Strategist, speaker, and author Michele Wucker coined the term “gray rhino” as a call to take a fresh look at how we respond to obvious, probable, impactful risks.

STORY: Michele hated being a pre-med and psychology student, but she kept at it because she believed it was the safest path for her.

LEARNING: Don’t ignore the signs telling you that something is wrong. Build your self-awareness.

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Ep632: Anna Rosling Rönnlund – You Don’t Always Have to Buy a Home

BIO: Anna Rosling Rönnlund is a Swedish designer who, with her husband Ola Rosling, developed Trendalyzer, interactive software for visualizing statistical information.

STORY: Anna and her husband bought a home after moving to the US. A while later, they had to move back to Sweden, so they decided to sell the house. This was during the financial crisis that hit the real estate market badly. So the couple lost a lot of money after the sale.

LEARNING: Keep your costs low. You don’t always have to buy a home.

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Ep631: Susan Frew – Trust but Verify All Your Employees

BIO: Susan Frew is a renowned entertaining, and value-driven speaker and thought leader. She has coached hundreds of companies and non-profits to great success.

STORY: Susan left an unsupervised employee in charge of her coaching practice. This employee left her with a million dollars in debt.

LEARNING: Trust but verify every single employee. Get on-time and accurate monthly financial statements. Put in place metrics of accountability.

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Ep630: Ridhi Bahl – Your Health Is More Important Than Wealth

BIO: Ridhi Bahl is a leading Astrologer in India with a Ph.D. in Astrology and Vastu.

STORY: It wasn’t until Ridhi was found to have an ovarian tumor that she started taking her health seriously.

LEARNING: Health is your biggest and best investment. If one door closes, another opens. Don’t let self-pity get out of hand.

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Ep629: Will Basta – Step Outside of the Rat Race Box

BIO: Will Basta co-founded Ascend Ecom, an e-commerce automation agency and investment management company combining logistics, wholesale distribution, and e-commerce growth.

STORY: Will felt obliged to follow his family’s steps and went to university as a pre-med student. This left him with over $100,000 in student loans, yet he feels he’d have pursued other interests.

LEARNING: Take your time before rushing to the next phase in life. There are many options for acquiring knowledge; don’t limit yourself to university.

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Ep628: Shayne Heffernan – Stop Lending Your Money to Friends

BIO: Shaye Heffernan has a Ph.D. in Economics and has done several IPOs that have surpassed a market cap of a billion dollars.

STORY: Shayne lent his friend of 20 years $6 million in the agreement that he’d get a stake in his friend’s business. That business failed, so Shayne never got his money back nor made anything from the friend’s company.

LEARNING: Lending money to friends is a terrible idea. Have very clear agreements when lending money.

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Ep627: Brian Portnoy – Financial Wellbeing Is Your Gateway to a Meaningful Life

BIO: Brian Portnoy is the founder of Shaping Wealth, a learning technology platform transforming the human experience of money.

STORY: Brian joins us again on the podcast. This time he talks about his endeavors in behavioral finance and how he’s helping financial advisors improve their emotional competencies to achieve financial well-being more effectively.

LEARNING: Put thought into your financial well-being.

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Ep626: Tara LaFon Gooch – Vet Your Business Partners

BIO: Tara LaFon Gooch is a 2X business founder and entrepreneur. Before entrepreneurship, she was a corporate sales director who got burnt out on corporate life and wanted to explore more possibilities.

STORY: Tara started a business with a partner who didn’t align well with its goals. This saw her do all the work, and she had to quit after realizing this wasn’t a partnership anymore.

LEARNING: Vet your partners well before getting into a partnership with them. Listen to your gut.

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DISCLAIMER: This content is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Readers should not consider statements made by the author(s) as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies. The author(s) cannot be held liable for any actions taken as a result of reading this article.